Meditation

If you go to your Doctor for stress related problems, she or he will likely tell you that perhaps the best treatment for stress is Meditation. They will suggest that you start meditating and this leads you to two problems. The first is where to get appropriate direction in how to meditate. By finding Meditation Station, you've already solved that problem. The other is understanding exactly what Meditation is.

Meditation is a mental discipline by which the practitioner attempts to get beyond the reflexive,"thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness.Meditation is a component of many religions, and has been practiced since antiquity. It is also practiced outside religious traditions.Different meditative disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual or psycho-physical practices that may emphasize different goals—from achievement of a higher state of consciousness, to greater focus,creativity or self-awareness, or simply a more relaxed and peaceful frame of mind.

An ordinary person may consider meditation as a worship or prayer. However, it is not so. Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation;listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.

The Benefits of Meditation:

The benefits of meditation are manifold. When practicing meditation, your heart rate and breathing slow down, your blood pressure normalizes, you use oxygen more efficiently, and you sweat less. Also, your adrenal glands produce less cortisol, your mind ages at a slower rate, and your immune function improves. Your mind also clears and your creativity increases.People who meditate regularly find it easier to give up life-damaging habits like smoking, drinking and drugs.

Pros Of Meditation:

Meditation is wonderful in that it’s free, always available, and amazingly effective in short-term stress reduction and long-term health. Benefits can be felt in just one session. An experienced teacher isn’t necessary; you can learn to meditate from a book or from the resources on this site.

The Cons of Meditation:

It does take some practice, however, and some people find it difficult to"get it" in the beginning. It also requires a little patience, and maybe difficult for people with little free time (like some stay-at-home mothers who get little privacy from small children). However, the time and effort it takes to learn and practice is well worth it in terms of the benefits it provides.

Arguments for Meditation

• Meditation is an ancient & cross-cultural technique. Anything this old and widely accepted must be valuable.
• Meditation can lead to a direct and profound knowledge concerning Reality.
• This aforementioned knowledge can utterly transform ones relationship to Reality and to oneself.
• Meditation often gives many other empirically verified benefits, both physiological and psychological in nature.
• Beyond these empirically verified benefits there may be many other benefits for the meditator.
• Meditation, like any other endeavor, can help create meaning and purpose in ones life and connect one to others who share in this meaning.

Argument against Meditation

• Meditation in all of its guises are simply the remnants of pre-modern, antiquated, and sadly uninformed cultures and religions,many of which were the cause of great harm in the world.
• Meditation can lead to disengagement with the world, sapping the world of precious human resources.
• There are many ways of living a meaningful and healthy life without engaging in meditation techniques.
• Meditation can lead to profound confusion and dissociation just as easily as it can lead to a “profound realization,” and who’s to say they aren’t the same thing?
• If there is some profound truth about Reality that people are capable of realizing, why would they have to meditate to do so? If it’s true, then it’s true whether or not someone “meditates.”
• The very act of becoming a so called “meditator” can become yet another obstacle and block to the realization which many meditators pursue.

In “Against Meditative Knowledge”by Rabindranath Tagore, the poet says :
"Those who wish to sit, shut their eyes,
and meditate to know if the world’s true or lies,
may do so. It’s their choice. But I meanwhile
with hungry eyes that can’t be satisfied
shall take a look at the world in broad daylight." (1896)
Buddha in 'Pleasure' says:
"Whoever gives oneself to distractions
and does not give oneself to meditation,
forgetting true purpose and grasping at pleasure,
will eventually envy the one who practices meditation."

So it varies from person to person, how you do it, when you do it. Would request all the readers to write a few words about your views