Meditation

Jessie Petrow-Cohen

(661/600 words)

Ohmmmmm, Ohmmmmmm.  Clear your mind and let your body feel empty.  Feel yourself fall into complete relaxation, have no thoughts and no feelings, have nothing.  The ancient practice of meditation expects people to do just this.  While the overall goal of meditation, to achieve complete relaxation remains virtually the same, there are many different reasons, and benefits that people can obtain from the practice. 

One main motivator for people to meditate is religious practice.  Religions such as Buddhism in many ancient and modern forms focus on meditation as the ultimate way to achieve enlightenment.  Specifically, the new Kadampa tradition, which is a westernized version of Tibetan Buddhism designed to fit in with modern life uses meditation as an essential pillar in the religion.  Arthur Hunking (2014), a practicing member of the Kadampa Buddhism explained, “There are monks and nuns who dedicate their lives to it but mainly it's just people who practice weekly, like I do. It's a lot about compassion and being kind to others. There's 6 realms of reincarnation, human, animal, god, hell, demigod, and hungry ghost. Depending on the good or bad karma you acquire in one life you're next life is determined. All of these realms are not enlightened and this circle of endless birth and rebirth is called samsara. The ultimate goal is enlightenment.”  In a religion so focused on kindness, empathy and love for those around us, meditation is used as means for escaping the materialism of modern life and instead focusing the mind on achieving emptiness. “Emptiness is the idea that reality is an illusion caused by the mind and that the true essence of everything is nothing. This is usually reached through intensive meditation which is a key component to every Kadampa religious practice.” Described Hunking. 

While religion is a common pathway to finding meditation and benefitting from it, there are other ways to discover the practice as well.  Madelyn Petrow-Cohen, a practicing psychotherapist in considers meditation to be an extremely important par of her life. She explained her discovery of the practice as well as how it has transferred from her work to her personal life: “I first became involved in meditation through my work. The trauma therapy I was studying included teaching mindfulness and helping people to learn to self regulate and become more comfortable in their bodies. The idea was to do this well the therapist must be very grounded and comfortable themselves so other peoples distress doesn't unground you and you then loose your ability to be helpful.  So I began to learn and practice it myself and really liked and benefited from the practice professionally and personally.”

Just as Petrow-Cohen described, mediation can have endless benefits whether it is a religious practice or simply a personal choice.  “It has slowed me down, taught me to be more thoughtful and look deeper. When we rush we are more likely to misperceive things. The practice of returning to the breath develops focus on where you want and need your attention to be and to not be drawn away or distracted. I find it centering and grounding,” she explains. 

While religious meditation may seem to have a different goal than mediation unaffiliated with religion the two are actually extremely similar and both certainly have a spiritual component. The practice of meditation aims to put people in touch with a deeper or higher part of themselves.  The process of escaping modern day materialism and being completely undistracted is a spiritual one. “I think of faith as believing in things you can't see and meditation is a practice that is not concrete. I can only see the benefits after I do it so I guess I have faith that it's a worthwhile practice,” Petrow-Cohen adds. 

In the practice of meditation, the chanting of “Ohmmmm, Ohmmmm” means so much more than just the vibrations leaving the mouth, it is the act of completely emptying the mind, completely relaxing and participating in a spiritual practice that has been around for centuries. 

One of the central theories in meditation is that of "chakra's", different energy points of the body that meditating can to enhance.