My first experiences with meditation were more than twenty years ago. Over the years I have had a variety of meditation teachers and tried different forms of practices all referred to as meditation. Through this, I have come to my own conclusions about what meditation is and although most things referred to as meditation are not that, I encourage any practice that improves your mental state regardless of what you call it. Since I recommend meditation quite often I thought it would be helpful to clarify what I am referring to.
If you look at the way the word is used, people will talk about creative visualisation, lucid dreaming, self-hypnosis or contemplating an idea and refer to this as meditating on something. Yet none of these things has anything to do with the mediation taught in India or Tibet. An Indian master was my first meditation teacher and the method he taught me involved chanting three sacred phrases which I was not to repeat or teach to anyone else. This was no problem since I didn’t know what they meant and didn’t know anyone else at the time who would be interested. After our sessions, he would sometimes ask me if I had seen a vision of the old master who had passed away. This made me believe that there was a purpose for this practice beyond calming or focussing my mind.
I then moved on to creative visualisation as taught by Shakti Gwain which lead me to try various forms of guided meditation which can be a form of self-hypnosis. This continues to be a very popular activity that people refer to as meditation. All of these things were helpful for me in some way or other by helping change my state and likely had some influence on reprogramming my unconscious mind. The kind of meditation that I regularly do now was something I actually experienced right at the beginning when I also first started doing yoga. At the end of my yoga session, I would lie quietly focussing on my breath. This is very similar to the mindfulness meditation I now do.
So what is meditation? First of all, it is not something religious and does not require special clothing or equipment. It is simply a process by which you separate yourself from your thoughts. Through focus on your breathing, you calm your mental state and through focus on this physical act of breathing you become less distracted by the thoughts trying to get your attention. Once in a relaxed state, you can become the observer of your thoughts and recognise that you are much more than your thinking mind. This process helps break the loop of constantly repeated thoughts especially those which are very negative. There are also numerous physical benefits including the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.
The difference between what I consider meditation and the activities that others sometimes call mediation is that the first strives to reduce thought and create separation from the thinking mind. Meanwhile the other activities, despite calming the body, seek to activate the mind tasking it be creative and imagine pictures or actions. While these can also have benefits there is no substitute for taking time daily to sit in stillness and take your attention away from your thoughts. This process can be helped by silently repeating a mantra, as is done in transcendental mediation, or by counting to keep the mind occupied on something other than repetitive thought. Staring at a candle flame can also help with this. I also regularly meet with a group which engages in Heartfulness meditation (https://heartfulness.org/us) in which we focus attention on the heart while sitting in silence. This is offered for free in many cities around the world.
I hope this gives greater clarity on what meditation is and I encourage everyone to start with mindfulness meditation and experiment from there to find the right method for you. There is surely a teacher near you and if not there are plenty of resources online. Just ten minutes of daily meditation will have profound effects on your mental and physical wellbeing if you create a regular practice. Make it a habit like brushing your teeth for good mental hygiene.
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