Meditation – A Myth or a Reality?

There are many myths surrounding meditation. The subject can easily be misunderstood and over the years I have heard many different stories. The best one was probably a man who told me that if he could not hallucinate, see amazing colors, images, if he could not aspire to levitate, then it was not worth his time to meditate. He was so fixed on this concept that he could not understand that meditating once or twice a day for 30 minutes was to live the rest of the day with clarity and peacefulness.

Another myth about meditation is that it is difficult to stop the mind and that meditation is for monks or wise people only. In reality meditation is not that difficult. The hard part is to discipline the self to fix a time, to sit and do it, to be patient enough to allow mind and body to feel the meditation. It does not happen overnight, just like you cannot learn to play violin overnight either, it is a matter of practicing. And by the way, the mind will never stop – that is what the mind is for! But between the thoughts there are black holes and this is where the seeker has to sit and find the space for meditating, the space of quietness and relaxation. Personally, I have my alarm set every morning at 5:45, I get up, drink warm water and then sit until 6:30, sometimes with music, sometimes in silence. Meditation is a free and powerful tool, it is a matter of believing in its great virtues.

– Claude Chouinard –