In today’s challenging and busy world, don’t you wish you knew how to quieten your mind and focus on yourself? In On Meditation, renowned spiritual leader, Sri M, answers all your questions on the practice and benefits of meditation. With his knowledge of all the various schools of practice and the ancient texts, he breaks down the complicated practice into a simple and easy method that any working man or woman, young or old, can practise in their everyday lives.
While we are all objectively aware of some of the benefits of meditation, Sri M’s scientific erudition and lucid explanations give us 6 reasons why meditation remains not only relevant, but essential in contemporary times.
1. Meditation, at its advanced stage can help one tap into the limbic system at and to overcome limiting thoughts to access multiple internal forms of energy at will.
“The second is a medical or biological explanation. In the brain, there is a section called the limbic system which is there to alert you and to make you react when there is a sudden threat to your life. So, when the limbic system is set into action, the man reacts. Specifically, there is a switch in the limbic system which suddenly pumps a large amount of adrenaline into his system. Now, that energy, which was accidentally triggered off in this case, can be tapped systematically and utilized for your life. First, it can be used to un-condition the mind and make it more expansive, and second, it can be utilized to gain access to infinite modes of energy.”
2. Meditation in its ultimate form leads one to a bliss that is beyond the temporary happiness of material greed.
“There are practical ways of keeping your limiting thoughts in abeyance, at least for a while, and gradually increasing the time that you spend in an un-conditioned, blissful, super energy state. This is the practice or sadhana which is about how to zero in or go into the essence of this being. An essence which is not anywhere outside, but right inside us. An essence which is equally there for all beings, whether we have discovered it or not. An essence that can be touched through the practice of meditation.”
3. While the removal of stress ought not be the only aim of meditation, meditation is the most effective and safest tool to cope with stress.
“When obstacles come, normally we face them, the obstacles are removed, and we move on. This is not only true in meditation, it is also true in everyday life. However, in this process, what happens when we don’t reach that goal? Stress is automatically generated. When somebody or something becomes an obstacle to you achieving the goal, there is stress and there is conflict.
Hence it can be useful to meditate in everyday life to deal with this stress.”
4. Meditation is what gives one a sense of permanence and support in a an ever-changing world..
“Apart from that, there are serious people who look at the world and see how temporary things are. They begin to wonder, ‘Is there something beyond all this?’ Then they go to teachers, read books,read scriptures. They come across scriptures that say, ‘Yes, there is something beyond all this which is “permanent” .’ With the desire to find out, they start to meditate.”
5. The pure focus of mediation can enable our physical well-being by guiding us to the right way to taking care of ourselves.
“You asked, ‘Can it be used for physical health?’ I can only say that if you are not well, if you want to give complete attention to that and diagnose what is wrong with you, if you look carefully ,then it becomes dharana on your health. Out of that, will come a cure for it. Meditation need not necessarily be the direct cure. From dharana will come the idea of how to take care and then move forward.”
6. The internal mindfulness that comes with meditation accompanies the empathy and compassion that have become even more necessary in this chaotic world
“The other kind of mindfulness has to go side-by-side with internal mindfulness if we need to move forward spiritually. That mindfulness is to be mindful of the outside world, of what we speak,of what we do, of how we treat people. I can sit and talk about peace then go home and mistreat my wife, what does that mean? It means that I am not being mindful. When there is mindfulness inside, it is reflected in mindfulness outside. Or, rather, if you begin to develop mindfulness outside, you also develop mindfulness inside.”
In On Meditation, renowned spiritual leader, Sri M, answers all your questions on the practice and benefits of meditation. The book is available now!
