| | | A Look Into The Meditation Process

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An Altered State

People often talk about the relaxing effects of practicing meditation, but what exactly is it? There are different definitions of meditation. One way of explaining it simply is as a state of awareness of the mind that is immune to interruptions and disturbances. It is considered to be a method of managing one’s mind.

Normally, our minds are subject to innumerable stimuli, inputs from the senses, our own thoughts, subconscious ideas, and so on. So our minds are never free to completely relax, free of distraction from exterior or interior sources. Meditation involves the process of becoming aware of our own minds, and allows us to experience bliss.

1 Meditation Defined
2 Different Paths To Bliss
3 Start Mediating…
4 References

Meditation Defined

Here are some more formal definitions of meditation: Delmont defines meditation as “the mechanism is the mechanism for seeing the world as it is, free from preconceptions." Griffiths suggests it is a means toward achieving attainment of cessation, a condition characterized by an utter absence of mental events, yet accompanied by a purification of the sense organs. Pekala says that it is the"process of turning consciousness upon itself to develop attentional control of the processes and contents of consciousness". Claxton defines meditation as "learning to pay attention".

Where Does Meditation Take You?

Practitioners of meditation explain that they find a special peace within themselves – a place where they retreat to, away from the noise and bustle of ordinary life. A person who is meditating separates himself or herself from consciousness, ego and emotions. Returning to the normal world is done simply by resuming awareness of surroundings. The deeper idea behind meditation is to connect the bliss that is achieved with meditation with the normal condition our minds are in during our daily routines.

Meditate Your Way To Contentment

What are the advantages of meditation? Meditation helps us to be introspective, and watch and understand not only our own thoughts, behaviour and personality, but also the actions in the world around us. This makes it possible for us to figure out what troubles us, and avoid such instances, that distract us from the bliss that mediation can help us attain.

Then, mediation is a way to handle our own longings and become free of things which make us deviate from the right path. It’s not that we cease to want things, but meditation helps us see that perhaps they aren’t so important in our lives. Perhaps they are larger things that we should be seeking … meditation is a way of exploring these areas.

A Connection To The Real World!

There are some things to bear in mind when you are going to meditate. Safety requirements demand that you should be “grounded” before you embark on the meditative process. Grounding acts as a link to reality and keeps you steady while you are meditating, for there are times, during deep meditation, that a person can be too absorbed and lose touch with what is happening around him or her. Grounding can be done by focusing on breathing or motions of the body as a steadying point, and keeps you aware of where you must return when you have finished mediating.

Different Paths To Bliss

The end goal of meditation is generally considered to be enlightenment or nirvana, and the several different kinds of meditation all hope to lead you there.

Vipasana is a form of meditation, which is also called insight meditation. It demands sincere practice and dedicated effort, to focus the mind on proper insight meditation. Vipasana helps you gain mental and physical balance.

Antar Mouna is another type of meditation, which helps us concentrate on mental and emotional control, even at a subconscious or unconscious level. Once we have a clear grasp of our internal workings, and weed out disturbances, we can focus on attaining a state of calm and contentment. Antar Mouna works in four steps – the first dealing with sensory data, the second with impulsive ideas, the third with ideas that need action of some sort, and the fourth with unconscious energies that distract and disturb us.

There are other classifications of meditation propounded by different thinkers. According to the Buddhist Eightfold Path to Nirvana, there are two kinds of mediation based on the concepts of Right Concentration and Right Awareness. De Silva differentiates mediation on the basis of its desired goals – tranquility and insight. If we compare the above two classifications, tranquility is associated with Right Concentration, since attention must be concentrated on a particular goal in both types; while insight meditation, which aims at awareness, can be compared to Right Awareness.

In 1976, Naranjo suggested that there are three kinds of meditation: the way of forms, where a person focuses his or her concentration on something external such as an object or a repetitive sound; the expressive way, where the meditator focuses internally on something within the mind; and the negative or the middle way, which detaches concentration from all stimuli and concentrates on observation of oneself and the outer environment.

Goleman thought of meditation as either concentrative or insightful meditation, i.e. focusing on a particular item, or gradually attaining bliss through mindful, thoughtful meditation. Ornstein also believed that meditation was concentrative or what he called “opening-up meditation”, a calm awareness of how the mind works and the areas in which it is interested and focused. The concentrative types of meditation of both the above thinkers are similar to the Eightfold Path’s right Concentration, while insight meditation and opening-up meditation are similar to Right Awareness.

Start Mediating…

More kinds of meditation exist – explore them through books or on the Internet. Whatever method you choose, meditation can be a delightfully relaxing way to discover yourself. If you’d like to try it, there are many meditation support groups who share the same interests and are wonderful companions on the path to insight, exchanging information and experience.

Meditation can help us learn about ourselves, and learn how to live calmer lives, in better control of our emotions and reactions to unpleasantness and hardship. Meditation can help us deal with anything!