Meditation and Intoxicants: Paradox

Interest

You can introduce meditation exercises, guide them, or lead them. In other words, you can choose to remain more or less in the foreground as the guide. You ask for the attention of those present, yet sooner or later you must also relinquish it again, because meditation is an extremely personal activity in which, ideally, attention to the outside world fades away.

Seen in this light, meditation forms part of the process of becoming oneself. You unfold by tapping into inner sources of energy, as if reading and executing the program that is written somewhere within you.

If the leader claims too much attention, there is a danger that attention will remain attached to him or her, instead of turning inward and focusing on the core of one’s own being.

That is what it is about, in my view: finding oneself—of course thanks to others and with others, but without anyone ever dominating. Perhaps with the exception of the closest family ties. Even then, however, no single person should dominate everything.

We must strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to free themselves from external coercion and to enjoy complete spiritual freedom.

That is our aim: to provide the means needed when one has become entangled, so that the shackles of the soul can be loosened. By shackles I mean forms of mental coercion—paternalism, for instance. I have explained my thoughts on that elsewhere. Here it suffices to warn those who not only wish to meditate themselves but also believe they are ready to transmit the method to others about this particular pitfall.

As a meditation leader you should above all avoid thinking too much about your own person and trying to place yourself in the spotlight. Above all you must avoid exercising spiritual power over others at any cost. You must never judge.

That is a whole series of prohibitions.

If you truly wish to become a meditation teacher, you would do well to sweep in front of your own door first.

Preferably do not begin if you are competitive or sectarian by temperament, restless or depressed, or if other worries bind the mind. First free your own shackles before attempting to remove those of others.

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