The best meditation system in the universe!

If you are suffering from stress then one thing that can help is meditation. Meditating for just half an hour a day can really calm you down and combat the symptoms of acute stress. A recent study by Sara Lazar at Harvard Medical School found that regular meditation increases the thickness of those brain areas connected with cognition and emotional processing and well-being.

There are many methods of meditation. these include:

• Mantra meditation in which you concentrate on words either chanted quietly or silently thought of.
• Vipassana meditation in which you concentrate on the breath
• Candle meditation which involves concentrating on a candle to the exclusion of everything else
• Loving kindness meditation in which you cultivate compassion for yourself and others.

What these systems have in common is that they train you to concentrate the mind on a single object or a few selected thoughts. I used to practise a Vipassana type meditation in which I focussed on the rhythm of my breath. Every time my concentration wavered I had to make the effort of bringing my attention back to the breath. This was disciplining the mind and felt a bit like forcing the mind into a straight jacket!

I then learnt a different way to meditate from a spiritual teacher I met. He simply said:

“Sit with your back straight, either on the floor or on a straight-backed chair. Then allow everything to be as it is.”

Those were the only instructions given. After a while I got the hang of it. Freedom arose! Here is my expanded version of how to do this:

Sit down where you will not be disturbed for about 20 to 30 minutes. Let your mind think whatever it wants to think, but do not judge it or censor it, letting thoughts arise, then disappear. If you get caught up in a train of thought, don’t worry, relax and allow yourself to return back to the witnessing state, observing the coming and going of thoughts and feelings, just simple letting everything be as it is. There is no control,no effort, just relaxation and peace. You may be aware of an energetic field in which thoughts appear stay awhile, then vanish like bubbles bursting.

This method is almost no method at all, for the idea is not really to do anything  except simply to sit and be a witness to your own mind.  It is very subtle and there is certainly a knack to doing this. It is similar to what the Buddhists call mindfulness meditation.

I find this to be so much better than forcing my mind to concentrate. As I was doing this there also arose interesting questions. If I can observe my thoughts, are those thoughts really me? And who or what is it that is doing the witnessing? And what is happening if you witness the witnesser? As you go deeper into all this some surprising things are revealed, and freedom is seen… More of this later…

Posted by Stephen Williamson

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Tagged with: authentic happiness • meditation • positive psychology • Religion and Spirituality • self-development

Filed under: Meditation • Relaxation and Meditation • Spiritual Practices • The Power of Now

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