Keep Calm When Your Mind is Wild

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche・2 minutes read

Meditation leads to lasting happiness and emotional changes through awareness, love, and compassion practices, transforming the brain through neuroplasticity for inner peace and stability. Connecting with innate qualities and deepening awareness allows for personal growth and profound joy, leading to a pliable mind and liberation from chaotic thoughts and emotions.

Insights

  • Meditation offers a lasting sense of happiness and contentment that is independent of external circumstances, achieved through practices like awareness, love, compassion, and wisdom meditation.
  • Research indicates that meditation can alter neural pathways and gene expression in the brain, challenging the notion that one's baseline emotions are fixed, ultimately leading to profound changes in one's emotional state and mental well-being.

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Recent questions

  • How does meditation impact the brain?

    Meditation alters neural pathways and gene expression.

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Summary

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Transformative Meditation: Finding Lasting Happiness and Freedom

  • Meditation results in a calmer and more peaceful mind, along with a sense of hyper walkable freedom and a unique happiness that is not fleeting like the joy from drinking coffee.
  • Happiness from meditation is described as a lasting joy and contentment that is independent of external circumstances, leading to a more stable form of happiness.
  • Research conducted since 2002 has shown that meditation can change the brain through neuroplasticity, challenging the belief that one's baseline emotions are fixed for life.
  • Meditation has been found to alter neural pathways and gene expression in the brain, offering hope for lasting changes in one's baseline emotional state.
  • The best way to change one's emotional baseline is through meditation practices like awareness, love, compassion, and wisdom meditation, which can lead to lasting happiness.
  • The essence of meditation lies in awareness, which involves knowing beyond subject-object distinctions and recognizing the innate qualities of the mind.
  • The main challenge in meditation is recognizing and connecting with the innate qualities of awareness, love, compassion, and wisdom that are often overlooked or underestimated.
  • Freedom and liberation in meditation come from connecting with one's innate qualities and recognizing the vast potential within oneself.
  • Meditation is not about emptying the mind or seeking peace and joy, but about connecting with awareness amidst thoughts, emotions, and perceptions.
  • The goal of meditation is to make the mind pliable and workable, allowing for freedom from the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of the mind.

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Journey to Inner Peace Through Meditation

  • When beginning meditation, initial discomfort may arise, but with time and practice, peace can be achieved through perseverance and guidance from a teacher.
  • The process of meditation is likened to cleaning a cup or observing a river during different seasons, where initial challenges lead to eventual clarity and insight.
  • Meditation experiences can vary from rough agitation and dullness to peaceful clarity, joy, and non-conceptual awareness, with each phase contributing to personal growth and understanding.
  • Consistent and gradual meditation practice is advised, akin to physical exercise, to build mental strength and resilience over time.
  • As meditation progresses, awareness deepens, leading to a state where emotions and thoughts can be observed and transformed with love and compassion.
  • The ultimate stage of meditation is described as being like a lake without waves, where constant awareness and inner peace prevail, offering profound joy, freedom, and a deeper connection with oneself.
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