What does meditation lead to? In general the answer is that there is nothing to achieve in meditation. Striving for some goal in meditation actually defeats the purpose. But still there is something happening in your brain after many hours of meditation. And this is an ongoing process that will keep changing your brain with time.
I would like to compare this to the production of a
microscope. To create a really good microscope you need to manufacture very
good lenses. And this is done by honing the glass over and over again, in order
to make the surface smoother each time. This will increase the visual
resolution of the microscope.
Likewise during meditation you rest your awareness on the
present moment. And by doing so or a very long time you will increase your
resolution for the present moment. And now stuff gets interesting.
This will show you a lot about yourself. Because in order to
get to the present moment you need to erase all the burs and scratches from
your mind. Those that do not allow you to have experience reality directly.
What you will discover after an extended period of practicing meditation
regularly, is that you are not actually experience reality. What you experience
instead are your own reactions to reality and projections of your own desires.
With meditation those habits and carmic-traces will be
eradicated from the mind through many insights and through the direct
experience of them with greater awareness.
But be prepared that this process can be quite painful. Not
only in the beginning but also in later stages when you see parts fall away
that you formerly thought were part of yourself.
I felt that those changes became less and less painful with
time. After a while this process has now become very pleasant and interesting.
Increasing my awareness through different forms of meditation is my number one
long term personal goal.
In my experience the insights from meditation are very
valuable for the course of my life and my direct quality of life. They are
coupled with a slow but steady change of my behavior in the outer world. And
the most beautiful part about this is the effortlessness with which these
changes manifest.
Basically all of our problems stem from psychological issues
that we hold and do not see. By seeing through these illusions of the mind you
will find yourself in a new position where your world seems to hold less
objects for you.
For example, I was for many years deeply concerned with my
diet. It had to be healthy and calorically controlled. Otherwise I would not be
happy. I would start eating way too much and feel physically ill afterwards.
Now after living through many of those instances with full awareness, diet has
become a non-issue for me. Now I will naturally eat healthy food in the right
quantity. If not, that is no problem anymore as well.
This is one small area of life where awareness has sharpened
my view for reality. But this works for everything else. After many years of
meditation you can discover the beautiful emptiness of the present moment.
Reality is basically an existential void. Nothing you think right now that
exist does really exist in the real world. It is completely empty of any
meaning, history, feeling, projection and virtually nothing you spend all of
your time thinking about. All those things do not exist in reality.
This can be a shocking and at the same time liberating and
awe inspiring realization. To be free in your decisions, you first have to
arrive at this level of resolution for what really exist in the present moment.
Before that you will only be reacting to whatever your own inner mind-chatter
serves up for you. But with a continuous meditation practice this will
gradually reduce. You will increasingly act from a place of true understanding
and appreciation of for reality. At this point you do not need to follow anymore
rules to act moral. The Good and Truth will be your default mode.
To achieve this insight into yourself and reality I will
today leave you with only but very powerful rule that you need to follow:
1. Practice any proven meditation technique, every
day and with increasing duration over time. Start with 20 minutes a
day and slowly increase to 1 hour over several month. Never stop for the rest
of your life. Enjoy the process!