Group vs Alone meditation
One can practice meditation in a group or alone. Are there any typical differences one can generalise about regarding these differing contexts? Or is everything just too variable to do that?
I have encountered differences, but am not quite sure how to express them here. Perhaps a greater sense of focus with a group, but perhaps not as deep, maybe...
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Group meditation is about attunement and entrainment
Hi Liberation,
In my experience, generally a group develops more 'power' and so can be more transformative. However it depends heavily on the group. If everyone is lost in their own thought, or their respective energy fields are very incongruent, then a person a very with high and congruent energy will find the intensity of their experience lessened. On the other hand, a person whose energy is very incongruent will find their experience heightened - providing of course they are self aware enough to notice the change in experience within them.
It is all to do with attunement and entrainment. If I was to play a chord on a guitar and there was another guitar in the room, the other guitar would play the same chord without anyone touching it - this is constructive resonance. The other guitar would play a much stronger sound if of course the strings are in tune. If they are not in tune, it will be very hard to hear the note from the guitar and if you were able to experience what the guitar was experiencing, it would just be a fuzzy vibration - this would be the same for someone meditating who is not 'intune'.
However, if the other guitar is well in tune, then there would be powerful constructive resonance between the two guitars and each would support and enhance the other's sound. This is called 'entrainment'.
When you sit in meditation with someone who has a high and congruent vibration, their consciousness causes yours to vibrate and resonate more powerfully than when you are alone. That's why traditionally the eastern gurus have many followers - they've worked on the congruence of their energy fields and many others can benefit from that.
Best wishes
Chris
varied experience of group meditation
My experience has been rather varied, and the 'depth' of meditational state has never depended on whether or not I have been within a group or alone... Some of the most enlightening experiences have arisen for me during group Openhand practice - When we are ready to open to a new and profound spiritual truth, it does not matter where we are, what we are doing, the truth is revealed regardless.
Having said that, we all enjoy a unique expression of the divine, and in my experience, there is always a natural pull, a natural flow of universal energy, that brings me to explore the methods that work in the best interests of my own evolution... This is infinately varied and exciting.
Trin
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