Meditation Is Not Relaxation
Relaxation, presence, focus. These are possible side benefits. Yet, meditation is much more.
The room is full of people sitting on cushions with their legs crossed. We will sit like this for forty minutes as we meditate together. After about twenty minutes, I hear a snore. I ignore it. It’s clear they came to relax, not meditate.
I am a meditation teacher. Most people attend the class looking for the same benefits. They want to relax, find peace amidst our seemly uncontrollable train of thoughts, to not be so easily distracted and keep focus.
These are all possible side benefits of meditation, but that is not what meditation is. If we relax too much over meditation, we might fall asleep. Surprise, surprise: if you are sleeping, you are not meditating. And maybe that is ok: maybe what we need is to rest more often and better, and not to meditate. As with everything in life, nothing beats a clear intention.
Meditation is To Be in Full Awareness
That means, completely awake. When we do that, we catch things as they come to us without identifying with them. At first, this is a big challenge: it requires us to separate our awareness from any content that might emerge within. When we detach from these, we can sit and watch as if we were watching a TV that someone else was changing the channels. We don't engage with it. In full awareness, we watch as the TV show changes. That in itself requires a certain level of emotional detachment to occur.
With practice, we get to a quieter place. Fewer thoughts come up, and less often. As the TV within goes on mute, we continue to be aware. Suddenly, other things we couldn't hear before, like body sensations, start to emerge. We get more sensitive to capture new types of things; but only if we are present. If we are too relaxed, we miss the train.
This is Anything but Boring
Some people tell me this watching of a quieter river is "boring". My answer is always the same. If you think this is boring, it is because you haven't experienced it yet. Many think they have reached this point, but if you are there, there is no place to judge something is "boring", or to think "I would rather be doing x instead". Something being "boring" requires that something else is not boring. But when you are there, there is all there is. And there are ten thousand things happening right there.
Because when you are fully there, everything that is happening in you and in the universe could potentially be amplified.
For instance, at any given moment in time, there are a million different operations happening within your body. The more we meditate, the more we gain access to them. I will never forget a friend who experienced an orgasm in her nose in her first Vipassana retreat. When we are fully present, and in full awareness, we capture messages not only from within but also from without. That is when big insights happen.
None of this can happen if we are relaxing. Remember the invisible Gorilla experiment? In this experiment, participants were shown a video of six people passing the ball to each other and asked to count the number of passes. In the video, a person dressed as a gorilla strolls in the middle of the action. Many participants were so focused on the ball that they did not see the gorilla. That's kind of what happens when you are not able to detach from your thoughts or when you are not in full awareness.
Meditation is about seeing clearly, which requires active engagement, willingness, and curiosity. We quite the noise, so that we can get the insights. That requires us to be fully awake, present, empty.
Presence
There are different levels of presence in life. Many people tell me they are meditating when they are doing something in full presence. For instance, when they are playing sports or cooking. Presence is a component of meditation, but one that is easily reduced. When you are present in a task, you are present in the task. That means the "presence" is restricted to the task. In meditation practice, that is the first layer of "presence", but it can be much more. Meditation is about expansion of consciousness.
"Here, now", is much more than the here and now that I am now in physicality. The more we expand our consciousness, the more we grasp what presence potentially means, and the different layers reality has. It is indeed infinite, and despite regular practice, I am far from comprehending it.
"Eating mindfully is a most important practice of meditation. We can eat in a way that we restore the cookie of our childhood. The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it." Thich Nhat Hanh
True, given how easily dispersed we can be, the benefits of being fully engaged in a task are massive. Of course, people can meditate to improve that ability. Yet, meditation can take us much further than that. Meditation allows us to see a bigger picture of our existence.
Liberation
As with anything, meditation requires practice. The benefits that meditation apps have brought up to a huge part of the population are amazing. However, meditation is much more, so let's be mindful of not reducing it. The more you meditate (taken that you are actively engaged), the more you will notice.
Sit. Practice.
Be kind to yourself and have patience.
Invite magic into your life.
My wish is to transform society through meditation. It is a peaceful way for us to free ourselves from social expectations and conditionings, and find out more about our authentic selves.
Hi, I am Aline Ra M, spiritual guide, energy worker, and tea lover.
