(Short Conversation) Is Meditation To Escape Reality?

A: You used to say that meditation is a way to escape reality. Is that the main benefit of meditation?

B: There're many methods in meditation. Not mention that meditation has similar synonyms, such as "yoga", "samadhi", or maybe even "zikir" in Islam. I'm not an expert in religion or philosophy. I just think that meditation has individual sensation to the person doing it. For me, yes it can help me escape reality. But, it might have different sensation to other people. 

A: I see. How long do you do meditation? Is the longer time means the better one?

B: I never count how long I do meditation. Maybe its around 20-30 minutes. Other people might do it shorter or longer than I do. It doesn't matter. The longer or the shorter time doesn't mean anything in meditation. The most important thing is the result... we have healthier mind, body, and soul. Never feel "superior" if we do meditation longer than others. Meditation is supposed to let go our ego and arrogance, not to gain it. 

A: You also used to say that you like doing meditation with listening to music in the same time. What shocks me a lot is... you listen to metal music! It's weird, man...

B: Once again, meditation has strong relation with individual perception. Maybe I did use to say that, but I never recommended it to anyone, did I? When I listen to metal music while doing meditation, I always set the volume to the lower level. In addition, not all metal music have vocalist or singer. Some metal music are instrumental. 

A: Really? I never notice that. OK, many references say meditation is also healthy. What do you think?

B: I'm not a doctor. Speaking about being healthy, I think it's also related with many other factors... our life style, smoker or not smoker, active or passive in doing daily sport, alcoholic or not alcoholic, drug user or not, the food we consume, etc. It's nonsense we can be healthy simply by doing meditation, but reject other healthy life style factors. 

A: OK, doc...no, bro. Haha... where do you usually doing meditation? Is doing meditation in a Buddhist temple (vihara) better?

B: In my room. Doing meditation can be done anywhere, in a Buddhist temple, in our room, in the mountain, on the river banks, in the car, in the living room, etc... as long as it enables us to gain peace of mind. But, I think it's impossible to do meditation in coffee shop, mall, supermarket, music concert, meeting room, and any other noisy-crowded places.