Meditation is a big thingy, because it cannot be seen. It is a concept and it is individualistic. So you can explain the experiences in very simple terms or cloth it in exotic. You can make a technique of your own and you can propagate it fiercely. You can set rules and you can be an authority.
All this is because, once you close your eyes, what you claim is the truth. There is no x-ray machine or a nano camera which can see the effects of meditation on people and define each technique in a pictorial or graphical form. So you can go to town on your method. Of course you can be well meaning too and the results can be genuine. You can be sleeping too, in a sitting position. Meditation can be a good excuse for lazing and can be a respectable occupation for wasting time. It can also be a noble pursuit in spread of true happiness for all.
All techniques seem to lead to same result; all roads lead to Rome as they say. All routes lead to calming of the mind. Step by step, the techniques seem to lead the practitioner to defined results, till certain stage.
First stage is simple calming of the mind. You sit and concentrate on a single point, with or without your eyes closed; slowly develop a capacity to concentrate and bring the mind to focus. You feel a certain calming effect and the restlessness of the mind reducing. You also see that the thoughts are diminishing and the tendency to be at a different place than the present place is slowly getting controlled. An explanation for this can be found in the fact that neuron activity in the mind reduces and hence a calmness.
Second stage is that slowly you control the thoughts and the mind wandering. You are able to catch the mind in its wandering and able to sit without any thoughts crossing in your mind for some time. Such times can be as low as one minute, but this is a lot. You feel graduating into a second stage where thoughtless sitting is a natural process. You also see that the time gap for meditation keeps increasing and you are able to comfortably double the time without losing patience. You start enjoying a calm mind after the session. This too is a preliminary stage.
Third stage is when you can sit still for longer periods without any need to move and your mind is blank. You are able to look inwards at your body and feel the body through the mind. Even at this stage you are really not in the present moment, you simply have manages to arrest random thoughts and control your mind.
Fourth stage is when you experience what being in the present moment really is. It happens for very little time, may be ten seconds and you distinctly feel the difference. You can clearly see this difference of being in the present which is one step ahead of sitting without any thoughts. You feel a sort of tingling sensation on your entire body, as if the body is electrified; you feel suspended in energy. This again does not last; but you get a clear indication of what the experience is, so that you can recognize it.
Fifth stage is when these moments of being in the now come naturally and stays for longer periods. It is extremely difficult to be in the present for longer. It is like a feeling of plugging into a live wire. It needs much practice to be in the now for steady and longer periods. By practice these periods become longer and longer, such that the entire meditation session can be in the now. However this is long way off.
The sense of the body merging into limitless environs and liquid form of oneness with matter may be purely an invention of the mind and nothing else. But these do happen.
Being in the present for long leads to a permanent sense of peace and joy.
What further does this lead to is not uniform. It leads to wisdom, it leads to equanimity of the mind surely. By hearsay, it leads to knowledge of impermanence at the particle level, but no one who acquired this knowledge talk about it. It leads to seeing beyond the capacity of our sense organs by merging into the whole and to get a glimpse of the pure energy. Gautama the Buddha has seen all his past lives, as per scriptures attributed to him. However this is not for the casual practitioners.
Many talk of chakras and kundalini, powers being liberated, rising and engulfing the body. Many have out of body experiences. However, many of the techniques also describe these as lower level experiences of the mind and limits one's progress. It makes sense. Such experiences can be the games of the mind and may not mean anything. It may be worthwhile pursuing peace and happiness, rather than any exotic experiences.
Finally, it appears intense meditation leads to viewing the whole universe in its true form of oneness and of realizing the particle level energy and nothingness. This is far off and far fetched; saying that we will sit around in a corner with our eyes closed and achieve what scientists achieve by relentless pursuit through experiments in reality may be little of a vodoo; unless we can catch hold of a true yogi and make him talk. However intense meditation has nothing to do with intelligence and hence the yogi will not be interested in any experiments you and me want to pursue. Self realization is about a personal experience, beyond proving anything to anyone.
Till the fifth stage it is a simple achievable result and is worth the effort; it gives tangible results and can have a neurological explanation too. Beyond fifth stage is one's own hard work and a personal experience to keep; like one's intense love life. For carrying on a good life, reaching stage five is more than enough. Curiosity is not sufficient enough cause to kindle effort beyond stage five. Experiences and travels beyond stage five has to happen inside oneself, closed to others.
All this is because, once you close your eyes, what you claim is the truth. There is no x-ray machine or a nano camera which can see the effects of meditation on people and define each technique in a pictorial or graphical form. So you can go to town on your method. Of course you can be well meaning too and the results can be genuine. You can be sleeping too, in a sitting position. Meditation can be a good excuse for lazing and can be a respectable occupation for wasting time. It can also be a noble pursuit in spread of true happiness for all.
All techniques seem to lead to same result; all roads lead to Rome as they say. All routes lead to calming of the mind. Step by step, the techniques seem to lead the practitioner to defined results, till certain stage.
First stage is simple calming of the mind. You sit and concentrate on a single point, with or without your eyes closed; slowly develop a capacity to concentrate and bring the mind to focus. You feel a certain calming effect and the restlessness of the mind reducing. You also see that the thoughts are diminishing and the tendency to be at a different place than the present place is slowly getting controlled. An explanation for this can be found in the fact that neuron activity in the mind reduces and hence a calmness.
Second stage is that slowly you control the thoughts and the mind wandering. You are able to catch the mind in its wandering and able to sit without any thoughts crossing in your mind for some time. Such times can be as low as one minute, but this is a lot. You feel graduating into a second stage where thoughtless sitting is a natural process. You also see that the time gap for meditation keeps increasing and you are able to comfortably double the time without losing patience. You start enjoying a calm mind after the session. This too is a preliminary stage.
Third stage is when you can sit still for longer periods without any need to move and your mind is blank. You are able to look inwards at your body and feel the body through the mind. Even at this stage you are really not in the present moment, you simply have manages to arrest random thoughts and control your mind.
Fourth stage is when you experience what being in the present moment really is. It happens for very little time, may be ten seconds and you distinctly feel the difference. You can clearly see this difference of being in the present which is one step ahead of sitting without any thoughts. You feel a sort of tingling sensation on your entire body, as if the body is electrified; you feel suspended in energy. This again does not last; but you get a clear indication of what the experience is, so that you can recognize it.
Fifth stage is when these moments of being in the now come naturally and stays for longer periods. It is extremely difficult to be in the present for longer. It is like a feeling of plugging into a live wire. It needs much practice to be in the now for steady and longer periods. By practice these periods become longer and longer, such that the entire meditation session can be in the now. However this is long way off.
The sense of the body merging into limitless environs and liquid form of oneness with matter may be purely an invention of the mind and nothing else. But these do happen.
Being in the present for long leads to a permanent sense of peace and joy.
What further does this lead to is not uniform. It leads to wisdom, it leads to equanimity of the mind surely. By hearsay, it leads to knowledge of impermanence at the particle level, but no one who acquired this knowledge talk about it. It leads to seeing beyond the capacity of our sense organs by merging into the whole and to get a glimpse of the pure energy. Gautama the Buddha has seen all his past lives, as per scriptures attributed to him. However this is not for the casual practitioners.
Many talk of chakras and kundalini, powers being liberated, rising and engulfing the body. Many have out of body experiences. However, many of the techniques also describe these as lower level experiences of the mind and limits one's progress. It makes sense. Such experiences can be the games of the mind and may not mean anything. It may be worthwhile pursuing peace and happiness, rather than any exotic experiences.
Finally, it appears intense meditation leads to viewing the whole universe in its true form of oneness and of realizing the particle level energy and nothingness. This is far off and far fetched; saying that we will sit around in a corner with our eyes closed and achieve what scientists achieve by relentless pursuit through experiments in reality may be little of a vodoo; unless we can catch hold of a true yogi and make him talk. However intense meditation has nothing to do with intelligence and hence the yogi will not be interested in any experiments you and me want to pursue. Self realization is about a personal experience, beyond proving anything to anyone.
Till the fifth stage it is a simple achievable result and is worth the effort; it gives tangible results and can have a neurological explanation too. Beyond fifth stage is one's own hard work and a personal experience to keep; like one's intense love life. For carrying on a good life, reaching stage five is more than enough. Curiosity is not sufficient enough cause to kindle effort beyond stage five. Experiences and travels beyond stage five has to happen inside oneself, closed to others.
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