Meditation and Global Peace

Living in U.S. and from my acquaintance in the last many months, I would like to touch upon two simple aspects - meditation and global peace. Both are very relevant to this uncertain, anxious and emotional world. We are learning many new advanced subjects and technologies to lead us into unknown but the subjects, tools to teach us inner peace is equally important. The best way to attain a calm, serene and peaceful inner self is to put our ocean of thoughts to rest. A disturbed, destabilized and disoriented person will radiate and spread commotion and chaos like ultra strong 5G network. Similarly, a calm and a person with inner peace will radiate these very virtues all around. It is very important to attain that calmness, composure and control through practice, looking into within and weeding out the growing virus. Without my intention, I inadvertently took up a meditation course at the height of my work and it showed a mirror to my disturbed self and crazy life. The disturbed person working in a mission mode cannot become a reason for violence. It is important to cure this disease at the source and bring upon the peace. When you are working in a melting pot with all the heat, its easy to catch a fire. Dousing the fire should be the preemptive first step to follow. A simple meditation and mastering it's nuances, intricacies while practicing the same can restore sanity and peace in the inner and outer world. This post is a study on meditation to phase out the cycle of vicious thoughts and throw some light on this simple yet effective technique. Sometimes, the most powerful requirements are met from simple elements. Let us get to a study on meditation and ways to attain global peace through it.

Meditation is a practice that involves focusing your mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to achieve a state of mental clarity, relaxation, and heightened awareness. It has been practiced for thousands of years and has numerous physical and mental health benefits. There are various meditation techniques, including mindfulness, transcendental meditation, and loving-kindness meditation, each with its own approach and goals. Regular meditation can help reduce stress, improve concentration, enhance emotional well-being, and promote a sense of inner peace and balance. It's important to find a meditation style that resonates with you and practice it consistently to experience its benefits.

There are many meditation techniques to choose from, so you can find one that suits your preferences and goals. Here are some popular meditation techniques:

Mindfulness Meditation: This involves paying attention to your breath or the sensations in your body, observing thoughts and feelings without judgment, and bringing your focus back to the present moment.

Transcendental Meditation (TM): In TM, you silently repeat a mantra to help quiet the mind and access deeper levels of awareness.

Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta): Metta meditation focuses on generating feelings of love and compassion for yourself and others. You repeat phrases like "May I be happy, may I be healthy" while extending those wishes to others.

Guided Meditation: You listen to a recorded meditation led by an instructor, guiding you through a specific visualization or relaxation exercise.

Body Scan Meditation: This involves mentally scanning your body from head to toe, paying attention to any areas of tension and consciously releasing it.

Zen Meditation (Zazen): Zazen involves sitting in a specific posture, focusing on your breath, and observing thoughts as they arise without attachment.

Chakra Meditation: In this practice, you concentrate on the body's energy centers (chakras) to balance and align them for improved well-being.

Vipassana Meditation: Vipassana is an insight meditation that involves observing bodily sensations, thoughts, and emotions to gain deep insights into the nature of reality.

Yoga Nidra: Often referred to as yogic sleep, this guided meditation leads you into a deep state of relaxation while maintaining awareness.

Mantra Meditation: Similar to TM, this technique involves repeating a word or phrase (mantra) to focus the mind and achieve inner stillness.

Choose a technique that resonates with you, and start with short sessions, gradually increasing the duration as you become more comfortable. Consistency is key to experiencing the full benefits of meditation.

Here are some 10 of the many inner engineering benefits and becoming a better version of a person through meditation.

1. Effectively reduces stress.

2. Increases calm.

3. Is naturally healing for emotional trauma.

4. Increases emotional resilience.

5. Reduces the intensity and number of thoughts bouncing around in our heads.  

6. Gives us a sharper intellect enabling better decision-making.

7. Reduces the tendency to react mindlessly.

8. Increases the tendency to respond rather than react.

9. Creates mindfulness as a way of being rather than just a practice.

10. Instills deep inner peace that emanates even outside of one’s self.

All these are relevant to all of us. It is very important for countries like U.S. to take up ancient tools like meditation and maintain inner peace, peace in the society and in the world. It is very important to stop and prevent any spate of violence or wars in the future. The country which celebrates and glorifies Oppenheimer need to glorify peace as well. The country which engineers tools of destruction need to take up tools for promoting peace as well.

To prevent a war takes a lot of good, peaceful work from each of us. Wars are transient and unengineered techniques to end lives whereas peace takes long time to build and engineer better lives. Let us spread peace in the world. This brings us close to Russia-Ukraine war and how two nations are devastated by needless war. We need to empathize with these nations and prevent it in our own backyard. The unfortunate trauma of a war can come to any of us. We need to count our blessings for these better lives in better places and become peace loving nations and centers of radiating peace.

The aggression from Russia need to die down and the war must end soon. The war which began in February 2022 has been ongoing for more than 18 months and Ukraine became a needless victim of the needless aggression. This war should die down before further destruction takes over these two nations. Russia must respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and withdraw from it to restore peace in the region. Russia needs to step back from this long drawn, protracted war before taking up further offensive maneuvers. The meaningless war will end and Russia will withdraw eventually without any meaningful outcome. This will simply tell war will achieve nothing and peace triumphs ultimately. The last century has witnessed two major world wars and many others deploying advanced tools of killing. It is upto all of us to restore tranquility on mother Earth and take up tools to advance global peace.