meditation is not concentration but many times meditation is wrongly associated with concentration exercises. in fact meditation and concentration are totally opposite to each other like north pole and south pole.
concentration means narrowing down your consciousnessย on an object, image, mantra or symbol. e.g. when you chant any mantra then you are putting your total attention on that mantra and ignoring all other sensory perceptions. your total focus and attention is on mantra chanting. that is you are excluding everything from your attention and totally focusing on chanting. that exclusion from every thing and focusing on one thing like a object, mantra, image, symbol etc is concentration. it narrows your attention to a small area of reality.
meditation is expansion of consciousness. in meditation you don’t exclude any thing. it is an experience of expansion. in meditation you allow all sense organs to work at their fullest. its about living in the present moment and experience everything as it is.
e.g. you are sitting in your garden then birds may be chirping then you are simply hearing their chirping. you are not blocking or choosing any particular sound to reach you.ย but simply aware of all the sounds reaching your ears. at the same time, you are also aware about thoughts and feelings coming inside you. in meditation you don’t block any experience to come to your attention. in meditation. you just become a witness to everything and remain passive watcher. you see and experience the nature and life in its full glory. another definition of meditation is ‘relaxed awareness’.
difference betweenย concentration and meditation:
1. in concentration your mind is focused on one object, so it makes the mind strong. whereas in meditation, we become master of the mind and the mind control over you decreases. meditation takes you to no-mind state which is very blissful.
2. concentration always brings a lot of tension. you can not practice concentration for long time at a stretch because it tires you. where as meditation makes you calm, relax and more blissful. you can practice meditation for much longer duration. meditation actually recharges you emotionally and spiritually.
3. concentration is good for scientific work or any kind of work where you need to focus hard or to analyze any problem. meditation is good for growing in spirituality and also to expand your consciousness. meditation can also be learnt to live a stress free life.ย practicing meditation is ideal for a spiritual seeker.
4. concentration exercise will make your eyes very tense, focused and narrowed down. whereas eyes of a person who is practicing meditation is relax and open…. it will be more like eyes of a child but they will have lot of depth. meditative eyes are not at all tense. whenever you go to a spiritual person then look at his eyes. if the eyes are focused and tense then avoid him. because his spiritual powers will be because of concentration exercises… which is not a sign of high spiritual development. a real spiritual person does not try to attain powers/siddhis but his search is for truth.