Meditation in a Stressful World

             Each person is faced with numerous responsibilities throughout life, and this causes a decent amount of stress. Without stress relief techniques, stress can really take a toll on the human body physically and mentally. One stress relief technique is meditation and is used to calm the body and reflect on problems. Meditation in Buddhism has two parts- shamatha (“stopping”) and vipashyana (“looking deeply”). Buddha taught techniques to help manage stress. I can apply these techniques to fix the problems in my life, as well. 

Meditation can be used to control and manage emotions and stress

            Shamatha includes stopping and calming, meaning we need to stop to think about what is bothering us in order to calm down and think of a solution. Typically, the looking deeply aspect of meditation is the most emphasized because it can give us insight into why we are feeling stressed and can help us free ourselves from that stress. However, Thich Nhat Hanh writes in her book, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, that “the practice of shamatha is fundamental. If we cannot stop, we cannot have insight” (24). The importance stopping comes from the fact that when emotions run through us at the speeds that they do, sometimes we are powerless. We simply just react, but if we were to stop and control those emotions rushing through us, we can use our mindfulness to make sense of it all and calm down. Two sources of stress I have are my final exams and my relationship with my mom after my parent’s divorce. Buddha taught to recognize, accept, and embrace your stress. Once I stop to actually process this stress, I will be able to do all of these things to improve my mindfulness of my stress and problems. When it comes to my finals, stopping and understanding my stress will allow me calm down and manage it. For example, it might allow me to make a study schedule for my three exams. Referring to my relationship with my mom, Buddha has taught me that I need to reflect about all the reasons and aspects of our relationship I am stressing about. This will in turn permit me to brainstorm some ways to get our relationship back to where it was.



Studying for final exams are a common source of stress

            Vipashyana means “looking deeply” and is the second aspect of Buddhist meditation. Once we have stopped to really understand what is causing us stress, we need to think deeply and come up with what is truly causing this stress. Consequently, we gain insight. Thich Nhat Hanh writes that insight is “understanding the many causes and conditions, primary and secondary, that have brought our anger” (26), or stress in this case. Once we have realized these causes of our stress, it’s much easier to understand where it is coming from and put it into perspective. For example, if I think deeply about my stress for my final exams, I’ll realize that I have plenty of time to prepare and come with ways to do so. Once you think deeply about your stress, you start to believe that it’s not as serious or as big of a deal as you thought it was in the beginning before you stopped to actually think about it. Regarding my mom and I, when I think deeply about where this stress comes from and ways to fix it, I realize that it’s going to take a great means of communication. It takes a lot of effort and passion to get a relationship back to where you want it to be, especially when you don’t live together. Applying Buddha’s technique of gaining insight, I have come up with ways to improve our relationship, such as calling her more often and taking time out of my schedule to visit her. I believe both of these actions will strengthen the bond between my mom and I, possibly make it stronger than it ever was.

 

References

 

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. New York City: First Broadway, 1999. Print.