Men and women, seeking spiritual answers they can't seem to find in Western culture or traditional religious pathways, are trying meditation. A large (and growing) number of people are taking up the practice, including open-minded Christians and undocumented millions of seekers who are unaffiliated but have privately taken up meditation for personal growth or physical relief. From relaxation, to healing, to restructuring personal lives, meditation has become a hot topic.
One of the fastest-growing segments of the publishing world is religion and spirituality. A recent general survey of spiritual publishers by Exegeses confirms that not only is spirituality booming, but more importantly, readers are clamoring for titles that take them deeper than they have ever gone before. Moreover, Publishers Weekly has reported that religion remains one of the hottest categories in bookselling.
The signs are all there. Everything is falling into place for a serious discussion of spirituality just as meditation is becoming mainstream. Descendants of the original meditators number in the hundreds of millions worldwide, with nearly 400 million Buddhists and 900 million Hindus. When you add Transcendental Meditation practitioners, along with Western practitioners of Zen, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and Southeast Asian traditions-the numbers are impressive.
Another potential, however, is Christians, particularly modern Christians, part of a groundswell of the faithful worldwide who believe that Christ was tragically misunderstood-that he was trying to teach people not only how to become enlightened, but how to become enlightened by looking within. This is quite radical, but more so is the growing belief that the Second Coming of Christ is already here! And who is it? It's the world's collective enlightenment consciousness.
All that is needed is a little explanation, a roadmap, to both meditation and enlightenment . . . or how to come face-to-face with God.
Meditation can be a lifesaver to people who are:
- Confused by a previously happy life that has suddenly changed.
- Frustrated by society's focus on materialism at the expense of the spiritual dimension.
- Responding to an inner urging to explore the life within.
- Who understand that a rich world lies within, but are not sure how to experience the limitless nature of the soul.
- Seeking a more mystical experience than conventional prayer allows.
- Seeking a face-to-face audience with the Ultimate.
- Led astray by false teachers, and who finally understand the way lies within.
- With problems (addictions, psychological damage, physical complaints) for whom conventional Western medicine or interventions do not work.
- Feeling empty and searching for fulfillment.
- Who understand they are on a path that's not working and need to readjust or refocus their lives.
- Looking for nothing less than to alter their destinies.
Meditation and enlightenment are common grounds upon which every sensitive, intelligent individual, regardless of his or her particular beliefs, can deepen their relationship with that most personal part of their lives. This offers a real possibility of change, within ourselves and within our society, where the greed, hatred, and fear we now have of each other's viewpoints, and which has precipitated so many conflicts, might finally end.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com