Why I Meditate

The other day, I was telling someone about the day-long retreat I had been to for meditation. This person said to me, "I have a good form of meditation that's easier than yours."

"Oh? What is it," I asked, biting into his baited statement.

"It's real easy. I get up in the morning, walk into the bathroom and take a Prozac. That's it. All done."

I was confused.

Then it occurred to me that this person thinks I meditate as a form of psychotherapy, or in his case psychotropic therapy. However, that's not why I meditate.

About a year and a half ago, I started exploring different faiths, reading a little about Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, and Unitarianism. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with the teachings of Buddhism. So I started reading more.

I discovered that meditation is pretty much an essential element of Buddhism. I hesitated to learn to meditate, not really understanding what meditation is or why people do it and how it realted to the Dharma. But I gave it a try. I'm not a great meditator now, but a year ago, I could only meditate for five minutes. I now meditate for anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes.

After I started meditating regularly, I discovered that meditation does, in fact, have some psychotherapeutic benefits in that it makes me calmer and happier. But really, that's a pleasant side effect, not the real reason I meditate. I learned that meditating is a form of training the mind so that I can be more mindful during life. It's analogous to an athlete who lifts weights to increase his performance on the track, the cheer leading squad or the football field. The muscle is developed and therefore allows for better performance. I train my mind so that throughout the day I can be more in control of my mind and therefore my actions. I perform better.

Sure, meditation might equate to Prozac for me, but I never intended it to.

A friend of mine meditates, too, but her meditative practice is quite different than mind. Not lesser or better, just different. She developed her practice called Hemi-sync with this place called The Monroe Institute. According to The Monroe Institute's web page, "Hemi-Sync® is a patented audio guidance technology that works quite simply by sending different sounds (tones) to each ear through stereo headphones. The two hemispheres of the brain then act in unison to 'hear' a third signal – the difference between the two tones." The two tones, as I understand it, put the brain into the same wavelengths that scientist say people in deep meditation experience.

The experiences that follow, from what I understand, are dreamlike or mystical, often resulting in out of body experiences (OBE).

This would explain why my husband asks me every Monday night when I return from my meditation group, "How was levitation?" When I meditate, I don't have mystical experiences, and I'm not seeking that. I don't want to levitate, speak to God, or have an OBE.

I just want to be a better person.