Meditating during periods!
Question:
Is it ok to do meditation during periods? My doubt arose because I can feel the energy flow upwards in meditation, while the energy is said to flow downwards during periods. This is a huge topic of controversy in Kerala, India.
Annamalai Swami said “maintaining your body is important to go on this path. After Self-Realization, the Self takes care of that.” I have to maintain the body until then so I am asking this question.
Answer:
This is a good question, the answer to this might help many.
Belief system:
Periods being a hindrance is only a belief.
Periods are as natural as pee and poop. All Enlightened individuals experience it all. By becoming enlightened they don’t stop using the toilet pot. They use the same pot every morning as you do. Using the toilet cannot stop one from becoming enlightened. Experiencing any natural bodily function like periods cannot stop anyone from getting enlightened. All these ancient Indian beliefs and conditioning have been laughed upon by the entire world dear. It’s time to rise beyond belief.
Origin of belief:
It is ridiculous conditioning that originated where the patriarchal society wanted to emphasize the superiority of men over women. With the advance in society today, it is clear that men and women are equal. Such age-old traditions have thus been renounced. Time to renounce your belief system too dear.
Why do we meditate?
The most important thing for every seeker to understand is why he is meditating.
1] Some meditate for temporary relief only not permanent peace.
2] Some meditate to attain mind-powers called Siddhis.
3] Some meditate for personality development.
4] Some meditate to show others how spiritual they are but they have no interest at all in making efforts to recognize any truth.
5] Some meditate to find the permanent cure for suffering, even if the meditation is not pleasant, to begin with.
What do energy meditations help with?
The energy flow and attaining magical experiences are given importance on those paths where people meditate only:
1] to feel pleasant temporarily and superficially by distracting the mind from the unpleasantness arisen on account of situations without trying to find the root cause of suffering.
2] to attain Siddhis [mind-powers]
Where do Gnyana Sangha meditations fall?
In Gnyana Sangha, we are meditating for one reason only – cure the disease of suffering permanently, and the only permanent cure is recognizing ‘Who am I?’ After you complete learning all the steps of Satipatthana, we will dive into the Insight [wisdom] that you are get from your own meditations about ‘what you are’ and ‘what you are not’.
Our path is not about energy flow at all because energy movement meditations are not important on the true path of Samadhi that has the goal of curing suffering permanently. What is important on this path is uprooting the cause of suffering, which is a wrong understanding of who you are. Playing gimmicks with energy movements cannot reveal who you are. Thorough self-investigation is a must on the path to realizing your true self.
Our path is to discover who & what we are in reality. Knowing the answer to that is the only cure to the suffering called ‘Samsara’ dear. So don’t try to tackle the issues of the body-mind one by one, you will not complete the task in lifetimes. Instead, please devote that time to only one search in every meditation – Who am I?
Have questions? Reach out to Ekta by clicking on the “Ask a Question” button on the left sidebar. For attending Ekta’s online knowledge sessions, click the “Gnyana Sangha” button on the left sidebar.
1 Comment
Submit a Comment
Have a Spiritual Question? Ask Ekta
JGD Di,
So well explained. Thank you. In today’s world it is seen as sign of feminism but ultimately it is just breaking conditioning. I know women were prohibited from uttering the universal sound of Ohm as well as part of this conditioning. May peace be with all of us.