Believers always ask their spiritual mentor for advice on conducting additional practices that are designed to restore vital energy: yoga or meditative practice. As a rule, Orthodoxy speaks of yoga and meditation as negative influences. There are many statements about this, articles on websites dedicated to prayers and churches. And they belong to priests of various ranks and ranks. All actions that are carried out during yoga or meditation are called a far from flattering name. But is it?
Denial of obvious positive aspects in a person’s life when using yoga or meditation is based on ancient postulates. Which appeared during the long acquaintance of Russians with other peoples and their faiths. Naturally, the people of the Ancient World tried to deny the new, unknown. The very fact that yogis can stand differently from other people, or communicate with the Higher Mind through meditation, is stressful for those who have to experience discomfort for several years and even decades. In this case, it refers to priests and monks who spend the day in prayer and repentance. Not everyone manages to get answers to vital questions. What does a person get from meditative techniques:
- improved health and emotional uplift;
- a complete change in the world through the elimination of negative emotions;
- restoration of strength and energy;
- receives important information to improve the quality of life.
At the same time, he does not read prayers at all, but goes into the inner world, does not repent of his sins, does not spend the day in torment, as the Lord did. And this is precisely what the Orthodox Church stands for: accepting the torment of Christ, admitting oneself guilty. In addition, the church believes that attracting money and wealth through meditation is an appeal to the Devil.
But it is worth paying tribute to the statement of Patriarch Kirill, who said that combining Hindu practices with Christian ones can be beneficial. Only the combination must be careful. We must not forget about God. In turn, Deacon A. Kuraev did not speak unequivocally about the dangers of yoga.
Worship of Satan or development?
The Church does not deny sports. The reason for this: the stress occurs only physical, not spiritual. What happens when doing yoga or meditation? A person purposefully develops the subconscious level. We will not consider the position of the Rosicrucians or other secret societies who claim: the church deliberately does not provide the necessary knowledge to the average person in order to control them. This is also not entirely true. So how can we understand, in this case: meditation + yoga can be considered worship of the Devil? If we take the position of church ministers, then “yes.” What if you think about it? What does a prayer do when it is read? Connects a person with the spiritual world, brings him closer to God. Philologists who study vocabulary, phrases and other verbal constructions say: all texts are codes. The prayer text was compiled not by modern people, but by those who lived according to different laws, knew how to see nature, felt it. Could come into contact with the invisible. Therefore, prayer is truly capable of healing, restoring strength and energy. But they are complex and not everyone understands them. At their core, prayers can be equated with mantras. The goal is to adjust energy flows in the right direction. Listening to church chants with closed eyes and correct breathing brings one closer to the Upper World. Does this remind you of anything? Of course, meditation. Now we form a conclusion: all practices are similar to each other. They have one goal and objectives.
Meditation in Christianity: pros and cons
07.12.2016
Found on the Internets
Reader Sergei Semenov asked me this question: “Good evening! I always read your articles with interest. I would like to know your opinion about meditation. Can Orthodox Christians practice it? I was prompted to ask this question by a discussion between two respected priests in our city. Here is the opinion of one, and here of another.”
In general, I added the opinion of the THIRD priest. In my opinion, all together they reflect the entire possible range of attitudes towards the problem. I don't even know what I could add. I suggest you read all three texts (they are small and understandable) and decide for yourself whose side you are on.
Meditation or prayer?
(explanation for non-church people) Opinion of priest Fyodor Kosolapov
I think it is wrong to consider meditation as a means of “looking into yourself”, solving some psychological problems, or especially health problems. It’s just that in any religion there is only one goal of any religious practice - to establish a connection with the Divine. This is, in fact, why religions exist in general (the word itself, presumably, comes from the Latin “religare” - to bind, that is, to unite man and God or gods). And since meditation is a religious practice, it pursues precisely this goal in the context of the religion where it originated. As for solving mental or physical problems, even if this occurs, it is only as a side effect. In general, this is extremely doubtful.
The same goes for prayer.
It is a religious practice aimed at connecting with God in Christianity. At the same time, there are opinions (and even some “research”) that prayer affects physical health. When I hear this, I usually don’t mind (well, if they’re promoting something good, let them), but inside me someone is wincing. What does health have to do with it? Prayer is a means of communicating with God. If someone prayed and at the same time improved their health through prayer, I am happy for them. But to purposefully heal with prayer - this already smacks of paganism.
So, meditation and prayer arose in different religions, which have fundamentally different ideas about the Divine. This means that they “connect” with completely different things. It can be said that meditation and prayer pursue diametrically opposed goals.
Meditation is first mentioned in the Vedas - a collection of sacred texts of Hinduism (the traditional religion of the peoples of India). This practice passed from Hinduism to Buddhism. Now we need to understand what the Divine is with which a person has the opportunity to connect in these religions (and therefore what is the purpose of meditation). In short, the main difference between Hinduism and Buddhism from Christianity is the absence in the former of the idea of a personal God, that is, a God with whom one can enter into dialogue. That is, the Divine something is present, but talking to this something is as productive as talking to a tree or a wall.
The basic thesis of Buddhism is “existence is suffering.” Therefore, salvation - deliverance from suffering - is deliverance from existence, that is, non-existence. A person’s personality must be dissolved in the impersonal Deity (for Buddhists - in nirvana), just as a grain of salt dissolves in the ocean. Thus, we can say that 1) meditation, in principle, does not presuppose any other subject than the meditator himself; 2) meditation is ultimately designed to DISMOUNT (eliminate, destroy) the personality of the meditator.
In contrast to these eastern religions, Christianity has the concept of God as a person. That is, God can be a subject of communication, a participant in dialogue. And the way to establish a connection with Him is extremely simple: you need to talk to Him, address Him with a speech. This is called prayer. In comparison with meditation: 1) prayer presupposes the presence of the Listener of prayer (God), another Participant in the conversation; prayer is dialogue; 2) prayer is called upon to FORM the personality of the person praying in the image and likeness of God, because by communicating with God, a person changes (as the people say, “whoever you go with, you will gain from him”), or, in church terminology, “is sanctified”, those. becomes holy, just as God Himself is Holy.
In general, here you need to choose what you like best: destroy your personality or shape it.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
“Christianity testifies: as the soul approaches God, a person sees more and more clearly his own imperfection and lack of self-sufficiency. Therefore, the experience of approaching God confirms humility, repentance and love in a Christian. Thanks to this, pure, sincere joy of unity with the Lord, who sees, hears and loves you, is possible. Eastern mystical experience rejects the personal God, and therefore strives to overcome the human personality in samadhi or nirvana, giving the experience of dissolving one’s individuality in the ocean of the impersonal.”
PS
The word meditation is of Latin origin. In the original Hindu texts it is “dhyana”. In Buddhism - “chan”. From the same Wikipedia article, it appears that there is some terminological confusion when some types of Christian prayer are also called “meditation.” It must be clearly understood that identity in name does not mean identity in essence. Christian “concentration” and “contemplation” are still concentration for the sake of communication with God and contemplation of the personal God, no matter what we call it. This is a fundamental difference from the practices of Eastern religions, which do not assume a personal God.
Meditate, contemplating (holy fearlessness)
Opinion of priest Peter Boev
I never cease to be amazed at the decisive rudeness of my brothers and relatives in the faith. Usually when a person is not competent in something, he looks for someone who knows. Here, it’s exactly the opposite: everything truly beautiful – once forgotten, but now found – is not even subject to criticism, but to total destruction.
Was there an opportunity to think about why the Monk Simeon spent 37 years on the pillar? This was in the 5th century, in the 7th century Alypius spent 60 years like this, and in the 10th century Luke the New Stylite spent 45 years. The saints did this intentionally so that the conditions of their life would maximally attune them to the essence of prayerful contemplation.
Have you ever wondered why the monks went into seclusion? Many Orthodox believers like to quote St. Theophan, but they do not remember at all that he left the episcopal ministry for the sake of seclusion. The Russian monastic tradition is extremely rich in examples of such isolation for the sake of continuous prayer.
Honoring the feat of St. Seraphim of Sarov, do we delve into its core? After taking holy orders, he left the monastery and lived alone. As is known, he spent a thousand days on the stone, but do we understand what it essentially was today? For a long time he took a vow of silence and also went into seclusion.
It is unnatural to deny something on the basis of alienness. Just because we don't have something doesn't mean it's wrong. The tension that arises in connection with the use of a word taken from another tradition speaks only of the formality of the approach. Essentially, ascetics performed meditation, but it could be called something else.
The collapse lies in the fact that today the very practice of self-propelled prayer is absent from everyday piety. Even if someone began to talk about the fact that he was engaged in contemplation, vision of God, or smart doing, this would cause no less a wave of condemnation. It is much more common to engage in reading prayers, preceded and concluded by the vanity of thoughts, from which, while remaining at the same spiritual level, modern man is unable to free himself.
Today we glorify our saints, righteous people, ascetics, but was it like this in their times? It is known that when the first monks left the cities for the desert, the hierarchs did not know what to do with them. It was very flashy, looked shocking, and was criticized. A healthy person must get a profession, start a family and take care of the house, but here it is... Can we, admirers of Theodosius of Pechersk, penetrate into the pain of his mother, who many times dissuaded him from monasticism, persecuted him, and returned him home by force? We are accustomed to being proud of the exploits of saints without delving into their essence. Is this veneration? Is this the storage of Tradition? Is this continuity?
Meditation
Opinion of priest Dmitry Nefediev
In this publication I want to take an impartial look at the problem of meditation in Orthodox circles and the problem of the inconsistency/compliance of this phenomenon with the Orthodox tradition. I’ll ask you right away: if you read, read to the end!
People ask me why I write my notes. Whose side am I on in this holivar, which is hitting the Church and disturbing minds? I will answer: I DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE HOLIVARA. Plato is my friend but the truth is dearer! Therefore, I am for peace and truth.
Unfortunately, many fathers rush to judge something without bothering to learn about it from people who practice the subject of judgment. For example, sectarians accuse the Orthodox of praying to icons, although none of the Orthodox pray to icons, but pray to the prototype depicted on them. Catholics will be very surprised when they hear many of our accusations against them.
So, before blaming meditation for something unknown, you should ask the people who practice it how they understand it and what they want to achieve with its help.
I asked several people. One, who does not practice it, but has studied it for a very long time, explained that meditation is an exercise aimed at ridding the mind of thoughts. Another, a practitioner, reported that it serves to internally calm a restless mind so that it is able to solve necessary problems.
There were no other options. But we will not draw far-reaching conclusions for now. Let's look at the mechanism of meditation itself. Let's try to highlight the common features of different techniques: 1) A person takes a pose and 2) focuses attention on some object. The object can be either inside a person (breath, heart, sexual tension, thought) or outside (an object, a statue, even an icon).
Now let's look at the patristic heritage. I recommend everyone to read the article by V.N. Dukhanin. “The patristic tradition of smart doing in the spiritual experience of St. Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus.”
And also the Philokalia!
So! “At the beginning of St.
Ignatius cites the teaching of St. Gregory of Sinaite, in which there are the following words: “In the morning, sitting on a chair, a span high, bring your mind down from your head to your heart, and keep it in it, bending painfully, and very painful in your chest, shoulders and neck, constantly cry out with your mind or soul: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Hold your breath a little too, so as not to breathe carelessly.” “Having your head down and gathering your mind in your heart - if your heart has opened to you - call on the Lord Jesus for help. If you have pain in your shoulders, and are often exposed to headaches, endure this with constancy and zeal, seeking the Lord in your heart, because the kingdom of heaven is the property of those who force themselves, and those who force themselves “delight it” (Matthew 11:12). The Lord indicated that true diligence lies in enduring these and similar diseases. Patience and waiting in every undertaking is the parent of mental and physical illnesses" "St.
Ignatius notes that the artistic work of mental prayer is most fully and clearly described by Bl. Nikephoros of Athos. First of all, darling. Nicephorus teaches about bringing the mind down to the heart through breathing, since breathing is connected through the lung to the heart, namely the heart, according to the bl. Nikephoros is the producer of breath, as well as the instrument of life and bodily warmth. At the blzh. Nikephoros has these words: “Sit down and gather your mind, lead it into the nostril path through which the breath enters the heart; bring the breath into (the quietest) movement, and force the mind to descend with the inhaled air into the heart. When he ascends there, what follows will be filled with joy and joy for you." The Holy Fathers in the Philokalia even insist on the need to perform heartfelt prayer. For what? To fight the steaminess of the mind. That is, to prevent thoughts from wandering during prayer, all thoughts must be suppressed. And in general, the meaning of smart doing is to suppress absolutely all thoughts and create prayer in silence. The fathers point out that at first the mind languishes closed in the cage of the heart, however, when the heart is warmed by prayer, the mind also finds delight.
It was with the help of mental prayer that St. the fathers did not go crazy during the years of silence and seclusion.
The Holy Fathers affirm that prayer can occur without bringing the mind down into the heart. But only prayer from the heart can be considered complete and perfect, which is why even beginners were taught this prayer.
However, it is clarified and especially emphasized by the fathers, and especially St. Ignatius, that this is a dangerous path, and a person walking this path should not look for impressions, and not let REPENTANCE out of his mind.
Unfortunately, from communicating with members of the “Holy Cause” brotherhood, I do not see the REPENTANCE-CENTRICITY of their piety, although, of course, I could be wrong. And all the saints in unison warn about the danger of this path WITHOUT repentance.
So, let's summarize. Meditation is a concept not alien to the Christian tradition. The word is alien, the concept is not. But in modern piety, meditation as the basis of smart work is taboo due to the danger of this path and the lack of experienced spiritual leaders. Even Eastern cults emphasize the danger of this path, on which many have become mentally damaged. And judging by the publications of the same Evmeniy, and also of Father Ioann Loginov, this fate did not escape them either. Therefore, my friends, do not engage in this work until you have read at least the Philokalia and the book of V.N. Dukhanin.
Getting Closer to God through Meditation
After reaching a conclusion about the properties of the three practices, many will want to hear evidence. But it's best to check it yourself. And performing the technique developed by Sergei Ratner “What is God” will help with this. In it, the practitioner combined three currents at the same time, and got an excellent result. Meditation is aimed at:
- to reunite with God;
- a request to take part in a person’s life, to direct strength and energy in the right direction;
- to realize that God is always there.
Meditation allows you to let into your life forces that were previously inaccessible. At the same time, it is proposed to monitor your sensations and changes that occur during the execution of the technique. This is how you can feel what energy enters and passes through the internal channels.
The duration of the practice is no more than 10 minutes, which significantly speeds up the process of reunification with the Higher powers than in church. The positive side is the fact that there are no additional sounds, someone else’s breathing in the back of the head and unnecessary glances. Three aspects are constantly encountered during church services. This interferes and in 60% of cases strains, blocking the flow of negative emotions.
As for the elements of yoga, this is breathing exercises, which serves as a way to restore vital energies and improve health. Practical meditation is publicly available on the website of the Sergei Ratner center, where he conducts courses and training in meditation https://www.metapower.tv/
Did meditation and mindfulness really come from religion?
The New York Times compares the attitude towards the concept of “meditation” with its relative – “Mindfulness” or “awareness”, that is, what we achieve through meditation. The concept of “mindfulness” appeared in English in 1881, when the British magistrate in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), Thomas William Rhys Davids, began teaching Pali, a Prakrit language from Central India, and the teachings of Theravada, the oldest surviving school of Buddhism. He translated the concept of sati with the word “mindfulness” - among Buddhists it is the first of the seven factors of enlightenment or “memory of the present.” At that time, in Great Britain the concept not only did not take root, but was also interpreted in the context of the Victorian phrase Mind your manners.
Now “mindfulness” has become a Western brand, and this happened in the 1970s, when the idea of shedding both religious and far-fetched meanings from the concept was decided by molecular biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn. He began popularizing the term to help people who were intimidated by religious overtones experience the full benefits of mindfulness meditation. “The awareness that arises through paying attention to the meaning of the present moment is non-judgmental,” the scientist defined it.
What is the "dark night of the soul"
This is a rare, but far from the only case of a psychological crisis that occurred after intense meditation. This has only recently begun to be mentioned in academic literature, but in the Buddhist tradition such problems are well known and documented.
In one of the sutras there are lines about monks who go crazy and commit suicide after meditating on mortality. Nobody said enlightenment was easy.
As Buddhist teacher and psychologist Jack Kornfield wrote, if you haven't faced pain and fear, then you haven't started meditating yet. Typically, these experiences are considered one of the stages on the path to enlightenment. The most difficult of these stages is the “dark night of the soul,” during which a person realizes the illusory nature of his own self and the emptiness of all things. Awareness of this truth is accompanied by fear, despair and psychological struggle.
I once had a very deep “dark night” that lasted nine months. I experienced despair, panic attacks, loneliness, paranoia, and auditory hallucinations. I couldn’t communicate well with my family and constantly thought about death in my head.
from a Buddhist blog
Modern meditation has long been separated from Buddhism and is perceived by many as an absolutely harmless practice - something like morning exercises for the mind. How can you harm yourself by simply sitting and observing your own thoughts or breathing?
Usually, nothing bad really happens—you can meditate for years and never experience anything like a “dark night.”
The benefits of meditation practice are well documented in the scientific literature: meditation helps treat depression and anxiety, relieves stress, eases inflammatory reactions, and can improve concentration, memory, and creative thinking. But for some, the secular version of meditation brings not only benefits, but also a lot of psychological problems.
Famous and effective mantras
Despite the fact that the church denies chakras and Orthodoxy believes that a Christian cannot meditate, each person has the right to decide for himself. Usually he comes to mantras when confusion and misunderstanding sets in. Meditative practice is the guide of the soul from the material world to the divine. There are a large number of meditations and each has its own purpose.
Health mantra
The mantra RA-MA-DA-SA-SA-SAY-SO-HANG will help you cope with health problems.
Half an hour of practice every day is enough to feel relief within a week.
Mantra of energy and strength
God Shiva is capable of crushing the world and giving enormous strength and an inexhaustible flow of energy to those in need through the divine words OM-NAMAH-SHIVAYA.
Mantra of love
The popular meditation represents forgiveness, insight and boundless love. It is better to say OM-MANI-PADME-HUM at least 108 times so that the heart is filled with light and warmth.
Mantra of purification
You can get rid of diseases, disturbing thoughts, and protect your karma using the following words: ASAT-MAA-SAT-GAMAYA-TAMASO-MAA-JYOTIR-GAMAYA-MRITYOR-MAA-AMRITAM-GAMAYA.
Origin of the term “meditation”
The word “meditation” comes from the Roman word meditatio , which means “meditation.” But this is a somewhat one-sided decoding of the described concept, which does not reflect the fullness of this spiritual practice.
The way this concept came into modern language is interesting. In Hebrew there is a word, haga , which means mental contemplation, meditation and whispering. It is found in the Torah. When translating the Scriptures into Greek, the word melete , meaning “exercise,” was chosen as an analogue for hag. True, it was not a simple exercise, but a special exercise in verbal rhetoric, used to teach the eloquence of politicians and judges. And from Greek to Latin melete was translated as meditatio.
How is meditation researched today?
Dozens of new meditation studies appear every year. For example, a review published in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience in 2015 described 180 scientific papers on the technique of “mindfulness meditation” alone. Most of them were published in the 2010s.
As meditation has become increasingly popular, the 21st century has given scientists the opportunity to study more than just “professionals.” Many new experiments are being conducted with people who have never practiced any meditation technique. One group receives instructions and performs exercises, the other remains a control group and leads the same lifestyle. A long-term study method is also used, when the condition of participants is monitored several times over a certain period of time. Such work helps to establish what changes can actually be caused by meditation.
Many modern studies include tests on a specific type of task. For example, participants in one experiment were given a task based on the Stroop effect. This is a reaction delay when reading color names that occurs if the color of the letters does not match the written name (say, the word “red” is written in green letters). A test for the length of this delay is used, in particular, to diagnose age-related changes in the brain. Study participants had to indicate what color letters were in given lists of words. Those who practiced any type of meditation completed the task faster. Scientists noted: success largely depended on how much time a day a person devoted to concentration. The total amount of time spent meditating did not appear to be such an important factor.
The critical question is how meditation affects brain structure. Today, scientists have more and more high-precision instruments that allow them to observe the processes occurring in the human brain. Neuroimaging technologies are actively used - a group of methods that allow obtaining detailed images of the structure of the brain and spinal cord. Thanks to computer and magnetic resonance imaging techniques, scientists can see how different areas of the brain change under the influence of meditation.
The authors of a study published in 2011 in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging said they were able to document changes in the brain structure of people who completed a two-month course of mindfulness meditation. Participants in the experiment had increased gray matter density in the hippocampus and posterior cingulate cortex. No such changes were found in the control group.
One of the functions of the hippocampus is emotion regulation. Scientists have suggested that the constant practice of meditation can help people better control the manifestations of their feelings. It is also known that the density of the substance in the hippocampus decreases in patients with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The posterior cingulate cortex is involved in the formation of autobiographical memories (for example, about family and friends). This area is also connected to the brain's Default Mode Network (DMN).
This neural network is active in those moments when a person is not busy solving a specific problem, but is inactive - resting or dreaming. Its functions are not entirely clear, but researchers believe that the DMN may be involved in making plans for the future or processes of self-awareness. Not long ago, Cambridge scientists suggested that this network can serve as an “autopilot” of the brain - helping us perform tasks that have become automatic.
How to counter this?
It is worth recognizing that it is easy for a modern person to get confused when all around him new spiritual practices are offered, claiming that they are true. It is very important to learn how to resist in such a situation.
The most important thing to do for this is to realize that a real hunt is being conducted today for the psyche of every person, his consciousness and soul. Today, more than ever, a person’s mental health is threatened by organizations that use effective technologies for manipulating consciousness.
The Science of Concentration: First Steps
Scientists began to study meditation using relatively modern methods following a surge of interest in the practice in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the interest of the general public in it was just emerging, the objects of research usually became “professionals” of meditation - in particular, Buddhist monks. Many of them have been practicing for decades, devoting several hours of concentration every day. The position of the early researchers was this: if concentration really can have an effect on the functioning of the brain and body as a whole, the changes will be especially noticeable in master meditators. However, there was a downside to this approach: finding a sufficient number of study participants was difficult.
For example, in the early 1980s, Harvard scientist Herbert Benson became interested in the Eastern principle of “inner fire meditation” - tummo. The meditator concentrates on the feeling of warmth inside the body - it is believed that in this way a person can not feel the cold for a long time. Tibetan monks who practice tummo wear light cotton clothing even in winter. Benson and his colleagues traveled to the city of Dharamsala in northern India. There they managed to find only three monks who had been practicing tummo for years and agreed to participate in the study. Scientists had to obtain permission to work with monks from the Dalai Lama personally.
Benson received a positive result: the monks were actually able to raise their own body temperature while in an unheated room. One of them managed to increase the temperature of a toe by 8.3 °C, and a finger by 3.15 °C. An article about the experiment was published by Nature, one of the most authoritative scientific journals in the world. However, there were only three participants in the study, and their living conditions differed significantly from the everyday life of residents of Western countries who practice meditation. Also, early studies rarely included a control group, so even the reported positive effects could be the result of other lifestyle features of meditators or mere coincidence.
Is it possible to meditate in Islam?
Along with the discussion about whether Orthodox Christians can meditate, a common topic is whether Muslims can listen to mantras? Is meditative practice prohibited in religion or not?
Islam about meditation and yoga
Mantras belong to what religion? This question is asked by many people who are beginning to become interested in Eastern teachings. Yoga and Sanskrit chanting are inherent in Buddhism and Hinduism, but in the modern world meditation is practiced without religion. A person, regardless of religion, chooses the way to gain spiritual and physical strength. Meditation in Islam, like yoga, is not prohibited unless rituals characteristic of Buddhism are performed. This belief is based on polytheism and reincarnation, which is completely contrary to the Koran. During mantras, one must worship Allah and accept his unity.
Muslim mantras and rules for reading them
A certain analogue of mantras among Muslims are dhikrs. They consist of one or more sentences that praise Allah. To pray alone, you need to sit on a mat and cross your legs. Group dhikrs are performed in dance. First comes the phrase “la ilaha illa-Alahu,” then the names of the Creator are listed. They sound clear, rhythmic and focused. Words must leave a mark in every cell of the body. Repeat dhikr an odd number of times until energy fills the entire body.
Who is Orthodox meditation recommended for?
Orthodox meditation, as the name implies, is recommended to all Orthodox Christians who, for one reason or another, do not want to use classical meditative techniques, thinking that it is a sin, or who want to combine prayer and Christian meditation. However, it is not at all necessary to limit yourself to Orthodox meditation. You can use other techniques to suit your needs.
What science knows about crises of spiritual practice
Psychologist Willoughby Britton of Brown University is researching the darker aspects of meditation. While practicing at a psychiatric clinic, she met two patients who ended up in the hospital after a retreat. Ironically, she soon went on a meditation retreat herself and also experienced a full range of “all sorts of difficult conditions”:
I thought I was really crazy. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I mean, I had no idea why all of this was happening to me all of a sudden—like why I was feeling so terrified. And only much later did I find out that these are classic states that manifest themselves at certain stages of meditation, which I learned about in such a sad way.
— from an interview with Willoughby Britton
Britton decided to study these complex conditions in detail. Together with her colleagues, she launched a project called “The Diversity of Meditative Experience” and published the first resulting article in 2021. Nearly every one of the more than 100 study participants surveyed experienced “unwanted states” on multiple occasions while meditating.
These conditions include increased sensitivity to light, loss of physical sensations, decreased or increased emotions, increasing feelings of anxiety, depersonalization, and reliving of traumatic events from childhood. Sometimes the negative “side effects” of meditation last for months.
Many meditation centers are aware of these problems and do not allow people with psychiatric diagnoses to attend retreats. But nearly half of the study participants, Britton found, had no history of trauma or psychiatric disorders. Many of them were themselves experienced meditation teachers - the explanation that they were meditating somehow “wrong” is hardly suitable here. According to one early study of transcendental meditation, more experienced practitioners had even more negative effects than beginners.
After the study began, Britton was contacted by several hundred people suffering from unwanted effects of meditation. Most often, problems began during an intensive retreat - for example, a Vipassana course according to the Goenka system. One course usually lasts at least a week, and participants meditate for 10 hours every day. They are not allowed to talk, look into each other’s eyes, write, read or use any gadgets. For many, such a course becomes a liberating experience. For others, things end much worse.
Even the Dalai Lama admits that meditation must be handled with care: “Western people move into deep meditation too quickly: they need to learn about Eastern traditions and practice more than they usually do. Otherwise, mental and physical difficulties arise.”
But in order to experience these difficulties for yourself, you don’t have to go on a retreat. Problems can arise even after using mobile apps like Headspace.
My personal meditation story
Hello. My name is Nikolai, I am 22 years old, I am Orthodox and I meditate. Surprised? Yes, I’m shocked at myself, considering that for a long time I considered meditation to be an activity displeasing to God. And it’s good that this is not so, because the practice of mindfulness has given me a lot. Moreover, there is a type of Orthodox meditation that I practice every day.
Since then, I have maintained my composure much easier, drink less and don’t smoke at all (although before that I was a heavy smoker, I could smoke up to two packs). And all because I learned to relax in a more constructive way. I am an example of the fact that anything is possible, as long as you want it.
