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Meditaion Article-1 by sreelalitha Adavi, Team Lead-Talent Acquisition, Benvia Software India Pvt. Ltd

Meditaion Article-1

By : sreelalitha Adavi, Team Lead-Talent Acquisition, Benvia Software India Pvt. Ltd
Industry : Human Resources (HR) Consulting Functional Area : Performance
Keywords :

Success

Peace

Positive

Meditation

MEDITAION

Article-1

SPIRTUALITY

Activity:  15 comments  512 views  last activity : 07 06 2010 20:18:04 +0000
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What is Meditation? - Definitions and Explanations

 What is meditation and what does it do? Meditation is a mental/spiritual technique for relaxing the restlessness of the mind and freeing it from anxiety and stress. In its higher forms, it aims for the attaining of peace of mind, inner silence and spiritual awakening.Meditation is a state of concentrated attention on a thought, idea, an aspect of God or on one's awareness, and usually involves turning the attention inwards, away from the external world. During meditation, the mind often wanders away and the meditator has to be constantly vigilant, and to bring the attention back to the meditation again and again. This of course involves some effort in the beginning, but as one gains proficiency, less effort will be necessary. When one is advanced on the path, keeping the mind calm and free from distracting thoughts can become a habit.In it higher forms, meditation aims to free the mind from the subconscious compulsive habit to think incessantly. This leads to inner peace, inner freedom, and to awareness of one's real essence - The Inner I - The Spirit, which is above and beyond the mind. It also leads to serenity, clarity and bliss.Meditation is practiced in both the East and the West in its various forms. You don't need to be a monk or a hermit or live in seclusion or in an ashram in order to practice it. In fact, you can continue living your day-to-day life, keeping your job, having a wife and kids, and still practice it. You don't need to follow any particular religion, wear certain clothes or lead a certain lifestyle. Meditation is an inner practice, which can be practiced anywhere, and has nothing to do with any external mannerisms.There are many meditation techniques and traditions, some involve visualization and others the repetition of a mantra. Some techniques require contemplating on the meaning of selected verses from the scriptures, and others require focusing the attention on the breath, a candle or a certain shape. There are also techniques that require silencing the mind and becoming aware of the inner Self within.Though there are many techniques, meditation can be divided into two main forms. One involves thinking and focusing on a certain thought, idea or ideal, and the other, which is a more advanced form, requires the emptying of the mind of all thoughts and entering into a state of inner silence. It is not a state of dullness or unconsciousness, but a state of deep inner peace and awareness of one's real being.Meditation is not a state of being lazy, impractical and dreamy. In order to practice it and attain success, it requires at least some concentration ability, self-discipline, willpower and perseverance. Like learning and developing any other subject or skill, it requires the capacity to think clearly, and the willingness to devote time, effort and energy to master it.Regular practice of meditation affects one's behavior, thinking, state of mind and attitude. It develops patience, tolerance and tranquility, as well increased self-mastery, discipline and inner strength, not to mention its beneficial affect on health, but in order to reap its rewards, you need to practice it regularly.Now that you know what is meditation, click on the links at the top of this page for more articles on meditation and how to meditate. 

Meditation's Benefits and Goals

 Meditation relaxes the body, calms the mind, and minimizes tension. After a period of practice, the racing and rushing of thoughts in the mind slow down, not only during meditation, but also in daily life. Happiness increases along the way. Tolerance, love, understanding, inner power and fearlessness increase too. The concentration ability gets sharpened, and the mind become stronger and under control. The ability to enjoy the present moment increases, criticizing and blaming disappears, and strength, happiness and satisfaction increase.All meditation techniques are means to the same final target, to empty the mind from thoughts, discover the real "I" and live in Pure Awareness. Along the way there are many benefits that have already been mentioned in the previous paragraph.Nowadays there are many books about meditation. There are lectures and workshops too, so it is quite easy to find information about meditation, and someone to guide you along the first steps.To meditate, we need at least some concentration ability. It does not mean that without proper training in concentration we will not be able to meditate. Even if concentration is foreign to us, we can start practicing meditation. The practice itself will strengthen the powers of concentration. But a prior ability of concentration is a great asset that speeds up our progress.According to the teaching of the Indian philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, there is no separate self, all is One. It is only illusion, Maya, that clouds our vision. If we accept this premise, then we can say that the Absolute Self, the One, or whatever name you give to the Absolute principle, "creates" bodies and looks at its "creations" through the body's eyes. This causes the illusion of many selves. The Absolute is One, homogenous whole, but through illusion, delusion, ignorance and wrong thinking there is a belief in separation, of multitudes of units.Everyone is very much engrossed in this illusion. There is " I", "You", "She", "They", etc. We believe in separate selves, and identify with a body, a family, a nation, or a race.The purpose of meditation is to "unlearn" all the wrong concepts and come to realize who we really are. This realization may be mental at first, until we really KNOW. We are not the physical body, the ego, our thoughts or our feelings, but something else. By delving inside ourselves, into the feeling or sensation, which can be termed as "I am", we come to know ourselves. It is nothing external or new that we find. This feeling of "I am" is always with us. We simply let the mind flow outside, to sense objects, and so "lose" this feeling. It is something that has always been, always is, and will always be.This Real "something" is like a bulb of light that is always lit, but is covered by many sheets. We have to strip away the sheets. These sheets are our thoughts, feelings, ideas, and mental habits. By stripping them away, we see the internal Light.Look inside yourself and try to examine and be conscious of the feeling or sensation you have of yourself. I mean just the feeling that you are alive and existing. Concentrate on what you sense to be your essence. This feeling of "I-ness", is actually always with you, no matter what you are doing or where you are. It is an invariable and continuous factor, but it is clouded by the five senses and by thoughts. It is not something theoretical, metaphorical, or mystical. It is a fact. It is the common experience of everybody. Yet, it is ignored, because the five senses and the mind flow outside, not inside. Do not expect to hear trumpets and walk on a red carpet when you become conscious of this feeling, because it has always been within you, only at the back of your mind.There is one trap that has to be avoided. Never be attached to any particular kind of meditation. After practicing one technique successfully for a period of time, it is time to move on to some more advanced one. If you stay attached to a technique or method that you have overgrown, you might halt your progress. A competent teacher knows when you need to advance to a more advanced technique, and will show you the way, otherwise you may just stay in the same place. If you do not have a teacher, look at your experiences, listen to your intuition, stay open minded, and you will know when to move on.It is advisable to practice one technique at a time, and not to jump from one to another. There is no sense in practicing many techniques at the same time. 

Practicing Meditation

 

Sit down, relax your body, feelings and thoughts by whatever methods you know. A few minutes of calm deep rhythmical breaths will make you more relaxed. When advanced on the path you will not need all these preliminaries. Now try to look at your thoughts, as if from the outside, as if they are not yours. Watch your thoughts calmly, without using force, and without being carried away by them or being emotionally involved with them. Whenever you find yourself deviating from the meditation and thinking about something else, gently bring your mind back to the task. Do this at least 10 minutes each day and then gradually lengthen the time up to 20-25 minutes.

 

The next step is to think about the body, the feelings and thoughts and then reject them as not your 'I'. When looking at some object and thinking about it, you cannot be that object, you are separate from it. If you think about your body, it means that something separate from it is thinking about it. This also applies to your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and ego. Keep thinking in this way and you will come to the conclusion that you are not all these components.

 

Thoughts, feelings and beliefs change, sometimes radically, but yet you still exist as yourself, you retain the same awareness or consciousness of your being. The body's cells change too, but you, the essential you, remain the same. The I is eternal, and all else is not. Everything comes and go, but your 'I', your feeling of being alive and existing, when not identified or mixed with anything such as body, thought, or feeling, is always the same, never changing. This I is your real Self. One minute you may be thinking or feeling something, the next minute another thought or feeling pops up. But who is aware of the thoughts and the feelings? Think about it, and then just try to be aware of the answer with no words or thoughts.

 Then ask yourself "who am I?" and wait for the answer. The answer is not verbal. It is just a realization with no words or thoughts. No inner discussion is necessary. It is an intuitive knowledge, with absolute certainty, in a direct and experimental way, of who you really are. Then you feel the Bliss of the Eternal. This state is called by many names by different tradition, Cosmic Consciousness, Samadhi, Nirvana Self-realization, to quote a few. The question "Who am I", as a trigger to come to Self-knowledge, was the path advocated by Sri Ramana Maharshi the great Sage of India.

The human mind has learnt to think in complicated ways and expect complicated solutions and theories about life and its meaning. All these ideas have to be rejected if we want to succeed in our endeavor. It is the mind that is creating many theories, worlds, powers and entities. It creates problems and then looks for solutions. We have to get beyond the mind in order to control it and its creations. Freedom from thoughts and a realization of our true eternal One identity, free us from the mind's games.

 

Meditation has to be practiced with a spirit of detachment and without tension. In time, you will become more aware of your Consciousness, your Real I and act and do everything from its viewpoint, not the ego's point of view. It is really inaccurate to say, " to be aware of your Consciousness" as you are it, you do not experience it as something separate from you, you are It. If you say, I am observing my consciousness, ask yourself who is this observer. You can observe your mind, but not yourself. The mind observes what is happening around, but when you observe your mind, it is actually you, the consciousness that is observing the mind. Please do not regard what I have said as a game of words, because it isn't.

 

What is to be done is to stop thinking and just Be. 'Be' means, feel your real being, with no identification with your thoughts or personality. This has to be practiced; otherwise whatever you read here will remain as useless and meaningless words. If you are able to stop all your thinking and still remain conscious, forgoing any false identification with what you call your personality and its attachments, and just experience what is left, which is certainly not a vacuum, then that's it. You have what people call 'found yourself'. All what you have to do next is to stabilize in this state, always and under all circumstances.

 It is hoped that this short, and rather general article, may be of some help. It is not claimed that this is the only way, not at all. This way may appeal to some. Other paths appeal to others.At first, meditation is to be performed at special times during the day. At a certain point in your progress you will be able to meditate it at all available moments, when you are not busy with something that needs special attention. Then the moments of blissful silence will start coming, increasing in length, and the breaks between them will get shorter and shorter. One day you may find that you are always in a state of meditation, even while doing other things. This becomes the natural state of your Awareness. No thoughts, only silent mind carried into each task and deed throughout the day, every day. 

The Benefits of Meditation

 Regular meditation calms down the restlessness of the mind, and decreases the number of distracting thoughts, bringing a sense of inner peace and relaxation. As the sense of inner peace increases, the ability to concentrate and focus the mind improves.With a peaceful mind one makes less mistakes, makes better judgments and decisions and becomes more patient and tolerant. This of course improves one's relationships with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues.The benefits of meditation do not end here. Regular practice enhances the sense of happiness and contentment. As the mind becomes more and more peaceful, the number of worries, anxieties, fears and negative thoughts decreases, and in their absence, happiness rises unobstructed from within.Much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many problems, including ill health, are brought about or aggravated by stress and tension. This stress and tension can be reduced by regular meditation. When the mind is at peace, many problems just disappear, and others are more easily dealt with.An undisciplined mind accepts every passing thought, and wastes one's time and energy on futile, useless or negative thoughts. It also often aggravates every problem and takes it out of proportion. With a disciplined and trained mind, this tendency gradually gets weaker, and may even disappear.In time, one can see changes in the behavior and attitude and manner of thinking. The mind becomes more positive and one learns to react more constructively, patiently and calmly to the various situations of daily life, from dealing with people to dealing with problems, tasks or goals. One's actions become positive and efficient, focused and more satisfactory. The benefits of meditation manifest on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. Some of them appear quite fast, and others take some more time. This depends on the amount of time devoted to practicing it, the levels of earnestness and concentration, and on the inner ripeness of the meditating person. It is not enough to meditate once a week or once in a few days. Regular daily practice is required for attaining results.There is evidence of the many rewards of regular meditation from people who meditate, and also from researches of scientists. Here are some of them:

Physical Benefits of Meditation

 · A deeper level of relaxation.· Deep rest accompanied by decreased metabolic rate and lower heart rate.· Decreased high blood pressure.· Improved flow of air to the lungs.· Increased levels of energy.· Decreased muscle tension.· More easily falling asleep and sleeping soundly.· Improved state of the immune system.

Mental and Emotional Benefits of Meditation

 · Decrease in restless thinking.· Increased ability to stay calm in every situation.· Greater creativity.· Decreased anxiety.· Decreased tendency to worry.· Decreased depression.· Decreased nervousness, irritability and moodiness.· Enhancement of self-confidence.· Improved concentration.· Increased self-discipline.· Improved learning ability and memory.· Increased feelings of vitality.· Enhanced feelings of happiness.· More emotional stability.· Developed intuition. Spiritual Benefits of Meditation· Peace of mind.· Emotional and mental detachment.· Heightened awareness of the inner self.· The ability to look within, beyond the body, mind and personality.· Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego.· Discovery of one's true being.· Attaining self-realization and spiritual awakening.  
 Top Comment : Manoj Abraham   | 09 05 2008 21:49:47 +0000
Good - though, I would love to get something which is more practicial/detailed.
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15 comments on "Meditaion Article-1"
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Good, but still there are more effective ways of meditation which will make you realize the "I Am"
  Commented by  Bellala Gopinatha Rao, Project Manager Promax Management Consultants    | 01 03 2009 12:07:22 +0000 
gr8 one, thanks
  Commented by  japi, HR Manager, ACME Consultants    | 12 10 2008 17:06:07 +0000 
AMAZING INFORMATION..............................
  Commented by  neha singh, Senior Corp Comm professional, Ambuja Cements    | 12 10 2008 15:09:00 +0000
Rating : +1  
Sree lalitha,
are u involved with any mission. ur article was very informative and yes, it is the truth.meditation does help quieten the mind and improve all areas of performance.
  Commented by  Darpan Sinha, Solution Architect, Fujitsu Consulting India Pvt Ltd    | 11 05 2008 10:46:27 +0000
Rating : +1  
Nice Reading
  Commented by  SR Sham Sunder, CEO/MD/Director Technoaid    | 11 04 2008 14:19:34 +0000
Rating : +1  
Mr Ajay Ziz, there is no specific distinction between physiology and psychology.  They are part of medical science and one.  If you have come out of your problems, it is proof that your body is trying to rectify itself and you are allowing your body to do so!  Please continue what you have been doing.  I shall contact you separately to know more details.
My Sanjeeva Shodha details will be posted on my community Health After 35 years of age.  I have not been able to give a shape which is suitable for sharing on the Too Step community. Sorry for the delay
  Commented by  Swathi Reddy, Deputy HR Manager, GMMCO Ltd-Hyderabad    | 11 03 2008 07:42:25 +0000
Rating : +1  
Very informative
  Commented by  Ajay Ziz, Dy. Registrar, university of jammu    | 10 30 2008 07:57:41 +0000
Rating : +1  
would love if SR Sham Sunder is willing to share his reserch with me.I was an autistic , confused in shambles person . Eigt years it has taken me to become a self proclaimed cyborg whta i am today.

Well I forced myself also . sometimes to the limits of becoming a lunatic . But then I survived and today i am alive . 
well gret to be still alive. Nice feeling it is.
  Commented by  SR Sham Sunder, CEO/MD/Director Technoaid    | 10 10 2008 14:18:04 +0000
Rating : +2  
I agree that it is possible to experience the stated result of meditation.  I disagree with the interpretation.  I have called it a self diagnostic and curative system of the human body.  It is in-built within us.  All we need to do is initiate it.  Initiation is not voluntary, it is involuntary.   Whether you remain genuinely at rest or read, listen to music, or even when you are on a rhythmic walk, the process can be initiated.  But when you apply force or do something voluntary, the process gets terminated (remember newton!).
Acupressure, acupuncture, reiki, yoga shastra, Kriya siddi Yoga, meditation etc. all are offshoots of the same process within the body  The scope of understanding of the process is different.  But most look at the process as a stress buster.
This process is a universal cure.  It helps medical systems immensely.  Whoever is using it as a stress buster is misleading them and denying them of its enormous curative potential.  After eight years of research, I have called it as Sanjeeva Shodha.  Visit my community, health after 35 years of age for more information, which will come to you all in bits and pieces.  This is because I have not yet announced results of my research to the medical community.
  Commented by  Vinayarajan KV, Head/VP/GM-Sales Tech    | 10 09 2008 06:43:32 +0000
Rating : +1  
Valuable article
  Commented by  Deepa Nair, Managing Director / CEO    | 10 09 2008 04:25:10 +0000
Rating : +1  
Great Article!
  Commented by  varsha mishra, technical Manager(QMS), rfrac    | 10 08 2008 18:35:34 +0000 
gud article
Rating : +1  
Very nice article.
  Commented by  Abhishek Tiwari, Network Admin/System Admin, STPL INC.    | 09 08 2008 10:32:35 +0000
Rating : +1  
Nice 1
  Commented by  Manoj Abraham, VP & Head , EMEA - Business Development, CGSL    | 09 05 2008 21:49:47 +0000
Rating : +2  
Good - though, I would love to get something which is more practicial/detailed.
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