Meditation

• Meditation is a process, resulting from a successful turning inwards of the mind and a conviction that there is a truth higher and more satisfying than what the mind and our intelligence can come up with. Usually people have to come to a dead-end in their search for happiness and solutions in the mental and sensual realm to start meditation seriously.

Meditation is not separated from life. It can not be expected to work right away. It is a culmination of a purified and sattvic life. Best is to let go of all expectations and to keep oneself open and steady in the meditation practice.

• Attempts to withdraw the senses and to calm down the mind often lead to meditation. These are the 4th and 5th steps on the ladder of Raja Yoga. Meditation is the 7th If you can not meditate yet, attempt to stay quiet, withdraw the senses and concentrate the mind. This is already very helpful.
• Asanas and pranayama practice are the 3rd and 4th steps towards meditation. Stabilized meditative postures and regulation of the breath help tremendously in calming the mind down.
• Meditation requires lots of prana and mental concentration. Regulating of lifestyle is helpful to conserve prana for the inner search and realization. This article goes in detail about How to Use our Prana Energy.
• A sick person with low prana has more difficulty to gather the rays of the mind and have enough prana to meditate. Resting in prayers at that time is helpful.
• A habitual practice of japa, repetition of mantras, keeps the mind fit for meditation. Mantras give prana to the mind and bring one directly in connection to pure transcendental energy .
• Success in meditation is seen in mental strength and calmness in daily life, not in experiencing fantastic psychic phenomena.
• Important realization: Depending on the guna and the person, meditation can lead the person to devotion to the Supreme, in whatever form or name, also the faith or conviction that there is a Truth or Light beyond one’s darkness or confusion. Help the meditator to Connect wholeheartedly with the secure and fulfilled divine love. Bhakti Yoga is helpful to channel emotional energy and bring acceptance, humility and an attitude of self surrender necessary to balance out the mental concentration and will of a meditator. Meditation cannot be just a technique, separated from love and devotion.
• Also Meditation is not ungrounded imagination, seeing things, flying up in the air, astral travelling, going through walls, reading people ‘s thoughts. The only goal of meditation is to achieve mental peace and balance.
• Meditation is not opening oneself to all subtle influences.
• Meditation is not building castles in the air, meditation is not drifting in a dream state.
• Meditation is not expectation of any kind.
• Meditation is not “spacing out” and abandoning one’s responsibilities. This article goes into detail about Yogic Guidelines for Good Conduct.
• Meditation is not escaping into an inner world, disconnecting with others and isolating oneself. This is very important point, as people resort to meditation to escape from pain in the duality world of imperfections without actually doing anything to bring back balance and purity to the mind. Therefore meditation needs to come with service to others, forgiving others and oneself and opening one’s heart to love and compassion. Meditation comes easier with karma yoga.
• Meditation is not relinquishing one’s intelligence. It is consciously using intelligence to know the difference between illusions and reality and eventually going beyond the limited intelligence to tap into the intuitive source of knowledge.
• Meditation can not come with fears or desires. Courage and faith are needed to face and experience the unknown and tread new territories of the mind. This article talks about Transforming Fear into Courage and Faith.
• The mind needs to be healthy and strong to meditate. A disturbed, neurotic and fearful mind should not meditate. It is better to resort to asanas and pranayama and to therapeutic counselling to overcome the negative tendencies of the mind, before attempting serious meditation. Regularly sitting quietly, trying to calm the mind down, is already helpful.
• Self-enquiry and self-awareness, the regular habit of observing one’s thoughts are stepping stones in the process of meditation.
• One can not meditate if one is not attempting to separate oneself from the mind. Knowing that the mind is not the Self, and detaching from the mind’s activities is already a big step in meditation. Small daily conquests to control the lower mind and exercise the higher mind are already big steps.
• Self-awareness is a stepping stone to meditation, which is the step of merging with the background, the consciousness within. Self-awareness starts with the purification of thoughts (learning to think correctly or nourishing sattvic thoughts and sattvic diet) and diminishing of mental activity (which means increasing the concentration on the divine). This article talks about what is Self-Awareness and Intuition.
• The Self is always there, it is the mental turbulences that prevent us from seeing the Self.