The minute we’re born, all of the potential that we are becomes encased in a shell. Some people call this shell karma; the Christians call it original sin. I call it the disappointments of our ancestors.
From the moment we’re born, the outcome of everything we’re inspired to do in our life is a foregone conclusion, written in the disappointments of our ancestors. This idea isn’t original to me. The Buddha, I think, said something similar.
CC Photo courtesy of bradleygee from Flickr
The only way to break through this shell you were born into is to train yourself to meditate. That way you can learn to release all of the patterns of tension that have been imposed upon you by the very fact of your being born in this world. In the process of training yourself to meditate, you develop the capacity to connect to that pure, unlimited potentiality that is the essence of your human birth, the essence of your presence in this world. You have to learn to hold your attention steady in the connectedness, in the contact with that pure potentiality that resides within you. You have to do it long enough that the potential can take enough energy from your attention to rise up and start to express itself through the layers of tension you’re encased in as a gift from your ancestors.
Our attention is usually magnetized to all the distractions going on in our environment, and we never spend enough time to reach through the tensions to the extraordinarily beautiful and sweet, vibrant and inspired place within us and begin to have a life that is really alive. To be alive within your life, you need to train yourself to meditate.
I guarantee that it will be the most rewarding time that you have ever spent in your entire life.