Meditation Questions Answered

What is Meditation on Nothingness or on Emptiness ?

Answer :  Don't know !  Unless you or your teacher have a grasp of these concepts it may be better to put them aside initially. Five minutes of practical yoga or meditation is worth five hours of theory.  The simple instructions in this blog will lead you successfully to meditation.  Make the time to practise and emptiness will look after itself !

What Kinds of Meditation are There ?

Answer : There are very many "formal" types of meditation, i.e. with the specific purpose of bringing about deep concentration.  Listening to music is not a formal meditation unless the practitioner makes it so.  It is a matter of intent.  The result of formal and informal may be identical and so we should not care about the semantics.  If you enjoy music and thereby achieve deep concentration on a single thought stream, you should continue.  There is no right or wrong.

What Happens in Meditation ?

Answer :  Maybe nothing. Meditation is not generally like watching a film.  It is not a matter of following the instructions, closing your eyes and waiting for the show to start.  Before meditation it is helpful to eliminate all selfish or fanciful thoughts.  Be humble, open and quiet and don't look for anything.

So, What Might Happen in Meditation ?

Answer :  Because meditation brings order to the chaotic and negative mental landscape, it automatically brings peace, rest, relief, quietude.  This alone is a great mercy and worth every moment spent in the practise.   Furthermore, if one learns to concentrate here, this skill may be applied to a sport, at work, or in any difficult situation.

All those hobbies that we listed as informal meditations will benefit from the formal sort and vice versa.  Every time you draw your mind to a single thought stream, it becomes a little more accustomed to it and returns there more easily.

My mind chatters continuously.  I can't meditate.  What to do ?

Answer :  The Divine cannot be heard against the background noise of the mind.  Practise will bring results.  Results will encourage you and encouragement will bring the desire for more practise.  Therefore, practise !  Furthermore,  all the suggestions for meditation given in this blog (Meditation III Preparation) and use of Mala, Mantra and Breath ( not yet completed) will help the mind chatter a little less.

Anything Else ?

Answer :  Atheists and Believers will all benefit from meditation, and even when approached with complete cynicism, any of the formal or informal methods described here will yield clear results, however, if one were to divest oneself of ego, grasping, desire, negativity in all its forms and simply give oneself up to the practise in all sincerity and rather like a naked baby, then the results may well surprise you.