Meditation is a process of tuning the human constitution. The human constitution is composed of many vehicles such as the Etheric, Astral and Buddhic bodies which need to be tuned for optimal performance. In the modern age, life has become so fast paced especially in the towns and cities that stress and anxiety have become commonplace. There is, however, a solution to this problem.
Many people have followed the formulae given by the Masters of Wisdom and lived a pleasant and full life even in this struggle for existence. The main objective is to train the mind, and meditation is one of the many solutions. Meditation is a process of achieving or attaining nothing. In fact, it is, but removing that which is not necessary. The human being is in a state of meditation by birth. He gets disturbed from this natural meditative state because he never really paid attention to tuning himself. Meditation can be compared to testing a microphone before delivering a speech or like having all the instruments tuned and ready before the start of a concert. If you want to make your day successful, spend a little of your time early in the morning tuning yourself to face the day.
Be cheerful, and people around you will also be cheerful. In this experiment, you are the teacher and the student. Why don’t you give yourself a small trial? Here is a scientific method for meditation passed on by the Masters of Wisdom. Follow the steps given below.
1. Select a place which is clean and calm. Keep this spot as clean as possible. Let that place only be used for meditation and nothing else and never for discussions or idle talk.
2. Select a time, preferably, two hours before sunrise.
3. Once you select your place and time of meditation, try not to change them at any cost.
4. By meditating at the same place and same time, your mind starts to travel in an orderly direction without
your knowledge. There are channels of energy in space which co-operate with the human constitution and they start trying to make a contact with the energy centres in you. This tunes you to the rhythms of the cosmos and will be reflected in your daily life as a systematic rhythm filled with enthusiasm and not with dull routine.
5. Now, in the place for meditation, select a seat of your own liking. Let this seat be neither too high, nor too low. If the seat is high, then you may have a sub-conscious fear of falling down; if the seat is too low, you may have a feeling of going down. In the same manner, try to have no feeling of superiority or inferiority with the persons you meet everyday. If you find yourself feeling superior, you will fall one day. If you feel low and you are seeking somebody’s help to lift you up, know that you have to lift yourself up.
6. Sit in a relaxed position. Try to travel mentally from head to toe. See that there is no tension. Meditation is relaxation and not concentration.
7. Now, select the name of a Deity or Master or God whom you venerate. This name works as a mantra. Then slowly start uttering the name in a musical way. Hear it and enjoy it.
8. Now remember the form of the deity of your mantra and then try to imagine the form mentally investing it with all the beauty you can. Never meditate on deities with fearsome faces. Meditate on deities with pleasant smiles and imagine them as being very favourably disposed to you.
9. When you start meditating like this there is a flood of thoughts occupying your mind. Do not try to stop them even if they are bad, distracting or obnoxious. Try to submit all your thoughts to your deity.
10. When you are meditating, keep minimum distance between yourself and your deity. The easiest method is meditate on the deity in your heart centre.
11. In the initial stages, it is difficult to meditate the way you like. So, for a few seconds or minutes you meditate on an equilateral triangle as big as possible, and a circle in it. Imagine that you are sitting in this circle and again meditate on an equilateral triangle at your heart centre. Just think about it and leave it, and do not concentrate.
12. Now turn your mind to your breath. Meditate on how you are breathing. Initially, we think that we are breathing. After some time we realise a background consciousness makes us breathe. Nature is kind enough to take this important activity into her hands and not to leave it in the hands of human beings.
Breath is important and we really do not think of it most of the days. This is a direct proof that our mind craves for lots of things which are not important. Hence, this strain and confusion.
13. If possible, meditate on breath as your own god. Meditate on the word you utter, the breath and the shape all together at the same time.
14. When you start submitting your mind to this breath, in the name of the Lord, your mind slowly stops reacting to things and persons which are not necessary. That means the environment and people around you slowly stop influencing your thoughts. This makes you more efficient in doing your own work, and thoughts hanging around and are not necessary, slowly cease to exist.
15. After some practice, your breath and your mind start merging in one another. When this merging starts you feel the presence of the Lord who is the indweller. It is a sure proof that our meditation process is going in the right direction. Then the other steps of meditation reveal to you by themselves.
16. Whether you have noticed or not, the Lord is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. He is continuously around us. We dwell in Him. He dwells in every human being. Unless we start the meditation process, we cannot realize this. We are so busy in our own work that we find little time to recognize Him or live with Him. So we must have a process to have His continuous presence.
Next, you meditate on whomsoever you are speaking to. In the initial stages it is very difficult to practice. When somebody scolds you, you cannot see the Lord in him, but try to practice this for as long as possible. A day will come when everybody speaks pleasantly with you. This is a very subtle and long process.
17. Before you practice the above, try to be in meditation when you are speaking with others. Why are we meditating? To relieve ourselves from stress. Why don’t we start speaking pleasantly and at the same time keep our minds as calm as possible? The level on which you are speaking will stimulate the same levels in other persons. For example: If you doubt somebody that means you are overestimating him. First try to keep your work under your control.
18. Master C V V says, ” if somebody comes to you for help know that you have been helped by him”. So when you help somebody, remember that you have been doing this for God who is Omnipotent. If you are helped by anybody, know that God is sending help to you through that person. In such a type of contemplation, your mind is continuously aware of the background consciousness which is your real SELF which has been named God.
19. Master C V V says again, “Karma can neither be postponed nor purged but can be neutralised”. Everyone you meet and all the circumstances you face every day are all of your own doing. So you can neutralise it by the good work you do today. As far as possible try not to avoid the persons or the environment even if they are not convenient. Face them not with passiveness but with ease.
20. Postponement is one of the main reasons for stress. If you have some work on hand which is compulsory, finish it then and there, and do not keep it pending. If you keep it pending or postpone things, the work piles up which naturally leads to strain. Many times we postpone things because we do not like them. Infuse enthusiasm into yourself by remembering that God is sending this work to you to clear off your karma.
21. There are only two things in this world. Understanding and not understanding. “Misunderstanding” is a nonsensical term created by the human mind. So with your mind try not to interpret anything in a negative way. The best method is never to allow your mind or time for idle gossip. If two friends gossip in your presence, meditate on both of them together as the representatives of God. Never join in when people are idly gossiping.
22. When you start enjoying your meditation, your mental stuff starts flowing towards higher things.
23. Try to keep your mind and body as clean as possible. Regular bath, incense and clean clothes help keep you fresh. Cleanliness has nothing to do with neatness. You may be neat but not clean even in your dressing. Herbal incense has the property of relieving mental tension.
24. Some Masters of Wisdom advise recital of scriptures before sitting down for meditation, and applying
your mind to the meaning of a passage. You can choose the scripture in any language. Of course, Sanskrit is the best due to it’s inherent vibrations.
25. Meditation means submitting your desires and thoughts to the higher Self. If you meditate with desire you are pulled down into the lower planes of consciousness. Thereby you lose access to the cosmic energies that can flow through your constitution.
26. When meditation is running in the right direction, emotions and unnecessary thoughts drop off without your notice. Never fight with the lower. Embrace the higher. You have already relieved yourself from great strain.
27. The average man thinks of himself as his own bush of thoughts. He has to realise that he has a mind and this mind creates these thoughts. When he slowly follows the above procedure, he can detach himself from these thoughts. Meditation is ease and never concentration. When you are at ease, you can observe your mind and then you are a Master of your mind.
28. When you are trying to get into ease, naturally there is no “dis-ease”. You feel relaxed and your health becomes better and you will realise that happiness is more important than any other thing in this world. It leads to a pleasant relationship with the people around you. Then the mind stops finding fault with others. And after sometime, you will have the taste to recognise the goodness, beauty and virtue in others.
Every person is very dear to himself. There are very few persons who do not like themselves. Know why they like themselves. Be concerned with goodness and not with faults. If you start liking them, the positive qualities in you move in the right path and this gives you mastery over your senses and thought processes. Your mind slowly withdraws from the things that are not necessary. Then, you will be able to find the Oneness that exists in every human being. Then you also start realising that you are a part of this cosmos and then you start aligning yourself. Then a new series of practices start.
29. In this new process, the institute in which you have to undergo your yoga is the world around you. You have to have discipline and this discipline is your duty. Your duty does not mean only your profession alone but includes your duties towards yourself, your parents, spouse, children etc.
30. Try not to hate anybody. If you dislike a person, passive detachment in dealing with that person will never help you. Detachment in the proper sense is inclusion and not exclusion. So try if you can be a friend to a person whom you do not like. If he misbehaves that is not your concern. It is his own sadhana.
31. Suppose you dislike somebody who does not care for you. If he comes to you for help, try to help him but never turn him away.
32. Do not desire anything. It is not wrong to have a house, money, friends etc. but it is really objectionable if you are dejected when you cannot attain them.
33. Never feel proud of yourself because you are performing some sadhana or spiritual practice. If some service has been rendered by you, do not feel proud of it. There are many people who can do better than you and replace you.