What’s Wrong With Your Meditation?
Purpose, misconceptions, and basic concepts of meditation.
Most people jump into meditation without preparing for it.
They sit and try to quiet their inner monolog, avoid thinking, or have their mind control their body. While doing that the following thoughts might come to their mind:
“This is not for me.”
“This is boring.”
“My mind is too fast.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“I can’t sit still.”
“I can’t wait for this to be over.”
“I have things to do.”
This is the wrong way to approach meditation.
What you need, is to understand its purpose, clarify misconceptions, understand important concepts, and have a technique before trying again.
Purpose Of Meditation
Meditation is not the goal, it’s a tool to train the different aspects of your being. Its purpose is to enable you to reach your center of consciousness or Atman, as it’s known in yogic tradition.
Once all aspects of your being are trained, tapping into your True-Self becomes instinctual. Then, in Taoist words, there are no illusions left in your mind and no resistance in your body. Don’t think about your actions; let them flow from the core of your being.
Misconceptions
• Meditation Is Just Sitting Doing Nothing
Meditation equates to attention. It is about witnessing everything. You can meditate while sitting, standing, or practicing asanas. Sitting or lying in savasana is a great way to meditate because it minimizes distractions and facilitates the process of reaching the Center of Consciousness.
• Meditation Needs to Be Done in a Quiet Place
In the beginning, this will be the case. However, advanced meditators can do it anywhere. Not to say the environment isn’t important, it’s just not a deal breaker.
• You Only Have Five Senses
This is one of the biggest misconceptions of all and the one preventing most people from reaching their Atman. You have at least ten senses. An easy way to think about this is in terms of dyads: Before and after, black and white, night and day, male and female. You have five importer senses and five exporter senses.
• Breathing Is a Dyad
It’s not, it’s a triad. There are three phases of respiration: inhalation, suspension, and exhalation. All phases equally important. Most people disregard suspension and therefore kill their meditation before it even begins. Suspension is where you reorganize thoughts and refocus. It’s the space needed to zoom in on the subtleties of your being.
