Meditation – what is that?

9th December, Jack

This morning I was walking along the beach right before sunrise. The sea had quiet down after a couple of stormy days and waves hit the shore in the most gently way.

I could see a man ahead of me taking care of three fishing rods. He was sitting on a stone and just looked at the sea. When I got closer I prepared a “kalimera” and a few other Greek phrases to greet him good morning. But then I noticed that my planned hello would just interrupt what was going on in him. He was deep inside himself. He was not looking upon the sea – he was looking much further than that. Maybe he was looking into the entire Universe – I don’t know, but he had connected himself to something deep inside. To me it looked as if he had found a kind of quietness inside himself and was enjoying that.

I started to think about what is meditation? Is it sitting cross legged humming in some special way? Is it to practice contact to some kind of mantra? Or is it simply to find that special state inside yourself where you experience to be just quietness and love. A kind of just being totally who you are at the deepest level!

There exist many rituals to practice meditation and the purpose for all of them seems to be discovering that state of emptiness and peace. Personally I think that if a ritual or method works it is a great method. In other words there is no right way to do it. The secret is to go behind the mind. To go behind the thoughts - the inner pictures, the feelings and the internal dialog. All the things that the human mind keeps itself busy with.

So what you need to do when you practice meditation is simply to find a quiet place at the right time of the day. Close your eyes and stop thinking. The mind will start the usual fuzz at once. Present you for internal pictures, feelings, dialog etc….  What you do as a response to the mind is just to move your awareness behind that. Simply experience that it is possible to move your awareness backwards and leave the thoughts in front of your awareness.

Whenever the mind starts to present new thoughts – accept it and take your awareness further backwards. This is a simple meditative ritual and it works. When you have practised that for some time you may move into this special state of quietness and peace and in that state you may even experience the tiny voice of you spirit.

And that can be the most interesting conversation of your life!