by Michael Gornik
Those of you familiar with Polestar know that we put a great deal of time, energy, and focus into our meditation practices. Why is this so important? In a world filled with wonders, and with the incredible gift of our senses and intellect designed to explore them, how is it that sitting completely still in silence, disengaging our senses and quieting our minds, can be such an important activity? A fair question!
For starters, many of us harbor an intuitive hint at least, if not an absolute faith, that there is something significant hidden just beneath the surface of our consciousness; something momentous, unexplored or perhaps under-developed, but just waiting to be discovered. For all the glory and joy (often alternating with grief) our sense perceptions and intellectual absorptions can bring us, there remains, at least for many of us, a compelling urge for something greater: expansion, growth, deeper understanding; beyond our current state of being. In deep meditation and, in my experience, hardly any place else(!), we can find this expansion, along with the soul-satisfying Peace and Joy we are constantly seeking.
It is a common experience of those who make the effort to meditate regularly, that even with just a little calmness, a little stillness, woven into life through daily practice, a more intuitive and effective approach to the difficulties and enigmas of life will automatically come into play. The answers we seek, the fulfillments we desire, are nowhere to be found if we do not find them first within ourselves. If we are habitually restless, living only on the surface of our consciousness, how and when will we ever come to know ourselves, or to ask the deepest, most important questions of our existence?: Do we have a purpose here? Are we aware that we are aware? Who or what is the “I” that is watching this movie of life? It is unfortunately extremely common, and I know this first hand, to reach the end of life and, having been so preoccupied with life’s illusions, and never having stopped to consider it, feel you had missed its essential point. This is completely avoidable! With meditation, “Even a little practice”, say the great yogis, will ‘save us from dire fears and colossal suffering.”
The science of meditation, oddly enough from a certain perspective, has much to do with our sense of fulfillment and well being. This constant striving to fill our cup of happiness is often the very thing that pushes it away from us. By simply being still, empty (of restless striving), silent, many of us find, for seemingly no reason at all, that our innate happiness will bubble up to the surface of our consciousness.
This is not to say that there is anything easy about developing a deep and regular practice. If you have made an effort to meditate and found it often exasperatingly difficult, welcome to the club! For most of us, it is a life-long undertaking to meditate deeply. One can easily be discouraged by bouts of restlessness and, without any kind of support for continued effort, despair of making any progress.
This brings us to the importance of our environment, and the purpose of the community culture we seek to create at Polestar. Whatever else may happen there (lots of fun, creative, and inspiring things we hope!) we will always hold space, as magnetically as possible, for ongoing, daily meditation. In the company of others who practice, focus on, and celebrate meditation practices, each of us can have much greater success with our own efforts.This is the ‘wishing tree’ of so many good things in life and one of the core reasons for the creation of our community.
