The French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” We have become experts at filling our lives with noise and activities. We wake up to the sound of the radio blaring and dress while the television news is on.
We drive to work listening to the latest traffic report and spend the next eight hours in a bustling office. When we come home, at the day’s end, we delve into the evening’s activities against the background sound of the television, ringing phones and humming computers.
Pascal was right: most of our miseries do stem from the fact that we have lost sight of the importance of being silent, for even a short period, every day of our lives.
Without the ability to concentrate, a full and complete life is not possible. If you lack the mental focus to stay with one activity for any length of time, you will never be able to achieve your goals, build your dreams or enjoy life’s process. Without a discipline mind, trivial thoughts and worries will nag at you and you will never have the capacity to immerse yourself in more meaningful pursuits. Without deep concentration, your mind will be your master rather than your servant.
My own life changed the day I learned to meditate. Meditation is not some New Age practice reserved for monks sitting atop mountains. On the contrary, meditation is an age - old technique that was developed by some of the world’s wisest people to gain full control of the mind and, in doing so, to manifest its enormous potential for worthy pursuits. Meditation is a method to train your mind to function the way it was designed to function. And here’s the key benefit: the peace and tranquility you will feel after twenty minutes of daily meditation will infuse every remaining minute of your day. You will be more patient in your relationships, more serene at the office and more happy when you are alone. Meditation will make you a far better parent, life partner, businessperson and friend.
You cannot afford not to discover the power of this five - thousand - year - old mind training discipline.
Excerpt from Who WIll Cry When You Die by Robin Sharma. www.robinsharma.com