by Robert Harden

Created on: January 21, 2009

The practice of meditation can be a number of things and varies widely among its practitioners. But primarily, meditation is a mental exercise through which one learns mindfulness and focus. What does this mean, exactly? Well, first of all, we often do not realize how harmful many of our thoughts are to our self esteem and our concept of self worth. Our minds, when left unrestricted, can come up with wonderful things but they can also instill us with fear, anger, and hate, which are ultimately the causes of evil. For most people these are things that are very difficult to control. Our minds see our circumstance, react accordingly, and then we are a slave to our mind's often irrational whims.

To take an example, let's say someone has dented your car but did not leave a note. The natural response is to get upset, although most would agree that logically this is not a useful course of action and won't find the person responsible nor will it pay for the damage and will essentially only make things worth. But the mind is frequently impervious to logic and we are jerked around our whole lives by our mind's many negative and frequently counter-productive impulses.

To teach the unruly mind that this kind of thinking is not useful but is acctually harmful we must use meditation, which is first and foremost the practice of learning to control the mind, rather than having it control us. The most basic practice is to simply sit and count our breaths. A person doing this for the first time may be amazed at just how busy his or her mind actually is and the temptation will be to follow the thoughts that arise. The meditator may be thinking about a bill that needs to be paid or what is going to be done about dinner even if there is nothing that can be done right now. Instead, during this type of meditation, known as Samatha, the meditator must continuously bring his or her focus back to the breath and in so doing will learn to control the mind and make it an ally rather than an enemy.

Additionally, this creates a large amount of focus in everyday life. An experienced meditator is never bored and does not require, though may still certainly enjoy, the constant over-stimulation provided by the modern world, but can rather take joy in the most simple of tasks, including work.

But even this, as powerful and useful as it is, is only one aspect of meditation. Other forms involve focusing on a certain faculty, such as compassion, that one may wish to further understand and develop. When the mind is truly focused through careful meditation, its capability of insight and understanding is practically limitless.

And this is all attainable by people who aren't even Buddhist! There's nothing supernatural or religious about any of the above. But for a follower of one of the Dharmic religions, meditation is even more important as it is the practice that will allow enlightenment and escape from Samsara, or the cycle of rebirth. In the Mahayana tradition, it is only meditation that allows one to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming what eminent monk Sakyong Mipham calls a "Bodhisattva Warrior", an utterly happy person driven by and endless desire to end all suffering for all beings. They see it as a profoundly transformational process.

But no matter what your beliefs, meditation can do wonders for everyone and point the way to a happier, less stressful, and more focused life.

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