Myth #1 Meditation is Concentrations

This is the most common myth. People just blurb it out. “Concentrate!” It is like launching a rocket upside down when you want to reach moon. Meditation is opposite of concentration – yes you do focus but focus is not same thing as concentration.

Concentration has element of trying and force which are complete ‘NO NO’ in meditation.

Myth #2 Meditation is Relaxation

This is second biggest myth, especially in western cultures. People take stress for granted and then they want to manage it (instead of eliminating it altogether) and then they go to people who don’t know meditation from relaxation and build stuff around false premises.

Myth #3 Meditation is done with Closed Eyes & Crosses Legs

Ha! It’s like saying eating is cereals. No it isn’t! Cereals are just one component of diet! Likewise sitting with closed eyes and crossed legs is just one form of meditation. You can meditate with music, sitting, standing, laying, walking, open eyes, laughing…

Myth #4 Meditation is Religious and for Spiritual People

UNO is for US, is it?

Crops are for farmers, are they?

Milk is for Cow, is it?

No! They just begin there. It’s for everyone. Like wise spiritual and religious people just practice and explore it more but mediation is for everyone.

Do you know of some myths about meditation that people carry around? Or do you have a doubt / questiont that you’d like to clarify? Let’s talk in comments section below.

Photo by scragz, on Flickr

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When I was in junior school, they told us this story from Mahabharata repeatedly. It was a nice to hear a good story, but it was awful to hear misinterpretation of it.

The story goes like this…

Once upon a time, Dronacharya (royal mentor of princes of that time) was teaching them archery. He asked the princes to aim at the eye of a bird sitting on tree.

Then he asked one of them, “What do you see?”

“I see tree, leaves, bird and sky.” He replied. Dronacharya was disappointed. Then he went to Arjuna (famous hero of Mahabharata) and asked him the same question.

Arjuna said, “I see the eye.”

“Don’t you see the tree, leaves, birds and sky?” asked Dronacharya.

“No. I see the eye.” replied Arjuna.

The Screwy Conclusion

The conclusion they made out of this story was ‘importance of concentration’ and ever since I can remember, elders have tried to ‘help’ the younger generation to concentrate on one thing. You will often find them crowing that their generation did one thing at a time and that multitasking is a bad thing.

the Generation Gap

But I want to declare / proclaim / remind you that the world is not getting worse, the world is getting better. It is not possible to regress. Generations today have much more capacity of contemplate data then any generation before. And when they want us to sit and do one thing – it never works out.

That is why our generation condemns so many of old ways as ‘boring’ because we need to have that much going on in our minds or we will feel bored.

This helps us to be more creative and precise in focus. This doesn’t diminish focus but enhances focus because now we can focus in much more detailed way.

The Real Moral of Story

The meaning of the story is not ability to focus. It is ability of choice. You can choose what to focus on and you will not see evidence of any other in your life.

You can choose to focus on problem rather than solution. You can choose to feel hopeful rather then fearful and the difference between two is difference between the prince who’s name I do not remember and Arjuna – the hero.

F*** Concentration

Pardon my language but this is what younger generation wants to say. We do not want to concentrate – we want to focus. Concentration and focus are quiet different things. Concentration is like forcing yourself on a point. Focus is like expanding a point to eternity.

The first one is to be ****** and the second one is series of meditation and contemplation and joyous growth.

Yours is not to concentrate on thoughts for you cannot control them. Yours is o choose the feeling in which you focus your ‘self’ for that will choose the average direction of your thought and life.

Photo Credit: Traditional archery at Japanfest by johntrainor, on Flickr

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Watch out for links, there is awesome stuff hidden in there.

1. Take it (meditation) easy.
2. Don’t make it homework – homework sucks.
3. Try to meditate same time everyday, establishing a schedule helps in making it a habit.
4. Don’t write it in your to-do list. Let it be a thought in your mind.
5. Put of light music in background.
6. Meditate in soft sunlight.
7. Meditate on beach.
8. Focusing is meditation – not concentration.
9. Write how you feel before and after meditation in a diary.
10. Write what your favourite meditation technique in your meditation diary/journal.
11. Let thoughts come, pay no heed and they will pass.
12. Don’t fight your thoughts, you cannot stop them but you can ignore them and take your conscious away from thoughts.
13. Dance followed by meditation feels awesome.
14. Exercise followed by meditation is twice the benefit and definitely more fun.
15. Painting is meditation.
16. Singing to yourself is meditation.
17. Meditate whenever, wherever you can.
18. Read inspiring people like Swami Vivekananda, Paulo Coelho, Louise Hay etc.
19. Do affirmations in meditation, they are 100 times more powerful in that state.
20. Try chanting.
21. Write love letters to your girlfriend/boyfriend after meditating – you will be amazed at your power of expression.
22. Keep your meditation a secret.
23. Or tell everyone you meditate and see how they react.
24. Write, Write, Write… poetry, articles.
25. Draw doodles or paint (if you can).
26. Blog your meditation experience.
27. Meditate on inspiring thoughts.
28. Visualize your goals/dreams in meditation and see them all come true.
29. Do a group meditation with your friends.
30. Make a music band – they will never know they are meditating when they are making music.
31. Clean a coroner in your room – just empty it and place some cushions – your minimalist meditation corner.
32. Do #31 to a room.
33. Light small candle(s) during meditation.
34. Chant ‘Nam-Myho-Ho-Renge-Kyo’
35. Chant ‘Aum-Mani-Padme-Hum’
36. Chant ‘Aum’ / ‘Om’
37. Chant / Sing ‘Hare Rama Hare Rama; Rama Rama Hare Hare’
38. Chant /Sing ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishan; Krishna Krishna Hare Hare’
39. Memorize excerpts from Lotus Sutra or Heart Sutra and chant/sing.
40. Watch ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ movie.
41. Donate. (to us?)
42. Grow Flowers.
43. Grow fruits/vegetables.
44. Pet your cat, dog… whatever you have.
45. Don’t have a pet? Watch a sleeping baby.
46. Don’t have a baby? Well…
47. …Imagine one! (Remember these are ‘High School’ tips)
48. … or borrow one at your own risk.
49. Try Mathematics; if you can’t solve it laugh at it!
50. Go on picnic.
51. Go on picnic alone – it’s not lame … it’s called soul searching.
52. That reminds me – Soul Searching.
53. Remind me to start secret newsletter on Meditation Rocks!
54. Imagine – one place you can do anything, be anything and have anything.
55. …believe it can come true.
56. …see it coming true.
57. Learn a foreign language.
58. Make your own secret script/language.
59. Now no one can read your secret diary/journal.
60. Join our fan page.
61. Do some social service.
62. Call your grandma and tell her how much you love her.
63. Text your mom –say ‘mom i luv u’
64. … no enjoy her wet eyes and awesome dinner tonight.
65. Add your parents in your facebook friend list – AT YOUR OWN RISK!
66. Subscribe to our RSS feed – that simply rocks.
67. Bake…
68. …a cake and if it’s good send it to me coz I advised you to bake it.
69. Cookies and if they are good I will join the dark side – coz you have cookies.
70. Donate your old clothes – haven’t used them since year – THROW THEM AWAY RIGHT NOW!
71. … Watch where you throw them. Btw some homeless kid might use them well.
72. Don’t get drunk – for a change.
73. Meditation has same effect and it’s – FREE!
74. Try hoping instead of doping.
75. Buy gifts for your friend on no special day. They will love you.
76. Don’t have bucks? Draw greeting cards saying ‘You’re Awsm!’ no matter how bad they are they will love it.
77. Chuck the friends who don’t love them.
78. Bunk your school.
79. Or maybe attend your school for a change.
80. Respect your elders? Bah! Respect the younger ones – they will be more tech savvy then you.
81. Mail Bill Gates appreciating (for a change) his work.
82. Mail Steve Jobs telling him how he inspired you.
83. Get a life if you don’t know who Steve Jobs is.
84. Follow us on twitter coz we give out awesome tips and inspiration.
85. Read all the tips.
86. Lend your Xbox to your sibling for an hour – at your own risk.
87. Or let them play with you, at least. Your mom is suspecting a gypsy around.
88. Get abducted by aliens, and let me know how you did it coz I want to do it too.
89. Or at least blog that you were abducted.
90. Read Meditation Rocks! Regularly – to keep your life rocking awesome.
91. Learn to speak ‘Super-cali-fragilistic-expialid-ocious’
92. It means ‘fantastic’ – your English teacher might be happy.
93. Retweet this awesome post.
94. Write rampage of appreciation for everyone around you – EVERYONE.
95. Don’t steal? Bah! Steal hearts by doing small acts of kindness.
96. Let me know how I rock.
97. … expect a mail from me – I will tell you how much your rock.
98. We will have an awesome rocking society.
99. Download FRiEnDz magazine latest edition. (PDF)
100. Add your tips in comments. (Remember to number them from 101 and so on so we could know how many we have in total.
101. Make a comment or drop us mail on how you like our blog?

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Meditation! This experience is awesome. I don’t know why, but it comes from within (may be because of The Law of Attraction)
When I first saw Meditation Rocks! a blog discussing new methods of meditation, I was totally fired up. I started meditation based on the methods suggested on the website. But, you’ll not believe, in my first attempt, I kept on losing my concentration (focus).
Then, I waited for some time to see more methods on the website and some of them worked for me and some of them didn’t (and it’ll be the same case with you!). So I started doing the techniques which I liked, and they were amazing.

I was doing meditation from the last two years, but not like this. I was totally blown away by it. So, I kept doing it for some days and the results were astonishing. The state when you’re meditating just feels so good. I felt tension-free after that and I was able to concentrate on my studies too (what I wanted).
And then I found the answers of many things which I never got. Meditation also helps in the process of The Law of Attraction. It has worked for me, and is still working!
The best thing is, when you start doing it you feel very good. And feeling good is the most good thing in the Universe! That feeling good is not forced to come but comes from within. And that is the magic of meditation. It was truly awesome doing that! And that awesomeness helps us finding the true path of life which many of us try to find.

I had an inner nudge to discover more methods myself. So I kept on experimenting and I really got some awesome ideas! Some of them are:

1. Meditate while you wait! This method works and saves your time and also passes the time. I started doing that, while waiting for my school bus and in the school bus as well! And you know what it really helps. Just use the simple techniques of meditation…!
2. The second one is actually there is no second one! But if I find one I’ll surely send a post to meditation rocks! rejuvenated

But, in one word, meditation ROCKS!!!
Please let me know what you think of my experience in comments.
Photo Credits: This is the coloring side of Tehran by HAMED MASOUMI, on Flickr

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Whenever I try to sit and study, I just can’t concentrate! There are so many distractions. I just want to open facebook once, check my mails, call that friend or just sleep for 5 min. No matter what I do, I just can’t concentrate. I don’t want to do it.
This is story is not only close to a student’s heart but also to professionals and many more people. So why does this happen and can Meditation help?

Relax

Most of the time we just can’t concentrate because there is so much going on in mind that it becomes hard to focus on a task. Meditation can help in quieting the chatter of mind. Here is a simple exercise you can begin with:

1. Close your eyes and sit comfortably
2. Relax every part of your body.
3. Focus on breathing in and breathing out for few min.
4. Now, in your mind, start counting from 1 to 10 with your breathing.
5. When you breathe in, count 1 and when you breathe out count 2
6. When you reach to ten, start again from 1
7. Let mind think whatever it wants, just concentrate on counting from 1 to 10
8. After repeating this for sometime, you will notice that your mind is quiet and under your control.
9. Now open your eyes and get down to accomplish the mission

The important thing to remember here is that you cannot force the mind to become quiet. Mind is supposed to think, that’s it’s nature. You can ignore, shift the focus away from mind to breathing and counting. This will result in mind becoming calm itself and under your control as you affirm and choose to be in control.
Try it now and let me know how you feel.

Photo by Randy Son Of Robert, on Flickr

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