According to Deepak Chopra, the most important benefits that one can enjoy by having recourse to meditation are better sleep, a reduction in the level of stress, a lower blood pressure, enhanced cardiovascular function, better immunity and the ability to remain focused in among all the turmoil that is going around. Through meditation a person is able to do less but accomplish more.
When asked about what was the most important experience in doctor Chopra’s life, he admits that it was when he learned to meditate. He claims that meditation has been the means to the creativity, success and happiness that he has enjoyed in his life. He further states that meditation is the most powerful healing tool that they offer at the Chopra Center.
Doctor Chopra clarifies that even though meditation is a spiritual journey which reconnects us with our real essential nature, in the Western culture is has come to be believed to be a technique for stress management. We are, on a constant basis, being bombarded with stress from family pressures or work, environmental conditions, unhealthy diet and lifestyles choices and a multiplicity of other distractions. In such cases, releasing the accumulated stress is vital for a healthy life.
Meditation transfers us from activity into silence. It gives rest to our body at a very deep level. The body actually heals itself through relaxation. By resting the body throws off the fatigue, stress and toxins that have been accumulated throughout our life. Hence meditation serves a dual purpose; firstly it provides us with direct experience of our Spirit and in the process it dissolves all the impurities that are preventing our Spirit to shine forth in our lives.
Doctor Chopra relates that as a young physician in the year 1970, he was attracted to meditation for two principal reasons; one personal and the other professional. The personal reason concerned the inner growth; to be able to reach an expanded state of spiritual and mental development. The professional reason had to do with the large body of research on meditation that ascertained that this concept of meditation was “real”, implying that it actually produced tangible benefits.
Meditation does not involve forcing your mind to become quiet. It is rather concerned with finding the silence that is already present there. In fact, when you scrutinize the background static of resentment, worry, fantasy, wishful thinking, unfulfilled hopes and hazy dreams in your head, it turns out to be clear that the internal dialogue which is going on internally is literally controlling us. Every single person is a victim of memory. That is how the Aryurvedic masters were able to diagnose it thousands of years ago.
There exists something completely different behind the screen of our internal dialogue; it is the silence of a mind which is not captive of the past. It is this silence that we intend to bring into awareness by practicing meditation. What is its importance? It is crucial as silence is regarded as being the birthplace of all happiness. It is through silence that we get outbursts of our tender compassionate feelings, empathy, inspiration and the sense of love. All these are delicate emotions and if the chaotic roar of the internal dialogue is m\not managed, it easily drowns them out. However, when you finally discover the silence in your mind, you will no more have to be attentive to all those haphazard images that initiate worry, pain and anger.
Doctor Chopra continued by explaining that the science of Yoga, which has been practiced for thousands of years in India, helps in uniting the thinking mind with its source in pure awareness, that is, the quantum space them empty void, the silent that is the birthplace of all energy and matter that is present in the gap between thoughts; the static background against which all mental activity occur. The human mind is preoccupied with wishes, thoughts, sensations, dreams and it is only meditation that reveals the mind its own genesis in the quantum depths.
Doctor Chopra asserts that meditation is helpful in lowering the biological age of a person. He explains that meditation is founded on the silent repetition of a particular Sanskrit word or mantra, whose sound vibrations progressively direct the mind out of its normal and routine thinking process and into the silence that underlies thought.
Source: Transcendental Stress Management
Mon, May 10, 2010
Health And Aging, Lifestyle, Longevity