Meditation leads us to live without expectations
He is coordinator of the Brians prison psychiatric hospital and father of a new method to calm the mind.
How to relax in a traffic jam?
The sociologist, author of 'Immediate Meditation', explains in a didactic way how to meditate quickly and effectively anywhere, even in the car.
Vicenç Alujas (Barcelona, 1962) is convinced that the change we expect in the world "is in ourselves." In order to achieve this purpose, he combines the coordination of the only prison psychiatric hospital in Spain, Brians, with meditation and coaching. Alujas is a sociologist and has studied psychology, Personal Development and Leadership, meditation and mindfulness. He is also the creator and disseminator of a new method to free the mind, a practice he explains in the book Immediate Meditation (Angle Editorial). "For change to occur we have to have a calm mind, " he says.
- What cracks our inner peace?
- The day to day and the fact that we are afraid to know ourselves: being unemployed, silent and calm causes us terror. It also takes away a lot of energy and attacks the immune system what we call wandering mind or monkey mind, that situation in which thoughts go through the branches, jump from one place to another and we think fifty thousand things at once.
- What causes the wandering mind?
- Lack of awareness.
- So, it's about getting to the presence state ...
- What is the culmination of meditation, which is achieved with full awareness, realizing in each moment of the here and now.
- When we don't realize what we do, are we unhappy?
- Right. Happiness is linked to positive and negative emotions; Many times where happiness is, there is unhappiness, but I advise the middle state, the balance, the welfare. Meditation leads us to live without expectations or ambitions, which lead absolutely to nothing. You have to live every day, the second to second, the here and now.
- But why do we often insist on setting ourselves goals that exceed us?
- Through our ego, an emotional survival mechanism that imposes objectives that are not logical or within a real context, while meditation helps us to be ourselves. It could simply be said that we need a change of focus, from outside to inside.
- What led you to meditate?
- I realized that there was another way to live much calmer and more conscious and that I could get it through meditation. At first, I did not meditate regularly because I mistakenly linked it to religions and sects, but when I realized that in yoga, which I also practice, meditation was done, I became more and more involved.
- One of the main drawbacks of meditation is often the lack of time, what do you propose to solve it?
- A very important Buddhist monk of the twentieth century said: "Who does not have time to meditate, does not have time to breathe." Meditation is closely related to breathing and the vital state, it has existed for 2, 500 years, but like everything else in life, it is evolving. Immediate meditation, which does not mean fast, but here and now, takes advantage of any circumstance to practice.
- How is the difference from another type of meditation?
- In simplicity, which is very easy and practical. I want to demonstrate to everyone that he is interested that there is no need to make extravagant movements, go to monasteries or to India and Nepal to meditate.
- In which parts is it divided?
- Stop (1 minute), accept (5 minutes), discern (10 minutes) and release - full liberation - (20 minutes).
- Any place is good to do it?
- Yes, we can meditate in a park, in a car, while we wait for someone or we are stuck in a traffic retention, it can also be done while we walk or run realizing the sensations when stepping on the ground, how the air gives us in the face, how we breathe ... In this way we can reach many kilometers, even a marathon, I have achieved it.
- What is the weirdest place where you have meditated?
- Washing my hands, in the shower, in the subway, on the bus and on a plane, where I did a very nice meditation: I put the seat upright, my feet on the floor, I focused on the location –the seat-, then on the plane piece, then on the whole plane and when I was expanding I realized that I was in the sky, I was making waves and it seemed that I was mediating in the universe.
- Did it go unnoticed by the other passengers?
- There is one of the great advantages of immediate meditation, which you can do without anyone noticing. People think you are numb, but you are fully aware of what you are doing.
- How does meditation benefit us?
- In everything: we will know ourselves, we will get more peace, security, health, the interior space we need, calm, be who we really are.
- Do you put it into practice in your work?
- Yes, I advise people that every hour or every two hours look to stop a minute. I think it's vital, key, it makes the workday different from what it was before.
- Do you also advise the prisoners you are treating?
- No, I work with the mentally ill and according to what kind of psychopathy - psychotic and personality disorders - it is not advisable; for neurotics - he who has the misfortune or the defect of complicating life - yes.
- Explain yourself.
- There are many people who stumble several times on the same stone: they need to calm the mind, sit down and be aware of it. Immediate meditation is the best remedy to end that neurosis. You automatically minimize external problems. The key is to accept them; Things are the way they are.
- It may seem a conformist attitude ...
- It means simply accepting, not resigning. If I have a job that I don't like, I accept it, but I don't resign myself to not finding a better one. Accepting is key, we must forget the self, which exists because others exist.
- In this way the suffering is cushioned?
- You have to know how to differentiate pain and suffering. For example, if I hit you with a hammer in your hand it will cause you pain, but if you think about it in three months, that is suffering. Pain has no remedy, it must be passed; Suffering is optional and must be avoided.
Can meditation become an addiction?
No. There are several fallacies about meditation and one is this. Addiction is the maximum degree of misunderstanding, such as tobacco, alcohol or the gym. Simply, meditation calms the mind; Once it is calm, it does not ask for more, it is a state of petition from a cause external to your internal self.
Buy the book on Amazon.co.uk:
Immediate meditation: Free your mind here and now
Source: La Vanguardia
