Meditation
From “Writing Your Own Prescription for Stress”
Printed with permission from author, Dr. Ken Matheny
Meditation has an ancient and venerable history in both the Western and Eastern religious practice. Herbert Benson (1975), a medical researcher at Harvard University and author of The Relaxation Response, points out that meditation in one form or another was practiced by mystics of various religious persuasions. St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Fray Francisco de Osuna, St. Theresa, Father Nicholas, and other early Christian mystics practiced contemplation and recollection in order to shut off the mind from external thoughts and to produce a passive attitude and mental solitude. Contemplation or meditative exercises are also found in early Judaic literature. Merkabolism, the earliest form of mysticism in Judaism, involved repetition of a magic emblem. A thirteenth-century rabbi, Abulafia, used the letters of God’s name as an object upon which to meditate. He also incorporated yogic breathing and body posture techniques. The Eastern meditative practices have been extremely influential. The best known is yoga meditation, the essence of which is concentration on a single point to achieve a passive attitude. Buddhism, Sufism, and Taoism, all primarily Eastern religions, contain many elements analogous to yoga meditation and thus to the relaxation response.
There is evidence that meditation practices were widespread among Jews throughout Jewish history. Students of the Kabbalah and Chasidic masters practiced meditation. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan points out, “References to meditation are found in major Jewish tests in every period from the biblical to the pre-modern era (1985, p. 40).” He has written of this Jewish heritage in a series of books: Meditation and the Bible, Meditation and the Kabbalah, and Jewish Meditation.
Waking Up
Meditation is about waking up from a dream world. As we have discussed, we mistake our ideas about reality for reality. Because of strong needs and prejudices that lead to selective perception, some of the time we are dead wrong about what actually is. As we pointed out in the previous chapter, part of our thinking is flawed. We look out at the world through distorted perceptual processes. This faulty filtering of our experience creates set of beliefs that often do not conform well to reality, and the consciousness formed from these beliefs creates stressful lifestyles.
Little Mind vs. Big Mind
We are often tyrannized by our needs, particularly conflicting needs. These tyrants can exhaust your energy and monopolize your attention. They cause you to look out at the world with selective perception, seeing only those things that have relevance for these needs. In the East, such a mental state is referred to as “little mind” in contrast to “big mind.” When you get caught up with you egotistical goals, imprisoned without your “little mind,” you miss much that is beautiful and ennobling in the world. With more fully developed consciousness, with “big mind,” comes freedom from addictive demands and the opportunity to see things straight on. The big mind becomes a mirror to reflect reality without distortion. Such a nonattached, unaddicted, mirroring state of consciousness is similar to the pure consciousness that people are held to be capable of experiencing—so, attaining this meta-perspective (this universal consciousness) leads you to experience a sense of unity with all people (and, indeed, all things). Attaining this universal consciousness is said to create a sense of reality, control, and centeredness.
The work of meditation is to help you get in touch with reality, to break out of the dream or trancelike existence, to jettison stressful mind-sets, to free you from the punishing landscapes of your mind. While it is the nature of the mind to fly on automatic pilot and to miss the opportunity to live spontaneously, the mind also has the capacity to heal, to awaken you to the reality of present experience. The preferred method of millions for awakening is meditation.
Meditation Is a Practice
Meditation is not something you do over the weekend. Actually, there is no exact word among the Indian languages for the word meditation. The closest equivalent is a Pali word meaning “development through mental training (Kabat-Zinn 1994).” One does not train over a weekend but over a long time, and in the case of the meditation perhaps over a lifetime. To make meditation work for you, you have to be ready for it. Like the Zen expression says, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears.”
Focusing Attention
Old patterns of thought hold on stubbornly. The mind seems to have a mind of its own. Freud said, “Man is not even master in his own house, his own mind.”
William James said the average person couldn’t sustain attention for more than three seconds. Our streams of thought often seem illogical and incoherent. To see this for yourself, try the following experiments.
Experiment 1
Sit back quietly and for a few moments merely watch the stream of thoughts of crossing your mind. Do not attempt to influence them, merely notice them.
Experiment 2
Now count backwards from 100, seeing each number clearly in your mind before going on to the next. It is important how many numbers you cover during the minute. Your only goal is to sustain uninterrupted attention to the numbers. Once you become aware that your attention has wavered in the slightest from the task, stop the exercise. If your attention even briefly wanders to the question, “Has my attention wandered from the task?” you are through.
Usually participants in Experiment 1 indicate that their thoughts wandered badly over the time allotted. Moreover, they confess that there was little continuity to their thinking. Instead of a running narrative regarding some important topic, their thoughts were more life a jumble of old trinkets in the attic. One thing leads to another without logical connections. In Experiment 2 most participants find that their attention wanders from the task almost immediately. Can you imagine how much more effective we would be if we mastered our attention? If you were to spread twenty-five pounds of pressure across a chalkboard, you wouldn’t even make a dent. If, however, you were to focus the pressure on the point of a diamond needle, you could easily pierce the board. Likewise, training in attention control leads to more effective living.
Although old patterns of thought resist changing, dissatisfaction and pain often create a readiness for the change. You may sense something is terrible amiss about the way you are engaging things. You conclude that your life isn’t working. At this point you may be ready to begin a practice that will help you escape your trance and confront reality head on, and meditation is just such a practice. Meditation attacks your neurotic views in two basic ways. It expands your awareness so you can experience the present moment and it breaks the grip of addictive needs that distort you grasp of reality.
Expanding Awareness Through Attention Training
Focused attention is highly empowering. In Hermann Hess’s Siddhartha, once the Buddha had gained mastery over his attention, he was said to be amazingly effective in whatever he set out to do. Impressed by his accomplishments, others asked him for the secret of his success. He replied that whenever he set out to do anything he first prepared his mind through meditation, and then he would go after his purpose like a rock dripping through the water. Meditative practice is concerned with training our attention. Arthur Deikman (1974) says meditation deautomatizes your thinking. In other words, thinking may become so automatic that the behavior it governs is as reflexive as that of the bee or ant. In becoming more aware you become more choice-making.
To see how behavior and thinking can become automatic, consider the following questions: Can you identify the hidden rules that govern behavior at your work or in your family? What are the implied rules in your workplace that are never vocalized or written down? Consider for example the rule that meetings almost always occur in the office of the most important person. How about in your family? Are there unspoken rules such as, “When someone in the family becomes angry, family members are supposed to stop saying anything?” What are the rule that govern how you are to behave intimately toward a spouse or lover? What would change if these rules were verbalized?”
Mindfulness meditation offers you freedom from the involuntary nature of much of your behavior. It further develops an internal witness to the stream of your consciousness. The resulting meta-perspective shrinks the gap between what you are doing and your awareness of what you are doing, ultimately giving you a greater sense of self-control. The meta-perspective taught by the great religio-philosophies is referred to by such expressions as “lifting the veil of Maya,” “enlightenment,” “being born again,” “bare attention,” and the like. In all of these traditions, some form of meditation is viewed as a royal route to consciousness expansion.
Staying in the Present
Meditation can also help you to be aware of the present moment. In Walden, Thoreau reminds us that, “Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” Our awareness of the present is clouded so much of the time that we seldom are fully conscious of our experiences. When you set out to do one thing, you may be harassed by a multitude of “voice-overs”—little voices in your head reminding you of a thousand other things you have to do, or of the storm clouds gathering in your life, or of your failure to fulfill an obligation, or of a myriad of other thoughts that distract you from the present moment. Consequently, you may let the only real time you have pass unnoticed as you continue to live in your head. Many poets and writers of sacred literature have written about the importance of living in the present. The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote:
Trust no future, however pleasant,
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living Present
Heart within and God overhead
Staying with your experiencing in the present moment implies faith in your coping abilities. To dodge present signals or to mentally rehearse future adjustments so completely that is shoved into the secure past is a vote of no confidence in your resources. To live in the present moment does not mean abandoning yourself to your impulses. To live in the present means avoiding the habit of endlessly processing fearful future events. Obviously, you need to have goals and make plans for the future. However, you shouldn’t be so consumed with preparing for the journey that you miss the point of the journey in the first place.
Meditation Comes in Many Forms
There are many variations in the practice of meditation. Naranjo and Ornstein in On the Psychology of Meditation (1971) recount some of the different forms of meditation. Thus, while certain techniques (like those in the Tibetan Tantra) emphasize mental images, others discourage paying attention to any imagery; some involve sense organs and use visual forms (mandalas) or music, others emphasize a complete withdrawal form the senses; some call for complete interaction, and others involve action, gestures (mudra), walking, and other activities.
Some ordinary experiences may create similar alterations in your consciousness as meditation. Sexual experiences or extreme sports such as skydiving or snowboarding serve as examples. Each of these creates a brief period in which you exist totally in the present moment and in which you break the automatic nature of your behavior and thinking. Such experiences are typically infrequent, however, and they seldom lead to lasting changes in consciousness. We speak of the practice of meditation for this reason. While a single experience of meditation may give a brief respite from a stressful mindset, it takes the continual practice of the experience to effect lasting changes in your consciousness.
In whatever form, the practice of meditation has predictable physiological effects. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School and his colleague, J. Beary (1974), investigated the effects of various consciousness-altering experiences such as meditation. Zen, hatha yoga, sentic cycles, progressive relaxation, and hypnosis with suggested deep relaxation, and found all of them to elicit common physiological changes that contribute to optimal health. Among other changes, these practices decreased oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, muscle tension, breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic rate, and they increased the production of alpha waves in the brain. All of these physiological changes compatible with a lowering of nervous system activity and a state of deep relaxation and inner quietude.
Concentrative Meditation
To meditate using concentrative forms is to dwell upon something. The goal is to focus attention on an object or experience such as your breath, a thought, a mantra, or spiritual passage to block out surrounding distractions and calm and center your mind. Zen masters referred to single pointedness of attention as one goal of such practice. The mind has a voracious appetite for stimulation. It is frenetically scanning the outer world for stimulation. If the external landscape is unstimulating, it turns to its own inner thoughts for stimulation. Because the mind demands stimulation, concentrative meditation is used to hook the mind on a single source of internal stimulation, and by endlessly repeating the source its meaning becomes less and less stimulating. The source becomes a kind of battle to quiet the noisy internal environment and to expand your consciousness beyond the limited concerns.
In repeating the mantra, although you soon enough become habituated to it, you must still be paying enough attention to it for it to fully occupy the mind. Every thought is accompanied by weak muscle activity, that is, the thought causes limited firing of neurons that terminate in muscle tissue. The firing may not be enough to cause visible movements, but it does use energy, and it does involve muscle contractions. If you can preempt tension-arousing thoughts by tying up the mind with low-intensity stimulation, muscle tension is reduced, and profound relaxation takes over.
Common Elements in Concentrative Meditation
Although there are various forms of concentrative meditation, there are elements common to all of them. Whatever form of meditation you choose, use the following guidelines.
Proper Setting
Choose a quiet room with a moderate temperature. Sit in a padded straight-back chair, preferably without arms. Place your feet flat on the floor, approximately shoulder-width apart, and lay hands comfortably on your thighs. Keep the top of your head parallel with the ceiling. Do not cross either your arms or legs. This position should prove comfortable and should activate as few muscles as possible.
Focusing Attention on a Limited Source of Stimulation
Because your goal is to stop or slow the frenetic pace of your thinking, you should narrow the focus of your attention. You could focus your attention on a visual figure such as a mandala (a figure that captures one’s attention) or a sound such as a mantra. Most people will find it easier to focus upon a sound than on a visual figure. Because you will make the sound inaudibly, you should choose a sound that is easy to hear in the mind. Usually sounds that have one or more of the following consonants prove useful for this purpose: “m,” “n,” “ng,” or “h.” Sounds using these consonants tend to resonate and are more easily remembered. To see what we mean, place your fingers on your cheekbones and say “Aum.” Now, “aing,” and then, “humm.” Did you feel a resonance in your cheekbones? Now with your fingers still on your cheekbones, say Coca-Cola. What happened to the resonance?
If you choose to focus on your breath instead on a mantra, either note the air coming down and out of your throat like a swinging door, or concentrate on the expansion and contraction of your stomach with each breath. You also might choose a spiritual passage from the sacred literature of your faith as your focus. The Russian Orthodox Church urges its followers throughout the day to recite the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon us sinners.” Roman Catholics are urged to recite the Hail Mary prayer. Protestants may use the Lord’s Prayer.
Repeat the Source of Stimulation Simultaneously
When any source of stimulation becomes repetitive enough, the brain accommodates to it to decrease its disproportionate reaction to it. The phenomenon is called sensory accommodation. Consequently, as the source is repeated over and over, its ability to excite the brain is increasingly reduced. What is left is a mind hooked on a source of stimulation that has little stimulation value. This practice then eliminates the stressfulness of our thinking and returns us to the quietness of our center.
Resist the Temptation to Evaluate the Experience
Perhaps the most important ingredient in the formula for inducing the meditative state is a passive attitude. You must let go. The Zen masters advise:“Gentle is the way.” Do not fight extraneous thoughts. If your mind wanders, merely return to the silent repetition of the mantra. Very often, beginners complain that they are unable to keep their attention focused on the mantra. If this happens to you, merely be aware of your wandering thoughts and gently bring your attention back to the mantra. Daniel Goleman (1971) suggests a positive way to view wandering thoughts. According to him, there may be a kind of built-in relaxostat that makes us aware of wandering thoughts when they threaten to disturb a state of relaxation. If this is the case, the mind wandering during meditation may actually desensitize you to anxious thoughts by associating them with the feeling of deep relaxation.
Approve of the Altered Mindset
Another crucial elements of concentrative meditation is to begin with an accepting attitude. It is important that you understand the benefits to be derived from the practice. Do not be turned off to the practice by others who maintain that meditation is an occult practice that might weaken your faith. Earlier we have referred to the use of meditation by all of the great religious traditions. Meditation is neutral in respect to theology. It is a mental discipline that allows you to escape the narrow vision of your mind. It creates a freshness to your experience and allows you to gain a clearer grasp of reality.
Opening-Up Meditation
Opening-up meditation is usually referred to as mindfulness meditation. Its goal is a heightened awareness of thought and action. Its emphasis is on strengthening the witness and in living in the present.
The Witness
Mindfulness meditation fosters a dual consciousness. That is, one level of consciousness observing another level of consciousness. Have you ever had a distressing dream in which you comforted yourself by saying something like, “Don’t worry. This is just a dream. You’ll wake up and everything will be okay”? You see, one level of consciousness is turning in on yet another. In the East this meta-level is referred to as the spectator or the witness.
The Western cognitive sciences have a similar concept. They refer to meta-cognition, that is, thought about thought. Mindfulness meditation strengthens this kind of meta-cognition, expands your awareness of what you are doing while you are doing it. This is the key. If you know what you are doing and why you are doing it while you are doing it, you will be less likely to be stressed by what you are doing or to become stressed because of something you’ve done. By being mindful or your actions you are free, if necessary, to change your behavior before you do any damage, thus avoiding unnecessary stressful encounters.
Practicing Mindfulness
Preparation for mindfulness meditation is in part the same as for concentrative forms. It is helpful to create a proper setting for the practice. This usually involves a quiet room, a comfortable chair, and a relatively straight sitting posture with the arms and legs uncrossed. As with concentrative forms, you should not evaluate the experience and you should hold a positive attitude regarding the value of the experience.
Mindfulness meditation differs from the concentrative forms in that it does not attempt to focus attention on a single source of stimulation. With mindfulness you merely follow your attention without trying to direct it. The real purpose of mindfulness is to strengthen the witness by observing what you are doing and thinking while you are doing so. The content of your thinking is unimportant. You merely sit and observe whatever comes to mind. You are learning to pay attention moment to moment instead of focusing on the past or future.
This may sound like a worthless practice, letting the mind wander capriciously. However, there is a discipline to the experience. You are attempting to maintain a dual consciousness. And strangely enough, this seeming laissez-faire approach contributes greatly to a sense of self-control. The Japanese roshi Shunryu Suzuki (1970) said, “To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him (p. 31).” The expanded awareness created by a more active witness allows you to make choices and causes you to feel more control over your life.
There is another sense in which mindfulness increases your sense of control. As you become aware of what you are thinking, the thinking itself tends to cease. It’s like shining a light into a dark room. As the light comes to it, the darkness vanishes. So you sit quietly and merely monitor your thoughts. You may begin to think of a bill that’s unpaid. You observe the thought without trying to stop it, and the thought tends to melt away. Next, you wonder how long you have been meditating. Again, you focus attention on the thought, and it too fades. You continue the process and your mind becomes emptied, quiet, and calm like the surface of a lake. Like the lake, your mind becomes a mirror reflecting what is without distortion.
The benefit of mindfulness meditation is both immediate and long term. The immediate benefit is the reduction of stress and the relaxed, contented feeling state it induces. The long-term benefit from the regular practice of mindfulness if the increased awareness of what you are doing while you are doing it. As we indicated earlier, typically there is a gap between the time you do or think something and your awareness of it. Mindfulness, with the strengthening of the witness, greatly decreases the gap so that you are more immediately aware. Being aware of what you are doing at the moment allows you to avoid many stressful conflicts and saves a great deal of energy.
Active Meditation
It is a mistake to think you can meditate only when you are in a certain meditative situation. Any activity can serve to train the witness. You can exercise the witness while you are driving the car or writing a letter or cooking a meal. All you have to do is be aware of what you are doing while you are doing it.
Understanding Why Meditation is Important
Who should learn to meditate?
Meditation is recommended for anyone who wishes to enjoy deeper peace, greater freedom and mastery of life.
“ I had no idea how powerful meditation is! I look forward to seeing it unfold in our life. I am totally committed to meditating twice a day every day from now on”. ...M.C., Health Care Professional
“Through the practice of meditation I am more aware of myself and my work, more sure of my purpose and direction. The simplicity and depth of this technique make Meditation an invaluable part of my journey of self discovery.” ...J.Q., Nurse
“When I was meditating for the first time, it was a little boring except for the time when I was flying through the clouds.” ...M.G., 9 years old.
“If you were to ask me what was the most important experience of my life, I would say it was learning to meditate. For me that is the most important thing a person can do to restore harmony and evolve to a higher state of consciousness”. ...Deepak Chopra
Why should I meditate?
Meditation is one of the most powerful tools there is to help us restore the harmony within and to gain access to our bodies’ inner intelligence.
In meditation, we rediscover the silence in our mind and make it part of our life. Silence is the birthplace of happiness. It is where we get our bursts of inspiration, our tender feelings of compassion, our sense of love. Meditation is a journey to freedom and self-knowledge.
What are the benefits of meditation?
During Meditation our minds become quiet allowing our bodies to gain the deep rest necessary to release stress and fatigue. In meditation we re-connect with our essence. This connection extends into our daily lives and can result in improved health, more fulfilling relationships, enthusiasm for life and increased creativity.
How will meditation affect my health?
Today doctors are increasingly citing stress as a major factor in such illnesses as depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, cardiac pain, insomnia, diabetes, ulcers, cold, fever, asthma, arthritis and alcoholism. Even though meditation should not be considered a cure by itself, research has shown that it contributes to reducing stress and achieving deep relaxation and a profound state of rest. By reducing stress, meditation has important benefits for a wide range of health problems, and also allows the mind and body to function with maximum effectiveness.
Will I need to change my lifestyle?
Persons of every age, education, culture and religion can learn Meditation. It does not require specific beliefs or a change in behavior or lifestyle. The only change or adjustment we need to make is to allow the time to meditate regularly. Other than that, any changes in our life come spontaneously.