In today’s world, most of us would agree that meditation can contribute significantly to our mental and physical well-being. The act of listening, seeing, and touching can easily be transformed into very effective forms of meditation. The main focus of meditation is to be “in the present”; to be in the “here and now” – one denoting the place where someone presently is, while the other denoting the time in which someone is presently acting. Now, the question is: how is it possible to be “here and now”.
One way is to use our hearing and transform it into the act of listening. We hear a jumble of different sounds around us, but we can choose to listen to the sound that we want to hear. Listening to chirp or the sound of flowing water (it could be a mountain river or a stream) in a quiet place (with your eyes closed) is an effective meditation technique that will instill in us the sense of the present and the feeling for this “here and now”. This quiet place could be your bedroom or kitchen that offers a window with a view, large or small. Just by the side of the window, there could be a large, beautiful tree. At dawn, birds come to the tree (only God knows from where); and begins to sing their melodious songs. And you just keep on listening to their song, while sitting at your kitchen table or lying on your bed for as long as you are comfortable with it.
Another way is to use our vision and transform it from the ‘act of looking’ into the ‘act of seeing’. We usually look around us, but we can choose to see. Seeing deep into the inner aspects of things in nature (mountain, tree, sky, Lake with placid water Etc.) in a quiet place is an effective meditation technique that will instill in us the sense of the present and the feeling for the “here and now”. Seeing deep within the outer aspect of a tree for some time at dawn when everything is quite is an excellent instance of this sort of meditation. Bedroom or kitchen window with the view of a large, beautiful tree at some distance from the house is an ideal setting for meditation as such.
Feeling something on the skin is yet another meditation technique that we can easily make use of through our experience of taking a shower. Our conscious feeling of the coolness of water (with our eyes closed) as it flows down on our skin during a shower is an excellent instance of this sort of meditation that keeps us in the present, here and now.
Reciting Koran is one of the best forms of Concentration Meditation. The act of reciting Koran involves eyes, mouth, and ears. While reciting Koran, one must pay very close attention to and should and must be very mindful of what one sees. What one sees one recites, following the specific and specified rules of Koranic Arabic and Koranic recitation (Arabic that is used in Koran is somewhat different in comparison with the ordinary Arabic language. This makes reciting Koran considerably different from Spoken Arabic.). And one should and must listen to all that comes out of one’s mouth (as one goes on reciting) without being unmindful for a moment; so that one doesn’t fail to listen any word that comes out of one’s mouth during the recitation.
During recitation of Holy Koran in this manner the focus changes as one’s eyes move from word to word, involving multiple and continuous points without any break in between. And it’s much easier than the conventional ‘concentration meditation’ where the focus is on a single point (This could entail watching the breath, repeating a single word or mantra, staring at a candle flame, listening to a repetitive gong or counting beads on a rosary). For, it’s easier to focus longer when the ‘object of focus’ is changing than focusing on a single point. Perfect coordination between the three organs (eyes, mouth, and ears) ensures perfect concordance between our seeing, saying, and hearing; this ultimately makes us deeply mindful and attentive; and our ‘wandering thoughts’ goes away.