Fragrant Heart Blog

Elisabeth's reflections on the benefits of meditation

Why take up a meditation practice?

Posted: 23 Nov 2007

There are all sorts of reasons why people begin meditation. For me it was part of my spiritual journey. Once I had tasted the profound peace I experienced on my first ten day retreat I have never stopped my formal practice. That doesn't mean that from that day on I lived in peace and bliss. Far from it. My responses to life have presented me with many challenges over the years. Sometimes I remained centred and balanced, other times I caved in under the emotional turmoil.

What then is the most appropriate action to take when as the old saying goes, "you have taken one step forward and two steps backwards"? You have "lost it" in reactive behaviour to someone or something else. You may feel angry, sad, resentful, despairing, and overcome with many chaotic emotions. In fact you are feeling down right miserable.

First of all don't give up your meditation practice even though the temptation not to meditate is very strong, especially if when you sit you become even more agitated than you are already. Accept the agitation, the clamour of thoughts to fill your mind. Accept and allow what is happening, "Oh, so this is what's going on right now. Interesting. This is how my body feels when I'm in this state." Watch your breath as it comes and goes, coming back to the breath each time your mind wanders. As your mind settles and becomes more focused, scan your body. If you are agitated there will be places in your body where you will feel very strong sensations. They may for example, be in your throat, your heart, your stomach, your head or some other place in your body. Be with the sensations as much as you can. Observe them. Breathe into them. Accept them as they are. The tendency is to try to get away from any discomfort. It is natural for humans to do that. Humans avoid pain as much as they can and will over medicate (yes, medicate not meditate), over eat, over drink, over exercise, over watch TV, or do something else to distract them from what they feel as pain and discomfort. Many studies show that when people observe the sensations in their bodies they are able to manage both physical and emotional pain more effectively.

Next time you become destabilized by reacting to something or someone else take some time out. It may only be for five minutes but that may be enough time to centre yourself again. Meditate by focusing on your breath. Observe the breath. As thoughts arise observe the thoughts, as sensations arise in your body observe the sensations. Keep on coming back to your breath. Just be aware letting go of all judgments. Know that the thoughts and the sensations are all rising, and falling, and passing away. See if you can, even if only for a moment, sit back and watch the movie with detachment.

Where does meditation take you?

Posted: 2 Nov 2007

Accept and allow whatever is happening in your meditation practice. As I read through forums and links to meditation I come across people who are very caught up in the phenomena that will arise in meditation practice. Such phenomena as flashing lights, voices, visions, symbols, out of body experiences often happen in meditation practice. Sometimes these heightened experiences are very pleasant and after coming out of the meditation practice a person may feel they have been in an altered state. Then what can occur is a desire to repeat that in the next meditation session. It usually doesn't happen and then there can often be great disappointment. I have seen this time and time again over the years at meditation retreats. Some students could not accept that such a phenomenon is like anything else; rising and falling and passing away. They became attached to what they had experienced. Often the ego would be convincing them that they were special or chosen in some way. They would talk about their mind-altering experiences to whoever would listen and it was a way of making them feel superior to others. If you do have any of these experiences accept and allow them to be there. Stay fully present in your one pointed focus. Whatever you do refrain from trying to recapture that experience. Treat it like any other that arises in your practice. Approach each meditation session without any expectation of how it should be. Accept and allow and stay alert in momentary awareness.

"The past is no more and the future is never going to be, so this is the moment. You can celebrate it. You can love, you can pray, you can sing, you can dance, you can meditate, you can use it as you want. And the moment is so small that if you are not very alert it will slip out of your hands, it will be gone. So, to be, one has to be alert."

Osho