Tag: science

Breathing Meditation

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Generally, the purpose of breathing meditation is to calm the mind and develop inner peace.  We can use breathing meditations alone or as a preliminary practice to reduce our distractions.

Simple Breathing Meditation

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. We choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.

We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. We should try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

At first, our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that the meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath.

Benefits of Meditation

If we practice patiently in this way, gradually our distracting thoughts will subside and we will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Our mind will feel lucid and spacious and we will feel refreshed. When the sea is rough, sediment is churned up and the water becomes murky, but when the wind dies down the mud gradually settles and the water becomes clear. In a similar way, when the otherwise incessant flow of our distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, our mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. We should stay with this state of mental calm for a while.

Even though breathing meditation is only a preliminary stage of meditation, it can be quite powerful. We can see from this practice that is is possible to experience inner peace and contentment just by controlling the mind, without having to depend at all upon external conditions.

When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within.  This feeling of contentment and well-being helps us to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily life. So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many of the problems we experience, including ill health, are caused or aggravated by this stress. Just by doing breathing meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each day, we will be able to reduce this stress. We will experience a calm, spacious feeling in the mind, and many of our usual problems will fall away. Difficult situations will become easier to deal with, we will naturally feel warm and well disposed towards other people, and our relationships with others will gradually improve.

PSYCHOLOGY (part 1)

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Psychology is the study of the mind. It is a vast and complex subject.

Here, we deal with the mind in general, in a very straightforward, easy-to-understand study.

THE MiND

Mind is tangible. It consists mainly of thoughts, ideas, reasoning, awareness, perceptions, concepts, memories. It is creative, calculating, scheming, imaginative. Although completely non-material and non-physical, mind is a kind of receptacle for everything one experiences throughout life.

UNCONSCIOUS MIND

In order to give a little substance to mind, let us, in imagination construct a working model – a representation of mind in symbolic form. Firstly, imagine a sphere, the solid interior of which represents the Unconscious Mind: that part of mind which is normally inaccessible: that part of mind which contains a complete record of all past experience.

SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

The surface of the sphere can represent the Subconscious Mind. The subconscious, although accessible, functions in a very special way – secretive and somewhat obscure. It deals with a continuous influx of impressions drawn in from every direction. As long as the impressions continue to strike the surface of the sphere (sub-conscious) in darkness, they occur as subconscious impressions, incapable of entering consciousness.

Using the imagination once again, imagine a dense population of ‘tiny men’ covering the entire surface of the sphere (subconscious). These ‘tiny men’ represent Subconscious Response to the continuous influx of impressions and are of course influenced by all impressions that reach the subconscious.

Each impression acts as a stimulus, and each stimulus demands some kind of response. A response coming from a group of ‘tiny men’ receiving an impression, could be negative or positive. If positive, it could be either Instinctive or Conditioned. The ability to respond instinctively is inherent in humans from before birth, whereas conditioned responses are the outcome of training or learning (conditioning).

The ‘tiny men’ are most obedient; but they lack such faculties as initiative, reason etc. They are only able to respond as they have always responded to stimuli. In fact, it could be said that they represent that motivating force known as Habit.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE CONSCIOUS MIND

Now practically all that has so far been mentioned has been to do with the unconscious and the subconscious. What then of the Conscious Mind and Consciousness?

If we use the imagination yet again and imagine a helicopter of convenient size, in flight around the sphere, at a distance from the sphere’s surface (subconscious) and imagine also, a searchlight fixed to the underside of the helicopter, its beam of light scanning the activities of the ‘tiny men’, then we shall have a fair representation of consciousness. As for the conscious mind, of which consciousness is a part, that can be best represented by the helicopter, its equipment and crew members.

the following explains exactly what each symbol represents:

HELICOPTER – several crew members occupy the helicopter. The Pilot represents the Will, whereas other crew members represent various faculties of the conscious mind such as Reason, Logic, Decision etc

SEARCHLIGHT BEAM – the beam of light from the searchlight represents Attention and can be moved by the helicopter to illuminate any part of the surface of the sphere (subconscious) within its focus

ILLUMINATED AREA – the ‘populated’ area of the sphere’s surface illuminated by the beam of light from the searchlight, represents Consciousness.

Tantra says ……..

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“through experience one transcends”

when in the darkest night you can see the morning, then there is beauty, then you have achieved

when in the lowest you can see the highest, when even in hell you can create a heaven, then, then you have become the artist of life

“be yourself”

with acceptance, desires fall

with acceptance, desirelessness comes into being by itself

accept and eventually you will feel that the more you accept, the less is the desire ……..

the basic belief of Tantrism is that:

“if the world is a reflection of the cosmic order, then people should seek enlightenment through experiencing it, rather than pursuing asceticism which is seen as a repudiation of the tactile”

tantrikas believe that:

“a higher spiritual awareness can be achieved through indulgent but controlled, sensory experience”

tantra states that:

“the essence of tantra is the union of female and male energy, a union that is both mental and physical”