What is meditation?

What is meditation?

What exactly is meditation? While we usually associate this word with people sitting cross-legged on yoga mats or in monasteries, many people do not realise what it is actually about. In the western world, this technique is often associated with the aim of achieving relaxation, whereas in Asian countries, the spiritual quest seems to take centre stage. What we call meditation has its origins in Buddhist traditions and is anchored in a traditional and spiritual system. However, meditation is also known in Christianity and Islam, here in the sense of contemplative immersion. In the consumer-orientated West, health experts are trying to introduce people to meditation in a way that is detached from spirituality or religion.
Meditation can be used to experience silence, which is possible alone or together with other people or even with animals. Before we move on to techniques of meditation with animals, we will delve deeper into the question of what the core elements are and focus on methods that place silence at the centre.

Meditation from a traditional Buddhist perspective is a training of the mind. It is accessible to all people regardless of their level of education or social class. Experiences and realisations through the process of meditation train the mind. A particular concern is to recognise old conditionings, especially those that are counterproductive and make life more difficult. Once they are recognised, change is possible. Meditation also helps you to perceive things more consciously and sensitively. The calming and relaxing effect is useful for achieving greater emotional stability. Non-spiritual meditation programmes often propagate positive effects such as improvement and alleviation of stress, anxiety and depression as well as increased concentration. These are possible side effects, but are not the primary goal if you are deeply interested in meditating. Furthermore, this mind training should not be undertaken in order to chase after happy states. Bliss, serenity, calmness and joy can occur, but they are temporary states of mind that do not protect against harmful states such as greed or aversion. Pleasant states of mind should therefore not become an end in themselves for meditation, nor should they become untouchable as a refuge. Rather, they serve as a means for the further development and training of the mind. The deeper spiritual goals of meditation are insight and wisdom and the use of these to realise love and compassion towards all beings. The spiritual goal of meditation according to Buddhist teachings lies in the intuitive realisation that all life is interrelated.

The art of meditation consists of living life fully consciously. The period from birth to death is full of thoughts, feelings and actions. Using these conscious decisions to shape a creative work is a creative process. However, what counts here is not creating a particularly large number of works, but the quality of each conscious experience and the influence this has on others. In order to shape life creatively and freely, we need to know how our creative mind works and what influences it. Only when we know the raw material can we deal with it. Our personal reality is created from a constant stream of emerging thoughts, feelings and emotions and the resulting actions. Only when we become aware of this can we make free and conscious decisions and become creative. Understood in this way, meditation is not a technique for the sake of relaxation, finding happiness or wellness for the individual, but should be understood as the craft of a spiritual system with far-reaching goals. Depending on the spiritual world view and dire

Insights gained from experiences in meditation are never of a purely intellectual nature. Only through intuitive understanding, through direct experience or observation, is it possible to recognise more consciously and act more wisely and thus overcome harmful emotions and behaviours. So the product of meditation is happiness after all, but a true happiness that arises from within, even in difficult times, because pain and discomfort are part of life. However, suffering and happiness are optional and in conscious moments a person is able to use love and compassion to energise themselves in order to change things for the better. The ability to accept serenity, practised in meditation, is useful in this process. In addition, the wisdom to recognise what can be changed and what cannot be changed grows. The aim of meditation should be to develop these skills. According to a Buddhist teacher, everyone is capable of doing this in a realistically achievable time. Meditation instructions are therefore to be understood as instructions for learning a craft of skills. The art and mastery of the individual lies in creatively utilising this craft in life.

Source: 

- Culadasa, John Yates (2017) Handbuch Meditation, p. 10-13.

translated from German to English with https://www.deepl.com/