DISPELLING THE MYTHS OF MEDITATION
To most people, mention the word meditation and they immediately conjure images of yogis
sitting with legs crossed ommmmmming in the Himalayas or people sitting with eyes closed
for hours on end. They know Buddha did it and that it is supposed to be good for you. It's
probably on their list of things to do that will improve general health, fitness and
stress levels. Along with losing weight, improving diet and exercising more. They
associate words like relaxation, peace of mind, concentration, and mind control with it.
They know its origin is Eastern and it has often something to do with Gurus, Masters,
cults, religion, followings and spirituality. They mostly perceive it as a technique to be
learned and practiced regularly. Aloneness, discipline, application, renunciation and
isolation may come to mind when thinking of meditation. The dictionary describes
meditation as "contemplation, thought, cognition, reflection, pensiveness,
abstraction, rumination, thoughtfulness, study, musing, pondering, reverie, consideration
and speculation." Doubleday Roget's Thesaurus.
MEDITATION IS A TECHNIQUE
Many business entrepreneurs are trying to fast sell the idea of meditation. They offer
instant results for practicing their particular method for just "20 minutes a
day!" Meditation is marketed as a commodity to be obtained from without. This creates
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of meditation by modern day translation. The truth
is there are hundreds of different techniques designed to create a space for meditation to
happen. The technique may be called meditation, however practicing it does not ensure
meditation will happen. It can definitely help. Meditation is a way of life, it cannot be
attached to any technique, definition, philosophy or dogma. It is the very essence of
existential connection with nature, the very air of freedom itself. A technique is
designed to direct your energy inwards. By doing so the search for inner understanding and
self enlightenment begins. Energy that was once being thrown outside of yourself is now
able to fall back inside. Energy flowing inwards automatically begins to clean the inner
house of tension and stagnant energies. In this way it has a revitalizing, replenishing,
and restoring effect upon the body/mind system.
The problem is, sitting with eyes closed allowing energy to fall in, has become a very
uncomfortable experience for modern man/woman.
MEDITATION IS RELAXATION
It is true meditation can create relaxation, however true meditation does much more than
this. True meditation is about not only relaxation but transformation. Falling asleep by
the TV at night can be just as beneficial as some meditation relaxation techniques. For
example repeating a mantra over and over will eventually relax one to a point of sleep.
Any hypnotist knows this. The mind gets bored and goes to sleep. These kinds of meditation
have nothing to do with the way meditation is able to develop the awareness necessary for
transformation of energy to happen.
Techniques like Za Zen and Vipassana worked well thousands of years ago when lifestyles
were slower, less stressed and more natural than they are today. It was easier to sit
silently and go in. Unfortunately the toxicity, stress and speed of present day living
makes this more difficult today. Stopping or slowing down, even getting a good nights
sleep has become a common problem. These difficulties have arisen as human beings move
further and further away from their nature and ignore their natural inner rhythms, cycles
and signals. The widespread employment of suppression and repression, as a way of
collective functioning, has also done much to destroy our ability to relax. All that we
suppress boils and bubbles within. The minute we stop or confront the inner reality of
aloneness our ghosts and unfinished moments of the past surface to haunt us. Many have
become adept at avoiding these inner spaces for this reason. Hence the idea of passive
meditation technique has seen many try, fail and forget.
The problem of our body/minds "carrying" excess stress, leads many to a gym,
jogging or regular physical activity. This gives many a feeling of instant relief at
having moved their energy, relaxing and refreshing the body. Unfortunately many will leave
the gym with minds still racing and head into the night unable to turn off the unfinished
conversations and worries of their day. Turning off the mind seems to have become the most
difficult thing to do in this time and age.
Many healing modalities, psychologists and therapists are recognizing the need for energy
release in the form of emotional expression, as a way to heal the human psyche. Art
therapy, psychotherapy, acting and drama, completing unfinished communications of the
past, hypnotic journeys and visualizations are all techniques designed to unburden the
mind. These methods have evolved because of cultural and social suppression. They provide
opportunity for catharsis,(throwing out of suppressed emotion); release of mental tension,
self exploration, understanding and transformation. All have been designed to simply help
modern man to relax and grow. It has become obvious that civilized man/women is
suppressed. They need to be unburdened, liberated from inauthenticity.
MEDITATION IS CONCENTRATION
Meditation is not concentration. The very act of concentration requires effort to focus.
Effort creates tension that interferes with the expanded state of meditation.
Concentration requires a narrowing of perception. Meditation expands perception.
MEDITATION IS THOUGHTFULNESS
Meditation is the gap between the thoughts. If you become aware of your thoughts, like
your breath, you will notice there is a gap between each thought, each breath. Meditation
is not thinking, it is the space of no thought; the process of widening the gap. It is
"witnessing" or "watching" thoughts.
MEDITATION REQUIRES RENUNCIATION
For thousands of years spiritual people of the path have associated renunciation with
meditation. Many believe in order to meditate one needs to live in the Himalayas or a
Buddhist retreat. They also believe that they need to give up materialism, suffer
aloneness and isolation and renounce everything that is worldly. This is not so.
Meditation is the simple act of growing your awareness. That can be done in every single
ordinary thing that you do. It does'nt matter what you do, so long as you remain aware
whilst doing it. For example, you may walk to work every day along the same pathway in the
park. You may have done that for the last 10 years. You may have also never noticed the
color of the park fence, the flowers in the garden, the broken sign post in the corner
etc. You may never have seen these things because every morning during your walk, your
mind was engaged. Engaged in thinking about what happened before you left home (past), or
thinking about what will happen when you get to work (future.) The one thing you haven't
done is walk to work, being in the moment (the present). You haven't been in your natural
senses of observation, in the body. You have been in the mind, dreaming. This is how we
miss life. In fact choosing to live in the mind is renouncing life! Learning how to live
in this moment, in your senses is meditation.
MEDITATION IS DISCIPLINE
Many disciplines have been associated with meditative technique. Lying on beds of nails,
walking naked in all weather, fasting, not speaking for years, remaining celibate and many
other absurdities have been linked to meditative pathways. Disciplines such as these have
evolved out of the sado maschosistic attempts of spiritual egos to portray bigger, better,
more powerful images of themselves. Instead it portrays a dysfunctional and ill approach
to life. One that is anti-life and life negative. One that uses suffering and martyrdom to
elevate spiritual status in the eyes of the masses. Many religions, even today are
representative of similar attitudes to life.
For too long religious and meditative discipline has promoted that one needs to
"suffer now and enjoy later." The afterlives are filled with recognition and
glory, only if you suffer in the present. The discipline of meditation has been made a
very serious affair because of this. This seriousness in itself is pathologically ill. It
creates tension and conflict with existential and environmental processes.
Meditation is the very science of relaxation and transformation. It is the only way to
attune ones nature to the nature of existence itself. It is not a serious, tense,
difficult affair. In fact it is the ultimate relief, let go and joy of life itself. It
requires passion and thirst for the unknown. It urges seeking and searching deep within
the self. It requires that you remember yourself in each and every moment. In that way it
is a discipline, a commitment and acknowledgment of love, life and everything that
existence is made of. It is true, developing awareness and practicing living in the
present moment, requires discipline and application. However, it is playful and is the one
thing that is capable of transforming misery and misunderstandings of life, into
celebration. It is incredibly liberating. It liberates our senses and heightens
sensitivity. Pleasurable, sensual reality is a natural outcome of mediation. Gratitude and
celebration are a byproduct, understanding and love a consequence.
MYTHS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH REALITY.
The myths of meditation, religions, philosophy, civilizations, archetypes and Gods of the
past have everything to do with our present. Myths create form in the very fabric society
is made of. They transfer energy of genetic and psychic patterning into the present. Some
inspire and awaken conscious potential , and others pollute and poison it. Some myths are
representative of all that is eternal and some simply represent the past. Consciousness
connects to the eternal and meditation is the way. There are myths founded on lies and
myths born out of truth. Meditation is needed to discern what is truth and what is not.
By Sadhana Kay Needham www.geocities.com/womenhealingwomeninoz
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