Connecting to your being
Book Review
Meditation
—
the Way to Self-Realization
TaoshobuddhaProf Rattan Lal HanglooFormer Chair of Indian StudiesUniversity of the West IndiesSt Augustine, Trinidad W.I.
To me meditation means living silently with love for total existence in theworld.I do not mean imposing changelessness of thought process on oneself but tounderstand very deeply
one’s
body and sense organism by controlling onesmechanism of mind.In this book on meditation, apart from introduction, Taoshobuddha haspresented his views and experiences about Meditation in four sections. Thesedeal with definition of Meditation, Methods, Techniques and the necessity of indulging in meditation.
The author’s foremost aim has been to give a connected and comprehensive
account of meditation.There are no time space limitations in this work. The mode of treatment hasrendered it possible for the author to bring so many of details in one volume.The characterization
of meditation clearly reflects author’s comprehensive
understanding of the subject not only in theory but in terms of practice aswell.He has brought out plethora of personal examples to illustrate the growingnature and the process of meditation which is intertwined with ones materialexistence.The misery of existence pa
rticularly in today’s world is due to the fact thatone’s spiritual being (jiva) very easily subjects itself to materialism at every
stage without slightest resistance to corruption, cheating, sensual activities,marginalization of
one’s
honest and integral self for very small opportunities.The material existence is repetitively so tempting that one is never satisfiedwith anything till death. This is brought out by the author very clearly when
he says, “Strangely enough desires are never fulfilled. The
more you go onfulfilling them the more will arise. One gets fulfilled, many arise. This yousee around you every day and yet you remain unaware of this.
“Food never satisfies the hunger. If it were so, you would never be hungry
again.
“Water never que
nches thirst. Drinking water gives birth to new thirst. For awhile you may feel fulfilled but very soon thirst again becomes intense.
“The desire for sex never
fulfills you. For a while you feel satisfied, and that,too, happens because you are tired, but the desire will soon arise again.As a result after fulfilling one desire be it food or sex, or any other materialgain you realize its futility only for a while and then again the same desire
arises.”
The author puts forward some of the principles such as discipline andlearning, inner awakening, alertness, freedom, self-realization, unificationand consciousness etc. as necessary ingredients for invoking of absolute
being. What is required is the awakening of one’s inner self. Awakening of
inner self
to author is, “key in meditation. One need not talk about
meditation. It is only to be experienced. Awakening is the phenomenon thatradiates like the sun. An awakened person is recognized by particular signs.
“An awakened person has united all his discordant elements within him. Thisradiates through his being and presence…..The first characteristic of such a
person is liberty.
“He does not allow himself to be tossed about by the vicissitudes of life
-fear, jo
y, anxiety success and failure.” Taken in conjunction with author’s personal experiences, as a practitioner of
yoga, the work covers a wide path. The nature of subject matter has made itnecessary to treat the scientific and spiritual together. Many people rejectthe mediation and its philosophy as inhuman and selfish because theyconsider it as a cold, deliberate shunning of every body and everything for
the sake of working out one’s own salvation. But the truth is exactly
opposite. However, those who are not sure that revelations obtained throughSamadhi are genuine revelations or not some form of delusion to such mindsthe analysis in this work would appear to be devoid of historicity and attimes logic.
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