If you’ve tried meditation and found that it didn’t work for you, it may be that what you practiced was more of a relaxation exercise than a true, traditional meditation, according to Deborah Collins-Perrica, a board-certified psychiatric clinical nurse specialist in Hartford, Connecticut.
Traditional Meditation Is the Real Meditation
“Meditation isn’t just sitting there and relaxing,” Collins-Perrica told The Epoch Times. “The real, traditional meditations were always originally based in religion, where there was a moral fiber to it.”For example, most traditional meditations in the Buddhist tradition require one to follow the principles of being a good person, letting go of wants and longings, and having a freer and more open mind.
“If your mind is filled with anger and resentment, fighting and arguing all the time, and competing with people in selfishness, you’re not going to get a good night’s sleep. You can’t have good relationships. You can’t even have a healthy body,” said Collins-Perrica, who has more than 15 years of experience treating mental illness.
Currently, there are multiple types of meditation being taught and practiced, including mindfulness meditation, focused meditation, transcendental meditation, and kindness meditation. Although many also have a spiritual element, they’re not necessarily traditional meditation.
Traditional meditation is most often handed down as a spiritual or religious tradition and taught by a master or teacher, is recognized in a legitimate school of practice, and is simply a practice of sitting in a full lotus position with a mind free of any intention. It’s formalized and structured, Collins-Perrica explained. A full lotus position requires sitting cross-legged, with each foot placed over the opposite thigh.
Some traditional meditation schools teach guidance by using mantras; some are movement-based, such as Tai Chi, and others are body positioning-based, such as yoga. Some visual forms of meditation use focusing intention toward an image.
“There are many unorthodox forms of meditation in the world today, and they are loosely defined as ways of thinking, pondering, contemplating, [or] reflecting intensely that aim to help people relax and improve concentration abilities,” she said.
These teachings have much more in common with mindfulness relaxation techniques than they do with true meditation.
Traditional Meditation Improves Health
Collins-Perrica acknowledged the benefits of mindfulness and other meditation practices. But real, traditional meditation may help people when those methods don’t work.One of her patients, a combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, was exposed to chemicals during warfare, and a few years later, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).
“The diagnosis was indisputable. All of the tests came back positive,” Collins-Perrica said.
The patient saw many neurologists, and they all told him the disease was progressive. They told him it was going to get worse and eventually he may be completely paralyzed and bedridden.
MS is a disease that affects the central nervous system. It causes unpredictable symptoms such as numbness, tingling, mood changes, memory problems, pain, and sometimes even blindness and paralysis.
The distraught patient visited Collins-Perrica about twice a month at the Department of Defense, where she worked for many years.
“Our conversation started to turn more towards existential topics because he was facing imminent demise and death,” Collins-Perrica said. So she introduced him to meditation and ancient Chinese Qigong.
The method she introduced was Falun Gong or Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice rooted in the Buddhist tradition. Besides meditation, the practice encourages practitioners to strive to attune their lives to three principles: truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.
He followed the directions on the website that Collins-Perrica provided and started exercising every day. Slowly, he could sit longer, and eventually, he began to put one leg up, then two legs up, and then he was finally able to sit in a full lotus position.
About a year later, he went back to the MS specialist, who was confounded by his current state of health, which was expected to deteriorate but had not, Collins-Perrica said.
Developing Inner Strength Through Self-Discipline
Traditional meditation methods have postural requirements—most require sitting in a full lotus position—contrary to many modern practices that ask you to make yourself comfortable, often while walking around or lying down.The lotus position has been widely seen in Buddhist and Taoist traditions and in some ancient Indian traditions such as yoga.
“In Buddhist meditation, you always see the Buddha sitting in a full lotus position with the back very straight, the head and the neck very straight, the eyes closed, and the mouth closed. These are traditions that are thousands of years old,” Collins-Perrica said.
Sitting in a lotus position for a prolonged period of time can be very uncomfortable. It requires a good amount of flexibility of the hips, knees, and ankles. Most people are unable to do it initially, and to prevent injury, beginners shouldn’t do it forcefully.
Collins-Perrica suggested a step-by-step approach and encouraged people to sit for as long as they can tolerate it. “The longer you sit, the stronger your willpower becomes, and the more serene your mind.”
“Your legs ache and your mind wanders. You have to make an effort to stay focused. Then in the process of staying focused, in the process of tolerating that discomfort, your willpower gets very strong, so your mind can overcome anything,” Collins-Perrica said.
When you can sit in meditation for a longer period of time, “your willpower is like a mountain.”
“It’s majestic,” she said.
Looking at the Mind, Body, and Spirit Together
Traditional meditation can benefit people tremendously. However, Collins-Perrica explained that to have a more wholesome, genuine life, meditation is not the first step; rather, it’s an option that most people find helpful.“In my practice, the first step with the patient really is the assessment of looking at the mind, the body, and the spirit together. So it’s not just about meditation.”
Usually, people come to psychiatric professionals with all kinds of problems: relationship difficulties, addictions, grief from loss of all types, or suicidal inclinations.
“If you have a problem with someone, or you’re arguing, or someone’s mad at you, or you’re mad at them, you really need to look inside and ask yourself the question, ‘What did I do to cause this problem?’” Collins-Perrica said.
Almost every time, you’ll discover that you did something to cause the problem with the other person.
Looking inside, a principle from Falun Dafa, is something that Collins-Perrica talks about with her patients every day, and they find it helpful.
“It’s about—what’s going on in the mind? What’s going on in your body? Can you look inside? Or can you learn to look inside? And when you do, you’re naturally going to find that part of your longing is a fit for this: to be really good, to be really truthful, and to be really good and kind, and to focus this way, to hold these values.”
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