There are numerous methods and techniques associated with meditation practice but truly speaking, meditation is just a way of being. It is not a technique. It is not even relaxation, though one feels immensely relaxed as relaxation and wellbeing are the by-products of meditation. Worry, workload, and emotional issues create clouds in the mind and you become tense. Meditation relieves the mind of all these tensions.

Mind is like computer

You know that computers have a cache memory along with permanent memory. Human mind works in the same manner. Meditation is a way of clearing the cache memory of the mind and resetting the system. It is a way of seeing the mind, a way of knowing the Self, a way to offer oneself to love and compassion.

Sigmund Freud, an Australian neurologist is considered to be the founding father of modern day psychoanalysis. According to him the conscious mind consists of everything of our awareness. It includes sensations, perceptions, memories, emotions and feelings of current awareness which help in our thinking to follow a rational path. Closely related is the preconscious mind which includes the things which we may not be thinking at present but can be easily drawn into conscious awareness. All things which conscious mind wants to keep hidden from awareness are concealed in unconscious mind.

Conscious mind seems to make the perception of the person we are. On the contrary it is the unconscious mind, that exert more influence on our personality. Meditation is the way to realise that unconscious part.

Regular meditation helps you clear your mind’s cache memory of the conscious awareness and awakens your intuitive senses so that messages from the unconscious mind can reach you easily and clearly. It is just like pressing the ‘refresh’ button for clearing the cache memory of a computer.

Tame the horses

Ancient thinkers of India had long known the existence of the unconscious and its relation with the conscious mind. It is just like a charioteer riding his horses. The horses are providing the energy and force while the charioteer is controlling the direction and speed. Horses are not able to know the driver. But if a person is standing on the side, can see both the horses and the driver, he can very well realise the truth. Our scriptures called him ‘Sakshi’.

Sakshi means witnessing or awareness. If we see a moving car with black films on its windows on a road, we won’t be able to see the driver. It doesn’t mean that there is no driver in it. Same way in all the beings we see the outer body but we are unable to see the driver. Meditation helps us understand the relation between the car and the driver and removes the ignorance of mind.

Myths about meditation

There is a misconception that meditation means controlling or suppressing one’s thoughts. Some believe that meditation means holding some specific thoughts like love, kindness, equality, positive emotions and compassion. In fact the truth is that these virtues are automatically developed in a person who meditates regularly.

Meditation doesn’t mean nurturing of discarding any specific thoughts. It is submitting yourself to the present, as you are, where you are. It is allowing the things to happen, on their own. The fact of nature is that all the things happen on their own but we, under the influence of our mind and ego, think that we are doing them, we are controlling them.

Are you rotating the earth? Are you guiding the Sun to rise? Just think. Even the Sun doesn’t has the liberty to get late by a mere second. Everything is pre calculated and destined. When the Sun or the Earth do not have those powers, do you think you have got the power to control or guide things? But mind thinks that it can control. This is the origin of troubles. Einstein once said that the problem that world is facing today can never be solved by the level of thinking that created them.

Press the ‘reset’ button

Returning to the original self is the only solution. An unconditioned mind is required to find a solution to problems that are created by mind itself. We need a mind which sees and understands in sync with the self and nature. Body is a part of mother nature. It grows naturally without the interference of mind. We have to listen to subtle vibrations of our body and heart to make best use of mind, otherwise it will always behave like an unguided horse. It has to be motivated differently. It has to be cleared of perceptions and stream of thoughts. That means it has to be reset to the original. Like a child’s mind.

Child’s Play Meditation

This meditation will help reset your mind to the original. Prerequisite is to think like a child and behave like a child. This is an easy way to clear impressions of the past on the mind and experience freedom, awareness and silence.

In the morning nature breaks from its slumber and everything becomes conscious and alert. So this is the best time for this meditation.

Step 1 : As you wake up in the morning, just start watching each and every object you see in a new way. Forget that you have slept in the same room, the same bed. Think that you have born right now. Try seeing each and every part of your room with the inquisitiveness of a child. See the colour of curtains, pendulum of watch, movement of fan and behave as if you have been seeing these things for the first time in life.

Step 2 : Sit in the lotus pose and breathe in and out with intensity, deep and fast for 3-5 minutes. Concentrate on exhaling. Body will take care of inhaling. Feel the breath deep inside your lungs.

Step 3 : Stop deep breathing. Follow your body. Do whatever your body demands – shout, laugh, cry, dance, sing, jump, go totally mad, become a child.

Step 4 : Let the body and mind calm. Freeze for ten minutes in whatever position you are, like a child in the womb. Let any thought come to your mind. Don’t try to stop or repress it. They with subside gradually.

Get up with a child’s zest, celebrate your new birth and newfound awareness, the whole day.

About the Author: Satyashri Sant Vivek, is an enlightened Master and the founder of ‘Samarpan Yog Atambodh Sadhna’ meditation techniques. He conducts workshops on stress and pain management through meditation for doctors and other professionals. He can be reached at amarshradha@gmail.com or 9818883339.