Thursday, March 6, 2025

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Misconceptions and Myths about Meditation

1. Mindfulness is relaxation. Relaxation may be one of the outcomes of our practice but it seeks  attention andawareness. The goal of the mindfulness meditation (Vipassana) is insight in our true nature. We practice and transform our everyday life into an extraordinary life.
2. Meditation puts you in a trance. No, it is not hypnosis. When we meditate we are very much under our own control. The attention and awareness are simply stepping-stones on the route to heightened awareness which cultivates mindfulness.
3. Meditation is Mysterious. Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that are deeper than conceptual thought. Such things can be understood without words or logic such as walking, swimming and biking. We learn them by practicing. Similarly we experience meditation by practicing. Meditation is an adventure every time we practice because we can never predict exactly what will come up during any particular session. Each moment is a new moment. If voices and visions pop up, we just notice them and let them go without getting involved.
4. Meditation is Dangerous and you should avoid it. Properly done, meditation is a gentle and a gradual process. it develops easily, slowly and naturally. The first several sessions of meditation dredge up various nasty matters from our past. Our eyes well up, we might cry, feel fear, anger or experience other negative emotions. Exploring them is highly profitable, an exercise in self-discovery. 
5. Meditation is not for regular people but saints and spiritualists. You meditate not because you are a spiritualist. You might become a spiritualist because you meditate. Meditation teaches you to focus, to pay attention. It teaches what is right and wrong. You learn what integrity, decency and justice mean. When you regularly mediate you automatically restrain from thoughts, words and deeds that might harm you or others even when there is no one to smack you. But every time you break any “rule,” you smack yourself. Simply put meditation cultivates healthy mind and reduces mental chaos. It makes you kinder and wiser and helps solve problems. 
6. Meditation is running away from reality. Nope! The practice allows you to delve deeply into life. You fully experience life’s ups and downs just as they are and cope with exactly what you find. You don’t make up stories about any situation. This frees you from the polite little lies you tell yourself and others. You free yourself from your own weaknesses.
7. Meditation is a great way to get high. Meditation does produce pleasurable or blissful feelings sometimes. But that is not the purpose of meditation they are its pleasant byproducts. The more you meditate the more frequently you experience the blissful feelings.
8. Meditation is selfish and makes you think of lofty thoughts. Mindfulness meditation helps you observe your life unfold from moment to moment without biases, without wearing colored glasses. What comes up, comes up. It is that simple.
9. If I meditate for couple of weeks or months all my problems will go away. No, meditation is not a quick cure-all. Profound changes take place after years of meditation. Nothing worthwhile is achieved overnight. Meditation is tough that requires discipline and daily practice. At each sitting you gain some results but they are subtle. They occur deep within the mind and only manifest years later. For any profound change to take place patience and persistence are the keys. 

{Adapted from Meditation in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana, Wisdom Publications, (First Pub. 2011)}