MEDITATION is very popular nowadays. Meditation has come to western culture from the East. I have to say though that often the whole idea of meditation is ruined in different interpretations. I have read several books about meditation and I would like to present here my point of view.
The first thing. Mediation is not an action, it is a state of being.
Meditation, visualization, self-hypnosis – they are not the same. Both visualization and self-hypnosis are good, but they are not meditation as different sources proclaim. Off course, in order to practice visualization and self-hypnosis you have to reach some kind of meditative state (let’s say state of consciousness), but that is not meditation.
What are states of consciousness?
The brain produces brain waves. There are five main types of them – gamma, beta, alpha, theta, delta. You can google it and find more about that. But overall it’s all about frequencies your brain produces. If gamma is related to the highest frequencies and delta to the lowest, than you can imagine what I mean by state of consciousness. So any visualization or hypnosis is more effiecient when your brain is in a range of deep alpha state (relaxed state) and delta state (state of sleep). In these states you can reach your subconscious mind. This is all about science. But meditation existed long before the discovery of brain waves, long before idea of visualization and hypnosis.
Meditation is almost impossible to define. Actually there is no definition, only a lot of descriptions. There are no rules, that can tell you how to meditate. Actually meditation is something personal to every people. Many people say – meditation is sitting silently. Yes, sitting silently can turn into meditation, but that’s up to that person. Many sources claim that meditation is about breathing. I say – yes, brething is important in relaxing process, but it is not meditation. It is just an exercise. Others say – you have to sit in special position (like lotus position) and concentrate on your breath. And they call it meditation. There are lots of meditation techniques. You can look for them online or in books. But guess what I will say? Doing meditation technique is not a meditation, it is just an exercise that can lead you to meditation at some point (when you are ready to receive). So meditation is not an action. Actually you can not do meditation, but you can meditate. Where am I going with this? I mean, meditation is not about what you think or do, it’s about how you live your life.
One of the misconceptions about meditation is that it is hard to practice. Actually it is easy. But you have to come to this by yourself. You have to work with yourself, do meditation techniques you like, try to live at this moment. Later I will give you tips about how you can meditate at any moment. Many people consider difficult to do sitting meditation technique, because of the stress in their bodies. In order to release that stress there are action meditation techniques. So meditation is for anyone.
I have come to these conclusions after reading several books. But there is one person who tought me meditation. And that person is OSHO (Chandra Mohan Jain is his birth name). He has now left this planet (died at 1990), but his speeches had been recorder and now published in different resources. So everyone is able to learn from him. Off course, he is not the only one who revealed the idea of meditation, but he is definately the one who inspired me.
In order to bring the ideas to you, I will now post here some quotes, sayings and thoughts about meditation by OSHO (more information about him you can find
here). And I will give my opinion and how I understand them. You are free to have you own ideas or opinions. I just want to tell you that the following ideas opened my door to the meditation. So let’s start.
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| OSHO |
The second thing. Meditation is a natural state; it’s not a discipline or practice.
Often the meditation just happens automatically. For example, meditation often happens in concerts. Both the listeners and performers are in a meditative state. They are totally into music and nothing else matters. That's a meditation.
Forget the dancer, the centre of the ego; become the dance. That is the meditation. Dance so deeply that you forget completely that ‘you’are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. The divisionmust disappear; then it becomes a meditation. If the division is there,then it is an exercise: good, healthy, but it cannot be said to bespiritual. It is just a simple dance. Dance is good in itself – as far as itgoes, it is good. After it, you will feel fresh, young. But it is notmeditation yet. The dancer must go, until only the dance remains. OSHO
In this quote OSHO speaks about the dancer. But we can put any occupation here (working, studying, eating, talking, etc). The main idea is that you have to totally invest yourself in what you do at the moment. Off course, it can happen in case you love what you do. If it is so, than your work can become meditation. It’s about doing things with awareness, not automatically. Have you noticed that often we are like robots, we don’t think about what we do, we just do it to gain something, to achieve something? That’s the reason we feel exausted and tired after our day. I advice you to start noticing your actions, not just perfor something you have to do, but do it with joy.
And there comes the next quote.
Meditation is nothing but putting the mind aside, putting the mind out of the way, and bringing a witnessing which is always there but hidden underneath the mind. This witnessing will reach to your center, and once you have become enlightened, then there is no problem. Then bring the mind in tune with you. OSHO
Actually the mind is what prevent us from meditation. The toughts distub us. Meditation is about being at the moment. But mind exist only in past and future. So meditation begins when mind goes away. Only then you can reach you inner self, discover yourself. You are not the mind. Only then when you have discovered who you really are, you can be free. Your mind at that moment is in tune with your inner self and you are totally free to be yourself.
There are such thing as guided meditation. You probably know it. It uses words to bring you to a meditative state. Actually it is more like hypnosis. Language is not necessary for meditation. Language exist when mind exist. But meditation is a state of no-mind.
Man is imprisoned by words. Man’s whole problem is language. Below language is the world of the animals and beyond language is the world of the gods. Between the two is the world of man, the world of language, words — philosophies, scriptures, theories and ideologies. The mind consists of words. The word is the brick that the palace of mind is made of, it is the stuff it is made of. OSHO
Language is a tool to get information in everyday life, but inorder to get to know who you really are, you have to go into no-mind state. Actually you have watch your mind. And when you notice that you are not your mind, you no longer need to worry about anything. You can start living joyfully. You just watch how your life flows. You are the observer.
Just watch the body, the mind. They are not you, you are the watcher. OSHO
Meditation starts by being separate from the mind, by being a witness. That is the only way of separating yourself from anything. If you are looking at the light, naturally one thing is certain: you are not the light, you are the one who is looking at it. If you are watching the flowers, one thing is certain: you are not the flower, you are the watcher.Watching is the key of meditation. OSHO
The third thing. Whatch your mind.
So the main thing I learned about meditation from OSHO is that "watching thing". We can only experience meditation by being separate from mind. But there is no need to escape from mind, just watch your mind.
So you can say meditation is another name of watching, witnessing, observing - without any judgement, without any evaluation. Just by watching, you immediately get out of the mind.... OSHO
Sounds very easy right? Well it is so, but you need to realize this by yourself.
When I started to watch my life from aside, I became more confident, more relaxed, less stressed, less worried. I became a different person. You know people often have problems and difficulties. They become stressed about that all. But you are not your problems. You are just watching how your mind creates and solves all those problems. You are no longer a slave to your mind. Your mind creates things and operates with them. Your mind creates your life. But you are just watching that all and enjoying life. This is amazing.
The fourth thing. Meditation has no goal.
Although, doing meditation techniques can improve health, break your limits, improve your abilities, meditation itself is not goal orientated. In different sources we can find information about how to use meditation to improve health, earn more money, be more successful. Actually meditation cannot be used with intention to gain something. You can visualize better health, you can try to attract more money, but you cannot meditate to get those things. When you try to meditate with intention to achieve something, the mind is in front and meditation goes away. Those are opposite things – mind and meditation.
If you are meditating for something, then you are concentrating, not meditating.
Meditation is an understanding that desires don’t lead anywhere. OSHO
We live in the world where desires are very important. When you desire something, you can get it. We try to attract things in our lifes (Law of Attraction). I am a big fan of Law of Attraction too. But when it comes to meditation, I put my desires aside. Then the meditation can begin.
Finally. Meditation techniques are important. They are exercises. They prepare you for the meditation.
I will write my favourite meditation techniques later (in other article).
It’s important to choose some meditation techniques you like and practice them daily. I definately recommend you to check out the web page
www.osho.com. You can find many OSHO meditation techniques there, including dynamic meditations. And I also suggest you to look for orange book by OSHO, there are plenty of meditation techniques there. Or you can take a look at other sources. There are many meditation teachers out there and I just told you about the one who inspired me.
I look forward to post new articles about my experience with meditation.
