A Better Understanding of Meditation

 

 

You must have heard of the word meditate or meditation before either in classes you attended, on television, in your office or just from a neighbour.

Many people in one way or another have heard of the word and may or may not have an idea what it’s really about. Ask a layman and you might get a simple meditation definition like: “relaxing your mind as you sit in a quiet place”. Well, that would be fair enough but to understand it more profoundly, you must have a deeper meditation definition.

Strictly speaking, meditation is a form of mental discipline where you try to overcome the spontaneous activity of your mind to be able to experience total relaxation and awareness.

Its root word “med” is originally from the Indo-European language meaning “to measure”. It is also where the words medicine and moderate were derived.

However, it came in to be known in the English word as meditation, which is from the Latin word “meditatio” indicating an intellectual or physical practice. As time went by, the meaning evolved to “contemplation”.

This activity makes you focus on just one thing leaving all other things unnoticed. This has been practiced since time immemorial and is commonly associated with many religions, although there are also some people who do this outside of religious traditions.

More modern meditation definition stresses about being able to control one’s own attention for the purpose of self-inquiry.

Meditation techniques can be classified depending on the focus. When one focuses on background experience and perceptions it is called Mindfulness Meditation.

This is what we often practice. One sits in a comfortable position and focuses on just one process or thing, often it is the breathing pattern that we focus on. As one focuses on that thing, everything is left behind which clears the mind of all obstructive thoughts and thus providing a sense of calmness.

The other classification is the Concentration Meditation where the focus is on a specific object. This is what is commonly practiced by many religions. One would be focusing on just one particular object such as repeated prayers .

Whichever technique you follow and whatever object you try to focus on, the bottom line of meditation is to be able to clear your mind of all the things that stresses it.

You will find great use of meditation in making you develop a more positive outlook and attitude towards anything that come your way. As you meditate, your mind is given time to rest from all the troublesome thoughts that keep nagging it. This makes you feel more relaxed and ready to once again face the world’s challenges.