Annexure I
MEDITATION
Everyone seeks peace and harmony because these are what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, disharmony, suffering; and when one suffers from agitation, one does not keep this misery limited to oneself. One keeps distributing it to others as well. The agitation permeates the atmosphere around the miserable person. Everyone who comes into contact with him also becomes irritated and agitated. Certainly, this is not the proper way to live.
One ought to live at peace with oneself and at peace with all others. After all, a human being is a social being. He has to live in society-to life and deal with others. How are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious with ourselves, and to maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefully and harmoniously?
Meditation is the path to achieve this goal of peace and harmony.
What is Mediation?
Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. It is simple but can benefit everybody.
Types of Meditation:
1. Vipasana meditation: A type of meditation in which one sees things as they really are and is one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation. It was taught in India over 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills.
2.Transcendental Meditation: The technique in this type of meditation is simple, natural, effortless, and the procedure has to be practiced for 15-20 minutes in the morning and afternoon while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. During this technique, the individual’s awareness settles down and experiences the simplest form of human awareness – Transcendental Consciousness-where consciousness is open to itself.
3. Concentrative meditation: This technique focuses the attention on the breath, or an image, or a sound (mantra), in order to still the mind and allow a greater awareness and clarity to emerge. This is like a zoom lens in a camera; we narrow our focus to a selected field.
4. Mindfulness meditation: According to Dr. Borysenko, this technique “involves opening the attention to realize the continuously passing parade of sensations and feelings, images, thoughts, sounds, smells, and so forth without becoming involved in thinking about them.” The person sits quietly and simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind, not reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, worries, or images. This helps to gain a more calm, clear, and non-reactive state of mind. Mindfulness meditation can be likened to a wide-angle lens. Instead of narrowing your sight to a selected field as in concentrative meditation, here you will know the entire field.
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