Welcome to On meditation

Episodes

Meditation is an art that originated in Eastern religion and culture. To mediate is to contemplate or reflect in a very calm and focused way. It is usually related to spiritual teaching or practice although in western culture it can be practiced as a secular practice for serenity and relaxation.

Mediation is encouraged in most religions. It is surprising how many religions teach and encourage some form of meditation. When meditation is mentioned, the religions that immediately come to mind are Buddhism and Hinduism. These two religions do heavily practice meditation however religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam also encourage their believers to meditate. These three religions primarily encourage meditation on their scriptures and on the words of their god.

Meditation looks different among differing people. In South Asia, people take on a cross legged posture to meditate. There is a particular posture and position that a person takes up when they are meditating. The image that comes to mind is a person sitting cross-legged with thumb and forefinger touching on both hands with hands raised. This is how some people meditate however not everyone. There is a lot of discipline involved in this type of meditation. This is a discipline that is built up over time, little bit by little bit making it easier to stay focused for extremely long periods of time.

In other religions, meditation can be done in a sitting position, a kneeling position or even lying down. The emphasis is more on where their mind is and what it is focusing on rather than the position of their physical body. Whereas in Eastern tradition, many people may sit together in meditation, scripture-based religions often encourage people to get away and to be alone to meditate.

Meditation is definitely a spiritual practice. There seem to be many benefits to meditating for those that practice it. Religious people often speak of finding peace through meditation and even finding answers or solutions to their woes. If nothing else it calms and soothes a person’s spirits. Recognizing these benefits, some kindergarten teachers have even begun to teach the young children in their classes how to meditate for serenity.

Meditation is about focus. It is about learning how to focus the mind and how to concentrate. No-one is able to just start focusing for long periods of time when they first start meditating. It takes time. Long meditation sessions are something that you build up to gradually until you are at the level where you can spend lots of time doing it.