Meditation is the only way to eradicate the tensions and stress in the life. This is the only way to get supernatural power and self exploration.
Here I am going to share some knowledge on meditation. We will cover topics like
What is meditation?
What are the concepts behind meditation?
What is the procedure to practice meditation?
What are the benefits of meditation?
Table of Contents
WHAT IS MEDITATION?
Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind .This induces a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit,although it can be argued that is a goal in and of itself.
Meditation provide you super natural powers. The term meditation refers to a broad variety of practices (much like the term sports) .
Range from techniques designed to promote relaxation, contacting spiritual guides, building internal energy (chi, ki, Prana, etc.), receiving psychic visions, getting closer to God, seeing past lives, taking astral journeys, and so forth, to more technical exercises targeted at developing compassion, love, patience, generosity, forgiveness and more far-reaching goals such as effortlessly sustained single-pointed concentration, single-pointed analysis, and an indestructible sense of well-being while engaging in any and all of life’s activities.
What Does Meditation Consist?
Meditation often involves an internal effort to self-regulate the mind in some way. It may be done sitting or in an active way, for instance, Buddhist monks involve awareness in their day-to-day activities as a form of mind-training. Prayer beads or other ritual objects are commonly used during this in order to keep track of or remind the practitioner about some aspect of the training.
This may involve generating an emotional state for the purpose of analyzing that state — such as anger, hatred, etc. — or cultivating particular mental response to various phenomena, such as compassion. The term “meditation” can refer to the state itself, as well as to practice or techniques employed to cultivate the state.
In brief, there are dozens of specific styles of meditation practice;the word.This is necessary for development of brain and reflexes.This may carry different meanings in different contexts. This has been practiced since antiquity as a component of numerous religious traditions and beliefs.
The History of Meditation
This is intimately bound up with the religious context within which it was practiced. Even in prehistoric times civilizations used repetitive, rhythmic chants and offerings to appease the gods.
Some authors have even suggested the hypothesis that the emergence of the capacity for focused attention, an element of many methods of meditation,may have contributed to the final phases of human biological evolution.
Some of the earliest references to meditation are found in the Hindu Vedas. Around the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, other forms of meditation developed in Taoist China and Buddhist India.
What are the Concepts Behind Meditation?
In the west, by 20 BCE Philo of Alexandria had written on some form of “spiritual exercises” involving attention (prostheses) and concentration and by the 3rd century Plotinus had developed meditative techniques.Indian Buddhist meditation as a step towards salvation.
By the time Buddhism was spreading in China, the Vimalakirti Sutra, which dates to 100 CE included a number of passages on meditation, clearly pointing to Zen. The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism introduced meditation to other Asian countries, and in 653 the first meditation hall was opened in Japan. Returning from China around 1227, D? Gen wrote the instructions for Zazen.
The Islamic practice of Dhikr had involved the repetition of the 99 Names of God, since the 8th or 9th century. By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls and the repetition of holy words.
Interactions with Indians or the Sufis may have influenced the Eastern Christian meditation approach to hesychasm, but this can not be proved. Between the 10th and 14th centuries, hesychasm was developed, particularly on Mount Athos in Greece, and involves the repetition of the Jesus prayer.
There are many schools and styles of meditation within Hinduism. Yoga is generally done to prepare one for meditation, and meditation is done to realize the union of one’s self, one’s Atman, with the omnipresent and non-dual Brahman.
This experience is referred to as Moksha by Hindus, and is similar to the concept of Nirvana in Buddhism. The earliest clear references to meditation in Hindu literature are in the middle Upanishads and the Mahabharata, which includes the Bhagavad Gita. According to Gavin Flood, the earlier Brihadaranyaka Upanishad refers to meditation when it states that “having becoming calm and concentrated, one perceives the self within oneself”.
Procedure of Meditation
Meditation is always performed on Asan (bed of blanket or woolen gear).
Within Patañjali’s Ashtanga yoga practice, there are eight limbs leading to Moksha. These are ethical discipline (yams), rules (niyamas), physical postures (asanas), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal from the senses (Pratyahara), one-pointedness of mind (dharana), meditation (Dhyana), and finally samadhi, which is often described as the union of the Self (Atman) with the omnipresent (Brahman), and is the ultimate aim of all Hindu yogis.
Meditation in Hinduism
Meditation in Hinduism is not confined to any school or sect and has expanded beyond Hinduism to the West. Meditation not only develop the internal power, but also the personality. We should do meditation regularly for five minutes a day .
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative state of mind is declared by the Yogis to be the highest state in which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object, it gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it takes the color of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches… it has to take its color. That is the difficulty.