Buddhist meditation teacher Bodhipaksa debunks the ten most common meditation myths.
Even though meditation is now widely used in sports, medicine, psychiatry, and of course as part of the spiritual practice of millions of people around the world, there are still many misconceptions in circulation about what meditation actually is.
Myth #10. Meditation is relaxation
To say that some people’s conception of meditation is “Think of warm puppies, and let your mind go limp” is an exaggeration, but not much of one. Perhaps because meditation has found a home in stress management classes around the world, many people think that “letting your tensions dissolve away” is the be-all and end-all of a meditation practice. But while it’s important to let go of unnecessary effort while meditating, meditation is still a practice — that is, it involves effort. Sure, we start by letting go of tensions in the body, but that’s only the start.
Myth #9. Meditation is just self-hypnosis
Hypnosis, when used in therapy, involves a patient being guided into having experiences that he or she would have difficulty in attaining unaided — experiences as varied as being content without a cigarette in hand and remembering forgotten events from childhood. Self-hypnosis does the same thing, but the practitioner uses a remembered script or visualization to, say, increase relaxation or to experience greater confidence. There’s actually some overlap between hypnosis and meditation (although some meditation teachers, being suspicious of hypnosis, would deny this). In both disciplines we start with inducing a state of relaxation and then proceed to doing some kind of inner work. In hypnosis and in some forms of meditation that inner work involves visualization or the use of repeated phrases. But many forms of meditation (for example, Zen “just sitting” or Theravadin mindfulness meditation) make no use of such tools. The overlap between hypnosis and meditation is only partial.
Myth #8. There are technological shortcuts
“I want to relax, and I want to do it now!” is the approach taken by many goal-oriented Westerners. And that makes them suckers for promises of quick-fix technological approaches to meditating. The web is full of products that promise you that you’ll meditate like a Zen monk at the touch of a button. Just stick your headphones on and hit play, and let the magical audio technology do the rest! But like myth #10, this overlooks the fact that meditation involves effort. Sure, if you stop running around being stressed for half an hour and listen to some blandly pleasant music you’ll find you’re more relaxed. Why wouldn’t you be? But it’s a mistake to confuse this with real meditation. The “Zen monk” in these ads would surely be puzzled to think that someone listening to a CD for a few minutes had attained the depths of mindfulness and compassion that come from thousands of hours of sitting on a cushion watching your breath.
Myth #7. Transcendental Meditation is the most common kind of meditation
“Oh, so is it Transcendental meditation you do?” I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked that question when people have found out I’m a meditation teacher. Just about everyone has heard of Transcendental Meditation because of famous practitioners like the Beatles and because of controversies about TM being taught in U.S. schools, but TM is very much a minority pursuit — probably because it’s so darned expensive to learn (and the question of where those millions of dollars go is still open). The most common form of meditation in the West is Mindfulness or Insight meditation, which comes from Theradavin Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Zen meditation and Tibetan meditation (which often involves visualization) isn’t far behind.
Myth #6. You have to sit in lotus position
In the Asian countries where Buddhist meditation developed people generally sit on the floor and have flexible hips. It’s natural for them to sit cross-legged, and so they sit in a variety of cross-legged postures in order to meditate, the lotus position being one of the most common and stable postures. In the West we sit in chairs from an early age and have stiffer hips. It’s therefore a rare Westerner who can sit in the lotus position to meditate — at least with any degree of comfort. In actual fact it’s possible to sit comfortably to meditate on a chair, a meditation stool, kneeling, or even lying down (although you’ll have trouble staying awake). The most important thing is that you find a posture that’s comfortable for you — and that you don’t beat yourself up about not being able to twist your legs like a pretzel.
Myth #5. In meditation you sit there saying “OM”
Mantra meditation is only one kind of meditation, and “OM” is only one mantra (or part of a mantra). ‘Nuff said.
Myth #4. Meditation is a religious activity
Although meditation comes from various spiritual or religious traditions, it’s not in itself necessarily a religious practice. The most common forms of meditation practice, for example, involve observing the sensations of the breath. What’s religious about that? Sure, there are some forms of meditation that involve using religious words of phrases as objects of concentration (e.g. Transcendental Meditation, Buddhist Mantra meditation, etc.) but many of the most common meditation practices have no religious overtones — which is probably one of the reasons they’re so common.
Myth #3. Meditation is somehow “Eastern”
A lot of people (usually Christians) have told me that they think Buddhist practice is “foreign” because it comes from an Eastern context. Hmm, where does Christianity come from again? Oh yes, the Middle East. But as with Myth #4 (“Meditation is a religious activity”) there’s nothing inherently Eastern, Southern, or Northern about counting your breath or wishing people well. Some Tibetan practices do involve visualizing rather bizarre (to Western eyes) figures, and mantra meditation usually involves repeating Sanskrit words or phrases — but those constitute a minority of meditation practices. Oh, all right, it’s a large minority — but what’s wrong with a little exoticism?
Myth #2. Meditation is escapist
To some people, meditation is “running away from problems,” “navel gazing,” “lotus eating,” or “disregarding the world.” Actually, running around being busy and never having time to experience yourself deeply is escapism. When you meditate you’re brought face-to-face in a very direct way with your own anger, delusion, craving, pain, and selfishness. There’s nothing to do in meditation but to experience and work with these things. Also, some forms of meditation — such as lovingkindness and compassion meditation — involve us working at transforming our relationship with the world by cultivating love and empathy for others. Perhaps that’s why so many meditators are involved in social work, psychotherapy, nursing, bereavement counseling, prison work, etc.
Myth #1 Meditation is about letting your mind go blank
Here it is, the all-time number one meditation myth — that meditation is about “making your mind go blank.” Sure, in meditation we aim to reduce the amount of thinking that goes on. Sure, just sit there for a few minutes watching all those pointless and even downright unhelpful thoughts bubbling up nonstop in the mind and you’d start to think that a blank mind would be preferable! But what would it be like to have a blank mind? Would you even be awake? Would you have any consciousness at all? Would you be able to know that your mind was blank? The confusion arises because we identify so much with our verbal thoughts (our inner self-talk) that we think that that’s all our experience is. And if we reduce or even stop our thinking (and that can happen) we assume that the mind must be blank. But a blank mind simply isn’t possible.
No, in meditation we aim to develop mindfulness — that’s mind-full-ness. When we’re mindful the mind is very much not blank. Rather, we’re aware of physical sensations, emotions, thoughts — and of how all those things interact with each other. The mind is so full of our present-moment experience that there’s less room for it to be full of useless thoughts, and instead we’re aware of the incredible richness of our experience — a richness that we overlook entirely when we spend our whole lives lost in thinking.
13 Comments. Leave new
meditation is all about finding a way to think properly, so to speak. some thoughts are more benevolent than others, and the effort mentioned in the article should go towards a “pleasent-ification” of the thoughts and inner dialogue. the ultimate goal is nothing more than thinking straight, that is, with reason and calmness. you should know what im talking about. (even though some people rarely find themselves thinking positive for more than a couple of minutes at a time, its all about effort)
who says you have to think about negative things? what actions performed by others demand a negative inner response? this is the field of effort, and the goal, as proclaimed by the original buddha, is to via effort (over aeons) become independent of negativity. in fact, negativity never carries its own reality, so by means of willpower, the buddha is said to have managed to conquer negativity, or mara.
enlightenment has nothing to do with light, willed-conciousness nor willed-awareness but a steady transformation into a positive way of thinking. this might involve several aspects in your life, where a dose of positivity is desperately needed. the goal is a warm hearted way of being wich will fulfill a need to help and to give, actions and intents that are solely benificial to all. this will be more satisfying to our mind (than being cruel, wich shuts us off from a non-afflictive way of being/thinking).
the key is noticing afflictive emotions, and how they rise. this might reveal that they also dissipate within, and that in fact, no afflictive thinking/emotion was needed. present, sure, but needed, no. through will of intent, the buddha said that cessation is possible. so is it? i think we can all agree that less affliction is better than more, thus this goal seems reasonable. but is it attainable? well that depends on what ur goal actually is, if you one day find urself satisfied with your mind and outlook on life, is that enough? if you want to become enlightened (after having read some heavy british propaganda or spiritual quackery) youll never be satisfied. imagine the thought and desire of becoming enlightened reveals itself to have an afflictive effect on your self. is then the goal to become enlightened? yes, but if the search (upon investigation) itself is afflictive, how can this goal lead to a non-afflicted mind? the wise men say that willpower and positive thinking/effort through years of practice may lead to an enlightened mind, but when is this goal reached?
easily, the mind, when under right circumstances works perfectly. this in turn affects the body/organism in a benign way and thus genuine content may arise yet again. this state can be perfected through will power and various ways of thinking, and in the end, pure positivity is said to be possible.
so, enlightenment, if sought out as a mean to solve some dilemma or problem, it might turn out to be a negative influence or afflictive way of being, it all comes down to personal experience. enlightenment may mean happiness and contentedness to some, and loss and meaninglessness to others. the truth is that inner negativity (afflictive thinking, action, intent) is a personal “enemy”. no advice could ever fix that for you. the clue is effort, as the writer points out in the text.
meditation is a shortcut to get rid of negativity, as soon as the meditative practice is over, negativity arises, so what has happened here? well, a new depth in your perception has occured and is being built upon a firm ground of positivity. its organically imperative to be without pain, but how to maintain a non-afflictive way of percieving daily life? well, the peace felt by even a beginner of meditative practices should be understood as a “taste” of how the fully funtioning mind is meant to work.
a functioning mind is bound to have a positive impact on whatever aspect of life you might be occupied with. be it math or relationships. with this, no one can disagree.
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[…] 10 In der Meditation geht es nicht darum, das Denken leer werden zu lassen (In der Meditation nehmen wir Gefühle, Gedanken, Empfindungen wahr und sehen, wie die Dinge miteinander in Verbindung stehen.) Bodhipaksa, Buddhistischer Meditationslehrer auf http://www.Wildmind.org […]
Hmm, interesting that you sell meditation cds and such. Doesn’t this conflict with one of the myths you mention? I guess we all have to eat.
I like the article otherwise.
Hi Ned,
Which of the myths do you think selling CDs conflicts with? Is it the “technological shortcuts” one? If so, it’s not the CD itself that helps you meditate, it’s the guidance it contains. What I meant by saying there are no technological shortcuts is that no technology can do the work for you. Meditation is something we do for ourselves. You can listen to instructions, but you actually have to follow those instructions — you have to do the work that the instructions are pointing to. Otherwise it’s not meditation — it’s just kicking back and relaxing.
re: Myth #10
. . . effort is a strife or a struggle to transform that which is into something which you wish it to be. — JK
Therefore:
Effort is a distraction from what is. JK
I find Krishnamurti’s views on this rather simplistic. There are different kinds of effort, and it’s possible to have effort combined with acceptance of what is.
“If one didn’t make an exertion, one wouldn’t finally attain the truth. Because one makes an exertion, one finally attains the truth. Therefore, exertion is most helpful for the final attainment of the truth.” The Buddha.
“With mindfulness, strive diligently.” The Buddha.
And some more readings from the Buddha on Right Effort, the sixth aspect of the Eightfold path: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-vayamo/index.html
[…] are 5 myths about meditation, debunked by Buddhist meditation teacher Bodhipaksa for wildmind.org: Myth: Transcendental Meditation is the most common kind of […]
Yes, meditation is NOT distinctly Eastern.
I remember reading St. Teresa d’Avila’s writing from the 1500’s (she is a Catholic saint) about “contemplative prayer” and thinking that it was meditation that she was describing.
Even in the Bible it says “Be still and know that I am God” … a simple instruction for meditation (although as a Buddhist, I would leave out that last word)
I’d recommend reading The Meditative Mind, by Dan Goleman. I came away from that book with a profound sense of respect for the Christian Desert Fathers, who were obviously doing something very similar to Buddhist meditation. There were descriptions as well of experiences that were clearly, in Buddhist terms, stream entry. Many modern Christians are of course exploring contemplative/meditative practice, although some of the more fundamentalist ilk of course have great fears that meditation leads to demonic possession…
Its interesting to see what meditation isn’t but I’d like to add something from my own experience that meditation is. I can say with certainty that if you meditate regularly it can transform your life and how you live it. Its like exercise, if you do it regularly, you get fitter. If you meditate regularly, you notice numerous changes: greater calm, handle stress better, happier relationships, more respectful, greater joy in general for no reason, better sleep, more conscious of making healthier choices for yourself food wise, possibly even becoming vegetarian, more caring of others and the environment, more honest with self and others, and lots more but you get the idea. I think it is one of the most significant things a person can do for themselves and the rest of the world. :-)
Thanks for this, Peter.