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shaman
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« on: February 12, 2004, 19:07:33 » |
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Waw! 10 days and only 6 persons have looked up at that message. Sure none knows Daniel Goleman or has read his book. Anyhow, for the ones who might be interested I'll just elaborate a little bit as to what can be found in that book.
First of all there is a detailed explanation about the different phases of meditation in general, viewed from a psychologist (Dr. D. Goleman) but also from the point of view of someone who practiced meditation and travelled in Asia for a long period (Again D. Goleman).
The basic steps given in that book are actually enough to follow for someone interested to start a good practice of meditation, though it is not enough if one wants go further than that.
There is a long debate about all the different meditation practices in different religions, such as either to reach the "oneness", "no-thing-ness", "God", "mindfulness", etc...using actually different techniques of concentration: breathing, object of meditation, mentra, prayer,... in short: the different ways to follow in different religions/societies, and the different level of transe reached.
Budhism, Induism, Kabbalah (Judaism), Suffism (Muslim), ... are all overviewed. They are all put at the same level.
The main point is that in order to meditate one has to be able to distant him/herself from many things in order to avoid distraction. And on the other side as one reach a higher and higher level of meditation, one becomes less selfish and lose the sens of "ego-centrism" (or just his/her ego). This create an attitude of a person who is ready to help others, understand others, a person who is moderate, modest and first care for others before than caring for him/herself. It is seen in many relitions as the "righteous", "holy", "wise",... the practice of meditation ultimately is believed to help reach a state where one can see into the future (premonitions, prophecies, etc.. - like the prophets in the Bible), one can heal (like the shaman, the medecine man, ...), can travel in the astral (again the Shaman, but also Daniel in his lucid dreams, etc..). But also the most advanced meditators are able to enter a deep transe, lower their metabolism, their haert beat very low and their breathing too. Their body temperature drops accordingly and the meditator could in theory stay in that transe for as long as he wishes (though usually not more than a week). For a lay person the meditator looks like he is dead as the heart beat and breathing become barely noticable.
In the (main) second part of the book he addresses the point of view of the psychologist and he sees the relation between psychological facts and the practice of meditation. He sees meditation as a tool for (psychologists) therapists to help patients where the conventional psychological therapeutic techniques have failed. He encourages everyone to practice meditation to relieve stress, improve the quality of life and basically to be able to live the present in full awareness (full absorption).
Simply a book to read for all those interested in meditation in general.
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