Why does meditation help reduce stress?

 

Meditation or ‘dhyana’ in Sanskrit, mean more or less the same - to contemplate.

This concentration of one’s being and senses, and the resultant byproduct - the deeply endused contemplation thereof - could be over anything.

It may be over nothing but the inner self itself too.

The latter would be the metaphysical aspect of meditation. It is about this particular and specific ‘kriya’ or process brought into play, that the general populace is more curious about.

The query herein is perhaps regarding this esoteric side of meditation.

For, a normal person is apt to wonder as to how by merely closing one’s eyes, and then staying concentrated thereof, do anything at all?

More specifically, how could this seemingly simple act relieve one of stress?

But before we go into the metaphysics of the matter, let us first find out as to what exactly is stress, and how does it effect or enter our being.

Stress comes about when the bodily being deals with other similar contesting or contrasting entities in this world. Or when the incessant happenings going on in the outside world somehow disturb the inner status or equilibrium inside us.

Stress is natural and normal - once we are born.

It is a part and parcel of life. Nobody is free from stress. Few are able to get rid of it completely. It effects even the wisest amongst us.

Why is it that stress effects us all: comes to us whether we want it or not?

It is is because we are not in harmony with life itself. We are ‘two’ with the world. We are unable to be ‘one’ with it.

Why are people not ‘one’ with this cosmic juggernaut called life?

People experience the outside world as one’s competitor.

Seeing ‘two’, in a dual-conscious state of mind, they do not ‘get’ the metaphysical reality that the outside and the within are but One.

To be able to comprehend or at the very least tangibly feel that the outside and the within are not separate in quintessence, one has to meditate.

When one meditates, one goes within one’s own-self.

Now, only the spiritually aware and the metaphysically awakened know that the moment one closes one’s eyes, concentrates within, an unsaid cosmic ‘kriya’ or otherworldly-process comes into play automatically.

All one has to do is to just do it! The rest, Mother Nature does.

It is the Way of the ‘That’ of Which Is. It is the Nature of the Absolute.

For, when any entity having life at its core goes unto its self, a cosmic-current that is immanent in Whatsoever Is and its creation, gets automatically connected to its Source - howsoever feebly.

Even an atheist would get a feeling of calm as he or she goes Within.

A non-believer or a skeptic may not put it down to anything metaphysical, but they cannot deny that by the mere act of closing one’s eyes, staying still therein, does bring in a certain level of tranquility in one’s body and being. It may be less or more, maybe even negligible, but it does happen.

Why does it happen? And what happens when we go Within?

Going within sets in motion a domino effect. The bricks of the stubborn walls of dual-consciousness start falling one by one, each taking down the other - whether one wants it or not.

Once put into motion via meditation, the ensuing and inevitable cosmic process cannot be prevented from happening.

For, within us is an infinite immanence that stays unperturbed and one with All That Is at all times - in fact, forever.

Not even life, death or afterlife can disturb this immanent cosmic unity running through the primordial essence of each and every little thing which was or is or shall be!

What is Within does not view the outside as another but its own Universal Self.

Hence, the dual-conscious mind-set that ‘dares’ go Within, starts getting grabbed-up by the ever-present unity-consciousness within. As a long-lost sibling as though.

It is the Nature of the Thing-in-Itself that whosoever goes towards it, is cosmically embraced by the ‘It’ of What Is.

Thus, if you meditate, you are in trouble!

The Cosmic Absolute kicks in the moment anyone ventures Within.

For, within us is the domain and reign of ‘That’ which is the soul-essence of our life and being. It is akin the vast ocean, which by its very inbuilt and endowed nature cannot but take-in each and every drop of water, as one’s own self.

Hence, the moment one closes one’s eyes and meditates and goes within thereof, the Cosmic Self starts pulling the duality-minded entity towards itself. As say, a giant magnet would an iron pin.

Now, since the Universal Absolute is but single-eyed at its core - meaning thereby that it ‘sees’ no ‘other’ than itself as all that is - its cosmological nature of eternal oneness starts absorbing the duality-conscious being-ness unto its Infinite Bliss of Unity-Consciousness.

Consequently, the dual-conscious body and being, howsoever stressed or sad - once it has got connected to the Within - it sort of gets pulled unto the embrace of the Transcendental Equanimity of Eternal Reality.

As a result of this indescribable, inexplicable and immanent metaphysical-happening within, the dual-conscious body and being of a practitioner of meditation starts feeling his or her stressed-out self getting stretched-out into a sleep-like joyful state of being.

It feels as if one has bathed in the Ganges of Tranquility.

For, unknowingly, the meditating person has!

In short, the meditation process by its very nature makes the inherent micro-cosmic and macro-cosmic metaphysical aspects, lying dormant in our self, come alive. And become One with the Absolute of all that is.

Therefore, a meditating person, whether spiritual or agnostic, would feel the stress going out of them after a while - as though getting absorbed, or pulled-in somewhere there in the vast comic-ocean deep Within.

At the very least, as one continues the ‘kriya’ of ‘dhayana’, one’s stress would either be substantially reduced after meditation, or it will be found to be but ‘missing in action’ altogether!

So, yes! Do not meditate, lest your stress is distressed!