Why Meditate?

All of the world’s great spiritual traditions teach that freedom, peace, and happiness are not found in the external world but within ourselves. In yoga, this turning within is called pratyāhāra. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is Within You.” In the Torah, Abraham’s son Isaac was known for “digging wells,” which is understood to mean going deep within to connect with God.

This is the essence of the spiritual path, turning our attention from seeking happiness outside ourselves to within, stilling the fluctuating mind, and resting in the nature of pure consciousness itself or connecting with God. 

Even in our modern times, most human beings have some innate sense that the spiritual path exists and is real. The question then arises: how do I start this path? You start this path by learning a system of spiritual practices with meditation at its core.

One-pointed concentration

We lose tremendous energy because the mind is constantly pouring out in various directions like a leaky hose. Our thoughts jump from one thing to another without much focus and concentration. There is a saying in the yoga tradition: “where the mind goes, prāna goes.” Prāna is the life-force energy, so this means that where our thoughts go is where our energy goes. If our thoughts are all over the place, then our energy is all over the place.

Meditation teaches us to focus that energy into one-pointed concentration. When the mind becomes focused and concentrated, it becomes calm and clear, and we gain tremendous energy. We gain energy from concentration because we are not losing energy from the mind leaking out into many different directions. Just like the leaky hose loses pressure, when the leaks are fixed, the pressure increases into one strong and steady stream. The mind becomes like this when one gains concentration.

Concentration is the first step in meditation practice, and in yoga, this is called dhāranā. Dhāranā is the practice of focusing the mind on one thing, such as the breath or a mantra. When the concentration becomes a steady stream of unbroken concentration, then the practice becomes meditation, which is called dhyāna in Sanskrit.

Insight

The second part of meditation practice is what happens when the mind becomes concentrated. I already mentioned that one gains energy, calmness, and clarity from meditation practice, but what do we see with a clear mind?

With a clear mind, we gain insight into our real nature. We see that we are not our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and memories, etc. We are able to witness all things without identifying with them. We start to understand that our real nature is something closer to pure awareness or pure consciousness. When the meditation practice becomes even deeper, we will even gain insight into the realization that we are not limited to the body, which acts only as a vessel or vehicle for consciousness.

Happiness

Even if you are not interested in spirituality, you can meditate for happiness and well-being. When the mind becomes concentrated and still, anxieties cease to exist. Challenges in life will always arise, but with meditation practice, the challenges become more manageable because we have become more responsive to situations and less reactive. The effect of meditation practice is that we can approach life’s challenges with more patience, clarity, and positive energy. Things, people, and situations that we once viewed as problems are now seen as challenges that we can face skillfully.

When we go deep within in meditation, something happens that can be described as a deepening of presence or awareness. When this deepening of presence occurs, one often discovers a wellspring of bliss within. From my own experience, I believe this is where our consciousness touches the Universal consciousness or God. It is primarily for this reason that I consider meditation to be the most powerful spiritual practice, and why I’m passionate about teaching it.

Health and Wellness

In our modern and fast-paced world, people are faced with chronic stress and an overactive limbic system (the primitive, reactive part of the brain). The limbic system is also called the emotional nervous system and is responsible for controlling the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for our fight-or-flight response. What this means in laymen’s terms is that the part of our brain that was designed tens of thousands of years ago to shoot us up with adrenaline to run away from or fight a saber-toothed tiger, is now flooding our bodies with stress hormones on a daily basis, and this can cause a whole host of diseases from anxiety and depression to heart disease, ulcers, and perhaps even cancer.

Meditation can relax us even deeper than sleep and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Meditation reduces stress, improves sleep, and lowers heart rate and blood pressure. Meditation-induced calm is linked to enhanced awareness and emotional management.

According to Angela Lumba-Brown, a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine and co-director of the Stanford Brain Performance Center, levels of dopamine (the neurotransmitter of pleasure), serotonin (the neurotransmitter of happiness), and GABA (the neurotransmitter of calmness) all rise in response to meditation.

Another fascinating study was conducted by Mass General and Harvard Medical School’s neuroscientist, Sara Lazar. She studied the brains of meditators with 7-9 years of experience, and perhaps the most striking aspect of the study was that while most people’s frontal cortexes shrink as they age, 50-year-old meditators in the study had the same amount of gray matter as those half their age. The frontal cortex is a region of the brain associated with decision-making and memory.

Is meditation for me?

Yes, meditation is for everyone! You don’t need to be spiritually gifted or specially talented to meditate. Everyone has the capacity to be present and go within. In fact, when you start doing it, meditation feels more comfortable and closer to our real nature than having the mind be constantly extroverted and distracted all day with non-stop stimuli.

Lastly, meditation is not something you read about or talk about; it’s something that you do, so practice, practice, practice, and reap the benefits!

Here is a guided 20-minute meditation to get you started