Tag: Meditation

In response to the frequently heard comment, “I don’t have time for meditation,” I say, first, meditation makes time for itself: it pierces the fortress of time to create fresh temporality. Second, meditation facilitates and hastens the tasks which previously seemed difficult and a time-consuming uphill struggle. Meditation creates time for itself.

What is time? Time is not the movement of a hand on the clock. It is a state of mind, a consciousness, and our time-consciousness depends entirely upon our view of life and our view of the universe. As we grow, our concept of time changes. Time, which is very long for a child, as from Christmas to Christmas, is very short for an adult. Time, which is like five hours when we stand for five minutes at a bus stop, reverses itself. When we are engaged for five hours in some highly pleasant activity, we are surprised because it passes like five minutes.

The greater beings, whose consciousness is not tied down to the human body, to human limitations, view time from an entirely different perspective. Meditation makes time for itself. It does so by increasing one’s energy level so that less time is required for sleeping. It purifies the emotions so that less time is required for dreaming, day-dreaming, and fantasy. Fantasy includes reading stories and watching movies. This is not to say that one should stop reading stories – now, this minute! Meditation will change your inclinations. You will need less emotional outlets. Meditation makes time for itself by purifying your emotions so that less time is spent in that angry, vengeful, depressed, self-pitying, internal dialogue that we all carry on.

Meditation makes time for itself by suspending the sense of movement on which time depends. The existence of time depends entirely on the sense of movement in space. We experience space only because we move through it or observe objects moving through it. In meditation total stillness occurs. Where total stillness occurs, our relationship with space changes. As our relationship with space changes, the need for movement of the body is suspended. When the need for movement of the body is suspended, time stands still.

Put it this way, the mind experiences time as a movement of thought. I am speaking and fifteen seconds of silence pass since my last word. Meanwhile the listener’s mind has continued with a chain of thought created by an instant observation, such as, “What is this man doing? Why is he not speaking? Why did he stop? What is he going to say? Is he going to say anything more?” Then the mind inverts itself, looks at itself, and says, “Now I have thought so many thoughts in this time; much time must have passed. What has been happening all this time outside of the body?”

When the mind no longer carries on a chain of varying thoughts, the minutes and seconds stand still. To go further, the mind enters a chamber of silence. What is this chamber of silence that we speak of as occurring in meditation that we sometimes touch the doorknob of when we are in meditation? This chamber of silence is a chamber of transcendence. The whole universe outside of us, including our bodies, including the objects which provide thought to the mind – all of those factors and entities in the universe are, as it were, triangular. The three arms of these triangles are time, space, and causation. That which transcends these triangles of time, space, and causation is that chamber: the chamber of silence.

Where time stands still, our relationship with limited space ceases and, therefore, causation, karma, the series of causes and effects with which we are constantly involved, also comes to cessation. Thus, in meditation, as our meditation grows, time will not be experienced as a movement from point “X” to point “Y” in mental space. In deep meditation time ceases. You’d say, “If so, what happens to all my appointments that I have made in external time. If internal time ceases, what happens to all my responsibilities? Would I simply sit there completely unaware of all my external responsibilities, duties of love, and other matters of importance?”

My friend, when you touch the timeless regions, the Timeless One begins to take care of your affairs. At this stage, to believe in this statement requires much effort of faith. But the saints who started out on their journey to saintliness started out from the same place where you and I are worrying, being concerned over ordinary daily life and affairs: “What will happen?” “How will it go?” “Will the sun rise tomorrow?” “Will there be a moon next month?” “Will the crops grow?” “Will there be bread in the pantry?” “Will I be shod?” “Will my feet have two pieces of leather to cover them to walk through the winter?” “Will my child be taken care of?” “Will my husband be served?” “Will my wife be happy?” All of these questions arise so long as we have a relationship with time, space, and causation.

Here we come to the second statement: meditation facilitates and hastens the tasks which previously seemed difficult and a time-consuming uphill struggle. With much less effort things attend upon you when you have learned to meditate. If you sit to meditate, however, with the thought, “Panditji¹ says with much less effort things will attend upon me; therefore, let me meditate for fifteen minutes,” it will not happen. You cannot bargain with God. You cannot sign contracts with God. You cannot say, “God, sit down and sign on the dotted line.” “How long do I have to meditate before you will start taking care of my affairs?” “If you don’t sign on the dotted line, if you don’t show a sign, then I will not believe it, then I am not going to meditate.” This process will not work because you are imposing time, space, and causation upon the Transcendental One.

In the book Living with the Himalayan Masters, Swami Rama speaks of an episode concerning a wedding at the home of a man named Gopinath in the city of Kanpur. Now, in India weddings are very elaborate affairs. They are held in the bride’s home. The bridegroom comes with a big party, on horseback, with bands playing, and is received like a royal guest. Everybody is fed and taken care of, and much gold jewelry is given. It is a huge celebration. Well, this man Gopinath has the key to the safe in which the jewelry is kept. A little before the wedding he walks out of the house on some last-minute errand and, along the way, hears kirtana going on. Kirtana is a few people gathered together singing the name of the Lord. You call it chanting here.

Gopinath stops for a moment, listens, becomes absorbed, sits down – “I’ll go just now” – and joins in the chant. Sitting there chanting with the others, he becomes completely absorbed, completely entranced in the name of God, whom he loves, and he forgets about his errands. Time passes. He does not know how much time has passed. When the kirtana ends, Gopinath’s trance breaks, he is shocked out of his rapture, and he sees the time: it is 10:00 o’clock at night! The wedding party must have come; the wedding must have taken place! But how could it when all the bride’s jewels were in a safe to which he held the key? Madly he rushes home. Everybody is gone.

He asks his wife, his relatives, “What happened?”

They look at him amazed: “What happened? Don’t you know what happened?”

“Well, no. I went on this little errand, and I became entranced listening to the chant of the name of God, sat down, did not know what time had passed, and here I am.”

They tell him, “You were here all the time. You came. Do you not remember opening the safe and giving the jewels, feeding the guests, bidding the bride and bridegroom farewell, and doing all your duties as the man of the house?”

“Who, me? Not me,” he insists. “I was not here. I was sitting chanting. I was in a trance. Time passed. The chanting ended, I was shocked out of the trance, and I rushed home.”

“No, no, no. You were here!” they repeat. “You did all the duties you should have been doing. What has happened to you?”

“Who was this other man who came in my place? How did it happen?” he wonders.
There are many, many stories of happenings of this kind among the saints and saintly of India, stories of how the Lord has taken care of the affairs of those who have really loved him and who have become entranced by him.

On a smaller scale, our tasks can become easier and less time-consuming. Decision-making processes become shorter because the mind is clearer. It is no longer befogged by intellect and emotion – both cobwebs covering the quick facilities of the mind. The result of taking the short cut through the emotions and the intellect is such that the answer flashes before you.

Until the answer flashes, you will not make a decision. In meditation, however, you will not struggle, you will not worry about it. You will let it be. You enjoy your rapture. You enjoy your meditation. And from somewhere, suddenly, a very silent, whispering command comes: “Do this.” And it clicks. It seems right. It feels right. Your decision is made. The time that you would have spent in much effort is no longer required because the mind is clarified. Your buddhi and the processes of your intelligence are purified. They are no longer befogged by the emotional confusions through which we constantly live, calling them our love or our problems.

In this universe there is an all-pervading principle called the unconscious mind. It is called so by the yogis, not because the mind is unconscious, but because we are not conscious of that vast expanse of the universal mind. Through this universal mind run currents and crosscurrents of life, karma, time, space, and causation. In this vast expanse of mind our individual minds are as though little focal points. In the vast history of the universe, our individual lives are little episodes. The currents and crosscurrents of-life, of the flux of the universe, pass through, crisscross through these little focal points called our individual minds. When we live a life in which the mind is turned to only the world which is visible to the eyes and audible to the ears, the mind is not in tune with this vast expanse of its own other being.

When we enter the state of meditation, true meditation – not the “meditation” that is a struggle, a fight, a quarrel with the teacher, a discussion with the wife or husband – when we enter that meditation – a stand-stillness of the mind, that chamber of silence – then the mind becomes inverted. When the mind becomes inverted, it is in tune with the currents and crosscurrents of the flux of the universe, which are crisscrossing through these focal points which are we individuals, who are the little episodes in the history of the universe.

In the history of the universe many, many events are linked to faraway places and times. What is happening here is somehow linked with something that is happening at this time to a person in perhaps England or Australia, to one whom we have never met, to one whose name we do not know or of whose existence we are not aware, but whose friend will probably pass our way, cross our path, sometime during our visit to Los Angeles or New York or Peking [Beijing] ten years hence. The events that will make that happen are taking shape now without our knowledge and are part of the entire flux of the universe.

We little beings worry, worry, worry, and through that worry and depression we try our best to stop the free flow of that flux through the focal points of our minds, to prevent those good things from happening to us. By saying “What will happen? What will happen?” we prevent the right things from happening to us. We fill our mind with cobwebs in this manner. When the mind is inverted in meditation, it is linked to that flux, becomes aware of those currents and crosscurrents, and those far-away events are hastened, happen more quickly. The message passes without a phone, as It were. The mind is linked and is inspired to do something whereby the right things begin to flow your way. You want someone to pass your way? The next day he passes your way. We call this coincidence. In the life of a yogi such coincidences are common daily fare. They simply happen. When they happen once, twice, or three times, he too calls them coincidences. But when they begin to happen without his effort, over and over again, every day, he says, “To heck with the effort, I will meditate and let these things come my way and take care of me.” And they do!

But remember, meditation is not the path for the lazy, not for the weak, not for someone who simply closes his eyes, fights all the emotional battles, and says, “I am in meditation, but things are not taking care of themselves. Why aren’t they?” No, that is not the kind of meditation of which I am speaking. True meditation, from the background of emotional purity by which you have risen above your insecurities, that meditation guides you and guarantees your success in all your undertakings without consuming much of your time and energy. If you want to find time for meditation so that the meditation may later find time, create time for itself, start working on emotional purification.

The painful emotions are a sign of blockage in spiritual progress. Get rid of them. Don’t suppress them: get rid of them. Replace them with happy emotions. Your mind will become clearer and meditation will become a pleasure, a joy. Only when meditation becomes a pleasure, only when it becomes a joy, when you simply love to sit and enjoy it, then meditation lengthens in time and takes care of itself. You just take care of the purification of your emotions. Meditation will take care of itself, will find time for itself, and will begin to give time for all of the things that you have been wanting but unable to do.

(1979.)

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Editor’s Note

¹ This article was written by Swami Veda Bharati before he took Saṃnyāsa, when he was Pandit Usharbudh Arya.

Simply be aware of yourself from head to toe.

Draw around yourself, as it were, three circles of light.

Resolve that the mind shall not cross these three circles, nor will any intruding thoughts and impressions enter from outside.

Remaining aware of yourself from head to toe, in just a few exhalations, relax all your limbs.

Your inhalation is for the purpose of exhalation. So you inhale so that you may be able to exhale.

In each exhalation progressively relax your entire body.

Now resolve that for the next one minute no other thoughts will arise except the awareness of the movement of your stomach and navel area, with the gentle rhythm of your breathing. Maintain that resolve for one minute.

Now resolve that for one minute there will be no other thoughts except the awareness of the path of your breath from the navel to the nostrils, nostrils to the navel; only feel the breath flow on this path. Maintaining the resolve.

Now feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your active nostril; but first resolve that for one minute there will be no intruding thought, only the feel of the flow of the breath in your active nostril.

Now resolve that for one minute there will be no intruding thought except the feel of the breath in your passive nostril.

Resolve that for one minute there will be no other thought except the feel of the breath in your two nostrils.

Now with your breath, exhale thinking the word haaammm, inhaling the word soooo.

Resolve that for the next two minutes there will be no other thought except the feel of the breath in both nostrils, inhaling with soooo, exhaling with haaammm.

Maintain that resolve so that no break occurs between the exhalations and the inhalations.

Resolve for an additional two minutes that as you feel the breath and the word, you observe how the mind and the word are flowing together as a single stream, the mind stream itself becoming the word and the breath; maintaining the resolve for two minutes.

Now eliminate all dualities of the left and the right; come to the sushumna breath. Mentally feel the spot where the nose-bridge ends and the upper lip begins. Mentally feel the spot between the eyebrows.

Inhale as though you were inhaling from the spot in front of the nose-bridge, a subtle energy flowing to the spot between the eyebrows; exhaling the same way.

Maintain the same stream of the mind, word, and the energy flow.

This flow between the two spots is known as sushumna breath.

Resolve that for one minute there will be no other thought only the feel of the flow of the stream in the sushumna channel.

Now using the center between the eyebrows as the gateway, enter the chamber of your mind and resolve for a quarter minute, half a minute, there will be no exterior thought, only the utter silence; as though your mind becomes a lake of silence, absolutely still, without a ripple.

Resolve and maintain the enjoyment of such stillness and silence for a half a minute.

Now from that lake of silence, come again through the gateway between the eyebrows; and resolve for one minute to be only in the sushumna breath.

Maintain the same stream, without the intrusion of any other thought.

Now continue in silence. Only a single ripple arising in the silent stillness of the lake of the mind, and that is the mantra so-ham in the breath.

Every two-three minutes, five minutes, renew the resolve to permit no other exterior thought.

If you have difficulty with that, you may practice the entire process that you have just gone through, in repeated segments and steps described here.

Sit as long as you wish.

First Step to Meditation

Common to the practices of many schools, the first step to meditation is essentially awareness of breathing.

In this presentation, I would like to offer the first level of instruction in the method of meditation that anyone can start and practice any time and anywhere. It is seldom found in books and when suggested in books, it is less frequently properly understood. Yet it is so simple that I have found that even a three-year-old child can take to it.

Steps in the Method

I give here a systematic point-to-point method of starting the practice. Anyone at any age can begin; the younger the better. On the other hand, it is never too late in life to start. Starting even during a terminal illness will be helpful, and may prolong life, or at least it will impart peace. The practice should be done at least once a day, for whatever length of time is available.

It is not in the length of the period of sitting that success lies, but in intensifying the awareness, which comes gradually. One may also practice it at other times of the day, when one is tired and needs a quick recovery of energy, when one gets angry or frustrated and wants to be gentler, when one is busy and is consequently tense and needs to relax so one can be more effective. One may do it waiting at an airport, a railway station, or in a car when someone else is driving. There is no restriction and no limit. No harm can ever come from this practice.

 

In the Raja Yoga meditation system, as taught by the Himalayan yogis, what follows are the steps of meditation. They constitute the foundation. The reader’s ego may want to say: “I have been practicing meditation for a decade or two, I want something more advanced, I do not need elementary lessons.” This attitude is incorrect.

Many aspirants practice blanking the mind, or holding the breath like an athlete, but they have not learnt the correct method of breathing. In our system, we check everyone on the following points, and only when the foundation has been properly laid do we go any further.

 

The steps in the method are:

1. Diaphragmatic and uniform breathing.
2. Correct posture, with a straight spine, and no feeling of discomfort in the legs, back or the neck. One should be able to maintain such correct and straight position of the spine without encountering discomfort.
3. Shithili-karana, or systematic relaxation. One should maintain total relaxation of the neuro-muscular system throughout a meditation session.
4. Awareness of breathing. It has some subtler modes that one learns gradually.
5. Using a mantra or a sacred word from whichever spiritual tradition: (a) Initially a sound that flows easily with the breath, such as the word Soham. (b) After such a step has been mastered, a mantra-diksha (initiation into mantra) is given and more advanced methods of refined japa (mental remembrance of the mantra) are gradually introduced.

Let us go into the details of these steps.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

The chief organ controlling the breathing process in our body is the diaphragm, a muscle just underneath the ribs, separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. Ideally, the diaphragm contracts so that we may inhale fully even into the lower lungs. The diaphragm relaxes to push against the lower lungs so that the exhalation from this part of the lungs may be complete. A child at birth breathes diaphragmatically, but later forgets this natural process. One has to re-train oneself to breathe correctly.

In deep and correct breathing, no pressure should be felt in the lungs, and no tension should develop. Breathing should be relaxed so that a feeling of rejuvenation can be experienced.

Diaphragmatic breathing is taught in (a) Makarasana, the crocodile position, lying on one’s stomach, and is practiced further in (b) Shavasana, corpse position, as well as in sitting and standing positions.

To learn the practice, lie on the stomach. Heels slightly apart; tips of the big toes slightly touching; or in whatever way the legs feel relaxed. Cross the right arm over the left and place them in front of you, so that the upper chest is slightly uplifted off the floor. You may then rest the forehead on the forearms near the wrist joints. Keep the neck straight and let the shoulders relax.

Bring your awareness to the breathing process. In this position, it is not possible to do chest breathing. Observe the flow of the breath. Observe the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area with the smooth flow of the breath.

Let there be no jerks, no breaks in your breathing. Let it flow like a smooth stream. Let it slow down. Observe the gentle flow, along with the rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area. Take note of the breathing process.

Resolve to breathe in this way at all times.

After doing this practice for 5 to 15 minutes, turn over on your back in the shavasana position. Continue to breathe and observe the process of the diaphragm relaxing and contracting (the rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area).

Place your left palm on the chest, right palm on the stomach. No movement should be felt under the left palm; the right palm should feel the rise and fall smoothly, without a jerk, without a break.

Let uniform breathing develop, the length of the inhalation and the exhalation being equal. When this practice has been mastered, one graduates to 2:1 breathing (where exhalation is twice as long as inhalation), but not right now.

When one breathes only diaphragmatically at all times, it is considered that the practice has been mastered.

Correct Posture

It is most important that your spine should be straight for sitting in meditation and ideally at all other times.

Unfortunately, all chairs, sofas, modern beds, seats in cars and aeroplanes are designed to force people to breath incorrectly by making them sit in positions with convoluted spines.

One often sees people sitting in prayer, in kathas and satsangs, with their spines looking sadly like a bent bow. This (a) prevents correct and full breathing, causing short breaths and reducing the life span; (b) generates or worsens many diseases like asthma and heart problems. (c) It also adversely affects the entire neural system whose central flow is in the spine.

A straight spine is not a straight line.

• It is a slightly S-shaped curve:

• convex at the lower-third part (lumbar vertebrae 1 to 5) -concave at the middle-third part (thoracic vertebrae 2 to 12);

• convex at the upper part of the back (cervical vertebrae 5 to thoracic vertebrae 1);

• straight at the neck (cervical vertebrae 1 to 4).

It should be learnt under expert guidance. But a few hints here will be helpful. One need not try to sit in the advanced postures like siddhasana and padmasana, especially if age, physical problems or lack of habit prevents one from doing so. Sitting on a chair or sitting in a comfortable cross-legged position will do quite nicely.

Unfortunately, when people sit in the cross-legged positions, the centre of gravity makes them bend their backs. The answer to that is a simple one.

Fold a blanket and make it into a neat and firm cushion. It is not to serve as your seat, not like a rug to sit on. Place it only under the sit bones, with legs or knees on the floor. This will lift the hips from the ground. Straighten yourself. If there is discomfort anywhere in the back or the neck, you need to experiment with the height of the cushion under the hips; you need to reduce or increase the number of folds in the blanket. Experiment for a few days till you obtain the optimum comfort. Resolve always to sit in this position.

If sitting on the floor is very difficult, you may sit in mitrasana – on the edge of a hard chair, with the feet on the ground. But do sit with the spine straight. Form this habit. Let it become your natural position at all times. You will notice psychological changes in yourself, such as heightened awareness, intentness, self-confidence without unnecessary pride and effectiveness in life.

Having sat in the correct posture, continue breathing diaphragmatically, with mental observation of the flow, and of the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area, with no feeling of pressure in the chest. If there is tension, the breathing is incorrect.

Systematic Relaxation

Shithili-karana, after diaphragmatic breathing, is the second step practiced in shavasana. There are numerous progressively complex mental exercises done in shavasana, which finally lead to yoga-nidra, and to the entry into the subtle body.

Let us learn here basic methodical relaxation. Lie in shavasana, with feet apart, arms separate from the body, alongside the body, palms up. Continue breathing diaphragmatically. Now, take a mental inventory of your body in the following sequence, asking each part of the body to relax as it is brought to mind.

Forehead, eyebrow, eyes, nostrils, cheeks, jaw and the corners of your mouth, chin, neck, neck joint, shoulders, shoulder joints, upper arms; elbows, lower arms, wrists, hands, fingers, fingertips. Fingertips, hands, wrists, lower arms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, shoulders, chest, heart area, stomach, navel, abdomen, pelvis, thigh joints, thighs, knees, calf muscles, ankles, feet and toes.

Now in the reverse order up the body:

Toes, feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, thigh joints, pelvis, abdomen, navel, stomach, heart area, chest, shoulders, shoulder joints, upper arms, elbows, lower arms, wrists, hands, fingers, fingertips. Fingertips, fingers, hands, wrists, lower arms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, shoulders, neck joint, neck, chin, jaw, corners of your mouth, cheeks, nostrils, eyes, eyebrows, forehead.

Remember this sequence. Go over the body in this order; relax each of these parts in this sequence. Let the different parts go limp. For example, the hands should become like the hands of a baby. If you do not succeed in relaxing them at first, or you have been so tense that you have forgotten what it is like for a muscle to be relaxed, you may use a different method of relaxation called tension/relaxation, which is also done in shavasana.

The exact sequence for practicing this relaxation exercise follows. When tensing, tense from the fingers or toes upward. Try to avoid sympathetically tensing muscles other than the ones you are working with. Between segments, pause and relax for 2 breaths. After completing the entire sequence, rest for 10 relaxed breaths.

• Tense and relax the right leg—left leg—right leg—left leg.

• Tense and relax both legs simultaneously. Repeat.

• Tense and relax the right leg and arm—left leg and arm—right leg and arm—left leg and arm.

• Tense and relax the right arm—left arm—right arm—left arm: then both arms simultaneously. Repeat.

• Tense and relax all the limbs simultaneously. Repeat.

After completing either the body sequence relaxation or the tension/relaxation, continue breathing diaphragmatically, with the observation as described before. Lie in this way for a few minutes, then sit up for meditation. Do remember to sit with (a) sit bones on a folded blanket, (b) with the spine straight.

Again, quickly scan the body for any sign of tension that might have developed in the process of changing the position. Relax. Re-establish diaphragmatic breathing.

Breath Awareness

Let your breath flow, smoothly and evenly, with no jerks, no break in the middle of the breath, no break between the breaths, no sound, no gasping. Taila-dharavat, like a smooth stream of oil being poured. Become aware of the flow. No break in the awareness.

Feel the flow and touch of the breath in the nostrils. Continue to do so, without jerk, without interruption. The awareness of inhalation should immediately merge into the awareness of exhalation and vice versa. The awareness of the exhalation is especially important.

If the mind wanders off, because of its usual habit that has been given to it over many lifetimes, straighten your spine again; relax quickly again; re-establish diaphragmatic breathing; continue with the awareness of the flow and touch of the breath in the nostrils.

Mantra or Sacred Word

To begin with, use soham. Some prefer to say hamso and call it the hamsa-mantra. Exhaling, mentally remember the word ham. Inhaling, mentally remember the word so. It means “I am That”. Those in a different religious tradition may use the word prescribed by their tradition, but it should be properly learnt from someone who knows meditation according to that tradition. Those in the Himalayan Tradition are trained to teach according to each person’s religious (or atheist) background.

Let there be no interruptions in breath awareness, nor in the awareness of the flow of the word as a thought. Observe how the breath, the word and the mind are flowing together as a single stream.

Slowly, lengthen the time—not how long you sit—but how many seconds you manage to maintain awareness of the flow of that stream without interruption. Too much effort is self-defeating. One cannot fall asleep by making a determined effort, nor can one enter a meditative state by fighting oneself. Let it flow; let it happen. Don’t do meditation. Observe and experience.

Mantra-diksha

The next step is to seek out someone to give you the first initiation, or mantra-diksha, which is often referred to as a personal mantra. After the mantra initiation, one may be led to methods of meditation individually appropriate for the aspirant. Both a mantra and a meditation mode are assigned according to the individual’s samskaras, imprints in the unconscious gathered over many lifetimes; spiritual needs, and his or her adhikara, level of qualification. There are many different ways of refining the mantra experience through various koshas, sheaths within personality, all the way to final silence. The ajapa state also occurs through the guru’s grace in which the mental remembrance of, listening to, the mantra ceases to be an act and becomes an experience occurring naturally, of its own accord.

One may be taught to proceed on the path of internal sound (nada) or light (jyoti) and to go on the path of the kundalini (a yoga of channeling energies). One may be assigned a particular chakra, center of consciousness, to meditate on from time to time, but the entry into such a meditation occurs only when the initiator mentally touches the disciple’s particular chakra.

In the chakra, one may be assigned a visualization on a certain diagram or other object, or the presence of an ishta devata, one’s favorite or chosen form of the deity, for example Jesus or Mary for Christians, Buddha for the Buddhists, and so on. At this time, the aspirant will also be taught how to merge his mantra with the energy of the given chakra and how to penetrate through its central point (bindu-vedhana). The secrets of these practices are taught in specific Tantras but understood only in the live guru-disciple relationship. The Himalayan Tradition means transmission of consciousness in a direct preceptor-student mutual presence.

Sequential Steps in Learning to Breathe Diaphragmatically

(1) Diaphragmatic Breathing in Crocodile Position

To learn to breathe correctly and to learn to relax by using the correct way of breathing, lie on your stomach, cross your arms, or put one hand on the other, and rest your forehead on the arms, or on the hand; not bending your neck.

Your toes touching, your heels apart, and ankles practically flat on the ground. Your shoulders flat. Your armpits practically touching the ground.

Bring your attention away from all other places and be aware of only the place where you are lying down.

Be aware of only the space that your body is occupying from head to toe.

Now become aware of the flow of your breath. Observe the flow of your breath, as though your breath is flowing through your whole body from top to toes and toes to top.

Breathe gently, slowly, smoothly; no jerk in your breathing; no break in your breathing. Exhale all your tensions and stress; inhale a feeling of fullness, relaxation, peace and purity.

Now bring your attention to the gentle rise and fall of your stomach and the navel area. Observe how that area gently lifts from the ground as you exhale; how it gently touches the ground as you inhale.

Observe that movement with the gentle rhythm of your breathing. This is known as diaphragmatic breathing. No break, no jerks.

Continue to observe the rise and fall of the stomach and navel area, with the gentle rhythm of your breathing; observe which muscles are moving to constitute that movement—and by observing that, learn to breathe correctly, so that you may always breathe in this manner.

You may lie in this position as long as you normally wish.

Continue to breathe in this way, taking note of how the movement occurs along with your breathing.

(2) In Corpse Position

Now, gently roll over and lie on your back with your feet apart, arms separate from the body, along side the body, back of the hand resting on the ground.

Let your entire body relax and again, continue to breathe as you were breathing in the crocodile position.

Observe the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and navel area.

Observe how that area gently relaxes and slightly inflates as you inhale; how it slightly contracts as you exhale.

Place your left palm in the center of your bosom. Place your right palm on your stomach between the sternum and the navel—continue to breathe as before.

Observe that there is no movement under the left palm on the chest. The movement should be felt only under the right palm only. 

As you exhale and inhale, gently observe the flow of your breath. No jerks in your breathing; no break.

You may lie in this position, observing the flow of your breath, 10-20 minutes two or three times a day for complete relaxation.

One way to quickly relax your body and your mind is this way we will go through together.

Do this practice for 5 minutes, or less or more than that whenever and wherever is convenient—sitting on a sofa, on an office chair, in a bus, in a car, in a meeting or alone.

Either of the two exercises, or both in sequence, 10-20 minutes two or three times a day, will change the texture and tone of your life in many ways.

Three Minute Relaxation for the Very Busy

Bring your attention only to the place where you are sitting.

Be aware of only the space that your body is occupying from head to toe.

Be aware of only this moment in time.

Very quickly, relax your forehead.

Relax the eyebrows and eyes.

Relax your nostrils.

Relax your cheeks, jaw, and corners of your mouth.

Relax your chin, neck and shoulders.

Relax all the way down to the fingertips.

Relax from your fingertips to your shoulders.

Relax your chest, stomach, navel and abdomen.

Relax your thighs, calves, feet and toes.

Again relax all the organs from the toes upwards and bring your awareness to your breathing.

Observe the gentle rise and fall of your stomach and navel area: how that area gently relaxes as you exhale, how it slightly expands as you inhale.

Observing that, feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils.

Exhaling, count in your mind ooonnne, inhaling twooo, exhaling threeee, inhaling foouurr, exhaling fiiive; inhaling fiiive, exhaling foouurr, inhaling threeee, exhaling twooo, inhaling ooonnne; continue to count your breaths one through five and five through one. Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils, breathing slowly, gently smoothly.

No break in your breathing; no break in your counting, one to five and five to one. Maintain the count.

Feel the flow and the touch of the breath in the nostrils, and continue the practice as long as you wish, and do as frequently as you like.

Without breaking the count, gently open your eyes.

One Minute Meditations with So-ham Mantra

Simply be aware of yourself from head to toe.

Draw around yourself, as it were, three circles of light.

Resolve that the mind shall not cross these three circles, nor will any intruding thoughts and impressions enter from outside.

Remaining aware of yourself from head to toe, in just a few exhalations, relax all your limbs.

Your inhalation is for the purpose of exhalation. So you inhale so that you may be able to exhale.

In each exhalation progressively relax your entire body.

Now resolve that for the next one minute no other thoughts will arise except the awareness of the movement of your stomach and navel area, with the gentle rhythm of your breathing. Maintain that resolve for one minute.

Now resolve that for one minute there will be no other thoughts except the awareness of the path of your breath from the navel to the nostrils, nostrils to the navel; only feel the breath flow on this path. Maintaining the resolve.

Now feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your active nostril; but first resolve that for one minute there will be no intruding thought, only the feel of the flow of the breath in your active nostril.

Now resolve that for one minute there will be no intruding thought except the feel of the breath in your passive nostril.

Resolve that for one minute there will be no other thought except the feel of the breath in your two nostrils.

Now with your breath, exhale thinking the word haaammm, inhaling the word soooo.

Resolve that for the next two minutes there will be no other thought except the feel of the breath in both nostrils, inhaling with soooo, exhaling with haaammm.

Maintain that resolve so that no break occurs between the exhalations and the inhalations.

Resolve for an additional two minutes that as you feel the breath and the word, you observe how the mind and the word are flowing together as a single stream, the mind stream itself becoming the word and the breath; maintaining the resolve for two minutes.

Now eliminate all dualities of the left and the right; come to the sushumna breath. Mentally feel the spot where the nose-bridge ends and the upper lip begins. Mentally feel the spot between the eyebrows.

Inhale as though you were inhaling from the spot in front of the nose-bridge, a subtle energy flowing to the spot between the eyebrows; exhaling the same way.

Maintain the same stream of the mind, word, and the energy flow.

This flow between the two spots is known as sushumna breath.

Resolve that for one minute there will be no other thought only the feel of the flow of the stream in the sushumna channel.

Now using the center between the eyebrows as the gateway, enter the chamber of your mind and resolve for a quarter minute, half a minute, there will be no exterior thought, only the utter silence; as though your mind becomes a lake of silence, absolutely still, without a ripple.

Resolve and maintain the enjoyment of such stillness and silence for a half a minute.

Now from that lake of silence, come again through the gateway between the eyebrows; and resolve for one minute to be only in the sushumna breath.

Maintain the same stream, without the intrusion of any other thought.

Now continue in silence. Only a single ripple arising in the silent stillness of the lake of the mind, and that is the mantra so-ham in the breath.

Every two-three minutes, five minutes, renew the resolve to permit no other exterior thought.

If you have difficulty with that, you may practice the entire process that you have just gone through, in repeated segments and steps described here.

Sit as long as you wish.

Recommended Readings (to be read in the sequence given below):

1. Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama
2. Lectures on Yoga by Swami Rama
3. Meditation and Its Practice by Swami Rama
4. Science of Breath by Swami Rama and others
5. A Practical Guide to Holistic Health by Swami Rama
6. Superconscious Meditation by Pandit Usharbudh Arya (Swami Veda Bharati)
7. Mantra and Meditation by Pandit Usharbudh Arya (Swami Veda Bharati)