Creating Change Through Meditation

[Pathless]

What are peoples thoughts about introspective meditation as a tool to create change in the world?

• Do we send "ripples" of change through a matrix of consciousness while we meditate?
• Does meditation inspire and empower the meditator to be an active agent of change in the world?
• Do we alter our own consciousness through meditation, thereby altering our perception of the world? What are the implications of this?

Please limit your responses to three hundred words per bullet point, and put your pencils down when you are done.

That last bit is a joke.

Curiously,
Pathless

 

[toujour_333]

hhmmm, well, i dont know if i can comment on the idea of a 'matrix of conciousness' but i do know that meditation changes my preceptions of the world. now, does that effect others? i cant be sure of that. i would hope so. now, how would that happen? the one way that seems obvious to me right now is that others would notice u doing good things and therefore be more compelled to do good things too. i do remember hearing about an experiment in washingto d.c where thousands of people gathered to meditate on feelings of loving-kindness. people speculated that it would lower the crime rate, and the amazing thing is that it did. i heard about this on an amazing movie called 'what the bleep do we know', its a movie about quantum physics and preceptions and how they influence our lives. i would suggest that movie to anyone. however, i believe that by making ourselves more aware of our attachments and our inner buddhas that we change the world by showing others that there are people who care. however, that doesnt meant that all we have to do is meditate. we need a healthy balance of meditation and action in the community around u. change starts at home, so work on yourself, then your family/community, and eventually that change will be worldwide. but, thats my thoughts. i hope i havent went over the 300 words, but i probably have. ::sits pencil down:: ok, im done. lol. (sorry, i couldnt resist)

be well in peace

 

[Pathless]

Yes, What the [Bleep] Do We Know is a wonderful film that poses some interesting ideas about the nature of reality. What I took away form it is that, on some level, we manifest our reality through our intentions and actions. Certainly I think meditation can play a role in that.

The experiment you mentioned is, I believe, a product of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transendental Meditation movement. There is an article on the "Maharishi Effect" here, in case anyone is interested in what toujour_333 mentioned. Thanks for bringing that up, toujour; that's an interesting phenomenon that is directly related to the idea of creating change simply through meditation.

 

[wil]

• yes
• yes
• yes

the implication is ultimate personal responsiblity for our world...we are responsible for hitlers and dictators as it is our negative thoughts we send into the ethers they feed on. and then in turn folks feed off them...

or our positive thoughts end up combining with the Mother Teresa's who holds a dying poverty and disease stricken baby in her hands yet sees G-d.

We can't deny our role, we like to take credit for the good and put blame on the bad...

this world is ours to change...it currently fits our collective consciousness, we may choose to raise or lower same...free wil.

 

[Vajradhara]

Namaste Pathless,

thank you for the interesting OP.

What are peoples thoughts about introspective meditation as a tool to create change in the world?

i feel that this tool is unique in our toolbox and we should utilize it as often as necessary to effect said changes. i could go either way, i suppose, but i would tend to say that as we change the individual being, we change the world and thereby reality as opposed to, say, directly manipulating the fabric of reality, so to speak.

Do we send "ripples" of change through a matrix of consciousness while we meditate?

in some sense the matrix is Change, so i would tend to think that sending change through Change wouldn't, well... change much

by the same token, we see with the famous thought experiment of Schrodingers Cat that things are, in a large part, dependent upon an observing consciousness.

not to mention Quantum Entangling and the implications that this has upon our consciousness. of course, i tend towards the Many Worlds approach rather than the Copenhagen, though i feel that the Copenhagen Approach would be more applicable in this particular conversation.

Does meditation inspire and empower the meditator to be an active agent of change in the world?

i would tend to suspect that it would be dependent upon the sort of meditation they are doing, i.e. Vipassana or Samatha and then the depth of their practice.

with those considerations in mind, i would say "yes" to that query, in general.

Do we alter our own consciousness through meditation, thereby altering our perception of the world? What are the implications of this?

yes. not only do we alter our consciousness, we also alter the physical brain, itself, though the process of meditation as recent tests have concluded. a few links for the interested reader:

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/monkstudy.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4770779

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/02.02/11-meditate.html


metta,

~v

 

[Asanga]

If as the Buddha says each being is heir to their karma, then imagine the consequences of collective bad karma.

External structures, by and large, have proven inadequate. What good are Constitutions if "We the People" are corrupt and precept breakers? How can the results of good karma arise? What good is any nation if it spreads the Three Poisons of dullness, anger, and greed?

In time, many bad things will happen. Society will turn to civil war. Finally our precious earth will no longer be habitable.

Yes, we need to meditate looking within. This doesn't mean to sit on a pillow and watch our mind like a tv. Real meditation is about seeing our Buddha nature which is the hidden basis of our mundane thoughts as they manifest themselves in front of mind's eye. If we can peek into this bright marvelous nature, we can start the ball rolling for global change.



Blessings,

Asanga

 

[iBrian]

Personally, I think the biggest effect on change is not what we may meditate on, but instead how we behave. I have something brewing on this.

 

[didymus]

What are peoples thoughts about introspective meditation as a tool to create change in the world?

• Do we send "ripples" of change through a matrix of consciousness while we meditate?
• Does meditation inspire and empower the meditator to be an active agent of change in the world?
• Do we alter our own consciousness through meditation, thereby altering our perception of the world? What are the implications of this?

Please limit your responses to three hundred words per bullet point, and put your pencils down when you are done.

That last bit is a joke.

Curiously,
Pathless

Your use of the term ripple strikes me because I imagined our change in consciousness as the water temperature in a lake or an ocean. If we individually represent a quantity of water in an ocean and we increase or decrease our temperature by meditation we affect the overall temperature of the body of water. I believe we are all interconnected and that our thoughts and actions affect the body directly. If we can all bring ourselves to meditate and increase our temperature collectively and simultaneously there would be significant ripples sent into the universe.

I think that as the result of meditation I become change automatically without effort because I actually alter myself temporarily during the process.That change, however great or slight is change and therefore affects the body.

 

[Bandit]

What are peoples thoughts about introspective meditation as a tool to create change in the world?

• Do we send "ripples" of change through a matrix of consciousness while we meditate?
• Does meditation inspire and empower the meditator to be an active agent of change in the world?
• Do we alter our own consciousness through meditation, thereby altering our perception of the world? What are the implications of this?

i meditate on God a lot & the implications of this give me a sense of being & a wealth of being something special & unique in a big world. this is like a constant meditation for me & He brings me peace. kind of like a tiny ant floating with other ants across a sea to different kind of world someday.

i can change things all the time as i choose to, often just out of habit. i can meditate with gardners year round & we both relate what we are meditating on, thus changing both our views of something growing, through forcing it such as bulbs, pruning it, cutting it back to the ground, dividing it, the dormant stage, the blossom...one considers through meditating in the winter what the summer garden will be like in preparation.

it would seem kind of of waste to not share the meditations & this is where you could make change in others.
i dont see where meditation itself changes things introspectively, but what comes from it being applied will change things.
it depends on what one meditates on as to what kind of change there will be on the outside. that seems kind of obvious.

i am seeing the last one as a bit dangerous. it does not take much to get off on the wrong track & derail. while it seems to take a bit more effort to stay on track with the right type of meditation.

i am seeing meditation as a process, but more so something learned & happens naturally over time. what you meditate on is what you will get, perhaps not always what is expected, but something close.. i suppose there are some things i cannot change, no matter how much i meditate on them or try to through other avenues & that i accept.

 

[samabudhi]

What are peoples thoughts about introspective meditation as a tool to create change in the world?

Change is inevitable and is occuring all the time. I think meditation is more about being aware of this change than trying to enact it. What's different is likely that we actually go somewhere instead of just going round in circles. So we follow a path which leads out of samsara, the endless cycling of birth and death.

i can change things all the time as i choose to, often just out of habit.

Then is it really you making the change, through choice, or just your circumstances working through you?