the art of meditation

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www.mysticism.nl

Mystical experiences can occur spontaneously on sudden decisive moments during one's lifetime. Most people have on more than one occasion been in contact with the Divine, be it through music or any other art form, or by thinking, talking or reading about Divinity. Sometimes godliness can even break through on unaware moments, outside any artistic or intellectual setting, when you expect it the least. Different people have reported experiences of a mystical kind outside a definite setting. They were overwhelmed by a sense of completeness and of fulfilment and became suddenly aware of a reason and a plan behind the diversity of everyday reality. In the mystical experience they saw with the inner eye a different reality, that they experienced as giving reason to their lifes.

So for most people the mystical experience is something spontaneous occurring only at certain moments or even rarely. But for the mystic the mystical experience is a way of life. Because in the tradition of mysticism there is developed a technique, that enables him to live in close contact with the Divine. By using this technique mystical experiences occur more frequently and in the end the mystic even adopts all the characteristics of the Divine by way of this technique. It's called meditation.

There are a lot of misconceptions about meditation. It's very important not to have these wrong ideas about it when you are planning to start with meditation. Otherwise you will not know what to expect. When some difficulties or striking feats occur you probably would not know how to react to them. In the worst case you will give up and quit the Mystical Way before having embarked on it sufficiently.

So let's answer some Frequently Asked Questions about meditation and see if we can get a clear picture of this art.

1 What is meditation?

Let's start by stating what it is not. Meditation is not a natural way of getting hallucinations equivalent to drug experiences. When you meditate you will not see mental images of a distorted nature or enchanting colours or hear music out of paradise. It will not lead you to a sudden euphoria. You will not begin to laugh or to sing out loud or to 'speak in tongues'. If you expect these things to happen then meditation will prove to be a disappointment for you. Meditation is not an alcohol or a drug.

It's also no fast cure for ad hoc diseases. Sometimes it will cure a headache or still a pain in your spine, but mostly meditation functions not instantaneously but in the long run. It will take away all your future headaches because it removes the cause of those diseases, but you need to have patience, because no cure is provided after one session. Only months or even years later you'll begin to realise that you never had a headache again. But by then headaches aren't your concern anymore.

Furthermore meditation is not the mental equivalent of a yoga asana or a gymnastic exercise. It's not a physical position you set yourself in without any preconditioned mental attitude. You can't do it casually in between two cups of coffee, but it demands a serious attitude. You'll have to develop a profound understanding of how it works (but don't worry: meditation itself will provide you this understanding out of itself).

2 Ok but what is meditation then?

Meditation is the stilling down of your nervous system by an act of will. Because we human beings are conscious we are the only species capable of controlling their own nervous system. Meditation is the technique to do it. When you meditate your body and mind (your whole physical and psychic system) become stilled down. All your physical activity, like your blood circulation or your metabolic functions, slows down and becomes tranquil. This calming down of physical activity affords your body the opportunity to recuperate. This is the rest your body needs. Because the rest your body gets in sleep is not profound enough to eliminate all tensions your body has gathered during the day. Meditation is a more thorough purger.

Body and mind are one. Meditation quiets the mind and by quieting the mind the body becomes still and harmonious again. But when the body becomes quiet the mind also comes to rest. So both body and mind help each other in finding their equilibrium again. It works both ways.

3 When does meditation start?

That's difficult to decide. Since body and mind are one, you can say that meditation starts by sitting down and placing your body in an unmoving position. And for very trained practitioners this really is the case. They start to meditate a soon as they sit down and close their eyes. Their body is so used to the joy of calming down that it reacts instantaneously. Out of its own the body starts to meditate without even the mantra giving the first impetus. But this happens only after you have meditated for over a couple of years. In the beginning the meditations starts after you have seated yourself, closed your eyes and started reciting the mantra.

4 In what position must I meditate?

In the East most spiritual people meditate in the Lotus position, with both feet on the other thigh, but for most Westerners this is a rather difficult position. So it's better to look for a more convenient one like sitting in a comfortable chair or on your bed with a cushion in your back. Be sure it's a comfortable position, that allows your body to relax as much as possible for 25 minutes or so. That's the most important thing. But it must be an alert position also. Not like the one you watch television in after a hard days work, with you spine curved and your chin resting on your breast. So sit straight up with your neck not in a curve and in the length of your spine. You can rest your hands on your lap. It's not compulsory to lay them in a prescribed position. Just lay them at ease. The keyword for this whole operation must be: relaxation. Your body must be allowed to relax itself in a comfortable way.

5 Why can't I lay down?

When you lay down, your body falls asleep more easily. To fall asleep is not a great fault (it's very pleasant actually), because sleeping is also a mean to relax and to recuperate. But in meditation we want to go a step further than sleep. The effects of meditation are far more greater. So we are looking for a fourth state of consciousness (besides waking, dreaming and deep sleep). So don't lay down or you'll fall asleep just when you've got started. People with a sleep disorder would be very glad to have a natural mean to fall asleep and they would welcome all techniques that would provide it, but to these people I must also give the advise not to lay down. They will find that after some weeks of meditation their ability to sleep comes back, because their body is getting used again to relaxation. The practice is: when you meditate you sit, when you go asleep you lay down. If you have a good meditation , sleep will come naturally in the evening.

6 Must I keep me eyes open or closed?

All day long we live an outward life. Our senses are open and with alertness focused on the outside world. This takes a lot of energy and a lifetime of alertness can wear you out. So what we do in meditation is turning the senses inward. We close our eyes. We search for a place were it is quiet and were our ears wont be bothered . Closing our senses for the daily routine is very essential.

7 Must I sit in a quiet room all by myself?

After 12 years of meditation it has become so very easy and natural for me that I can do it everywhere, even in a crowded marketplace or in a room with people. So with routine comes the ability to meditate wherever you want. I've meditated daily in trains, travelling from work to my home, or in plains and busses. Literally everywhere you can sit, you can meditate. But when you are just taking up meditation, you are very focused and concentrated how it will work and if it will work. It's difficult in the beginning to get to the state of samadhi (the state of deep internal rest were your whole system becomes connected with the divine) and you need all the quietness of the outside world to help you. So go to a place of your own were you can't be bothered or distracted for half an hour and make a place comfortable for your self. Isn't it a great thing to have a little place in the world that belongs to you and that can comfort you? It's not a sin against the people with whom you live to demand a little place of your own. On the contrary they will respect you for it, because they feel that everyone's in need of such a place. Besides they will get a lot in return, once you have taken up meditation!

8 How many times a day must I meditate?

The best thing to do is twice a day, in the morning before you go to work and in the afternoon after you've finished your work, before dinner time. That way you will start refreshed and full of energy everything you have to do and in the afternoon will you rest the best way you can. You will notice that after meditation in the afternoon you aren't that exhausted anymore and the evening can be filled with all kinds of worthwhile activities. Meditation is the best way to keep fit.

Sometimes it is not possible for different reasons to meditate twice a day. Then don't. It's not a sin to skip a meditation sometimes. But you will find that during the years the advise of meditating twice a day is a good one. You will not consider it a plight, but you'll learn to love it and you'll look forward to it. For me the meditation sessions are the most beautiful moments of the day. They are like the holidays you look forward to in the month of May.

9 Ok I'm sitting on my own, very comfortable with my eyes closed.

Now meditation starts with the use of a mantra. A mantra is a sound that has no meaning. It helps you to quiet down your mental activity. For the old Indians the meditation sound was a holy thing, so sometimes they used the names of their gods for it. But they also thought that from the mantra sound the whole world originated. They called it the primal sound and described it as consisting of the letters O and M, to which they conveyed a definite power of its own. You can use this mantra and it is very effective actually. First you can recite it verbally and aloud as OOOOHHHMMMMM, with long protracted sounds. Then slowly quiet down till the sound is only heard inwardly and all activity from your mouth, tongue and breath ceases.

The mantra is only a mean to distract the attention of your thought. So you can use every sound you want, provided

a) it has no meaning at all that can stir up some thoughts in your brain

b) it sounds nice to you (avoid sounds composed with u's and i's, they aren't that 'smooth')

c) you stick to the mantra you have chosen (your system must get used to this sound)

10 How must I use this mantra?

Once you have chosen your sound, just let it come naturally in your meditations, in the same way as a thought comes up. Now, apart from a mantra having no meaning and a thought having meaning, a further difference between a mantra and a thought is this: a thought is (mostly) involuntary and a mantra is voluntary. So whenever you are conscious of having a thought, replace the thought by the mantra. Thoughts have meaning, so they will generate other meaningful thoughts. They serve as a motivation to set up a thought pattern you want to solve. You can't let it go. They are semantic entities caught up in a chain of cause and consequence. They can only be stopped by something which is absurd. The mantra serves this purpose being just a meaningless sound.

Now your system (not only your brain, but your entire physical system) rejoices when it notices that a mantra is replacing thoughts. How come? Your system is something capable of great exertions. It is trained in coping with all life situations, even threatening ones. Especially when you work in stressful circumstances your system is under a lot of pressure. But of its kind your system likes to be lazy and on holiday. It needs to be because it must gather new energy. It can't be working all the time. That would be absurd. So when it notices that it doesn't have to work, that it doesn't have to think anymore, a natural joy fills the brain and out of its own it helps you in letting the meditation work. You want to be happy, at ease and calm again (after how many years?) but even more than you your system wants it! Because he's doing all the work for you.

So from the moment you start the mantra your own nervous system will help you. The great art of meditation consist of letting this happen. Meditation is no more than that: letting your own system make you calm again. So you will notice that after a couple of minutes reciting the mantra inwardly your thoughts quiet down. When the years pass you will use the mantra less and less till at the end just closing your eyes is enough to let you fall in samadhi. But in the beginning you'll have to use the mantra a lot. Because your brain is so used to thinking that first it must loose its addiction.

11 How will I know that the meditation is working?

No single meditation is a failure. Every meditation is a success, even if it lasts only a couple of minutes. Your concern about the meditation stems from the fact that in the beginning the mantra doesn't seem to work. Your head gets overwhelmed and crowded with thoughts. It's even making you angry, because you want to be calm and thoughtless, like you've been told it'll work. But if you stick to the precept of thinking a mantra every time you are conscious of having thoughts, meditation is working. Now this is how it works when streams of thoughts are coming up after you have thought your mantra: thinking is not only activity for the brain but it is also the way the brain is loosing its tensions. Compare it to a string you have wound up. When you let it go it will make a lot of activity, even a violent one with squeaks and all. So the tension of the string can only be solved with a lot of noise and activity.

The same way with your brain. Once the mantra is doing its work, your brain is loosing its tension. Now the more tensed it is, the more it will 'squeak', just like the string we've compared it to. No need to worry. It's a very natural and physical process actually. Don't stop and you'll notice that after some time the thoughts will quiet down.

Have you ever noticed that during the first week of your holidays your sleep is overwhelmed by dreams? After a period of hard work your brain is finally given the opportunity to relax and to recuperate. Now instead of becoming calm instantenously it first has to loose all of its energy. It does so by an amount of increased energy at the moment of its deepest relaxation. Hence all your dreams, even your nightmares. It's just a sign that a recuperation process is at work and that your system is loosening up all its tensions. No need to worry about your dreams. It's something natural even if it's frightening you.

12 I've been meditating now for a couple of weeks or so, but still my thoughts keep busying me and I still can't get calm.

It doesn't mean that the meditation is not working. It simply means that your brain was very tensed till the moment you took up meditation. Some people have a healthy nervous system and were already in a balanced and harmonious state when they started to meditate. These people have at the unset good results with meditation and already after a first session will they find it beneficial. But most people have gathered in a lesser or greater degree neuroses during their lifetime and for these people it will take some time to find it working. But intuitively they will sense rather soon that it is a good thing they are doing. Your system will say yes before you'll do.

13 Is the effect of meditation always a positive and joyous one?

This is an important point. Your body and nervous system have accumulated all kinds of tensions. You can compare your system to a rope with different kinds of knots in it. There are small knots, like the little insults you have received during your lifetime or the little stupid things you have said or done one time or another, and there are big knots, like the traumatic experiences you've had when you were assaulted some years ago or when you lost a dear one over the years. All these knots are en massed in your system. They are there. You can't deny them.

In order to be happy and mentally (and physically) healthy again you have to get rid of these knots. Your nervous system must become unlaced again. Now this unlacing, this unknotting so to speak, is accompanied by great upheavals from your nervous system. Sometimes all the unpleasant thoughts experienced in all kinds of traumatic circumstances, that you've repressed during your lifetime, will come to the surface again. This is nothing to be afraid of. It's just the unknotting of the knot. Don't react to the fears or to the momentary depressions it will generate. They will pass and will leave you calm and cleaned of your problems.

Have you ever noticed that when you weep about something, that at first you feel miserable and that you have the most depressing thoughts about your self and the world? But have you also noticed that after some weeping you can sometimes feel reborn again and even laugh out loud and see your whole life in a different perspective? Weeping is also a mean of destressing your nervous system. But the must glorious mean of destressing is meditation.

So sometimes it can make you depressed or it can make you weep or feel lonely and miserable. Meditation can even generate violent physical upheavals like trembling or convulsive shocks of your spine. But these are like the 'weep feelings'. They are just a phase in the destressing process. Nothing to alarm or upset you. Just wait and they will pass. Joy will follow guaranteed. There is a famous mystic who has written about these phases in his meditations and he called it 'the black night of the soul'. But he also wrote about the ecstatic feelings that followed upon this 'black night'.

14 When I have these depressive feelings or these physical reactions, what am I to do?

Sometimes the destressing effects of the meditation get too violent or too depressive. In that case it's advisable to stop meditation for a day or so in order to have some relieve and to feel the beneficial effects of the meditation. For you will notice after your small stop that the meditation has done its work aright. When you've calmed down from all the purgative upheavals of your nervous system, you will notice that you have become and are becoming a different, a more healthy and stable person. Soon you want to take up meditation again because you feel that this is the only way to get rid of all your anxieties and your frustrations. Intuitively you will sense that what you've gone through was a great boon to your health.

But not every persons has these effects. There are persons who never had depressive thoughts after a meditation. They were deeply calmed from the moment they started . Because they were already in balance before they started to meditate. These people will have the quickest effects. They can be full grown mystics in a year or so.

But most people have accumulated a lot of tensions during their life time. For them it will take some time to be free of stress again. And sometimes they have to go through some ordeals to get to that point. But they will always have the conviction that they are treading the right path.

15 What are the effects of meditation in the long run? Why am I doing it?

There is a simple answer to this question: you are heading towards perfection. When your nervous system is purged of all its tensions, than all the wrong feelings, that have obstructed your well being for as long as you can remember, disappear. First you will notice that you don't worry as much as you used to do. You aren't that nervous anymore. Your sleep will become very natural and deep. No more hours of tolling and tossing in your bed. You'll feel full of energy during the day time and you are very effective and concentrated in your work. You are becoming self assured and full of pride, but with no arrogance whatsoever but full of love and humility.

Than something happens which is the set goal of all mystical traditions: slowly your ego will melt away and vanish. You are not bothered anymore by the thought quid ad me?, what is in it for me? with all its frustrations and disappointments that go with it. When there is no ego involved all your actions will be pure and godlike. And then (surely an astonishing effect; it's something you wished for your whole life, but never were able to attain) all things will come your way: happiness, fulfilment, satisfaction, respect, love but also good luck and material well fare. It will come your way but you will not be attached to it. Because all that counts from now on is the happiness you feel inside.

You will be eager to do good to your fellow human beings. The people around you will feel the love that you have for them and will give you love in return. So your well being is increased not only from the inside but from the outside also. Everywhere you go you will make people friendly. Because they will recognise the good heart you have. For a mystic is one who has become pure again. When you give your life to meditation you will regain the innocence you had when you were a child.

16 Are there any religious effects in the technique of meditation?

Maybe you aren't a religious person. Maybe you start to meditate only because you want to be in physical and mental good shape. That's fine. Meditation has these effects. It's great for your health and well being. It's good to start meditation with these wishes. Because it's something very easy and mundane to long for. Yes, your health will be restored. Yes, the pain inside will go away. No big deal, the mature mystic says. Because that's our birthright to be so. But when your health is restored go on with your meditations and wait and see.... Something (maybe only after you've practised it for years) will happen that will alter your whole perception of reality.

Because what you are doing when you meditate is this: in samadhi you lay contact with the source from were you come. In the very depth of meditation you will experience the fountain of life, which you can call God or Brahman or the Force or anything you want to call it (it's power is beyond names). And when you have experienced it you will discover a new reality hidden from the sensory world, but a reality more real than you see with your eyes.

When you have experienced this reality (and this experience will be accompanied by feelings of oneness, feelings of immutability, feelings of timelessness and eternity) than the great glory of meditation will grow to its fulfilment. You will be overwhelmed by sheer ecstasy. But just wait and see.....

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