the PonderAbout post of 6/6/07 defined meditation
as "the intentional and sustained focusing of
attention"

this definition, however, is limited and incomplete;
it may convey something about how one meditates,
but it doesn't say much about what meditation is

meditation is one of those rare phenomena,
like love, that are broad and multi-faceted; having
physical, affective, cognitive and spiritual elements

and for those who haven't experienced it, the
task of trying to comprehend meditation is as
daunting as that of the proverbial Blind Men who
sought to describe an elephant



like the Blind Men, we'll need to examine the
phenomenon of meditation from a few perspectives -

"Meditation is one of the proven alternative
therapies. It can be broadly classified under
mind-body medicine."
-1stholistic.com

"Meditation is to religion what the laboratory is
to science."
-Paramahansa Yogananda

"Meditation is another name of watching, witnessing,
observing - without any judgement, without any
evaluation. Just by watching, you immediately get
out of the mind."
-meditate.org

"Meditation is the art of looking inside and
discovering one's own inner being."
-Sri Chinmoy

"Meditation is more about being than doing,
introducing and unveiling a new way of seeing,
far beyond sitting or just keeping still.
-Lama Surya Das

"Meditation is absolute silence of mind --
not relative silence (lack of noise),
but absolute silence (lack of self).
Order, projection, structure, all silenced.
Such is true freedom."
-tatfoundation.org

"Meditation is the practice of deepening
your awareness of Spirit."
-balancedlifecenter.com

"Meditation is not just relaxing, rather it is trying
to develop a highly concentrated and clear state
of mind which one can use for clear analysis, and
which can be blissful to be in."
-kalachakranet.org

"Meditation is being completely awake and open
to what is happening right now."
-innerrave.org

"Meditation is a time of escape from the
attachments of the external world."
-yogacards.com

"Meditation is the language of God."
-srichinmoy.org

confused????

it may be that the only way to know meditation
is to do it