Spirituality on sale

 

photo by axinia

There are many types of practice which can loosely be called meditation.

At the end of the scale are the recreational forms often accompanied by an artfully designed CD, video or matching book, or in some cases promoted via an electronic gadget or trendy new technique. These products serve a market desperate for a means of relieving the stress of modern living. Their job is to soothen the troubled mind, not spirituality, but mostly through some form of a mental exercise.

In the middle are quasi-religious practices, ranging from the eminently fashionable Zen-type meditations to those peddled for nothing more than commercial reward.

Most of these practices are spiritual to the same degree as singing songs in church, temple or synagogue, in that they offer a reasonable representation of spirituality without actually leading to any real spiritual liberaiton or evolution of the soul. They cannot, because they do not include the one crucial feature of all true yoga – self-realisation.

At the other end of the spectrum are the authentic forms of yoga meditation, as ptracticed by Seers for thousands of years. These practices have a spiritual focus which overrides all other considerations, and they embody the crucial and timeless features of authentic spirituality, which have been documented over thousands of years.

from “Meditation” by Nigel Powel