Meditation is usually considered to be a spiritual practice reserved for people who are mentally healthy and relatively fulfilled.
But if we consider meditation as a way of inquiring into the nature of our being, we can easily understand that it is a central point in psychological treatments.
When we speak about myself, we usually refer to a set of patterns constituting the personality and to a physical form named "my body".
All sufferings and emotional reactions are related to this "I", considered to be a personality and a body.
When we regard suffering to be the result of external conditions, it may seem curious to propose an investigation on the nature of the I to people who are disappointed by their life.
But it is the role of the therapist to orientate the focus of the patient towards the source of the problem and not to collude with him/her in the ordinary escaping of the true questions.
With a gentle dialogue and subtle invitation, the therapist can help to facilitate the understanding that tension, depression and suffering are caused by an immature perspective which considers both the cause of happiness and the remedy of suffering as external.
Meditation can be considered first of all to be a new way of listening and observing, free from choices and judgments.
The art of cleaning perception from mental interpretation is the basis of an approach which is global and no longer emotional.
This proposal of transforming seeing and listening can be considered as therapeutic, because it creates an immediate feeling of space and silence which helps to release the suffering.
Here the therapist needs some experience and pedagogy for using words which could be accepted and understood by the listener.
The trust which is necessary for a therapeutic relationship is often the result of a feeling that the words and the proposed orientation are not only ideas and theories, but come from the inner experience of the therapist.
When these conditions are present, the clear perception of a quietness that is no longer related to the circumstances can be experienced as an immediate reality.
By being in touch with this spontaneous quality of being, a new hope arises in the heart of the patient.
The therapist does not appear therefore as a therapist but as a friend who is sharing a common treasure.
When the therapist does not relate to him/herself as a therapist, and the patient does not relate to him/herself as a patient, a true relationship arises which is no longer subject-object related, but is a direct expression of a feeling that both of them have something in common, a background that we could call love and unity.
From this perspective, health can be restored, not as a distant dream, but as a quality of being which is already present.
The emphasis is no more on the idea of sickness, but on the awakening of a health which is looking for itself.
Abstract of a lecture proposed at the Lahti conference on Mental
Health.
Lahti, Finland, July 1997