Question
I am 15 yrs old and just 5 feet tall
People say we dont grow after 16 yrs of age...
But I want to increase my height even if it takes time Can meditation help increase my growth?
Thank you!
Answer
Hi, Sneha.
I do have a friend who got taller even after 17, so who knows.
For me meditation means to sit quietly so that I can hear myself and hear the world. If I am moving around all the time, it is harder to hear these things. If I can hear myself, I can begin to understand myself and to accept myself for what it is. If I can hear the world, I realize that I don't need to be too worried about myself because the world is much larger than what I think of as myself. In fact if I listen carefully I notice that the world is myself too.
If I listen carefully, I notice that the world, the universe, has no boundaries at all. It is everywhere. Have you ever tried to listen this way?
I don't know if this kind of meditative listening will help you grow a little taller. If it does, fine. There are some advantages to being taller. There are also some advantages to being shorter. Who knows which one will turn out best in the end?
But if you take time to listen carefully, silently, to yourself and the world, I think you will find that you can accept yourself as you are, including the frustration of wanting to be taller, and that you are much bigger than the body or the mind or the emotions. It would be a good question to ask yourself all the time in every situation "Where is the boundary of who I am right now? Is it my body? Is it my mind? Is there any boundary at all?" You can ask this and observe again and again and again. Maybe you will find that most of the time you really have no boundary. Or if you do feel a boundary you can ask yourself why you feel that is your boundary, because outside of the boundary is something and isn't that something also part of you?
You may notice as you look around at adults and even other young people, that most of them don't look beyond their bodies. Most also don't notice that they are living inside boundaries that they believe in. If you can see this, you also see that person for who they are and will have some compassion for them. Not that you can say anything to them about it, because they may have no idea what you are talking about. But you will understand that they feel very small and limited and frustrated because they don't look carefully to see if their boundaries are real.
I don't know if this makes very much sense or if it helps you. You can always put on some shoes with very high heels and see what it's like to be a little bit taller.
Good wishes to you, Sneha.
Your friend,
Jay
Jay Cutts
