what is meditation

By letting go of the random thoughts in your mind and no longer giving weight or assigning importance to those random thought, a quiet stillness will emerge in you and you will start having a clarity about your life and its purpose. Your life will become simplified and you will become more satisfied with each moment of your existence. All that is required is a strong desire to alter your perception of reality.

Meditation practice often triggers many uncomfortable feelings. Each time you find your mind wandering away is a great opportunity to re-awaken. Many people get discourage when they catch themselves mentally wandering off. This is not necessary. In fact, each time you realize you have become distracted is indeed a new moment of enlightenment!

As you progress in your meditation practice and are able to go longer periods without being distracted, new type of distractions will appear such as itches and muscles pains or a great sense of boredom. The  physical distractions like pains and itches arise because since your mind is quieter your body communication is stronger with you. If you feel bored sitting in silence then congratulations, it is working.

Boredom is your minds way of desperately trying to engage you in random useless though patterns. Your ego feels threatened because it has had years and years of practice at thinking and all these years you gave your ego sense of self the highest form of flattery by accepting those thougts and feelings and being who you truly are.

Mediation teaches you that you are not your thoughts or feelings but rather you are the awareness of those sensations.

Thinking is not something we do, it is something that happens to us.

What is Meditation?


Meditation is the act of quieting the mind and bringing you awareness away from the normal thinking mind. Your normal thinking mind is the part of you that thinks about all the concerns in your life such as money, chores, places you need to be, people in your life, fears about the future, regrets about the past, etc..


Your concentrating mind is active when you focus on one specific task. For example when you are engaged in a physical activity or are watching a movie intensely. When in the concetration state of mind you have less concerns floating around in your head like the ones listed above, however you do get distracted every now and then and forget what you were doing or where you are.


The meditating mind is one that is so focused on one thing, such as your breath, or the sounds around you, that you are no longer thinking. Or, if you do have thoughts arise, you are not clinging to them but rather you allow them to appear, then float away into nothingness.


In regular day to day life we like to think we are in total control of our thoughts and actions but in reality we rarely are in control. You can see a nice car go by that reminds you of an experience in your youth that reminds you of a certain friend and before you even realize it you are thinking about a 4th and 5th though along the line before you realize you are no longer paying attention to the present moment and where you are.


The ultimate state of consciousness is when we are no longer concerned with our body and our ego (sense of self) and instead are feeling connected with the universe and everything around us. No longer do we feel apart and separate from the world outside of us but instead feel a real tangible connection to all things living and not living around us.


Health problems, stresses of life and all sorts of anxieties can be overcome through mediation.  By sitting in quiet contemplation many answers will come to you that you previously would never have noticed.

Types of Meditation

There are several types of meditation. There is the main, most thought of meditation called mindfulness meditation. This is when you are simply aware of all things inside and outside of you. No attachment is made to any thoughts and any distractions outside of you are simply watched or listened to without judgement. The purpose of mindfulness meditation is to be aware of the present moment and all things that appear in it.

Concentration meditation is when you are intently focused on one thing such as your breathing. You place 100 per cent of your attention into the inhale and exhale of your breath to the exclusion of all other consideration. Concentrating on the breath helps you to ignore your random thoughts. Another useful concentration meditation is in the use of sounds or chants.

Insight meditation is when you are sitting with a calm and quiet mind but you are focuses on a question or a feeling in your life. You may be sitting in silence and being interested in what kind of thoughts you seem to be distracted to and which thoughts you are able to ignore. Or you may perform insight mediation to get an answer to a specific question or circumstance in your life.

What is Meditation Not?

Concentration is not actually meditation. While concentration is helpful to quiet the mind, the act of concentrating is just another activity.

Sitting still is not meditation. Just becasu you are quiet and still does not necessarily mean you are in a state of meditation. You can be meditation while washing your dishes, as long are you are in thoughtless awareness.

Other Articles About 'What is Meditation'

 Buddhist meditation techniques and related practices can greatly reduced individuals' suffering. Here is a great post about meditation and Buddhism.

Tim Brownson has an excellent article where he dispels the misconceptions about meditation and talks about how he approaches his coaching clients about it.

Socratez Online has a good post called what Is Meditation that has an example of a good technique sitting in the sun.