Short Meditation on Awareness

I feel a shedding of skin. A molting process like a snake goes through when it outgrows its old skin and transforms into newer skin, or a skin that can handle his being and patterning. This meditation on the Gita, one of Yoga's sacred texts describes the process well. The more awareness we can grow into our soma's, a Greek term for body, mind and spirit, the better able we are to navigate life here impacting our life's purpose and choices in the moment; moment by moment.

"The Gita describes spiritual growth as an evolution from darkness to light – from ignorance to full awareness of our unity with the rest of life. Darkness is self-will, ignorance of the needs of others, preoccupation with our own private concerns and prejudices. Being angry, being greedy, being afraid is living in darkness. In this state we cannot see those around us, cannot see life as it is.

"Yet, the Gita says, we don’t have to stay where we are. We don’t have to say, 'Well, I am just what my cells and chromosomes are, what my conditioning is, what my parents or my school made me to be.' We can emerge out of this darkness, through our own endeavor, by drawing upon our deepest resources within.

"Through the practice of meditation and allied disciplines, we can slowly push ourselves from darkness into light. This brings certain on going challenges, and no matter how long a person has been meditating, everyone can benefit from keeping some simple guidelines in mind every day."

– Eknath Easwaran