“You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person. “(Awareness – Antony de Mello, S.J.)
Jakarta – Every Tuesday as usual Anand Ashram (affiliated with the UN) organizes Neo Self Empowerment meditation training program. Dian Martin, the meditation facilitator, opens the session with a reflection on prejudice.
Dian tells the participants about the story of a man who is in love with a woman. He got the information from reading books, watching films and also from the people he knows that a woman will be happy when she gets a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolate. So this man gives flowers and chocolate to his beloved woman. The man is happy because the he thinks love by giving presents he demonstrates his love. And his love it will make the woman who receives his presents happy.
What actually happens is this man loves his own prejudices; he is happy and is made happy by his own prejudices. The woman is not necessarily pleased because she gets flowers and chocolate from him, after all not all women like to get such treatment. And even if the lady is delighted with the presents, her prejudices cause the delighted feeling which she also got from reading books, watching films and the ideas that when a woman receives a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolate she has to be happy. De Mello once said, “Normally the way it goes, I press a button and you’re up; I press another button and you’re down.”
Dian invites the participants to reflect on themselves: how many wrong conditions they have which eventually affect themselves because basically our thoughts are determined by our daily circumstances, by what we see every day. And very often those ill circumstances influence our mindset. Thus we need exercises which help us rid of improper conditions, of the conditions which shackle ourselves and our potentials. The meditation exercises will be able to expand consciousness so we can continue to grow and develop as our consciousness expands even more.
Then Dian invites all the participants to practice Sight Culturing exercise. Sight Culturing is a method of meditation which has been devised by Anand Krishna, a spiritual activist and a prolific writer. Through this exercise, Anand invites anybody to empower himself or herself through his or her sense of sight. According to Anand’s explanation in his book Seni Memberdaya Diri 1 (The Art of Self Empowerment 1), the change of mental attitude requires the change of vision, the change of our way of seeing this life. Anand Krishna has devised about 300 methods of meditation to help develop self-awareness. Sight Culturing is one of them.
Sight culturing exercise is also beneficial to develop love and intuition. “Let us fix our viewpoint so we improve our mindset that we can see the life as a whole even more”, Dian says. He also reminds us: “The perfect result is gained from a perfect practice; the perfection in practice yields a perfect result.”
Source : http://anandashram.or.id/index.php?id=programs/semedi1
(Reporter and Photographer: Su Rahman, Translator: Sylvia Antaresa)
