This is very often a question I’m asked and often people who have been practicing yoga for many years do not really understand the potentiality and real purpose of meditation. Well meditation can mean very different things to different people because the very fact that we consider or ponder a course of action is still meditation. But in the yogic sense it means to turn the mind towards those things that lead to liberation or freedom rather than those things that lead to greater entanglement, miss-understanding and eventually lead us to sorrow. So when we look at it in this light then we can see that to turn our attention towards those things that liberate the mind, we need to know what those things are. Those topics are usually the backbone of any traditional religion and can be grouped into 3 categories of :

1. Wisdom

2. Morality

3. Concentration

This may seem very formal but if we break it all down it makes sense because without these 3 categories, which again can be sub-divided into more headings then we start to uncover a way of behaviour that can guide us along in a specific direction. This then is what we call a path and hopefully the path we follow will lead us away from miss-understanding and towards a correct view of the way things really are.

In other words meditation is a science of the Mind. That is what meditation is. But not a cold interpretation of what Mind maybe but a true experience of what the Mind truly is. If we continually identity with those things or mental imaginings that are not truly ourselves then we will be continually disappointed and seek solace from outside ourselves in different ways. When true solace and refuge lie within our own hearts. We just have to realise it.

So why meditate? Because if we don’t consider and ponder our point of view, our way of acting and understanding the world and ourselves then how can we truly know fact from fiction and are we really satisfied with someone else’s understanding of how life is? We need to become a rock and to be a rock we need the foundation of understanding that comes from our own experience and knowledge tried and tested in the furnace of everyday living. And that’s why we meditate.