RELAXATION, CONCENTRATION AND MEDITATION
It may be a good idea to dispel the misunderstanding commonly met with, concerning these three different techniques.
Relaxation should not be confused with concentration, nor concentration with meditation. It is true that relaxation does help concentration and concentration helps meditation. Each is a different practice, yielding different results.
Relaxation
Relaxation eases both physical and mental tension. It helps one feel comfortable in one’s body, a complete let go. Tense muscles become relaxed or loosened. One gets rid of fatigue. There is not the least tension left in the body. It will gradually lead to a diminution of mental tension. Although there is awareness of both body and mind, there is hardly any physical or mental activity. To help ease tension one may concentrate on something or other. One may follow the breath, inhalation or exhalation and synchronise them with the repetition of a sacred syllable like ‘OM’. Rhythmical yogic breathing will further reduce both physical and mental tension.
Concentration
Concentration is the mental faculty of focusing the attention on some specific thought, object or event. In daily life, circumstances sometime compel us to think deeply, especially faced with a problem. The mind focuses on the problem and we are lost to the outside world. Concentration deepens. The body is forgotten, the senses are withdrawn. The mind is lost somewhere. We are wide awake, yet we no longer feel our physical presence.
The mental energy brought to focus on one point is known as concentration. Unbroken concentration or perfect concentration leads to meditation.
Meditation
Meditation is a higher form of concentration. It is a spiritual practice of a superconscious order. Meditation involves yogic breathing and repetition of some sacred word. The body becomes motionless, yet there is awareness of its existence. The mind is absolutely thought free and it is witnessing a higher state.
The higher the concentration the higher the mind will reach into the realm of higher consciousness, Superconsciousness. This is meditation. By continued meditation the subtler, superconscious state is achieved. The conscious mind becomes merged into the superconscious, revealing a bright inner vision.
Coming out of concentration, one is the same old self. After coming out of meditation, one’s perception is altered, having discovered a higher state of existence.