For our life to make sense, for it to be successful, satisfying and fulfilling, we have to experience it in full consciousness. This is the state our life is always striving for, the experience that our ambitions and desires, our aspirations and drives are always aiming for.

We are deeply oriented in the outward direction, and we have been conditioned to seek our happiness in other beings, other objects and conditions. When we do not experience the moments and events of life in conscious relation to ourselves, we can feel emptiness or lack despite a life full of activities. We go through life without relation to our experiences, like when we suddenly find ourselves at a stoplight, wondering how we got there. Our tendencies toward distraction will use every device in the book to seduce us, trick us, cajole or threaten us into abandoning the fulfilling experience of Being.

But we eventually tire of the apparently endless cycles of desiring things, working to obtain them, only to become disillusioned, disappointed or even disgusted upon finally having them.

Through meditation you attain relief from such nonsensical compulsions. In meditation you find such deep enrichment in the clear experience of your essential Being, such real, lasting and totally dependable substance that the ephemeral nature of the distractions is exposed. They lose their power to seduce and compel you against your better judgment. In meditation you savor each moment in conscious, peaceful, rich existence.

People spend millions of dollars hiring experts to dissolve their identity crisis, the contemporary malaise. But no one can do it for you. You alone can martial the forces which remove the old hindrances standing in the way of the simple and natural experience of the Being that you are. Meditation is that experience. It is important to remember that in meditation you are not grasping for something outside yourself. You are unveiling the wealth within.

Meditation rouses our innermost essence, what some call our spirit or soul. During meditation the essential force is experienced in self-recognition and self-expression. You may remember glimpses of such spontaneous experiences from childhood: your life experienced during those calm, clear moments involving the totality of your Being. When your soul comes to the fore, you are deeply enriched by the moment. You enjoy a depth of incomparable satisfaction.

To neglect or suppress your essence is to stifle the experience of your very Being. When you allow the power of your essence to shine forth in meditation, it gives rise to an experience of magnificent clarity and understanding and joy.

Meditation is the consciously integrated experience of the Being that we really are and is the ultimate in well-being and health: a fully balanced system of forces, the state of ease.
Meditation is the direct means to our fulfillment. It is not some strange theoretical practice but is the simplest, most naturally fulfilling state of being. In meditation you consciously experience your true Being, something that allows you to fully savor every moment. You learn to integrate and appreciate every circumstance, condition and event as yet another texture and color on the limitless canvas that is your life.

About the Author:
Dr. Erhard Vogel is the founder of Nataraja Yoga Ashram, a not-for-profit community service organization where he teaches time tested wisdom and pragmatic methods. He has been teaching Self-realization and meditation for more than 45 years and has the rare distinction of having taught among Himalayan sages during the last three decades. Vogel lived in the Middle East, India and China, observing the ways people of different cultures seek fulfillment. He is the author of “The Four Gates” available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iUniverse.