The Russian-language Internet space is directly gushing with contradictory and dubious information about the practice of meditation. People read various forums, blogs, and then they think that it is dangerous to meditate or that this practice does not fit their religious beliefs.
I accept the challenge of militant ignorance and declare a general educational program! In this small article I will analyze the loudest, most glaring, most-very strong misconceptions about meditation, which can be found in the expanses of the domestic (mostly) network. For a while, I wrote an article “Myths about Meditation,” where I presented a hit parade of 17 of the most notorious prejudices about the practice of mindfulness. But in this article you will see something completely different!
And now something completely different!
Today, I will consider the kind of myths that are partly due to ignorance, and partly due to excessive trust in questionable media sources.
I often get questions: “Isn't it dangerous to meditate? I read this ... ”or“ Is it possible to meditate on Orthodox people? ”
I could not stand it and decided to give a detailed answer to them.
It is fair to say that these prejudices are transmitted not only via the Internet, but you can also pick them up by airborne droplets from your neighbor in the stairwell.
In order to prevent and treat these ailments, I decided to write this general educational article. I will not pull, turn right to the point.
"To meditate is dangerous! I read the forum, and people write ..."
It happens that people are afraid to practice, because they have read somewhere that it is very dangerous.
Say, a certain individual with the nickname Alex123 on some dense forum built on the free engine of the 90s wrote: "Do not meditate! It is very dangerous! I have been meditating for 5 years and my egg has fallen off!"
And of course this phrase scared you. You already doubt whether to begin meditation when there is a risk of losing a precious organ. And if you are a woman, only God knows that he can fall off at you!
Stop! And why did you go to learn about meditation on the forum? This is the Internet, where anyone can write anything! Do you know the person who wrote this? Do you know how much you can trust him? After all, do you understand what he means by the word "meditation"?
Different people understand by meditation completely different things. For some, it is simply an act of directed concentration and awareness. And for another person, this is running naked with a carrot in hand during the full moon.
Therefore, instead of being afraid of such reviews or, even more so, arguing with such people, it is better to ask the question: “What is meditation in your understanding?”.
With a probability of 67.3 percent, you will receive some vague answer about an unknown mysterious practice like the "Orthodox Tantra", which does not at all correspond to the accepted definitions of meditation. There is a chance that the person followed the instructions correctly, but simply treated them with excessive fanaticism: he meditated 24 hours a day without proper preparation and decided to deprive himself of food and drink for an intensive practice period just in case, which for obvious reasons had a negative effect on his well-being. Or it turns out that such a post is quite a usual provocation, a form of "trolling." So beware.
And in general, I do not recommend to form an opinion on meditation on the basis of reading any doubtful forums. It is better to pass by this and turn to more reputable sources. How? I will write at the end of the article.
If one cannot go past, and some person very persistently tries to instill his opinion on meditation: “meditation is what meditation is, meditating is harmful”, then again you need to ask: “what is meditation”?
Of course, you can read the definition on Wikipedia, dig in books written by reputable authors to find out what it is. But such methods are for mere mortals, like you and me. We, ordinary people who need to read something to learn about some phenomena.
But there is a certain caste of gods. These people do not need to read anything, they already know everything about everything from birth and have an opinion about every thing in the world.
It often happens that the critic simply has no idea what he is criticizing.
And the leading questions about his level of understanding will help you find out if a person really criticizes meditation, or his criticism is directed at some imaginary practice, which he himself invented and then began to curse at her, like a sleeping one, waving his fists on the bed , to fend off bullies from sleep. Yes, you are laughing now, but in reality, this is a very frequent occurrence.
A lot of people have no idea what the meditation is, but already having heard this single word, an expression of strong fear and concern will appear on their face: “Are you really doing this? These are terrible things! ”
We all love to speak out about what we know not so much. "I did not look, but I condemn!" There is nothing terrible in this, the evolutionary brain of man is so arranged: he has to compose opinions on the basis of incomplete information. Just to such opinions do not need to particularly listen.
“Meditation does not fit my religious beliefs.”
Suppose you think that meditating is a big misconduct in your religion. In your opinion, this is not Orthodox or does not correspond to the dogmas of Manichaeism or another religion that you profess.
I will not persuade anyone in this. On the contrary, I will help you.
Imagine that for some reason you have been told by doctors to avoid eating foods with a high glycine index. What is this glycotic index? What are these products? Of course, if you need to stop eating any dishes for health reasons, then you should know what these dishes are. You will find out from the doctor what this index is and in which products it is high.
So is meditation. If you think that your religious beliefs prohibit her from practicing, then, accordingly, it will be useful for you to find out what exactly you should not do. And I, as a meditation coach, can enlighten you.
Of course, you think that you already know very well what it is: you read a website stuffed with colorful banners with images of Shiva and Vishnu, learned that during meditation you need to read mantras that are turned to these gods. And, of course, your awakened religious conscience instantly forbade you to engage in such seditious idolatry.
(Or maybe you did not read anything, because you are a caste of celestials, who know everything about it.)
To say that meditation is only reading mantras, it’s like saying that a tree is only birch or that prayer is only the chanting of ancient Greek gods.
Meditation or contemplation?
The concept of meditation is much broader. And I will try to briefly highlight the breadth of this phenomenon, so that those who want to observe religious purity, God forbid, suddenly, somewhere, by chance do not meditate and violate the canons of their religion.
First of all, it is worth referring to the definition. In itself, the word "meditation" does not quite accurately reflect what, in fact, a person does during many contemplative practices. This is a Latin word that means "meditation". This term expressed the attempts of the West to comprehend and bring under some familiar conceptual base those mysterious techniques that they were engaged in in the East.
In fact, initially on the Indian subcontinent, where, according to many researchers, meditation techniques emerged (although there is evidence that meditation, as a formal practice, was practiced even before the emergence of Indian civilization), there was a Sanskrit term for Dyana (meditation). This word can be roughly translated as "contemplation."
Can it be said that contemplation is a technique? Yes and no. Contemplation is one of the natural acts of human consciousness, as well as, in fact, reflection. But just as we can implement the process of thinking within certain technical conditions (concentration, brainstorming), in order to stimulate and direct this thinking, we can do the same with contemplation. That is, simply put, meditation is a natural state of consciousness, coupled with some techniques that help to fix this state to achieve certain goals. Meditation is not just a technique that you either do or do not do. This is not only sitting with eyes closed under mp3 with Indian mantras. This is a directed act of consciousness.
(For example, I like the definition that often describes meditation in the West. They sometimes say “mindfulness” instead of “meditation”, which is translated as “awareness.” “What are you doing? Consciousness!” That is, not just technology, but development of a certain mental quality and state of consciousness.)
Good. With this sorted out. Why was all this writing necessary? And in order to explain the following fact. If someone believes that his religion forbids him to engage in meditation, then it turns out that it imposes a ban not on any abstract techniques, but on specific acts and states of consciousness.
And then I will tell you about some of the most godless and seditious states of our mind, which righteous religious people should strictly avoid!
Why do all people without exception meditate?
Have you ever come across the following? You eat the finest dessert or drink expensive wine. You do not want to miss a single shade and flavor of this divine taste. Therefore, all your attention is now focused on the sensations of your taste buds. Not a single thought passes through there, only a pure sensation of taste!
Wait a minute What I see! You are meditating, my dear friend! You have completely surrendered to the contemplation of those feelings that you experience here and now. Immediately stop! Quickly return to your head the thoughts of tomorrow's affairs and yesterday's problems! After all, every second of being here and now brings you closer to the devil.
You probably read it and choked coffee. "How and this is meditation?" Yes friends. Only now wipe the keyboard from the spray of the drink, it is better to move the cup away from you, because there will be something else. Then you will see how much your everyday activities can be attributed to meditation.
Are you focused on something? Maybe this is a beautiful sky, which you just admire, without making attempts to describe. Or a floating float on a perfectly flat surface of water. The feeling of touching the hand of a loved one. This is all a meditation too! That same forbidden act of consciousness.
Are you terribly afraid to fly, on takeoff in the cabin of the Boeing shakes you, perspiration sweats, fear? Your compassionate neighbor tells you to take deep breaths and exhalations, trying to fully concentrate on this process. You follow his advice and calm down. Understand how vile you are doing? And God sees everything, you can't hide from it in an airplane! Moreover, it was not only meditation, but also yoga, which is ten times worse and more godly!
Or you can not fall asleep and consider the number of cute sheep that jump over the fence. Okay, I think you already understood ...
Now you have to conduct a capital audit of your daily affairs and eliminate from there everything that requires concentration, awareness, aimed at sensations in the body or external objects and any forms of contemplation. Because this is all meditation! You must track the acts of awareness in your head and cut them off at the root! (Wait, tracing thoughts and states in the mind is also meditation, which means that it is forbidden, and how you should be, I do not know. In an unenviable position, you, however!)
Imagine, you yourself did not know that it turns out, every day you commit an act that is forbidden according to your religious ideas. How great I probably helped, explaining what you should never do!
Okay. It was all big sarcasm. I do not want to be understood literally. Of course, I didn’t want someone, having read this article, refused to be aware, sometimes to concentrate on the moment here and now, clearing the mind of fear and anxiety.
I wanted to say that meditation is too broad a concept, which refers rather to the act of consciousness than to a specific technique. To speak about the prohibition of meditation is to speak about the prohibition of awareness, contemplation. It is like banning thinking or physical effort.
Each person performs acts of awareness every day, one might say, all people meditate anyway. And it is difficult to do without it. Of course, not all are engaged in the so-called "formal" practice, sitting down, closing their eyes and trying to concentrate on the sensations of the body for some time. However, there is no fundamental difference between concentrating on the sensations of breathing during "formal" meditation and awareness of the sensations of taste, touch, or something else.
Simply, those who engage in the formalized practice of awareness regularly, as a rule, have a naturally higher level of that awareness, attention than everyone else, that's all. What you develop is developing. By applying force, you develop strength. Applying awareness - develop awareness.
Meditation is a tool for developing attention, awareness, calmness, acceptance. The development of these qualities allows you to control passions, control your own mind, eradicate vices, develop compassion and love. Tell me, please, is there at least one religion in which these qualities would be banned?
Therefore, if someone tells you that his religious beliefs forbid him to meditate or, moreover, convince you that religion does not allow you to meditate, ask the same magic question. “What is meditation? What exactly is prohibited? Does the ban apply to specific techniques or the whole underlying principle of meditation, contemplation or awareness? ”
In a very large number of cases, you will not get a clear answer, because often all the talk that people of some kind of faith cannot be meditated comes from a misunderstanding of what meditation is. It would be much more logical and clearer to say: "Orthodox people cannot meditate by chanting the Hindu mantra" than "Christians cannot be meditated at all."
Likbez. What not to read.
Perhaps, the confusion with the understanding of what meditation is and all sorts of remarks from the category of "oh, it is harmful to meditate, I read this!" - a consequence of the excessive trust of people in information sources, especially in the Internet. Therefore, here, in conclusion, I will try to outline the “circle of trust” of meditation resources.
As a person whose activities are directly related to web technologies, I can say that 95% (this is a very optimistic figure, maybe all 99, (9)%) of information on the Russian Internet is rubbish. Now the technology of building sites has become so accessible and understandable that every schoolchild can make his site and broadcast his authoritative opinion through it. Not to mention the fact that no extraordinary intellectual abilities are required in order to register on the forum and just bend your line there. Most of the articles that you can find in search engines are written by copywriters. Not the fact that these people are familiar with the topic about which they write. They simply write text filled with keywords for money.
No need to treat everything that you read on the Internet, as an indisputable truth. Of course, my resource claims to be called quality, copyright, based on personal experience and knowledge from reputable sources.
I try to give readers complete and adequate information about meditation. The purpose of this blog is precisely to save you from having to mess around in a vast array of data by extracting what you need from there. However, if you are seriously interested in meditation, you should check any information, even the one you read here!
Suddenly I’ve been hanging noodles on your ears for several years? He invented some meditation there, wrote that there is even some scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Check me out! Check any information for accuracy. If you have doubts about the correctness of some facts and conclusions, you are afraid that meditation may be harmful, refer, first of all, to scientific sources. Much to happiness, in recent decades, there has been a boom in the scientific research of meditation, something new and amazing is being opened every year. And information about this is available to all!
К сожалению, в основном, качественная информация представлена на английском, так как российский сегмент интернета сильно отстает в развитии от международного. Учите английский! Это вам очень пригодится. Если возможности нет, то я обещаю, что в скором времени появится статья, в которой я постараюсь суммировать все результаты самых актуальных исследований медитации.
Полезные ресурсы:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness
Очень грамотная статья о медитации со ссылками на исследования. Правда, не думаю, что обновление информации здесь поспевает за той решительной динамикой, с которыми проводятся исследования.
www.coursera.org/
Множество бесплатных онлайн курсов как по медитации, так и по другим аспектам саморазвития.
hms.harvard.edu/news/longwood-seminars
vimeo.com/159069703
Видео семинары об исследованиях медитации от Harvard Medical School
Конечно, я прекрасно понимаю, что медитацию стали исследовать совсем недавно, тогда как техника существует несколько тысяч лет. Наука, хоть и предоставляет много интересных данных о практике осознанности, но пока нельзя сказать, что она воплощает в себе исчерпывающий взгляд на медитацию. И я не призываю органичиваться лишь одними научными источниками. Существует много прекрасных авторов, учителей по медитации, как светских, так и представителей религиозных школ, которых нельзя отнести к ученым. Это, например, Allan Wallace, Jack Kornfield в России - это Виктор Ширяев и Игорь Будников. Но не только они, есть масса других!
Существует масса последовательных программ, курсов медитации, как бесплатных, так и платных, которые прошли множество людей и готовы поделиться своим опытом. Медитация - это широко обсуждаемое, практикуемое и исследуемое явление, которое давно утратило статус «маргинальной духовной дисциплины» в Западном мире. Информация об эффекте на здоровье и на сознание, четкие руководства и инструкции, разнообразные техники, преследующие конкретные цели - вся эта информация представлена довольно широко на авторитетных и уважаемых источниках. Читайте. Изучайте. Узнавайте новое. И, конечно, получайте собственный опыт: ничто не даст такого представления о медитации и ее эффекте, как ваша собственная практика.
Успехов на пути!
