MEDITATION IS NOT CONCENTRATION…………

Concentration is not dhyana or meditation as is understood by many. Many consider concentration practices as meditation practices for the simple reason that concentration leads to a state of thoughtlessness - a state which normally is identified with a state of meditation. Though it’s true that a concentration practice will make our thoughts to disappear but what also happens at the same time is loss of one’s awareness. For example let us concentrate on ‘third eye’ (the spot between the eyebrows, traditionally known as ‘Shiv Netra’) or for that matter on anything and you will find that though the thoughts disappear but at the same time you also lose your awareness - please try and see. Meditation on the other hand is an exercise, the sole objective of which is to gain awareness and not lose awareness. Instead of concentrating if one is meditating then may be the thoughts may still come in but he will not lose his awareness – please try and see. Precisely for the reason that concentration leads to loss of awareness this cannot be termed a meditation practice. Similarly practices involving concentration or focus cannot be termed as meditation practices – for example focusing on one’s breath. Instead if we want this to be a meditative practice then we should be saying that we should rather become aware of our breath and not focus on breathing. Focusing on breathing or for that matter anything is concentration but becoming aware of breathing is meditation. While you concentrate you may be free of thoughts but still this cannot be called as meditation  

Thus dhyana or meditation is not concentration but pure awareness. Meditation is awareness and awareness is meditation. In fact any practice which empowers one’s awareness can be termed a meditation practice. An enlightened being is one who has become all awareness and is meditative all the time i.e. – he has become naturally aware or said to have reached the heightened state of awareness.

Another aspect is that when we practice concentration our consciousness or chetna is fixed or stuck with the object of our concentration but when we are aware or meditative then our consciousness is clearly separated. In that separated state one becomes an observer (witness or sakshi) which is our real identity. Though concentration is needed for our functioning effectively in the world or for achieving certain things in our life but if the goal is Liberation then concentration cannot help take us beyond, so called MUKTI or MOKSHA i.e. becoming free from the cycle of birth and death. Concentration is thus limited but awareness or meditation is unlimited / boundless /all-inclusive and all pervasive one which makes the person meditating to be one with everything……………….BeAware

Next Post: In your thoughts lie your attachments.

MEDITATION MEANS YOGA OR UNION WITH THE EXISTENCE…….

Meditation means YOGA. Yoga here means union or being one with everything and not in the sense as we usually understand i.e. yogasanas. One can therefore say that meditation is Yoga and Yoga is meditation. An enlightened being is one who has become one with the existence. There are four ways to achieve this state of union or yoga – karma yoga (yoga of action), bhakti yoga (yoga of devotion); gyaan yoga (yoga of intelligence) and kriya yoga (yoga of internal action). Whatever the yoga or combination of these one may follow but the purpose of all this is to achieve the state of union with the existence. In that state the person is in tune with the existence i.e. to have become pure awareness or an observer or a witness or a simply knower as we know them by different names. The five bodies which we are made of are – annamaya kosha (physical body), manomaya kosha (mental or mind body), pranmaya kosha (energy body); vigyanmaya kosha (transitory body) and anandmaya kosha (bliss body). In the state of yoga we experience bliss for which we have to work upon our first three bodies which are physical in nature. Once these physical bodies are in perfect tune then only we can experience blissfulness or Ananda or state of union with rest of the existence, the so called turiya state. When one is meditative then his suffering ends because in that state he becomes a part of the whole and hence is in touch with the reality or truth. That’s why one can say that meditation is awareness and awareness is meditation…………………….BeAware

Next post - Meditation is not Concentration

ONE CANNOT DO MEDITATION…………..

Meditation is a conscious sleep – fully aware but at the same time both body and mind are fully rested. Sleep is also in a way meditation but unawares and unconscious. What we call sleep is unawareness because in sleep we lose our consciousness and we are not aware of our existence. However when the same thing happens in awareness, we call it a meditation. Meditation bhitar se jagne ki kala hai - meditation is to become aware from within. Being meditative or meditation becoming a quality means being fully aware 24/7 – also known as enlightened state i.e. the state in which one has just become a gyaata (knower) or saakshi (witness) or drashta (observer) to everything. The important thing about meditation is that one cannot do meditation like one cannot have a sleep by trying to sleep because meditation is not a doing. Watching one’s thoughts or one’s breath too is not a meditation because watching also becomes a doing. Meditation is a non-doing i.e. you are not doing anything both at the body and mind level but you are simply there. In fact all the saadhna or practices are to prepare and move the saadhak in that direction only so that meditation can happen naturally like a sleep. We can only practice doing meditation which means to practice sitting still - still in body, still in mind (includes both thoughts and emotions) but fully conscious and alive. When we have done enough practice of this then only can the meditation happen which means to have become pure awareness…………BeAware  

ALERTNESS IS NOT AWARENESS…..…….

We generally confuse alertness with awareness which is not true. Alertness is not awareness or being alert is not being aware. Alertness is of the mind which is rather needed for survival in the world. In fact, in terms of alertness we are nowhere close to the alertness of many other creatures, for example a dog; cat or a snake who happen to be far more alert than us. I want to differentiate the two with an example – while we sit in meditation, the whole objective is to be in the knowing i.e. to be aware of whatever that happens within or around us at the level of the body, mind (thoughts n emotions) and energy level. Hence to be on toes or being watchful for all these happenings is alertness and not awareness but to simply be in the knowing of such happenings if any, without reacting to or entangling with them, is what we refer to as awareness or meditation. Awareness is far more fundamental to our existence and to attain and sustain the state of pure awareness is the only objective of all the spiritual processes and practices. Alertness is like a watchman being alert to the movement of suspicious characters or one being alert to any specific danger etc. Alertness is thus a survival technique. Alertness and awareness are therefore two different dimensions altogether. If one is alert he may not be aware but when one is established in awareness then one is in the knowing of everything. Awareness means to be here in the PRESENT or NOW. One who is here in the PRESENT or NOW becomes a kshana or sunya as Buddha called it which means no mind or gap between two thoughts. While one is in kshana, he is free from suffering as opposed to a time, also a name for mind, which we are usually in and hence the suffering………….BeAware.