There are many different types of meditation but they all share the objective of gaining insight into the most profound nature of being. Meditation is a practice that is included in the many spiritual and religious traditions such as Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jaianism, Sikhism, Taoism, and the Bahai faith, among others. Although meditation is often understood as an Eastern practice, Christianity, Judaism, and the Islamic religions, among others, all include forms of meditation within their practices. Meditation is not a religion in itself and can be integrated into any spiritual practice, religion, or secular worldview. Meditation is the path to find your Self. It is the path to self-discovery.
At Lotus Blau we practice meditation of concentration and mindfulness through constant observation of the mind. In concentration meditation we focus all of our attention on a mental object, while in mindfulness mediation we focus more on perception and experience.
| “Health, a light body, freedom from cravings, a glowing skin, sonorous voice, fragrance of body: these signs indicate progress in the practice of meditation.” Shvetashvatara Upanishad |
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“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.” - Bhagavad Gita |
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“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
Buddha quotes I Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.) |
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“Meditation will bring you sensitivity, a great sense of belonging to the world. It is our world - the stars are ours, and we are not foreigners here. We are part of it, we are the heart of it.” - Osho |
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“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”
Swami Sivananda quotes (Indian Yoga master, Physician, Monk and Founder of The Divine Life Society, 1887-1963) |
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“When we raise ourselves through meditation to what unites us with the spirit, we quicken something within us that is eternal and unlimited by birth and death. Once we have experienced this eternal part in us, we can no longer doubt its existence. Meditation is thus the way to knowing and beholding the eternal, indestructible, essential centre of our being.” - Rudolf Steiner |
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“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.” -
Alan Watts |
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The Benefits of Meditation
Medical studies have demonstrated that meditation improves the side effects of stress, increases energy, and strengthens the immune system. Meditation has been used as a cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic and at the Cancer Center of America for many years. It is the main system of treatment at the Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The following are some of the positive physiological effects of mediation:
- Lowers pulse rate
- Lowers blood pressure
- Lowers the severity and frequency of asthma attacks
- Lowers stress levels
- Relieves depression
- Relieves anxiety
Meditation can also help cure emotional trauma, release negativity, and transform judgment and selfishness into love, wisdom, and compassion.
Meditation is often used in hospitals with patients who are terminally ill, or suffer from chronic illness to lessen the complications associated with the rising stress that comes from a weakened immune system. In 1976 Ainslie Meares, an Australian psychiatrist and the author of ‘Relief Without Drugs,’ published an article in the Australian Journal of Medicine regarding the remission of cancer after intensive practice of meditation.
Dr. James Austin, a neuro-physicist from the University of Colorado, concluded that Zen meditation reorganizes the circuitry of the brain.
Dr. Herbert Benson from the Mind-Body Medical Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard and various Boston hospitals, concluded that meditation provokes biochemical and physical changes, namely relaxation responses. This relaxation response includes changes in metabolism, pulse rate, respiration, blood pressure, and brain chemistry.
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