Meditation
Meditation is a concept associated with conscious mental attention. A true state of meditation can be characterised by increased inner stillness and peace but differs also from a relaxed state by increased inner presence and awareness. Meditation thus means consciously shutting off the external world in order to experience silence within oneself, or to observe internal processes of various kinds with emotional distance. Seen in this way we can very well say that there are many moments in everyday life when we enter a meditation state, although most people would hardly call it that. Sitting at a fishing lake and waiting for a bite can result in a meditative state of mind. Sitting quietly for yourself and enjoying the warm sun of spring, listening to the song of the birds and the faint rustle of the wind in the trees, can give the same effect. A quiet walk in nature, a moment of solitary rest in the garden, the soothing view of distant heights and mountains, all this can lead to a state of meditation. One can say that meditative states are normally included in our everyday life, if we give ourselves time for it. In these cases the approach that leads to a state of meditation is usually unconscious. But if we practice consciously to reach this mental state we usually use different techniques to achieve inner stillness and a heightened sense of presence. The limit of our consciousness can then also be moved further towards the unconscious part of the mind and so we will understand ourselves from a broader perspective and see ourselves and our life more clearly and with greater distance. This offers better opportunities to find mental balance and greater harmony.
The goal of meditation can be set differently:
1) We meditate only to unwind and to feel better mentally and physically.
Here the goal is stress control and inner rest.
2) We meditate to better understand ourselves and our life. This provides an opportunity for conscious change of thoughts, ideas and actions. Apart from increased inner harmony we also become more skilled at dealing with the world around us. The goal of meditation in this case is conscious personal development.
3) We aim for conscious spiritual development. This has in many cultures for long times been seen as the only use for meditation. In Christianity two different concepts were distinguished, contemplation and meditation. Contemplation meant deep inner stillness. Meditation referred to immersion in mental images and situations taken from biblical stories. Today people talk more often about ”Christian deep meditation” instead of contemplation and use techniques taken from Zen Buddhism to reach a deep and peaceful state of meditation.
Many people still feel that meditation has no place in a rational and practically oriented world. Yet, most things that fall under the concept of meditation belong to the oldest cultural heritage of mankind. So it is reasonable that thoughts and methods which have survived for thousands of years should, in some way, contain something which is useful. Since the middle of the 20th century the understanding of mental development with help of various meditation methods has once again been on the rise in the US and in Western Europe. Ever more people have learned to cope with a stressful life by means of meditation. But here it is important to understand that spiritual development need not be linked to religious belief and practice in any way but can focus more on the very existence which we as human beings will experience and can’t avoid. We do not need to set very high, and for our own conviction perhaps unacceptable, goals with our meditation. Even those who only aim to unwind will be rewarded for their efforts if they meditate regularly for some time. If our meditation habits also contribute to increased self-awareness and life insight a stressed person will get an extra bonus for her endurance.
Meditation technique.
Meditation is usually practiced in a sitting position. If you lie down you risk ending up in a state of relaxation with reduced attention and awareness as a result. You may fall asleep, which of course brings rest and relaxation but does not widen your awareness. When talking about meditation many may hold an image of a person sitting with crossed legs. This is usually associated with Eastern meditation practice. If you, for example, engage in yoga training you will see that a lot of practitioners probably meditate in the lotus position. The advantage of training the flexibility of hips and pelvis in this way is of course that you can sit and meditate almost everywhere without having access to something to sit on. This may be the real reason why meditation originally was based on this very simple sitting method. Eventually this position was elevated to ritual in Eastern religious contexts. In the Christian religion it was instead common to lie on ones knees or to sit on some type of furniture while meditating.
The truth is that it is just as easy to reach a meditation state if you are sitting on a meditation stool, on a chair or a tree stump. The important thing is that you sit straight with a balanced body so that the brain does not have to focus on preventing you from falling over. If you instead sit in a comfortable armchair you risk, just like when you lie down, to achieve a deep state of relaxation and perhaps fall asleep. So it is preferable to sit and meditate.
The body posture should be such that your back is kept straight and your head balances as well as possible on top of the spine. You check that you are sitting straight with a natural bend in the lumbar spine. By pulling in the chin a little, and thereby imagining that you are supporting an imaginary roof with your head, you check that the posture of the head is balanced and does not pull the body to either side. With closed eyes, you swing a little forwards and backwards, and from side to side, to feel if you have reached a well balanced body position. To be able to adjust the position of the upper body you must also check that your legs are firmly anchored on the floor. If you sit on a chair, you hold your knees preferably at a ninety degree angle. If you use a meditation stool, or a meditation pillow, you can sit in a kneeling position. You hold your knees and lower legs with bent knees on the side of the stool or pillow so that your feet are behind the body with their upper side against the floor.
Oriental-inspired sitting positions also include different ways of holding arms and hands. In some Zen-Buddhist meditation techniques, for example, you should let both hands rest in your lap, placing one almost open hand in the almost open palm of the other hand with both thumbs raised, touching each other at the top. The idea of this is to prevent you from losing attention during meditation. You notice when the thumbs sink into the hands and no longer touch each other. Then you wake up a bit and straighten the thumbs again. It's a practical little trick that helps you to keep your relaxed attention. In Hindu meditation techniques it is often recommended that you let your arms take a resting position by placing the back of your hands, or the palms, on your thighs. When your palms are facing upward you can choose either to hold them fully open or let the tips of thumb and forefinger touch each other. The idea here is that when your palms are open upwards you will open yourself to the external, or the spiritual, sphere during your meditation. If you then let your thumb and forefinger touch each other you intend to let your own inner energies work with this. If you turn your palms downwards on your thighs you focus inwards and concentrate on what is going on there. It happens that leaders of meditation courses think that it is important, not to say necessary, to use only those arm and hand positions that they themselves teach. With some knowledge of physiological and mental mechanisms of brain and mind during a meditation state, one must probably assume that views on how to hold hands may have ritual or religious significance, but will hardly improve, or impair, the ability to reach and be in a meditation state.
In this context, it is also appropriate to mention meditation techniques using mantras. A mantra consists of words or phrases that are repeated over and over during the meditation, silent or with your voice. The intention of this may be that focusing on a mantra during meditation helps the mind to disconnect from external signals. Often, however, mantras also have been given a religious significance. In that case the purpose would be to divert the mind from external influences and open it to a spiritual or religious dimension. The same effect can be achieved in several other ways. From Islamic mysticism, Sufism, we know the dancing dervishes who, by constantly spinning with the body, enter into trance until they, without knowing about their surroundings, fall over. In shamanic contexts can monotonous drumming also lead to alternative states of consciousness and facilitate inner rest or mental image work.
A heightened sense of presence is important when meditating. This means that we notice with awareness and distance what is going on around us and within us. The difficulty here is that we easily get attached to what is happening in the environment when we start our meditation. We will however pay less attention to the surroundings as we go further into the state of meditation. It is important to be undisturbed and in a quiet and calming environment when meditating. Regular and deep breathing is also crucial for achieving inner stillness. Therefore, after achieving a balanced body position, we should take a few minutes with calm and deep breathing. Note that if you force a deep breath the mind does not relax. In this case it is better to let the breath take care of itself.
Increased presence includes:
1. Mental awareness.
If your eyes are open, observe calmly and from a distance what you see. Listen to sounds from the surroundings but do not cling to them. Feel smells around you. Is there any particular scent there? Notice the temperature in the room. Do you feel air movements against your skin? Does the air feel cold or hot? Do not attach yourself to anything, but don’t try to keep anything away either.
2. Awareness of the body.
Make yourself more aware of signals from the body. Notice how you hold your body, if you are tense in any muscle group, if the body feels stiff or flexible, if you feel some sensations in your chest and in your abdomen. Do feet, legs, arms or hands send any signals? Experience in a distant and observant way, almost as if your body were a thing you are looking at. Finish your observation by experiencing the whole body, but now as your own body in which you calmly and quietly find yourself and are completely connected to. Utilise your mental capacity to let go of attention to things which the mind tries to focus on.
The general benefit of increased body awareness is that one can become aware of discomfort in the body. Not only discomfort that has arisen in the moment but also symptoms that may be there but ususally don’t penetrate consciousness during a stressful everyday life. This provides an opportunity to reflect on what these symptoms may depend on and a possibility to do something about them. Increased body awareness is always important when it comes to detect and counteract silent development of stress disorders. It also means becoming more aware of what feels good for the body. In this way we can more clearly understand our basic physical needs.
3. Awareness of feelings.
When you have settled in a meditation position, observe your inner mood as from a distance. What are your feelings right now? How do they affect you? Look at them, but don't get attached to them.
4. Awareness of thoughts.
See what thoughts are moving within you right now. See them from a distance and do not let them engage your mind with further thoughts and associations. You will risk getting into associations that arouse emotions which in turn give birth to more thoughts and feelings. Your inner stillness is then definitely lost. See your thoughts moving within you as if they were different boats far out on a sea. Boats that you only notice but do not really have to deal with. See them and let your inner gaze then move to other thoughts and see them with the same uninterested objectivity. Do not try to suppress any thoughts or feelings. You risk to focus on them and make them more clear and demanding.
5. Existential (spiritual) awareness.
In a deep state of meditation a very clear feeling of security, peace and quiet inner joy can arise. In addition there can be an experience of being an integral part of a much larger whole and that this whole is basically good. This type of experience has been well known for thousands of years and involves a kind of insight into existence without forms or boundaries. A sense of existence that is experienced as a living, peaceful and secure reality, much more than what our everyday moving and changing moods can give us. This type of mental condition has always been considered as a spiritual experience and has been of great importance for the practice of religion and belief. But even those who do not feel drawn to conventional concepts of religion and religious belief may often become strongly affected by such an experience. It gives an inner conviction that we exist in a larger context than our sense organs can show us and that this context is good.
This may be a realistic truth, or not. However, if you carry with you a mental image of such a larger whole you create a good foundation for better mental and physical health. This is an actual view of health research today. It should be important to understand that the purpose of meditation is not to try to escape from a difficult outer world to a more bearable inner one. The purpose is instead to create harmony in our inner world so that we more easily can handle the outer world we live in.
In practical terms meditation training can be divided into:
• Consciously achieving inner peace for a short while.
In modern Western tradition one usually meditates for about twenty minutes. In spiritual and religious contexts meditation can sometimes be practiced for several hours.
• Visualisation of mental images.
This means that you create inner images and ideas which change your emotional reactions in a positive direction. You can choose to adress events and situations that you have experienced or those which you expect to experience.
Remaining energy-intensive feelings of past events can in a meditative state be alleviated with help of such a symbolic visualisation. Here you create positive, emotionally charged mental images in order to make still painful memories take on a different meaning. Common techniques are to relive a burdening memory but give it some kind of brighter explanation with help of understanding, compassionate and loving thoughts and feelings. Or placing this memory in a more satisfying personal, existential, spiritual or religious context. You can, for example, visualise yourself relaxing in a beautiful and calming nature, or maybe enclosed in some sort of heavenly light while you ponder over what actually happened. Slowly this will change your painful feelings when you are in the meditative state. Working with mental images has to be repeated many times if you want to drain painful memories of their negative energy.
In the same way you can work with premonitions of upcoming situations and events which create anxiety or distress. If the negative expectation is repeatedly charged with a positive emotion, we will react emotionally, physically and practically in a different and better way once the situation occurs. This technique for self-change is also called Mental Training.
In summary: one can understand meditation as a concept both for achieving more inner peace and tranquility and as a way to work with one’s own personal growth and development. In this respect meditation seems to have an intermediate position between relaxation and mental training.