A Lesson on Meditation by KJN Jae Jeannotte

A Lesson on Meditation by KJN Jae Jeannotte

There are many lengthy and varied definitions for the subject of meditation. In my decades of practice, I have come to define it in these simple terms. Meditation is a group of mental training techniques. You can use meditation to improve mental health and capacities, and to help improve physical health. Some of these techniques are very simple, so you can learn them from a book or an article; others require guidance by a qualified meditation teacher.

What is Meditation in my Opinion

Most techniques called meditation include these components:

1. You sit or lie in a relaxed position.
2. You breathe regularly. You breathe in deep enough to get enough oxygen. When you breathe out, you relax your muscles so that your lungs are well emptied, but without straining.
3. You stop thinking about everyday problems and matters.
4. You concentrate your thoughts upon some sound, some word you repeat, some image, some abstract concept, or some feeling. Your whole attention should be paid to the object you have chosen to concentrate upon.
5. If some foreign thoughts creep in, you just stop this foreign thought, and go back to the object of meditation.

The different meditation techniques differ according to the degree of concentration, and how foreign thoughts are handled. By some techniques, the objective is to concentrate so intensely that no foreign thoughts occur at all.

In other techniques, concentration is more relaxed so that foreign thoughts easily pop up. When these foreign thoughts are discovered, one stops these and goes back to pure meditation in a relaxed manner. Thoughts coming up will often be about things you have forgotten or suppressed and allow you to rediscover hidden memory material. This rediscovery will have a psychotherapeutic effect.

What are the Effects of Meditation

Meditation has the following effects:

1. Meditation will give you rest and recreation.
2. You learn to relax.
3. You learn to concentrate better on problem solving.
4. Meditation often has a good effect upon blood pressure.
5. Meditation has beneficial effects upon inner body processes, like circulation, respiration, and digestion.
6. Regular meditation will have a psychotherapeutically effect.
7. Regular meditation will facilitate the immune system.
8. Meditation is usually pleasant.

My Simple Meditation Practice

Here is a simple form of meditation:

1. Sit in a good chair in a comfortable position.
2. Relax all your muscles as well as you can.
3. Stop thinking about anything, or at least try not to think about anything.
4. Breath out, relaxing all the muscles in your breathing apparatus.
5. Repeat the following in 10 – 20 minutes:
   — Breath in so deep that you feel you get enough oxygen.
   — Breath out, relaxing your chest and diaphragm completely.
   — Every time you breathe out, think of the word “one” or another simple word inside yourself. You should think of the word in a prolonged manner, and so that you hear it inside you, but you should try to avoid using your mouth or voice.
6. If foreign thoughts come in, just stop these thoughts in a relaxed manner, and keep on concentrating upon the breathing and the word you repeat.
   As you proceed through this meditation, you should feel steadily more relaxed in your mind and body, feel that you breathe steadily more effectively, and that the blood circulation throughout your body gets more efficient. You may also feel an increasing mental pleasure throughout the meditation.

Meditation Can Have Many Beneficial Effects on Healing Disease Symptoms.

As with any kind of training, meditation may be exaggerated so that you get tired and worn out. Therefore, you should not meditate so long or so concentrated that you feel tired or mentally emptied.
Meditation may sometimes give problems for people suffering from mental diseases, epilepsy, serious heart problems or neurological diseases. On the other hand, meditation may be of help in the treatment of these and other conditions.

People suffering from such conditions should check out what effects the different kinds of meditation have on their own kind of health problems, before beginning to practice meditation, and be cautious if they choose to begin to meditate. It may be wise to learn meditation from an experienced teacher, psychologist or health worker that use meditation as a treatment module for an actual disease.

About the author: KJN Jae Jeannotte is a lifelong martial artist who has served as an officer in some capacity in several of the top Hapkido organizations in the world. He is the Founder of JaeMuKwan Hapkido which is recognized by several of the leading Korean organizations. KJN Jeannotte is also the Chairman of the USA Hapkido Union Board of Advisors.

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