Most people expect meditation to make them peaceful, happy and joyful. With this expectation, they embark on a long and arduous journey. While it is true that meditation does bring about peace and joy in life, this is not its primary function.
Understand that any emotion, including peace, happiness or a state of calm is transitory. That is, they come and go. However great a meditator you are, no state can remain forever. By its very definition emotions are things in motion. To expect a state of calm experienced after a good meditation to stay forever is not realistic. Rather, what meditation does is that it builds our capacities.
What sort of capacities?
First and foremost, it builds resilience. Our ability to handle difficult situations without being completely carried away by them vastly improves. Our capacity for forbearance, that is, to doggedly and patiently persevere towards a goal improves. Our capacity for compassion, that is, the ability to overlook other people’s flaws improves. These capacities are often what defines us and our progress on the path, not the extent of how peaceful we feel. These capacities may choose to be expressed or not, based on the environment, the specific people we are talking to and so on. This accumulation of capacities is the true wealth (or Sadhana).
Meditation changes the way we relate to the world. It is not an accumulation of peace or joy. In fact, most meditators, find themselves to become very sensitive to the environment. They pick up on people’s emotions, thoughts and subtle body movements. This is almost akin to a primaeval or even pre-verbal sort of sense – that which you see in hunter-gatherers, in animals and indeed in sportspersons or artists who perform at their highest capacities. This sensitivity is a mixed blessing. It brings the ability to read people intuitively. But it also brings with it the pain and suffering that one feels in people. It therefore comes as a surprise that meditation need not necessarily bring about profound peace or endless joy. Rather, meditation is like the home button on the phone. We may have several apps open at the same time, but with one click of the button, we are home. This stability, this capacity for forbearance, for accepting the difficult as well as the wonderful things comes about through meditation.
Therefore, as we embark on our meditative journey, remember that it is not peace or joy that we are after. We are building our capacities for peace, for joy, for sensitivity, for compassion, and above all, for being human.
Journey of a thousand words 