Meditation

Meditation is one of the most popular ways of
relaxing and becoming more in tune with yourself, your God and your environment.
Yet, there is more bad information about meditation than there is good. This is
a shame, because it is such a valuable technique. There are three stages to true
meditation:

Relaxation: in this stage you consciously order your body to
relax.

Contemplation: in this stage you focus your mind’s attention on
any object, picture, sound, activity, etc. This stage is difficult to accomplish
for any length of time when you are beginning to learn the process, as the mind
tends to wander.

True Meditation: in this stage you "erase" what you are contemplating from
your conscious mind. In so doing you also "erase," or rather, turn off, your
conscious mind which was deeply involved in stage two. When this is done your
higher self, your link to the divine can come through via your now freed
subconscious mind. The result is a wonderful state of bliss known as Samadhi,
Nirvana or Cosmic Consciousness. It is a sensation of being at one
with the universe, and there is nothing else like it.

Meditation is not mysterious or difficult, but may be a bit
time-consuming to learn. There are many books which tell how to learn to
meditate, and audio tapes which can help with the process. The relaxation
technique is taught in numerous systems and books. Briefly, you simply
"talk" to each part of your body and tell it to relax. In stage two, you
contemplate something and put all of your concentration into that act. Some good
choices of things to contemplate include cards from the Major Arcana of
the Tarot, the Tatwa symbols (simple geometric shapes representing
the relationships of the mystical elements such as Air, Earth
and Fire), or various Hindu figures known as mandalas. A famous
concentration technique involves chanting the sound "om’’ (pronounce
ah-oh-m) and focusing on the sound and the vibrations the sound causes in the
body. In fact, almost anything can be used as a center of attention.

Stage three is the most difficult to reach. Or rather, it takes the most time to
reach and most people give up before achieving mastery of this stage. All of the
techniques involved in meditation are actually very simple. To reach this state
you must "erase" the image, object or sound you have been contemplating.
When you do so, the little voice within your head, the voice which is always
conscious, is silenced. Usually, upon erasing what you have contemplated, there
is a second of silence followed by that inner voice saying something like, "Am
I doing this right?" The goal is to stretch out the period of silence so it
can eventually become an hour or longer.

The power of the three stages is incredible. It can lower your blood pressure,
let you think more clearly, improve your ESP, and give you a remarkable
feeling of peace and what has been called at-one-ness with the universe. lt is
an admirable practice and is worthy of your attention and daily use. But again,
there is the possibility of psychic fraud in this field.

Some people imply that meditation is only stage one, relaxation, or stage two,
contemplation. But this is a Western idea. True Meditation, which in the West we
loosely call meditation, is based on Indian and Oriental techniques. True
Meditation is not just contemplation. Contemplation is a stage in the process of
meditation.

Meditation that is only relaxation usually comes when someone looks at just the
physical indications of meditation. The lowering of the pulse, the blood
pressure and the respiration rate all result from relaxation. As one
"debunker" stated, the same results can be duplicated by relaxing for a few
minutes with your feet up. He is absolutely correct as far as he goes. But True
Meditation does not only involve the physical body, it involves the mind. The
mind is the non-physical aspect of the brain.

There are many good organizations or books which will teach you to meditate You
may want to steer clear of organizations that claim theirs is the only true and
good system of meditation. There are many methods of meditation and you should
seek the one which is best for you. Nothing works for everybody. Find what is
best for you and use it.

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