by Andrew Hodge | June 18, 2009

"If music be the food of love, play on." wrote the great Bard more than seven centuries earlier, and the statement is as true today as it was then. Music has always been a very important part of human civilisation and its importance in the development of human society cannot be undermined. Just like its influence in other facets of human development, music is also an important part of relaxation. Soothing music calms the nerves and draws the tension and stress of day to day life from our mind. Music does to the mind what a massage does to the body.

by Andrew Hodge | May 6, 2009

Meditation is not easily definable: depending upon the context, there can be many different types of meditation and thus many different definitions. Let us compare two definitions from authorities we can rely upon. The first definition is from that great tome, 'The Encyclopedia Britannica'. It defines meditation as 'private devotion or mental exercise consisting in any of innumerable techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction, regarded as conducive to heightened spiritual awareness or somatic calm.' The other definition is taken from the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia which says that meditation is a 'religious discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. It may be a means of invoking divine grace, as in the contemplation by Christian mystics of a spiritual theme, question, or problem; or it may be a means of attaining conscious union with the divine, e.g., through visualization of a deity or inward repetition of a prayer or mantra (sacred sound).' The common point between these two and all other definitions is the same; meditation is the act of consciously directing your attention to alter your state of consciousness.

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