Meditation FAQ
Questions & Answers About Meditation

What Is Meditation?
Meditation a name we give to a naturally-occurring rest state; it is resting in yourself while remaining awake and alert. It is different from sleep, in that the rest is much deeper and happens quickly, and you become more aware than usual.



Think of the deepest rest you have ever had in your life. You woke up and you could hardly move. That correlates to about an 8 percent reduction in oxygen consumption. Oxygen consumption is an indicator of how much work the body is doing. During sleep, oxygen consumption gradually declines over a period of four or five hours, to eventually reach this 8 percent reduction. During meditation, oxygen consumption decreases by 10 to 17 percent within the first 3 to 5 minutes. This is a spontaneous side effect, and is felt as a powerful sense of physical relaxation and ease.



Meditation is innate, and your body already knows how to do it. The human body has an instinctive ability to shift into profound rest states in order to heal, energize, integrate, tune itself up and assimilate learning. It is almost a sure bet that you have already experienced this many times in your life. Meditation can happen spontaneously, as when you are sitting on a hill looking at a sunrise or sunset, or when listening to music. Most people I work with remember meditating many times in the past - only they did not call it meditation. It was just a personal time, a special time they had with themselves or with nature.



Meditation is paradoxical in that you are resting more deeply than sleep, yet you are wide awake inside. It is similar in some ways to taking a nap but you don’t fall asleep, you fall awake. You can induce it by attentively doing anything simple and repetitive. We breathe all the time, and breathing is rhythmic, so you could pay attention to your breathing. There are so many ways in.



Meditation promotes a heightened awareness of the details of everyday life. Even a few minutes of meditation will help you move through the world with more relaxation and alertness.



Meditation is giving attention a chance to explore its full range, both inward and outward. It is a conversation between your inner and your outer life. This sounds simple, and it is. But there is no end to the delights of attention; there is always more to learn, more to explore, more to awaken to.



Where Did Meditation Come from?
Meditation was probably discovered independently by hunters, singers, dancers, drummers, lovers and hermits, each in their own way. People tend to encounter meditative states whenever they throw themselves with total intensity into life’s callings. The knowledge of how to intentionally cultivate meditative states is a kind of craft knowledge -- those handy tips people pass on to each other. Meditation does not come from India or Tibet -- those are just places the knowledge rested for awhile, and the hermits in those wrote it all down. Bless them.



Human beings have been using tools for hundreds of thousands of years, according to the archaeologists. I consider it very likely they have been using sophisticated mental tools for tens of thousands of years.



Hunters, for example, sometimes have to make themselves still for hours. They have to merge with the forest and not even think, lest they scare the prey away. Then they leap into action with total precision at a moment’s notice -- that’s Zen in a nutshell. Hunters teach each other these skills, through verbal instruction and example.



Singers and dancers often enter meditative states through their passionate expression. Singers work with breath awareness in ways far more sophisticated than yoga. Lovers are often in a state of heightened appreciation which borders closely on meditation. Hermits are the ones we have heard the most from, because they kept the best notes. That is why we always think of yogis and bearded guys in the Himalayas when we think of meditation. But their way is only one small subset of the many different gateways into meditation.



Meditation comes from the human heart and is a way of warming your hands and your life at the fire always pulsing there in your core. It comes from the depths of your instinctive wisdom. Human beings are always wondering and inquiring, and meditation is a natural emergence of that adventure.



On the other hand, cats obviously meditate. That’s what it looks like to me, anyway. So it may be a genetically encoded, instinctive talent in mammals. Cats don’t need to be taught to meditate, but humans need a little coaching.



Why Do People Meditate?
People meditate for innumerable reasons and all of them are valid. To name a few, people meditate because:

• out of curiosity, wonder, and a desire to explore.

• they are worried, tired, bored, lonely, horny, or tense.

• they are happy, grateful, in love, streaming with delight and glad to be alive.

• they are grieving, sad, despairing, resigned, frustrated.

• they have lost someone or some part of themselves or lost the joy of life.

• they feel out of place in the manmade world and feel the need to live in the world of Nature.

• as an attempt to escape from life and from Nature.

• they are sick in body or soul and need healing.

• they feel perfectly at home and want to savor the feeling.

• in order to touch the essence of life and bring its magic into everyday living.

• they have not touched the essence of life but they suspect it is there for the touching.

• it is an urge in they have long felt, and finally gave it to it.

• as a response to the calling of their own souls.

• they are so excited by life they figure they could use a little calmness.

• in order to keep their intuition and senses sharp.


Each of these impulses has generated a variety of techniques and traditions. Honor them in yourself, as they come and go. And whenever you read or hear something about meditation, you can wonder, which emotion does this emerge from?



It is always good to take a moment and feel what it is you want out of meditation Ð what impulses are moving you? That is part of the preparation for meditation. The list above is by no means comprehensive -- make your own list. Your list can be a description of how you want to feel, or the practical outcome you want, or a mingling of the two.



Meditation is there to help you fulfill your everyday needs. Things like getting a little rest and relaxation. Clearing your mind a little. Getting some perspective on your life, like you would if you were on a vacation. Having more energy. Being able to go into action with relaxation, even if it is a test, an interview, or something crucial.



The key is to always know what you want, or at least be open to what you want out of meditation. That is the passion that will lead you to invest the time in meditation. Then, the moment you enter meditation, let go completely of your expectations.



Why Should I Meditate?
During meditation we can rest more deeply than in sleep, yet at the same time, the mind is free to think deeply about what is going on in our lives and to come up with a new perspective. Often what we have perceived as a threat is downgraded to just a challenge, or "something interesting on the horizon." The nerves can stop their emergency functioning. Or it could be the opposite: we might be missing the real urgency of the situation because we were flooded with distracting details. In either case, meditation promotes the ability to be relaxed and focussed while engaged in action, and to get tense only when it is absolutely necessary.



Even a few minutes of meditation can help you shift gears at the end of the day, from work mode to being with the family mode or play mode. In the morning, a few minutes of meditation can help you feel more alert and relaxed all day.



Since most human illnesses are caused by or worsened by stress, meditation is really good for your health. A lot of problems in relationships are caused by one or both partners being under stress. Meditation really helps relationships by giving you a way to let off stress without dumping on your partner. Also, because in meditation you give yourself a lot of attention, you’ll find you have more attention to give to other people. If you aren’t as needy, and you can give as well as receive, all your relationships go a bit easier. Meditation is a kind of social lubricant.



The meditations in this book encourage greater adaptability, resilience, realistic appraisal of stress, emotional expressiveness, and appreciation of life’s simple pleasures. What it asks of you is steady inquiry into your own nature, which is something you are doing anyway — it’s called having desires.



I Don’t Have Time For This, What Do I Do?
You can meditate for one minute here, three minutes there. Properly done, meditation always gives you more time than it takes.



As you learn to love meditation, you will create more time for it.



The busier your life is, the more you crave a vacation. That “wanting a vacation” feeling is one of the main reasons people meditate, and is a gateway right on in. People who work hard want rest and renewal, and that is mainly what meditation is. Just don’t make a big deal out of it, an impossible-to-achieve ideal.

Meditation can have the same feeling of relaxation and ease as going to a bar after work. The relaxation of meditation is what you would seek in a bar if you drink, in getting a massage if you could afford one each day, if you could somehow be transported to Hawaii instantly after work. The most important thing is to approach meditation in the same natural way you would having a glass of wine, taking a nap, listening to music, or going for a walk. Be completely unpretentious with yourself.



Can I Meditate Just Out of Curiosity?
Yes. As a matter of fact, the instinct to inquire is a major power source for meditation. Meditation is not just one sappy mood of reverence or quiet. It is a platform from which to witness all your moods. You can come as you are and meditate for any reason under the Sun. You can meditate just to check it out, you can meditate in order to have better sex, or because you are stressed-out, or because you want some enlightenment. You do not have to be “sincere” or “serious” to meditate. You could be making fun of the whole thing and still get a lot out of it.



Will I Need to Make Lifestyle Changes?
The meditation exercises in this book will probably not work well if you are using illegal drugs; marijuana and psychedelics leave a kind of fog in the neurons that makes meditation seem boring, and these effects last for weeks.



Other than that, don’t change anything unless you want to. Your lifestyle got you this far, why change it now? You can smoke cigarettes, eat meat, drink coffee, have wine with dinner.



With regard to food, eat with gusto whatever makes you feel strong and energetic. In the long run, this will probably keep you healthier than following any particular set of rules.



If you are meditating as part of a health regimen or a “healthy heart” program, of course follow whatever suggestions the doctors have made. And if you are taking prescription medications, then keep taking them. Some people can reduce their blood pressure medication, for example, if they meditate consistently, but that is between them and their doctor.



Cherish your “vices” whatever they are; meditation will work its magic on your relationship with them. A lot of what are called vices are ways of letting off steam, releasing tension. When you are less tense, then you may find you don’t need to do unhealthy things to unwind.



Do I Have to Sit Cross-Legged?
Sitting cross-legged works well for some people and it looks really cool. But this pose does nothing for meditation that can’t be done in other ways. The main virtue of the cross-legged posture is that it’s handy if you have no furniture, are homeless, or are outdoors.



Recently two yoga teachers came for meditation sessions in the same week. They were both lean young women, and they sat cross-legged on the floor during the session. They shifted around and had to adjust their feet every few minutes. I didn’t say anything at the time, because I just wanted to observe. But later I asked each of them and they admitted that they always sit in the cross-legged pose and their legs always hurt after awhile when they do so.



On the other hand, or foot, I enjoy the cross-legged pose. It just feels nifty sometimes. I’ve used it about half the time in my thirty years of meditation.



If you can sit with total comfort that way for half an hour without your feet going to sleep or getting uncomfortable — even a little — then go ahead. Remember, though, hurting your knees has nothing to do with getting enlightened.



Most of the meditations in this book are to be done sitting in a chair or sofa in your favorite place, standing, walking, or lying down.



Don’t I Have To Have A Guru?
No. Although, if you ask a Guru, they will probably say yes.



Do I Have To Sit Still?
What’s stillness got to do with it? Move all you want in meditation. You only sit still in meditation in order to better follow the movement of life. It is a natural repose, not something forced.



When you are deeply absorbed in something — a conversation, a book, or listening to a piece of music — you will sometimes be very still. You become poised in order to better follow the flow of the conversation, the arc of the plot in the story, or the movement of the music. That is the way to be in meditation as well. So stillness of posture happens spontaneously, it is not something you focus on or make a rule out of.



Life is movement, an infinite dance on every level -- atoms move and vibrate, cells undulate, blood pulses, breath flows, electrochemical impulses charge through your nerve pathways. As you are sitting reading this book, your postural muscles are making lots of tiny little corrections to keep you upright, and the muscles in the diaphragm and ribs are moving with the gentle rhythm of respiration. Each of these little movements is part of the meditation experience.



When Should I Meditate?
You can meditate when you want to, or when you decide you should, or whenever you can sneak it in. It is up to you. The basic principle is to meditate before periods of activity, so that your ability to work and play and socialize can be enhanced by the relaxed alertness you are learning to function in. The standard approach is to meditate soon after arising in the morning, and then again before the evening meal. This works really well for a lot of people, and it creates a beautiful feeling of rhythm to a day.



Other options are to meditate once a day in the afternoon, or to have several mini-meditations throughout the day. If you do meditate before sleep, keep it short and select meditations that are soothing.

This is from the book Meditation Made Easy, published & copywrited by Harper in 1998