Beginning Meditation
Webster’s defines meditation as ‘a state of deep, quiet thinking’. While this definition is valid, it ignores one half of
the purpose of meditation, the state of deep, quiet listening. In meditation, we are listening with our inner ear, to our
inner self, to the creative force of the universe and to the gods themselves.
Meditation can serve various purposes. It can produce an intense feeling of relaxation and centeredness. It can draw us into a deeper understanding of ourselves, of nature and of the gods. It can open the doorway to communication with the spirit world. It can generate a heightened state of awareness where colors, smells and textures become amplified. When used prior to divination, meditation awakens the subconscious to the message it is about to receive. As a component of ritual, meditation help us to focus our full potential energy toward the desired goal.
People often say that though they have tried, they simply can not meditate. When asked, they typically describe meditation as ‘sitting in the lotus position, in quiet contemplation for hours’. What they fail to realize is that they are most likely already meditating, just in different forms. If you have ever found yourself fully absorbed in a daydream so that someone’s approach shocked you awake, you were meditating. If you have ever watched tree limbs sway in the breeze or clouds morph shape as they float by and then realized that the rest of the world seemed to slip away while you were watching, you were practicing a form of meditation.
Meditation is a necessary skill, but it is a skill that must be learned. Our society is extremely movement oriented, microwaves nuke food in seconds, dsl lines deliver information faster than it can be read, and a recent study found that within five minutes of meeting a complete stranger, the most common question asked was "What do you do?" It is no wonder that people have difficulty sitting still or focusing on only one thought.
It is highly likely that when you begin meditating, your physical body will react negatively and your mind will try its hardest to wander away. Within a minute of sitting down, your leg may begin to cramp or your nose to itch, this in merely your physical body wanting to do what you have trained it to do for years – move. Your mind has also been trained to receive only external stimuli and when you first attempt meditation, it will try to continue in this vein, this is one of the reasons that some people meditate as soon as they wake up in the morning. They find it easier to enter the meditative state when the brain has not yet reached fully awakened consciousness. Retraining the mind and body will take time and discipline, it is not something that can be done overnight, so do not become frustrated if success eludes you at first. To minimize physical discomfort and acclimate the mind and body to what you are asking them to do, we suggest that you begin with a 10 minute session and gradually increase the length of each session in accordance with your comfort level.
There are various schools of meditation; Transcendental, Yogic, and Silva Mind control to name a few of the more well known and within these schools there are hundreds of different techniques to be applied. Achieving success with meditation is dependent on finding the technique that works for you. With this in mind, we have provided three different meditation techniques in the left menu. Try all three multiple times before deciding what works best for you. Over time, you will probably develop a style of your own.
With all methods, dress in loose comfortable clothing and find a safe, dimly lit, quiet space free of man-made distractions such as traffic, television and the telephone. Begin by consciously breathing and relaxing the body. If you find it difficult to remove external sounds, use headphone to listen to an instrumental, drumming or chanting cd. Many people who live outside the city use the sounds of nature as their meditation soundtrack.
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