Author: Sahastrar

what is this thing that we call as meditation? Generally we assume that people are referring to what is known as dhyan or dhyana. In that context of referring to dhyan as meditation, it is not something that you can do. Nobody can do meditation. The reason why most people who have tried meditation have come to the conclusion that it’s very difficult or impossible is because they are trying to do it.Meditation is a certain quality.

Meditation is almost a buzz word theses days. But when we say “meditation”, what comes to your mind? It is not a fad or buzz word, rather has been in existence for thousands of years. Many people try hard to meditate and master their mind. Whereas the truth is that you cannot meditate, rather you can become meditative. This is a simple concept, wherein you establish your mind, body and energies in such a way that you become meditative. That is Yoga’s Perspective.

Meditation is an incredibly powerful tool that can be difficult and frustrating to learn. When you first start practicing, you discover how easy it is to be distracted by all the other thoughts and emotions that swirl around in your mind. You also discover how much practice and determination to learn how to meditate, especially to practice regularly and consistently in your daily life. The key to meditating effectively is an ancient yogic technique called dharana—the sustained practice of focused concentration. Learning and practicing this mental skill can make your meditation easier, more effective, and much less agonizing.

Dharana in Sanskrit means concentration or single focus. “Dha” means “holding, carrying, or maintaining”, and “ana” means “other, or something else.” It is the sixth limb in the eight-limbed path of Ashtanga Yoga as described in the Yoga Sutras. It is the initial step in attaining a state of meditation.

Dharana is the sustained practice of focused concentration on a single object. This focus is usually the breath, but it can also be the repetition of a mantra, the visualization of a deity, or the contemplation of a deep truth. It’s not so important what this object is that we are focusing on; the purpose is to quiet the mind with this total concentration.

Just look silently and deeply and you will find your master everywhere. The whole existence will become suffused with your master. And of course the moment a master dies. In the stones they will touch him, in the flowers, they will see his colors, in the rainbows, they will see his beauty. A disciple becomes so deeply immersed in the consciousness of the master that when the master’s consciousness spreads all over existence.

Nothing much to do this morning…. I could watch several old episodes of the “Twilight Zone” or maybe I should take a hike in the desert. How best to heal my bruised soul? It has been a hard year for all of us. Meaningful experiences have become harder and trickier to find and define.

On this early Thursday morning in the second month of the year 2021, I reject watching TV and decide to take a hike. My new cane (arthritis you know) joins me as we come to visit the saguaro cacti in the Saguaro National Park outside Tucson, Arizona.

I love the desert. It reminds me to be still. It is as the early environmentalist and trail maker, John Muir, used to say: “Everyone is born with an inner bond to nature, drawing us away from civilization, an impulse over which we have little rational control.” One way Muir expressed the wellness he experienced in nature was to establish the Sierra Club.

Cane and I begin our stroll along the sand trail where beautiful saguaros stand proud and solemn in the early morning dawn. The saguaro cactus, wildflower of Arizona and symbol of the Southwest, only lives in the Sonoran Desert, covering southern Arizona, a touch of California, and northwest Mexico.

The National Park Service says it can take 10 years for the great cactus to reach one inch in height. By 70 years of age it can be 6.5 feet and by its hundredth birthday will reach 15-16 feet in height. Most are 50-100 years old before they start growing arms. Most saguaros live 125 years and some reside on earth for over 200 years. It is not unusual to see old saguaros 45 feet tall. A mature saguaro can weigh two and one half tons and shrink or swell by 20-25% over a year depending on rainfall. The largest saguaro ever measured was 78 feet tall. It fell in an Arizona windstorm in 1986.

The saguaros provide food, shelter, and protections for hundreds of species. For example, the Gila woodpeckers carve nests in the plant. Those nests are later used by elf owls, purple martins, and house finches. Its sweet nectar attracts birds and many species of bats.

Meditation is a powerful tool for spiritual growth, and is essentially a process to take one beyond the limitations of body and mind. Teachers and practitioners of these “inner technologies” have also experienced the many physical and mental benefits of meditation and Yoga. In recent years, a growing number of scientific studies and research on meditation have corroborated these experiences.

Meditation is no more complicated than what we’ve described above. It is that simple … and that challenging. It’s also powerful and worth it. The key is to commit to sit every day, even if it’s for five minutes. Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg says: “One of my meditation teachers said that the most important moment in your meditation practice is the moment you sit down to do it. Because right then you’re saying to yourself that you believe in change, you believe in caring for yourself, and you’re making it real. You’re not just holding some value like mindfulness or compassion in the abstract, but really making it real.”

Meditation establishes a secure connection between our internal and external worlds. It awakens the body and benefits all aspects of the conscious and subconscious layers of the mind. Out of the numerous perks that meditation gives, a few are listed below.

1. Meditation enhances empathy
Loving-kindness or compassion meditation fires neural connections to brain sites that regulate positive emotions like empathy and kindness. The deep state of flow that meditation induces builds social connectedness and make us more affectionate and amicable as a person.

2. Meditation improves cognition
Researchers agree that an excellent way for professionals to increase the likelihood of success is to keep meditation practice as a part of their daily routine. Studies have revealed that both transcendent and mindful meditation practices improve the brain’s problem-solving and decision-making strategies, which can bring a desirable shift in our professional life.

3. Meditation is a natural stress stabilizer
Stress is the body’s response to unforeseen adversities. Encountering immediate threats increase the level of cortisol, or stress hormone in the body, and activates the Autonomic Nervous system, which is responsible for fight-or-flight responses. Brain studies of regular meditators revealed that they have lower cortisol level in their brains, which explains their resilience and insightful nature.

4. Meditation promotes emotional health and well-being
Studies have shown that meditation improves self-image and self-worth. When we meditate, we get a clear picture of our mind and become aware of the thoughts that drive our emotions and actions at the moment.

A large-scale study found that regular meditation decreases the likelihood of developing depression and mood-related disorders (Jain, Walsh, Eisendrath, Christensen, & Cahn, 2015). Besides some forms of meditative practices which also promoted positive thinking, as researchers stated, and could improve the overall emotional health of an individual.

5. Meditation increases attention by inducing a state of flow
Have you noticed how meditation absorbs you into the moment? Mindful awareness comes naturally to us when we meditate, and we reach ‘flow’ state where our mind is in complete harmony with itself. A study on the effects of an eight-week mindful meditation course found that people who are regular meditation practitioners had heightened attention and concentration span.

Research studies indicates that people who practice meditation have improved work and personal relationships; greater appreciation for others; and increased tolerance. When meditation was taught is prisons, research demonstrates, that there is a reduction in aggression, verbal hostility, the tendency to assault and recidivism in prison inmates.There is a theory that “we radiate what we are.”

Meditation is no more complicated than what we’ve described above. It is that simple … and that challenging. It’s also powerful and worth it. The key is to commit to sit every day, even if it’s for five minutes. Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg says: “One of my meditation teachers said that the most important moment in your meditation practice is the moment you sit down to do it. Because right then you’re saying to yourself that you believe in change, you believe in caring for yourself, and you’re making it real. You’re not just holding some value like mindfulness or compassion in the abstract, but really making it real.”

We’ve gone over the basic breath meditation so far, but there are other mindfulness techniques that use different focal points than the breath to anchor our attention—external objects like a sound in the room, or something broader, such as noticing spontaneous things that come into your awareness during an aimless wandering practice. But all of these practices have one thing in common: We notice that our minds ARE running the show a lot of the time. It’s true. We think thoughts, typically, and then we act. But here are some helpful strategies to change that up:

It’s estimated that 95% of our behavior runs on autopilot. That’s because neural networks underlie all of our habits, reducing our millions of sensory inputs per second into manageable shortcuts so we can function in this crazy world. These default brain signals are so efficient that they often cause us to relapse into old behaviors before we remember what we meant to do instead.

Mindfulness is the exact opposite of these default processes. It’s executive control rather than autopilot, and enables intentional actions, willpower, and decisions. But that takes practice. The more we activate the intentional brain, the stronger it gets. Every time we do something deliberate and new, we stimulate neuroplasticity, activating our grey matter, which is full of newly sprouted neurons that have not yet been groomed for “autopilot” brain.

But here’s the problem. While our intentional brain knows what is best for us, our autopilot brain causes us to shortcut our way through life. So how can we trigger ourselves to be mindful when we need it most? This is where the notion of “behavior design” comes in. It’s a way to put your intentional brain in the driver’s seat. There are two ways to do that—first, slowing down the autopilot brain by putting obstacles in its way, and second, removing obstacles in the path of the intentional brain, so it can gain control.

Shifting the balance to give your intentional brain more power takes some work, though. Here are some ways to get started.