"Do not think of anything, empty your mind and just rest" said my uncle to me. We sat shoulder to shoulder with hands placing on our knees, our eyes closed.
After a while I responded: "But I can't, there's always something in my mind, if I clear this away, that will pop up, it's no use to try it..."
That was my uncle trying to teach me to meditate when I was a kid. Obviously it failed because I could not not think of anything, it's frustrating to make even the attempt because you may end up sitting there 15 minutes just thinking about what snacks you want to eat while trying not to have any thoughts or ideas in mind.
Meditation in Chinese culture especially in novels and TV shows has been depicted as an almighty means of mental/physical practice that allows you to heal the wound, to improve your energy or kongfu level(as a hero), to reach a higher mental level, to gain access to the ultimate knowledge of universe, "to enjoy an indestructible sense of well-being while engaging in any life activity"...But really what does it do?
MY OSHO EXPERIENCE
I had a chance to experience some real meditation myself with some friends. It was my colleague at hotel who had being practicing meditation for three years and according to her it was very beneficiary, she feels much more peaceful in life, better temper control, most importantly doing meditation directly makes her happy. So I went to try it out myself at the institution she attends to, the school is called OSHO. (here is a link to the wiki page of the master Osho himself)
To me the idea of meditation is one sitting or maybe lying somewhere in peace to practice her mind, to tame and control the shapeless, unformed sometimes unruly inner spirit. So what did I picture it would be when I stepped into the meditation room with my friend? Us sitting there, a master would instruct us to find the peaceful state of mind by her soft mumbling voice, maybe in the end we fall asleep comfortably.
But what really happened was totally different from my imagination: the instructor put an DVD in player, a dozen of us sitting in soft cushion on the floor watching Maestro Osho teaching philosophy lecture to his students. It was fun to watch. After that a light music started, we all closed eyes in the pitch dark room just listening to the music. I felt good, it was relaxing, but my mind was also very engaged in trying to figure out what the whole meditation thing really is like. Just when I was about to enter a very peaceful and comfortable state, the music started becoming uplifting and provocative, the rhythm had a 180 degree change. I couldn't feel relaxed in that music but it was fine I guess, it would calm down eventually? Then I saw one of the practitioners stood up, walked forward, started slightly moving her limbs and head along with the music. A few moments later, more people stood up and joined the first one, the music was getting faster and stronger, one after another they all stood up in two lines and started dancing in a choatic way in their own pace.
I was shocked by how this event turned to be, now everybody was jumping up and down passionately, their hair flying around in the air, hands waving in uncertain directions, what was happening in front of my eyes was more like a tribe ritual, I was terrified. Should I stand up and join them? I don't feel like to, first, the act seemed insane, without getting the reason I would never attempt to imitate it. Second, it's in my personality that I generally just don't feel like complying with the group. So I just sat there, watching them dancing in chaos, awkwardly.
In the end, with a signal in the music all practitioners reaching their hands up in the air and shouted "OSHO!!!".
My friend told me there are many different types of meditation in Osho school, the one I attended happened to be the dancing one, which definitely scared me off from Osho for my life I'm sure.
WHAT I THINK OF MEDITATION
I agree with what my uncle said, first step, try to clear your mind, even though it's nearly impossible.
Maybe you should try it on your own first before reading the following, just five minutes, sitting in peace, try not to think of anything, absolute void, try.
While attempting to clear my mind, I can't help but do a little check up on my mind from moment to moment, asking myself did I just think of something, was there something in my mind? While doing this, obviously I was thinking of something, at least I was thinking whether my thoughts were completely cleared if not other thoughts.
"Don't think of elephant!" what do you think of? Elephant.
"Don't think of anything!" what do you think of? Nothing.
Ops, "nothing" is the thing that we can hardly get rid of, when you try to achieve nothingness in your mind, you are creating something, which is nothingness. Quite a dilemma.
Keep working on that! But you don't have to completely clear your mind to benefit from meditation. During the process your mind is already becoming much more peaceful and focused, at this moment whatever comes in your mind must be more natural, purer and more concentrated, it's a much clearer mind, a much brighter vision in pure darkness.
Once you reach the stage where you can freely command your mind, you can clear out the things that aren't important, clear out emotion, desire, desperation, eagerness, instability, anxiety, doubts, fear, hope... they are all out, there's only a spirit, purely existing, independently. Once you have such a good command over your inner spirit, the power of it will flow outwards so that you could wield them the empower your life: to be a deeper, more focused thinker, to be able to take action decisively without any "smoke" blocking your vision, to gain a controllable state of emotion and a constant sense of well-being.
Our life relies upon our mind, the entire body is meant to support the brain, the mind, the mind is what defines us.
In this world we are just a bunch of spirit existence, consciousness, our body is a tool for us to exert power from universe and back into universe, in this way our mind is trained, nurtured, grown, educated, entertained and elevated.
Meditation is the practice that wants you to realize the fact that it's your mind that matters the most. Do not think of anything, forget about your body, forget about your surrounding, forget about the earth you are sitting on, you are not your body, you are your spirit and your mind, that is much more powerful and filled with infinite potential.
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