What is Meditation?
By Michelle Taffe
What is meditation?
Let’s start with the Oxford dictionary definition of the verb ‘to meditate’.
Meditate: focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.
- (meditate on/upon) think deeply about (something):he went off to meditate on the new idea
- (to meditate) plan mentally; consider:they had suffered severely, and they began to meditate retreat
The nature of the human mind is to jump from one thought to another, in a never ending ‘stream of consciousness’ where one thought leads to another, which leads to another and so on. Sometimes random thoughts just pop in seemingly from nowhere, and before long have taken root inside your head.
Meditation is a way to tame the mind, to slow it down in order to reach a place of stillness where you are not being controlled by your thoughts. This in turn promotes a state of relaxation where you can enjoy just being. Being here and being present. Generally speaking, the more formal meditation practice you undertake, the better you get at it, and the more you can start integrating it into your everyday life.
But how, exactly, does one meditate?
There are many different ways to meditate, and many different meditation traditions but they all share a few basic truths. You need to start with a meditation object. A meditation object focuses your mind in order to access the meditative state. The simplest meditation object is the breath. Given that we are breathing all the time, it is something that is always easily accessible.
To start a simple breath meditation, find a comfortable sitting position – either cross-legged or with your knees folded under, or even on a chair if sitting on the floor is very uncomfortable. Then slowly as your breath in and out just come to focus on the feeling of breathing in and out. In…. Out … In …. Out. Slowly you will find that you our mind starts to quieten down and the thoughts start to drop away. Even five or ten minutes of this practice will serve to quieten your mind and bring you more into the present moment.
Other meditation objects include mantras, a physical object, a word such as love, joy, peace, a mental picture you hold in your mind’s eye, or a part of your body such as your heart or your third eye. The key to choosing a meditation object is that it works for you. If you are struggling to focus on your chosen object, it is not a good choice. And you can always return to the breath.
Over the next few months on The Global Yogi, I will be writing about different meditation techniques and traditions, from Vipassana or Insight meditation, to Zen, Kundalini yoga meditation and more.
What is your chosen meditation practice and how did you come to choose it?
