“Life is learning. The amount of real learning that takes places is directly proportional to our ability to concentrate our attention on one thing for a period of time.”
The Fine Arts of Relaxation, Concentration and Meditation – Ancient Skills for Modern Living, by Joel Levey is a clear accessible guide to Relaxation, Concentration and Meditation drawing from a wide range of different traditions.
The three areas he describes seem somewhat artificially divided, but I guess he’s aware of that. All of the exercises described use conscious direction of either attention, imagery and intention, and this is how I might have divided them. Many of the books attentional exercises focus on the breath as one might expect. Focusing on the “breath” normally means focusing on the body – either the nose or stomach/chest. Other bodily mediation are described such as walking mediation. I tried this and almost got run over, so I wouldn’t do it crossing the road. Ah…the dangers of practice without a teacher…There are also exercises describing attention on devotional images such as pictures of Christ, and on the mind itself. This is my latest hobby – observing all the junk going through my head in a day. The three categories of trash I find are memories, fantasies (future) and evaluations. All pretty much a waste of time 99% of the time I’ve decided…oops there I go again.
The book is mostly very accessible discussing “stress” – often the road into this work with Jo Public – “mental fitness” and flow states in sports (see George Leonard’s – The Ultimate Athlete). There are a few Tebitifornian musing, “…infinite radiant blue light comes to sink in your heart, purifying your mind…” but not so many. Joel has used his work in many practical areas such as with my mentor Richard Strozzi Heckler with his work with the US Armed Forces, and is the only mediator I know of to include a Henry Ford quote in his book:
“Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t you’re right.”
I liked Joel’s useful “20 symptoms of relaxation.” It also suspect it’s poking gentle fun at medical model of disease diagnosis as the basis for examining human experience. Symptoms of being in love next perhaps? I also enjoyed the partner meditations chapter – meditation is such a solitary introverted pursuit most of the time that these felt like a breath of fresh air….oops accidental pun. Try breathing in sync with a loved one holding hands, one in as the other breaths out, or both in and out together. Very simple, very nice.
Biofeedback is mentioned- i.e, hooking yourself to a machine so you can see how relaxed you are and get help with that in the form of feedback, This has inspired me to look into this so I’m going to be wired up next week. Assuming I don’t blow a circuit I’ll blog it.
The scientific research on meditation is also discussed. This was established in 1985 when the book was written and is event more conclusive now – meditation is good for you! Surprise, surprise. I attended a lecture from a Buddhist and neuroscientist at Sussex University recently and his conclusion was that there is evidence to prove that mediation makes you healthier (see Jon Kabat-Zinn), happier and smarter…and he was like a scientist and stuff…. Startling is that this low cost “treatment” is not widely prescribed. A more cynical blogger might blame the pharmaceutical industry or the closed Neanderdoc mindset of many health professionals but I’m feeling generous and times are a changing. You can even get mindfulness on the British health service now. If you are in pain I would recommend mediation and there is a chapter in the book on this. I learnt a bunch of techniques the hard way in the early years of my aikido training, inventing ways to move the attention away from body parts, or examine the sensation of pain so it stopped being a big deal. I fell asleep in the dentists chair the other day much to his surprise and I’m a big girl’s blouse so it’s useful stuff.
One insight in the book is that mediation techniques are discovered naturally by children. Standing on their heads, holding the breath, repeating a word over and over, imitating animals, etc. This was fresh and enjoyable for me, but I have yet to see a kid sit still for a long period of time unless it’s in front of a computer game. This got me wondering if one pointed attention is the aim of meditation then the Dali Lama might want to play Tetris.
At the moment I’m trying to be mindful in all my daily activities to “live mediation” and not just do it 20 min a day. There’s a chapter in the book on chopping vegetables and I would have liked to see more of these. Thich Nhat Hanh has meditations on washing up, driving and other modern activities. I’d like to program my Blackberry to chime at random intervals to remind me to be aware and I already use a computer blessing (“I enter the web for the benefit of all, may my words be kind, beautiful and true”) before I type my musings here.
Throughout the book the importance of experiential learning and practice is stressed…I mean relaxed…which is my cup of green tea. “It ain’t mere theory” as one of my aikido instructors is fond of saying. Actually he lent me this book – thanks Mr Helsby! In parts it doesn’t feel like it holds together as a coherent, structured whole, but as a bag of meditative Smarties it works well enough, and has both breadth and depth in its 225 pages. Recommended.