Meditation Safety & GuidelinesHealth benefits of Meditation|Tips for meditation|Meditation excercises|Attention
Meditation describes a state of concentrated attention on some object of thought or awareness. It usually involves turning the attention inward to a single point of reference. Meditation is often recognized as a component of eastern religions, where it has been practiced for over 5,000 years. Different meditative disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual and/or psychophysical practices which can emphasize development of either a high degree of mental concentration, or the apparent converse, mental quiescence.
The word meditation comes from the Latin meditatio, which originally indicated every type of physical or intellectual exercise, then later evolved into the more specific meaning "contemplation."
Health benefits of Meditation:
Though meditation is usually recognized as a largely spiritual practice, it also has many health benefits. The yoga and meditation techniques are being implemented in management of life threatening diseases; in transformation of molecular and genetic structure; in reversal of mental illnesses, in accelerated learning programs, in perceptions and communications beyond the physical, in solving problems and atomic and nuclear physics; in gaining better ecological understanding; in management of lifestyle and future world problems. Some benefits of meditation are:
Tips for meditation
First of all, you need to know that focusing your mind is a lot easier said than done. It may be simple enough to empty your mind of thoughts but to prevent them from coming in is a lot harder than you’d expect. Here are a few tips that might help you get started:
» Practice in a clean, quiet place.
» Make sure that you are comfortable, from the clothes you wear to the way you position yourself.
» Warm up and stretch a little bit by doing some Asanas. Doing some Pranayama is also advisable.
» Empty your mind of all thoughts.
» Now here’s the hard part: prevent other thoughts from coming into your mind. To do this, it might help to concentrate on a single object such as a candle. Look at the candle and just focus on it. As some would say, be one with the flame. This will take a considerable amount of practice to master, so be patient.
» Once your mind is finally clear of thought, you will feel calm yet aware; a feeling that most experts say cannot be described by words. Only experiencing it will give you a clear idea of how it feels. [Top]
Meditation excercises:
- Preparation for the Steps of Meditation.
- Prepare the body physically. Bathe or wash your face, hands, and feet.
- Before doing the actual meditation sequence of stretches, survey, breathing, and meditation, it is most useful to spend some amount of time practicing contemplation, prayer, and/or mantra. This pre-meditation time is also an excellent time to reflect on your day, relationships, priorities in life, and reinforcing your commitment to your spiritual practices. This is a process of internal dialogue, a positive way of self-discussion; it is a two-sided communication with yourself, a dialogue, not just a one-sided monologue, or chattering of the mind.
1.Stretches or Hatha Yoga postures
First, do a few simple stretches, or do hatha yoga postures, or do some other form of exercise to loosen the body. Be sure to stay well within your own comfortable capacity. (Within the Yoga system of meditation, the hatha postures are very useful as preparation for meditation, though not absolutely necessary when one wants only to sit for meditation.)
2.Survey of body or Relaxation
Next, do some form or relaxation exercise, such as Tension/Release. Become an explorer, an interior researcher, doing these practices as if you are really curious about knowing yourself at all levels. In a sense, this stage is actually the beginning of meditation (#4), in that you are meditating on the various aspects of the body. One very simple, straightforward way to do this is to simply sit still, without moving, being aware of your ability to move, but that you are not using that ability. Many sensations and thought patterns will naturally arise and pass as you do this.
3.Breathing or Pranayama
Next, after the Stretches and Surveying, then regulate your breathing, starting with breath awareness, diaphragmatic breathing, spinal breathing, and alternate nostril breathing. Learn to practice breath awareness in both seated and in corpse postures. Eliminate jerks and pauses, and allow the breath to be quiet and not shallow. Later, you may add energizing practices such as bhastrika and kapalabhati. After working with the body and breath in these ways, the mind wants only to go inside for meditation.
4.Meditation itself
After the Stretches, Survey, and Breathing comes Meditation itself. For meditation, first learn to meditate on feeling the touch of breath as it flows in and out of the nostrils, learning to let thoughts come and go. Gradually, allow the conscious mind to still itself. You may wish to use a mantra or sacred word, or some other object of focus (The Soham mantra naturally flows with the breath). Later, learn to examine the unconscious while remaining undisturbed, unaffected, and uninvolved.
After learning to meditate on breath, then add meditation in the space between the breasts or eyebrows, depending on your predisposition either for emotions and feelings, or for thoughts and thinking. Follow your predisposition for either listening into the silence for the source of all sound, or watching into the darkness for the source of all light, that which is the source of the part of yourself that declares, “I am”.
The are a variety of other categories, objects, or methods of meditation to explore as well within the Yoga system of meditation. Each of them brings progress on the path. [Top]
Attention:
The process of Attention moving inward moves through stages:
1. Dharana, or concentration:
The effort to repeatedly bring the attention to that one point of focus, while learning to remain undisturbed by the activities of the world, the sensations of the body (though this exploration is a preliminary practice), and the many other streams of the mind (though these are also explored in the purifying process).
2. Dhyana, or meditation:
When the attention remains on that one point of focus for a sustained period of time, or said differently, when the same object repeatedly arises in attention, without other intervening thoughts capturing attention, this is called meditation.
3. Samadhi, or absorption:
With concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana), there are three things: 1) observer, 2) process of observing, and 3) object that is being observed. With deep absorption, or samadhi, it is as if these three collapse into only one, the object. It is as if there is no longer an observer and a process of observing; there is only the object of observation. The three have merged into one, unbroken experience. [Top]