Firstly, I want to mention the safe place that meditation can be. Setting up a beautiful sanctuary in your home where you feel inspired, safe and at home to practice the sacred art of meditation. Adornng the space with spiritual allies like images of the divine feminine, Buddha, Christ, angels and other guides and spiritual helpers that you can call upon to enhance the sense of being protected and feeling safe which are essential for healing and growth. This safe place is where you take the time to look directly at your feelings, emotions and thoughts without fear. A safe place to face yourself and your traumas and stress with gentleness and understanding. A safe place to allow difficult energies to arise out of the dark corners of your mind, where they have been hidden, and release them within the compassionate stable attention of meditation.
Changing Direction
I would say taking refuge in meditation implies we are a bit lost, struggling and our strategies for peace and happiness have fallen short of their mark. From this place of vulnerability and surrender we adopt new strategies and methods to help heal, transform and create the life we want for ourselves and others. Basically we turn to something for help.
This first stage is about admitting what you have been doing so far has not created the peaceful, stable and joyful mind you would like. Everybody already naturally takes refuge from difficulties and suffering in something. Whether you turn to friends or partners in troubling times or you reach for drugs or alcohol or even if you distract and overcome negativity through working harder or going to the gym, we all have a ‘go to’ when presented with suffering.
Taking refuge from suffering should not increase or delay the suffering but should serve to manage it skilfully and eliminate its causes. The Buddha more than 2,500 years ago promised his methods are a pathway leading away from suffering and toward the elimination of them entirely. And today scientific research has conclusively shown how mindfulness, loving kindness and meditation can reduce and eliminate serious mental and emotional distress.