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Leah Russell3 min

Mindfulness and Meditation for the Modern World

May 22, 2023

What are we really seeking from a meditation or mindfulness practice? Charmian Evans speaks to Deepak Chopra and Caroline Myss to find out

Deepak Chopra doesn’t believe in being positive. ‘It’s very exasperating when you’re not feeling it’, he tells me. ‘It just creates more stress. I believe in a quiet mind – that’s the value of meditation’. Caroline Myss, on the other hand, doesn’t practise meditation at all. She’s renowned as a teacher and author and prefers to pray – as her latest book, Intimate Conversations with the Divine: Prayer, Guidance and Grace, depicts.

Ritualising mindfulness

Deepak Chopra is Mr Meditation. He took up the practice as a doctor in 1980, when he worked in Massachusetts and was a disciple of a maharishi there. For decades now he has issued meditations for every sort of situation, and they’re truly wonderful to listen to. For many, meditation is a ritual which requires music, candles and incense sticks before they can even think of shutting their eyes. Is all of that necessary, I ask him? ‘I didn’t partake of any rituals myself, and I didn’t think they were necessary’, Chopra says. ‘But as I got more interested in meditation, I saw people doing it without the ritual. I discovered, to my amazement, that minus the rituals, the compliance wasn’t that good. So when you go back to the traditional ways – including breathing, yoga, chanting – it amplifies the effect’. ‘It’s not necessary, but that’s why spiritual aspects have always had rituals. They’re a way to trap energy, focus attention and channel the attention and intention – which is why they’ve existed forever. Why do we have a ritual called the national anthem? Why do we salute the flag, or have birthday celebrations?’

Engaging the senses, or disengaging?

Caroline Myss doesn’t believe people need rituals to communicate. ‘People don’t need it. It’s the same thing that’s happening when some people get all dressed up to go for a walk and then call it exercise. They “need” certain clothes, specialist bottles of water and so on, whereas all they’re doing is going for a walk’. ‘They feel that they have to engage all their senses, when in fact, prayer is the release of all senses. For some people it sets an atmosphere, and the atmosphere is very comforting to them. It signals tranquillity, signifying that this is a sacred place’.

Meditation and prayer

Prayer, to Deepak, is ‘a mental activity. It’s a kind of intentional activity. You’re speaking to a higher consciousness which actually is symbolically a part of yourself. There’s nothing out there, but you’re speaking to a more expanded version that you call “God”. That’s prayer. Meditation is just being quiet. It’s the other way round. Prayer is you speaking to God and the Divine, and meditation is the Divine speaking to you – in stillness’. Caroline has other thoughts. ‘For a lot of people, meditation isn’t about reaching a spiritual place’, she says. ‘Their interest is to de-stress. There are various levels, each equally valid. I never meditate. I never have, and would never ever do anything like that. I am, however, reflective in my inner life – but I wouldn’t call that classic meditation. I suppose it’s a form of meditation’. ‘I guess that with meditation, you concentrate on your breath work – which is very valuable. Breath is prana, a life force. It has a given focus. Prayer to me is a one-way, rich, joyous dialogue. I’m very conscious of saying how much I appreciate my life. It accommodates my need to break down my illusions. I feel elevated by that, and I feel I’m reaching for grace consciously’. For many, mindfulness is the way forward. ‘It’s an interesting word, because it actually has nothing to do with the mind’, says Deepak. ‘Mindfulness is being aware of an experience while you’re having it, and being aware of a choice while you’re making it. When you put awareness on any experience – sensory, sound, sight, smell, or even your body or the environment surrounding it – you’re being mindful’. ‘If you put mindful awareness on any object, the whole universe will reveal itself to you. It’s very profound, but that’s not how people are interpreting mindfulness right now. They think it’s a nice way to relax. People who created and nurtured the idea of mindfulness were not trying to relax – they were pretty relaxed already’. Read the full interview in our March/April 2023 issue.

Intimate Conversations with the Divine: Prayer, Guidance and Grace by Caroline Myss (£14.99, Hay House). For those interested in more details or for the opportunity to take part in Deepak Chopra’s world-saving campaign, please email hello@kindredspirit.co.uk with the subject line ‘Deepak Chopra, c/o Kindred Spirit’. Caroline Myss: myss.com Deepak Chopra: deepakchopra.com