On Meditation

Disclaimer: this article is solely based on my personal experiences. I'm not making any scientific claims. Please do your own research before taking any course of action.

Thoughts and Emotions

René Descartes said - “ I think therefore I am”. This pretty much sums up the ecstasy and tragedy of being a human. We as a species are always thinking, whether we like it or not. Sometimes we are thinking deliberate thoughts, other times we are thinking without being aware that we are thinking. There are always thoughts arising in our minds and many times without our knowing. For example - a thought may arise in Debbie's mind about an important presentation tomorrow, while she is feeding her kid. This thought then leads to a feeling of anxiety. This feeling then leads to further thoughts, some of them negative. Now Debbie is no longer feeding her kid. Her hands are putting the food in the kid’s mouth but her mind is now at the presentation. Now Debbie wants to quickly done with feeding her kid and get back to her presentation. How many of us can relate to Debbie? 

Emotions, Consciousness and Identification

As we discussed earlier, these constantly arising thoughts lead to various emotions such as sorrow, joy, jealousy and anxiety. When an emotion arises it covers our consciousness and we start identifying with that emotion. Someone cuts John off during the drive to work. A thought arises in John’s mind that the offending driver disrespected him. This thought leads to the feeling of anger and then John identifies with this anger and becomes angry. He accelerates and tries to cut off the drive that cut him off. Lisa checked her Facebook timeline and noticed that Fatima just got engaged. Since she recently broke her engagement off, a thought arises in her mind that she will not get married. This thought leads to the feeling of sadness and Lisa identifies with this feeling and becomes sad.

What is meditation?

There are various types of meditation practices but I will discuss here is what most people call the ‘mindfulness’ practice. Meditation is a practice that makes us more aware of our internal state. With sufficient practice, we could get to a state where when various emotions such as anxiety, sadness arise we will become aware before they take over our consciousness. So, when the feeling of anger arise, we don’t become angry. When the feeling of jealousy arise, we don’t become jealous. As the practice advances, we are able to observe our thoughts rather than identifying with them. We are no longer thinkers our thoughts but observers. Initially the practice may require us to dedicate some time to meditate but as we get established in our practice, we can be reach this state while performing various tasks. We can reach the state of flow.

Why is it hard?

Meditation is probably one of the most desired but unpracticed skill. This is because it is one of the hardest things we can do. Some wise person said that most of Men’s problem arise from their inability to sit on their behind. Sitting in a dark room with nothing but your thoughts is one of the scariest things for anyone. Imagine sitting alone and trying to pay attention to your breathing. Suddenly the thought of your important presentation arises in your mind. This thought gives birth to the feeling of anxiety. Now your body is secreting cortisol and adrenaline. When your body is generating these hormones, sitting alone becomes very hard. These hormones want us to move. We struggle against our biology and maybe we win this time, but another thought will get us at a later point. This can be quite torturous. Many people will then abandon the practice, feel like a failure and never try again because who wants to feel like a failure?

Keep Trying

Meditation is a tool which can help us develop the super power of equanimity. This will increase our focus and help us not lose our minds when people around us are doing so. This will help us deal with negative emotions better and overall increase our general well-being. But this requires a lot of hard work and will power. It is hardest to meditate when we need it the most so establish in your practice while things around you are going well.