Meditation; Physical and mental benefits

Meditation is a state of consciousness that can be understood only on a direct, intuitive level. Ordinary experiences are limited by time, space, the laws of causality, but the meditative state transcends all the boundaries. while a person meditate, past and future cease to exist. There is only the consciousness of I AM in the infinite, eternal, NOW.

Here are states of Consciousness

* Waking State
This is the normal everyday state of awareness. The conscious mind is functioning. You know that you are awake. The intellect is working. You are thinking and reasoning, and you are aware of your physical environment. Time, space, and causality are in full control in the waking state.

* Dream State
Contrary to popular belief, this intermediate state between waking and deep sleep is not restful state, as mental energy is being expended. The intellect is not functioning, but there remains some awareness of the physical world. Regular asana practice will help you to relax at night and enter deep sleep.

* Deep Sleep

When the mind is relaxed it will goninto the state known as deep sleep. The mind is blank; there is no awareness of yourself as a separate entity. The ego identity does not exist. There is no awareness of “I am doing…” nor of your physcal environment, nor even an awareness of your own being.

* Meditation

As in deep sleep, neither body consciousness nor awareness of an external physical reality exists. Nor do time, space or causality, but in meditation the awareness is transcendental. It is the continuous flow of one thought of the Supreme, and identification of the indiidual with the divine.

PHYSICAL BENEFITS OF MEDITATION

Meditation provides a long lasting spiritual rest, which must be experienced to be understood. Once you can meditate, the time you normally devoted to sleep can gradually be reduced to as little as three hours per night, and you will still feel more rested and peaceful than before. By reducing heart rate and consumption of the oxygen, meditation greatly reduces stress levels. It seems that each part of the body even down to the individual cells, is taught to relax and rejuvenate. Meditation helps to prolong the body’s period of growth and cell production, and reduces the decaying process. After the age of 35, our brain cells die off at a rate of 100,000 per day, and they are not replaced, but meditation can reduce this decline, as it changes the vibratory make-up of both the body and the mind. In this way, meditation can prevent or minimize senility.

MENTAL BENEFITS OF MEDITATE

We each possess vast inner resources of power and knowledge, much of it brought with us from the past. In the meditation, new patterns of thinking come to the surface and develop as we experience a new view of the ecperience a new view of the universe, a vision of unity, happyiness, harmony, and inner peace. Negative tendencies vanis, andthe mindbecomes steady. Meditation brings freedom from fear of death, which is seen as a doorway to a new name and form. People who meditate regularly tend to develop magnetic and dynamic personalities, cheerfulness, powerful speech, lustrous eyes, physical health, and boundless energy. Others draw strengh from such people and feel elevated in their presence. Meditation is only possible when all mental modifications have been stilled, and with this comes mental peace.

Well, knowing all those benefits of Meditate..don’t we all want to have it too?? </p
Namaste