Why is meditation....?

Question

I was just outside, I stared at a bottle of coke. I focused on it, and my vision dimmed all around except for that object. The things in my sight besides the coke became dim and I lost my thought, and didnt think of anything at all as long as I stared. Why is that when you meditate this, among other things happen?

Answer 1

You were observing a physical effect, not necessarily the same as meditation, although it might be something like a paradigm of a beginning experience in meditation. The optic nerve is one of principal nerves and central to the brain's function, over stimulation produces an overload and momentarily blocks neural activity. In true meditation consciousness is maintained, but at a heightened level, drastically and fundamentally different from the effect you noticed. It is said as one commences Zen rivers no longer are rivers, nor roads roads, nor mountains mountains, When one accomplishes Zen rivers are rivers, roads roads, and mountains mountains.

Answer 2

In meditation, one dives within. The attention is turned inward; thoughts slow down; may stop altogether.
Sight is the most active of human senses. A roving eye leads to roving thoughts. Stilling the sight by focusing on a single object, tends to still the mind as well.

A coke bottle is a common object without much emotional connotations. It could as well have been a pebble.

Since there is no movement the brain just shuts off perceiving the inputs. In that sense, any object can be a point of focus for meditation. It is just a means to move inward.

There is nothing religious about meditation, unless one deliberately sets out to meditate on one's 'God'.