Is Meditation for People with Problems?

Recently, I was at a friend’s “introduce the new baby” gathering at their house, and one of the guests came up to me to ask about meditation.

When asked about what meditation is I replied my interpretation is “it’s about tuning into your own breath, your prana, your life force because we spend too much time being busy with all the externals; work, family, stresses of life.” He challenged back, “So is that what you think meditation is?” I replied well that’s my interpretation of it, if you ask the Dalai Lama he may say something more similar and give you a humorous, enlightened version. The guest frowned with a quizzical look.

“Well meditation is for those people who have problems isn’t it?” He asked. I found this challenging to say the least! I replied “People arrive at meditation and go on their spiritual journey for various reasons. They may not have issues or problems.”  He said: ” No but I really do think they do.” Oh well, flogging a dead horse I thought to myself, no point preaching to the converted, and that’s not my style. He added: “if people are really happy with their job, their wife, their kids, their health is good why would they turn to meditation?” Well there may be truth in that.

It struck me though that many people who have not chosen to tread the spiritual path in life, or may have awareness may believe it to be too abstract and intangible for their liking and would rather stick to what they know. Interesting food for thought and meditation.

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