What is Meditation?
Introduction
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When you eat delicious foods, you please your taste buds. When you listen to good music you please your hearing senses and when you love people then that feeling pleases your ego.
But when you meditate you please your soul; you please your higher consciousness. Meditation is the only thing that you do for your true self.
Sit straight, body relaxed, eyes closed, focus on breathing and observe your thoughts.
You must have heard these words if you meditate. In the world where meditation has been popularized as a tool for relaxation, a breathing exercise and a remedy for depression, trust me, it has got a very deep meaning than what it is perceived to be.
Deep sleep, complete relaxation, relief from depression and anxiety are just the byproducts of meditation. These are achieved only because you are able to detach from your bodily ego/identity and realize yourself as consciousness.
The number of people meditating every day has been increasing day by day. Just like other millions of people, I have seen a huge difference in myself since the time I started meditation. If I can come to peace then certainly you can too. So let’s dive deep into, not so secret, ocean of meditation.
What is Meditation?
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Meditation is a physical and mental practice aiming to expand our consciousness to a higher state where we achieve a great level of mental peace and physical relaxation.
Meditation (dhyana) is one of the most important parts of the Ashtanga Yoga or 8 limbs of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. So it is not just concentrating on your thoughts or breathe, but it is a part of the process to awaken to a higher state.
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It is one among few steps to reach the meditative state (samadhi) and the ultimate goal of any meditation practice should be to reach that state.
People don’t do meditation. People go into a meditative state.
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Meditation is a state of being aware of what’s happening within and outside the body. It is a state where you acknowledge the thoughts, observe them and just let go without getting attached to them. While in a deep state of meditation, your true self i.e. the consciousness is operating at the highest level and you attain the peace that no material and achievements on earth can provide.
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So how does this meditative state feels like?
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Here’s a classic example to understand this meditative state.
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Imagine yourself rushing to the office for an important meeting and stuck in traffic. Certainly, it won’t be a pleasant experience.
And now imagine at the same time, you are not going to the office but going to your long-awaited holiday vacation and watching the same traffic from above sitting in an airplane.
How would you feel? You will not bother anything about the traffic but acknowledge it as it is.
You can figure out the difference between normal and meditative state now. What if I tell you, you can always be in that state? You can always be peaceful and without any worries, anxiety, and tension.
This is what regular meditation helps with.
The life situations are similar to that traffic. You can’t do anything about them but how you feel and respond to those situations is always in control. This doesn’t happen overnight and requires quite a lot of practice.
Meditation is the process of acknowledging the situations and thoughts as they are without forcing to control them or struggling to change them as per our wish. It is process to dive deep into our level of consciousness and identify our true identity – our soul.
Why meditation is necessary?
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If every 8 years old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.
-Dalai Lama
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In fact, this is true. Meditation helps to reach that state of consciousness where what matters most is your internal peace and happiness. The external factors matter less and become events just like scenes in a movie.
You enjoy the scenes of the movie and those scenes do not affect your daily life. Meditation helps to enjoy your life like a movie and helps in the smooth direction of it.
The most important thing you have is your life. If you start chasing the materialistic pleasure you will never be satisfied. You will always need something to please you, one after another.
So it becomes very important to tap that inner happiness and release the permanent source of peace and happiness. And therefore, meditation is necessary.
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Why should you Meditate? Benefits of Meditation.
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Any normal life runs on the Eat-Work-Entertainment-Sleep cycle. People work hard day and night to pay off the debts created on a bank’s computer screen. The little free time they get is spent on useless entertainment videos and unproductive chores.
Imagine you spend the majority of your life doing the same thing and not ever realizing the importance of life?
In our day to day activities, we just forget to live. We neglect the essence of life. And when you ignore the essence of life, the world surrounding us at times starts feeling meaningless.
Our soul thrives to experience life; this can’t be found in temporary material achievements. It requires experiencing the beauty of creation, nature, and the emotions to harness that inner happiness.
This is the reason you should meditate. Meditate to awaken yourself to a higher state of consciousness. Tap that essence of life. Once you touch the life, everything becomes beautiful.
Here are a few things that meditation has helped me with;
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Benefits of meditation:
Immediate effects
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Super body relaxation
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Deep sleep
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Relief from anxiety and stress
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Calm and deep breaths
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Long term effects
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Improves concentration
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Better control over emotions as you start seeing everything as it is, without getting attached to anything
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Develop a love for every life
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Become peaceful in everyday life
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Forgive people and not let them sit on my head as I started to understand them better.
Most importantly I found myself. I found that I am not a robot to work in the system and waste the precious life I have. I relished my higher consciousness and found I am an observer enjoying the movie of my life.
I learned what’s happening all around the world is beyond my control. But what happens within me, how I feel, how I behave, is definitely in my control.
We know all the theories to keep us happy. Meditation helps us to implement them all in our life.
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What are the different types of Meditation?
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Though the main purpose is to realize the higher consciousness within yourself, you can achieve it through any of the meditation techniques you want.
There are 5 different types of meditation techniques:
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Breathing Meditation
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Concentration meditation
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Mindfulness meditation
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Mantra meditation
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Spiritual meditation
Breathing Meditation: It is the most common type of meditation practiced all around the world. In this technique, you need to maintain your entire concentration on the natural rhythm of your breathing. If your mind starts wandering, you gently bring your attention back to breathe.
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Concentration Meditation: In this technique, the main focus is to concentrate on any particular thing during the entire meditation session. You can focus your attention on any of the body parts such as your heartbeats, between your eyebrows, energy flow in the body or anything that you find easily noticeable and can concentrate on.
Mindfulness Meditation: This is a very popular way of meditation that I personally practice in my daily meditation sessions. In this technique, you realize the observer within you. When you sit for meditation, a number of thoughts will come and go.
In mindfulness meditation, your job is to acknowledge, observe and let go of those thoughts.
It’s like watching a movie. You observe all the thoughts as it is without getting attached to any of them. You are mindful of everything surrounding you and everything happening within you.
Mantra Meditation: Mantra meditation is somewhat similar to breathing meditation. The only difference is, here your focus is on chanting the mantra all the time in your mind. Whenever you deviate from mantra chanting and thoughts start to wander, you bring back your attention and focus on chanting those mantras.
Few of the recommended mantras you can try to meditate on :
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Om Namah Shivay
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Om
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Om Mani Padme Hum
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Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha
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So Ham
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Hong Sau
Spiritual Meditation: This is also similar to concentration meditation. In this technique, you focus your thoughts on God. Your focus is on the creator of the Universe. You concentrate on the imaginary source of light which is also the source of creation and maintain your focus on that light the entire duration.
You can focus on the image of God you worship too and meditate on that image.
How to Meditate?
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You can start meditating with any of the techniques mentioned above. There are three stages in an effective meditation session.
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Pre Meditation state
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Meditative state
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Post Meditation state
Pre Meditation state is the preparatory phase before you actually start meditating. In this stage you need to:
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Sit in a comfortable position with spine erect
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Take three deep breaths and exhale fully
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Return to natural breathing
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Take a deep breath with a count of 6. Hold it for a count of 6 and exhale fully for a count of 8.
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Repeat this for three times and return to natural slow breathing
Meditative State is the actual meditation phase where you employ any of the above-mentioned techniques. In this meditative state, you are in a deep state of concentration and fully present in the moment.
In this moment of meditation, you have no regrets about the past and no worries about the future. You observe all your thoughts, all your breaths, all your energy as it is. Your only task is to observe and enjoy everything happening in your body and mind.
Post Meditation State is the duration after you bring back your attention to normal life. Once you have spent enough time gently bring back your attention to the room you are meditating in.
Feel the sensation in your body, feel the peace and calmness in your mind. Experience the deep relaxation state you are in. Spend a couple of minutes experiencing these beautiful feelings and complete your meditation session.
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How do you know meditation is working?
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Before starting meditation, you need to keep in mind, it is not any kind of medicine that you can ingest and get away with your pain. It is not a quick fix for your problems but it is a guaranteed remedy to fix many of your problems.
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There are definitely immediate effects of meditation in the form of a deep sleep, complete relaxation, getting away from the stressful day but the real effect of meditation takes time.
With daily practice, you begin to identify yourself as higher consciousness and then you detach from your bodily ego.
Your perspective towards your body and the world changes and you see everything as it is.
You will never know but the meditation keeps on working on the background. Every time you come out of your meditation session you will feel unsuccessful. But trust me it is not.
Consistency is the key in meditation. You can afford to miss out on your meditation session regularly.
You know meditation is working when you start seeing your problem as mere situations in your life and getting bothered because of it. When your mind is calm and peaceful, the solutions come automatically.
You know meditation is working when everything around you starts feeling beautiful and great.
You know it’s working when you understand everyone is right in their own perspective, everyone has their own journey to travel and you enjoy your own path.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Q. How can I start meditation at home?
A. It is the best practice to start meditation at home first. You can choose a particular time of day when you can meditate without any disturbance. You can meditate by sitting on the floor or on a chair with your spine erect.
Q. Can meditation be dangerous?
A. No. Meditation is a great technique to bring about peace of mind and make you calm after a stressful day. It has been practiced since the beginning of humanity and can never be dangerous.
Q. How to meditate every day?
A. In meditation, consistency is the key. It is not a medicine which you can ingest and get quick relief. So it is very important to build a habit of meditation. You can build a habit of daily meditation by meditating at a particular time of day every day. You can start meditating before going to bed or in the morning or after getting back from the office to shed off all the stress.
Q. How long should I meditate?
A. In meditation, depth is more important than duration. So, if you meditate for 15 minutes with a 5 minute of deep meditative state than it is far way better than meditating for 1 hour with thoughts wandering all around.
Q. What is the best time to meditate?
A. As per Vedas, the time of changing of pahars are considered best to meditate. That means when night changes to morning, morning changes to afternoon, afternoon to evening and evening to night. So you can meditate early morning, at noon, in the evening or at night.
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Conclusion
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Meditation is the greatest thing that you can do to enhance your spiritual experience in life. For me, it is the only thing that I can do for my true self, my soul, my consciousness.
When you tap the higher consciousness entrapped in your body everything in the world looks beautiful. The emotions, the materials, the experiences, the lives around are a great source of joy and the greatest beauty of creation.
People are always engaged in various kinds of activities to keep themselves busy and make their existence comfortable in this planet. But rare are those who stop, take breathe and see life as it is. Meditation helps in living life to the core.
It doesn’t matter how you want to meditate but just start and continue. I promise within a year you will encourage others to meditate too.