MEDITATION

          Of all the metaphysical concepts and activities I’ve been involved in, meditation has been by far the most profound and helpful!.  Because it is not entirely linked to the physical realm, it has been a real challenge to define it in material terms.

          Meditation is simply being still in body and mind. Being silent is also part of the idea of being still.  Of course, being completely still and without motion would take a person immediately out of the physical realm and meditation would be meaningless.  So, the idea of becoming still and silent is a relative one and a challenge indeed.

            An ancient and obscure definition of the word physical is motion.  If this is true, all things existing in the material realm are in motion in some way.  Even knowing this, a person can become more still and more silent.  When you think you are still and silent, you are probably not.  So, trust the process and keep trying.  There is a certain point, with the meditative process, in which awareness of things physical becomes more and more faint.  As this happens, "being still" surfaces. 

        As said before, meditation is a state of being still, nothing more.  Getting to that place can be a challenge because the mind (ego) does not fully comprehend the concept of stillness since it is always more or less in a state of motion.  In its need to maintain its dominance, it will struggle to keep the distractions coming.

          In my meditation classes, I guide people through an imagery process that helps them focus on things progressively less physical until the silence comes in almost automatically.

          A great teacher of mine once said, “Meditation is being still.  Anything else is a meditative process.”  To me, both concepts are extremely valuable and will ultimately support a person’s way to enlightenment and peace. 

          Meditation should not be a chore or something one has to feel obligated to do.  For me, meditation is like visiting home.  It is a place of total peace, light and being.  The getting there is interesting, joyful and very healing.  The being there is being consciously enlightened in the center of all truth.

M. Grant Gudmundson