Why Is It Important to Meditate?

Like anyone else, you probably don’t wake up thinking: “Today I want to suffer. I want to spend the whole day anxious, have a few bursts of anger, and then feel sad.”

Somehow, all of us want to be happy, so we try to avoid suffering and distress. But what is happiness? Is it external to us, or is it something that can be cultivated internally? Is it a state of constant euphoria, or something calmer and more content?

Our mental state is what defines our quality of life. That’s why it would be useful to understand what happiness really is.

Continuous meditation practice can bring us an important reflection about two distinct types of happiness: hedonic happiness, which is more conditional and often confused with pleasure; and eudaimonic happiness, which is more genuine and stable.

We’re already quite familiar with the first type, the kind of happiness achieved through possessing or receiving something. When we get a compliment, eat something delicious, or experience a pleasant sensation, for example.

However, when the source of that happiness is destroyed or ceases to exist, the happiness disappears too. It’s worth saying that this type of happiness still has its value, after all, we do need things like a healthy environment and basic living conditions so we can cultivate the causes for more genuine happiness. Yet dedicating your life solely to this conditional happiness may not be enough, since its origin, tied to external stimuli, can never be lasting and stable.

The other type of happiness, which we’ll call eudaimonic or “genuine happiness,” is not simply a series of pleasant sensations and emotions. It’s a state of stability and serenity, of mental balance and inner well-being that exists independently of the coming and going of thoughts, emotions, and external circumstances. Simply being in our own company, breathing in and out, enjoying the natural presence of our being beyond any ego artifice: a state of presence behind the scenes of the movie of our lives.

Over time, we come to see that genuine happiness is the consequence of a healthy and balanced mind, just as physical well-being is the result of a healthy body, and that all of this doesn’t come from outside but from what we cultivate internally. We also come to see that it arises naturally when we untie the knots created by our mind, such as our habits and our conditioned ways of perceiving ourselves and the reality around us. It’s not a matter of what we receive from outside, but what we cultivate internally and offer to the world.

But what about meditation?

When we begin to meditate, we notice that our mind is like a wild monkey: constantly jumping from branch to branch, from thought to thought. This monkey mind plays tricks on us: one moment it’s happy, the next it’s sad; one moment agitated, the next discouraged; now it’s moody and depressed, then excited and out of control. It simply follows what it feels.

We begin by giving this monkey mind a task. Something simple, like: “Hello, your first task is to pay attention to your breath.” Then your mind will focus on the act of breathing in and out. Many thoughts may arise, and that’s fine. Through meditation, we learn to become “friends” with this mind so that we can gradually move toward that genuine happiness we were talking about.

We grew up without learning about the possibility of understanding and training our minds, so we keep looking outward, chasing only that first type of happiness, conditional and impermanent, believing that this or that will make us happy: a car, a job, a relationship. We think that if we can achieve the right external conditions, everything will be fine. It’s curious how we learn almost nothing about our minds throughout our lives, and how this subject is rarely addressed in schools, universities, or the media.

We dedicate our lives to improving external conditions and forget that it’s actually our mind that experiences the world and expresses it as either well-being or suffering. If we can change the way we see things, we transform the quality of our lives. So there’s nothing wrong with wanting to develop an optimized mind. 

Meditation can be understood as mental training, through which we can become more aware of our inner world, our thoughts and emotions, and also what’s happening around us, here and now. It’s a training in which we step out of “autopilot” and enter into contact with a more natural state of our minds.

You might ask: “What do you mean by a more natural state?” Think of a glass of water with a little sand in it. If you shake it, the sand mixes with the water, making it cloudy. But if you let the glass sit still, the sand gradually settles to the bottom until the water becomes clear again. In this example, the sand represents our thoughts, disturbances, emotions, and habits, and the water represents our mind. Without meditation, our mind remains turbulent and cloudy, with sand everywhere. However, when we meditate, we allow that sand to gradually settle, letting the water return to its natural state, calm and clear.

By resting in this natural state, we can manifest a more stable mind and genuine happiness, so that we can offer a different perspective to the world and our experiences.

Many might think that meditation is about escaping reality. On the contrary! The purpose of meditation is to help us see reality as it is, recognizing the deep causes that generate our suffering and clearing away our mental confusion. It’s through meditation that we can develop a clearer vision of reality and thus cultivate a more balanced and genuinely happy mind. 

With the practice of meditation, we gradually discover that our consciousness, which lies behind the coming and going of our thinking mind, is like a vast blue sky, normally covered by thick clouds. They may be white or gray clouds, small or large, but they remain only clouds. And because they’re constant clouds that have been there so long that you almost never see the sky, sometimes we even forget it exists. We become fascinated by the clouds and identify with them. But with practice, we gradually learn to rest in the sky rather than in the clouds. You may have various clouds: one beautiful, one happy, and perhaps another not so pleasant, but they never change the natural space. The space is always free, always pure.

What does science say?

In recent years, science has been studying meditation and confirming its benefits, as we’ve mentioned many times throughout the guided practices in Lojong. Scientific research in the field of neuroplasticity shows that every form of training induces important reorganizations in the brain, both functionally and structurally, and that continuous meditation practice results in reduced stress and anxiety. A recent study from the Max Planck Institute examined the effects of training in various types of meditation. As the study reports, the results indicate that these “mental trainings” are not only capable of changing the brain networks underlying functions like attention, compassion, and how we regulate our emotions, but also of improving health and subjective well-being, reducing stress and increasing our pro-social behavior.

What is the Lojong app?

Lojong is a Tibetan word meaning “mind training.” “Lo” means mind and “jong” means training or cultivation. Our goal is to introduce meditation to those who are beginning, always partnered with programs supported by great teachers, and we also work to connect people with qualified instructors and local groups so they can advance with their practice, which is fundamental.

The app brings together various meditation programs, animated videos, a timer for silent practice, statistics, articles, quotes, and various tools to help you on your contemplative path.

Much of our content is open to non-paying users, but some sessions are available only to premium subscribers, as this allows us to continue creating new content and investing in the app’s quality. However, if you don’t have the financial means to pay for a subscription, please contact us and tell us why, and we’ll respond to your request as soon as possible.

We aspire for more and more people to practice and benefit from meditation, which is why we created the app, with the goal of making these important practices accessible to as many people as possible.

We also remind you that if you don’t connect with the app, there are several other meditation apps as well as excellent books for those wanting to begin. Here we’ve compiled a list of some books we recommend: “Happiness: A Guide to Life’s Most Important Skill” and “The Art of Meditation” by Matthieu Ricard; “The Genuine Happiness Project” by B. Alan Wallace; “Into the Heart of Life” by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo; “Emotional Rescue” by Dzogchen Ponlop; and “A Fearless Heart” by Thupten Jinpa.

In Brazil, there are also several qualified instructors offering excellent in-person courses, such as Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB), and there are various local groups dedicated to learning different meditation practices. For some people, being part of a group can be the easiest way to continue with training, sharing experiences and strengthening the habit of practice. Remember that it’s essential to always seek out recognized and qualified instructors and groups.

Finally, we would like to emphasize that health treatments, such as the use of antidepressant medications, should not be replaced or discontinued based solely on results obtained from these practices and without professional supervision.