Different Types of Meditation

An ancient sage once said: “Meditation techniques are just different paths up the same mountain.” Meditation is the golden key to grounding in the disposition of service. Meditation is what we open to as a result of using a technique. Here are a few of the many techniques that have been developed over the centuries:

Mindfulness & Concentration meditation

Popular in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, originates from early Buddhist teachings dating back some 2,500 years. Mindfulness meditation is the development of your ability to be mindful of the surroundings with applied awareness, focused on the present moment. In that state of being we become conscious and present with our thoughts, feelings, emotions or outer sensory experiences.

Transcendental meditation

Introduced in India in the mid-1950s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and achieved global reach in the 1960s. TM uses a mantra (A sound or Vibration), serving as a vehicle to take the mind inwards to attain deep levels of peace beyond human understanding.

Breathing meditation

Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing is the body’s natural relaxation response antidote to stress. When you meditate on your breath, you will realize how connected your breath is to the ease and lift of your posture.
If you overwork your sitting posture, your breath will be shifted. Likewise, if you collapse and become habitual with your sitting posture, your breath will be minimized. Continue to explore the relationship between effort and surrender, and try to maximize the amount of lift in your posture with the least amount of effort. This will be reflected in your breath. Your breath will move easily and will be deeply absorbed throughout your body when your posture moves into better alignment.

Kundalini meditation

In the ancient Sanskrit language of the fully enlightened, this process of growth of consciousness is described as the ecstatic union of Kundalini Shakti with her divine lover, Shiva. Shakti sleeps in the first chakra at the base of the spine; Shiva lives alone in the crown.
When enlightenment dawns, Shakti rises from the base and marries Shiva in the crown; they then move together to dwell forever in the heart. Their merging expresses the experience of Ascending: subject/object duality is abandoned for infinite bliss, Eternal Love.

Kundalin means coiled or spiral and refers to the spiral patterns of energy found throughout the natural world, from the DNA molecule to the shape of sunflowers, from earth’s orbit around our sun to galaxies. With an i added on the end, Kundalini, it becomes a feminine noun which also means snake. A serpent rests in a coil and releases its energy when it straightens and strikes. Kundalini is therefore symbolic of the primordial essence of nature, pre-rational, pre-verbal, capable of inflicting death if misused and yet also capable of giving complete healing if properly channeled. It is the symbol of the regenerative powers of the deepest levels of the personality, the source of creativity, intuition, the miracle power.

Prayer meditation

Prayer is talking to God, Meditation is listening to God. One could say that true prayer is the communion one has with God.

Regardless of all the different types of meditation, the real meditation practice in the end is your life and how you carry yourself moment to moment. The goal is the same, to access the present moment by tuning in.