Why Meditate?

By Dorathea Thompson, June 7 2013

Below I offer a comprehensive set of reasons to the question “Why Meditate?”

1. Mind Training

Meditation can be defined as a systematic form of mind training brought about through one’s concentration on a predetermined object of focus. A mind that has been disciplined to rest on an object is a mind that has greater clarity and depth. A mind that can more easily rest with an issue or a problem is a mind that can more thoroughly explore its multi-dimensions. Thus through a disciplined meditative practice we become deeper and clearer thinkers. As we develop a greater ability to focus, we simultaneously develop a greater ability to concentrate. It is well known that good concentration is the source of much success, from sports to professional endeavors to personal accomplishments.

 

2. Improved Health

The great Indian Rishis, highly evolved Yogic masters of thousands of years ago, came to know that there is a symbiotic relationship between body and mind and that the link is the Breath. They came to understand that where the mind goes, so to goes the breath and where the breath goes so to goes the mind. This is a profound knowing. This means that when we are able to control and calm our minds, we simultaneously affect our breath, which directly impacts such physiological factors as heart rate, blood pressure, body heat, perspiration, etc., all factors contributing directly to our physiological well-being.

3. Emotional Well-Being: Inviting and Enhancing Desirable Emotional States

New technology in brain imaging is helping us amass scientific data substantiating the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions that have repeatedly stated that the quality of our thoughts is paramount to the quality of our being. It is now known that when one imagines an event, the exact same brain functions are activated as when one is actually experiencing the event directly. When the focused object of our meditation is compassion, loving kindness, a beautiful sunset, etc., the correlating physiological and emotional responses are activated and experienced in the body as if we were directly experiencing the actual pleasant sensation or situation. Research shows that Buddhist monks meditating on loving kindness and compassion instantly register remarkable changes to their prefrontal cortices, areas responsible for positive emotions and thus an enhanced state of well-being.

4. Emotional Rebalancing on Demand: Recalibrating Undesirable Emotional States

Emotions are triggered when one registers sense data, which is then relayed to the brain, mind and memory that subsequently produces a physiology and emotional reaction. For example, we have just witnessed a threatening situation and we are sweating, our pulse is racing and our heartbeat is pounding. How did this all transpire? Our eye faculty records a sight and sends the message to the brain. The brain deducts through instincts, memory and other mental processes that there is danger and our physiological automatic response mechanism steps in, activating a fight or flight reaction. We may start trembling, our heartbeat starts racing and we may perspire as we experience these primal emotions. The mind is a powerful link in the process and through the mind we can alter, calm or redirect these emotions. Yet mind awareness alone, at times, is unable to shift the tide of our mounting tension. For example, we are stuck brooding over a transgression done to us. We are caught up in the story and try as we may, we are unable to stop embellishing it with past references as our anger mounts. In addition to becoming aware of the power of the mind in creating this internal struggle, there are mind awareness meditation techniques that are powerful recalibrating tools. They are known by various names – Vipassana in Theravadan Buddhism, Shikantaza in Zen, and Shuddi in the Indian Yogic tradition – and vary only slightly in their technique. Their primary focus is to shift away from being engulfed in the drama and to take the position of the Witness. It is likened to taking the position of the film director and not the actor, to rest in the observation and resist the pull to become one with the drama. This act of observing ourselves caught in a mental trap immediately deflates the intensity of the emotional grip and allows us to experience the event from a broader, calmer, more accepting perspective. The very act of mentally stepping outside oneself to observe the nature of one’s mind alters the experience of the moment. The above points coupled with the fact that there is a symbiotic relationship between mind and body linked by the breath as mentioned earlier makes meditation a very practical and effective tool in dealing with our professional and personal life challenges. We have at our disposal a tool for emotional rebalancing on demand. For example, you just received very unsettling news 20 minutes before a big presentation or a performance. By placing ourselves in a meditative state for five to ten minutes, we can recompose ourselves and return to a much more balanced emotional state.

5. Accessing Inner Blocks

One of the greatest mysteries and challenges facing us as human beings is that we are often literally strangers to our very inner selves. Often behaviors, reactions and feelings that arise in the moment are not from our conscious present self but rather from ancient patterns, either personal or ancestral, lodged in our unconscious and subconscious. While a certain amount of self-denial may be self-protective and to be honored, ongoing lack of self-disclosure makes for a life that feels disconnected, distorted, bewildering and lacking aliveness. As we sit in the stillness of our minds, our psyche makes room for layer upon layer of unconscious and subconscious material to bubble to the surface. Once it is brought to the light of our awareness, a process of unfolding and healing begins. The combination of meditation and individual therapy based on the Depth tradition of Psychology is a highly powerful transformational process. By shedding light on blocked material, we become more conscious, more alive, and less trapped in unhealthy unconscious loops. It is the essential starting point of any personal or transpersonal process, without which entry into higher states of consciousness (See 7 below) is not possible.

6. Opening Up to Our Psychic Essence

Whether we call it Soul or Psychic Being or Higher Self, all are various terms referring to that spec of divinity residing in our incarnate self that links us to our greater non-dual Self. We are primarily detached from our psychic self because our physical, emotional and mental functions are so dominant. We are stuck in this self-imposed glass ceiling, preventing us from accessing the psychic being and tapping into higher states of consciousness that reside within us.

Sri Aurobindo, the 20th century mystic, avatar, brilliant scholar and revolutionary, attributes the following qualities to the psychic being: “Opening to the psychic being brings feelings of spiritual devotion, surrender to the Divine, gratitude, sweetness, quiet joy, love of all that is good and harmonious, and a spontaneous recoil from all that is false, evil, dishonest, selfish or discordant.”

7. Entry to Our Higher Levels of Consciousness

According to the ancient Yogic tradition, the highest life goal for this precious human life is to bring about a positive self-transformation and to arrive and reside in higher states of Being. In order to enter these higher states we must create supporting conditions and eliminate those that keep us enmeshed in lower levels of consciousness. One supportive condition is to still the mind. The process can be likened to that of the ocean or a body of water. For example, we cannot see the beauty of the coral if the waters are agitated or if we are fixated looking at the seaweed. It is for this reason that all spiritual traditions cite mind training as essential to accessing these higher states. Sri Aurobindo was a pioneer in mapping out the various hierarchical States of Consciousness. The following is his Vertical System – Levels of Consciousness:

Levels of Consciousness

SATCHIDANANDA

Supermind

Overmind

Intuition

Illumined Mind

Higher Mind

MENTAL

VITAL/Emotional

Physical

Subconscious

Unconscious

As we can see, from unearthing our unconscious to becoming more intimate with ourselves up to arriving at higher states of consciousness, meditation plays a powerful and essential role each step along the path of our evolutionary psycho-spiritual development. An endeavor that is worthy of our consideration, application, and serious efforts.