...begin with meditation
Just felt like seeing what the Oxford English Dictionary says about Meditation. It is from Latin Meditari, which means 'contemplative,' focus upon an idea and planning...
Well that doesn't help to explain much about what is meditation. And this is for Lakshmi's request.
Left alone, the body is inert and in a state of rest. The consciousness which is the basis for our existence is also unmoving. It is the mind, which is like an invisible balloon that is restless and it is connected to the body with the breath. The art of making the body, breath and mind quiet and restful and allow the consciousness to function through the body and mind perfectly is meditation.
There are many ways to begin with meditation. The first step is to make yourself fresh, minimally by washing the face. The idea is to feel clean and comfortable. Sit quietly, crosslegged or on a chair in a comfortable but upright posture. The palms can be gently held together or placed facing skyward on the lap and eyes gently closed. The posture should be relaxed and not tight.
After managing to sit quietly, the meditator can focus on the breath. Not trying to breathe in any manner, but just watching how the breathing is happening - watching not with the eyes, but with the mind...
There are many ways and means of beginning meditation which can be learnt directly from the Guru who will teach according to the person's ability and need. But this much for this post....
11 comments:
Hi Swahilya,
That is indeed a very useful post. I have never felt it more urgent to get started with meditation and pranayama as I am really finding it hard nowadays to put my mind in a state of rest and contemplate any kind of action.
And I think there is no better person than you to help me on that.
neat and nice one
Thanks for the write up on this interesting topic. If i may, i would like to add the following, based on what i learnt from books and guru's.
If we investigate into the nature of the mind, we can notice that it is a bundle of thoughts. By fixing the mind on breathing (concentration), we are indirectly reducing the thoughts that flash through the mind. When this is continued over a period of time, the thoughts become few and far in between.By noticing on breathing and let the thoughts go by, we are not identifying ourselves with the thought as everyone of us normally do.
When we focus in between the eyes or on our breathing, our mind is essentially getting introverted and not wandering after external objects. Our minds are used to wandering and the practice lets us keep our minds introverted.
This disassociation from thought and ultimately the mind seems to be the state that great jnani's talk about.
The state in which there is no thought whatsoever would be the point where meditation really starts. This is when our awareness is an actual reflection of the consciousness and not those produced by thought. The ancient term "tapas" refers to this state when it occurs over a prolonged period of time , say 8 or 10 hours.
The great sage Ramana Maharishi taught the method of self-enquiry by trying to find the answer to "who am i". This again introverts the mind and keeps it fixated in finding the source of ego.
According to him, ego is the most fundamental thought and other thoughts are based on it. Its ego that introduces duality and makes us consider ourselves to be different from our surroundings. His method is to attack the root cause of duality and remove the mis-conception of I altogether. By removing the root cause, every other thought falls on its own.
Some of the other techniques like focussing the mind on breathing or between the eyes and watching any thought that comes by without reacting or analyzing the thought, help us to dissassociate outselves from thought and reduce the thoughts in steps and ultimately leads to a state where we diassociate ourselves from even the "I" thought. The individual self aware ness would be gone when the mind is completely still. This appears to be an approach in the other direction where ego is tackled at the end.
The thoughts are still required to function in the world, but the identification of the self with the tought is not.
J Krishnamurti compartmentalizes them into two categories. Thoughts that are required for day-to-day functioning and the psychological thoughts. Its the psychological thoughts that gives us the individual identity (defining the properties of I as in, I am beatiful, ugly, angry, jealous, depressed, etc) by making an image of ourselves (ego), and distance ourselves from our surroundings. And this psychological thoughts gives rise to emotions, duality, etc. By removing the psychological thoughts, we reach the state where duality vanishes. (Observer is the observed). A simple example he gives is when we watch a tree, an immediate thought tree comes to mind, and we are acting through the prism of thought (ignorant viel) from that point onwards. According to him truth is observation when thought is not moving in any direction whatsoever. (Ego in itself is one of the thoughts in the psyche).
Nice post Swahilya. It may be interesting to note that doing sandhyavandanam is doing meditation and so if people are eligible for it(having a sacred thread), then it is better to do that (in case they don't have a guru) cause they would have had the initiation of the guru during upanayanam and would have known the gayatri mantra. Btw, mantra meditation can also be undertaken.
Swahilya,
Finding your posts very interesting. Blogrolling u.
thanks a lot swahilya....
found it very useful
@Hari: Sure will do. If you are looking for the right time, "Now," is the best.
@Ganesh. Your Koshas are coming soon.
@Anonymous: You are right. But meditation is too deep a subject to handle in a single post. And this is just the beginning.
@Kasturi Srinivasan: Thanks for blogrolling. The practices of Sandhyavandanam and chanting of mantras is meditation. If it is done with focus, it can lead to higher dimensions. It should not be done as a routine.
@l.lakshmi: Thank you.
if it is done with focus, it can lead to higher dimensions. It should not be done as a routine.
Very succintly put.. I am waiting for the next in this series.
Dear Swahilya,
I have a question. I have always been wondering about the concept of free will and determinism. Can you post something about this ?
Thanks.
Kasthuri Srinivasan: Will do soon.
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