However, thoughtlessness might not be every practitioner’s goal. The experience of meditating varies between practitioners, as do their end goals. Some meditate for improving their concentration, some for inner peace, others for connecting with the divine. Buddhist monk Tenzin Legtsok says, “As individuals, each person can have their own reasons for meditating and their own goals. However, the true purpose of meditation is enlightenment, freedom from suffering, and the perfection of all positive qualities.”
Legtsok’s idea of meditation is a spiritual one, whereby the practitioner strives to achieve a sense of unity with the divine and an end to one’s worldly woes. Similarly, in some Hindu traditions, the goal of dhyana (meditation) is to realise one’s atman (soul), while in others it is to unite the purusha (self) with the prakriti (universal consciousness). One thing that’s common among these beliefs is that meditation invariably leads to an elevated sense of spiritual awareness.
Many meditation trainers and practitioners believe that the more spiritually aware they are, the better their productivity in the physical world. Meditation, they vouch, not only makes them more efficient with their everyday tasks, but also changes their mindset positively, thereby bringing them inner peace. According to pranic healer and Arhatic yoga practitioner Jeanne D’Arc, the physical body, the energy body, the brain and the mind are all in a symbiotic relationship. She explains, “Divine prana (universal energy) has the capacity to alter life and we can derive an infinite amount of this prana through meditation. It flows through the individual’s energy body, the mind, the physical body and the brain.”