What is Meditation and Meditation Techniques
How long can thoughts stop?
On February 28, in 2016, Spain's Aleix Segura Vendrell broke the world record by staying underwater, i.e., by holding his breath, and placed it at 20 minutes and 3 seconds.
An average person can hold his breath for a
minute or two. The human body is able to store oxygen for up to 3 minutes, beyond that it is expected to damage the body, and of course, death.
Very few people like Wunderl are capable of 20 minutes, without finishing in the morgue.
How long can an average person stop his flow of thoughts? For a second? 10 seconds? One minute?
What happens to the brain when trying to stop the flow of thoughts?
We begin to think about stopping the thought, how to do it, thinking about how not to think, and very quickly, without noticing, a new wave of thoughts is washing about the cessation of thought, and a minute later we remember that we were actually thinking about stopping the thought...
According to the Buddhist concept, and the Yogi concept that preceded it, the human inability to stop thoughts detaches it from the true essence of things.
For this Yogi perception, it prevents us from uniting with the eternal peacefulness, which is created by the balance between physical and spiritual.
For Buddhism, it prevents us from achieving Nirvana (Sanskrit: extinguish the flame of the candle) which is a state of wakefulness (Buddha) that comes after the extinguishment of cravings and passions, which lead to false pursuit after insignificant achievements, and therefore cause suffering.
For Daoism, it prevents us from uniting with the Dow, because thoughts bind us to our existing patterns of knowledge that prevent us from understanding things as they really are.
That is, if we can only find the way to control the flow of thoughts and stop it, we can achieve so much, according to the central perceptions of East Asia.
Here comes meditation.
So what is meditation?
Meditation is the practice of "stopping the flow of thoughts" in order to change the state of consciousness. Meditation is perceived differently by Buddhism and Zen Buddhism (born of a combination of Daoism and Buddhism).
In the Buddhist perception (Theravada), meditation is more focused on specific things, and the results are very far, by reaching nirvana, the wakefulness state of mind. Only a few can achieve this.
In the later Buddhist view (Mahayana), those who were on the brink of achieving wakefulness gave it up in order to help others to get there, such a man was called Bodhisattva.
In Zen Buddhism, on the other hand, every moment can become a moment of wakefulness, if we only completely concentrate on the act itself, without distractions.
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