Santa Clara Meditation The Meaning of Life – How has meditation changed your life?
I meditate every day. The way I meditate is to look back on myself and throw away my mind. My mind is the sum of three things: the mind I made during my life, the habit I inherited from my parents, and the idea that this body is me. The more I let go of my extremely egocentric mind, the higher my self-esteem and the greater my satisfaction with my life. Yes. Meditation helps me live a happy life.
The negative mind turned into a positive mind.
My second son is intellectually disabled. So there are many difficulties in school life. He, who is an elementary school student, has a learning disability but also has trouble controlling his impulses, so he often quarreled with his friends. When he gets angry, my son gets his fists out rather than fighting with words. My gaze on him was not pretty. Rather than trying to solve the child’s problems together, I was only imagining the fate of my son who would live as a loser. While meditating, I looked back on my hatred and resentment toward him and threw away those thoughts. And I teach the meditation I learned to my two sons, and I teach meditation to students in middle school. By meeting the students in a variety of ways, I was able to objectively see myself being too strict with my sons. I learned that the foolishness of thinking that studying well is the most important thing is also within me. Seeing myself as I am, I realized that prejudices and misunderstandings that judge others were within me, and I eagerly threw away those thoughts.
My first son doing the meditation in his room
I met a lot of children and taught them meditation, and I was able to see the various characteristics of these children with my own eyes, and realized that everyone in this world has uniqueness, not strengths and weaknesses. I always wanted to show my strengths and hide my weaknesses. I was ashamed of the shortcomings of my second son, who had a disability as if it were mine. Through meditation, I was able to face my own heart honestly and to accept myself as I am, which gave me peace of mind. I realized how much that person’s unique strengths shine in people. So is my son. My son is very knowledgeable because he likes to study world history and Korean history. My son fights with his friends but misses them more than anyone else. My darling son is not good at keeping his promises, but he keeps his promises thoroughly once he recognizes them. Abandoning my judgment of inferiority due to intellectual disability, I found that my son was perfect in his way, even if he stuttered, was angry, or was not good at math.
Meditation is love and happiness to me.
by Donna Seo
https://santaclarameditation.blogspot.com/2023/04/santa-clara-meditation-meaning-of-life.html
