What does the Buddha mean when he says that we become what we meditate on?

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what the Buddha means when he says that we become what we meditate on.

If you let your mind dwell on ghosts, you'll become a ghost yourself. If you fix your mind on God, your life will be filled with God. Now - which are you going to choose?

-Sri Ramakrishna

In meditation, we learn the skill of bringing our attention back to the words of the inspirational passage whenever it strays away. Attention is like a restless puppy, fond of running after anything new that comes along. When it sees an intensely charged memory, it cannot let it roll by; it has to chase the memory and keep yapping, yapping, yapping.

Just as with a dog, we have to call the mind back over and over again, whenever we sit down for meditation. This may go on for years. But if we keep practicing diligently and systematically, the day will come when we can put our attention where we want it with little effort, and it will stay without movement or protest. Then, however unkind somebody may have been, we will not be mastered by resentment; our attention will not turn to the past at all.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to consider what the Buddha means when he says that we become what we meditate on. Can this be generalized to all of our thinking? How can understanding this inform our Yoga practices?

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003