Meditation - FAQ 2

Do read  the previous blogs What is Meditation and Meditation - FAQ 1

Q: How many types of Meditation Techniques are there?

A: Broadly speaking, Meditation techniques can be classified into 2 types viz:

1. Active Meditation Techniques – They are very strong, brisk, fast movements consisting of physical body movements or chaotic breath movements. E.g. Osho’s Dynamic Meditation, Art of Living’s Sudarshan Kriya etc. 
2. Passive Meditation Techniques: They are very mild, slow, relaxed techniques. E.g. Goenka’s Vipassanna Meditation, Ramchandra Mission’s Sahaj Yog.    

Q: How much time should we spend on Meditation in a day?

A: Each Meditation session including the technique should ideally be 1 hour in the morning (between 4–7 am) and 1 hour in the evening (between 6-8 pm) every day. However the timing and duration can be changed according to our convenience.

Q: How do we know we are in Meditation or Meditation has happened to us?

A: There are a few pointers which may help us to know whether we were in Meditation or not.

1. Our breath becomes deep i.e. less than 2 times in a minute or even lesser than that. But reverse way may not be true i.e. if we force our breath to be less than 2 times in a minute, we will be in meditation.

2. Our breath becomes smooth and wonderful. Our body becomes as light as a feather.

3. Our body feels very light and comfortable.

4. We feel peaceful or blissful when meditating and after it also. The duration may differ each time. Once our mind starts getting attached to our thoughts, we lose this feeling.

5. We come into a thoughtlessness state. It means thoughts will come and go, but we will not be hooked with it.

6. A of deep sense of belonging or oneness will happen to us.

7. We may have different wonderful spiritual experiences.

8. We may discover the timelessness factor i.e. we will be surprised that actual time has flown faster than what we thought. E.g. 1 hour may have passed but we may feel it is only 5 minutes.

Wisdom Pointer:  Initially, we need to do Meditation techniques regularly until the time we actually know what being in Meditation is.  Then we need to stabilize our self in that state. In the end, we become meditative in all aspects of our life.