06/12/2017
What is meditation?
Someone would say it is a spiritual practice, deep insight or relaxation of mind. Many interpretations can exist but it is certainly not merely sitting on the top of a mountain in a beautiful pose and with perfectly serene face. Technically it is the highest state of concentration when the border between subject (meditator) and the object of meditation becomes very thin. The ultimate aim of many spiritual practices is a complete merge of subject and object. In Hinduism this state of mind is called Moksha, in Yoga Philosophy – Samadhi or sometimes Kaivalya as the highest level of Samadhi, Buddhists call it Nirvana or Enlightenment. It is a kind of singularity of mind when no dualism exist anymore and as it is presented in the Eastern philosophies – the personal consciousness is united with universal consciousness. This kind of union is not easy to achieve as all human life is based on dualism which implies division of me myself and external world. The border between us and the world is set the very moment we are born and everything which arises in everyday life – thoughts, feelings, emotions – are products of this dualistic attitudes and relationships between me and the world.
Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows
It's not what we would choose to do
(Pink Floyd)
As we sit down to meditate first we start developing concentration skills. Everyone tends to be disappointed in the beginning as we never realize how little control we have over our mind. In India they compare mind with monkey which jumps here and there and hardly ever stops. It is not easy to calm down the monkey and one needs patience and regularity to train concentration. In order to train our concentration skills we choose a concentration object. There are many different practices of meditation with diverse mediation objects, such as sound, visual objects, for example flame of a candle, breath or some visualisation like chakra meditation. In the beginning it is all about trying to keep our attention to the object bringing the mind back every time it wanders away. In Yoga Philosophy this stage is called Dharana, which is translated from Sanskrit as “holding steady” or “single focus”.
The next stage implies effortless flow between your mind and meditation object. The mind stops wandering and maintains a continuous period of stillness, at that point you are in Dhyana. Dhyana is meditation itself. The sense organs are not distracted, and the stillness produces few or no thoughts at all. Thoughts are still allowed to pass by, nevertheless the mind is not following them and just observing without judgement.
The final stage is known as Samadhi. From Sanskrit sama is translated as "together" and dhi as "mind". Samadhi means that the relationship between the mind and the object deepens to the point at which the mind’s awareness of itself disappears and the awareness of the object dominates the mind. The feeling of time and space become indefinite. What is here is there and what is now is then. There is no future or past. Everything is here in this moment.
There is a Zen saying “when washing a teacup, think about the teacup”. Ideally, mediation should be practised in everyday life and in different situations. Everyone might be familiar with idea of meditation because one-pointed mind and full concentration can be achieved when we are totally involved into something. It can be listening to the music or playing a game, doing some work or just walking in the forest. The problem is that we are rarely completely involved as the mind is always occupied with multiple tasks like remembering the past, planning for the future, inner dialogues, judgement of ourselves and others and solving all possible problems. Sometimes it causes anxiety and neuroses. Concentration power and release of dualistic thinking helps to develop awareness and stability of the mind, resistance to its fluctuations, better control of one’s thoughts.
