Meditation is a mind-set and a way of life, not just a technique or a practice. This ancient, scientific, nonreligious process gives you wisdom to train your mind to be positive, peaceful and powerful. There are three key aspects of meditation—understanding, training and mastering the mind. This is because the mind incessantly produces thoughts, and what you experience or create is preceded by a thought. You carry your mind and thoughts with you wherever you go, and invest them into everything you do.
Written by Vikas Malkani
GIVE YOUR THOUGHT A THOUGHT
Everything in your life starts as a thought inside your mind, which is the incubator. Your relationships, work, self-esteem, health, success, financial position, and even your daily experiences, are all preceded by actions which are preceded by thoughts. Every great creation has originated in a unique idea that started with a single thought. In fact, your future too is being created right now by the thoughts you carry in the fertile soil of your mind. It is no wonder then that the enlightened Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.”
Meditation reveals to you the power of your own mind and thoughts, and gives you effective tools that empower you to create the life you want. A committed meditation practice will teach you about yourself, others, and the world you live in. You will tap into your own truth without the need for external stimuli. The insight you gain becomes the trigger for significant personal development. This is how you create personal transformation, become the best version of yourself, and create a better world.
CONTROL YOUR HEALTH WITH MEDITATION
Meditation also brings benefits on your physical, emotional, mental and health aspects. Numerous clinical studies have documented the health benefits of meditation, which include a calm mind, stress-free living, regulated blood pressure, stable emotions, positive thinking, control of anger and freedom from anxiety. Meditation is beneficial for almost every health challenge. It even helps you to perform better, slow down ageing, manage change and increase energy levels.
Meditation also helps with intelligence, learning ability, concentration, relationships, self-esteem and personal development. Improved focus and concentration as a result of meditation creates a stronger immune system.
Meditation is the stabilizer of life, and once learnt, it is something you can access easily at any time you choose. It is very simple to learn some basic techniques of meditation that can be practiced anywhere, anytime, to enjoy multiple benefits. The truth is that meditation is also the science of manifestation.
The full path of meditation is designed to bring two types of benefits to the student– the “small” and the “big”. All the benefits I mentioned above are “small” benefits. And meditation is really done to achieve the “big” benefits which are long term and life changing. Two main “big” benefits are these:
1) Meditation makes you a conscious creator of your life experience.
You can choose what you experience in every moment and you can also choose the future you want to create for yourself. You become conscious of the life you are living now and how it was created—you can then choose and start to create the life you want to experience in the future. Learning meditation with an authentic teacher will give you the wisdom and tools to make you a conscious creator of your life.
2) Meditation leads you to enlightenment.
You come to fully understand how you function, you see the big picture of life, and can understand the truth that underlines it all. In other words, you wake up from the dream that you have been awake. (Does it surprise you that the directors/producers of the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Matrix’ actually studied this concept before incorporating it into the first Matrix movie in such an exquisite fashion?) As my own teacher Swami Rama succinctly said, “Meditation does what nothing else can do—it introduces you to yourself!”
MEDITATION IS THE SCIENCE OF MANIFESTATION
As a student advances on the path of meditation, he/she is taught how to manage the thoughts that arise in the mind. To choose positive thoughts even in the middle of a crisis, and skillfully replace negative thoughts with positive ones, is not easy but it leads to the stabilizing emotions that arise within the practitioner. And when the emotions are stable and the mind is calm, only then can actions be optimized to achieve specific goals that the practitioner may choose to manifest.
Let’s start with intention. An intention is a thought that is focused, stable, consistent and recurring. It’s a deep driving desire that lights a fire within you and compels you to take action. An intention will also inspire you and bring great energy and enthusiasm.
Our intentions (focused thoughts) are our connection to universal intelligence. The Brihadranyaka Upanishad advises, “You are what your deep driving desire is.” A focused intention is a vast reservoir of inner potential waiting to be manifested. Meditation teaches that to create a life of your choosing, you must start with an intention, and it should be beneficial to you and others.
The second step is that of emotion. Your intention must be followed with a positive emotion like self-confidence, and a positive expectation that you will be supported and guided to achieve your goals. You must be happy as you walk towards making your intention a reality, for if you become unhappy on the path, chances are that you will quit, or your actions will become impulsive rather than conscious, thus leading to negative results.
Meditation empowers the practitioner with numerous techniques that can be used to keep emotions stable and positive even as you strive towards your goals. Meditation also helps by bringing awareness to the 2 points of manifestation—“What am I doing now?” (Present), and “What am I creating with what I am doing now?”(Future).
The third step is Action. Meditation teaches that action must be skillful, thought out, tactful and in alignment with your intentions. You must contemplate the smoothest and fastest way to accomplish something before you take action. Think about it before you do it; and once you’ve thought about it, then get on and do it.
Action is the building block of a new reality, and the wisdom of meditation teaches that to create a new reality you must start to take chosen, new actions and sustain them. Results will manifest and you must learn from these, improve yourself and then continue on the path, in an improved manner.
Intention followed by Emotion, propels Action and leads to Creation.
This article was first published in the print edition of Yoga Journal Singapore,which is now Yogahood Online.
