The ABCs of Meditation | The Chopra Center

The ABCs of Meditation

by: Tamara Lechner 

Whether you are starting a new meditation practice or want to deepen an existing practice, getting back to the basics and putting attention to your intention is a wonderful way to remind yourself of why you meditate. The alphabet is where many of us begin our journey as students on this planet, so here’s a little alphabetical reminder of the benefits of meditation.

A is for Awaken

Meditation is a way to awaken purpose, awaken health, awaken abundance, awaken connection, and awaken creativity. You can allow your true self to reveal and awaken your pure potential through meditation, including guided meditation or silent or mantra meditation.

B is for Being

To sit and be—without thinking, without effort, without judgment—is the gift of meditation. We are not our past, nor are we our future. Be present.

C is for Connection

Connection is twofold: connection to self and connection to those around us. At first these might seem separate but as you connect to your source through meditation, the recognition that we are all waves of the same ocean deepens.

D is for Detachment

Detachment reveals the great paradox of life: In order to acquire something, you have to relinquish your attachment to having it. When you recognize the only genuine source of security is living as your true self, then you can more easily detach. Meditation helps you to get present and detach.

E is for Ego

According to Eckhart Tolle, author of books on ego like A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, ego is any image you have of yourself that gives you a sense of identity. Ego likes to separate us from others rather than encourage oneness and connection. Meditation acts as a tool to silence the ego and allow the true connected self to be seen.

F is for Flexibility

People with flexible minds are adaptable, open, and resilient. Like bamboo in the wind, they are strong but pliable. Being flexible allows you to embrace your day rather than bracing for it. Meditation cultivates a flexible mind.

G is for Gratitude

Meditation reminds us how everything fits into a greater plan. It connects us with spirit, God, or the universe, and with this connection comes gratitude—gratitude for who we are and what we have. Gratitude has been proven to benefit our physical, physiological, and mental health.

H is for Happiness

Happiness increases when you meditate. Studies have shown that the centers for emotional processing are just one of the areas that change significantly with a meditation practice. People who meditate regularly report higher levels of well-being and are less bothered by aches and pains. This all translates to increased joy.

I is for Immunity

The immune system is highly influenced by your mind. Meditators get benefits to their immune system’s function, including increased antibodies and decreased inflammation.

J is for Joy

Meditation leads to joy. Once you believe that the universe is working for you and that everything is happening for your good, meditation can help by turning up your awareness and allowing you to witness the joy in every situation. You will begin to notice if and when you are struggling or resisting the natural flow.

K is for Karma

In its simplest form, karma might be described as an energetic loop where every action generates an equal force of energy that returns to us—what we sow is what we reap. In meditation, you tap into your ability to make spontaneously correct choices for yourself and for all those around you.

L is for Letting Go

Want to let go of a habit that doesn’t serve you? Meditation is a tool to allow you to step outside your pattern and change it. Meditation also helps you to let go of the past and forgive by training your mind to stay present.

M is for Manifest

Manifest can mean to reveal presence or make an appearance. When you meditate, you are more clearly able to manifest goals that align with your highest self.

N is for Namasté

This popular word, which you might have heard at the end of a yoga class, is both a spoken Indian expression and a symbolic gesture that means “the God within me greets the God within you.” Namasté is the recognition that we are all equal and share a common divinity.

O is for Om

The primordial vibration Om (or “aum”) is sometimes chanted at the end of meditation or as part of a longer mantra used throughout meditation. It is considered the most sacred sound in Hinduism and Buddhism.

P is for Peace

In the words of the Dalai Lama, “If every 8-year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”

Q is for Quiet

Meditation is practiced quietly in order to quiet the mind. Note that quiet and silence are not the same thing in this case. When the world around you is loud, busy, or filled with distractions, the quiet that meditation provides doesn’t occur by turning off these stimuli but by focusing elsewhere, which gives you the perception of quiet.

R is for Raja or Royal Path

Raja yoga is frequently referred to as the “royal path to yoga” because it focuses on practices that take your awareness inward and promotes the integration of the mind, body, and spirit. Meditation is one of these practices.

S is for Subtle Body

This is where the magic happens—outside any physical construct and in a non-local place. Your mind, your ego, and your intellect all work together to form the subtle body.

T is for Transformation

Through meditation the mind and the body are transformed right down to a cellular level. Telomerase is another “T” word. It controls the age function of cells and recent studies have shown that meditation can positively impact the aging of cells by lengthening the telomerase.

U is for Unique

Your meditation is unique to you; there is no correct way to meditate. Whether it be mantra or silent, with music or without, in a group or on your own, whatever style of meditation works to keep you showing up for your meditation practice is the perfect style for you.

V is for Vitality

Meditation leads to vitality—the ability to flourish with a balanced physical, mental, and spiritual body. When your mind is at peace and you have left behind the patterns of stress and anxiety that are so common in today’s society, vitality comes more easily.

W is for Wholeness

Wholeness is also known as unity consciousness or the state of enlightenment, in which there is complete freedom from all conditioning, including habit, past experience, and karma.

X is for Ex- …

Meditation is helpful in kicking unhealthy habits to the curb. If you want to be an ex-smoker, an ex-drinker, or an ex-anorexia sufferer, meditation can help. Check out the Chopra Addiction & Wellness Center for more information on how to release unhealthy habits and get on the path to wellness.

Y is for Yoga

Yoga, the way many people think of it, is the asanas or physical postures; however, yoga actually has four limbs: karma, raja, gyan, and bhakti.

Z is for Zen

"Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character "chan," which in turn is the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term dhyana, which means “the development of witnessing awareness.”

Now that you know your ABCs of meditation, there’s no reason to delay your next meditation.

About the Author

Tamara Lechner

Tamara Lechner is a happiness expert and Chopra-Certified Primordial Sound Meditation Instructor. Her mission is to be so happy that those around her cannot help but step into her light. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada where she just launched a webinar series called "Happiness Handbook." For more information, check out her website www.ahamoments4u.com.  

HO'OPONOPONO...The essential meditation and therapy.

I did not discover Ho'Oponopono until some years into my clinical profession.  Simply pronouncing the word seemed somewhat odd;  seeing it as a therapy tool seemed even a bit of a stretch.  A stretch, I thought, especially when working primarily with adolescent males, to whom "touchy feely" or anything akin to meditation was eyebrow raising.  These young men had histories of abandonment, assaults on their abilities to feel espcially in front of peers, and a fundamental lack of belief in their inherent goodness. 

Once, when I was unprepared for a group due to a plethora of crises on a unit, I thought I would present Ho'Oponopono in a simple form.  My guilty expectation was that it might fall flat with them.  But...the group and evening turned out quite   differently.

Initially, they were cautious, glancing at other group members to evaluate each others' responses ... as only teens can do (!). In my corner was the fact that this was the last group before their bedtime, so a slight sense of the day's closure was present.

They responded like they loved it.  I, somewhat more skeptical, thought it would be interesting to see what evolved in their chatter after that.  

There was no chatter.  Egoistically, I thought, I was right.  

But two minutes into group, they asked if we could do "that 'HoPo' again"...And night after noight, the same.  It became an anticipated ritual.  It was one that was completely compatible with their individual senses of faith.  But more than that, the exercise is about culpabilty and personal responsibility
with a deepest of reverence for the human.

Ho'oponopono means to make right. Essentially, it means to make it right with the ancestors, or to make right with the people with whom you have relationships. We believe that the original purpose of Ho'oponopono was to correct the wrongs that had occurred in someone's life including Hala (to miss the thing aimed for, or to err, to disobey) and Hewa (to go overboard or to do something to excess) which were illusions, and even 'Ino (to do harm, implying to do harm to someone with hate in mind), even if accidental.

This description is by no means a complete training in how to do Ho'oponopono. While appropriate to do for yourself, for yours and others safety, it should not be done with someone else without training.

For example, let's say your five-year-old grandson punched another five-year-old intentionally with hate in mind. If asked, then the one who was punched would forgive the other immediately, because it is inappropriate for anyone to carry guilt any longer than they had to, if it were not necessary.

We call this the Hawaiian Code of Forgiveness, and it's an important thought, because when we forgive others, who are we forgiving? Ourselves, of course.

If you are familiar with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), there is a saying, "People are only doing the best they can with the resources they have available." If you've heard that before, it has to do with forgiveness. Think about it. As you do consider that you are included in "people."

In the Eastern traditions, too, there is a real tradition of being aligned with and cleaning up relations with the ancestors. In Japan, China, as well as the Hawaiian tradition, it is thought to be important to align and clean up any past problems that you've had in relationships, especially with relatives.

At the same time, perhaps there are family patterns you do not want. Certainly you have heard the saying, "We just don't do that in our family," or "That's the way it is in our family." What happens then, is that certain generational themes get passed along in families, like sadness or any number of different traits. Ho'oponopono will allow you to clean this up.

THEORY: We carry inside us as parts of the Unconscious Mind, all the significant people in our lives. (These parts of us often look very much like Carl Jung's archetypes.) Ho'oponopono makes it "all right" with them. The process of Ho'oponopono is to align with and clean up our genealogy as well as to clean up our relationships with other people in our lives.

The Process of Ho'oponopono:

1. Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.
2. In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you
3. Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.
4. When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.
5. Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. As they do, cut the aka cord that connects the two of you (if appropriate). If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.
6. Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.
   The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.

MEDITATION ON CHANGES AND BEGINNINGS ~ YouTube