Why Meditation is Important

Why Meditation is Important

A very special ability that we develop through meditation is drawing attention inward, feeling our own bodies, and watching our own thoughts. We relax our bodies and train ourselves to do this. We navigate our thoughts in a wholesome direction.

Whenever we can catch our own thoughts, then we give ourselves a choice: to continue that thought or not. We often experience strong emotions because of lots of thinking. Sometimes we experience emotions that we do not like or are harmful, like fear, jealously, anxiety, and desire. Sometimes we act differently because of these emotions, and we may end up hurting others because of this. Most people who behave aggressively are having strong negative emotions. It is very difficult to get away from these emotions, but meditation will help us to manage these emotions.

These strong emotions start when we sense something. We see, smell, hear, taste, or feel something. Then, we will slowly start to think about what we sensed. We connect what we sensed with our previous memories and emotions. This is the beginning of a very complicated process. At the end of this process, we feel a strong emotion. Using meditation, we can find out when we are going to have these strong emotions before the process begins. Because we figured it out very early, we can prevent harm.

Just by paying attention to our breathing for a few moments without losing our focus, we have already started to train our minds. With loving-kindness meditation, we develop our capacity to love, accept, forgive, and embrace. When we see, hear, taste, smell, or feel something that we do not like, we keep thinking about it and letting it become something harmful. Try to catch yourself and stop yourself from thinking about it negatively. You can try to understand it and accept it. It will benefit you to think wholesome thoughts instead of negative thoughts. When you do this, you have stopped the complicated process and prevented harm. You can even help other people when you are kind and loving.

Told by Bhante Pemaratana

Written by: Melanie