Maneesha*, How would you define meditation?
Meditation is an internal state of relaxed awareness. It’s a term that is also used when actually "meditation technique" is meant, i.e. someone will speak of "doing my meditation," or "practicing meditation." Meditation can’t be done. It’s a serene, boundless, inner milieu. At the most, we can provide a situation conducive to that space manifesting itself. It’s a little like the quality of happiness: you can’t pursue it directly, you can’t have it on demand, but you can stop doing things that get in the way of your feeling good. Then you’ll find that joy is there, waiting for you. Similarly, that inner space, our "center" – of stillness, silence, awareness, expansion, joy, harmony and so on – is there inside us, waiting to be recognized and reclaimed. It doesn’t have to be created or manufactured by us. In fact, it’s because of all our busy doings that we are unaware of it! When we stop, move within, relax and wait, we are naturally reconnected with our center. So meditation is not dependent on or confined to any particular practice or pose: it’s a quality we can bring to whatever we do in life.

How did you discover meditation?
In my late teens I became fascinated with the question: What makes us happy? – because, as a nurse, I was meeting some very sick patients who had every reason to be miserable, but were cheerful and loving, with their sense of humor still intact. On the other hand, one of my fellow nurses who seemed to have everything going for her – intelligence, good looks, popularity, and money – tried to commit suicide during her training. Obviously, the answer to my question had nothing to do with material circumstances. I thought, "The answer must lie in the mind," and so went on to study Psychiatric Nursing. Through that experience I came to see that the mind was not the kind of place in which I would find any qualities that I was interested in! Sure, it enabled me to get things done in life but it could also send me barmy in the process! This was in the early ‘70’s, when the Humanistic Growth Movement was just taking off: inevitably, I found my way into the world of encounter groups. Maybe, I thought, happiness lay not in the mind but in connecting with feelings. Two years on, though I had done my share of "owning" my feelings I didn’t feel any closer to my answer. Certainly, none of the groupleaders, none of the "experts" in the field seemed any closer to living happiness than I. From there I found myself visiting a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Scotland, a Sufi farm in Oxfordshire, a Gurdjieff group on Haverstock Hill in London: through all of them I met lovely people but still no one who seemed to have that certain elusive something I was seeking. I was dabbling in a passive meditation by this time – trying to sit and watch my breath. But, being an obsessively speedy person, I found that after a short time I was just too restless to continue. It was only when I discovered the Osho Active Meditations that I began to have a taste, and then longer and deeper experiences of meditation. These in turn opened up a whole new dimension to living. It was this, I realized, that I had been longing for, for so many years.

How has meditation changed your life?
It’s an ongoing process, and I am sure I am not aware of all the changes that have come about as a result of the past twenty-seven years’ experience of meditation. I do know that I have slowed down a great deal. I am still a Type A personality – maybe that is intrinsic to me and can’t change – but I am not obsessively busy, as I used to be; not as speedy. With that slowing down I am less tense and so am able to reconnect with my sensitivity and ability to love and care – for myself, for others, for the world I live in. I am definetely more balanced emotionally – I used to be a moody person – am less reactive than I used to be, less cerebral, more vulnerable; more aware of my strengths and weaknesses and, simultaneously, less judgmental of those qualities or disqualities. Because I am gentler with myself, I am gentler with others. It has been so significant for me to understand that lovingness and consciousness need to grow together, side by side. Love alone doesn’t feel reliable because I sense that it is directed by unconscious forces; consciousness, or awareness, by itself, feels a little cold and clinical. But together they make a great combination…at least, for me. To put it in a nutshell: I guess I could say that through meditation the real me is emerging to live herself more fully, more consciously, more joyfully, more gratefully, every day.

Tell me about your CD Discover Meditation: Tuning Into the Moment.
We wanted to create a guided meditation for those totally new to – even possibly resistent to or scared of – moving inside. Remembering how I felt when I was just starting off suggested the steps that guide the listener, very slowly and gently, to shift from focussing on the outer to an awareness of the inner reality. The music composer, Sambodhi Prem, and I have received good feedback. One English woman told me that she visited her father in hospital after he’d had a heart attack, which left him extremely agitated and fearful. He listened to the CD, and it helped him to deal with his fear, to calm down and move beyond his distress. A marketing manager from Manhattan tells me she doesn’t have time for long meditation techniques, though she certainly feels frazzled at the end of her day and needs something to chill out. These days she tunes into the moment with the CD, and that does the trick.

What are some of the medical benefits of meditation?
Meditation has been associated with lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Dean Ornish, the well-known cardiologist and author, includes meditation in the program he recommends for his clients. His regimen has been so successful that Mutual of Omaha picks up the tab for those of his patients whom it insures. Insurance companies endorsing meditation: that’s a first! Dr. Peter Nixon, also a celebrated cardiologist, as well as Mayer Friedman, one of the most renowned names in cardiology, both endorse the positive impact of meditation of heart disease – its prevention and reversal. Over on the East Coast John Kabat-Zinn is doing great work with alleviating pain through meditation. Doctors refer patients to him for whom they can do nothing more…and those same patients are finding, through meditation, that they can relax into, accept and often transform their pain to such an extent that they can reclaim a part of their lives they had thought was lost to them forever. It has been demonstrated that levels of DHEA – the steroid associated with longevity and immunity – increase markedly through the regular practice of meditation. Any stress-related disease can, it seems, be positively impacted by meditation, so I think the list of benefits is only going to grow.

How can a regular meditation practice enhance the quality of one’s life?
This will depend on each individual, the whole-heartedness with which they enter meditation, and the efficacy of the method they may be using. Commonly, people cite benefits such as reduced stress, feeling better about themselves, improved relationships with others, an ability to calm themselves, greater creativity, more joy, a feeling of being unburdened, and less judgmental. They speak of having more clarity and sense of direction, more mastery over negative emotions like anger and fear; of more acceptance and understanding of themselves and of life in general.

How does one begin a meditation practice?
Probably a good starting point is to recognize that you are an individual, and that what suits me may not suit you, and vice versa. Methods are made to suit the practitioner, not the reverse. So if you try a method and it just doesn’t do it for you, don’t blame yourself: it’s simply not your method…or may not now but some time down the line it will be. You need to give the method a chance, though! I suggest that if you discover a technique that you want to try, do it consistently for a minimum of three days; even better, seven days. Only after that time will you know if the method "clicks" with you or not…and only you can gauge that. If it does seem to be your method, make a commitment to yourself to do it for three months. It takes that long for the technique to go deep enough to bring about a transformation at the level of your roots. That’s not to say you won’t feel the benefits sooner than that; if the technique is working you will feel its effects immediately, even if it is just an easing of tension. After the three months are up, you can of course continue the method, or decide to experiment with a different one. The various techniques are just like so many paths up a mountainside: they may be slightly different, and offer you a slightly different perspective, some may feel easier than others, but ultimately they all reach the same point. Having said that, the majority of people today find that expecting a passive meditation to work for them straight off is out of the question: however diligently they apply themselves to watching their breath or their mind, they continue to feel overrun with thoughts. This is because we are living in such a full-on, stressful world today that we naturally accumulate lots of tension in our bodymind. If unaddressed, if we just "sit on them," they won’t allow us to be still and silent whenever we want to. First we have to release all that tension, shake it off, dance it off, or chaotically breathe and cathart it away. Then, it’s much easier to enter a space of stillness, of a serene silence. This is the basis of the Osho Active Meditations – such as Kundalini, Gibberish and Laughter, that you see in the video – and it is these techniques that I personally recommend as a good way to begin your entry into the world of meditation.

How often should one meditate?
If you have chosen a particular meditation technique, it's best if you can see it as much a part of your routine as, say, cleaning your teeth. This is spiritual flossing! So, once a day is probably a good way to start; or, if you have the luxury of time, maybe you chose to do an active meditation in the morning and a passive one in the evening.

What does one need to do in order to prepare for meditation?
Have a willingness to explore the unknown and whole-heartedness in your approach. Be open for change and yet not greedy for results. On the practical level, don’t meditate immediately after a meal. Wear loose, lightweight clothing so any movements are not hampered. For the active methods you’ll want the appropriate music CD, and a well-ventilated room…one in which you can be undisturbed for the duration of your meditation.

What are some of the body positions that are appropriate for meditation?
Any posture can be appropriate for meditation. It is the quality of awareness you bring to it that is significant. And it should be comfortable. I’m not into masochism – I don’t think we are meant to hurt or distort our bodies in order to feel good! So, lying down is perfectly valid as a meditative position. Just, if you choose it, be aware that trying to stay awake in this position is quite a challenge.

What are some of the challenges (i.e. restlessness, distraction, etc.) that one may face while meditating and how should these challenges be met?
As indicated earlier, restlessness and being distracted are just symptomatic of an overwrought body and mind. These kinds of symptoms will be experienced by many people when they try the passive forms of meditation. If instead you start with a moving form of meditation, as I recommend, you do away with these problems.

Tell me about the meditation research project that you are currently engaged in.
Last year in the US I began introducing the active techniques to Yoga students, to enhance their practice. They were so enthusiastically received that I decided to create a collection of material for future presentations. There was such a wealth of wisdom, articles, the results of experiments, personal testimonies and professional endorsements to draw on that I decided to make a research project. The material – which also includes reports of where the chaotic methods have been introduced to banks, transport systems, monasteries, prisons, government departments, agricultural management, the sporting world and so on – will appear on a specially created Website: www.activemeditation.com. It will be available for anyone who is interested in learning more about this approach, for those researching meditation, and for people looking to introduce these techniques to the public.

Two guided meditations by Maneesha James
 Hara Stop  &  Bubble of Joy

*Maneesha James' early background was in general and psychiatric nursing and midwifery. The guinea pig in the early seventies when Osho was designing his active methods, she has practiced the many of the techniques herself over the past 35 years. For many years Maneesha led meditation-based groups around the world. She has written several books (as Juliet Forman) and produced a number of CDs and videos on meditation and how we can use it to bring joy and celebration into our our daily lives, in times of health crisis and in the face of our inevitable encounter with death.
With a degree in Psychotherapy and Counselling, Maneesha now works in private practice in Sydney, Australia. Her field of interest is supporting those in health crisis as they move back to health or through the dying process..