Meditation – From misery to bliss

From Keerti's desk

Meditation should not be treated as a fashion embraced by movie stars, writes Keerti in the Deccan Chronicle on December 4, 2017.

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Is meditation harmful in any way? Recently I came across an article on this subject: Could meditation do more harm than good?  And the answer was that some experts do think that meditation can harm people. Yes, it can be harmful if you take meditation very seriously. And some people do so. They read articles about some famous people like Madonna and Katy Perry who do meditation and happen to be really successful. The readers think that by regular practice of meditation they can achieve success and wealth. They become overzealous and start meditating for long hours. Some people force themselves to sit in meditation for as long as eight to ten hours daily. This becomes an overkill. Such practitioners could go neurotic even with the right kind of meditation, like vipassana and mindfulness. Vipassana is a wonderful meditation, but it is not for beginners who think they can sit for eight hours. Beginners should not do it for more than 40 minutes. Beginners should approach meditation with a light attitude.

Meditation

There should be some kind of physical exercise, something of yoga and breathing to energise oneself, or some kind of dancing to make the energy flow; sitting then will not make you twitch or fiddle. You can descend into a deep relaxation and remain watchful of the incoming and outgoing breath, which Gautam Buddha calls Anapaansati Yoga.

Meditation should not be treated as a fashion embraced by movie stars. One should remember that meditation is not just scientific, it is sacred also. Sacred because it transforms and uplifts you from the mundane to the divine, from the lowest rung to the highest rung of super-consciousness, from misery to bliss. It is an inner process of transforming. But one needs to have a playful and creative attitude towards it, as Osho suggests: “Meditation can happen only in playfulness, when you are not searching and seeking for anything, when you are simply dancing or singing or chanting; when you are not asking, when the activity is all and all in itself, no future is provoked, no future is involved in it… then it happens.”

deccanchronicle.com – illustration Osho News

Quote by Osho from
Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Ch 5, Q 1

Chaitanya KeertiChaitanya Keerti travels around the world to facilitate Osho meditation retreats. He is an editor of Osho World and author of ‘Osho Fragrance’, ‘The Alchemy of Zen’, and ‘Mindfulness: The Master Key’. More articles by the same author on Osho News

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