We really don’t get this until Life does what she does best and slaps us around a few times to wake us from our individual and collective coma.  David Brooks on the New Humanism:

“We have a prevailing view in our society — not only in the policy world, but in many spheres — that we are divided creatures. Reason, which is trustworthy, is separate from the emotions, which are suspect. Society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions.

This has created a distortion in our culture. We emphasize things that are rational and conscious and are inarticulate about the processes down below. We are really good at talking about material things but bad at talking about emotion.”  

And:

“The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God.”

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I’ve had, in the past, a sort of pretension about meditation.  I simply couldn’t separate it from spirituality to which I’ve given my heart.  With time, I’ve a recognition that some people have an allergy to anything smacking of spirituality for a myriad of reasons (and some make a good deal of sense).

At this juncture, I give far less emphasis on why people meditate and more emphasis on the recognition that meditation or contemplative prayer helps:

• manage difficult emotions by helping you push a “pause” button” before you react to stressful situations
• sharpen brain focus 
• change your actual brain structure (and for students of the Enneagram, this means you can rewire your brain so you soften your tenacious habitual focus of attention)
• you experience a deeper connection to yourself, others and the very planet on which we live

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