Meditation; a universal process
Meditation; a universal process
Meditation is a universal process that brings you from gross, to subtle, to the subtlest aspect of your being and beyond. The sages of the Himalayas have given us a method of systematic meditation, that guides you through all the appearing layers of your being, to experience the Non-dual Reality that seems to lie behind those layers, although there is actually nothing but the Non-dual Reality. If you see the universal process of meditation that is contained within this systematic method it will make the method more logical and understandable, which then hopefully has the effect of making both the process and the method appear more simple and doable.
“Above all else, remember this one thing: it is easy to meet the Infinity within – to attain this awareness you just have to be silent and quiet. When you calm your mind and make it one-pointed, it can penetrate those fields of the mind that are not ordinarily penetrated by humans, and then you will perceive the Reality within.” ~ Swami Rama
It is as simple as this, all you have to do is:
* To sit still, and being steady and comfortable at the same time
* To breath serene, without pauses and slow
* Allow the unconscious mind to come forward, not getting involved, disturbed or affected by the movements. So you can witness the whole of the mind and come to know that there is something beyond the mind. To then direct all you effort to that beyond the mind, by first using a mantra and then to directly meditate on the non-dual reality that lies beyond the mind.
Swami Rama says somewhere something like; “It is simple, but it cannot be called easy!”
The process is also simple….
The meditation practice will lead you:
From multiplicity –> to oneness
From duality –> to non-duality
From form –> to formless
From sound –> to silence
From movement –> to stillness
From entanglement –> to witnessing
From moving outward –> to diving deep within
From gross –> to subtle –> to subtlest –> to beyond
From words –> to feeling –> to awareness –> to beyond
Do you get a feel for the process these words try to capture? That they are not mere pairs of opposites, but that they contain a process of going from one end of appearing manifestation; experiencing the world of duality in and around you, to the other end of appearing manifestation and beyond; experiencing the most inner experience of stillness and silence –> It’s leading you from the appearing manifestation to the experience of the Non-dual Reality. The words embrace a process of moving inward, leaving behind, and allowing to subside.
Do you see a simplicity? It seems that mind has the tendency to make the process — of realizing the stillness and silence — complex. In the beginning the mind will even search for the complexity as it is still entangled in the one end of manifestation dealing with duality, multiplicity and complexity. The mind doesn’t believe that it is that simple; that experiencing the Non-dual Reality is merely a process of letting go off multiplicity, duality, form, sound, movement and entanglements. It’s not a process of attaining, gaining, or going somewhere where you have never been before, therefore its not a process of figuring out something new by thinking or analyzing your way to it. Its not a process of doing, but rather to support the natural process that occurs when you stop doing or in other words you allow this natural process to happen. It is allowing the movement to fall away. It is allowing the sounds to go back to stillness. It is allowing the forms to merge back into the formless. It is allowing for the entanglements to release there grip. It is a process of subsiding so you naturally fall into deeper levels of your being.
From scattered –> to one-pointed concentration
From imbalance –> to equilibrium
From contraction –> to expansion
From ignorance –> to all-knowing
When you make the scattered mind one-pointed and concentrated it can systematically move inward from gross –> to subtle –> to the subtlest and beyond, from words –> to feeling –> to awareness and beyond. A one-pointed mind supports the process of subsiding as it is less or no more distracted by the movements and entanglements that float around in the mind-field, but is willing to concentrate on the object you want it to concentrate upon. Increasing mastery over the mind will gradually transform you from imbalance, contraction and ignorance –> to equilibrium, expansion, and all-knowing, as it is able to dive deeper into the layers of your being.
From complexity –> to simplicity
The meditation practice leading you to the experience of the Non-dual Reality is in a way so simple, that at the moment the mind — who is still is in the search-mode for complexity — is not able to see or recognize this simple meditation practice as a practice that can lead you to the experience of the non-dual Reality.
Also, at first the meditation practice may look complicated, or extensive, and a simplicity in the sequence of the meditation practice is not directly discovered, even though you might intuit the simplicity, you might intuit a logic in the order and steps of the practice. When you persist to explore, to deepen and to grow into the practice, simply by keep doing them, the simplicity will reveal itself. You also need to understand the whole process first before you can actually start doing the meditation practice. This may sounds like a paradox; you will have to do the meditation practice to understand it better but you have to understand the whole process first to be able to do the practice. It simply means that by doing the meditation practice it will help you to understand the meditation practice and a better understanding of the meditation practice will support and improve your meditation practice. There will come a point where you will see and understand the profundity of the simplicity of the meditation practice and come to understand the whole process, and that moment may feel like; now I can really start practicing meditation!
Simple doesn’t mean it can be called easy. Therefore practicing meditation is done for a long time without a break with determination and devotion.
from www.swamij.com
From body –> to breath –> to mind –> beyond
Keep it simple:
There are three layers or obstacles you will have to dive through; these are body, breath, and mind. Or in different words there are three tools you will have to utilize to their maximum capacity or three doors you‘ll have to go through to go to the ‘beyond‘; again these are body, breath, and mind. Your true nature, the Non-dual Reality, no matter what name you like to give it; peace, happiness, joy, love, or Brahman, is beyond these three (body, breath, and mind). Its beyond the appearance of multiplicity, duality, form, sound, movement, entanglement, moving outward, gross, subtle, subtlest, words, feelings, awareness, imbalance, contraction, ignorance, and complexity.
1) How to be not disturbed by the body when you subside towards Non-dual Reality? Make the body still and comfortable, with a straight spine, then the body will not be an obstacle, and you can you beyond.
2) How to be not disturbed by the breath? Make the breath diaphragmatic, with no pauses and slow, still, smooth, so that sushumna opens, which is called sushumna awakening. Then the breath will not become an obstacle, and you can go beyond.
3) How to be not disturbed by the mind? Sushumna awakening has made the conscious mind joyous and ready to dive within. Then you can allow the conscious mind to do what it always does; allow it to move, by allowing it to present thought after thought after thought. The mind will first show you impressions of today, of the last week, of stuff you’ll have to do in near future. If you train your mind to let thoughts come you will at the same time learn to let go. To keep inviting thoughts to come forward, the mind does not have time to get involved with them or get engaged or entangled with them, because a new thought is already coming, therefore the mind will create a new habit; to let go.
Later on in the process you get so familiar with letting thoughts come and you’re not getting disturbed by the thoughts that also latent impressions from the unconscious mind can come forward. During this rising and falling away of thoughts you are able to stay undisturbed and unaffected by the whole stream of thoughts, and do not get uninvolved with it. If you add to this process to hold your awareness in a space, either in the space between the breasts or in the space between the eyebrows, the mind will not be an obstacle, and you can gradually move through the mind.
Allowing the thoughts to come and go, to not be disturbed by them and holding the mind in a space will after some time exhausted the mind in bringing forward more thoughts. Then you can continue to hold the mind in the space and allow the mantra to come forward and lead you from its words, to its feeling, to its awareness, to its source. Which is beyond body, breath, and mind.
From controlling –> to surrendering
The more the mind sees the simplicity of the process and thereby also the profundity of the simple meditation practice, the more the mind is able to do the simple meditation practice. The mind will understand when to do what during your meditation practice, and the mind also come to know when it is time to stop trying to do anything. The mind will come to see that Reality lies beyond itself and therefore it is in itself an obstacle to the experience of the Non-dual Reality, so eventually it has to voluntarily step aside. That’s why the whole process of control — where you direct your attention — will eventually be a process of surrendering. First you direct your attention through body, breath and mind, then you surrender into the mantra and into the Non-dual Reality.
From effort –> to grace
From this point on after you surrendered into the mantra, ‘you’ can’t do anything anymore. Because if you would do something it would be in the realm of body, breath, or mind, meaning it would bring you back outward into the levels of mind, breath, and body. So from here the description is merely to make the mind happy.
From this point you sit in the silence and darkness without an object, holding the awareness in the space between the breasts listening for the inner sounds or in between the eyebrows looking for a tiny black circle.
Only after you have done all you can, meaning have come to this point of practice (where you couldn’t do anything anymore but sit and wait in stillness and darkness) so much that you are exhausted, then grace will pull you in and lead you the rest of the way, all the way until the Non-dual Reality is experienced.
From theory –> to practice
What to do?
1) During your meditation practice, make your body:
1) straight; keeping head, neck, and trunk in a straight line
2) steady; so the body doesn’t move during meditation practice
3) comfortable; no unnecessary tension is hold during meditation practice.
Then:
Do not move your body, whatever urge may come forward to want to move the body; do not give into it, DON’T MOVE is the first thing you pay attention to when you start your meditation practice.
And:
You move your awareness through the body, is this way you make the body the first object of your meditation.
Preparation before you sit for meditation:
* Bowels and bladder: You’ll see that if you empty the bowels and bladder, before you start to do practice, the body feels more comfortable.
* Wash the body: Maybe if the body is washed (maybe only a splash of water will do the job to fresh up the body) you’ll be more prepared to start your practice.
* Prepare the room: Also prepare the room; does it have a comfortable temperature and enough air?
So in general prepare the body and your location before you start your practice. (all these preparations are brought together under the instruction ‘preparation’ in the systematic meditation sequence, other preparatory practices of the meditation sequence have been given different names; these are stretches, relaxation, and breathing exercises)
* Stretches: Before every meditation session you should first do some stretches and yoga asanas (see Asana Chart), to make the body flexible enough so it can sit in the meditation posture (see meditation postures), working especially with the spine and hips. The asanas will also make the muscles around the spine stronger, this will help you to sit straight.
* Relaxation: Then you should take some time to release the tension in your body, so that when you transition into your meditation posture (see meditation postures) you are not only straight and steady but also comfortable. This release of tension is done in savasana, corpse posture (see relaxation posture), by doing a systematic relaxation.
2) During your meditation practice, make your breath:
1) diaphragmatic
2) without pauses
3) without noise
4) without jerks
5) even at first, then slow the exhale until ratio of 2-1 is established
Then lead your awareness from:
1) paying attention to the area of your diaphragm
2) to breathing up and down the spine, with or without soham mantra
3) to resting the awareness at the bridge of the nostrils, resting at this space, feeling the air moving in and out, again with or without soham, until sushumna is open
Preparation before you sit for meditation:
* Regulate the breath: This means that after you have done some stretches, yogasanas, and relaxation, you should take some time to learn to regulate your breath. First be aware of your breath and slowly and gently allow the breath to become as breath describe above, and meets the five qualities.
* Vigorous breathing practices: After regulating the breath you do some pranayama exercises to make yourself alert, awake, and energizing your system by doing agni sara, kapalabhati, bhastrika, nadi shodana. These vigorous pranayama exercises will also purify your subtle body and will support opening sushumna or keeping sushumna open if it already opened during relaxation or yogasana.
3. Allow to mind to:
1) to bring forward thoughts, let the thoughts come and go
But:
1) be undisturbed
2) unaffected
3) and uninvolved by the thought coming and going
Then:
Allow the mantra to come and follow the mantra when it subsides back to its source, by first being aware of:
1) its sound; allow to sound of the mantra to come forward –> listen to the sound
2) follow to sound of the mantra to its feeling; by allowing the feeling of the mantra to come forward, and the words to fall away
3) follow the feeling of the mantra to its awareness; within the feeling of the mantra there is a constant awareness that is more subtler then its feeling, by diving into this pure awareness even the feeling can be left behind and all that is left is constant state of pure awareness
So when you now look at the page systematic meditation sequence does it make a little more sense to do:
After reading these words and the mind understands it, or most of it…it is time to start practicing it! Regularly everyday at the same time, so it will become a habit. And at your meditation time nothing in the whole of the manifestation is more important then to go:
From multiplicity –> to oneness
From duality –> to non-duality
From form –> to formless
From sound –> to silence
From movement –> to stillness
From entanglement –> to witnessing
From moving outward –> to diving deep within
From gross –> to subtle –> to subtlest –> to beyond
From words –> to feeling –> to awareness –> to beyond
From scattered –> to one-pointed concentration
From imbalance –> to equilibrium
From contraction –> to expansion
From ignorance –> to all-knowing
From complexity –> to simplicity
From body –> to breath –> to mind –> beyond
From controlling –> to surrendering
From effort –> to grace
From theory –> to practice