I frequently visit the reddit mediation chat board page.
Something I find concerning is that so many people think
that meditation is supposed to be either a psychedelic experience and or an
alternative health cure for mood disorders such as anxiety and depression
With recent news about the psychological risks of long
10-day vipassana meditation retreats and persistent stories about the dire
consequences of so called Kundalini activation, folks are more frequently voicing
concerns about whether basic meditation
practice will make you go crazy. And
people very much like to share their “crazy” stories on social media.
Also, there’s a
faction of Fundamentalist Christians who are indoctrinated into spreading
talking points that meditation involves making your mind “blank” and that a
blank mind creates space for demons to get in.
Let’s clear the air and go through these ideas.
Beginners Mind
Basic meditation is really, just sitting. Quietly, calmly,
being aware of your physical self and being aware that you are a breathing,
thinking organism in relationship to
your ever changing inner and outer environment. A great source of basic sitting
meditation practice is a YouTube by a Tibetan Buddhist monk and meditation
instructor called. Gelong Thubten explains how to develop a daily mindfulness
practice. I want to add that I have no connection to this particular teacher, but I do
think that he is a good expert resource.
Many people who begin basic sitting meditation seem to think
that something odd or unusual is supposed to happen. The most common experience
for new meditators is restlessness, boredom, and frustration about sitting and
doing nothing but realizing that they are restless, bored, and frustrated and
that thoughts are automatic. My own teachers like to say that the mind sweats
thoughts. That’s natural, that’s the big
special realization at the get go and, as the Beatles say, “then You make it better.”
How many of you play a musical instrument or a sport or have
some kind of technical job? Or how many of
you were out of shape or unhealthy and then took up a certain health and
fitness regimen and got a beach body?
The journey was challenging at first, but it got better with practice.
And noticing changes generated incentive to keep up the good work.
But a big secret about meditation practice is that even
people who have been practicing for years and years—even meditation teachers
and so-called gurus—may have days when they are restless, bored, and distracted
during their meditation practice. Maybe the only differences between them and a
beginner in that situation is that advanced practitioners—generally speaking--
are not frustrated, expectant, or goal-oriented about what happens to be
happening during meditation. They are still just sitting in the present moment
in relationship with their inner and outer environment. Because advanced practitioners can have
similar experiences or even get caught up in similar self-sabotaging
expectations as beginners, Buddhist meditation practitioners refer to Beginners
Mind and continually return back to it. It is less a return to the basics, than
simply a return to right practice.
Trancing Out
Another experience that meditators get caught up in is
trance. That said, meditation is a kind of a trance if we define trance—as
hypnotists to—as a mental state of profoundly focused concentration. We are
basically in a trance when we’re daydreaming, absorbed in a hobby, enrapt in the
plot of an entertaining movie, or staring at our smart phone and thumbing
through Facebook posts.
A professionally hypnotically induced trance is one in which
a particular person’s mind is so paradoxically distracted in concentration that
messages and programming that that particular mind ordinary resists get
through. This is why therapeutic hypnosis can break down fears and
self-sabotaging habits that are derived from defense-mechanisms in deeper
layers of a person’s consciousness.
Some forms of meditation are meant to establish trance.
Visualization practices, for example, that have goals of modifying your sense
of self. These types of meditation may be devotional, theurgic or
psychodynamic. My YouTube SpiritGuides, Spiritual Ideals, and the Holy Guardian Angel covers some of this, and I
may discuss it further in another YouTube on meditation that specifically
addresses devotional and mantra meditation.
Cultivating the ability to concentrate is a prerequisite for
meditation. The one trains the mind to be more focused and less noisy. The
other is resting in that focused state. This is thoroughly explained in the
classic The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The first half of the Yoga Sutras
describes the preparatory work for a meditative life. The second half describes
the deeper and deeper layers of the meditation experience and ultimately gets
into concepts that may only be appreciated by very advanced practitioners. It
is still worth the read, and some translations are easier to follow than
others. In my opinion, Light on the Yoga Sutras by BKS Iyengar –is very
accessible reading for people new to classical texts on Eastern Spirituality.
With the very wide popularity of meditation apps and “guided
meditation” programs, the lines between meditation and hypnosis have been
blurred. Many apps are useful guides to help you get into the so-called “zone”
and hold concentrated attention. Others guide you through mental imagery and
stories that may be useful in cultivating attention, relaxation, and changes in
thoughts and attitudes. Others, whether intentional or not and for better or
worse, are straightforward hypnotic induction. Some practices also involve
breathing or somatic techniques that alter brain chemistry to induce trance and
dissociative or cathartic experiences. These
kind of practices lie more in the realm of shamanism, folk magic, and
occultism. If this is where your interests lie, a YouTube on Astral Temple work
is planned. Stay tuned.
“Meditation is the
cessation of the movement of the mind.”
-Sri Patanjali
The mind sweats thoughts and feelings that then generate
actions. Those actions are too often kneejerk reactions—automatic, not exactly
truly conscious or willful—and often regrettable. Sometimes we call it losing
it or getting carried away or dropping the ball. Through meditation practice,
we become aware that these thoughts and feelings are happening and are working
us instead of us working them. This realization transforms into the practice of
mindfulness.
It simply means being in a place of having better insight
into our thoughts and feelings, pausing and more consciously considering how we
want to behave in any given situation about them. With practice, new and more
effective conscious ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving arise and old
automatic habits die back. For this reason, I like to counter the
Fundamentalist argument that meditation invites demonic forces to take control
of your mind. In meditation practice, demons are not entering your mind; they
are coming out and being neutralized as you gain more self-awareness, self-control.
As you become more familiar with the what your mind and feelings automatically
do, the more you practice focused concentration instead of mental distraction,
and the more you understand that you don’t have to be on automatic driven by
thoughts and emotions, the more calm your mind and composure become. A sense of
spaciousness belongingness, balance, and resilience replaces the static of
noisy, disturbing and distracting thoughts and emotions.
