Our mind has Different sections - conscious mind, subconscious mind and there is filter between the two which separates them. Now this filter has a lot of work to do. Whatever we see,conceive, perceive through out the day by conscious mind passes through critical filter to reach our sub-conscious mind. This critical filter decides what has to go to sub-conscious mind for storage and what needs to be discarded. This process happens when we go off to sleep. Now if we don't get sound sleep or are not relaxed, this critical filter gets overloaded and becomes sluggish.On top of that everyday we keep adding on to it and we keep feeling stressed, lack of concentration, tired, low....
When we meditate, we are cleansing and rejuvenating this filter so that it works at it's optimum and when we get up in the morning, we are ready for new experiences in a better manner. Despite all its popularity, today very few of us truly know what meditation is. Some regard meditation is the mental concentration on something, others consider that we meditate when we imagine something that gives us peace or satisfaction. All these methods are being with one goal to slow down and, eventually, completely stop the incessant activity of our minds. These exercises are not really meditation – they are substitutes for meditation because it is normally very difficult to stop our minds all-together. In reality, meditation is a state of thoughtless awareness. It is not an act of doing – it is a state of awareness. We either in this state or we are not, regardless of what we are doing in life. Truly, a man can be in meditation while doing his day’s labors as another man can be very far from meditation while sitting in a lotus posture on the top of a mountain.Meditation is witnessing the various conditions of the mind and releasing oneself from the clutches of the mind through awareness.
Sharpen your observation
To meditate we need to understand two factors: be an unconditional witness and observe the intricate functioning of the mind Once we observe how a thought is formulated, what are the conditions in which mind is prone to generate thoughts, only then can we take a leap beyond the cobweb of thoughts and experience the ever-flowing inner bliss. To understand meditation, we need to cultivate our alertness and have a sharp inner vision – Sharpen your observation like a bowman sharpens his arrow, meditation is present in all of the Eastern spiritual traditions. It may seem to some that in the Western religions the concept of meditation is absent, but it is not. It simply goes under the heading of contemplative prayer. Meditation is, therefore, present in all religious traditions.
Meditation is the art of silencing the mind so that we may observe that we are not the mind, and if we can keep the mind silent for long enough, we can enter into higher levels of consciousness.Though the medical establishment now recognizes meditation as an invaluable instrument in the alleviation of stress, the strengthening of the immune system, and accelerating the process of healing in the body,When we take a look at the various explanations of meditation, another thing we often see is that meditation is defined as taking a moment to sit quietly or to ponder. True meditation, however is much more than this. It is a state of profound, deep peace that occurs when the mind is calm and silent, yet completely alert. This is just the beginning of an inner transformation that takes us to a higher level of awareness.
This enables us to fulfill our true human potential. People generally say, let's do meditation or 'am doing meditation etc. However meditation is not about doing something. It's actually about undoing something, unravelling something, erasing something or unburdening etc. Not doing anything, not going anywhere, not creating any thought & only living in the present moment in complete mindfulness is meditation. Doing the work at hand in complete thoughtfullness & with copmlete situational awareness is meditation. Hence one should develop a meditative way of life.
For him each & every work becomes meditation, who developes this mindfull way of living. Every mundane work like walking, eating etc becomes an act of meditation for him." If your meditation, Is truly high and deep, Then you are bound to have, A silent dialogue with peace" :
Meditation is a simple process to become aware of four actions. To bring more and more attention in our actions and thoughts in the present moment. Any action perform with attentiveness is meditation.
Attentiveness is nothing but to fully aware and conscious while indulging in any kind of activity of our life. Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure conciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking,merging finitude in infinity. When the singular conciousness dissolves into the universal conciousness, that is meditation.
If you take a Milk Bottle and fill it with water, you can now add impurities to it or colour the water etc. but when that impure water is poured into the ocean, the contents become the ocean and the impurities, or colouring etc exist no more, similarly they can corrupt my brain with TV, and films, negative thoughts etc. but when I meditate, all impurities of my life are dissolved int to the ocean of Super Conciousness Its like a tablet thrown into a jug of water, the tablet simply dissolves into the water and water and tablet are now one.
Instead of wasting time and money on rituals and religion and hero worship etc, if only we were to teach future generations, Meditation, we would be producing Human Beings who would have a Higher Conciousness and they woud be in a position to make clearer decisions and live in a better world.
The mind is like a pool of clear water and our good thoughts are diamonds and bad ones are stones then till the time we keep throwing stones in the water , it ia full of waves and nothing above or below water is visible. But if we stop throwing the stones and diamonds both, the water stops to move and whether we want to see it or not everything above the water and below the water will be visible. Amidst the stillness the quality of awareness arises on its own.
A still mind possess the quality of awareness. Awareness is the quality by which we register the presence of events, people, things and events in our life. Awareness does not include judging the world around us, actions or reactions. A still mind would be aware of the past as well as the future on its own. That is why that living in the present is the easiest way to meditate and make the mind still as the mind rarely thinks about the present, it is either brooding on the past or worrying on the future. A living meditation would thus involve whole hearted involvement with the activity being done in the present...
Authored by Dr Anadi Sahoo
