Meditation

Most people tend to believe that all types of meditations are the same. It is common to hear about the benefits of “meditation,” but most people don’t know that there are different benefits to be obtained based specifically on the type of meditation practice pursued. One person may practice Vipassana meditation a.k.a. “mindfulness” and reap numerous benefits, while another may practice Transcendental meditation and get an entirely different beneficial effect.

Focusing the attention on a single object during the whole meditation session. This object may be the breath, a mantra, visualisation, part of the body, external object, etc. As the practitioner advances, his ability to keep the flow of attention in the chosen object gets stronger, and distractions become less common and short-lived. Both the depth and steadiness of his attention are developed.

Examples of these are Samatha (Buddhist meditation), Loving Kindness Meditation, Chakra Meditation, Kundalini Meditation, Sound Meditation, Mantra Meditation, Pranayama, some forms of Qigong, and many others.
In some meditation Instead of focusing the attention on any one object, we keep it open, monitoring all aspects of our experience, without judgment or attachment. All perceptions, be them internal (thoughts, feelings, memory, etc.) or external (sound, smell, etc.), are recognised and seen for what they are. It is the process of non-reactive monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment, without going into them. Examples are Mindfulness meditation, Vipassana, as well as some types of Taoist Meditation.

Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity, physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot be opened by effort because effort creates tension and tension is the cause of our whole misery. Hence this is something very fundamental to be understood that meditation is not effort.

Meditation is nothing but trying to clean your being, trying to become fresh and young, trying to become more alive and more alert. If you are afraid of meditation it means you are afraid of life, you are afraid of awareness, and the resistance comes because you know that if you move into meditation, something is bound to happen. If you are not resisting at all, it may be because you don't take meditation very seriously, you don't take meditation very sincerely. Then you can play around: what is there to be afraid of?