Learn to Meditation

Once you learn to meditation will bring endless benefits to your life. Once you learn to meditation will become that special time each day just for you. Once you learn to meditation can bring you to a state of bliss. To learn to meditate is an art. Before instructions are given to teach you how to learn to meditate, you must first understand where this ancient art comes from. Many researchers think that some of the very primitive hunter-gatherer societies may have learned how to meditate while staring at the flames of their brightly burning fires. Meditation evolved over a period of thousands of years into a structured practice. Buddha, which is a major meditation icon, first appeared around 500 B.C. His teachings were spread all across the Asian continent. Different cultures or countries adopted different forms of meditation and each had its own unique way of practicing it. The most popular mediation techniques are Buddhist and Hindu-based. After it was adopted in the East, meditation gradually spread to the Western society thousands of years later. Meditation finally began to become popular in the West by the mid-20th century.

Exactly how does one learn to meditate? Meditation means nothing more than concentrated thinking. You must try to focus your thought on an idea.

Concentration means that you only have a reflection about one thought. However, the mind is usually swirling with many different thoughts. How are all of these thoughts controlled? Our thoughts have to be channeled towards a greater one. One of the most positive thoughts in learning how to meditate is to reflect upon the state of bliss, that is, the essence of our existence.

As we turn our deliberations to a single thought, we find that meditation is almost synonymous with contemplation. When we contemplate we think about a certain subject deeply. Very simply, this is what it means to learn to meditate. The positive thought that is introduced into one's mind is through a mantra. Simply put, it is a phrase or a word that "liberates the mind". The mantra concentrates the mind on one certain idea and has three qualities that enable it to do that:

1.  It is concentrative. The mantra acts as an object of concentration because the mind has the ability to focus on something.

2.  The mantra is incantative. It, too, has a certain wavelength that vibrates the mind with feelings of bliss.

3.  The mantra is ideative. If you think in a certain fashion, then that is what you will become. If you happen to think like a pessimist, then your life will turn out to be very pessimistic. The mantra must be a most positive thought.

By contemplating regularly on the very thought of bliss, the mind will gradually expand until it merges into a sea of infinite cosmic existence. A person's experience of pain and pleasure will eventually become transformed into a constant experience of cosmic bliss.

Learning to mediate can also be a religious experience. St. Teresa of Avila attained some of the highest forms of contemplation. For example, by doing a simple reflection on a word or a phrase of the Lord's Prayer, this can keep you focused on the attributes of the Lord for quite some time.

No matter if you are learning to meditate to relax, to clear your mind, or to reach the summit of Heaven, meditation is an art which has to be learned, yet once you learn to meditation will set you free.

By Lisa Bull