Meditation is the key to all your troubles, just trust this US-based engineer

ARIZONA - So I finally decided to take a true break from my digital life. Left behind the PC, cell phone and even my digital camera and took off for a weeks retreat at a Zen meditation center in the mountains of northern California.

There, lodged far into a long windy dirt road, is Tassajara. Disconnected from the world, electricity, and pollution.

I have been reading and hearing of the benefits of Zen meditation for a while now. I figured I would give it a shot.

Given that I am personally very skeptical of the idea of organized religion (you know what they say about organized religions being for the unorganized brains), I did some research and decided that Zen could work pretty well with my ideology.

A Zen master would say nothing to you about sins, gods, or how they would punish or reward you. Zen is a practice that is detached from Buddhist religion as much as it is a derivative of it. Ironic but true.

Now that we have established what it was not, let us talk about what it was.

Zen is the art of taking your time and becoming one with whatever it is you are doing.

Zen is now and zen is you. It is as simple and complex as that.

When you meditate, be it sitting in full lotus (that is when you have both feet resting on your thighs and knees touching the floor while sitting elevated on a little cushion) or walking (moving to the beat of your exhales) you are actually focusing on not focusing. Ideas and thoughts would obviously storm through your mind, but the point is to let them go, do not hold on. And if they were thoughts of your leg getting numb, then try to become at ease with this pain, and it shall go away.

Here are the ABCs of meditation for the beginner: Sit down in a comfortable position, with your back straight, your head resting on your neck, and your eyes staring at a 60 degree angle in front of you. Keep the eyes open and just sit there focusing on your breathing for 10 minutes. Repeat when desired.

So there I was. Lodged way up in the mountains of Tassajara. The stars were so many and so bright that I could not even tell the major constellations out.

Meditation is very similar to the Tassajara night sky actually. Your emotions start to stand out all as one.

Nothing would take precedence and you just loose sight of constellations, and all would become one, beautiful and equally irrelevant to the moment. You would be taken by this very distant view, ions away yet so close.

My vacation was not all about meditation though. I signed up for a workshop that also included writing and looking into the vastness of the world.

I knew I was going to appreciate this workshop as it focused on the vastness and enormity of this world within us and around us instead of dishing out the cliche "globalization, the world is really tiny now, Mcdonalds is everywhere and everyone is the same."

The world Is indeed vast and the Internet and email only make it wider. Globalization does not make for usurping cultures, but sets the platform for the marriage of different cultures and hence the spawning of new hybrid phenomena which in turn add to the diversity and enormity of the world.

So why meditate? Why did I disclose the secrets of life? Well, because meditation is a personal experience: "You get what you get".

I will spare you of how many movie stars have adopted the technique to level their insane lives and the countless studies done over the years by large medical institutions monitoring the benefits of meditation on individuals.

Meditate because the brain and the mind are two distinct entities and it is one way to bring the two together.

Once you have done that, you have started to master yourself. The lady sitting next to you at work, the stupid driver ahead of you and your foot getting numb would all become ok.

Personally, I came back by the end of this vacation as a "believer". Meditation released many of my inhibitions and gave me a glimpse on the power of the mind.

To detach yourself for a few minutes from this world is a challenge, but once you do it, you would see that it was time taken to be with yourself.

Where that would take you is quite worth it. If for no other reason, do it for the road rage you must suffer on those streets and for better posture.

Hasan Makki is a Lebanese Computer and Communications Engineer based in Arizona, USA. He wrote this article for Alternative