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Rasta Meditates with Brendon Thomas for Surf Tip

What about the religious aspect of meditation? Do the two go hand in hand?

Meditation is unique to every human being. Religion has nothing to do with this, that’s my perspective and I wouldn’t tell anyone otherwise, but from my experience when you are in that meditative state you do feel the reality that we are all one mass and movement, energy and life. That there are no gaps between us. Saying that, religion is a part of it because everything is a part of it, the dudes that blow up people in bombings are connected and a part of me and you and everything on this planet, in this universe everything is totally linked and that’s the feeling you experience when you are in these meditative states and that is why it probably has got stigma attached to it because I guess religions, governments, and mainstream groups of humans are threatened by that. Threatened by the fact that someone who meditates is not going to buy into a war or fighting someone, is not going to buy into feeling separate from another person and therefore taking something from them or abusing them or taking conflict and threatening idea to the governing forces of our world.

How did you get into Meditation?

When I was a grommet, I felt these kinda feelings from going surfing. Just feeling really connected to a place and life around me and then the feelings from tube riding. Feelings of absolute bliss and ecstasy. I read some people writing articles on yoga and meditation and I found that the things they were saying about yoga and meditation sounded just like things that some of our more articulate surfers would say about surfing, you know Gerry Lopez, John Peck, Albe Falzon and people throughout the surfing world who I guess are quite articulate that seemed to me that they were describing the same experience that the old meditations gurus were talking about. A feeling of connection of mindless or mindful of clarity or intense exhilaration and joy. Also hearing them how they couldn’t describe accurately the experience of oneness and joy in meditation and I was listening to surfers say how they couldn’t describe the experience of tube riding and how amazing it feels. If That kind of got me very curious and I was like, "This is amazing; these dudes that live in the hills in the Himalayas are talking in the same way that the guys who are living in Hawaii and riding a tube at pipe or something," and I basically just went from there.

What can someone who is new to mediation expect?

Everyone has their own experience, it's much like surfing, nobody can go out and tell anybody how to ride a wave and that’s where surfing is such a great analogy to all of this. No one can tell you how to meditate, you must sit down and feel the bliss of being meditated. Just like surfing, you go out and do what you do and it comes out naturally.

How long should you meditate for?

The clock doesn’t really matter but an hour is really great. If it's 5 minutes a day, that’s all time, if you do it for five minutes a day you will really notice a vast improvement in your mental capacity to do stuff to communicate to think clearly.

How does it affect your surfing?

Mediation is about sharpening the mind; you watch your thoughts and become very aware and sharp with your senses and you know that surfing is all about your senses - it’s a feeling. It's purely about your senses and how you feel your surfboard against you and your toes and heals and how you feel the wave and what you hear in front of you and how you look at the wave bending down the line. That’s a form of observation and really with meditation you’re becoming very sensitive and a witness of your mind and body and really when you go out in the water that translates to good surfing.

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