How Simply Can You Meditate?
February 14, 2009 – 10:57 amOn the RMAX International Member forum, you’ll find a huge discussion, some nice and some not-so nice banter, as to the compatibility of yoga and Christianity. I’ve posted my comments to the thread, but mine is not to enforce a particular opinion; only to ensure that all members have a right to express their own beliefs (so long as they do not infringe upon the right of others to do so.)
One of the side discussions regards the compatibility of meditation with differing religions. Can meditation for instance be incompatible if you’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew, and not a Buddhist, Hindi or Taoist?
Meditation is so often defined in such a way that it can only be performed if you follow a particular spiritual belief. Certainly, you can devise your own definition of “meditation.” Certainly, you can explore your own metaphysical definitions.
Meditation made Simple but no Simpler
Due to learning disabilities I faced as a child, “thinking” was not an automatic process for me. I couldn’t take for granted rational thought, like other kids. I actually had to learn how to think. Forty years late, thinking is still a conscious process for me which is why I can still have William Shatner-like dramatic pauses to my public speaking. It’s also why I could never get swept up in drugs (try as I did), because they “broke my brain.” All of my conscious thought processes were impeded, and I was near vegetable.
So, I sought studying how to think, from the ancient classics in Greece, India and the Far East to modern psychology in Russia and USA. What I offer you is a model which has helped someone from my “shallow end of the gene pool” involuntarily institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital as a child to become a keynote speaker for MENSA International, and advisor to organizations such as the International Youth Conditioning Association, the Arnold Schwarzenneger Active Aging Festival the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute.
From an athletic / sports psychological perspective, if you’re exercising properly, you’re meditating. Exercise needs to be a meditative experience! That’s why you receive the rich mental and emotional benefits from exercise.
Why does exercise clear your mind? It clears your mind because you’re no longer concentrating on the external world and focused on the wide issues of your bills, your job security and the state of the economy. Exercise gives you a reprieve from the outside world by allowing you to concentrate on the internal experience of exercise, and focusing very specifically on one task: like keeping your breath, holding your form, and stepping, lifting, swinging efficiently.
In my book, the Three-Dimensional Performance Pyramid, I outlined “awareness” as the bisection of concentration (which can be internal or external) and focus (which can be narrow or broad).
By intersecting concentration and focus, you create four different types of awareness, each corresponding to a respective quadrant:
- external concentration, broad focus = attention: You use this type of awareness when you drive a car on a busy highway (when not on “auto-pilot” and not “road raging”); or when you’re pulling into the parking lot of your gym looking for a place to park.
- internal concentration, broad focus = orientation: You use this type of awareness when you are thinking about all of the items you need for your trip you’re about to depart on; or when you’re creating a new exercise program to surpass your personal transformation goals.
- external concentration, narrow focus = intention: You use this type of awareness when you’re trying to grab a glass which is about to tip over and spill out water onto your laptop; or when you’re going over to the weight once you’ve selected the weight that you wish to pick-up and use.
- internal concentration, narrow focus = meditation: You use this type of awareness when you’re trying to adjust your seated posture because of back-pain; or when you’re performing a repetition of your favorite exercise, concentrating on exhaling during the effort phase of the movement.
In any exercise, there are 3 aspects to its proper performance: the breath, the structure and the movement. Properly integrated, these 3 aspects create proper “technique.” Dis-integrated, you can hurt yourself, or best case scenario, you’ll create unknowable, untrackable results that may be undesirable.
When you exercise, make your goal to meditate upon one of these 3 - breath, movement or structure - and you will significantly increase your physical results, but also you’ll tap into the (infinite) mental and emotional benefits you reap from exercise.
flow thyself,
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5 Responses to “How Simply Can You Meditate?”
Thank You Coach. I truly got involved with CST because I felt that unlike most conventional fitness programs, CST was holistic in its approach. That is, it was a thinking person’s fitness culture with an intellectual-building potentiality (Your Maximum Potential). The fact that there is an increasing sophistication to all the programs in CST which most definitely takes a mind-body connection into play, meditation, even when in its beginning stages, enhances that connection. It builds disciplinary skills.
Take Prasara Yoga for example. The physical practice of yoga came into being (it is but one limb of the eight limb body of yoga) to facilitate the yogi’s meditation practices.
My wife and I recently took a Introduction to Meditation class and we came out of that class as confused as we went in because of the myriad of meditation styles available. How to choose, how to choose. I’m fortunate to have studied Transcendental Meditation when I was in the Army (yes, in the Army but not through the Army), so I’ve developed a template to work off of. One thing I do know is that when I do meditate (minimum of 20 minutes), all of my physical sensations are amplified.
By Kevin Lee Dougherty on Feb 14, 2009
hello,
coach sonnon, great article. you articulated perfectly what has been lurking in this skull, and more! this will be a great way to think about daily practice and goal setting/achieving!
thanks
By lorenzodamarith on Feb 14, 2009
Greetings,
Father Thomas Keating has written many books on the contemplative tradition within Christianity that has roots with the Desert Fathers of the 4th century. It may be of interest Christians who are looking for a meditative tradition that has a historical basis in their religious history. Check out http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/
and
http://integrallife.com/future-christianity
Thanks
By Erik Anderson on Feb 14, 2009
About meditation…the good thing about language is that it help people to understand each other but sometime words work as a kind of gate..
In fact I totally agree with the article and just to put some info about:…
As wrote Erik Anderson…Christianity have a lot of links with a meditative status not only with the Desert Fathers but in almost all monks traditions…From Philokalia tradition to S.Francesco d’Assisi and many others..
In Muslim tradition many of the Sufi’s or dervish skills are linked with meditative approach of life or rituals that can be viewed like meditation techniques..
And so on in many esoteric/psychological/religious traditions as in the Buddhist, Zen, Shinto,Indus, Native American, Aboriginal…
And back in Babylon,Greece,Egyptian….etc..
The idea of living a “meditative state” in most of the activities of our life is always connected with the definition of “Wise”, “Saint” “Master” or “Shaman” and in some traditions it is strictly linked with Physical/Emotional skills (See Samurai, Fakir ,Warriors)
So in fact the Physical and Emotional balance that derive from a “meditative” approach of Combat/Athletic/Yoga/Training activities can be assimilated with part of the Path to a “Higher design” in the reach of Human Evolution.
By Edson de Castilho on Feb 15, 2009
Coach,
I really enjoy the nuts and bolts of the CST framework for grounding the physical experience for corporal sentient beings.
:)
By Joseph David on Feb 15, 2009