The Sanskrit word Dhyana refers to what we call meditation. Dhyana literally means absorption and goes back as far as the 6th Century before Christ.

The root of the Western word meditation originates in the Latin verb meditari meaning ‘to think, contemplate, ponder’. It appeared ‘only’ in the 12th Century after Christ.

That’s a difference of 18 centuries.

Absorption and contemplation are both superficially and in its essence quite different concepts. Only when in the 1800’s Eastern spiritual practices found their way to the West, the word meditation started to gain momentum.

Is this causing confusion instead of clarity? The answer is yes.

Absorption, with the mind as the absorber, think of a sponge sucking up its surroundings, seems to be more about heightening a sense of awareness of one’s surroundings. Whereas contemplation and pondering are often perceived as a journey inside, finding calm within while shutting one off from one’s surroundings. Two different paths.

So are we to dive into an abyss of stillness, labeled by some as the sub or un-conscious mind? Or are we to open up and connect with an immense ‘greater’ consciousness? The answer depends on who you ask.

These questions lead me to ‘ponder’ over Freud’s concept of the sub-conscious and its correspondence with the universal ‘great’ consciousness. It wouldn’t for the world be feasible that the individual un-consciousness equals the universal consciousness, would it?!

The confusion of concepts and words is a bit inappropriate if it comes to such thing as the practice of meditation. It is supposed to bring us clarity and peacefulness.

How do the sub-conscious,the un-consciousness and the ‘greater’ consciousness – or the ‘beyond’, the ‘above’, the ‘anything bigger than you’ – relate to each other? And while hanging ‘out there’, what is it we are looking for?

Could it possibly be that universal consciousness is the same as the individual un-consciousness?

Everything = Nothing

Eternity is in the present moment

There’s no dualism when there’s unity and wholeness.

While meditating, my sense of self dissolves into the surroundings of the greater consciousness. I absorb and simultaneously am absorbed. I no longer am and yet start to manifest the purest form of me.

Let’s pick up that sponge again and observe how it absorbs water. The same sponge when squeezed spills water. While meditating we take in as much as we squeeze out.

And as such we are preparing for to live happily ever after.

To be continued.