When You Don't Know Where to Turn / A Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy

by Steven J. Bartlett

MEDITATION
For individuals who are able to make a
long-range commitment to the practice of a
discipline that, over a period of many months
and years, can strengthen them and help them
to become more fully integrated and centered.

Don't go outside yourself, return into yourself. The dwelling place of truth is the inner man.
Saint Augustine, The True Religion

Meditation is a systematic discipline that attempts to help people move toward the goal of self-realization. It is not the creation of one individual or group. Techniques of meditation have evolved over many centuries and in different parts of the world. And yet these techniques bear striking similarities to each other, whether they originated in the temples and monasteries of India, Japan, Europe, or the Middle East.

Meditation is not a relaxed act of "contemplating one's navel"; it more closely resembles athletic training. It is a form of progressive mental exercise that has as its goal a strengthening of a person's self-confidence, inner strength, and the mind's ability to focus and concentrate. Meditation takes considerable endurance. It is essentially a discipline. It requires fortitude, perseverance, and a strong will. Like athletic ability, skills in meditation cannot be developed without regular practice. Because its effects are felt only gradually, meditation needs a long-term commitment to sustain it, and this ultimately must be based on faith in its eventual value.

The disciplined and regular practice of meditation over a period of many months appears to lead to a sense of personal integration, a sense of being more firmly centered in yourself, more confident and aware of your connection with all that is. Experienced practitioners of meditation claim to feel a greater degree of personal security; they feel more at ease with themselves. They claim to feel serenity, zest in living, and inner peace and joy in work, which they seem to be able to do more efficiently, with greater energy and interest.

WHAT THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION IS LIKE

Techniques of meditation share the goal of disciplining the mind to do one thing at a time. Until you have made a serious attempt to meditate, you will very likely be unaware of how perpetually distracted your attention is. We seldom make the effort to stand apart from our thoughts, to take note of how numerous and varied they are and how chaotically they tumble into and out of our consciousness. It is exceedingly hard work to quiet these "chattering monkeys of the mind." Quieting the overactive and undisciplined mind is a challenging task. It takes energy and a great deal of practice.

There are many approaches to meditation. Here, we will look at three.[[9]]

[[9]] See the excellent introduction to the practice of meditation by Lawrence LeShan, How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974). Dr. LeShan is a psychotherapist in New York City who teaches many of his clients meditation as part of their therapy.

Breath Counting