MEDITATE

This week, I just want to briefly open your mind to the variety of meanings the word meditate can have.  Most people think of meditation as a single thing that many people do, but, in fact, there are many kinds of meditation, with many kinds of purposes.

On the surface, meditation means “to think deeply on, or focus one’s mind for a period of time.”  And this definition is a true definition, one which encompasses all kinds of meditation.  However, the intent of the meditation changes the effect of the meditation.  To give you a brief series of examples:

Perhaps the most basic form of meditation is Breathing Meditation, which I might also label Stillness Meditation, in which people try to calm their minds and quiet the vibrations of energy in their body.  The very act of focusing entirely on the breath, and slowly allowing the thoughts of the mind to settle, until one finds a type of quiet deep in their heart can be very rejuvenating, and can lead to bursts of clarity and energy.  The Tao says “do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?  Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?”

Tai Chi is a moving meditation.  It focuses deeply in the body, making you aware of tension, blockages in energy, and the flow and ebb of energy.  This deep concentration allows you to become aware of your body on a deep cellular level, and promote changes which lead to positive benefits in the body and in health.  There’s a lot more to it, but this is a basic sense of how Tai Chi uses meditation to effect powerful physical changes.  As Master Zi says (I’m paraphrasing) “Tai Chi allows the body to remain whole and healthy so that you can remain undistracted by pain and illness while seeking higher growth in the dissolution of the ego.”

You can also meditate on finding the answer to a problem, you can meditate through chanting, seeking to connect with a certain type of energy or divinity, even dance can be a form of meditation, but perhaps the highest form of meditation that I know of is Ego Meditation.

In the same way that Tai Chi meditation causes one to become deeply aware of the body, and works with the energy of the body, ego meditation causes one to become very aware of the ego and its expression in the mind, and seeks to dissolve the ego in search of a higher level of consciousness.  While Stillness Meditation seeks to let the mud settle, the problem is that once the waters begin to move again, unsettled by the flow of life, the mud is kicked up again.  Ego Meditation seeks to actively remove the mud from the water, so that there is nothing for life to unsettle.

In any case, no matter what form of meditation you practice, it’s always better to seek instruction from a qualified master.  The process of working with the fundamentals of our being can be dangerous if done improperly.  For the beginner, Breathing Meditation is a good introduction to meditation and can help to build the basic concentration and focus necessary for the more advanced forms to be effective.