The Spirit Of Spirituality: Introduction To Meditation

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Introduction To Meditation

Please read my book on spirituality which is available on Amazon.com.
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Whenever any spiritual discussions come up, one point that is surely brought up is about meditation. Many times, when people ask me how I am and I say I am fully relaxed, one of the most common questions is whether I meditate. Meditation means many things to many people. In this article, I will try to give my understanding of what meditation is and whether it should be done.

Before going deeper into meditation, let us pause for a while and recapitulate some of the first principles of the path to enlightenment. I have covered earlier about the three principle routes for a practitioner in the field of spirituality. They are:

1. Karma yoga, the practice of doing every act as an obligation to society and for a higher cause than self gain
2. Bhakti yoga, the practice of living a life of gratitude and attributing every personal success to the people who made it possible
3. Jnana yoga, the practice of discriminating between the real existence which is Brahman and the unreal existence which is this colorful world.

Now, as one progresses on the above paths, there is s subtle. slow but sure change that happens to a practitioner. His association with anything that is connected to the physical/emotional/intellectual world reduces. Now, we know that nature abhors a vacuum. As the above practice continues, the vacuum increases and in cases where the practice is done without the proper guidance of a spiritual teacher, there is the likelihood of a person slipping into a disinterested, carefree type of life. These are the type of stories we hear in some types of spiritual camps, where ultimately the people end up in drugs or in some extreme cases even mass suicide, because the anchor that holds them to this world is loosened and there is nothing else for them to hook on to.

All this would happen if the practice is not done under the control of the intellect. Many often in conventional religion, focus is given on Bhakti and Karma. Almost every religion says we should glorify the Lord, praise the Lord, do good tings, not to be selfish etc. Very few focus on building the intellect. Again, I would like to differentiate between Intelligence and Intellect. I am not talking of intelligence gleamed from studying books. I am talking of the Intellect which independent of intelligence acts as a beacon to everyone if properly trained and used. This is where the fourth part of the practice, Dhyana Yoga or meditation comes in.

Through Jnana yoga, we realize that we are not the body/mind/intellect with which we most often associate ourselves. Jnana yoga tells us that there is something much beyond all this called the Brahman and that is my true reality. But just learning about this is of no use. At some point the reality has to fully sink in to become enlightened. I am telling all this to talk about countering the void that could come due to practice of Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga without the guidance of the intellect. With the intellect's guidance, in the absence of association with body/mind/intellect, a practitioner can fill the void with the thought that his association is with the Supreme Brahman.

Let me plot a graph with Time on the X-axis and association with the individual body mind intellect as one parameter on the Y axis and another being association with the Supreme. Initially my association is highest with my body/mind/intellect. Hence at time 0 or at beginning of the spiritual practice, the graph starts at the highest point on the Y axis. At the same time if we look at our association with the Supreme, it is almost at zero level and hence this graph starts at the bottom of the Y axis. As time progresses and my practice of Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga continues, there is a gentle drop in association with the worldly objects and this graph begins a slow descent. At the same time assuming there is an intellect governing the spiritual practice, there is a slow uptick in association with the Supreme and with passage of time, this graph starts looking up.

Now to the question of meditation. Should it be done? During the stage when the practitioner is full of desires, any attempt to meditate will be pointless. Meditation is to be done to realize the essential unity of myself with the Supreme. As can be seen based on the graph I explained above, in the initial stages of spiritual practice, the gap between identification with objects and with Supreme is very wide and may not be found suitable to achieve any tangible benefits. As time progresses and the two graphs progress, with the graph of physical identification dipping and the graph of Supreme identification rising, the gap between the two keeps decreasing and at some point, the two intersect, at which point the seeker is in a perfect state to focus on meditation to further their spiritual awakening.

Does it mean that till the point above is reached, one should not meditate? I am of the opinion that there is no harm in meditating so long as the objective is clear and one is ready to face the consequences, if any of meditation. One is advised to seek out a calm lonely place and select a fixed time every day to do meditation. There are several techniques suggested for meditation. Some of them are as follows:

a.Taking an image of a favorite God or angel or spiritual teacher and try to focus thoughts on that
b. Focusing on one's own shadow in the mind
c. Focusing on one 's own image as though in a movie
d. Focusing on a word or "shloka"
e. Focusing on one's own heartbeat
f. Focusing on one's own breath

There is no single technique that can be good for everyone. Readers are encouraged to try any of these and see what works best for them. During initial phase of meditation, it is almost impossible to focus the mind. The nature of the mind is to wander and create thoughts. So a practitioner can become disillusioned about the absolute lack of progress. But this is very normal. The best strategy is to let the mind wander, but try to be aware that the mind is wandering and slowly bring the mind back to focus. The other issue that is seen as meditation continues is the type of thoughts that crop up. One shudders as to the type of thoughts that come up. This is again natural. Each of us has myriad desires buried in our mind. So long as the mind is active in the physical world, these are suppressed by the normal physical thoughts. But in meditation, when the mind is silent, these hidden desires or vasanas sprout thoughts which may make the practitioner feel disgusted. Again this is natural and should not discourage the practitioner. The strategy is to be aware of such thoughts as they arise and observe them as they pass through the self. The idea is to be non-judgmental and just observe the thought as a third person.

I mentioned earlier that real benefit of meditation comes in a very advanced stage and till that point, it may be useless. So, what is the point of meditation till then. I would see the following benefits:

1. A sense of discipline: Just as a regular physical exercise is a discipline that keeps the body fit in the long run, meditating regularly is a discipline that enables one to keep the mind fit for the long run.
2. A sense of calmness : All the while we are focusing our mind outwards and getting frustrated in the illusory world.Meditation turns the mind inwards generating a sense of calm.
3. A sense of positiveness : During meditation, especially focused on breath, if thought is of all positive things coming in as I inhale and all negative things going out as I exhale, there is a feeling of positiveness.

I encourage readers to mull over this article and give me feedback on their own experiences with meditation.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality