Tag: meditation

Meditating – The Third Eye

The attention is the outer expression of the soul. Most of the time our attention is drawn outside to the world through the senses. If we can withdraw our attention from the world outside and our body for a while and focus it at a point, known as the seat of the soul, we will find the inner light. The seat of the soul is located between and behind the two eyebrows. This point has been called by different names such as the third eye, the single eye, the shiv netra, the tenth door, the sixth chakra, the ajna chakra, or the mount of transfiguration.

By concentrating our attention, the sensory currents that make us aware of sensation in our body withdraw. When these sensory currents are concentrated at the seat of the soul, we find light within.

For this meditation process, we do not worry about our breathing or doing any difficult asanas or postures, or exercises. We do not touch the motor currents as they do in some yoga. The motor currents are those responsible for the automatic or involuntary processes in the body such as breathing, circulation, the heartbeat, and the growth of hair and nails. Instead, we withdraw the sensory currents. We do not worry about the breathing exercises. We let the breath go on naturally as we do when we perform the other functions of the life.

To practice meditation, we sit in a pose most convenient in which we can remain still the longest. We close our eyes, and focus our attention on the field of darkness lying in front of us. By concentrating, the sensory currents withdraw to the third eye or single eye. When concentrated there, we find light. By absorption into the inner light, we transcend body consciousness and enter the inner realms beyond.

Once we pick a pose, we should close our eyes gently and concentrate on seeing what lies in front of us. There should be no pressure on the eyes. Our eyes should be as relaxed as they are when we go to sleep. Since these physical eyes are not those by which we see the inner realms, there is no need to turn our eyeballs upwards in the hope of seeing something there. We should not concentrate on our forehead, instead keep our eyeballs horizontal, as if looking straight ahead.

If the eyeballs look or turn upward, we may feel a little pressure on the forehead, which may result in two problems. We may get a headache or we may generate heat in that area and our forehead will become hot. That will create problem for us, which will cause us to move, get up, do something to cool ourselves down. That will interrupt our meditation. So we should focus our attention few inches in front of us.

When we close our eyes, we may first see darkness. That which sees the darkness is our inner eye. With the inner eye, gaze lovingly, sweetly, and penetrate deep into whatever is in front. We should be relaxed, but attentive as if watching a movie screen and waiting for the movie to begin. This is a process in which we do not worry about the world outside or what is going on in the body below. We are only trying to invert so as to reach the worlds within.

In our body, we have our soul and our mind. The mind is a powerful entity whose main aim is to keep the soul in the body so that it does not reach the inner realms. The mind will try to entangle our attention in the physical world. It will do its best to prevent us from rising above this physical body and returning to god. We need to realize that soul is our real self- the part of us that is of the same essence as that of god. Unfortunately, we have been separated from God. If we can realize that our soul is covered by the mind and the body, and understand that the mind’s role is to keep us from knowing our soul, we will be better able to still our mind.

For perfect concentration, we have to reach a state of no thoughts. If we have any thoughts, whether good or bad, they are all bad as far as meditation is concerned. Thoughts are like chains. The iron chains are our bad thoughts, but even if the good thoughts are the gold chains, they are still chains. Thus, good thoughts are still distractions and will not help us in meditation.

There is a vistas of sight inside. We should be totally focused on what is before us. As we meditate more and progress, we will see inner vistas such as inner stars, moon and sun. As we gaze attentively into the middle of whatever we see, the power of God will guide us beyond the physical into the higher planes.

August 4, 2014
4 Efficient methods to Meditate
The post informs about “4 Efficient methods to meditate” and is drafted after discussing all the Pros and Cons in the post before of why there is a need for meditation? For all the people down for it do need to know proper techniques and different types of meditation. As mentioned in the earlier post regarding meditation, it is not a onetime cure. It should be a lifelong habit. So after saying that, we should not be looking for any sorts of shortcuts to perform the task dutifully. Meditation is all about focusing your mind on anything that calms your mind, whether it may be listening to soft music or focusing your breath and stare on a burning flame. One can start either from baby steps to more focused approach or directly start with the demanding focused meditation.

There is no measurement as in which technique is better as all lead to the same result, it all goes down to what technique is one comfortable in. Just as you would be the one to practice meditation, you should be sure which technique resonates with your lifestyle and you. This will make sure the continuity of the practice for life long.

So, starting with listing below mentioned are some of the most efficient techniques to perform meditation mentioned in no particular order, But before that please not that information given here are just some brief introduction about different techniques and gist of the procedure.
1. MINDFUL MEDITATION
One of the most popular meditation practices especially in the west, mindfulness meditation is about staying in the present moment. Being aware of the moment and focusing only on one object while regulating your breath is what mindfulness meditation is all about. Also known as Vipassana meditation, it is rooted from the Buddhist traditional practice. It is often used in psychological treatments to get rid of many mental conditions like OCD and anxiety.

A person practicing this meditation needs to only focus on the ongoing happenings around and in his or her mind, like emotions and thoughts. This awareness sure has to be approached with no mental judgments whatsoever.
1. TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
Primarily originated from the Hinduism was later promoted extensively throughout the world for its deep spiritual approach. A very simplified practice rooted from the Vedanta, in Transcendental meditation a person needs to chant mantra or a sacred word and focus is on being uplifted from all that belongs to the material world. Posture for the meditation is preferred to be sitting cross legged with back straight. This posture is known as “Lotus asana”, this asana is said to resemble a lotus and is said to encourage breathing proper to associated meditative practice and it also foster physical stability.
1. GUIDED MEDITATION
Another excellent technique to pursue meditation for the beginners, guided meditation takes an individual to a journey of guided visualization of different imageries and situations. The guidance usually consists of stories and set of sceneries described in a narrative sense. This technique is very powerful to experience one’s own psyche and thinking pattern. A person can truly introspect their daily activities and keep track of their doings and if they are doing it right through the regular practice of guided meditation. This will help your subconscious to solve some of the tangled issues which seems impossible to rationally be handled by the conscious brain. The meditation exercise starts with resting in any suitable and comfortable position, and then the person has to relieve all the stress stored in the different parts of the body from the head to toe. After the relaxed stage is reached, person is usually guided through stairs and doors to reach a peaceful place where colors and lights heal the self. Individual is allowed to relax there for few moments and asked to resolve any issues or find any required answers from the conscious life. It is believed that in this relaxed and calm state of the body the subconscious brain starts working which helps to increase our ability to see a situation from different perspectives; this resolves half of the problems.
1. CHAKRA MEDITATION
According to Hindu beliefs “Chakras” are believed to be the energy centers or spots are located at the physical counterparts of the major plexi of arteries, veins and nerves in the human body.

So, it is believed that opening and activating chakras will contribute to overall well being of an individual. In chakra meditation focus is given to the breathing of the individual while he or she is visualizing a spinning light that is connected to each chakra. Start from the root or base chakra (Muladhara) and then slowly move your way up through to the crown chakra (Shasrara). Each chakra has their specific colors.

At last, no method is difficult or easy to practice. They just differ in their approach. So, after finding the suitable type of meditation that relates to you, begin the practice! Meditation is not a onetime cure for anything and should be considered as a lifelong practice for the overall personality transformation. It affects the society in general if the individuals in it practice the same. The increased awareness in the society is beneficial for everybody on our planet as the very process of meditation brings unity and brotherhood among people.
July 30, 2014
5 Things you gotta know about Meditation
Whenever “MEDITATION” word crosses any where we tend to imagine Yogis or mental training. That doesn’t mean meditation don’t involve them in the picture, it’s just not the whole scenario. Yes! Meditation is needed. Why? It’ll be discussed further in the post, but let us first free ourselves from the preset definition of Meditation in our minds and start from the basic.

One of the defining features for living beings as we all know is Sensitivity. What’s sensitivity? It involves ability to adapt after we sense our environment. Humans gain sensitivity through Consciousness. Consciousness means forming a perception or being aware, of ourselves and our surroundings. In other words, through our consciousness we sense around the environment and respond respectively.Robots or machines if called simplistically are made by humans; still there is scope for collaborating conscious into their intelligence which is called Artificial Intelligence. Hence, being conscious is a unique feature of us, Humans!

Now, there are three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping. When we are awake, we sense our surroundings and respond to the situations we encounter. But, if we just have a normal stimulus-response relationship with our environment, why do we encounter conditions like stress? Because, every day we wake up and try to do activities that pleases our senses. The fascinating thing about our senses is like any other system in our body its needs increases exponentially with time. So, we can never satisfy them and the exhaustion resulted from this pursuit results in most cases of stresses. In the world where competition weighs everything down, we aren’t in a situation to compromise with the best we can give. So, it all comes down to increasing your potential to be a better person than a second before.

What do we need for that?

Calm and composed mind gives clarity to the thoughts in our mind which facilitates decisiveness, Coherent while communicating and gaining Emotional stability, intuition are just some of the mention able benefits.

So, Why Meditation?
1. It calms the “Freak-ish” side of you.
At situations when you don’t know why you were screaming at that person or flipping out or just runaway from there,

reason behind them are some unsettled thoughts and emotions which had been buried or repressed for some reason. Point to be made is neither you nor others like this side of you. Meditation drifts mind from the chaotic state to more stable disposed one, in this state you are able to focus all your energy to relax your mind. The repressed thoughts and emotions are if not resolved then at least isn’t projected as anger or frustration. So, after you’re done with meditating for a while; the calm mind forgets about the happenings and is ready for a fresh start.
1. You become Smarter!
Yes, it’s true and sure is so much heard from our parents, elders or counselors.

Now, come on it’s not like you meditate once in a month or week and you expect to top your boards. Once you cultivate a regular habit of meditating, it increases an individual’s focusing power which improves attention. More you give attention to something, more you will be grasping that topic.
1. You’ll be upgraded!
Yeah, it has been found out that meditation increases an individual’s level of consciousness. The benefit of evolving your level of consciousness is that the amount of disorder or disturbances in the life seems to be negligible. This means that with regular assimilation of meditation trivial disappointments would last for like a moment for you, not occupying all of you, all day.
1. Apart from mind, it’s good for your body too!
Meditation has been found to stimulate parasympathetic nervous system that is responsible for fight or flight response for the body. It calms down the body from the provoked state. This reduces the anxiety level for the individual which in due course of time can even treat disorders like insomnia.

It slows down the respiration making an individual take only longer and deeper breaths. Why is it important? Every breath we take in gets oxygen and supplies it to the lungs which get transported to rest of the body from and we know oxygen is pretty important for every organ and system in the body. So, shallower and faster breaths cut down the time for this procedure, resulting in hasty transportation of oxygen and carbon di oxide.
1. Get rid of those blues.
Meditation balances the neuro-chemical system of the body which reduces not only anxiety but also depression and moreover increases your critical thinking power! How’s that?It also helps staying in the present moment and it affects all aspects of your life and relationships.

Meditation does or so more than that, it transforms one’s personality for good. Individuals get to know more about themselves and this brings about thirst for discovering more about enigma of life. The questions encountered after that like “What is life? And Why I go in a circle of happiness and sadness round and round?” will take you into a different yet exciting journey altogether. This will only enrich your consciousness more and more resulting in you perceiving the whole universe as part of oneself. However easy and insignificant it may sound, it’s important for a human to get the answers for the same in his or her lifetime.
July 1, 2014