meditation
bodhana meditation mallorca…
we create the space to experience different meditation techniques and events on the island of mallorca. classes, courses, festivals and introductions to meditation. active and passive meditations, guided meditations, awareness excercises for daily life, vipassana, mindfulness… below here is a little insight about how we understand the word and the essence of ‘meditation’.
what is meditation…
Many people still believe that meditation is only related with sitting cross-legged with eyes closed or chanting mantras or watching the breath in a yoga session. These are only three techniques of many, which we can practise in order to learn how to come out of our mechanical mind for some moments and reconnect with who we really are… underneath all the layers of conditioning and protection. Different techniques which suit different people at different times, exercises which allow us to learn and to feel what its like to come out of the chatterbox and back to ourselves until we get the knack of being able to integrate the quality of meditation into daily life, without needing to take extra time off to do so.
Anything can become meditation, which doesn’t mean meditation is an activity, but it means any activity of life can become meditation. It means doing every act with awareness. Awareness means being in the present moment.
It’s very difficult to have a single second in which we have no thought, no mind activity. Every moment many thoughts are seeking our attention. Meditation means just watching those thoughts, without the need to analyze them or get involve with them.
Actually, not one of the thoughts is ours. They all come from outside. We cannot stop these thoughts from coming to us but we can stop giving attention to them. This process of stopping to give attention to thoughts is called witnessing. When we witness the thoughts then they can not affect/distract us. We will be in present moment doing all our every day activities, yet at the same time, meditation is happening.
Slowly as we become mature in witnessing, thoughts then one day stop bothering us, they may be there, but we don’t have any interest in them as we have become skilled in witnessing them. Slowly as we understand the mind and its games then things become clearer to us. We come to know how we are trapped by mind again and again.
“methods are needed only until the state of meditation – of relaxed awareness, of consciousness and centering – has become not just a passing experience but as intrinsic to one as, say, breathing”. OSHO
why meditate…
meditation is a way of settling in oneself, at the innermost core of your being. once you have found the center of your existence, you will have found both your roots and your wings.
the roots are in existence, making you a more integrated human being, an individual. and the wings are in the fragrance that is released by being in contact with existence. the fragrance consists of freedom, love, compassion, authenticity, sincerity, a sense of humor, and a tremendous feeling of blissfulness.
the roots make you an individual, and the wings give you the freedom to love, to be creative, to share unconditionally the joy that you have found. the roots and wings come together. they are two sides of one experience, and that experience is finding the center of your being.
we are continuously moving on the circumference, always somewhere else far away from our own being, always directed towards others. When all this is dropped, when all objects are dropped, when you close your eyes to all that is not you -even your mind, your heartbeats are left far behind – only a silence remains.
in this silence you will settle slowly into the center of your being, and then the roots will grow on their own accord, and the wings too. you need not worry about them. you cannot do anything about them. they come on their own.
you simply fulfill one condition: that is, to be at home – and the whole existence becomes a bliss to you, a benediction.
osho: The Osho Upanishad, #9
the inner revolution brings freedom and the only way to make oneself go through the inner revolution is meditation. meditation simply means learning to forget all that you have learned. it is a process of deconditioning, a process of dehypnosis.
the society has burdened everybody with thousands of thoughts. meditation simply helps you to come you of that world of thoughts, into a state of silence. It is a process of cleaning your slate completely, it is emptying all that has been forced and stuffed inside you.
once you are empty, spacious, silent, clean, the revolution has happened, the sun has risen; then you live in its light! And to live in the light of your inner sun is to live rightly. in fact that is the only way to live. others are only dying, just dying slowly, moving in a queue goes on becoming shorter and shorter every moment, and any moment you may be the first in the queue. in fact everybody is trying to be first in the queue; a great desire to be the first everywhere.
the ordinary life is only called life – it is not. It is only so-called life. It is a process of gradual death or to be more accurate, a process of gradual suicide.
the moment you become silent and aware and clear and your inner sky is full of delight, you know the first taste of true life. One can call it god, one can call it enlightenment, one can call it liberation; the experience of truth, love, freedom, bliss – different names but the phenomenon is the same.
Osho: Nirvana Now or Never, #14
meditation is not…
(some common misconceptions about meditation)
1) only for people who are on a spiritual search.
the benefits of meditation are manifold. chief among them are the ability to relax and to be aware without effort. useful tools for just about everyone!
2) a practice to gain “peace of mind.”
peace of mind is a contradiction in terms. by its very nature the mind is a chronic commentator. what you can discover through meditation is the knack of finding the distance between yourself and the commentary, so that the mind, with its constant circus of thoughts and emotions, no longer intrudes on your inherent state of silence.
3) a mental discipline or effort to control or “tame” the mind,
to become more mindful. meditation is neither a mental effort nor an attempt to control the mind. effort and control involve tension, and tension is antithetical to the state of meditation. besides, there is no need to control the mind, only to understand it and how it works. the meditator does not need to tame his mind, to become more mindful, but to grow more in consciousness.
4) focusing, concentrating or contemplating
focusing, like concentrating is a narrowing of awareness. you concentrate on one object to the exclusion of everything else. by contrast, meditation is all-inclusive, your consciousness is expanded. the contemplator is focused on an object – perhaps a religious object, a photograph or on an inspiring aphorism. the meditator is simply aware, but not of anything in particular.
5) a new experience
not necessarily – sportsmen know this space, which they refer to as “the zone.” artists know it – through singing, painting, playing music. we can know it through gardening, playing with the kids, walking on the beach or making love. even as children we may have had experiences of it. meditation is a natural state and one that you have almost certainly tasted, although perhaps without knowing the name of the flavor.
source: osho and www.osho.com
