Max Weber

Mindfulness meditation in everyday life

Meditation is an intensive reflection penetrated deep into.

 It implies mind  immersion into different objects, ideas and other that is achieved by means of concentration on one object and elimination of all other factors. These factors are both external (sound, light) and internal ones (physical, emotional and other tensions).  They are eliminated because they distract person’ attention.

Meditation can be also defined as a method of psychological training which takes different shapes according to cultural and historical surroundings.

The appearance of meditation in the west was marked by the quickness and by a great scope.

Equally with other methods of psychological techniques, which  broaden the consciousness and allow to exceed all bounds of usual ideas about ourselves and about the world, many forms of meditation offer things that, obviously, our culture needs and that it is lacking.

In spite of guarded attitude of many  investigators  people are attracted by the possibility of discovering  and development concealed opportunities, that exceed the limits of available cultural norms.

But the absence of scientific comprehension of these possibilities as a result cause the   disregarding them by a great  part of science association , convert the  usage of this  psychological techniques  into a play  with many  unknown aspects, sometimes into dangerous play.

 That’s  why  we  need some cartographies  of  internal space which  are based on further working out the fundamental  for psychology questions about  the nature of consciousness.

East  philosophical and psychological studies are  based on the idea of that usual state  of  human’s consciousness is  nothing more than  a thing that can be expressed as some illusion, as waking dream, as awakening, as ignorance.

Hinduists call it “maya”, Buddhists -  “samsara”.

The principle object of meditation, as  they  suppose, is the liberation from this illusion, “enlightenment”, “vision”  of the world as it is indeed.

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For about four thousand years, eastern religions composed cartographies  of  internal space  and worked out some methods  of  induction  some states of consciousness, that were  much more different from  ordinary consciousness.

Behind the variety of formulations, that are inevitable under the  circumstances of different cultures, “images of world”, often  means  the  same way and the same object.

Interpretation of these states depend on aims,  expectations,   possession of language material. But as the researches show such words as “dhiana”, “samadhy”, “fana” and others which are taken from Buddhism;  rajah-yogis;  suphism; Kabbula; and others imply the same state.

In Tibet there are two levels of religion: “a study as a trick directed at achieving some goal” and “ a final study” where some differences disappear.

K.Narano and R.Earnsten show that the variety of methods of meditation come to two or three main types, each of which has its aim of achieving a certain state of consciousness. These states are of great value in eastern cultures. They are connected with such ideas as “salvation”, “ deliverance from sufferings”, “enlightenment”, “genuine vision”.

These meditation techniques are based on specific, sometimes also similar studies of consciousness,  that are worked out in more detailed form.  There should be pointed out one of the work of Buddhism literature where the conception of consciousness is expounded. In Buddhism literature consciousness means a source of higher  psychic activity, it implies the condition when all psychic functions unite.

These  functions include conscious as well as unconscious ones,  and they unite emotional  and intellectual processes.

Conscious of a common person is regarded in the unity of two main aspects of existence and functioning:

1. “Clear consciousness” is  a fundamental aspect that at the same time consists of genuine nature and essence of all things  and   phenomena. It is a constant and invariable base of consciousness.

2. “ Dirty”, “darken”  consciousness is a transient and changeable aspect, that  makes perception illusive.  It is possible to get rid of it by psychic self-regulation, and in such a way to liberate consciousness from its darken influence.

The complex of these two aspects is called “ consciousness – depository” and is regarded as a constantly changing  current of consciousness.

There was framed a hypothesis that the first aspect of consciousness correspond  to energy of attention – consciousness, and  that the second aspect is corresponded with category structures of consciousness.

Such  conceptions of Buddhist  psychology as the conception of “ consciousness – depository” where two aspect at the same time are not united and are not different, can throw light on understanding of the interaction of base consciousness and category structures of consciousness in western science.

According to shastra “darken” aspect of consciousness forms imprints and traces of past events, desires, actions, ideas and impressions, the memory of which is kept  in “ consciousness – depository”. One of the main of these darken formations is a complex “I”. According to Buddhist theory of individual “I”, neither the complex in itself nor its elements do not have any concrete essence and do not have real existence.

One of the factors, which darken person’s  consciousness, is discursive logical thinking, that is based on singling out distinctive features, on conceptualization of things   and phenomena of the reality, which indeed are free from this all.

“Darken” consciousness sees the world as split one, divided  into individual features and shapes, that are covered with  name labels, taking all this as a genuine reality. But shastra says that all states, things, events are devoided of all form of description, definition, of all form of conceptualization.

Shastra says that to achieve “enlightenment” state it is necessary to free oneself from this mistaken thinking, that darken clear to its nature consciousness.  In shastra it is explained that the liberalization  from these mistaken thoughts means the contemplation of something that is out of limits of our thoughts, beyond verbal reality, it means meditation.

In Buddhism this state implies a state in which there are no sensations, there is even no their presence. Here there is the exceeding the bounds of language possibilities.

A great attention in shastra is paid to practical methods of achieving the enlightenment, among them two meditative techniques are of mush importance: “samadhy” and “vipassana”. Besides these two kinds of meditation there are a great number of meditative techniques  in different cultures.

The term “samadhy” in the context of Buddhist psychology mans calming the consciousness, all exciting and darkening factors’ ceasing to influence a person’s state of mind. The essence of samadhy is in concentration, fixation the attention on one object. Beforehand all sensations are brought to minimum as a result of taking one of special state poses and using respiratory techniques.

At early stages of meditation there is a tension between concentration and distracting thoughts, feelings, desires. Stunning  experiences, that come as a result of application of popular in West techniques of consciousness transformation – beep relaxing, intensive painful body sensations, live waking  dreams – all these phenomena come at the first stage of meditation  with the use of  samadhy method as a reaction to restriction of receiving information.

There are some levels of meditation that are characterized by certain states of mind, namely:

1.  Distracting thoughts are overcome; some other thoughts still remain; consciousness of  sensations and body. Thoughts of the main object of concentration prevail. A feeling of  delight, happiness, stability. Bursts of light and body lightness.

2.  Distracting thoughts disappear. Consciousness of painful physical states, attentions is strictly directed at the object of concentration. A feeling of bliss, delight.

3.  A feeling of bliss, delight, one-directed position. There are no thought about  the object of concentration.

4.  A feeling of bliss, one-directed position and  coolness. Delight disappears.

5.  One-directed position and  coolness, a bliss and a feeling of pleasure in body disappear.

6.  Consciousness of internal space, coolness and One-directed position.

7.  Consciousness of space without any object or thing. Coolness and One-directed position.

8.  Consciousness of  emptiness.

9.  No perception and “not no perception”. Coolness and One-directed position.

 The second  well – known kind of meditetion is “vipassana”. This is  a transcendental analyze of person’s inner world   with the help introspective contemplation  and intuitive comprehension.

Meditater’s  attention is directed at sensations, feelings, thoughts and reactions corresponding them. A person   must  contemplate  all  that  occurs  to   him or   his  surroundings.  He should not  reject anything  as something  that  is  not worthy to pay    attention to.

Vipassana is recommended to be carried out always, during various activities  in order the enlightened state of mind  to become a usual one. The matter is that Buddhist science claims that it is a state when different usual activities can be possible.  

Speaking of  the  relationship  of  brain  and  meditation we should point out  that meditation has tangible   psychological   and    physiological  benefits. It can be   proved in  neurobiological   terms by giving  insight  into consciousn, feedback     methods. It was revealed that meditation  has greainfluence on the brain, and  human  behavior.

There are various forms of  meditation detached  a person   from desires and objects which cause him sufferings, allowed  a person to separate  himself  from the transitory nature of the  world, it   should be  told about two forms of meditation: Transcendental   Meditation  and  Zen meditation.

They differ from other types of meditation because the involve both mind and body.  The examination of these meditation  methods  showed  that a body can  communicate with external  as well as with interior  world of a person.  What  happens  to the body  has a great impact on person’s mind, his brain.   There is undoubtedly a large  correlation of physical states with mental states in meditation .

Meditation   has tangible   physiological  and  biological effects.  Results if the   investigation showed that during    meditation   there is some changes: in the areas of the   cerebrum which are  taking    part in perception  of   specific information, in the relationship   between  the two   hemispheres. 

Practice results also revealed such tendencies as  increasing EEG  coherence; more efficient transformation of information in  the  brain;  lower   respiration rates; more stable autonomic nervous system; strong stress  stability; faster   reactions. 

As a conclusion, there should be   pointed that the eastern type of   meditation    consists    of   all forms of yogis  in India,  in China, and implies religious and mystical distracting of individual   consciousness  in  impersonal, looked like a ocean  the absolute.

These situations are created in different  ways for instance, situation that is realized by the images of butterflies, or by image of ceasing light of a candle and others.

There is another interpretation of religious – mystical tendency of meditation. It was cultivated be the Christianity. This tendency  means that meditation is  the unity  of  two  personalities – a human one  and a divine personality.

Nowadays the science of meditation has seen a tremendous growth. In 20th century a lot of methods of meditation were worked  out. Many science  school devoted their  work to this question.

Methods of meditation have already exceed the bounds of religious and mysterious sphere.  Now they are widely used in psychology,  they are used as a system of psychophysical training.

Modern meditation to a great degree is aimed at therapeutic effect, has nothing with religious and mysterious ideas.

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