What is meditation and when and how did it become popular among the masses?
Our sages in ancient times were very much aware of the relations between the mind and body. ' Healthy mind in a healthy body'- they followed this rule. They knew that a peaceful mind was very much needed to maintain good health. So they thought and thought over the problem, did research and ultimately concluded that meditation was stage way out to get rid off the old age sufferings and death the efficacy of meditation was clear to them and they practised it. But the practice of meditation was largely confined to the saints who lived mostly in ashrams where prefect Peace reigned and there were no disturbances. The public in large went about their daily chorus and had nothing to do with meditation.
The popularity of meditation is of recent origin in India and in the Western countries. The west was materialistic in outlook. It went after worldly pleasures. But did that give it peace and tranquility? In their search for mental peace they took refuse in drugs .No doubt those drugs made them forget their problems for sometime and even elevated their spirits but the effect was temporary. Soon they got addicted to them and could not live without them. Besides, the subsequent doses had to be larger in quantity. There were side effects too.
The credit to make meditation popular among the masses goes to the teachers who studied this ancient art, learnt it fully and then taught it to others. Today we find there is hardly a big city in which meditation classes are not held. We will be doing great injustice to Mahesh Yogi if his name is not mentioned here. The Maharshi is one of those who carried this art to the West with his 'transcendental meditation'. Today he attracts thousands of men and women and has made meditation popular among the youth in the West.
Meditation in simple language means Dhyana concentrating on one single object with a single devoted mind. Meditation means control over mind. In raja yoga it is defined as a 'continuous flow of one perception'. Some call it 'freedom from objective thoughts'. Some learned men even say a stage is reached in meditation when mind has no thoughts. Concentration on one object with mind leads to meditation and meditation culminates in samadhi,i.e mind is thought less and one develops intuition and the glory of the spirit is before him. Meditation is a way to go near god as in it one thinks constantly of God and a stage comes when he loses his identity. In fact meditation is in itself an end and not a means as all prayers, rituals,austerities,study of scriptures lead a person to the practice of meditation and through it he communicates with God.
God has offered this human body to realize that he is the ultimate goal to be achieved, but man does not bother to ponder over it, it is too much absorbed in mundane desires and worldly pleasures and ultimately is perished. Therefore it is necessary to free the mind form objective thoughts, form thoughts of sense - objects. Once this has been achieved mind gives inspiration to the yogi to have highest thoughts and eternal peace.
Meditation in common man's perspective.
Just sit and observe your thoughts processes. The mind is eternally restless, compulsively flitting from one object, person to person, and place to place, most of them related to your personal life and problems. If you observe the functioning of your mind, you may notice that your are talking to your self. Most of your self-talk revolves around your personal problems. It could be about your family or profession, your happiness and achievements, your problems and sufferings, etc. Your consciousness which is a stream of thoughts and feelings, will be totally saturated with your personal problems.
As long as the mind is steeped in such thoughts and feelings there can be no real peace and tranquility. Yo experience greater amount of stress on your life. Stress and tension will diminish the power of your brain also. Unless stress is manged properly there is now way to improve the functioning of your brain.
One of the best ways to manage stress is to practise meditation which is a process through which you shift your consciousness form your self to a state of thoughtlessness or "no mind".To put it simply , meditation helps the practitioner forget his self through a variety of techniques and keep his mind blank or free of thoughts. The moment the mind takes itself away from the self, it derives supreme joy and happiness.
Meditation techniques are especially good at balancing the "weather pattern" within the brain that enhances sharp thinking. This , perhaps, happens by enhancing the brain's ability to fire neurons in smooth, coordinated, organised patterns. Meditation improves mental power.
Here are some mechanisms by which this happens:
Meditation slows brain metabolism. This allows brain neurons to function more efficiently and use less energy. It promotes mental power with out side effects.
Meditation can decrease blood levels of lactate. Excess lactate is known to cause anxiety and insomnia.
Meditation increases levels of dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA)-a marker of brain vitality.
Meditation decreases blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels. This may lessen the risk of arteriosclerosis that might other wise block the arteries and limit blood flow to the brain.
Meditation In Practise
A few meditation practices are
Simple Meditation : Just sit in a meditative posture for about 15 to 20 minutes,making your subconscious believe that your are 'meditation'. The main purpose is to acquaint you with self-discipline to sit quietly for a given length of time. This is a preliminary step for the practise of other types of meditation.
Sabdha Meditation : Sabdha means sound. This meditation can be practised at any time, in any place and in any posture. Just focus your attention on the sounds you are able to hear. This can be practised even in a moving bus or train. Travel confines you to a particular seat. You can consider this an excellent opportunity to meditate. The drone of the moving bus or the chug-chugging of the train itself could be the object of meditation. Concentrate your entire attention on the sounds. When your thought slips off, bring it back and be aware of the sound only and nothing else.
Chitta Meditation : Chitta means consciousness(stream of thoughts and feelings). This can also be practised in any place, at any time and in any posture. In this form your are supposed to observe your thoughts and feelings. Do not attempt to control or direct your thoughts.. You act only as an objective observer of each thought, feeling and perception, etc that is being screened on your mental horizon. When a thought or feeling arises, simply observe it until it passes out of your visual space. Then you may wait for the next thought or feeling and observe it. Don't attempt to explore, follow-up or associate with any of the thoughts or feelings that are passing through your mind.
Trataka Meditation : Keep an object before you, anything of your choice. Visualise it with closed eyes. Your thoughts should be continuously saturated with the object visualised. When it goes away form your consciousness. Apart from arresting the wavering mind, this type of meditation will also improve the power of your brain by developing concentration ,imagination, will power and eye sight.
Zen Meditation : This can be practised in any comfortable and restful posture . Focus on your breathing. When some other thoughts intrudes, push it aside. While being attentive to the breathing process, start counting your breath with every exhalation- one,two,three, etc. Your total attention is gently and firmly fixed on this one action of counting only.
But sequential counting becomes automatic and your thoughts would drift away from the focus on your breathing process. To counteract this, the counting may be varied slightly : count up to fifty and then count backward to one.
In Zen, the trainees are required to be aware of their breathing processes all the time. Since breathing is a continuous unbroken process you can concentrate no-stop on it until the end of the scheduled time.
If the breathing is deep and rhythmic a sort of vibration is created in the body, which will tone up your nervous system and thereby enhance brainpower.
Meditation should be treated as way of life rather that a mere ceremony to be performed piously at an appointed time. Efforts should be made to occupy the mind fully with pure and positive thoughts. The mind should attend to only one thing at a time. Instead of brooding over personal problems, concentrate on some constructive activities that bring some beneficial results to humanity large. The mind should be saturated with theme " Love for all and hatred towards none ". No event , however adverse, should disturb the mind. It should always be peaceful, tranquil and serene. This state without tension and stress is very conductive to maintaining excellent health.
