Being a better me: meditation diary week 1

I have just recently commenced an increasingly exciting voyage with my fiance that I'd like to chronicle. We have started getting up an hour earlier than usual, playing natural sounds like rainfall or crashing waves via youtube. We have a sip to drink, then we stretch... then we meditate.

To those who are not certain what meditation is exactly (other than sitting crosslegged, eyes closed and daydreaming). Dictionary.reference.com says it means: continued or extended thought;reflection;contemplation.

Transcendental meditation is : a technique, based on ancient Hindu writings, by which one seeksto achieve a relaxed state through regular periods of meditation during which a mantra is repeated.

Eckhart Tolle describes meditation as : 'a method for synchronizing body and mind in the present moment.When the body and mind are in sync, we are naturally relaxed, alert, open, and aware, and we experience ourselves and the world in a direct, unmediated way, without conceptual filters. It is this direct experience of the fullness, vitality, and splendor of life that is the gift of meditation.'

Like the French philosophers Deleuze and Gauttari suggested in their seminal (and blindingly difficult to read!) text Anti-Oedipus, the human being is often, in scientific practice, reduced to a complicated mess of competing 'machines' or systems. We concieve of ourselves as singular and independent and like another french philosopher, Descartes, associate our concept of self with our thoughts.

What I have recently learned, is that beneath the clamouring thoughts of our everyday existence lies an area of mind with no thoughts in it. It is the place where you discover yourself (the thing that's left after the flesh and the worldy desires and needs are flushed out.) Add to this the proven truth that regular meditation practice helps develop your brain's abilities in focus, concentration, lateral thinking, general mental acuity and it becomes clear that it is a worthwhile practice to undertake. Emotional balance is much easier to achieve with inhanced mental capabilities.

It has only been recently that I've finally started to get into this idea. I've quite simply been too self indulgent and have let things slide. Now that I know what I want my wife-to-be has talked me through some methods she has experience with. Using these ideas blended with some free diving breathing excersizes I have been taught in the past I have now had my first taste of the experience of meditation. I am already feeling different.

I have achieved two moments of inner peace for bare fractions of the amount of time spent trying to reach or reclaim the goods.They were glorious. The first was four seconds roughly, the second was 10 seconds - the instant I reached my first transcendental high I had a sudden release of endorphins and as a result... I'm hooked. At last! An addiction with actually beneficial attributes!

I will take note of my experiences and update you with the results of my meditation labours. I have aimed to reach enlightenment by Christmas and this may well not happen. It isn't necessarily the answers so much as the process of asking the questions that is of prime importance.

Addendum:

Christmas has come and gone, I have yet to achieve enlightenment it is sad to say... however my meditative practice is coming on in leaps and bounds. Read further episodes in this series to see how everything unfolds...