What Is Really Meditation Part-2

We must also remember that meditation is essentially something that is played, it's something that we do, or are experienced. But most people do not know that meditation hearsay. Their knowledge base is not a practical and personal experience. They are thus based on information that was relayed two, three or even four times. Some have drawn, or perhaps had to tap their knowledge of meditation only in books. There are now many books available that claim to treat or process of meditation. Unfortunately, the books themselves are often based on ouis say rather than on personal knowledge and experience. In some cases they may even be based on pure imagination, if not a speculation. Ago in this area a number of so-called experts. When something becomes popular, as is the case of meditation, there are too many people ready to take advantage of the opportunity. It reminds me of my experience during the years of Buddha Jayanti, the year in the Buddhist world, marked the 500th anniversary of Parinirvana 2 (physical death) and therefore the Buddha 2500 years of Buddhism. The Government of India patronized the celebrations in India, while the various governments of South Asia-East organized the celebrations in their respective countries. All this created a great wave of interest and, as there was a strong demand for books written, all sorts of people began to write books, pamphlets and articles on Buddhism, in many cases without the any qualification. And all these people, compiling documents diverse and varied, some reliable sources and sometimes dubious sources, and produce each other "work" on Buddhism.

In the West, there is now a boom in spirituality in general and to a lesser extent, on meditation. Many people are dissatisfied with their life every day, in the conventional manner in which they live and work. Despite the great successes of science in practical terms the material world, people can not accept a purely scientific explanation of life while at the same time, it also can not accept the traditional explanations, mostly Judeo-Christian things. So they start looking for something that satisfies a deeper, more permanent, more creative and constructive. Some are looking in the direction of Eastern spiritual traditions, especially in that of meditation. They want to learn about meditation and practice - they want to take courses in meditation, going to weekend of meditation - and this is a request for meditation is created.

There are too many people, of course, who are ready to meet this demand - sometimes for a fee. Some may be well qualified to meet this demand, I mean qualified to teach meditation, and others can not. Thus also create all sorts of misunderstandings. Meditation is often identified with a particular form of meditation, or with a particular concentration technique. People do not perhaps always there are many types of meditation - many methods - and several concentration techniques. Sometimes people who know or who do tend to a method of meditation in general identify exclusively with this method or technique. They can claim that this method is best, or even that it is the only, and you do not meditate at all unless you do that in that way, using this technique there. According to them, other techniques, other methods, other traditions have no value. This is the kind of statement that can be found. It is therefore particularly important to clarify what is confusing and resolve misunderstandings. It becomes important to understand what meditation really. To do this, we must keep in mind the distance between the ideal and reality, between man Buddha, or Buddha, and the common man, not awake. We must keep in mind the nature of Buddhism

What Is Really Meditation Part-4

In both classifications, the first level of consciousness is that which is, predominantly, that of the ordinary unenlightened, the man who does not even try to grow spiritually. And in both cases, the fourth level of consciousness is that of the waking man.

We can now begin to see what is essentially the spiritual life - that is to say the higher evolution. We can say that it consists of a continuum of states of being and consciousness lowest to highest, the highest ever: the world of sensory experience to that of the mental and spiritual form, the mental and spiritual world to the world without shape to Nirvana, or enlightenment, or the sensory awareness to consciousness of self, self-awareness to Transcendental Consciousness, and the transcendental consciousness absolute consciousness.

We can now begin to see what is really meditation. We shall see more clearly that we spent some time on these basic definitions. There is however one more thing that we must consider. We said that the spiritual life consisted of a development of consciousness, and Buddhism, Dharma, the Buddha's teaching, was all that support this development. But there are two ways to develop awareness, or at least two different ways to approach it. We call the method subjective and objective method or the direct method and indirect method. Having recognized this distinction, we finally have the basis to see what is really meditation. Meditation is the subjective method or direct allows us to raise the level of our consciousness, working directly on the mind itself.

However, I must first say something of the methods 'objective' or indirect used to raise the level of consciousness. Some seem to think that meditation is the only way to raise the level of consciousness, called and consciousness can be raised by working directly on the mind. These people identify so meditation with spiritual life and spiritual life only with meditation. They say you can not have a spiritual life if you do not meditate. They sometimes combine the spiritual life to a specific method of meditation, or a particular concentration technique. But it is a much too narrow. It makes us forget the true meaning of spiritual life - that is to say raising the level of consciousness - and we sometimes forget what really meditation. It is true of course that is at least as important to raise consciousness by direct methods than to do it by indirect methods, we could even say that it may be more important. But we must not forget that there are other methods: if we forget, our approach is too partial, and if we do that we tend to make the spiritual life itself, in part, or to exclude some people , for example those with a particular character, or who are perhaps not interested in meditation. Let us consider briefly some of these indirect methods, not meditation, that help raise the level of consciousness.

There is first the change of environment. We use it quite consciously as an indirect means to change and, hopefully, raise our level of consciousness, when we retire - maybe in the country, a retreat center. We spend a few days or even weeks, in an environment more pleasant, more enjoyable, by doing the same may be nothing special. This often helps more than is realized, and suggests that the environment in which we live and work normally is not particularly good for us - does not help us to raise the level of our consciousness. It seems that in most cases, a positive change of environment leads naturally to a rise in level of consciousness - even without any extra effort.