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PHOTO K.R. DEEPAK

FEEL FRESH Meditation improves alertness and also helps you sleep well

It’s much the same with meditation. “Why don’t you try yoga and meditation? Will help your back/skin /marriage /stomach cramps.” Sure, you nod, and bookmark it in memory. And read about it from cartoonists. It’s ok. It’s clean, satvik, vegetarian fun. Sample these.

Meditation is dreaming without content. Meditation - you have the right to remain silent. Life is hard - it’s breathe, breathe, breathe, all the time. “And how’s your son? Is he still unemployed?” “He is, but he’s meditating now.” “Meditating? What’s that?” “I don’t know. But it’s better than sitting around and doing nothing!”

“Meditation is likened to a thought flow, like water in a river,” says Vasantha Krishnaswamy, expert in alternative systems of therapy. “It’s relaxed ‘inner attention’. You don’t force your mind to be quiet; you find the quiet spot in the mind, as Deepak Chopra put it. Meditation is not the process of problem-solving; nor is it day-dreaming or experiencing emotions. It is anything that keeps the attention pleasantly anchored in the present moment.”

Satyananda Yoga Centre’s brochure tells us “Dhyana (meditation) is withdrawing our senses in a systematic manner.

We think if we are concentrating on roses, only roses should be there. But the purpose of the yoga is not to suppress the mind; it is to explore the mind. Everything must come out: past memories, visions of future, all you problems.”

What is it then? Focus on an object or empty the mind? Psychotherapist Lawrence Leshan goes a step further. Meditation can be done through intellect or emotions, he says; through body movements, through learning a skill or performing a task or simply going through everyday activities with total concentration. Unmon, a Zen master urged: “If you walk, just walk, if you sit, just sit but whatever you do don’t wobble.” You also have the trade-marked transcendental meditation or TM, popularised by Mahesh Yogi. He adapted this system from Hindu texts written 3,000 years ago.

Let’s give it a try. Sit comfortably in a steady position. Stop fidgeting. You can sit on a chair with a straight back, sit cross-legged on the floor, rest knees on the mat or do a lotus imitation. You could also try the vajrasana. There is only one condition for a good meditation posture — it should allow you to keep the head, neck and torso aligned to breathe freely (loosen that breath-stifling top). Face forward, slacken neck and shoulder. Let all the facial muscles relax. Close your eyes and mouth gently. Breathe through nostrils — lightly, easily and normally. Allow the mind to become quiet and focussed. Not easy. “Warding off thoughts is more difficult than shooing off stray dogs,” says Meera Balachandar, writer. “The mind has been compared to a monkey. I would say it’s a forest populated with thoughts monkeying about.”

Yet, there’s proof that meditation helps. Brainwave patterns recorded during meditation differ from those during sleep. When Zen monks meditated, they produced a cluster of Alpha waves. So did yogis in India monitored during meditation. Alpha waves are extremely effective in releasing stress. Meditation lowers oxygen consumption, decreases heart-rate and high blood pressure after habitual practice. Levels of lactic acid in the blood are controlled, which is helpful in treating patients with emotional problems. To sit in stillness and silence for even a few minutes each day is a very useful thing to do.

Meditate well, you sleep well. There’s increased blood flow to all parts of the body. You think better, clearer, feel fresh. Calming down helps allergies and asthmatic conditions stimulates hormonal activity. With Alpha waves, you sail t

o heightened levels of wakefulness, increased alertness and deep relaxation.

Meditation helps improve relationships. You aren’t angry or stressed. The benefits of meditation are your birthright, whether you are Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Taoist, follow some other religion, or none at all.

Singer Donovan, (“Hurdy Gurdy Man”, “Mellow Yellow”) is planning to open the Invincible Donovan University, where the syllabus will be blessed with transcendental meditation principles. “The world is ready for it now,” he declared.

He will tour to promote TM as a means of reducing violence, crime and stress in schools and colleges. If that happens, meditation could be billed as the world’s greatest re-discovery.

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