HuffPost Meditation Center: What Is Meditation?

With today's introductory meditations from Donna D'Cruz, “conscious” entertainer, designer, performing artist and meditation instructor, we are launching the first of what will become a series of Huff Post online experience centers. Our goal with these experience centers is to provide you with Information, Inspiration and Experience to help you create the life you prefer rather than the one you might have settled for.

Meditations exist in all manner of forms and disciplines, ranging from simple relaxation to deeply spiritual practices. Our plan with the Huffington Post Meditation Center is to provide you with not only information and inspiration but with actual experience on a wide variety of meditation options that will allow you to find a meditation approach that works for you.

Join Donna today in the first of our Minute Meditations. You've all heard of the proverbial "New York minute," and so we are launching our Huff Post Meditation Center with meditations you can do in a minute. We're all pushed for time, but even the most crazed of us can find a minute!

Please do let us know what you think of the idea by leaving a comment here. We would also like to know what kinds of meditations you would like to see us offer in our Meditation Center. We're open to most anything, ranging from general stress and relaxation, to Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Yogic, Transcendental, Jewish, Taoist, Mindfulness – well, you get the idea. What would you like to see and experience here?

Comments

[Brygida Biedro]

04:41 AM on 05/31/2012

Thank you for the Meditation Center and those videos. I have been practicing meditation not for a long time and each book, video about it makes my heart sing and make my knowledge about it grow. So again, thank you.

[NSR USA]

12:06 PM on 04/24/2012

Limited to only three states of consciousness (waking, sleeping, dreaming), our weakened nervous systems are prone to acquiring even more weakness and internal stress from the normal challenges of daily life.

It is possible to eliminate all these internal stresses that we have accumulated over the years. But we can't do it with the usual kind of meditation described in this video.

Only deep rest can release stored stresses. The technique for the systematic elimination of stress is called "transcending", and is taught by just a few organizations, such as Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Natural Stress Relief (NSR).

Transcending requires taking a course for an hour or two a day for several days. Why do we need to take a course, when other forms of meditation can be learned through a two-minute video? Because it requires specific instruction to re-learn that fourth state of consciousness, restful alertness.

The solution is easy: seek out the fourth state of consciousness. Learn how to practice transcending, either from TM or NSR.

So long as stresses remain in our nervous system, all this advice about finding the Self, or letting go of anger, or of letting go of the search cannot work. A stressed nervous system cannot repair itself through thinking or through holding an attitude of mind. Only transcending brings a deep enough degree of rest to actually repair the nervous system and eliminate the stored stresses.

David Spector
President,
Natural Stress Relief/USA

[Mithril]

07:23 PM on 02/22/2012

Even her voice is meditation enough ~ so calming and soothing in it's serene
inflections.

At last HuffPost has an area where meditation can be discussed, demonstrated and
disabused of the sometimes hippy-dippy notions associated with it. Too long have we
had to endure the well-meant, deadly earnest (and alas,deadly dull) overly
esoteric explanations from meditation experts of varying stripes. Donna D'Cruz's manner seems
to make mediation accessible and approachable and heaven forbid - practical!

Intimidation factor - Nil.
Now let's have some more, please. Time I think, to de-mystify
meditation and bring it down to earth. Where it's sorely needed...

[Ariel Hofher]

06:57 PM on 02/22/2012

Brilliant! I feel as though starting my day with a quick meditation will be very helpful for the reason that I am terrified of public transportation, germs, being too close in small areas to people, strangers and falling into the subway tracks. Meditating may help me feel calmer and at ease for my morning travels to work.

[Henry Usukumah]

06:53 PM on 02/22/2012

I just started learning meditation myself recently and it's been a blessing in this little mans life. I hope these new video series will help me grow

[Charlie Brooke]

06:51 PM on 02/22/2012

So happy to see a simple explanation of meditation available out there! Have been looking for a way to get into it and this was a perfect introduction.

[sunnylo1]

09:47 PM on 02/21/2012

The woman in this video does not have a good understanding of meditation.

[Pepe Villegas]

12:39 PM on 02/16/2012

Kudos to the Huff Post for this powerful wellness meditations series tool for anyone, anywhere and at anytime. And of course for the conscious offering of brilliant facilitator Donna D'Cruz who invites us to give ourselves a moment and transports us into a spontaneous journey of "coming back home", particularly in these times that we are all experience a vigorous shift of global consciousness.
I will love to experience chants and any other practice that stimulates the release of constricted energy and restores our peace of mind.
I look forward to the meditations and will share this for sure!

[Rebecca Reynolds]

05:38 PM on 02/15/2012

I think this is the tool, Denis - we can take this around the world several times in less than a minute by using the world wide web.

Offering a one-minute meditation may be all that some people think they have time for, but if you actually give yourself - remember, like Donna said, this is something you do for yourself, - if you give yourself just 15 minutes a day, you truly can benefit from it throughout the day. That 15 minutes actually could save you several times that if you really give yourself to it on a regular basis.

I know many individuals who thought they didn't have time to meditate and once they committed themselves to a regular practice, they found they needed less sleep and were more efficient, so they ended up with more time at the end of the day.

Here's a meditation that I can recommend that is free and online: Isha Kriya.

Donna, I hope you will chose to highlight it in your Meditation Center and not just in my post.

Everyone can access it for free at www.IshaKriya.com.

[Denis Urbanczik]

05:19 PM on 02/15/2012

I don't see anything wrong with what you're saying. You are involved and sincere about what you're doing, and that is very important. Also happy to see Huff. opening this meditation center, about time :) Now the real question is, how to take it across the world? How to make the mass aware of meditation and it's benefits? What tools do we have? Anybody..

[John Genryu]

02:38 PM on 03/12/2012

Many are in fact aware and the medical and psychological benefits of genuine meditation are well researched now, for example by the University of Wisconsin and Dr Kabbat Zin's work. Unfortunately though there are a great many self appointed so called meditation teachers who frankly don't know the first thing about it.

[ShowyShow]

11:13 AM on 02/15/2012

You might want to revisit Daniel Goleman’s classic, The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience. He gives a good overview of meditative practices in the world's major spiritual traditions. He also covers the different kinds of meditation and introduces the basic elements of their practice. If you're interested in the psychology aspect of meditation, he examines
the various meditative traditions through the lens of cognitive psychology to highlight the connections between the ancient and modern psychological sciences.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0077EG0FG

[John Genryu]

02:39 PM on 03/12/2012

That is indeed a classic, albeit a little dated now. There is also the research done by Dr Jo Kamiya and others.

[Ran Rhino]

11:37 PM on 02/14/2012

Simplistic and not accurate.

[John Genryu]

07:24 AM on 03/12/2012

Well said

[Ran Rhino]

06:16 PM on 03/12/2012

Thanks. I am surprised that Huff Post would post someone of this qualification. Does not reflect well on their quality control (i.e. editors).

[Vajara]

09:43 PM on 02/14/2012

All is Meditation...becoming aware and conscious of our Witness is the goal for me.

[John Genryu]

07:24 AM on 03/12/2012

Try letting that witness thing go. It gets in the way.

[Vajara]

09:28 AM on 03/12/2012

Get's in the way of the ego? The Witness is our Being and state of awareness, why would it get in the way?

[urownexperience]

07:34 PM on 02/14/2012

Meditation. I would like to see some kind of a differentiation between beginner, intermediate and advanced. That would include the various levels of meditators. Otherwise, your articles will gravitate to the lowest denominator, which is beginners.

[sunnylo1]

09:44 PM on 02/21/2012

Where in the world did you get the idea that there are various "levels" of meditation. It's all "beginner's mind".

[Innerkidd]

03:40 PM on 02/14/2012

I would like to see some Buddhist meditations. Also, some quick meditations for stress relief that you can do during your day, especially when you are having a very stressful time.