The lives of meditators and those who pursue spirituality are special. While on one hand, they feel lucky and even privileged to have found the right direction and purpose in their lives, their relationship with the material world and materialistic pursuits can be very different from normal people.

What if we told you that there’s a way that meditation can keep you happy in life irrespective of what you have?

The script of materialism in the lives of meditators goes something like this.

They Rarely Get What They Want.

That’s either because either they don’t believe in wanting a lot of things or they feel that not getting those things makes them stronger personalities. That’s because they see every want as a challenge to overcome, to build their personalities further. Material self-indulgence is rather low on their list of priorities. When they sense a “want” in them, they’re always trying to see if they can live without it.

They Sometimes Get What They Deserve.

This doesn’t bother them either because they’re not in this game of measuring and thinking about what they deserve. Entitlement is never their cup of tea. They mostly accept things that come their way, treating it as the gift of nature.

They Always Get What They Need.

This one actually is a blessing in their lives. That’s because they are one with the power of nature and in complete harmony with it. In fact, they are one with it, almost inseparable. Their inner self and spirit are united with this power and they feel it each time they meditate or direct their attention to a higher purpose in life. And so nature takes care of them. It gives them whatever they need, and whenever they need it. It comes to their rescue when it really matters. It shields them from problems that they cannot see. It’s almost like there’s an invisible shield of protection.

This shield of protection and confidence that they’ll always have what they need, irrespective of whether they’re wanting it or not, keeps them happy and without worry.

Feeling Contentment in Our Lives

This is probably the hardest to achieve even though it seems simple. Most people try to do it by mentally reconditioning themselves. For instance, when we can’t get something, we compare ourselves with people who have a lot less in order to make ourselves feel better. At other times, we use self-control as a method. But mentally acquired self-control is sure to break one time or other.

So what do meditators do to feel contented from within?

Well, three things to be precise.

They learn to thoroughly enjoy every moment in their lives with what they have and who they have around them. Their attention is largely on the present moment, there’s no time to think about missed opportunities in the past or what they won’t get tomorrow. They’re like 3-year-old children who are fully consumed by the toy or whatever they’re doing right now. Pure-hearted, uncomplicated and 100% undiluted joy.

Second, they know how to direct their attention. To get to that state of joy, meditators direct their attention to a higher force and power and ensure that their inner self or spirit feels the enjoyment. This comfort of the spirit supersedes any other type of enjoyment that their body, mind, ego or intellect can ever experience.

Third, they always stay close to the truth and see reality almost always. To them the reality is what it is, not something that is conceptualized, justified, relative, arguable or reconciled to suit their ego. And they have no problems respecting it and accepting it.

How Meditation Helps Helps Achieve Truth, Attention and Joy Simultaneously

It turns out that the three concepts of Truth (it’s called Sat in Sanskrit and pronounced as “Suth” and rhymes with “such”), Attention (Chith in Sanskrit and rhymes with “with”) and Joy (Anand in Sanskrit and pronounced “Aah none the”) have been around for ages. When they integrate and occur together in us, the resulting state is called Sat-chit-anand. It refers to the simultaneous experience of truth, joy and our spirit felt in our attention. That state can be experienced exactly when we’re in meditation and achieving a higher state of consciousness – the one that we call as Thoughtless Awareness in Sahaja meditation.

And in Sahaja meditation, that’s almost everything we strive for – being in that higher state. Once we reach that state, we automatically feel contented and almost completely devoid of excessive materialistic desires. We feel happy almost always and with everything and everyone around us. There’s no need to go through a self-improvement or self-help course on contentment.

Of course, this feeling of content is not meant to give up life’s comforts, it only means that meditators can be happy with or without them. The comforts do not dominate their attention or ambitions in life even if many of them actually end up getting most of them.

So the next time, you feel like you aren’t happy and disappointed with not having something you wanted, what you want to do is increase your meditation. And collective meditation especially, so that you can have more of the ultimate experience that can wash away your materialistic wants – like it never existed.

So are you going to continue chasing the next version of that iPhone that your friend already has or do you want to be free from ever wanting anything?

As we say in Sahaja, you’re your own master. You decide.