Great question.
Everyone seems to have a different answer to the meaning of meditation.
Why is this?
Meditation is wrapped up in tradition.
Thousands of years of tradition across many cultures around the world.
How can we unravel the truth and uncover what meditation really means?
Let’s take a step back and look at meditation from a scientific point of view.
People often meditate to achieve inner peace. To feel calm and relaxed. This is common across meditators now and throughout history.
We can say that meditation achieves inner peace.
However, this only defines a result of meditation. It doesn’t define what meditation actually is.
Sleeping is waking up feeling refreshed and energetic.
This way of defining sleeping doesn’t make sense. It defines the result of sleeping.
Sleep is defined by the dictionary as:
- the natural, easily reversible periodic state of many living things that is marked by the absence of wakefulness and by the loss of consciousness of one’s surroundings
- is accompanied by a typical body posture (such as lying down with the eyes closed), the occurrence of dreaming, and changes in brain activity and physiological functioning
- is made up of cycles of non-REM sleep and REM sleep
- is considered essential to the restoration and recovery of vital bodily and mental functions
This is a more accurate definition of sleeping that is based on science.
How does the dictionary define meditating?
The dictionary defines meditate as:
- to engage in contemplation or reflection
- to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one’s breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness
Both of these definitions are vague and we still don’t really know what meditation actually is.
Let’s start with describing what we do when we meditate.
The absolute basics.
Meditation is the voluntary action of slowing breathing, relaxing muscles and reducing sensory activity.
This simple definition captures the roots of meditation.
It works in defining meditation across all the different traditions and practices.
This definition more accurately captures what meditation is.
But, can we go further?
If we want a truly scientific definition we must go deeper and understand what happens when we meditate.
Our brains are computers that deal with colossally huge amounts of data every second.
If our brains are running at 100% most of the time they don’t have time to make sense of all the data that is coming in.
Two areas that use a large amount of our brain power are our senses and control of our muscles.
Our senses are constantly streaming data to our brains. Think of everything that we see, hear, taste, smell and touch.
Our brains are constantly performing complex calculations to control our muscles. Something as simple as taking a single step requires some serious brainpower.
If our brains are running all the time without any downtime our stress response is automatically activated.
This stress response releases stress hormones that effect our emotions, physical health and cognition.
We may feel unhappy, feel unhealthy or feel cloudy minded.
By slowing our breathing, relaxing our muscles and reducing our sensory activity we free up the processing power of our brains.
Our brains are now free to connect the dots and make sense of everything.
This prevents the stress response from activating and prevents stress hormones being released.
We feel calmer, feel healthier and feel clearer.
Meditation Meaning
Now that we have a basic biological and psychological understanding of what happens when we meditate we can define meditation.
Meditation is the voluntary actions of:
- slowing breathing
- relaxing muscles
- reducing sensory activity
- changing brain activity
This definition of meditation clearly captures the roots of the meaning of meditation.
Understanding what meditation is and what happens when we meditate helps us be brighter and unlock the benefits of meditation.
Edwin Leo 