Summary: Speaks of the manner in which outside influences form our personality. Explains the difference for one who is free of his environment.

Meditation is the exploring of yourself.

So when you sit for meditation what you are doing is exploring yourself.

Meditation is an adventure.

It is with that attitude that one sits for meditation.

It is to find the Unlimited.

It is to find the mysterious; the Reality of all that there is.

There is a beginning to meditation but no end.

The environment plays an important part in moulding your life, your self-in-life and therefore your growth. So to create an environment that is conducive and helpful to your meditation, that is what is meant by sangha – to be able to take refuge in that kind of environment – to create an atmosphere, the sphere of the ātman.

Through your activities you create the environment; through the environment you create a personality for yourself. The influences of and in your environment create stimulations, responses in you – new energies, new forms of energies, moulding, remoulding, even out-moulding. So long as one is not free of the environment, one seeks the environment that is helpful, conducive.

But for those who are free of the environment they can easily modify the environment. They have the power and the energy to do so. Until such time, one can re-place oneself, but also of course misplace and displace oneself. That is what is meant by saṃskāras, impressions – getting generated in an environment, and thereby the moulding of one’s life, personality, self-in-life, accordingly.

Basically the ‘you’ you consider to be yourself now, is mostly your personality. And most of that comes from your environment. The conditionings, responses and the stimuli are generated due to the environment; the trends so to speak. Then one is trendy! So whatever is fashionable in these times and environment, one becomes part of that.

Simply put, your personality is what has become of you because of the environment, whereas prayer and meditation lead you to your being, to your freedom, and therefore to the watcher of your personality and the master of your personality.

Arya Vihar

7 Dec 1999