What is meditation?
Meditation is a skill to move the mind from a state of chaos to a state of bliss. From restlessness to deep restfulness. In day-to-day activities, the mind gathers lots of impressions, anxieties and tensions. These don’t allow us to be happy. They block our intuition. They block our joy. The impressions stain the mind and it causes lots of psychosomatic problems.
So, meditation is a skill to make the mind quiet in a short period of time. In 15-20 minutes, you can experience deep rest, which is deeper than the deepest. The art of meditation boosts our mental alertness, physical well-being, and elevates emotional harmony.
Meditation is a state from where everything has come up and to which everything goes. It is the inner silence where you feel the joy, the happiness, the calmness.
Three Types of Knowledge
- One is the knowledge we get through our senses. The five senses bring us knowledge. By looking, we get knowledge, by hearing, by touching, smelling by tasting we get knowledge. We gain knowledge from our senses. This is through sensory perception we gain knowledge. This is one level of knowledge.
- The second level of knowledge is through intellect. The knowledge we gain through intellect is superior to that of the senses. We see the sun setting and sun rising but through our intellect, we know the sun is neither setting nor rising. So intellectual knowledge is superior.
- There is another knowledge which is even superior than intellectual knowledge and that is intuitive knowledge. Something in the pit of your stomach tells you. That something comes from a deep silence. From that depth, creativity comes and discovery comes. This all comes from that level of consciousness, which is the third level of knowledge.
Meditation opens the door to this third level of intuitive knowledge.
Three Levels of Joy
When our senses engage in sense objects, our eyes are busy looking at things, and our ears are hearing then we get some joy but the capacity to enjoy our senses goes down. It is true with all organs – the joy from them has its own limitations.
The second level of joy is when you do something creative, and discover something, when you write a poem or you discover some new dishes while cooking.
The third level of joy is one that does not diminish. It does not come from the senses and not from creativity. Knowledge, peace and joy. These three things come from another level. From where they come – the source of it is meditation. Meditation opens us to the third level of joy.
Stages in Meditation
In the beginning, meditation is just relaxation and in the second step, meditation gives you energy. You feel more energetic. In the third step, meditation brings creativity. The fourth step of meditation brings enthusiasm and joy and the fifth step of meditation is indescribable. It’s oneness with the whole universe. Don’t stop before the fifth step.
10 Practical Benefits of Meditation
Meditation, when practiced diligently yields the following benefits:
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Mental Clarity
Meditation is the solution to create a serene mind which is above craving and aversion. You know if there are ripples on the surface of a lake, we cannot see the depth. Similarly, unless the mind is restful, we cannot experience the harmony and union within us. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth.
Meditation makes you sharper, happier, and intuitive. You want intuition. You want the right thought to come to you at the right time.
When the mind is free from lust, greed, possessiveness and arrogance. When the mind is in the pure form with which we are born, then nature listens to you and you get mental clarity.
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Good Health
What is health? What is being healthy? When one is physically strong, mentally calm, stable, and emotionally soft inside, then one is healthy. If the mind is stiff, the mind is judgemental, then it is not mental health.
Being healthy is the smooth flow from the innermost to the outer and vice versa, from the outer to the inner. In Sanskrit, there is a word Swasthya. Swasthya means health. It also means being in oneself. Established in the self is the word for health. How to do so? The answer is pranayama and meditation.
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Happiness
Happiness is right here and now. And the best way to find it is through meditation. It improves our minds, and health and brings more happiness. The best form of worship (Puja) is to be happy. If you are unhappy, even the moon irritates you, sweet things nauseate, and music disturbs you. When you are calm and centred, inside noise is musical, clouds are magical and rain is liquid love. So be happy!
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Sharpened Focus
Smile, laughter and meditation are privileges of human life. Meditation sharpens the mind through focus and expands the mind through relaxation. A mind that has become no mind, and has come back to its source is meditation. Meditation is the journey from movement to stillness, from sound to silence.
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Enhanced Energy
Deep rest and dynamic activity are complementary to each other. How can you be dynamically active, if you have not given deep rest to your mind and body? Someone who has never slept cannot feel energetic at all.
When we are engaged in so many activities, we seem to collect mental dust and the energy goes down. Then it is time to recharge again, to meditate. Meditation is getting back to our source which is enormous and unfathomable.
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Reduced Stress
Stress is too much to do and too little time or energy. When we have too much to do, with not enough time and energy, then we get stressed. So, either you reduce your workload, which doesn’t seem to be a possibility these days, or you increase your time – this is not possible either. So, what we are left with is to increase your energy levels.
Now how do we increase our energy levels?
The right amount of food
Neither too much nor too little—a balanced diet with enough carbohydrates and proteins.
The right amount of sleep
6–8 hours of sleep—not more, not less.
Deep breathing exercises
This increases energy.
The most impactful way to increase your energy is
A few moments of a meditative mind
A few minutes of deep relaxation—conscious deep relaxation is what can be called meditation. A few minutes of meditation can relieve all types of stress. If you meditate in the morning and evening for 15–20 minutes, it is good enough. It will keep you going.
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Unlocked Creativity
You must have noticed when you are agitated when you are in a crowd when you are talking all the time, nothing creative comes out of you. To do some creative content you have to go to a corner where there is nobody, no one disturbs you then you sit and maybe you tap your temple, and then something comes out of it.
Meditation is the deep experience of diving inside. Breathing exercises and meditation help to unlock the creativity within you.
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Fulfilled Desires
Your ability to enjoy also increases by meditation and your ability to fulfil your desires also increases. When you don’t want anything for yourself you are able to fulfil other’s desires.
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Improved Presence
There Is something Google cannot give you. That is vibrations. We convey more through our vibrations than through our bodies. But neither at home nor at school does anybody teach us how to improve our vibrations. How to feel very positive; that is where meditation comes into play. Meditation makes the vibration from our body, from every cell of our body more positive.
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Happier Relationships
Meditation helps to change your perspective. It helps to change the way you perceive things. How you interact with people, what you say. How you react or act in different situations. It brings clarity to your mind and it helps you in your relationship with people around you.
Video: Why You Should Meditate Daily!
In Conclusion
You know, if you look at the benefits that meditation brings into your life, we feel it is all the more relevant, and all the more needed in these times. In ancient times, meditation was used for enlightenment, to find the Self.
But meditation is also a way to get rid of miseries, to overcome problems. Meditation has been the way to improve one’s abilities. If you see the social ills of today — the stress and tension. They call for one to meditate.
The more responsibility you have in life, the more the need for meditation. If you have nothing to do, you may not need meditation so much – because you have nothing to do. The busier you are, the less time you have, the more work you have, the more desires you have, the more ambitions you have – all the more you need to be meditative. Meditation not only relieves you of stress and strain, but it also enhances your ability to face challenges.
Meditation brings better health to us. Meditation is food for the soul. It is the energizer for the mind. It is a lifeline for the body. It keeps your body in shape, helps your nervous system, helps your mind, improves your alertness, improves your perception and helps you to express yourself properly. What more do you want? Everything has come!
So the benefits of meditation are many! You can say if you want to be happy and healthy, you need to meditate.
Start your journey to health and happiness today with Sahaj Samadhi Dhyana Yoga!
