Meditation
Ancient texts liken meditation to the process of taming a wild elephant, where the elephant is tied with a wrong rope for many days until, it finally settles down. Gradually training it and eventually getting rid of the rope, this trained wild elephant that represents the human mind can now be put to purpose.
First developed in India thousands of years ago as a part of the Indian philosophy, meditation aims to achieve a mentally clear, emotionally calm and stable state, often viewed as the first step towards spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
Since time immemorial, India has been known for its spirituality and is internationally known for its gift of meditation and yoga to the world. Hence, it is unsurprising to see tourists from across the world heading to the Indian subcontinent for an authentic meditative journey. There are different types of meditation techniques, below mentioned are some of them:
Chakra healing meditation: Chakra, a Sanskrit word that means a disk or a wheel, finds its presence in the meditative mise-en-scene since the ancient Hinduism meditative practices talk of the presence of hundreds of varying chakras or wheel like energy networks in the human body. However, there are seven core chakras that are situated along the spine from the sacrum at the bottom up to the crown at the top of the head, namely the root chakra (muladhar), the sacral chakra (svadhishthan), the solar plexus chakra (manipura), the heart chakra (anahat), the throat chakra (vishuddh), the third eye chakra (ajna) and lastly the crown chakra (sahasrar). It is believed that when any of these chakras are blocked, energy gets stuck and manifests as discomfort. Hence, the objective of this meditation is to activate the chakras and form a balance between them with regular training of the mind that involves control over one’s breath and encourages positive imagination.
Vipassana meditation: Vipassana means 'insight' in Pali, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism. It is one of the oldest Buddhist meditation practices and is believed to have come directly from a discourse attributed to the Lord Buddha himself. A gentle yet very thorough technique of training the mind, Vipassana includes a cluster of exercises like sati (mindfulness) and samatha (calm), developed through practices such as anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) which are meant to make an individual more and more aware of their life experiences and directing careful attention towards certain painful, happy and other general aspects of their own existence to gain insight into the true nature of their reality.
21 December is observed as World Meditation Day.
