By George A. Boyd © 2017
Q: Why should I learn to meditate? How will it help me?
A: There are many benefits to meditation. Here is a list that we compiled in 2001:
Excerpted from “Meditation for Therapists Workbook, Third Edition” © 2001
As the effects of meditation range from mild to profound based on the depth of relative absorption, so do the benefits that meditators report. These benefits include:
- Improved ability to relax the body and relieve stress
- Enhanced clarity and mental concentration
- Deeper insight and self-knowledge, culminating in Enlightenment
- Stronger will power and greater ability to control behavior and habits
- Development of intuitive and psychic gifts
- Richer, more vivid dream life and sounder sleep
- Direct experience of the spirit and the Soul
- Higher frequency of peak performance and flow state experiences
- Spontaneous correction of character weakness and cultivation of virtue
- More enjoyment of life, beauty, and sexual pleasure
- Revelation of the Great Mysteries
- Mystic experiences with angels, spiritual guides, and God
- Unfolding the Soul into higher spiritual realms
- Channeling healing energy and the Divine Light to minister to others
- Feeling greater love for Nature, humanity, and God
- Increased altruism, promotion of the urge to help or serve others
- Better appreciation of religious teachings, living essential truths and values
Some people are content with their lives as they are, and have no desire to improve their inner life or experience their full human and spiritual potential. So for these people, meditation is probably not something they would consider doing.
For others of you, maybe as you read this list, you find yourself saying to yourself as you look at one or more of these benefits, “yeah, that is something I want, and I’d like to learn how to do that.”
And for you few of you, you want to have everything on this list—and more!
If you want to do just a few things on this list, we can develop a custom program for you to address that particular issue. This is called a meditation consultation. We can do one to as many sessions as you need to help you achieve this goal you desire.
If your aims are more practical—you just want to learn to live with less stress, have better concentration, and greater focus and clarity in your life—you may wish to take the Foundations of Practical Meditation, which our certified instructors can teach you.
If you’ve never meditated before, and you don’t have a clue as to how to do the most basic rudiments of meditation, you may want to start with the Introduction to Meditation program. You can take this one on-line—as a self-study program at your own pace, or you can augment it with group or individual coaching—or you can take this class in-person with one of our certified instructors.
If you have meditated before and you found yourself saying, “yes!” to most or all of these benefits as something you want, you will find the tools you need in our in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail or online Accelerated Meditation Program.
Q: Why should I learn meditation from Mudrashram®? Can’t I just take a class at my Yoga studio? Or practice the techniques I learn on the Internet?
A: Each meditation has a distinct effect on your mind. It focuses your attention on a different level of awareness on the Great Continuum of Consciousness. It produces different outcomes.
Many people learn very rudimentary meditations in Yoga classes and on the Internet. They learn mindfulness, which is collecting your attention, becoming present, and monitoring the content arising in the present time. They learn to watch their breath. They learn to chant AUM and other mantras, and temporarily lift their awareness into euphoric altered states of consciousness.
But they don’t understand the context of the meditation that they are doing.
- They often don’t know why they are doing it, other than it releases stress and makes them feel more peaceful.
- They don’t understand where each meditation takes them. They have no sense about what are the levels in the mind.
- They don’t understand what the meditation they are doing is designed to do, and whether it is appropriate for the aims that they want to achieve.
- They meditate and go into passive trance states, which are restful, but do nothing to affect their personal growth or spiritual development.
- Worse, they may learn and practice powerful transformational techniques that produce spiritual imbalances that can affect their ability to function personally, or even generate Kundalini syndromes.
You need to know what you are doing. You need to be properly trained in meditation. For example:
- You need to now why you are doing a meditation, and what effect it has on you.
- You need to know where that meditation will take your attention and how it will affect your awareness.
- You need to know the purpose of each meditation, when it is appropriate to use it, and when it is not.
- You need to make each meditation count for something—your meditations should not just put you in a trance state—but you should do something useful and practical with each meditation. You should accomplish a specific meditation objective in each meditation session.
- And because you are not just doing one thing with meditation, you need a different meditation tool to accomplish each meditation objective. So you are going to use a different meditation tool to relax your body and release stress than you will use to tune into your Soul’s intuition.
Mudrashram® teaches each of these things. It gives you multiple techniques, because you will need meditation for different purposes. It’s like getting a toolbox to help you gain all of the benefits of meditation.
We welcome you to look at our programs. They are complete trainings. They are one of the best investments you can make for your health, your career, your personal destiny, and spiritual development.
- For your health, you will learn stress reduction.
- For your career, you will gain the ability to powerfully focus your mind and intention to achieve your goals.
- For your personal destiny, you will gain to connect with the Self and your will power to manifest your core life goals.
- For your spiritual development, you will learn how to transform and actualize your spiritual potentials, tap into your Soul’s intuition, discover your Soul’s purpose, and rise to Liberation and Mastery.
Explore our website. Read the articles and watch the free videos in our Library. Obtain our books that appeal to you. Take webinars on topics of your interest. And when you’re ready to begin meditation, sign up for one of our classes.
It’s truly one of the best things you could ever do for yourself!
