Meditation

✴ What is Meditation?

Meditation is that which gives you deep rest. Meditation is an activity in which the practitioner just sits and allows the mind to dissolve. Meditation is a simplified activity which can easily be practiced by all. Meditation is not concentration. The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens.

✴  Benefits of Meditation

1.       There are numerous benefits of meditation. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene.

2.       A calm mind

3.       Good concentration

4.       Clarity of perception

5.       Improvement in communication

6.       Blossoming of skills and talents

7.       An unshakeable inner strength

8.       Healing

9.       The ability to connect to an inner source of energy

10.   Relaxation, rejuvenation, and good luck are all natural results of meditating regularly.

✴  Meditation Tips

       Simple meditation techniques to help a beginner. Tips so simple, yet very effective to have a    deeper meditation experience:  

1.       Choose a convenient time and place

2.       Sit comfortably with a light stomach

3.       Start with some warm-up exercises, deep breaths

4.       Smile and more...

✴  How to meditate

1.       Choose a clean, distraction-free spot or room in your home, though you can do it sitting in your chair at the office during lunch-hour, too! If it is at home, it is better not to use this space for any other activity.

2.       Ensure the lighting is soothing and the ventilation sufficient – and the noise-levels under control.

3.       You can listen to guided meditations, but it is better to start with a group.

4.       Meditate at the same time every day, so it becomes a sustainable routine. Early morning is an optimal time.

5.       Don’t overdo it. Start by meditating for 10-15 minutes. Keep a timer

6.       Shut up – the cell phone. Tell your family you are on Do Not Disturb mode for a short spell of time, till your meditation is over.

7.       And, please, wear comfortable clothes, preferably of natural fabric.

✴  Importance of meditation

1.       Meditation is food for the soul: it nourishes the universal values of compassion, caring and sharing, responsibility, non-violence and peacefulness. It helps us bond with others. These are important values to guide us and make us accept all of mankind as our family: more so in times when the world is being fragmented.

2.       Humankind has an innate tendency to look for a joy that does not diminish, and meditation fulfils this important need.

3.       Even when everything is going fine for us we often find ourselves being restless. Meditation can relax our stress – conscious and unconscious – and give us the sense of comfort and stability that every human being craves.

4.       It helps us meet life’s ups and downs with centeredness, confidence and resourcefulness. Importantly, it gives us resilience so that we can not only can we remain unshaken by storms of emotions that come in everyone’s lives, but also get back on track sooner.

5.       Meditation is the greatest grief-counselor. Ever.

✴  Advantages of meditation

1.       At work: today’s levels of stress makes meditation a no-brainer: it helps us achieve that all-important work-life balance, enhances mental clarity and decision-making skills and nurtures trust, creativity, innovation and intuition.

2.       Improves our relationships. We develop a pleasant, sociable personality, and are able to accept people as they are. These are important skills in any sphere, more so at the, workplace, where teamwork is crucial.

3.       It gives a deep sense of health and well-being as, regularly practiced, the mind, body and spirit benefit immensely. The deep rest it offers makes us more dynamic in activity.

4.       If you are one of those who find forgiveness difficult, then regular meditation is just the ticket for you!

12 LAWS OF KARMA THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

 

1. THE GREAT LAW - As you sow, so shall you reap. This is also known as the "Law of Cause and effect."

 2. THE LAW OF CREATION - Life doesn't just happen. It requires our participation.

 3. THE LAW OF HUMILITY - You can't change something if you refuse to accept it.

 4. THE LAW OF GROWTH - When we change who and what we are within our hearts, our lives follow suit and change too.

 5. THE LAW OF RESPONSIBILITY - We must take responsibility for what is in our life.

 6. THE LAW OF CONNECTION - Neither the first step nor the last are of greater significance, as they were both needed to accomplish the task.

7. THE LAW OF FOCUS - You cannot think of two things at the same time.

8. THE LAW OF GIVING AND HOSPITALITY - Give without  expectation of receiving anything in return.

 9. THE LAW OF HERE AND NOW - Looking backward to examine what was or forward to worry about the future prevent us from being totally in the here and now.

 10. THE LAW OF CHANGE - History repeat itself until we learn the lessons  we need to learn.

 11. THE LAW OF PATIENCE AND REWARD - True joy comes from doing what we're supposed to be doing, and knowing that the reward will come in its own time.

 12. THE LAW OF SIGNIFICANCE AND INSPIRATION - The true value of something is a direct  result of the energy and intent that is put into it.

What is life? What does it mean to be alive?

You are alive, and so am I. The dog I can hear barking is alive, and so is the tree outside my window. However, snow falling from the clouds is not alive. The computer you’re using to read this article is not alive, and neither is a chair or table. The parts of a chair that are made of wood were once alive, but they aren’t any longer. If you were to burn the wood in a fire, the fire would not be alive either.

What is it that defines life? How can we tell that one thing is alive and another is not? Most people have an intuitive understanding of what it means for something to be alive. However, it’s surprisingly hard to come up with a precise definition of life. Because of this, many definitions of life are operational definitions—they allow us to separate living things from nonliving ones, but they don’t actually pin down what life is. To make this separation, we must come up with a list of properties that are, as a group, uniquely characteristic of living organisms.

Properties of life

Biologists have identified various traits common to all the living organisms we know of. Although nonliving things may show some of these characteristic traits, only living things show all of them.

1. Organization

Living things are highly organized, and all living organisms are made up of one or more cells, which are considered the fundamental units of life. Individual cells perform complex biochemical processes needed to maintain their structure and function, and each cell is highly organized.

Unicellular organisms consist of only a single cell, while multicellular organisms—such as humans—are made up of many cells. The cells in multicellular organisms may be specialized to do different jobs and are organized into tissues, such as connective tissue, epithelial tissue, muscle, and nervous tissue. Tissues make up organs, such as the heart or lungs, which carry out specific functions needed by the organism as a whole.

Left: unicellular bacterium, with the exterior of the cell cut away to show the multiple layers of the cell and the DNA in its interior. Center: multicellular tissues in humans. Small drawings of connective tissue, epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. Right: diagram of a human upper body, showing one location where epithelial tissue like that shown in the center panel could be found—the lining of the mouth.

Image credit: left, modified from "Prokaryote cell by Ali Zifan (CC BY-SA 4.0), modified image is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license; center, modified from "Four types of tissue" by the National Institutes of Health (public domain); right, modified from "Pseudo stratified Ciliated Columnar" by Blausen staff (CC BY 3.0)

2. Metabolism

Life depends on an enormous number of interlocking chemical reactions. These reactions make it possible for organisms to do work—such as moving around or catching prey—as well as growing, reproducing, and maintaining the structure of their bodies. Living things must use energy and consume nutrients to carry out the chemical reactions that sustain life. The sum total of the biochemical reactions occurring in an organism is called its metabolism.

Metabolism can be subdivided into anabolism and catabolism. In anabolism, organisms make complex molecules from simpler ones, while in catabolism, they do the reverse. Anabolic processes typically consume energy, whereas catabolic processes can make stored energy available.

3. Homeostasis

Living organisms regulate their internal environment to maintain the relatively narrow range of conditions needed for cell function. For instance, your body temperature needs to be kept relatively close to 98.6^\circ​∘​​degreeF (37^\circ​∘​​degreeC). This maintenance of a stable internal environment, even in the face of a changing external environment, is known as homeostasis.

Image of a jackrabbit in the desert, showing the rabbit's very thin—almost see-through—heavily veined ears, which are used for heat dissipation.

4. Growth

Living organisms undergo regulated growth. Individual cells become larger in size, and multicellular organisms accumulate many cells through cell division. You yourself started out as a single cell and now have tens of trillions of cells in your body^1​1​​start superscript, 1, end superscript! Growth depends on anabolic pathways that build large, complex molecules such as proteins and DNA, the genetic material.

5. Reproduction

Living organisms can reproduce themselves to create new organisms. Reproduction can be either asexual, involving a single parent organism, or sexual, requiring two parents. Single-celled organisms, like the dividing bacterium shown in the left panel of the image at right, can reproduce themselves simply by splitting in two!

Left: image of a Salmonella bacterium dividing into two bacteria. Right: image of a sperm and egg meeting in fertilization.

Image credit: left, "Salmonella typhimurium" by Janice Carr (public domain); right, "Sperm-egg," (public domain)

In sexual reproduction, two parent organisms produce sperm and egg cells containing half of their genetic information, and these cells fuse to form a new individual with a full genetic set. This process, called fertilization, is illustrated in the image at far right.

6. Response

Living organisms show “irritability,” meaning that they respond to stimuli or changes in their environment. For instance, people pull their hand away—fast!—from a flame; many plants turn toward the sun; and unicellular organisms may migrate toward a source of nutrients or away from a noxious chemical.

Short movie (GIF) of a Mimosa pudicaplant responding to touch. When the tip of a branch is touched, the leaves on that branch rapidly fold inwards in series, starting with those closest to the touched point.

7. Evolution

Populations of living organisms can undergo evolution, meaning that the genetic makeup of a population may change over time. In some cases, evolution involves natural selection, in which a heritable trait, such as darker fur color or narrower beak shape, lets organisms survive and reproduce better in a particular environment. Over generations, a heritable trait that provides a fitness advantage may become more and more common in a population, making the population better suited to its environment. This process is called adaptation.

Is this the definitive list?

Living organisms have many different properties related to being alive, and it can be hard to decide on the exact set that best defines life. Thus, different thinkers have developed different lists of the properties of life. For instance, some lists might include movement as a defining characteristic, while others might specify that living things carry their genetic information in the form of DNA. Still others might emphasize that life is carbon-based.

Image of a mule on a farm. The mule looks similar to a donkey and is clearly a living animal, despite the fact that it cannot reproduce.

Image credit: "Mule head" by Skeeze (public domain).

It’s also true that the list above is not foolproof. For instance, a mule, the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey, is unable to reproduce. However, most biologists (along with everyone else) would consider a mule, pictured at right, to be alive. A similar point is illustrated in this amusing story: a group of scientists had, after much debate, decided that ability to reproduce was the key property of life. To their disappointment, someone pointed out that a lone rabbit did not meet this bar^2​2​​start superscript, 2, end superscript.

Nonetheless, the list above provides a reasonable set of properties to help us distinguish between things that are alive and those that are not.

Separating living and non-living things

How well do the properties above allow us to determine whether or not something is alive? Let’s revisit the living and nonliving things we saw in the introduction as a test.

The living things we saw in the introduction—humans, dogs, and trees—easily fulfill all seven criteria of life. We, along with our canine friends and the plants in our yards, are made of cells, metabolize, maintain homeostasis, grow, and respond. Humans, dogs, and trees are also capable of reproducing, and their populations undergo biological evolution.

Nonliving things may show some, but not all, properties of life. For instance, crystals of snow are organized—though they don't have cells—and can grow but don’t meet the other criteria of life. Similarly, a fire can grow, reproduce by creating new fires, and respond to stimuli and can arguably even be said to “metabolize.” However, fire is not organized, does not maintain homeostasis, and lacks the genetic information required for evolution.

Living things may keep some properties of life when they become nonliving, but lose others. For instance, if you looked at the wood in a chair under a microscope, you might see traces of the cells that used to make up the living tree. However, the wood is no longer alive, and, having been made into a chair, can no longer grow, metabolize, maintain homeostasis, respond, or reproduce.

What counts as life is still being defined.

The question of what it means to be alive remains unresolved. For instance, viruses—tiny protein and nucleic acid structures that can only reproduce inside host cells—have many of the properties of life. However, they do not have a cellular structure, nor can they reproduce without a host. Similarly, it’s not clear that they maintain homeostasis, and they don’t carry out their own metabolism.

Diagram of a virus. The virus consists of a nucleic acid genome inside an external protein coat.

Image credit: Image modified from "Enveloped icosahedral virus," by Anderson Brito (CC BY-SA 3.0; the modified image is licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license

For these reasons, viruses are not generally considered to be alive. However, not everyone agrees with this conclusion, and whether they count as life remains a topic of debate. Some even simpler molecules, such as self-replicating proteins—like the “prions” that cause mad cow disease—and self-replicating RNA enzymes, also have some, but not all, of the properties of life.

Moreover, all of the properties of life we have discussed are characteristic of life on earth. If extraterrestrial life exists, it may or may not share the same characteristics. Indeed, NASA’s working definition that “life is a self-sustaining system capable of Darwinian evolution” opens the door to many more possibilities than the criteria defined above^3​3​​start superscript, 3, end superscript. However, this definition also makes it hard to quickly decide whether something is alive!

As more types of biological entities are discovered, on Earth or beyond, they may demand that we re-think what it means for something to be alive. Future discoveries may call for revisions and extensions of the definition of life.

What do you think?

How would you define life? Would you add something to the list of properties above, subtract something, or use an entirely different definition? Can you think of exceptions or special cases that aren’t covered by the list? Share your ideas in the comments section below!