Why Study Self-Discovery?

People study self discovery because they want to get beyond pain and live happier lives!

For many people on the planet--probably most people in fact--life follows a pretty well set pattern. They are born, they go to school for about 10-20 years, then soon after that they get married, they have a few kids, they may get divorced and remarried once or twice, they grow old, and then they die. And if you happen to believe in reincarnation, soon after that they take another incarnation and repeat the whole process!

The cycle doesn't necessarily bring most people much happiness, but it's something they repeat, perhaps because they've done it in past lives, or perhaps because they've seen their older friends and parents and grandparents do it.

Self discovery is a way to get beyond the whole process and find an inner place within oneself where you can always turn to find happiness. It's a way to recognize that the universe is indescribably beautiful and a way to renew one's relationship with that beauty on a daily basis. It's not a way to run away from the pain of the world--there's always going to be some pain in everyone's life--but it is a way to build up the power needed to deal with life's pain head on and with grace. It's a way to stop being so attached to material success in life, and at the same time become much more successful. It's a way to work effectively in the world without becoming attached to the world.

So how do you practice self-discovery? The most important part of self-discovery is meditation. It's a bit hard to explain just why meditation works as well as it does, but for some reason I just find that when I meditate in the morning the day just goes a lot better, and is a lot happier, than on the rare day when I skip a meditation. In fact, the difference is significant enough that I try not to ever skip meditations if I can avoid it. There are many different ways to meditate, but they all involve some form of disciplining the mind to focus. I think it is partly the strength that is gained from that discipline that helps to get through the day a lot better. And also, many forms of meditation access the subtle body--the body of energy which is connected to yet separate from the gross physical body which we can see and touch. By accessing the subtle body, meditation releases a lot of energy which we can then use in our day-to-day activities. More information on meditation can be found in a book by Rama/Dr. Frederick Lenz, Snowboarding to Nirvana, as well as a lot of just plain fun adventures! And you may find another way to meditate as well, and if you do and it works for you, then by all means go for it!

Meditation should be the beginning but not the end of a program of self discovery. Beyond meditation, it's important to focus on things in life which bring happiness and get you beyond pain. These can be everything from a successful career to working out to hobbies or almost everything else. But ultimately doing anything well is a form of meditation, because to do anything well you need the sense of focus which you gain in meditation but can apply to anything you do in life.

For all the pain of life, we live in a very beautiful universe, and meditation helps us not only to experience a little of that infinite beauty directly, but also to find beauty in your experiences of everyday life. Bon voyage on the path to self discovery!