Am I Meditating Effectively?
How to meditate correctly
Take a few minutes to answer this FREE questionnaire and find out…
How to Get the Maximum Benefit
from Your Meditation Practice
The question: Am I meditating effectively and getting the maximum benefit from my meditation? is often asked by those beginning meditation but it is also asked by more advanced meditators. When someone asks if they are walking correctly an expert can watch and see how the legs and hips move and give them the answer. Meditation, however, is focused on that which is formless, and it is done inside, so therefore, no one can watch you and give you the answer to this question by observing you. As you meditate with closed eyes and watch the inner spaces that are formless, you can easily get confused as to what you are supposed to be watching and as to what is supposed to be happening in your meditation. You may then question if you are meditating correctly, or at all, and if you are getting the most result from your practice.
For a human being most tasks are done while working with objects, persons or thoughts and by doing the task effectively you achieve the desired result. In meditation you are practicing non-doership. You are observing the one who is knowing the objects, body and thoughts, and you are observing the space in front of your closed eyes—the inner silence. From the perspective of non-doership, the inner watchfulness is opened, through what is called pratyaahaar in Patanjali’s system of Ashtang Yog or The Eight Limbs of Yoga, and then you move into what is called dhaarana, cultivating the power of attentiveness and then the seventh limb or dhyaan, meditation. Meditation is allowing the attention to flow towards the source and it culminates in samaadhi, the eighth limb, which is the complete evenness of the intellect, or the vision of oneness.
The following questions have been put together so that you can get a sense of your own meditation and how you can improve it or know if you are getting the maximum benefit each time you are sitting and practicing.
Just answer each question to receive our feedback and suggestions.