If the West favours the left-handed, logic and analytical side of the brain and the East favours the creative, spiritual and feeling-centered side of the brain, then it’s no surprise that in the West, we approach our problems all too often with cool logic and analysis.
That’s not to say that these approaches are valid and appropriate in many problem-solving situations in life, but when it comes to patterns of behaviour and trapped emotions, the best option available is actually often completely the opposite. Instead of burying ourselves in countless counseling sessions and trying to claw our way out of the labyrinth fruitless style, sometimes we just need to rise above it like a hawk and drop all of our problems at once.
If there could be one ‘higher purpose’ for meditation – higher than relaxing, enhancing our health or improving concentration – it’s this. Untangling ourselves from the over-use of our minds and just letting all those years of effort simply melt away, we are able to see that there really wasn’t any problem there in the first place. Lifting persistent burdens on our emotional well-being, not to mention our time and energy leave us free to focus on what we really want to make our lives all about.
