Zikr vs Sitting Meditation.

And this loneliness won't leave me alone. There are days when one slips sliding back into the state of doubtfulness, of dependency, of  wondering what the heck is going on in one's life and there is only one self to look at for answers; what to do? A friend posted on Face Book a video about Zikirullah or the chant to Allah, albeit His Names or simply reciting the Shahadah or profession to becoming a Muslim. my friend was not answering my question but indirectly he did as he reminded me of all the ways and methods of deviating the mind from over indulging into doubtful thoughts that often than not leads to depression. Zikr or the MUslim form of continuous chants through the recitation of the Verses from the Quran, or simply reciting the Name Allah is a very effective form of meditation and various other religious and spiritual practices has developed one form of chanting or another for the purpose of bringing the mind under control at least focused on something more spiritual and positive than dwelling upon the negative energies. If you have had a chance to travel the Middle Eastern countries one would notice how most of the people especially the men would have a bead or rosary in their hand and they keep counting the beads non stop. More often then not they look calm and collected as compared to those around them who are less centered.

Counting the rosary beads while reciting one thing or another is one way of not allowing for the mind to keep occupying one's thoughts with whatever it fancies and often the mind has more negative thoughts to share than positive at least find it out for myself. The continuous chant or recitation provides a barrier that does not allow for any irrelevant thoughts to penetrate into one's consciousness. It is like a cassette tape that is fully loaded and one cannot add anymore data into it even if one wants to. The longer the time span of the Zikr or chant, the longer is the consciousness free from unwanted interruption to the conscious mind. In a way it is self hypnotic al and has its drawbacks as one becomes dependent upon this state  and the mind become petrified and looses its flexibility. Meditation devoid of any crutches such as chant and dances and so forth is pure and free of any dependence; thus this Blogger recommends simply Sitting Meditation and counting the ins and outs of breath as the toll towards achieving single-mindedness.