By Ernst: Meditation, what is meditation?
Meditation is a mental or spiritual technique for relaxing the restlessness of your mind and freeing it from tension and stress. People often want to achieve peace of mind with it but also inner peace and spiritual awakening. During a meditation you direct your total attention inwards, within yourself. Your thoughts focused on a fixed point, idea or a form of consciousness. Many people have a tendency to be constantly distracted by new and different thoughts. The intention is to bring your attention back to where you were focused. This is especially difficult in the beginning but eventually you will succeed with practice.
The purpose of meditation is to free your mind from the subconscious compulsive habit of thinking over and over again. This ensures inner peace, freedom and the awareness of what is really going on and what is important. It finally brings peace.
Meditation is practiced in various forms all over the world. You don’t have to be a monk or hermit or live in complete isolation. Anyone can practice meditation in daily life. You also don’t have to adhere to a certain religion or wear special clothes or live a certain lifestyle.
There are many different techniques and traditions in meditation. Some people visualize things, places and situations and others just repeat mantras. Other techniques focus on breathing or, for example, a candle. It transcends all differences such as religion, country and culture.
One of the forms of meditation is called Transcendental Meditation. Transcendental Meditation develops the full potential of you and of every human being. Research proved that it reduces stress and anxiety. People experience more inner peace and happiness, also health improves and creativity and success grow. You only need to meditate for 20 minutes a day, just sitting on a chair. It is easy to learn and people from all walks of life meditate this way. It contributes to your personal development.
Meditation helps people overcome emotions and instead gain a calm, peaceful mind and a healthy and stress-free body. With daily practice, this becomes a solid state of mind.
Several benefits of meditation can include:
• Spiritual – Consciousness grows, harmony arises, personal transformation, realization of your own self.
• Mental – Emotional stability, less anxiety, less tension, happiness increases, more intuition, clarity, focus and peace of mind.
• Physical – lower blood pressure, better immune system, more vitality, better sleep and better general health.
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, was a spiritual leader. On his teachings Buddhism is based. He probably lived from about 370 to about 450 BC, in Nepal, India. He was born the son of a king and he lacked nothing. He had everything he could wish for. However, he had suffered the same feelings like everyone else. He was not satisfied. He felt empty inside. He studied with the best teachers the king gave him but that did not make him feel satisfied either. He left to study with the religious teachers of his time. That’s how he learned to meditate. Finally, he retired to solitude and found a way to become and stay happy when he was 35 years old. Then he went all over the country teaching others what he had found, the path to lasting happiness. He had many students.
When he was 80 years old, he died. His legacy was an incredible comprehensive and complete teaching. It shows and teaches much about how the world works, and also why all attempts to live happily always fail. He was called Buddha. This means “The Enlightened One”.
Many people therefore feel comfortable when there is a Buddha in their home or garden. After all, a Buddha brings good luck. But what are you doing? Do you buy it yourself or do you wait until you get one? Because, so many think, you must get a Buddha otherwise he will not bring happiness, but misfortune! This is a fairy tale. You can buy a Buddha and keep this for the rest of your life, you can sell it and you can give it away. There are some things one should take into account. A Buddha statue is not just “something”, if you get a Buddha, it is not descent to resell it. It is much better to give a Buddha away because in doing so, you also give something of yourself and wish the other person good luck.
What is even more important is that you treat a Buddha statue with respect, you don’t put it on the floor and you don’t hang dirty laundry over it. You don’t put it in the bedroom and don’t move it with your feet. A Buddha does not bring bad luck if you buy it yourself. There is nothing negative about a Buddha and there is no monk wishing you anything bad, only good luck and wisdom. You can certainly wish yourself the very best, right? If you want to buy a Buddha statue, it is mainly about why you want to buy it and what feeling you have about it. As long as you believe that a Buddha statue brings good luck and wisdom, there is nothing to worry about.
There are many different types of Buddhas, each with their own meaning. But all in different attitudes and situations. Everyone knows the Happy Buddha, who can be recognized by his big belly and cheerful smile and bald head. It is originally from China and is also called Chinese Buddha. It represents the worship of an old Zen master. He found his happiness by devoting his life to the teachings of Buddhism and he tried to pass that happiness on to others. That is why he always smiled and was surrounded by children, which is also seen as a symbol of happiness and fertility.
The Thai Buddha is also known to everyone. It is a slender Buddha, who has a pointed cap on his head and long earlobes. This Buddha image is in the pose of enlightenment. In the past, this would have been an important prince, who saw how much poverty and violence there was in the world and decided to give away all his valuable possessions and devote his life to meditation and living a selfless life. Exactly when he was in this position, he reached enlightenment. This attitude was declared sacred at the time and is still widely used.
Love and Light,
Ernst
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