What is Meditation?

I know I have not posted on my blog for a long long time and I will attempt to be more conscious from now on!  What follows is an interview by a questionnaire for a young woman who is writing her graduation thesis.  These questions provided me with a great platform to write my answers and I liked how they flowed and thought to share it on my website with all who might be thinking along the same line.  Enjoy!  Much blessings and love!

Questionnaire:

1) What is Meditation? 2) Why do people do this practice? 3) What are your experiences with it? 4) What is the impulse behind it? 5) When do you practice your meditation?  

I clustered the first 5 questions together because the answer from one flows into the other.

Questions 1 to 5

For me, meditation is a personal retreat, I use it as a means of getting away from the busy-ness of my daily life, it is an energy field that I have mindfully constructed over time and when I sit in repose in this quiet space.  I feel supported by the Earth upon which I sit and feel the blessings of the Heavens and the nurturing support of my environment everywhere.   

 

I choose to sit in meditation upon waking in the morning for about 15 minutes and find this helps to ground me  and connects me to all my bodily sensations internally and to the external sensations of support and love.    I believe it is important to do this not out of duty or obligations or to look good but to listen and attend to our inner impulse to do so, when we follow this impulse it is gentle, it allows us to drop into a deeper consciousness of who we REALLY are.  When we gently abide in the calmness and peacefulness of this guidance we feel the ONENESS of all things and being, the closest way for me to describe this would be if you imagine yourself to be a drop of water and there is a wide ocean out there when that drop of water falls into the ocean it does not create any disturbance but it finds itself becoming the ocean, vast, deep and unending,  it is ONE with the ocean; it is the ocean.   

 

In our hustle and bustle we forget to notice how we are all connected and how we are the same, we as humans need love, cherishing, belonging and connection.  In meditation we find ourselves to be part of the whole and all that we long for are provided in this energy field.

 

Some scientific study done at Harvard University in 1970 shows that when folks meditate, they fall into deep relaxation; the body goes into deep rest and in this deep state of rest the body is able to heal and restore itself and in fact over time a reservoir of deep rest is created, this enables individuals to manage better the stresses of life we encounter daily. 

 

6) Does it trigger or activate something?

To be able to sit in quiet repose requires you to feel safe first otherwise your Nervous System will be cued to be vigilant surveying your environment for danger.  However when your Nervous System is no longer tracking danger it may shift into a physiological state of safety. (Porges 1995-2011).  When the body does not shift into this state of safety and calmness your attempt to meditate may be ineffective.  

 

“Without the appropriate contextual cues of safety and without the body shifting into a physiological state of calmness, attempts at contemplative practices may be ineffective and replace feelings of connectedness and compassion with defensive feelings focused on self-survival that promote hyper-vigilance and hyper-reactivity.”  Stephen Porges

 

Sandy you probably know that traumatized Nervous System is always in a state of vigilant and so for a person who has a history of trauma, meditation may not be an appropriate activity without first attending to the trauma.  

 

7)Could the state of meditation be misunderstood?  Could you please elaborate this within which context of this question.  

 

8)Why is it important to you?

It is not just important, it is life itself - meditation is not what I do only for 15 minutes a day, I am in meditation through the day, as I work with my clients, 

cook, garden, etc.  I notice my connection to my divine,  all beings, environments and things.  I notice them as part of myself. 

 

9) Is there anything you ant to add here?

Yes, Let life breathe you and be life itself, notice how you are connected and how all these connections are threads of the ONE and that you are part of it too.

 

10)Many Buddhist Books,be curious about things you notice, learn from life and nature the source of all things. The Trappist Monk - Thomas Merton, Thich Nath Hahn, The Dalai Lama, on compassion - Mother Theresa.  Stephen Porges on Contemplation and Meditation.