Meditation

A Major Tool for Knowing Yourself

The best single book on how to meditate I know is The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson. The book is still in print and is available in paperback even though it was copyrighted in 1975.

Starting in 1968, Benson, an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, was asked by some practioners of Transcendental Meditation to measure their blood pressure. They alleged their meditative practices had lowered their usual blood pressure. The book tells the story of the results of the research.

Since then, meditation, biofeedback and relaxation methods have been the subject of a great deal of literature, research and practice.

A very good book in addition to The Relaxation Response is Daniel Goleman's The Meditative Mind. It is reasonably short but makes clear the meditative traditions in all the great religions. The book Lost Christianity by J. Needleman is a good one for seeing the long tradition of various types of meditation in Christianity. Another good book for learning how to meditate is Journey to the Center by M. Flickstein.

There is a famous quote from the French philosopher Pascal that all man's troubles come from an inability to sit alone in a room. Meditation is described very compactly and usefully in The Relaxation Response as just that. Actually, one doesn't have to sit alone. One does have to sit still and be quiet. One does this for ten to twenty minutes.

In the meetings of the Quakers, people sit still and quiet for an hour. A friend of mine told me of the anticipation he feels for going to meditation sessions that last for eight hours. I introduce the topic in this course as a tool. For letting your mind know itself, for calming yourself and finding out what you really feel and really think and really believe, practicing meditation may be a big help.

I have included a list of books, partly to demonstrate how many areas relate to such a simple practice as quieting the mind. The practice of relaxing, quieting yourself, and letting your self shine through may be a big help to you, now or later.

The basic idea is to empty the mind. An Indian saying has it that the mind is a monkey, meaning the mind tends to leap from idea to idea, from this to that.

You need not judge yourself as a failure for this mental wandering, as it is very common. Actually it is inevitable. Just become aware of it when you can and shelve the interrupting thoughts.

When you meditate, it can be quite difficult to empty your mind. The idea is just to keep trying. When you see that it has strayed, simply notice that it has strayed and try to bring your mind back to your focus point. Gently dismiss the thoughts.

Quieting the mind on a regular basis is a major tool for knowing yourself. Give it a try. See if you can keep your mind quiet for 2 to 5 minutes. If you are interested, extend the time to ten minutes or longer.

There are many strategies that different people use to quiet their mind for meditation. First, get into a comfortable position and close your eyes. (The first strategies listed below require open eyes.) If you are very tired, you may need to wait until another time, or else you may fall asleep. Then try to focus your mind on something; here are a few ideas you might want to try.

• 1. Fix your vision on a single point, then let your vision blur.

  2. Fix your vision on a single point. Then, without moving your eyes, become aware of another point that is in your peripheral vision. Continue to be aware of both points.

  3. Keep repeating a word or phrase over and over in your mind. Some people use the word "Om", but any word will do as long as it doesn't have too many emotional ties that might distract you.

  4. Pay attention to your breathing. Notice when you are breathing in and when you are breathing out. Think "in" to yourself as you breathe in; think "out" to yourself as you breathe out.

  5. Concentrate on the sensations in the part of your nose where you feel the breath enter and exit.

  6. Scan through your body. If you find an area of tension, try "breathing" into and around that area and relaxing it. (To breath into it, imagine your breath going to that area as you breathe.)

  7. Imagine a cord or connection from the base of your spine deep into the center of the earth. Imagine all the things this line passes through as it is connecting. Then feel the energy flow from the center of the earth into your body.

  8. Imagine a cord or connection from the top of your head into the heavens. Feel the energy and love flow into your body.

  9. You can do a combination of 5 and 6. Do first one, then the other, and allow yourself to feel the energy from the two sources meet near your heart and circulate throughout your body.

  10. Imagine yourself surrounded by a warm golden light. On in-breaths that light enters your body. On out-breaths the light flows through your whole body.

  11. Imagine seeing yourself surrounded by a peaceful, white light of love. Then see that self begin to absorb the light and gradually begin to glow with it. Then have that picture of yourself merge with your real body, so that the light is in you and glowing from you.

  12. Become aware of everything your senses detect--what you feel, what you hear, smell, etc. But try not to label any of them--just let them flow over and through you. (This is similar to letting your vision blur in #1 above, only you do it with all sensations, not just sight.)

  13. Count backwards from 100 to 1, coordinating the counting with your breath. When you are ready to stop meditating, count forward slowly from 1 to 10.

  14. There are many more such ideas in books and tapes. You might also look for tapes of guided meditations.

When you are ready to stop your meditation session, it is a good idea to allow yourself to return to ordinary activity gradually. Give yourself a little time to return to your natural state of consciousness.

Biofeedback is a related calming practice that can assist you in getting to know all of yourself. One of the feedback instructors once gave me a free biofeedback machine. It was a small ordinary themometer. He told me to hold the bulb between thumb and forefinger and relax to make the temperature rise. As I relaxed, more blood ran to my fingertips, warming them.

The book Focusing by E. Gendlin has always fascinated me for the similarity its main idea holds to meditation. Books on better learning (Superlearning and Superlearning 2000), on drawing (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain), on writing (Writing the Natural Way), on tennis (The Inner Game of Tennis), and golf (The Inner Game of Golf) have all related their subject to one form of deliberate high levels of relaxation.