Meditation

There are many types of meditation and they all have many benefits - some of which have been scientifically documented for years. When Maharishi Mahesh Yogi first came to the west back in the 1960s and began promoting the benefits of TM, science rose to the occasion and began measuring the effects of meditation on large groups of individuals and they've continued to do these measurements over the decades. What they have found is that brain wave coherence drastically increases in those who meditate regularly. And what does that mean? It means that those people are able to think more clearly and just generally function better in their day to day lives.

Meditation for the masses was brought to the west from India back in the 1960s. From that time forward westerners have had a push-me pull-you relationship with it. They know a little about it. They know it takes time out of their already busy day. They know that their children interrupt them while they're doing it. They know that when they sit down to do it their mind just yaps and yaps at them. So they don't really see much point in it. Isn't meditating supposed to help them clear and calm their minds? Well, as far as they can see, it just makes them more aware of the jumbled mess of thoughts always running around in their heads. So what good is that?

Well, Westerners and especially well-educated and busy people want their transformation, as promised by meditation, to be quick. They want to sit down on day 1, after 30 or 40 or 50 years of living with their thoughts and their emotions, and have those thoughts and emotions be magically cleared away. They want the quick fix in consciousness just like they want it in many other aspects of their lives.

Meditation doesn't work that way. The road to awareness is a slow road. And, by golly, that's hard to take. I want my enlightenment and I want it now!

So with a mindset like this, how are we supposed to integrate meditation into our lives?

Before answering that question, let's take a look at how the mind works. Now, this won't be a heavy-duty scientific treatise. Just a simple look at the workings of the mind.

What's the mind composed of? Well, it's made up of thoughts and emotions. Most people think of the mind as only thoughts but really, it's both thoughts and emotions. Since we're not used to thinking about mind this way, I'll say it again. Mind is the combination of our intellectual selves and our emotional selves - both thoughts and emotions. Our thoughts and our emotions are the things that usually run our lives. Most people can't even imagine their lives without their thoughts and their emotions. In fact, they would say that the loss of thoughts and emotions would be a true disaster for them. They like their thoughts and emotions. Their thoughts and emotions guide them. Their thoughts and emotions comfort them. Their thoughts and emotions make them who they are. Their thoughts and emotions are the things that help them to relate to other people in their lives. Why would they want to get rid of their thoughts and emotions?

Well, one of things that the abundance of thoughts and emotions can do for you is to hide your true self from you. Wait, you say. I thought my thoughts and emotions were my true self. What do you mean when you say they actually hide my true self from me?

Surprise!

There's really another you that is more truly you than your thoughts and emotions would allow you to believe. Well, I didn't know that, you say. And I say, I'll bet you do know that. I'll bet that you've experienced that other self any number of times in your life. You just didn't make the connection that it was another YOU - a you beyond your thoughts and emotions.

Remember a time when you took a walk in the woods with your senses completely attuned to the smells and sounds all around you. No thoughts. No emotions. Just awareness. Recall a moonlit night with the shadow of the mountains in the background and stars filling the sky. Relive the moment when you heard just the whisper of a breeze rustling the leaves in the trees. Return to the moment when your lover's lips touched yours for the first time. Remember a note from a friend expressing the love she feels for you in a way that astounds you and takes you beyond the everyday interactions you have with her. Remember those things for just a moment or two.

These are all examples of the no-thought and no-emotion state. When these states occur, they are usually fleeting in nature. They aren't planned. They don't last. But they do tell you, if you are aware enough to notice, that there is something else that makes up YOU besides your thoughts and emotions.

And how does that happen? This momentary sensation causes you to pay attention to that other level of yourself. And that's what meditation is all about - helping you to learn to pay attention to that other level of yourself more consciously and more consistently.

Would you give up those moments of congruency described above for the "pleasure" of remaining totally stuck in your conscious mind with your thoughts and emotions? I'll bet you wouldn't. Those moments make up only a tiny part of your waking life yet they are so precious. They are the moments you never forget. They are the moments you live your life for. And that is what the meditating can bring you if you do it long enough and consistently enough. The practice of meditation can bring those moments of lucidity where you are in touch with the totality of your being. And the more you practice your meditation, the more of those moments you will have.

And the amazing thing about those moments is that even though there are few of them, they can define your life. Those moments can communicate to you the existence of something beyond or behind your mind. And it is THAT something which holds all the creativity, all the subtle information which powers your life. And now you have access to it. These words are being written from that state of no-mind. Yes, my fingers are typing on the keyboard but the words themselves are not arising in my mind. They are being fed to me from somewhere else. And I am fortunate enough to be able to hear them. This state of being is available to anyone who wants it enough.

But how? How do you get to this point? Well, that is where the confusion starts. Ah, confusion. The preponderant condition of the human being. There are so many answers to the question of how. There are many types of meditation, many traditions. There are many ways to meditate. There are many levels of the state of no-mind which can be attained through meditation. What I would say to anyone who wants to meditate but does not know how to is to just begin. Find a quiet room. Find a comfortable chair (or even a pillow on the floor with your back against the wall) and sit. Just sit. And while sitting, allow your mind to rest upon something constant in your life - perhaps your breath. Your breath never stops. Just be aware of it. And when you lose your awareness of it and find a return of your thoughts and emotions, just gently allow yourself to become aware of it again. And continue in that manner for 10 minutes. The number of times you call your attention back to your breath does not matter. What does matter is that you sit and allow your attention to always return to your breath. That's what matters. Just doing it.

From this point on in your life, things will begin to change. Your commitment to yourself and to this simple practice will allow the jumble of thoughts and emotions in your mind to sort itself out just a little bit. There will begin to be small spaces between your normally unordered thoughts and emotions. And that's all you need at the beginning. Just small spaces between your thoughts and emotions. It's from within those small spaces that consciousness starts to become available to you. It's when those small spaces begin to get larger and more numerous (and they will) that you will arise from your meditation seat with the sure knowledge that there is something other than your conscious mind and that perhaps, just perhaps, that something might know more than your conscious mind does. And, for the moment, that is enough.

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The Tantra Guide into the mystic world of Tantra meditation and practice.Tantra is really about who we are, something that deep down excites you. This something empowers us to reach for the stars with clarity and understanding.

You-Can-Meditate.com provides anyone interested in learning to meditate with basic technical information as well as sources of inspiration and guidance needed to establish a meditation practice in a person’s daily life.