Meditation
"Meditation is one of the most natural and yet most profoundly rewarding of all human activities. It connects you with your own inner powers of vitality, clarity, and love. When done deeply, it also connects you with God and His infinite joy."
Put simply, meditation is the method of bringing a scattered, disorganised mind into a state of peace, quiet and tranquillity.
The word meditation, is derived from two Latin words : meditari(to think, to dwell upon, to exercise the mind) and mederi (to heal). Its Sanskrit derivation 'medha' means wisdom.
An ordinary person may consider meditation as a worship or prayer. But it is not so. A focus is used, such as a candle flame, a Manthra or the rhythm of the natural breath. The mind will go out again and again, but the meditator gently brings it back to the subject of concentration. Thus, Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.
Meditation is not a technique but a way of life. Meditation means 'to join together or to yoke' . It describes a state of consciousness, when the mind is free of scattered thoughts and various patterns . The observer(one who is doing meditation) realizes that all the activity of the mind is reduced to one.
Traditionally, the classical yoga texts, describe that to attain true states of meditation one must go through several stages. After the necessary preparation of personal and social code, physical position, breath control, and relaxation come the more advanced stages of concentration, contemplation, and then ultimately absorption. But that does not mean that one must perfect any one stage before moving onto the next. The Integral yoga approach is simultaneous application of a little of all stages together.
Commonly today, people can mean any one of these stages when they refer to the term meditation. Some schools only teach concentration techniques, some relaxation, and others teach free form contemplative activities like just sitting and awaiting absorption. Some call it meditation without giving credence to yoga for fear of being branded 'eastern'. But yoga is not something eastern or western as it is universal in its approach and application.
There are many misconceptions concerning meditation, and few except serious yoga practitioners ever reach a state of true meditation. Meditation has three stages: one, Concentration, two, Contemplation, and three, Meditation (the state reached when the meditator is no longer aware of meditating). For health purposes, it is enough to reach a state where the mind is quiet and steady, the respiration calm and balanced, and the feeling is that of deep peace. With regular practice, this may be achieved, greatly benefiting the overall mental and emotional state.
If you would like to read further, this article about meditation also addresses the following points relating to meditation:
- Outlines the purpose of meditation.
- Differentiates between relaxation and meditation with reference to classic Yoga texts.
- Outlines classic yoga text points on meditation.
- Discusses some of the different forms / styles of meditation.
- Discusses the role of Mudras
- Describes some important considerations in the teaching of meditation.
- Introduces the basic steps to learn meditation.
- Describes the key things you need to learn to meditate.
- nine month program to learn and integrate meditation in your life.
You may wish to try some meditations scripts here. My favourite meditation is healing meditation ra ma da sa sa say so hung.
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