Magic of Meditation

Meditation

An ordinary person may consider meditation as a worship or prayer. But it is not so. Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.
Meditation is not a technique but a way of life. Meditation means 'a cessation of the thought process’. It describes a state of consciousness, when the mind is free of scattered thoughts and various patterns. The observer (one who is doing meditation) realizes that all the activity of the mind is reduced to one.
A Tibetan Lama was being monitored on a brain scan machine by a scientist wishing to test physiological functions during deep meditation. The scientist said - "Very good Sir. The machine shows that you are able to go very deep in brain relaxation, and that validates your meditation". "No", said the Lama, "This (pointing to his brain) validates the machine!".
These days it is commonly understood to mean some form of spiritual practice where one sits down with eyes closed and empties the mind to attain inner peace, relaxation or even an experience of God. Some people use the term as "my gardening is my meditation" or for jogging or art or music, hence creating confusion or misunderstanding.
The word meditation, is derived from two Latin words : meditari(to think, to dwell upon, to exercise the mind) and mederi (to heal). Its Sanskrit derivation 'medha' means wisdom.
Many years ago meditation was considered something just not meant for modern people, but now it has become very popular with all types of people. Published scientific and medical evidence has proved its benefits, but it still needs to be much understood.
Traditionally, the classical yoga texts, describe that to attain true states of meditation one must go through several stages. After the necessary preparation of personal and social code, physical position, breath control, and relaxation come the more advanced stages of concentration, contemplation, and then ultimately absorption. But that does not mean that one must perfect any one stage before moving onto the next. The Integral yoga approach is simultaneous application of a little of all stages together.
Commonly today, people can mean any one of these stages when they refer to the term meditation. Some schools only teach concentration techniques, some relaxation, and others teach free form contemplative activities like just sitting and awaiting absorption. Some call it meditation without giving credence to yoga for fear of being branded 'eastern'. But yoga is not something eastern or western as it is universal in its approach and application.
With regular practice of a balanced series of techniques, the energy of the body and mind can be liberated and the quality of consciousness can be expanded. This is not a subjective claim but is now being investigated by the scientists and being shown by an empirical fact.

There are two types of meditation - active and passive.
Active meditation relates to activities of everyday life such as walking, working, eating etc.This in fact is the aim of Yoga, to experience a meditative state in everyday life which has the effect of increasing performance manifold as the work is done with more efficiency and energy.
To achieve active meditation, passive meditation is required which involves taking time out to be seated and perform Meditation Techniques or practices. This is called passive as it involves withdrawing ourselves in calm, sitting postures to achieve a meditative state that can help us in our active life.
The aim of all passive meditation techniques is to still the mind from wavering and distracting thoughts and gradually make it one pointed.

Passive Meditation Techniques though of many kinds, essentially have the same modus operandi:

Stage 1: Introversion: Involves seating postures and awareness on an object. This has the effect of calming the mind and making it 'receptive' to see what's inside.

Stage 2: Introversion leads to the free flow of thoughts, visions, complexes, memories etc. from the lower mind. Our passions, fears, doubts and desires arise and we are now in a position to observe these and remove the undesirable content from our minds forever.

Stage 3: Having observed the lower mind, we are now in a position to explore the subconscious realms. It is here that real meditation begins. Our limitless storehouse of energy and knowledge starts manifesting itself.

Stage 4: Self realization: As these stages are transcended, supreme bliss is attained.
As you will see in the Meditation Techniques section, there are many mediation methods known today. Some are best for beginners; others are better tackled after a few years of experience. So to just give you a starting point the following method can be followed:
· Choose a time when you are not likely to be disturbed.
· Settle down in a place which has fresh air. If you so desire, having some incense around you will relax you. You may sit in any of the meditative poses depending on your comfort level, and to stay in that pose for a desired duration of time.
· Begin by learning to focus on something non-threatening. This will relax you, break your stress response.
· Concentrate on a subject that appeals to you- it could be a flower, a word, or the flame of a candle.
· Notice how your thoughts wander. Don't attempt to control them. Observe them with detachment.
Within a few weeks, you will notice a marked difference in your capacity to focus. This is the stepping stone to awareness

Sacred space

Balancing Act

1. To love playthings well as a child, to lead an adventurous and to settle when the time arrives, into a green and smiling age, is to live a good life and deserve well of yourself and your neighbour.

2. Balance, peace and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them

Strike a Balance to Achieve Harmony

The quality of our lives depends more on what we are inside than outside. But how many of us really look within? We need to think right. Hence it is essential to look within and create an order therein.
We are programmed to believe that happiness is outside. We are products of such programming. It has been ingrained in us that joy and happiness are outside and the myth governs our lives.
The process of thinking involves flow of thoughts. Thoughts move outward in search of happiness, name, fame, money or power. Happiness however does not result from material affluence. It is a result of our attitude to life.
Happiness is a result of our being totally in the present. Enlightenment happens in the present. But our lives are always focused either on the past or future. Life is in the present, so be present in the present. Then a different ‘presence’ opens up. Whatever you are doing, be total in it. Bring in your totality of being in the ‘here and now’.
When you are looking at a flower, can you just look? If you look at it from thoughtfulness, thoughts interpret it as a good or bad flower. A thought compares it with something else. By this you don’t look, you superimpose. The discipline to look at something without thoughts in important. When you require using your thoughts, only then should you bring in a thought. Try this out.
When unnecessary thoughts pile up, they become pockets of energy. When negative thoughts pile up they seed negative attitude, enforcing negative thoughts. These in turn superimpose energy on the objects of thought, making them appear negative. The influences that are created in life, be they in a form of war, politics, violence, are the result of the influence of negative energy that either becomes real or superimposed.
When your immune system is weak you are prone to disease. Similarly, when your psychological immune system is weak you are prone to negative influences. A negative thought requires no effort. It comes from the lower mind that is mechanical. Noble thoughts have to come from the higher mind that is more conscious and magnetic.
A faulty attitude injures and harms us. We end up making wrong connections. And when we are not proceeding in the right direction, we suffer the consequences.
There is male energy in the female and female energy in the male. Since we are progenies of both genders, we have in us both male and female energies. They have to be in harmony for us to be able to function in a way that gives us the right direction.
When you create an external harmony, you create an internal harmony also. By loving a man outside, you love the male energy in you. When you hate a woman outside, a very important part of you, the internal female energy is also dwarfed and injured.
In every one of us there is both a teacher and a student. Our centre is a teacher teaching us in the language of silence, in the language of purity. The student in us should learn to listen to the teaching. When we do injustice to an external teacher, we are doing injustice to a part of ourselves. By respecting both a student and a teacher outside, we respect something in us.
When there is right attitude, the wisest connection is made. For objective consciousness should include the subject, too.

Spiritually at work

Sacred Space

Light and Dark


Yang and Yin, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, sun and moon, thunder and lightening, wind and rain, cold and warmth, good and evil, high and low, righteousness and humanness,…the interplay of Opposite Principles constitutes the Universe.


Thoughts for All

1. Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in one ahead.
2. You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
3. Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.


To Undergo the Litmus Test, Experience Life and Death


Life goes on, even after death. We get so preoccupied with the physical dimension of the material world and time and space, that when we achieve freedom, we fear it. It is like getting blinded by the sun on coming out from dark confinement.
It is painful to come to term with death, because the physical presence is obliterated. That’s why death of a loved one is a devastating experience. But the vital link remains, as we are all part of the one all-pervading consciousness. Our own indestructible soul, atman, connects us with this Supreme Consciousness, the Absolute. The illusory world conjures a mirage beyond whose horizon we are unable to see because of our limitations.
The gross body comprises five elements or mahabhutas: earth, fire, water, air and ether. The soul makes the body come alive with five koshas or sheaths forming the subtle body. The annamaya kosha covers the physical or material field, the pranamaya, manamaya and vijnanmaya koshas cover breath, mind and intellect respectively while the anandamaya kosha is the sheath of bliss. We go through our lifespan with the five organs of knowledge, jnamendriyas, five organs of actions and five breaths (prana, apana, vijana, udana and samana) and of mind.
When the soul leaves the body, the gross part merges with the gross elements but the subtle part goes to the ethereal world for a new beginning, and might return to complete residual karmic debts. Without the burden of the body, and unfettered by time the space, the soul is free to explore, expand and enjoy specify level and time quotas depending on the quality of karma.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, as the law of karma prevails. But one gets a chance to redeem, reform and rejoice in both worlds, the material and the world of consciousness. Crossing over becomes an inner, transforming experience for realizing spiritual aspiration and discovering our inner nature. Every cycle of life and death lies gives the soul a chance to advance till it becomes pure consciousness and merges with the Supreme Brahmn, achieving salvation or moksha.
There are seven energy realms where the soul can go after leaving the physical self. Our energy centres or chakras are channels for receiving energies from higer spheres. The Inner Soul determines the evolutionary development nature and the chakras are corresponding doorways for entry into these realms.
The ultimate bliss, immortality can only be attained at the point of no return. In the Katha Upanishad we find Nachiketa coaxing Yama, the lord of death, to divulge the secret of the birth-death cycle. The self is unborn, and so never dies. As the self has no beginning, it cannot end.
Where can we locate our sakha, the great self, the ultimate friend? “Beyond the boundaries of life and death/ my friend you stand/ in the deep core of my heart/ where your thrown stay engulfed in light,” said Rabindranath Tagore. According to Katha Upanishad only through adhyatma yoga or self-contemplation can the mystery of the divine, and phenomenal creations can be unveiled, as His dwelling is in the innermost depth of our own heart.
Death takes away the gross elements again and again but it is in life that we learn to empty ourselves of the mind, senses, ego and intellect. Together, life and death provide us several chances to emerge as pure consciousness where only essence remains. One has to become nothing to merge into nothing, the unmanifest, which is immortal, imperishable, and eternal.

Welcome to the Spiritual Spa

Thoughts of the Day

1. There are two kinds of failures- those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.
2. Love and kindness are never wasted.They always make a difference.They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.
3. Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.

Connect to Cosmic Love and you’ll Sin no More

The Vatican has added seven modern mortal sins it claims are becoming prevalent in what it calls an era of “unstoppable globalization”. New areas of sinful behaviour include drug abuse, obscene wealth, pollution and gene manipulation.
Vedic rishis, as spiritual scientists, were visionaries. They anticipated issues like pollution and climate change. The Vedas have guided us to lead a healthy life to liberate ourselves from the clutches of materialism. The scriptures laid stress on the relation between man and nature. The Bhagvadam and Ramcharitmanas have expounded the right way of living between layers of stories while the Gita in a direct question-answer format that removes all doubts we have about life.
Scriptures prescribe five supreme yajnas, the pancha maha yajnas, which could help us in our spiritual evolution. These are: brahma or rishi yajna, deva, atithi, pitri, and balivaishva deva yajna. Brahma yajna is reflecting on scriptures, meditation and chanting the Lord’s name to elevate the mind spiritually towards Self-realisation. Deva yajna signifies fire ritual in which offerings are made to gods with recitation of mantras. Atithi yajna is hospitality towards those who come without information, when people travelled long distances for pilgrimages and for meditation. They passed villages and depended on householders for food and shelter and arrived without intimation. Pitri yajna is remembering one’s forefathers and feeding people as a token of respect for ancestors. Balivaishva deva yajna is feeding animals and birds.
During summer many people put clay pots filled with fresh, cool water for birds and squirrels. It’s a delight watching birds come for a drink and their daily bath. Dare you forget to clean their pot or fill it with fresh water the birds create chaos with their incessant chirping. Many will recount tales of crows coming right inside rooms reminding us that the pot is empty. The more we understand our fellow creatures the more they will bond with us. As in human relationships, with other species too, our dealings should be of give and take. We must contribute deeply towards the cycle of Cration. “Cherish the devas with this (yajna), and may those devas cherish you: thus cherishing one another, you shall gain the highest good”.
We owe it to Nature to take care of other species with dedication and without expectation. Duties performed without self-interest or attatchment, for universal good with results dedicated to God, is yajna. Nature too, performs constant yajna by providing us with gifts of sun, moon, rain, air, trees, flowers and raw materials. If we simply snatch from Nature for self-gratification without giving, we are thieves.
Swami Ranganathananda says when we pollute air by smoke, rivers by throwing garbage, and we waste water, we destroy Nature and harm ourselves. If Nature becomes weak, we, too, are adversely affected. These actions are self-destructive. Man has no alternative but to perform yajna by planning trees, saving water, recycling resources and respecting the environment.
No individual is a separate entity; we are all beads in a rosary. “A person who fails to fulfill his obligations in this Cycle of Creation leads a wretched, sinful and wasteful life”. Being part of a great whole, we owe a five-fold debt to Nature. These debts must be cleared by striving for cosmic love. In the cosmos all beings and powers have a deep connection with human life. It becomes our obligation to remove unconscious sins by selfless deeds.

Thought for ur life

1. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
2. Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
3. Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.

Insight Meditation with Mindfulness as Prelude

The objective of any meditation technique is the same – to hold the mind still to calm it, to relax it for the benefit it will bring to us and others around us during this lifetime and beyond.
Insight Meditation is one such technique. However, this technique not only involves holding the mind still, but goes on to observe intensely the thoughts and feelings arising, to understand the true nature of our body and mind, and the nature of the world. So there is no conflict of within and without. The mind transgresses all barriers of conceptualization and conditioning and moves to realm of absolute reality. Therefore, we need to understand the preparation for it. This is mindfulness. We need to understand its nature before we begin to practice it.
Mindfulness has four important factors. The most important factor is clarity of mind. A mind deluded with anger and greed is toxic; therefore is unclear. Clarity comes when the mind is free of agitation.
The second factor is staying calm for stability and peace. When we are agitated, craved and excited, the mind experiences instability and unease. It is not at peace with the body. We need to bring the state of such a mind to settle into a calmness and serenity.
The third preparation for mindful meditation to alertness of mind. By alertness is meant sensitized but not adversely sensitive to surroundings. We are completely aware of what is going around us in details, but is does not bother or worry us.
And lastly, an important factor in this practice is keeping the mind engaged in current events. We are to be ever watchful of this because the mind wanders, creates its own concepts and conditions and distorts proceedings.
Once we prepare ourselves for a meditation session ever watchful of all these four states, we are ready to begin the practice. In all this preparation the breathing is to set to a rhythm, focusing, preferably, on the point of release of the breath to the intake of the next breathe, so the mind does not wander to the next event following meditation session!
Mindfulness meditation also works well, if we are able to set aside a part of our mind energy to police the breathing. And another part should be responsible to police the police. Now there is no threat for the mind to wander. It is, therefore, advised that when one commences this practice it is done so at a retreat, uncluttered and disturbance-free. Tibetan masters advise that the eyes can be kept partially open looking at the angle of the nose to avoid falling asleep! As tranquility increases, the eyes can be raised.
Finally, the brilliance of the practice of mindfulness is that it can be done while sitting idle, walking, doing daily chores like cooking, writing, repairing, bathing… The mind should constantly endeavour to remember all four states required for effective meditation.
To begin the session of mindfulness, the following prayer has known to benefit people immensely. Om Ah Hum, Vajra Guru Padma Siddi Hum! – Prayer in praise of Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, for granting our virtuous, justified lower and higher wishes.
Being mindful can make the difference between life and death through watchfulness, heaven and hell as a result of karma, nirvana and samsara or what is called eternal happiness or eternal suffering.