Vedic meditation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vedic Meditation (VM) sometimes referred to as Transcendental Meditation is often mistakenly defined as Hindu Meditation. In fact, Vedic Meditation comes from the Veda - the body of knowledge from ancient India that is the source of Yoga, Meditation, and Ayurvedic medicine - and predates modern Hinduism.
It can be defined as a spiritual discipline aimed at linking oneself with the supreme (God). The normal Vedic meditation posture has the devotee on the floor with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. The devotee "zones out" and thinks only of God. The purpose of VM is for the devotee to focus on God, and God only, and thus establish a link with the supreme. The purpose is not to relax, or help a person's health (although followers claim it does). It is to purify the mind to be able to think only of God. It is believed, that for one to rise higher on the spiritual ladder towards God after death (and eventually reach the ultimate goal), one should meditate very often or at least live an ascetic life.
Vedic meditation is over 5,000 years old; its origins are in India. The initiate is given a mantra by a teacher or guru based on where she/he is in their life cycle. The mantra has no inherent meaning but is only a sound used silently (not spoken or chanted) in the mind to induce a relaxed, non-thinking state. The mantra is repeated until it becomes more and more "subtle". The meditator practices twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening - for 20 minutes in a comfortable upright position. The benefits are well documented and have been scientifically validated: practitioners of meditation have shown a reversal in the aging process due to the decrease of stress in their lives attributed to regular meditation practice. There is no demand on the meditator to change his/her lifestyle in any way save that nothing interferes with his/her daily practice.
Learning Vedic Meditation is easy. The course is run over four consecutive days with each session lasting approximately two hours.
In session one you learn the basic mechanics of how to meditate. By the end of the session you know the fundamentals of the technique and are able to practise on your own at home. Right from this first session the mind and body experience profound levels of rest and benefits are gained immediately.
Over the following three days the technique is refined and experiences are verified and validated. At the end of the course you have practical experience combined with theoretical understanding that allows you to practise entirely on your own.
Follow-up sessions are scheduled in the following weeks to fine-tune the practice and continue to build knowledge.[1]
There is no formal organisation and meditators do not have to join any group to learn. Vedic Meditation has been gaining in popularity in recent years, and is taught world-wide by independent teachers including Lavender Meditation in the UK, Intro To Meditation in the US and Tim Brown Meditation in Australia.
