What is Meditation?

What is Meditation?

Meditation is the freedom from thought, a state of no-mind. It is a state of pure consciousness with no contents. It is the activation of natural 'seeing' activity, of the 'Self' or Consciousness. It is the finest way to increase one's personal energy by getting connected to the Source.

Meditation is a key to unlock the mystery of existence. It is a method par excellence, to go into altered states of consciousness, wherein it is possible to perceive alternate frequency universes, which are all simultaneously co-existing.

Meditation is easy and not at all difficult. It is a knack, which can be mastered with the help of regular practice.

Meditation begins basically with "Anapanasati", which means to keep one's total attention and awareness only on one's normal breathing process. In Pali language, in which Buddha talked, 'Ana' means 'In-breath', 'Apana' means 'Out-breath', 'Sati' means 'To be one with'. Meditation is neither 'prayer', nor 'chanting' nor 'contemplation'. No 'mantra' is to be chanted, no form of 'deity' or outside 'Guru' is to be entertained, nor any 'pranayama' practice like holding one's breath i.e. 'kumbhaka' should be attempted during meditation.

When and How of Meditation

Meditation should be undertaken regularly and for a minimum of twenty minutes to one hour every day. Time can be increased further as you proceed. Meditation at the same time of the day and at the same place is good to begin with. As you start understanding that it is the inner state that is important, any time and any place is okay for meditation.

Meditation can be done in any comfortable sitting posture, keeping the spine erect, as far as possible. Legs crossed or folded, hands should be clasped and eyes to be closed. This helps in harnessing the energy within by avoiding the drainage or the outward flow of energy.

Routine wanderings of the mind should be cut right away, as and when they arise, and attention should constantly be brought back to the chosen work at hand, i.e. consciously observing the breath. Instead of thinking too much about how to start and when to start, simply observe your breath and you have begun your journey in meditation!

What Are the Different Stages to the State of Meditation?

Meditation means to be in thoughtless state with full awareness. Just for the purpose of preliminary understanding, various progressive stages of meditation can be seen as follows.

You begin with conscious observance of natural breathing process. This is known as "Anapanasati". (Controlling or manipulation of breathing process is not necessary.) In case of thought taking away your attention from breathing process, come back to observing breath without fighting with thought.

In the next stage include your heartbeats in your awareness along with breathing process. This is two-point awareness. Next bring about the awareness of entire body along with breathing process. This is known as "Kayanupassana". Here you are aware of every happening inside your body.

In the next stage increase your awareness further to include all the sounds of outer as well as inner world. Let your awareness become more intense and broader as well. Let it grow to multi-point awareness, meaning - being conscious of many aspects "at a time". e.g. You are conscious of your breath, your heartbeats, your body sensations, various sounds within your body as well as outside. You are also aware of the air touching your skin, various fragrances in the room etc. By just being rooted into this state, the third eye opens on its own accord and you start seeing the things directly. This is known as "Vipassana", the "Special Seeing". Many Meditators have reported various experiences of this stage, known as third eye experiences.

With witnessing of thoughts and further sharpening of this awareness, getting rooted into no-thought state becomes easy. With this the energy reservoir builds up, as there is no dissipation of energy by thought mind. Just by staying more and more into this state, the energy build up goes to peak and it falls back upon itself. This is the enlightenment experience, the awareness becoming aware of itself.

With this multi-dimensional awareness becomes possible and you can see various frequency universes (Etheric, Astral, Causal etc.) which are all simultaneously co-existing, with your 'poly-vision'. This brings about the understanding of various different frequency universes, gross, subtler as well as subtlest. You understand all these 'consensus realities' as temporary illusive phenomena and discard all these experiences of the past and remain rooted totally in the present moment. This is "Nibbanna" or Nirvana, the desire-less state.