Re: Proper Meditation.

I concur with the previous post. I used to teach Transcendental Meditation (TM) for about 15 years. TM is which is a very good method of meditation. However, it is grossly overprized and unaffordable for most. Most people think that proper meditation is about making the mind blank, but not so. Thoughts are natural and should never be suppressed, especially not during meditation; otherwise you will become tense and many even get a headache. Instead of using a mantra to take you "inside" you can also use the breathing. I described such a meditation process which I called "conscious breathing" in my book, It's Time to Come Alive (www.ener-chi.com). It is about gently putting your attention on your breathing. Whenever thoughts appear, let them be there, but once you aware of the throughts gently bring your attention back to the breathing. You will experience many thoughts during this process which is a sign of releasement of mental and phsyical tension. By going back and forth between breathing consciously and experiencing thoughts/emotiions, your body will go into a mode of deeper and depper relaxation. The rest you experience, releases physical and mental stress. After about 15 minutes of doing this, you will find yourself more relaxed, refreshed, and clear in the mind. There may be moments where there are no thoughts, and although they are blissful, that is not the real purpose of meditation. The purpose is to take what you gain during meditation into your daily acitivity, your life. More details about this process are in the book. There are many different meditations around now, but the main thing to remember is, concentrating and trying to stop thoughts prevents your mind from relaxing. The mind relaxes automatically when it is allowed to move freely. One can meditate very deeply while having plently of thoughts at the same time.

Andreas