Meditation

In a general sense, the word “meditation” simply means “to become familiar with” or “to contemplate on.” The practice of mediation, however, is concentrated focus upon sound, object, visualization, breath, or movement to increase awareness of the present moment. The key phrases here are concentrated focus and the present moment. Meditation is an extraordinarily useful tool for both stress relief and personal productivity, and although it doesn’t necessarily involve sitting around chanting “om” while you commune with your higher self (unless of course you’re really into that kind of thing). Here we discus about different types of meditation. Meditations have been put in three categories.

Focused Attention

The first category called focused attention are meditations that require a lot of focus, a lot of mental effort. These are your traditional concentration meditations. For instance, Zen meditation. You try to keep your mind on one thought. Not allow it to move. Or maybe to focus on one part of the body and not allow it to move. All types of meditation that involve enhancing concentration can be classified as “focused attention” technique. These practices involve focusing attention on one specific thing for the entire time with the goal of cultivating laser-like focus. Any concentration meditation will involve consistent mental effort to build up the ability to focus without succumbing to distraction. Certain practices may involve focusing on an external object (e.g. a pen), while others will involve focusing on the breath. In any regard, the goal is to direct 100% focus on one thing for the entire session. When the mind wanders, the focus is calmly brought back to the object. Over time, the mind wanders less and the ability to focus your attention improves for longer durations.

Mantra Meditation (OM)

In the Hindu tradition, mantra meditation is popular and involves repeating sound, syllable, or word with the intention of focusing the mind. It is very difficult for the mind to focus on anything but the particular repeated sound, which is why it works well. The sound repeated can be anything, but some traditions assign meditators a specific syllable or word. It should also be mentioned that certain schools of mantra meditation stress that the particular word as well as the meaning behind it are important, but that is a subjective (spiritual) debate. From a purely scientific perspective, the mantra’s purpose is to focus the attention – the particular word and/or sound that is repeated is not of major significance. Mantra meditation is a practice that is primarily associated with Hinduism, but can also be used in Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism. In the mainstream, it is common for people to reference mantra meditation as “om” (or “aum”) meditation. The important thing to remember is that a sound is repeated to focus the person’s attention.

Metta Meditation (Loving-Kindness)

This is a specific type of meditation that involves cultivating unconditional love and kindness towards other human beings. The practice of “metta” meditation is derived from Theravada Buddhism and is sometimes referred to as “compassion” meditation. There is scientific evidence in support of practicing metta for increased happiness, brain waves, and neural activity. Metta is considered “love” without any sort of attachment and the goal is to increase “good will” towards others. If you were to practice this type of meditation, you’d start by directing feelings of unconditional love towards yourself. Once you were able to love yourself, you’d then expand those feelings and direct them towards others. This type of meditation may not be as popular as mindfulness, but has the ability to drastically improve mood when practiced correctly over the long-term.

Vipassana Meditation

The word Vipassana literally translates to “insight into reality” which is why many people refer to it as “insight meditation.” This meditative practice dates back to the 6th century BC and is derived from the Theravada Buddhist movement. Vipassana is recognized as being taught by Satya Narayan (S.N.) Goenka. The Vipassana meditation involves gaining “mindfulness” of breathing and is sometimes referred to in the United States as “Mindfulness.” This meditation practice involves observation of breathing and contemplation. Many consider the goal to gain “insight” into the true nature of reality. The Sutta Pitaka describes “mindfulness” as entering the forest and sitting beneath a tree to watch the breath. If the breath is “long,” notice that it is long and if the breath is “short,” notice that it is short. By observing your breathing, perceptual changes take place in the brain, creating new insights. Vipassana has emerged as among the most popular styles of meditation in the United States. It helps increase internal awareness and has been scientifically proven to reduce stress. If you’ve never meditated before, this may be an ideal practice to start with.

Open Monitoring

Other meditations use less effort. What they involve is rather than controlling the mind, just continuing to watch what's going on in the mind. These meditations are called open monitoring. Whenever you are doing that, that is you are having your attention in and you are following the ongoing processes, you see a different brain wave. It is called Theta EEG. It goes up and down 6 to 8 times per second. And many meditations show Theta. This includes Zazen, where you just sit, you don't do anything you just watch; it includes Mindfulness, where you just are mindful of, you just observe the ongoing processes, whether it is just breathe going in and out, whether it's a body scan, how is my body, body tension, thoughts, emotions.

Zen Meditation (Zazen)

The name “Zen” meditation translates to “seated meditation” and originated in Chinese Zen Buddhism. Historians trace the practice back to the 6th Century Indian monk “Bodhidharma.” The practice generally involves sitting in the Lotus Position and observing the breath. To tame the mind, awareness is generally focused on counting or watching the breath. Many individuals that practice this specific type of meditation sit on a cushion, chair, or padded mat. In the “Soto” teachings of Zen, observing the mind is the primary focus. In the Soto-subtype, there is no focus on any object and the goal is for the meditator to become aware of their thoughts without judgment. This could be compared to “mindfulness” in that the individual acts as an observer. In some cultures, intensive “group meditations” are practiced in a process called “Sesshin.” This type of meditation also uses what are referred to as “koans” which help the Zen student gain insight from the Zen master. They are also commonly used to test the progress of a Zen meditator. Koans may be solved through sitting meditation (Zen), but are sometimes solved during walking meditation (Kinhin).

Mindfulness Meditation

Although Vipassana is synonymous with “Mindfulness” meditation, some people consider them to be slightly different. Many consider the practice of Mindfulness to be an adaptation of Vipassana, keeping certain aspects without a religious influence. This type of practice is also sometimes referred to as MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) due to the fact that westerners are using it solely to reduce anxiety and stress. The MBSR program was founded in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts by John Kabat-Zinn. It is supported by science as being beneficial for reducing stress, hence “stress reduction” in the name. Many consider mindfulness meditation (MBSR) to be among the most effective non-drug therapies for improving stress levels.

Automatic Self-transcending

These first two meditations keep you involved in thinking. And what they do is they are developing specific cognitive skills, thinking skills that you can use after meditation. The last category of meditation involves least effort. It is called automatic self-transcending. The self-that’s being transcending here is the meditation procedure itself. The other meditations involve being involved in the thinkin

g process, so there is the knower, you are experiencing some object of experience. Meditations in automatic self-transcending actually allow the thinking process to settle down to get to being. You are actually transcending, you are going beyond thoughts and categories and experiences, and just experiencing what is the level of wakefulness which is at the source of thoughts. When you are having this type of cognitive process the attention is turned within and you are just awake, which is at a very specific frequency which is called Alpha 1. Brain waves go up and down 8 to 10 times per second. Meditation where we see this type of brain is transcendental meditation. Transcendental meditation is just that. To start from the thinking process and allow the active thinking mind to settle down. What's happening is, thought are becoming secondary an experience; what's becoming more primary is that underlying field of wakefulness within which you put everything together.

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

You’ve probably heard of the popularized form of mantra meditation called “Transcendental Meditation” (TM). This specific subtype of mantra meditation is associated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1955 and was introduced to pop-icons like The Beatles and The Beach Boys in the 1970s. Due to celebrity appeal and early introduction to the West, it has become one of the most popular types of meditation practiced throughout the world. Although a very popular form of meditation, TM is not considered free. There are steep fees to be paid to get assigned a particular “mantra” as well as learn the proper technique. What distinguishes TM from other forms of mantra meditation is that it is considered “effortless.” In other words you aren’t necessarily building focus, rather you’re “effortlessly transcending.” Neural correlates of TM demonstrate that within just 6 months of proper practice, brain waves are the exact same as an advanced TM meditator. However, the difference between a novice at TM and advanced practitioner is that the advanced TM practitioner has noticeably different non-meditative brain waves and is closer to the transcendental state while waking.