I am fortunate to once again have Dorian from “Buddha of Hollywood” as a guestblogger here today.  This is the second half of his thoughts on Relaxation Meditation.  Many thanks to Dorian for the 2 guest blogs here at Postcards from the Funny Farm. I enjoyed his stuff so much I debated releasing a set of personalized books on them. Unfortunately, that is still going through legal channels. As for now, we have the guest blog. Thanks again Dorian.

I wish I could come up with another word for meditation since what we are going to learn and practice has a lot more to offer than the classical meditation techniques.  Let’s say that we are going to learn how to use our mind, brain if you want to call it so, at a higher level and capacity. We are currently using only about 10% of our mental capacity. That means that using 20% will double your brain output. Can you imagine what would be like to function at 100% mental ability?

The problem we are facing as human beings is not that we are not equipped to deal with our daily problems or that modern life has become unmanageable and our brains can not keep up with it. Our problem is that we are running our brain with both the acceleration and the brake pedals to the floor at the same time. The gains in performance and improvements that I’m taking about achieving are not some miracle supernatural voodoo trick. You are not going to gain anything that you already don’t have, just the knowledge and ability of mastering your own mind.

We will start today with the first step, the “Relaxation Meditation” After mastering this technique we will go to the second step the ”Contemplation Meditation” and finally we will master the “Guided Meditation” Each step is essential in mastering the following and I urge, especially the people that have already some experience and practice in meditation to practice diligently, don’t take any short cuts and don’t take anything for granted.

What is “Relaxation Meditation” Well it is just that. Relaxing your mind in a controlled, voluntary fashion. Sounds simple enough, but there are a lot of people that don’t make a difference between physical and psychical relaxation, there are a lot of people that just don’t know how to control and relax the brain.

Every one of us has experienced this relaxation. It is built in our being as a protective mechanism and it kicks in involuntarily when the brain needs time off. Have you ever work on a project so difficult so demanding that sitting in front of your computer screen or a piece of paper your brain just spaces out and you find yourself starring at the screen with your mind completely empty? Well, “Relaxation Meditation” is just that – spacing out in a voluntarily controlled fashion. To accomplish that we will use a defocusing technique called the OM chant. There are several defocusing techniques used for meditation like starring at a candle flame, breathing techniques, rhythmic body movement, even some unconventional activities like netting or watching TV fall in the same category.

The basic principle of the defocusing is that we brake the conscious train of thoughts by focusing at a mindless, random or repetitive stimulus. I have chosen the use of the OM chant for several reasons. It is very effective, it can be practiced any where, it doesn’t need any devices and the most important; it bridges seamlessly into the next meditation levels. There is a lot of metaphysical writings about the origin and significance of the OM chant but all that is more or less folklore. For those of you more scholarly inclined I suggest a visit to the local library or book store for more details. For the practice of relaxation meditation I believe that is enough information.

Proper position. Some sects or schools have strict codes in the practice of meditation. Some preach the sitting meditation, others the walking meditation. Laying down or standing on your head it doesn’t matter much. The important thing is to find a position that is comfortable to you. You can then proceed to practice the meditation wherever you are, office, home or in a plane – of course not if you are piloting the plane.
Time of practice. We will have at least 1 mandatory practice daily at a preset time, preferable before going to bed or first thing in the morning. That will be a 15 minute meditation. We can also practice it any time we feel like we need a brake or a boost in our mental stamina.

Proper practice. Remember the purpose of this stage of meditation is a blank mind. You start the meditation in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and focusing on the OM sound. If you have a partner or you are in a public place, like an office, I recommend you use a pair of headphones. The way the Buddhist monks chant OM is in a deeper register. I had a female student telling me “I can’t do it. My voice doesn’t go that deep.”

The way you chant is by finding a harmonic to the sound rather than copying the sound. So experiment a little bit with different tonalities until you find a relaxing comfortable harmony. Use the chant only to brake the train of thoughts. When the train of thoughts is broken do the chant only in your mind. The perfect state of relaxation meditation is achieved when even that stops and you are just contemplating the chant with your mind completely inactive, completely relaxed. That kind of mastering will come in time by practicing your meditation everyday.

Benefits. Even if you practice only this simple form of meditation the benefits you will incur are tremendous. From dealing with the daily stress to improve brain function to improved immune system, this meditation is essential in your mental and physical well being. The simple benefits like improved sleeping and improved energy will be apparent very soon after you start your practice. The more profound changes will take a longer practice time but your rewards will be worth the time and effort.