Meditation

What

The literal meaning of the word Meditate is to contemplate deeply, in other words Meditation is really about enquiring deeply into all aspects of Life to resolve our accumulated psychic baggage.

In parallel to Mindfulness in daily life, is the practice of deep seated Meditation.

This is called state of Samādhi.

But few are capable of exercising pure intelligence that is required of being fully Mindful, to all situations, at all times. We get easily distracted, and slip into old patterns.

This is where the practice of seated Meditation can reinforce our resolve to be fully Mindful.

Meditation needs time to work. Maybe 3 months regular practice should do it.

Initially, Meditation practice puts us into deep states of relaxation to calm the nervous system down - which is a very important precursor. We could even drift into a state of Sleep - so make sure to address that crucially.

Setup

Ok, so now you are ready to Meditate!

1. Best performed on a light-to-empty stomach - like before sleep, or upon rising. Or if you wake up in middle of night.

2. Pick a place that you will not be disturbed

3. Wear comfortable clothes not tight clothes

4. Sit with a straight spine, maybe on a small cushion to tilt your hips forward, using any kind of back support or a chair if needed. Don’t rest the back of your head though - only your lower/mid-back is ok to be supported. You can tilt your chin very slightly forward to increase awareness of your cervical spine up to the top of your head.

5. Don’t lie down to meditate.

6. Sip a little warm water before, and keep hot water that will warm down for a sip or two after the practice

7. Create sacred space- visualize a huge beam of crystalline light bigger than your limited body to cleanse and create a zone of protection. Learning to visualize is also key to meditation.

8. Now “ground” yourself into the Earth by taking your attention to your seat, and then deep below your seat.

Train

• The Training process takes you through increasing levels of mastery

• At the start of each meditation session, make sure to Setup properly

• Once you sit, then master each of these levels for a 30-minute practice every day, with total & complete attention.

Basic Levels

Level-1 - Sit still: 

• do not move or fidget in any way. 

• After you have mastered this, then do next level

Level-2 - Sit still, and watch your breath 

• coming in/out through your nostrils, cool as it comes in, warm as it goes out. 

• extend your out-breath to be longer than in-breath.

• Or chant some Mantra, like OM, and then listen.

• After you have mastered this, then do next level.

Level-3 - Sit still, run your attention along the spine synchronized with your breath. 

• Once you master this, then do the next level

Advanced Levels

By cultivating Yogic Awareness such that there is a comprehensive quality to Awareness to sensitize us to Wholeness.

Or Oneness if you will, that there is just One aspect at play here.

In Yogic awareness we tune into the Wholeness of the Mind, and while in that context there may arise:

• Thoughts misaligned with Dharma, or 

• fragmented away from Wholeness, 

• yet we keep bringing ourselves back into Yogic awareness.

The returning back to Yogic awareness, from episodes of distraction, needs to be done without applying undue force like willpower.

Level-4 - Sit still, and watch your thoughts

• Do not try to push the thoughts away, the more you push the more they will come. remember “What you resist will persist”. Just watch intently as though the thought is you yourself - which it is!

• But, if you catch yourself getting immersed into a thought stream then use the breath or simple beeja Mantra to come out of it gently, with an inward smile that you caught it! 

  • don’t keep repeating the mantra ad nauseum - that is Level-2.

• Once you master this, then go to next level

Level-5 - Sit still, and still your thoughts. 

• Watch your mind go into complete silence. 

• For even a few minutes at a time is great. 

• Just like previous level, but instead of watching your thoughts, we are watching them disappear. 

• We are not forcing stillness. 

You have to watch the thoughts disappear, you have to be aware of the blank slate of almost total silence - maybe just some hazy noise but definitely no well-formed thoughts. 

This kind of Yogic Awareness happens when we are fully aware that we are either projecting the future or reliving the past, simply for the sake of psychological identity reasons, then all such needless movement of Thought automatically ceases.

Storytelling

invoking Devās which embody these concepts.

• Brhma phase: very gently and lightly pick up an Affirmation (and its relationship) - don’t need to think hard about it. Picking up the Affirmation should be effortless, starting the stream of the single Thought. Dhārana in Patanjali

• Vishnu phase: let this Affirmation infuse your entire bodymind, every cell of the body. Dhyāna in Patanjali

• Shiva phase: let the Affirmation dissolve gently throughout your infinite mind space, so there is no conceptual trace left and thus no mental groove in which to get stuck. Samādhi - in Patanjali

• Shoonya phase: When we get distracted, then return to silence for a bit. Kaivalyam - in Patanjali

• Then repeat from top down. 

That’s it.

Look for signs, no matter how small, of manifestation in everyday life - acknowledge them and offer gratitude.

The more regular the practice, the more we manifest with ease.