What is meditation: Unlike the narrow view of being a breathing technique, or some technique to improve concentration / focus etc. etc., let me briefly describe meditation.
Meditation in its true sense is a radical form of being in the present tense. It is a state in which one tries to remove anything and everything about the past and the future. Being fully present is a very difficult task given the dynamics of our brain, our long life experiences and our preoccupations with our priorities in life. Meditation is an attempt to direct your conscious mind to only the exact nano seconds of current events.
Now what are the dynamics of your mind?
Thus, our mind does not remain in the present. just try to pause and think, everything you are thinking or doing is driven by something that happened in the past or continued by some future. Any activity that performs you a normal course of life is almost zero percent of being fully present (except when you are sleeping).
Why is it important to be fully present?
Thus, the state of absolute present is the state of happiness. Let me give you an extreme case of what I mean by absolute present. It is like the state of a baby in the mother's womb. Without bothering the baby in the past or present, the baby is in a state of bliss. No pain and No joy. Have you ever heard a baby crying inside? But, as the baby is outside, as he begins to map and model the world, the sensation of pain and happiness is stored in him. Now, of course, we cannot and should not aspire to reach that state, but it is important to decutter your mind, even for a short period of time, to experience that state. The state of maximum happiness, where your experience is painless or unsatisfying. You just experience reality and that is the state of being fully present.
How do you achieve the state of meditation? There are different ways to do this. some effective, some less effective. Some are long-term, some are just superficial, but each technique tries to reach the state of directing your mind towards the present, to some degree.
Meditation by focusing on one thing: This is a common technique taught in my school. You only get one point object and concentration at that point. As you do the concentration, just try to see that point. by doing this you just try to attract your visual senses to the current reality in front of your eyes, which is the point object. Thus, this technique is not effective for me because here only one sense organ is involved, while the rest are free to roam.
Meditation through pronunciation / beads / mantras: This is a very common technique. It often includes religious views but in its primary effort to direct your speech, your auditory organ towards that state. But for me, it even fails to trick the brain into being fully present because my other sensory organs are free to roam. Now I will not try the details of other techniques, Let me jump right into Vipassana.
Thinking of Vipassana:
It is a kind of memorable meditation. It tries to deceive the brain to realize the absolute truth. You think you are focused on what the real reality of every animal life in the world is, and that is your breath. Once you are in the breath syn in the size of every nano second, you can no longer be in the "fully present" space of time. You do not see a light reflected in something (which is actually delayed by a certain amount). Neither your ear is engaged in capturing a signal traveling at the speed of sound (which is slower than light). Your breath is, "THE TRUTH". The most underrated, yet the most sacred thing.
The sensory experience in your body, evey little sensation is again a kind of reality that is sometimes neglected in our normal course of life. But when your mind tries to find and experience every little sensation (good / bad) in your body, you are once again in full harmony with the size of every nano second.
So, for me the mind of Vipassana has provided ways to detox my mind of my past and future. Just discard every superficial layer that buried your sense of similarity. Now, I’m not saying you can achieve this state forever (certainly one does that after a long year devoted to this practice also known as the “Nirvana” state). But given my experience with Vipassana, Even a few seconds of such a state in your time long meditation you can aspire to that state.
What is the experience of a during and after Meditation (Vipassana)
Thus, some things are inexplicable given the limitations of human language and expression. Yes, we humans are too small and insignificant to describe everything in this cosmos. So, I will not do any injustice by reducing the description of the experience to the limited ability of our language.
The best way to learn the benefit and experience is to practice it alone. I have done this, and I have been doing it for a long time. There are definitely some visible changes in your perception, your outlook and your way of dealing with your life. But that is a topic for another day.
