People have been asking me more of these questions regarding how do i do meditation. Well, there is not a definite answer, mostly i play soothing music, but there was a time when i first started, i used to listen to the beats that would irritate me so i can be calm under unfavorable circumstances. That’s what we call filtering the noise maybe.
But anyways, first i close my eys, sit down in the most comfortable position. I try to pay attention to my senses, out most active sense is the eye, which we cannot ignore. And i read somewhere taht we move our eyes 3 to 4 times per second and we do not even control that. It happens automatically. But don’t get caught in the feeling of controlling your eyes movement, when you close it and try to make it stationary, brain gets more convoluted and it’s even harder to maintain a single point of concentration.
Then i try to focus on my breathe, but not before i relax all of my muscles. and the relaxation itself is the key here, even when you think you are relaxed, your body might be in stress, pay attention to your jaws, your muscles on your buttocks, your shoulders, how they are stuck to one position, and you work around that and try to make it more comfortable.
Then once you achieve the relaxed state focus on breathe, and try to inhale deeper and breathe through the tensions on your body, wherever it might be such as the darkness you see infront of your eyes, or your core muscles below your navel.
And there comes a time, when brain does everything automatically but it comes with a lot of practice, There will be a lot of thoughts flashing infront of you, those are natural and if you try to ignore it, it grows even more, So the idea here is contemplation, (it’s a heavy word so people get more scared of it). It just means analyze the thoughts and try to rationalize it, why you might be getting it, What the emotion that triggered it. This I think is the hardest part for most of the people, to let go of the thought,
You don’t really have to let go of it, you can try to hold on to the negative thoughts and think about all the possible actions and consequences that comes with it. You have to trust that all the things that you are experiencing will change, whether it’s a good thought or a bad thoughts, or a great meditation session where you had profound realization.
And realization is the most important aspect of meditation, self-realization, which makes you more aware about yourself, your thought processes, your biases and conditions that makes you think. Sometimes, someone else might have done something bad to you and you cannot even stop thinking about those things.
That’s where forgiveness and forgetfulness comes in handy. You do not want to carry all the emotional baggages everywhere you go, it’s hard to ignore it but you have to understand that time will heal itself, and until it is healed, either you can just worry and loathe about it, or you can try to go through the emotions in a more positive way,
Do not let your negative emotions and bad experiences affect another action. That’s one of the most important realization that I had. There are times when you cannot even feel a thing when everyone is feeling ecstatic and joyful and you are just sitting there at the corner and just thinking about all the things and not really enjoying the moment.
I used to be like that when i first used to go to clubs and while i saw all those confident people dancing and having fun, the thought that i am not a good dancer and i dont wanna dance alone and all of those things would take precedence. it might be true but you are missing the whole point of enjoying the music.
We think in our own patterns and based on our own experiences, all of our thoughts are based on our past experiences of dealing with our similar situations. We all have our biases and conditions that we are usually not aware of. It’s important to take note of them and try to understand them so we can have a unique experiences whenever possible.
You cannot have good time in the same way as before, and you compare your experiences that’s just being human. Otherwise we wiill never have anything to talk about. You cannot feel ecstatic and joyful all the time and not even be at your best behavior. But it’s natural, just don’t do drugs to experience the same feeling of euphoria. It might be a good experience, but it’s also going to take the life out of you.
It’s very important for you to know yourself first and be friends with yourself. People try to do meditation and they don’t even know why they are doing it. I don’t like to do it all the time to be honest, as it makes my ego feel bloated and I start feeling spiritually superior and i know the truth that other’s have never experienced kind of feeling.
Above all, be kind to yourself and to others, even when others are not. People talk about karma as a mysterious chain of events that influences the things that are happening to you. It’s true in a way, it’s like if you parents had never met you would have never been born, like their karma (action) brought you into existence. And your karma doesn’t mean the things that are happening to you, but it’s the things you do.
Karma literally means action, not the consequences. Sometimes bad things happen to you even when you havent done anything wrong, and it’s the most difficult thing to cope up with. Look at break ups in general, when you think everything is going well, and suddenly your partner decides to leave you without any reasons. You feel dreaded and loathe about what had you done wrong. when you know you had been doing everything right. Sometimes we don’t find the answer we are looking for when we want it. But things will eventually make sense later in life cause our understanding of events grow according to our experiences and we start replaying the events in our mind on the new light that we have just discovered.
Take a look at covid 19 for example, what had people done to get the disease? what’s their fault that they are are succumbed to it, imagine being a healthcare worker, who is doing their duty and all the right thing who gets contracted by the disease from the patients they are taking care of? they are doing everything right with all the good actions and good intentions but still some get the disease and have died from it.
Life is not about being right or wrong, death comes to all. Life is meant to be lived while we are still alive with kindness and compassion.
The paragraph i wrote above, just made me a little sad, and i could not continue with my chain of thoughts, what was supposed to be a guidance for meditation became a medium for contemplation. That’s where prayers and good thoughts and vibes play a important role in helping our state of being.
People chant mantras, hymns and send prayers and positivity across the world. Sometimes the good thoughts are the only positive thing that keeps us going. It’s the thought that count, and it’s true but we cannot count our thoughts. AMEN.