Powerful meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - the practice of silence. Sri Chinmoy describes such meditation as follows:

You identify with it and rise to the highest point of your consciousness and aspiration, without thinking about anything else - just an aspiration that rises, rises, rises, without even thinking for a moment about the result, about what may not happen, and most importantly - not wanting something to happen - just the joy of aspiration, which grows and grows, intensifies and intensifies in constant concentration.

And then - I assure you - the best thing that can happen will happen. That is, when you meditate in this way, you manage to achieve the most that your capabilities allow."

Mother (Mirra Alfassa) on meditation

“When I ask you to go deep into yourself, some of you focus on the corresponding sensation, while others may have the impression that they are plunging into a deep well; they clearly see steps leading into a deep dark well, they go down these steps deeper and deeper, and often come to the door.

They sit in front of this door and concentrate on it with the will to go inside, and sometimes the door opens, and then they go inside and see something like a hall, or a room, or a cave; and from there, if they follow further, they may come to another door, which, after some effort, also opens and they go even further, etc. So, if you show sufficient persistence, you will one day find yourself in front of a door that looks like especially massive and unyielding, but after you make a significant effort in concentration, this door also opens, and you suddenly find yourself in a hall full of transparency and light, and there you come into contact with your own soul.

There, in this vast cave of the inner being, one must go deeper and deeper in order to find a source of inner support; one must penetrate to the very depths to find serene Peace. There, in this vast peace of being, far from external noise and bustle, far from torment and pain, far from thoughts and fantasies, far, very far from sensory waves, you need to enter very carefully - where it no longer exists - in order to feel there is Presence.

But we need to go even further. There, where the Power that accomplishes everything vibrates. We need to go even deeper, to where there are no actions, no impressions, no ego, no separate self - there is nothing, only waves of joy and the vibration that is at the source of everything, the vibration of perfect balance.

To feel this eternal peace, to merge with it... and then to enter into this serene bliss in which the consciousness achieves complete identity with the central being. There is no more duality, no existence, absolutely nothing - only union with this spark of the Immortal Flame, the Immanent Divine, the One and the One, this Soul that resides within us."

Meditation: the language of God

Meditation tells us only one thing: God exists.

Meditation reveals to us only one truth: our dreams are about God.

Why do we meditate?

Why do we meditate? We meditate because our world cannot satisfy us. The so-called peace that we experience in our Everyday life, this is five minutes of peace after ten hours of worry, worry and disappointment. We are constantly at the mercy of the hostile forces around us - envy, fear, doubt, worry, anxiety and despair. These powers are like monkeys. When they let us go for a short rest, we say that we are enjoying the peace. But this is not real peace at all, and the next moment they attack us again.

Only through meditation can we find lasting peace, divine peace. If we meditate in the morning with our whole soul and experience peace for just one minute, that one minute of peace will spread throughout the day. When we meditate at the highest level, then we truly experience constant peace, light and delight. We need meditation because we want to grow in the light and manifest ourselves in the light. If this is our aspiration, if this is our craving, then meditation is the only way.

If we feel that we are satisfied with what we have and with what we are, then there is no need for us to enter the realm of meditation. The reason we turn to meditation is because of our inner hunger. We feel that inside of us there is something bright, something boundless, something divine. We feel that we really need it, but just now we don’t have access to it. Our inner hunger comes from our spiritual need.

Meditation is not an escape from life

If we take the path of meditation to withdraw from the world and forget our sufferings, then we are doing it for the wrong reason. If we enter into the spiritual life out of disappointment or dissatisfaction, then we may not remain in the spiritual life. Today I failed to satisfy my desires, so I am not satisfied with the world. But tomorrow I'll say, "Let's try again. Maybe this time I'll get satisfaction." But ultimately we will feel that the desire life will never satisfy us. We will feel the need to turn to the inner life. This is aspiration.

What is meditation? Meditation is the self-awakening of man and the self-surrender of God. When man's self-awakening and God's self-surrender meet, man becomes immortal in the inner world and God becomes manifest in the outer world.

In an aspiring life we ​​need only God. If we sincerely need God, then naturally He will give Himself to us. But He will do it in His own way and in His own time. If we pray and meditate with sincere aspiration to acquire certain qualities, then even if God does not bestow them on us, we will still be satisfied. We will simply say to ourselves: “He knows better. I am not ready for this now. But He will definitely give them to me on the day when I am ready.” In an aspiring life, it is not our achievements that bring us satisfaction, but our aspiration. Aspiration itself is our satisfaction.

Conscious aspiration and effort

To achieve spirituality, the “push and push” method is not suitable. We cannot attract spiritual light by force. When it descends on its own, only thanks to our aspiration will we be able to perceive it. If we try to attract more light than we can receive, our inner vessel will collapse. How do we perceive this light coming from above? How do we expand our consciousness to become more receptive? The answer is meditation.

Meditating doesn't mean just sitting quietly for five or ten minutes. Meditation requires conscious effort. The mind should be brought to a state of peace and silence. At the same time, he must be vigilant not to allow any distracting thoughts or desires to enter into him. When we can bring the mind into a state of peace and silence, we will feel that a new creation is being born within us. When our mind becomes free and calm and our whole existence becomes an empty vessel, our inner being can call upon infinite peace, light and bliss to enter that vessel and fill it. This is meditation.

Meditation is the language of God. If we want to know what God's Will means in our lives, if we want God to guide us, shape us and manifest Himself in and through us, then meditation is the language we must use.

When we think that it is we who are trying to meditate, then meditation seems difficult. However, real meditation is not done by us. It is accomplished by our Inner Pilot, the Supreme, who constantly meditates in and through us. We are just a vessel and we allow Him to fill us with all His Consciousness. We start with our own personal effort, but as soon as we go deep within ourselves, we realize that it is not our effort that allows us to go into meditation. It is the Supreme One who meditates in and through us with our knowledge and conscious consent.

Each person's soul has its own way of meditation. My way of meditation will not suit you, and your way of meditation will not suit me. There are many seekers whose meditation is not fruitful because they do meditation that is not suitable for them. If you do not have a spiritual Master to guide you, then you have to go deep within yourself so that meditation comes from the innermost depths of your heart.

This is very difficult for a beginner. You have to go deep, deep within yourself and see if you are hearing a voice, a thought, or an idea. Then you need to dive deep into this voice or thought and understand whether it gives you a feeling of inner joy or peace, where there are no questions, no problems, no doubts. Only when you have this feeling can you be sure that the voice you heard is the true inner voice that will help you in your spiritual life.

But if you have a Master who is a realized soul, his silent gaze will teach you how to meditate. The teacher should not verbally explain how to meditate or give a special meditation technique. He will simply meditate on you and teach you meditation internally. Your soul will enter his soul and learn from his soul. All true spiritual Masters teach silent meditation.

The ultimate goal of meditation is to establish a conscious union with God. We are all children of God, but this moment we have no conscious unity with God. Someone may believe in God, but this belief is not a reality in his life. He simply believes in God because some saint or yogi or spiritual Master said that God exists, or because he read about God in spiritual books. But if we practice meditation, the day comes when we establish conscious oneness with God. And then God gives us His endless peace, endless light and endless bliss, and we turn into this endless peace, light and bliss.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q How to meditate?

A There are two ways of meditation. One of them is to calm the mind. The ordinary man feels that if he silences his mind, he will become a fool. He feels that if the mind does not think, then the mind has lost everything. But this is not true in spiritual life. In spiritual life, when we silence the mind, we see that a new creation is born in the mind, a new promise to God. IN currently we have not fulfilled our promise to God, we have not fully dedicated our entire existence to God. When we can silence the mind, we will be able to satisfy and manifest God.

Another way to meditate is to empty the heart. At the present moment the heart is full of emotional turmoil and problems caused by the impure vital that has enveloped it. The heart is a vessel. At the moment this vessel is full of undivine things that limit and bind us. If we can free this heart-vessel, then there will be someone who will fill it with divine peace, light and bliss that will free us. When we free our hearts from ignorance, the Wisdom-Light of God will come and fill it.

Q If a person does not believe in God, can he practice meditation?

A If a person does not believe in God, he can practice meditation, however, he may not achieve anything. Meditation is the path leading to God. If you don't believe in God, then naturally you won't follow this path.

Q Is meditation also the ultimate reality?

A It can be said that for a beginner, meditation is the ultimate reality. But when the seeker reaches a higher level, he knows that meditation only leads to the ultimate reality. If one has lived for many years in ignorance and has never prayed or meditated even for a minute in his life, for him meditation is naturally the highest reality that his consciousness can reach. But having practiced meditation for several years now, he knows that meditation itself is not the ultimate reality. Ultimate reality is something that he achieves or becomes by following the path of meditation.

Q Does the object of meditation change as a person develops spiritually and achieves realization?

O After attaining realization there is no need to meditate as a seeker meditates. When one has achieved realization, which means oneness with the Supreme, his meditation becomes permanent. When a seeker has realized God, he does not meditate to achieve anything or go beyond anything. He meditates to bring peace, light and bliss to humanity or to awaken the consciousness of others.

First things first: how to get started

From a spiritual point of view, every seeker is a beginner. The moment you want to constantly and continuously improve, that is the moment you become an eternal beginner.

Where do I begin?

From a spiritual point of view, every seeker is a beginner. A beginner is one who has an inner urge to grow into something ever more divine, ever more illuminating, ever more manifesting. The moment you want to constantly and continuously improve, the moment you want to transcend yourself and enter into the ever-transcendent Beyond, that moment you become an eternal beginner.

If you are taking your very first steps, then you can start by reading a few spiritual books or holy books. They will give you inspiration. You should read the books of spiritual Teachers in whom you have unlimited faith. There are Teachers who have achieved the highest consciousness, and by reading their books you will definitely get inspired. It is better not to read books written by professors, scholars and followers who are still on the path and have not achieved enlightenment. Only those who have realized Truth will have the ability to offer Truth. Otherwise we become like a blind man led by a blind man.

It is also good to associate with people who have been meditating for some time. They may not be able to teach you, but they will be able to inspire you. Even if you just sit next to them while they are meditating, without realizing it, your inner being will receive some of the meditative power from them. You are not stealing anything; it is just that your inner being receives help from them without your outer knowledge.

In the beginning you should not even think about meditation. Just try to set aside a specific time during which you try to remain calm and silent, and feel that these five minutes belong to your inner being and no one else. Regularity is especially important. All you need is regular practice at the same time.

Every day you need to learn only one thing: how to be truly happy.

Some Basic Techniques

For a beginner, it is better to start with concentration. Otherwise, the moment you try to calm and free your mind, millions of vain thoughts will enter into you and you will not be able to meditate even for a second. If you concentrate, then at this time you block those unnecessary thoughts that are trying to penetrate you. So in the beginning, just practice concentration for a few minutes. Then, after a few weeks or months, you can try meditation.

When you start meditating, always try to feel like a child. In childhood, the human mind is not yet developed. At the age of twelve or thirteen, the mind begins to function at the level of intelligence. But before that, the child is the very heart. The child feels that he knows nothing. He has no preconceived notions about meditation and spiritual life. He wants to study everything directly.

First feel that you are a child, and then try to feel that you are in a flowering garden. This blooming garden is your heart. A child can play in the garden for hours. He moves from flower to flower, but does not leave the garden, because he rejoices in the beauty and aroma of each flower. Feel that there is a garden within you and you can stay in it as long as you want. In this way one can learn to meditate in the heart.

If you can stay in the heart, you will begin to feel the inner plea. This inner prayer, which is aspiration, is the secret of meditation. When an adult prays, his prayer is usually insincere. But when a child asks, even if he only asks for candy, he is very sincere. At this time, candy is the whole world for him. If you give him a hundred dollar bill, he will not be satisfied; he only needs candy. When a child calls out, immediately his father or mother comes to him. If you can ask deep within yourself for peace, light and truth, and if this is the only thing that will satisfy you, then God, your eternal Father and eternal Mother, will surely come and help you.

You should always try to feel that you are helpless, like a child. The moment you feel helpless, someone will come to help you. If a child is lost on the street and starts crying, some kind-hearted person will show him where his home is. Feel like you are lost on the street and a storm is raging around you. Doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, uncertainty and other undivine forces come upon you. But if you cry sincerely, someone will come to save you and show you the way to the home that is your heart. And who is he? This is God, your Inner Pilot.

Early in the morning, invite God, your Friend, your true Friend, your only Friend, to accompany you throughout the day.

Inner Pilot

God may or may not have an appearance. But during meditation it is better to think of the Supreme as a human being. A beginner should always meditate on God as an individual. Otherwise, if you try to imagine God in his impersonal aspect, you will be confused by his immensity. So start with the personal God, and then you can go to the impersonal God.

Today you may be a beginner in the spiritual life, but do not feel that you will always be a beginner. Once upon a time, everyone was a beginner. If you practice concentration and meditation regularly, if you are truly sincere in your spiritual quest, then you will definitely make progress. The main thing is not to lose heart. Divine realization does not come suddenly. If you meditate regularly and devotedly, if you can call upon God as a crying child calls his mother, then you will not have to run towards the goal. No, the goal itself will come and stand right in front of you and call you its own, completely its own.

EXERCISES

1. Simplicity, sincerity, purity.

For a seeker desiring to begin spiritual life, simplicity, sincerity, purity and confidence are of paramount importance. It is simplicity that gives you peace of mind. It is sincerity that makes you feel that you are from God and God is always for you. It is your pure heart that makes you feel that in every moment of your life God is growing, sparkling and manifesting Himself within you. It is confidence that will allow you to feel that meditation is definitely what you need. There are several meditation exercises that a beginner can try.

Without straining, repeat the word “simplicity” seven times in your mind and focus on the top of your head. Then repeat the word “sincerity” seven times inside your heart mentally and with your soul and concentrate on the heart. Then, without straining, say the word “purity” seven times to yourself, directing your inner gaze to the navel or the area around the navel and concentrate on it. Please do this silently and with all your heart. Then focus your attention on your third eye, which is between and slightly above your eyebrows, and silently repeat the word “confidence” seven times. After this, place your hand on the top of your head and say three times: “I am simple-hearted, I am simple-hearted, I am simple-hearted.” Then place your hand on your heart and say three times: “I am sincere, I am sincere, I am sincere.” Then place your hand on your navel, repeating, “I am pure,” and on your third eye, saying, “I am confident.”

2. Favorite quality.

If you like a certain aspect of God - love, for example - please repeat the word "love" to yourself with all your soul several times. Saying the word “love” with all your soul, try to feel how it reverberates in the deepest depths of your heart: “Love, love, love.” If you are more interested in divine peace, then please chant or repeat the word "peace" to yourself. At the same time, try to hear the cosmic sound contained in this word, which is reflected in the innermost depths of your heart. If you want light, then please repeat, “Light, light, light,” with as much soul as possible and feel that you have truly become light. From your fingertips to the top of your head, try to feel that you have become the word that you are repeating. Feel that your physical body thin body, all your nerves and your whole being are filled with a flow of love, peace or light.

3. Invite your friends.

Feel that you are standing at the door of your heart and that you have invited Love, Peace, Light, Delight and all your other divine friends to come to you. But if complexity, insincerity, impurity and other negative forces appear, please do not allow them to enter. Try to feel that both divine qualities and non-divine qualities have taken the form of human beings and you can see them with your own eyes.

Every day, try to invite one friend to enter the door of your heart. This will be the beginning of divine friendship. Today you will allow only your friend Love to enter, tomorrow you will allow your friend Joy to enter. After a while, you will be able to invite more than one friend at a time. You may not be able to give attention to more than one friend at first, but over time you will be able to invite all your divine friends at once.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q I am looking for more joy in life, but I do not feel confident that I will get it by meditating.

O When life does not give you joy, but you feel that you want joy, it means that you are spiritually hungry. When you have spiritual hunger, you will eat spiritual food. When you are not hungry, you will not eat. For fifteen or twenty years you have been insincerely or laxly concerned with the spiritual life. Because you have not meditated for many years, if you jump straight into the sea of ​​spirituality, you will not be able to swim. You cannot change your nature immediately. This must be done slowly, constantly, gradually. First move around in the water and gradually you will learn to swim. Eventually the time will come when you will be able to swim well. But since you have inner hunger, then you are ready to start swimming.

Mastering the Essentials

You can't try without preparation. Without trying there is no progress. Without progress there is no perfection. Without perfection there is no satisfaction

Preparing for Meditation

To meditate at home, you must have a corner in your room that is absolutely clean, and consecrated - a sacred place that you use only for meditation. There you can put away an altar where you will have a portrait of your spiritual Master or Christ or some other loved one clergyman, whom you consider to be your Teacher.

It is helpful if you take a shower or bath before starting your meditation. Cleanliness of the body is very useful for purifying the mind. If it is not possible to take a bath or shower before sitting down to meditate, you should at least wash your face. In addition, it is recommended to wear clean and light-colored clothing.

It will also help if you light incense sticks and place fresh flowers on your altar. When you. When you inhale the smell of incense sticks, you receive perhaps only an iota of inspiration and purification, but this iota can be added to your inner treasure. There are people who say that it is not necessary to have flowers in front of you while meditating. They say: “The flower is within, the thousand-petalled lotus is within us.” But a living flower on the altar will remind you of your inner flower. Its color, its aroma and its pure consciousness will inspire you. From inspiration you will receive aspiration.

The same can be said about using candles during meditation. A candle flame by itself will not give you aspiration. But when you see the outer flame, immediately you will feel that the flame of aspiration in your inner being is rising high, higher, even higher. For one who is on the eve of realizing God, or for one who has already realized God, these external attributes will not matter. But if you know that God realization is still far ahead for you, then they will definitely increase your aspiration.

When you do your daily solo meditation, try to meditate alone. This does not apply to spouses if they have the same spiritual Master. For them, meditating together comes naturally. Otherwise, it is not recommended to meditate with others during your daily individual meditations. Collective meditation is also important, but in everyday individual meditation it is better to meditate alone at your own altar.

Meditation is a divine gift. Meditation simplifies our outer life and energizes our inner life. Meditation gives us a natural and free life, a life that becomes so natural and free that with every breath we become aware of our own divinity.

Posture is important

When meditating, it is important to keep your spine straight and vertical position, and at the same time the body should be relaxed. If the body is tense, the divine and fulfilling qualities that enter and flow through it during meditation will not be perceived. The pose should also not cause discomfort to the body. When you meditate, your inner being will spontaneously give you a comfortable position, and all you have to do is maintain it. The main benefit of the lotus pose is that it helps keep the spine straight and vertical. But this position is uncomfortable for most people. So the lotus position is not at all necessary for proper meditation. Many people meditate very well while sitting in a chair.

Some people do physical exercises and poses. These exercises, called Hatha yoga, relax the body and calm the mind for a short period. If someone is physically very restless and cannot remain calm even for one second, then these exercises will definitely help. But Hatha yoga is not at all obligatory. There are many aspirants who can simply sit and calm their mind without any practice of Hatha Yoga.

Under no circumstances is it recommended to meditate while lying down, even for those who have been meditating for several years. Those who try to meditate lying down will enter a world of sleep, or inner passivity or drowsiness. Also, when you are lying down, your breathing is not as good as when you are sitting, because it is not conscious and controllable. Proper breathing is very important in meditation.

The soulful heart has discovered the highest truth: meditating on God is a privilege, not a duty.

Are your eyes open or are your eyes closed?

I am often asked if it is necessary to meditate with your eyes closed. Ninety times out of a hundred, meditators with their eyes closed fall asleep during meditation. They meditate for five minutes and then spend fifteen minutes in the dream world. There is no dynamic energy in him, only apathy, complacency, something similar to a pleasant feeling of relaxation. By meditating with your eyes closed and plunging into the world of sleep, you can enjoy any illusions. Your rich imagination can make you feel like you are entering higher realms. There are many ways you can convince yourself that you are a great meditator. Therefore, it is best to meditate with half-open and half-closed eyes. In this case, you are the root of the tree and at the same time the topmost branch. The part of you that corresponds to half-open eyes is the root, symbolizing Mother Earth. The part corresponding to half-closed eyes is the uppermost branch, the world of visions, or, say, Heaven. Your consciousness is at the highest level, and at the same time it is here on earth, trying to change the world.

When you meditate with your eyes half open and half closed, you are doing what is called "lion meditation."

Even as you go deep within, you focus your conscious attention on both the physical plane and the subconscious plane. Both the physical world with its noise and other disturbances, and the subconscious world, the world of dreams, both call you, but you cope with them. You say, "Look, I'm on guard. You can't take control of me." Since your eyes are partially open, you will not fall asleep. This is how you challenge the world of the subconscious. At the same time, you maintain your dominance over the physical plane because you can see what is happening around you.

Breathing exercises

1. Inhale towards the heart center.

Please inhale, hold your breath for a few seconds, and feel that you are holding the breath, which is life-energy itself, at the heart center. This will help develop your inner ability to meditate.

2. Breathing awareness.

When you sit down to meditate, try to inhale as slowly and calmly as possible, so that the thinnest thread, if someone were to place it in front of your nose, would not waver at all. And when you exhale, try to exhale even more slowly than you inhaled. If possible, allow a short pause between the end of your exhalation and the beginning of your inhalation. If you can, hold your breath for a few seconds. But if it's difficult, don't do it. Never do anything that will cause you physical discomfort while meditating.

3. Breathing in peace and joy.

The first thing you should think about when practicing breathing techniques is cleanliness. If when you inhale you can feel that the breath is coming directly from God, from Purity itself, then your breath can be easily purified. Then, each time you inhale, try to feel that you are breathing infinite peace into your body. The opposite of peace is restlessness. As you exhale, try to feel that you are removing the anxiety that is within you and that which you see around you. When you breathe in this way, you see that anxiety leaves you. After doing this a few times, please try to feel that you are inhaling the energy of the Universe, and when you exhale, feel that all the fear is leaving the body. After doing this a few times, try to feel that you are breathing in endless joy and breathing out sadness, suffering and melancholy.

4. Cosmic energy.

Feel that you are inhaling not air, but cosmic energy. Feel that enormous cosmic energy is entering into you with every breath, and that you are going to use it to purify the body, vital, mind and heart. Feel that there is not a single place in your being that is not filled with the flow of cosmic energy. It flows like a river inside you, washing and purifying your entire being.

Then, as you exhale, feel that you are exhaling all the garbage that has accumulated in you - all your base thoughts, dark ideas and impure actions. Everything inside you that you call base, everything that you do not want to recognize as yours, feel that you are throwing it all out of yourself.

This is not traditional yoga pranayama, which is more complex and systematized, it is the most effective spiritual way of breathing. If you practice this way of breathing, you will soon see results. At the very beginning you will have to use your imagination, but after a while you will see and feel that this is not imagination at all, this is reality. You consciously inhale the energy flowing all around you, cleansing yourself and getting rid of everything undivine. If you breathe like this for five minutes every day, you can improve very quickly. But this must be done very consciously and not mechanically.

5. Perfect breathing.

As you become more prepared, you can try to feel what you are inhaling and exhaling with every part of your body - your heart, your eyes, your nose, and even your pores. Now you can only breathe through your nose or mouth, but the time will come when you will be able to breathe with every part of your body. Spiritual Teachers can breathe even with their nose and mouth closed. When you master this spiritual breath, all your impurity and ignorance will be replaced divine light, peace and energy.

6. Breathing on a count of one-four-two.

As you inhale, repeat once the name of God, Christ, or whomever you worship. Or, if your spiritual Master has given you a mantra, you can repeat it. This breathing should not be long or deep. Then hold your breath and repeat the same name four times. And when you exhale, repeat the name or mantra you have chosen twice. You inhale for one count, hold your breath for four counts, and exhale for two counts, repeating the sacred word to yourself. If you simply count the numbers one-four-two, you will not get any vibration or inner sensation. But when you pronounce the name of God, immediately the divine superior qualities enter into you. Then, when you hold your breath, these divine qualities circulate within you, penetrating all your darkness, imperfection, limitation and impurity. And when you exhale, those same divine qualities take away all your undivine, negative and destructive qualities.

At the very beginning, you can start with a count of 1-4-2. When you gain experience in breathing exercises, you will be able to do the same on a count of 4-16-8: inhale for 4 counts, hold your breath for 16, and exhale for 8. But this should be done very gradually. Some people consider 8-32-16, but this is only suitable for specialists.

7. Alternating breathing.

Another technique you can try is alternating breathing. It is performed by closing the right nostril with the thumb and taking a long breath with the left. While inhaling, repeat the name of God once. Then hold your breath for four counts while repeating the name of God four times. Finally, release your right nostril and pinch your left nostril, closing it ring finger and exhale in two counts, that is, two repetitions of the name of God. Then do it all in reverse - starting with the left nostril pinched. With this method, when you inhale, you don't have to do it quietly. Even if you make noise, it's okay. But of course these exercises should not be done in public or where others are trying to meditate in silence.

You should not practice 1-4-2 breathing for more than four or five minutes, and you should not alternate breathing more than a few times. If you do it 20 or 40 or 50 times, heat will rise from the base of the spine and enter the head, creating tension and headaches. It's like overeating. Food is good, but if you eat voraciously, it will upset your stomach. This inner heat works the same way. If you breathe to the limit of your capacity, then instead of giving you a calm mind, the breath will give you an arrogant, restless and destructive mind. Later, when you develop your inner ability, you can do this alternating breathing for 10 or 15 minutes.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q Is it necessary to meditate only at home, or can one try to meditate anywhere?

O You are just a beginner now. You can meditate best only when you are alone in a room or in the presence of a spiritual Master. If you try to meditate while driving, while walking, or while sitting in the subway, you will not be able to go very deep into meditation. And at the same time, it is not enough to sit in front of your altar. When you sit in front of the altar, you must feel the inner altar, the altar within your heart, otherwise you will not have satisfactory meditation. Wherever you meditate, you must enter your heart, where you can see and feel the living altar of the Supreme. At your inner altar you are safe and protected. There you are under the protection of divine powers. If you can meditate in the inner altar, you are sure to make progress quickly because you will not encounter opposition there.

After several years of diligent meditation, when inner strength is developed, you can meditate anywhere. Even if you are standing in the subway or walking down the street, this will not bother you. Ultimately, you have to learn how to do higher meditation and at the same time be aware of everything that happens in the outer world.

When meditating or praying, some people concentrate on certain objects, for example, a photograph, or some other objects. Is it wise for them to become attached to these objects, or is it better for them to meditate on something formless and invisible?

A. When they meditate on something, they do not worship it as God. They only get inspiration from this item. I glance at the candle and I see the flame, but I do not perceive the flame as God. I see flames as a source of inspiration. This flame inspires me and increases my aspiration to rise upward with a blazing inner call. I can hold a flower in front of me when I meditate. A flower is not God, although there is God inside the flower. But the flower inspires me and gives me purity. I can light an incense stick. She herself is not God to me, but she gives me a sense of purity and helps me in my spiritual progress.

Whatever inspires me I should use to increase my aspiration, be it a photograph, a candle or a flower. For when my inspiration and aspiration increase, I feel that I have moved one step further towards my goal. But neither a candle, nor a photograph, nor a flower are in themselves objects of worship.

Q When we eventually achieve Divine Realization, will all these attributes be necessary?

O When we become specialists in our life-aspiration, then there will be no external forms left. We will become one with the Formless One. But first it is necessary to go to God through form. First, the child reads aloud. He must convince his parents, he must convince himself that he is reading the words. If he doesn't read out loud, he feels like he's not reading at all. But when a child grows up, he reads silently. By the time he and his parents know that he really can read, then the outer form can be discarded. But these external forms are of paramount importance to the seeker during the preparatory stage. They will finally disappear when they are no longer needed.

Q Is it good to meditate after eating, or is it advisable to meditate on an empty stomach?

O It is not good to meditate immediately after eating a large meal. The body has thousands of subtle spiritual nerves. They become heavy after a large meal and will not allow you to achieve the highest level of meditation. The body will be heavy, the mind will be heavy, the nerves will be heavy and your meditation will not be good. When you meditate correctly, you feel that your whole being, like a bird, is flying high, higher, even higher. But if your consciousness is heavy, you will not be able to rise.

So, it is always advisable to meditate on an empty stomach. At least two hours should pass between eating and the time you sit down to meditate. But still, if you are really hungry when you go to meditate, your meditation will not be satisfactory. Your hunger, like a monkey, will constantly distract you. And in this case, it is good to drink a glass of milk or juice before meditation. It won't ruin it.

But abstaining from large meals before meditation is not the same as fasting. Fasting is not at all necessary for meditation. By fasting you cleanse yourself to some extent. Once a month, if you want, you can fast for one day to cleanse your essence of external aggressiveness and greed. But by starving often, you will reach death before God. Fasting is not a solution to the problem of self-purification. Resolving it is constant, deep, spiritual meditation, unlimited love for God and unconditional humility to Him.

Q Is it necessary to be a vegetarian to follow the path of spiritual life?

A Vegetarian diet really does matter in spiritual life. Cleanliness is of paramount importance to students. We must create this purity in the body, in the feelings and in the mind. When we eat meat, the aggressive animal consciousness enters into us. Our nerves become agitated and restless, and this can negatively affect our meditation. If a seeker does not stop eating meat, he usually does not achieve subtle sensations and vision of the subtle worlds.

Once upon a time, animal consciousness was necessary to move forward. Animals are aggressive by nature, but at the same time there is a certain dynamic impetus for development in their nature. If we did not take qualities from animals, we would remain inert like trees, or remain in the consciousness of a stone in which there is no growth or movement. But, unfortunately, the animal consciousness contains both dark and destructive qualities. And we have entered into spiritual life, so that animal consciousness is no longer necessary in our life. From animal consciousness we have moved to human consciousness, and now we are trying to enter into divine consciousness.

Fruits and vegetables, being light foods, help us to acquire qualities of kindness, tenderness, simplicity and purity in both our inner and outer lives. Vegetarianism will help our inner being to strengthen its inner essence. In the soul - we pray and meditate, outside - the food that we take from Mother Earth helps us too, giving us not only energy, but also aspiration.

Some people feel that meat gives them strength. But if they look deeper, they will discover that it is their own idea of ​​meat that gives them power. You can change your mind and feel that it is not the meat, but the spiritual energy that permeates the body that gives it strength. This energy comes from meditation as well as from proper nutrition. The power that can be obtained from aspiration and meditation is infinitely more powerful than the power that can be obtained from meat.

Many spiritual seekers have found that vegetarianism allows for faster progress in spiritual life. But along with a vegetarian diet, you need to pray and meditate. If there is aspiration, then a vegetarian diet will help significantly; bodily purity will help the aspiration become more intense and more spiritual. Still, if one is not a vegetarian, it does not mean that he is not destined for advancement in spiritual life, or that he is not capable of God realization.

Silent Mind

Sometimes I must be silent because that is the only way to know a little better, think a little wiser, become a little more perfect, find God a little faster.

Calm the mind

No matter which way you go towards meditation, the first and most important task is to try to make the mind quiet and calm. If the mind is constantly wandering, if it is always a victim of merciless thoughts, then you will not be able to make any progress. The mind must be made to become quiet and calm so that at the time the light descends from above, you can be fully aware of it. In your conscious observation and conscious acceptance of this light, you will enter deep meditation and see the purification, transformation and enlightenment of your life.

How can you force the mind to be quiet and calm? The mind has its own power and now this power is stronger than your current aspiration and willingness to meditate. But if you can get help from your heart, then gradually you will be able to control your mind. The heart, in turn, receives constant support from the soul, which is light itself and energy itself.

Freeing the Mind

You should not think that when there is nothing in your mind, you become a fool or act like an idiot. This is not true. If you can keep your mind calm and quiet for ten or fifteen minutes, then new world will dawn within you. This is the basis of all spiritual progress. Now you can force your mind to be quiet and calm only for a few seconds or a minute, but if you can hold this silence, poise and calmness, for half an hour or even fifteen minutes, I assure you that within your calmness a new world will grow with great divine light and energy.

When there are no thoughts in your mind, please don't feel completely lost. On the contrary, feel how something divine arises in your pure and aspiring nature. You cannot expect immediate results. The farmer sows the grain and then waits; he never expects the shoots to spring up immediately. Several weeks or months pass until sprouts appear. Your mind can be likened to a fertile field. If you sow the seeds of silence and equanimity and tend them patiently, sooner or later you are sure to reap a bountiful harvest of enlightenment.

The mind is not needed for meditation, because thinking and meditation are completely different things. When we meditate, we don't think at all. The purpose of meditation is to free yourself from all thoughts. A thought is like a dot on a school board. Whether it's good or bad, it's there. Only if there is absolutely no thought can we grow into the highest reality. Even in deep meditation, thoughts can come, but not in the highest, deepest meditation. In the highest meditation there will be only light.

Slowly and constantly, if you can, restrain your restless mind, and immediately and readily God will open his immeasurable Heart.

Beyond the limits of the mind

In the light, image and essence are one. You are sitting there and I am standing here. Let's say that I am the image and you are the reality. I need to look at you and enter into you to know you. But in highest meditation essence and image are one and the same. Where you are, there I am, where I am, there you are. We are one. That is why in the highest meditation we do not need thoughts. In the highest meditation, the knower and the known are one.

Even thinking, which is a calm kind of introspective thinking, is far from the orderly space of meditation. The moment we start thinking, we enter into the game of limitation and dependence. Our thoughts, no matter how pleasant and delightful they are at the moment, will become painful and destructive over time because they limit and bind us. There is no reality in the thinking mind. Every moment we are building the world, and the next moment we are destroying it. The mind has its purpose, but in spiritual life we ​​must go far beyond the mind, to where there is eternal peace, eternal wisdom and eternal light. When we go beyond our mind through aspiration and meditation, only then can we see and enjoy the Essence of God and the Images of God.

EXERCISES Cleansing the mind

The mind is almost always impure, and almost always brings unaspiring thoughts. Even when it does not do this, the mind still remains prey to doubt, jealousy, hypocrisy, fear and other undivine qualities. Everything negative attacks the mind first. The mind may resist it for a minute, but again it knocks on the door of the mind. This is the nature of the mind. The heart is much, much purer. Affection, love, devotion, self-denial and other divine qualities are already present in the heart. This is why the heart is much purer than the mind. Even if your heart suffers from fear or jealousy, good qualities hearts will come forward.

And yet, the heart cannot be completely pure, because next to the heart is the vital. The lower vital, which is located near the navel, tends to rise and affect the heart center. This makes the heart impure due to its influence and proximity, but at least the heart is not like a mind that deliberately opens its door to impure ideas. The heart is much better than the mind. And the best thing is the soul. The soul is purity itself, light, bliss and divinity.

1. Becoming a soul.

In order to clear your mind, the best thing to do is to feel for a few minutes every day during meditation that you have no mind. Tell yourself: “I don’t have a mind, I don’t have a mind. What I have is a heart.” Then, after some time, feel: "I have no heart. What I have is a soul." When you say, “I have a soul,” at that moment you will be flooded with streams of purity. But again you must go deeper and further, saying not only, “I have a soul,” but also, “I am a soul.” At this time, imagine the most beautiful child you have ever seen, and feel that your soul is much more beautiful than this child.

The moment you can say and feel, “I am the soul,” and meditate on this truth, the infinite purity of your soul will enter your heart. Then, from the heart, infinite purity will enter your mind. When you can truly feel that you are only the soul, the soul will purify your mind.

2. Inner flame:

Before you start meditating, try to imagine a flame inside your heart. Now the flame may be tiny and flickering, it may not be a powerful flame. But one day it will definitely become more powerful and enlightening. Try to imagine that this flame is illuminating your mind. In the beginning, you may not be able to concentrate to your satisfaction because the mind is unfocused. The mind is constantly thinking about many different things. He becomes a victim of many unworthy thoughts. The mind is not properly enlightened, so imagine a beautiful flame inside your heart enlightening you. Move the enlightening flame into your mind. Then you will gradually see a streak of light inside your mind. Once your mind begins to receive light, it will become very, very easy to concentrate for long periods of time and also to concentrate much more deeply.

3. Cleansing the breath.

Before you start meditating, repeat "Supreme" about 20 times as quickly as possible to clear your breath. Feel that you are truly growing into the very breath of God. Until the breath is cleared, the mind will not remain focused.

4. God calls me, I need God.

Focus your attention on the image. You can look at a photograph of your Teacher or at your reflection in the mirror. If you concentrate on your own reflection, feel that you are completely one with the physical being you see. Then try to enter into the image that you see. From there you should take away one thing: God is calling you and you need God. Repeat: "God is calling me, I need God. God is calling me, I need God." Then you will see that slowly, gradually and unerringly this divine thought enters into you and permeates your entire inner and outer being, giving purity to your mind, vital and body.

5. Establishing control over the mind.

You can tell your mind, “I will not allow you to think the way you want. Now I want to think about God.” Repeat God's name mentally or out loud. Then say, “I want to be pure in my entire being.” Then repeat: “Purity, purity, purity.” At this time, you do not allow your mind to think about impure or extraneous things. Don't give your mind room to wander; just use your mind for your own purpose. With the help of the mind you can accomplish millions of things. But the mind is so disobedient and capricious that if you do not use it, it uses you.

6. Throw them away.

Every time an undivine thought enters your mind, throw it out of your mind. She is like a foreign element, a thief who has entered your room. Why would you deliberately allow a thief to stay in your room when you have the opportunity to throw him out? When an undivine thought enters your mind, immediately seize it and throw it into the flame of your inner aspiration.

7. Suppressing bad thoughts.

Whenever a thought arises that is not pure, good or divine, immediately repeat the word "Supreme" very quickly. The Supreme is my Guru, your Guru, everyone's Guru. Repeat “Supreme” very quickly, and each time you say the word “Supreme,” feel that you are creating a snake that is coiling itself around the undivine thought and strangling it.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q I am a beginner in meditation and I have become convinced that I cannot control my thoughts. How can I meditate successfully?

A If you are a beginner, try to allow only divine thoughts to enter into you, and not undivine ones. It is better not to have any thoughts at all during meditation, but for a beginner it is almost impossible to keep the mind free of thoughts. So you can start with good thoughts: “I want to be good, I want to be more spiritual, I want to love God more, I want to exist only for Him.” Let these ideas grow within you. Start with one or two divine ideas: "Today I will be absolutely pure. I will not allow any bad thought to enter into me, only peace will enter into me." When you allow only divine thought to grow in you, you will see that immediately your consciousness will change for the better.

Start with divine intentions: “Today I want to feel that I am truly a child of God.” It will not be just a feeling, but an actual reality. Feel the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child. Feel that the Divine Mother is holding you in her arms like a baby. Then feel: "I really want to have wisdom-light. I want to follow my Father. Wherever He goes, I will go with Him. I will receive light from Him."

Some people don't have such thoughts. Creative thoughts and ideas do not come to them. Only emptiness. You may ask whether it is better to have a lot of stupid thoughts or none at all. But this is a negative, unconscious way of meditation in which there is no life. This is not a silent mind. It's not effective. In real meditation the mind is silent, but at the same time it is conscious.

Q Is it true that it is best to reject all thoughts altogether during meditation?

A The best thing to do is to try not to allow any thought to enter your mind, be it good or bad. It is just like if you are sitting in your room and someone knocks on the door. You have no idea whether it is friend or foe. Divine thoughts are your true friends and undivine thoughts are your enemies. You would like to let your friends in, but you don't know who your friends are. But even if you do know who your friends are, when you open the door for them, you may find that your enemies are there too.

Next, before your friends can cross the threshold, your enemies will enter as well. You may not even notice any undivine thoughts, but while divine thoughts are entering, undivine thoughts, like thieves, will also sneak in and cause terrible confusion. Once they enter, it is very difficult to drive them out. To do this, you need to adhere to very strict spiritual discipline. You can carefully guard divine thoughts for 15 minutes, and then in an instant an undivine thought will enter. So it is best not to allow any thoughts at all during meditation. Keep the door locked from the inside.

There was a time when I loved you, oh world of my thoughts. But now I love the beauty of the mind, which is silence itself, and the purity of the heart, which is gratitude itself.

Your true friends will not leave. They will think, "Something has happened to him. He is usually so kind to us. There must be some special reason why he does not open the door." They are close to you in spirit, you are united, they will wait for you endlessly. But your enemies will only wait a few minutes. Then they will lose all patience and say: “It is beneath us to waste time here.” Enemies have their own pride. They'll say, "Who cares? Who needs him? Let's go and attack somebody else." If you don't pay attention to the monkey, eventually the monkey will go away and pester someone else. But your friends will say; "No, we need him, and he needs us. We will wait for him forever." So after a few minutes the enemies will leave. Then you can open the door and your dearest friends will be waiting for you there.

If you meditate regularly and devotedly, after some time you will gain inner strength. Then you will be able to invite divine thoughts and drive away undivine ones. If a thought comes to you about divine love, divine peace and divine power, then you allow this thought to enter into you and expand. You let it play and grow in the garden of your mind. As this thought plays and you play with it, you will see that you become it. Every divine thought you let in creates a new world that becomes reality for you, and fills your entire being with divinity.

After several years of meditation, you will have enough inner strength to admit even undivine thoughts. When an undivine thought enters your mind, you do not push it away, you transform it. When someone undivine knocks on your door, if you have enough power to make him behave appropriately as soon as he enters, you can open the door for him. Ultimately, you will have to accept the challenge and subdue these wrong thoughts, otherwise they will come back and bother you again and again.

I'm so proud of my intelligence. Why? Because he began to receive joy from small things, from a simple thought, a pure heart, a modest life.

You must be a divine potter. If the potter is afraid to touch the clay, the clay will forever remain clay and the potter will have nothing to offer the world. But if the potter is not afraid, he can transform the clay into something beautiful and useful. It is your sacred duty to transform undivine thoughts, but only when you are sure to be able to do so.

Q What is the best thing to do if undivine thoughts come to you during meditation?

A The moment a negative or unaspirational thought enters your mind, you should try to use your aspiration to ward it off, because during meditation the impact of thoughts greatly increases. While you are talking or doing normal activities, any thoughts are acceptable, as long as your thoughts are not intense at that time. But if any undivine thought comes during meditation, the power of your meditation increases and intensifies it. Your spiritual life suffers the moment you allow your mind to indulge in unaspiring thoughts during meditation. If a good thought comes, you can try to strengthen it, or you can try to take it to a higher level. But if a bad thought comes, try to throw it away immediately.

How to do it? If the thought that bothers you comes from the outside world, try to call up the will of your soul from your heart and place it directly in front of your forehead. The moment the thought trying to enter you sees the will of your soul, that thought will have to disappear.

But if you don't have the inner ability to do this, don't worry. Sometimes when wrong thoughts enter during meditation, the seeker feels that the power of the wrong thought is so great that even if he has already meditated for two or three hours, it is all useless. An ordinary thought or a bad thought comes in and he feels that he has lost everything. This is silly. As long as you do not allow your mind to dwell on them, you should not attach any importance to the thoughts at that particular moment.

If emotional thoughts, lower vital thoughts or sexual thoughts enter into you during meditation and you are unable to push them away or throw them away, try to feel that these thoughts are as insignificant as ants. Just don't pay any attention to them. If you can feel that the spiritual power you have received from your meditation is infinitely stronger than the power of unsuitable thoughts, then those unsuitable thoughts will not be able to use the power of your meditation for their own purposes. But what often happens is that you become terribly afraid of these thoughts and focus your attention on them. By immersing yourself in them and being afraid of them, you give them power.

It is true that inappropriate thoughts can become stronger during meditation. But you can easily bring good thoughts to the forefront, which are infinitely more powerful. During meditation, when inappropriate thoughts come to you, immediately try to remember one of your most pleasant or highest divine experiences. Go into your experience that you had a few days ago, or a few years ago and try to bring it into your mental consciousness. You will see that while you are completely immersed in your own experience, the thought whose source is in the lower vital is sure to leave you, because in your consciousness there is the highest, deepest, purest joy. Divine joy is infinitely more powerful than pleasure. The nectar-delight of your own spiritual experience is infinitely stronger than your lower vital forces. In this way you can solve the problem without leaving meditation.

Unsuitable thoughts come to attack you and take away your divine feelings, divine thoughts and divine power. But when you give full attention to divine thoughts, support and care only for divine feelings, in many cases the inappropriate thoughts simply go away. They say, "He doesn't care about us. We have no place here." Bad thoughts also have pride, and they are terribly jealous of divine thoughts. They don't care about you if you don't care about them.

So far I have talked about thoughts that come from outside. But sometimes undivine thoughts arise from within. At the very beginning, it is difficult to distinguish between thoughts that come from outside and thoughts that come from within. But gradually you will be able to feel the difference. Thoughts that come from outside can be expelled faster than thoughts that attack you from within. But if thoughts devoid of purity and light rise up within you, then you can do one of two things. You can try to feel that there is a hole right at the top of your head. Now let your thoughts flow out like a river that moves only in one direction and does not flow back. And now they are gone, and you are free from them. Another way is to feel that you are a vast ocean, full of peace and quiet, and that your thoughts are like fish on the surface. The ocean does not pay any attention to the swell from the fish.

Q What is the reason that my thoughts constantly bother me?

O Thoughts constantly bother you because you are trying to meditate inside your mind. The very nature of the mind is to welcome thoughts: good thoughts, bad thoughts, divine thoughts, undivine thoughts. Trying to control the mind with the help of human will is equivalent to asking a monkey or a fly not to bother you. The very nature of the monkey is to bite and pinch; It is the very nature of a fly to disturb people.

The mind needs a higher power to remain calm. This higher power is the power of the soul. You must bring to the fore the light of the soul from within your heart. You are the owner of two rooms: the heart room and the mind room. At the moment the room-mind is dark, unlit and unclean. She doesn't want to open up to the light. But the heart room is always open to the light, because it is here that the soul lives. Instead of concentrating on the mind, if you can, concentrate and meditate on that reality that is within the heart, and then that reality will come forward.

If you remain in the mind-room all the time, hoping to illuminate it from within, you will waste your time. If I want to light a candle, I must use a flame that is already burning, already lit. The heart room, fortunately, is already lit. One day you will be firmly established in the heart, and when you are filled with the light of the soul, at that time you will be able to enter the mind-room to illuminate the mind. But first you must bring to the fore the light of the soul, which is most powerfully represented in the heart. The light of the soul will not torment or punish. On the contrary, he will act like the most loving mother who feels that her child's imperfections are her own imperfections. The heart will offer its light to the mind in order to transform the nature of the mind.

Q I try to keep my mind from wandering during meditation, but to no avail.

O You are not using the capabilities of your heart; you use only the power of your mind. Very often, when I concentrate on you, I see that your mind is spinning like a wheel. When the mind is spinning, it is very difficult for the Supreme to do anything in your mind. But when your heart rushes even for a second, the Almighty opens the door and enters.

In the future, please try to feel that you have no mind at all. This does not mean that you will be like an animal or a beast. No! The human mind is not necessary because you have a higher instrument called the heart. If you can stay in your heart for five minutes, even if you are not praying or meditating, your consciousness will increase.

The heart is like a source of peace, joy and love. You can sit by the source and just enjoy. There is no need to pray to God to give you this or that, because you will get everything you want and infinitely more from this source. But you will receive them by the own will of the Almighty. If you can please the Supreme by always remaining in close proximity to your source heart, your desires will be best fulfilled. These may be the same desires that you have always had, but illuminated at a very high level with radiance. Before the Almighty fulfills them, He transforms every desire into aspiration with His light.

Q If noise or disturbances arise during meditation, what is better: to include them in the meditation or to try to reject them and continue to meditate?

O Every seeker should know his own way of meditation. If you are a beginner, you should feel that everything that is not part of the meditation is an intruder; you should not allow an impostor to come in and disturb you. But if you are already quite experienced and during meditation a sound or noise arises that disturbs you, you can go deep into the sound itself and try to dissolve it within yourself. If you have this ability, then in your own consciousness you will be able to transform the attack of a powerful and daring alien element into inner music that will complement your meditation.

Q If creative thoughts come to my mind while meditating, should I follow them or just try to perceive them with my heart?

O Once you have a constructive thought, you should take it as a blessing from the Almighty. But you must know what kind of inspiration this is. If it is illuminating inspiration, then you must follow it. If it's a creative inspiration to do something really good, then follow it. Any creative thought, anything that gives you a higher purpose, should be pursued. If unusual inspiration brings something new into your life and is able to change it, then such inspiration should be followed.

You may feel that inspiration is only in the mind, while aspiration is only in the heart. But aspiration can be in the mind, and inspiration can be in the heart. Inspiration can approach aspiration and vice versa. But inspiration must be of a very high type. Otherwise it will not be able to help you in your meditation at all. If during meditation you are inspired by the idea of ​​​​making the most delicious buns, then this kind of inspiration is a waste of time.

If this is illuminating inspiration, then please accept these creative thoughts as your own achievement. When you receive creative ideas, know that they are creations from another world that wish to manifest on the physical plane. When your meditation is over, you should write down these thoughts. You can develop them later.

Q Is it bad to expect any special manifestations when you meditate?

A While meditating, simply try to dedicate your entire inner and outer existence to the Supreme. You don't have to think about anything; just surrender yourself completely to the sea of ​​light, peace, bliss and power. But don't expect any special divine quality or result, because then you are binding yourself and binding God. This is so because human expectation is very limited. When you wait, immediately the mind starts working, and then your receptivity becomes very limited. But if you don't expect, then the problem of receptivity becomes God's problem. At that moment, He will definitely give you everything in unlimited quantity, and at the same time create a receptivity to accept what He has to offer you.

Meditation of the highest type is done in silence with one goal: to please God as He wants. If during meditation you feel that you are pleasing God as He desires, then this is the best kind of meditation. Otherwise, if you start meditating to get joy, you will get joy, but you will not have endless joy, precisely because you have not pleased your Eternal Beloved God as He wanted. What the Savior Christ said is the perfect, highest truth: “Thy will be done.” Before meditation, if you can, offer the result of your meditation to the Source and say: “I desire to become Your perfect instrument, so You can realize Yourself in me and through me, as You desire.” This is the highest, absolutely highest type of meditation.

There is a stream of questions in your mind. But there is only one teacher who can answer them. Who is this teacher? Your silent loving heart.

Your spiritual heart: a place of peace

Do you want to be happy? Then don't overestimate the power of your mind and don't underestimate the light of your heart.

Discovering your inner treasure

It is better to meditate in the heart than in the mind. The mind is like Time Square on New Year's Eve; the heart is like a lonely cave in the Himalayas. If you meditate in your mind, you may be able to meditate for five minutes; and out of these five minutes you will be able to meditate successfully for one minute. After this, you will feel tension throughout your head. At first you will feel joy and satisfaction; then you can feel the barren desert. But if you meditate in your heart, you become able to identify with the joy and satisfaction that you receive, and then it becomes yours forever.

When you meditate in the mind you are not identifying, you are trying to enter into something. When you want to enter someone's house to get what the owner has, you will either have to break down the door or you will ask the owner of the house to open the door. When you make a request, you feel that you are an outsider, and the owner of the house also feels that you are an outsider. Then he thinks: “Why should I let a stranger into my house?” But if you turn to the heart, the qualities of the heart such as softness, tenderness, love and purity immediately appear. When the owner of the house sees that you are the very heart, immediately his own heart becomes one with yours and he will let you in. He will feel your oneness with him and will say, “What do you want in my house? If you want peace, take it. If you want light, take it.” And one more thing: if you enter the house with your mind, you will see delicious fruits and immediately try to take possession of them. You will be satisfied when you get them, even though you do not have the opportunity to eat all these fruits. But if you turn to your heart, you will find that your capacity for perception is limitless. Again, if you go to the mind, you will try to make choices. You will say: “This fruit is better, and this one is worse.” But if you enter the house with your heart, you will feel that everything here is yours and you will enjoy it all. Heart center- the center of unity. First you identify yourself with the truth, and then as your identification increases, you become the truth itself.

Remain always in the sunshine of your heart until its illuminating rays flood your mind as well.

Heart and soul

If you meditate in the heart, you are meditating where the soul is. Truth, light and soul consciousness permeate the entire body. But there is a special place where the soul resides most of the time, and that place is the heart. If you want enlightenment, you will get it from the soul, which is in the heart. When you know what you want and where to find it, it makes sense to go to that place. Otherwise you are like a person who goes to a hardware store to buy groceries.

There is a huge difference between what you can get from the mind and what you can get from the heart. The mind is limited; the heart is limitless. Deep within you is boundless peace, light and bliss. Reaching the limited quantity is an easy task. Mental meditation can give you this. But you can get infinitely more if you meditate in the heart. Imagine having the opportunity to work in two places. In one place you will earn two hundred dollars, and in another five hundred. If you are wise, you will not waste your time in the first place.

As long as you have enormous faith in the mind, which complicates and messes everything up, you are doomed to be disappointed in your meditation. Ordinary people think that complexity is wisdom. But spiritual people know that

God is very simple. In simplicity, not in complexity, lies the real truth.

I don't want to say that the mind is always bad. It's not obligatory. But the mind is limited. The most you can get from the mind is inspiration, which is itself limited. For true aspiration you must turn to the heart. Aspiration comes from the heart, because the enlightenment of the soul is always there. When you meditate on the heart, you not only receive aspiration, but you also achieve the result of that aspiration: endless peace, light and bliss of the soul.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q I would like to know how one can establish contact with the spiritual heart during meditation?

O The spiritual heart is located exactly in the center of the chest. You can feel the spiritual heart when you are strongly aspiring, and you can also see it with the third eye. If you find meditation on the spiritual heart difficult, you can concentrate on the physical heart in the chest. But after you meditate in this way for a month or a year, you will feel that within the ordinary, human heart there is a divine heart. And inside the divine heart is the soul. When you feel this, you will begin to meditate on the spiritual heart. To reach the spiritual heart, you must feel that you have no mind, no arms, no legs, you only have a heart. Then you should feel that you do not have a heart, but you yourself have a heart. When you can feel that you are the heart and nothing more, then you will be able to easily contact your spiritual heart during meditation.

In Me it can be very difficult to leave the mind and enter the heart. What should I do?

O Just throw the mind and everything it owns into the heart. You may think, "If I give up my mind, how can I exist? I will become an idiot." But I will tell you that the mind that you use to communicate with people, the mind that you use to acquire information, the mind that you use for ordinary earthly activities cannot take you even an inch towards God realization. The mind is lame, the mind is blind. The mind is deaf.

Try to feel that your entire being from the tips of your fingers to the top of your head is a soul. Repeat heartily: “I am the soul, I am the soul.” If you can repeat this soulfully for five minutes, then the resistance of your physical mind will go away and only the soul will exist for you. Once you find yourself living in the soul and bringing the light of the soul forward, then that light will lift the physical mind to the higher realms or bring peace from above. In any case, as you see, the physical mind will be transformed and you will no longer have any problems.

Q When I meditate, I sometimes have difficulty discerning whether I am really feeling my heart or whether I am dealing with my mind.

A If it is really your heart, you will get a feeling of complete satisfaction, if it is the mind, you may get satisfaction, but then doubt will arise. Your experience will be overwhelmed by other thoughts: “I am so bad, unclean, ignorant. This morning I lied and yesterday I did something else bad. So how can I get such satisfaction?” When thoughts of this kind come, you should know that your experience came from the mind.

When you experience from the mind, you may temporarily feel very happy. But the joy does not remain because you are unable to identify with what the mind has seen, felt or realized. But once you have the experience of the heart, immediately you will feel your oneness with it and your joy will last.

When you see a flower with your mind, you appreciate it and admire it. But when you see it with your heart, you immediately feel that your heart is inside the flower or that the flower is inside your heart. So when you have an experience, if you are one with the experience itself, you will know that it comes from the heart. But if you feel that this experience is something that you receive from the outside, then it is from the mind.

Q What is the difference between upward movement and inward movement in meditation?

A There is a great difference in the methods of meditation, although ultimately height and depth become one. When we want to move deeper in meditation, we must begin our journey from the spiritual heart. We must feel that we are going deep or traveling to the very depths of the heart. We move inwards, not back or down towards the feet. Below the knees the level of lack of consciousness begins. If we feel that we are moving downward, then we will only reach lower levels of consciousness and not spiritual depth. The spiritual heart is vast to infinity, so there is no limit to how deep we can go. We will never be able to touch its boundaries, since the spiritual heart embraces the vast world that we see, and at the same time it is much larger and wider than this world.

When in meditation we want to move upward, then during meditation we should feel the direction upward. Our aspiration fearlessly rises to the Highest. We must pass through the thousand-petalled lotus at the top of the head. And again the distance is infinitely vast. There is no end to our upward journey as we move into Infinity. We strive for the ever-transcending Beyond. As for distance, movement up and down is endless journeys to one Goal, to the Almighty.

However, we cannot move upward with the help of the mind. We must go through the mind, beyond the mind and enter into the realm of the spiritual heart. The region of the spiritual heart is infinitely higher and wider than the region of the highest mind. The sphere of the heart is far beyond the mind. The heart is limitless in all directions, so within the heart there is the highest height as well as the deepest depth.

The higher we can go, the deeper we can go. Again, the deeper we can go, the higher we can rise. This happens simultaneously. If we can meditate with great energy, then we will definitely feel that we are moving both very high and very deep. Height and depth go together, but they operate, so to speak, in two different dimensions. But if a person can go very high in meditation, then he can also go very deep.

Before realizing the Supreme, we feel that there is a difference between height and depth. When we go up, we feel that we have reached a certain height, and when we go down, we feel that we have reached a certain depth. But the height and depth are in mental consciousness. When we overcome the barrier of the mind and enter the Universal Consciousness, then we see everything as one and inseparable. At this moment, Reality sings and dances within us, and we ourselves become Reality. It has no height, no depth, no length. She is one and at the same time always surpasses herself.

Q What happens if I meditate on the navel center?

A At this stage of your spiritual development, meditating on the navel is the wrong intention. It is the center of dynamism, strength and power. If you abuse this dynamism, it will turn into brute aggression. The navel area is also an emotional center. Through these emotions you can expand yourself and become Infinity. But instead, if your nature is not pure enough, you will become a victim of earthly pleasure-life. You should meditate on the heart to achieve peace, love and joy. When you acquire these qualities, you will feel that peace itself is strength, love itself is strength, joy itself is strength.

Q What is the relationship between the third eye and the heart center?

O Let's say that the heart is consciousness and the third eye is light, although there is no significant difference between these two concepts. The third eye has infinite light, while at the same time it itself is infinite light. The spiritual heart has infinite consciousness, and at the same time it itself is infinite consciousness. But infinite light and infinite consciousness are one and the same. In this moment, the infinite light, which I call the third eye, is the house, and inside it lives the heart. But in the next moment, the infinite consciousness, which I call the heart, can become a house, and the third eye can become a tenant. They are constantly changing because they are essentially inseparable. Sometimes we see light before consciousness, while at other times we see consciousness before light. What we see first, we experience as the source of the second. But the time comes when we see that light and consciousness are inseparable.

The heart usually represents gentleness and love, while the third eye represents strength and enlightenment. But one who is very wise will feel that the third eye is also the heart, for what else besides the heart gives us satisfaction? And what gives us satisfaction? Only light! So, if the light from the third eye gives us satisfaction, then naturally we are dealing with a property inherent in the heart. And what gives us the highest wisdom? Wisdom comes only when we dive deep into the innermost recesses of our heart, where Infinity, Eternity and Immortality operate. To possess the Infinity as one's own, to possess as one's own the ever-infinite light and bliss, is real wisdom. Therefore we can say that wisdom comes from the heart.

Q Is it advisable to try to open the third eye in meditation?

O The inner eye should be opened only when there is inner purity and maturity, when neither the past nor the future bothers you. Often the vessel is not but through great determination the seeker succeeds in opening the third eye. Then the result is most discouraging and damaging. If you, being spiritually immature, see with your third eye that your mother will die tomorrow, then you will die today from anxiety and worry. Or if you find out about some unpleasant incident that happened in your past, you will feel terribly unhappy and will not have the strength to continue moving forward.

There are people who have opened the center between the eyebrows before opening the heart center, but by the grace of the Almighty they have not made serious mistakes in using this power. But more often than not, unless the heart center is not yet open, and the emotional part of the nature of a given person is not completely purified, the opening of the third eye of the seeker makes him a victim of cruel temptations. He tries to see something inside and immediately tells others about it, or tries to penetrate someone out of curiosity to see what is happening in that person's nature. There are a thousand and one things that can ultimately lead you far, very far away from the path of spirituality.

It is especially important for beginners to always meditate on the heart center. Indeed, even if you have advanced, you must meditate on the heart, because in that center you get joy and become part and parcel of the whole on which you meditate. If you concentrate on the third eye, you cannot experience oneness. You may see the light, but you will feel that it is not yours, you will think that perhaps it is not light at all, but only an imagination or a hallucination. Doubt may enter your mind. But when you use your heart, you will immediately feel that the joy you receive is yours; the peace you feel is yours; whatever you feel becomes yours. This is the heart’s ability for unity.

Oh my boat of life. You sail through the uncharted seas of ignorance and reach the Golden Coast of the Beyond. O my dear, dearest, sweetest heart, you not only belong to God. God also belongs to you.

Concentration, Meditation and Contemplation: Three Steps to Self-Realization

We concentrate. because we want to achieve the Goal

We meditate because we live in the heart of Purpose.

We contemplate because we become the Goal

Arrow and bow

Concentration is an arrow. Meditation - bow.

When we concentrate, we focus all our energy on some subject or object in order to remove its veil of mystery. When we meditate, we rise from our limited consciousness into a higher consciousness where the vastness of silence rules the supreme.

Concentration wants to master the knowledge it aims at. Meditation wants to identify itself with the knowledge it seeks.

Concentration does not allow worry, the thief, to penetrate its fortress. Meditation lets him in. For what? Just to catch the thief by the hand.

Concentration is the commander who commands the distracted consciousness to become attentive.

Concentration and absolute perseverance are not only inseparable, but also interdependent divine warriors.

Concentration challenges the enemy to a duel and fights with him. Meditation with its silent smile weakens the challenge of the enemy.

Concentration says to God: “Father, I come to You.” Meditation says to God: “Father, come to me.” The aspirant has two true teachers: concentration and meditation. Concentration is always strict with the student, meditation is strict at times. But both of them are seriously interested in the development of their student.

The power of concentration

Concentration means inner alertness and vigilance. Thieves are all around us and inside us. Fear, doubt, worry and worry are inner thieves trying to steal our inner balance and peace of mind. When we learn to concentrate, it will be very difficult for these forces to penetrate us. If doubt enters our mind, the power of concentration will tear it to pieces. If fear enters our mind, the power of concentration will drive it away. Now we are the victims of unenlightened, dark, destructive thoughts, but the day will come when, thanks to the power of our concentration, the disturbing thoughts themselves will fear us.

Concentration is the driving force of the mind that works within us to perceive light and dispel darkness. She is like the divine warrior in us. It is impossible to even imagine what concentration can do in our aspiration-life. She can easily separate Heaven from Hell, so that we can live in the constant delight of Heaven, and not in the eternal worries, worries and torments of Hell while we are here on earth.

Concentration is the surest way to achieve our goal, whether our goal is the realization of God or simply the fulfillment of human desires. A true aspirant will sooner or later acquire the power of concentration either by the grace of God, through constant practice, or through his own aspiration.

The indomitable will of the soul

When we concentrate, we are like a bullet hitting something, or a magnet attracting the object of concentration towards us. At this time we do not allow any thoughts to enter our mind, be they divine or undivine, earthly or heavenly, good or bad. In concentration, the entire mind must be focused on a specific object or subject. If we concentrate on the petal of a flower, we try to feel that nothing else exists in the whole world except the petal. We look neither forward nor backward, neither in nor out, we only try to comprehend the object of our one-pointed concentration. This is not an aggressive way of getting into anything. This concentration comes directly from the soul's indomitable will, or willpower.

When you want to practice focusing on an object, you should choose something that gives you immediate joy. If you have a spiritual Master, his portrait will give you immediate joy. If you don't have a Teacher, choose something beautiful, divine and pure, like a flower, for example.

We concentrate with an illuminating one-pointedness of mind. We meditate with the expanding vastness of the heart. We contemplate with the realized unity of the soul.

Concentration coming from the heart

Very often I hear aspiring people say that they cannot concentrate for more than five minutes. After five minutes they get a headache or feel like their head is on fire. Why? This is because the power of their concentration comes from the intellectual mind, or one might say, the disciplined mind. The mind knows that it should not wander; He already knows that. But if the mind is used correctly, achieving its enlightenment, then the light of the soul should enter into it. When the light of the soul has entered the mind, it becomes extremely easy to concentrate on anything for hours. During this time there will be no thoughts, no doubts, no fear. No negative forces can enter the mind if it is filled with the light of the soul.

When we concentrate, we should feel that our power of concentration comes from the heart center and then rises to the third eye. The heart center is where the soul is. When we think about the soul at this time, it is better not to form any special idea about it and not to try to think what it is like. We will think of her only as the representative of God or as infinite light and delight. When we concentrate, we try to feel that the light of the soul comes from the heart and passes through the third eye. Then, with this light, we enter into the object of concentration and become identified with it. The final stage of concentration is the discovery of the hidden, ultimate Truth in the object of concentration.

Touching Infinity: Meditation

When we concentrate, we focus our attention on a specific object. But when we meditate, we feel that deep within us there is the ability to see many things, deal with many things and accept many things at the same time. When we meditate, we try to expand ourselves, like a bird spreading its wings. We are trying to expand our finite consciousness and enter into the Universal Consciousness, where there is no fear, envy or doubt, but only joy, peace and divine power.

Meditation means our conscious growth towards Infinity. In fact, during meditation we enter into a free, calm, silent mind and allow the Infinity itself to nurture and grow us. When we are in meditation, we only want to communicate with God. Now I speak English and you can understand me since you know English well. Likewise, if we know how to meditate properly, we will be able to communicate with God, because meditation is the language we use to talk with God.

Sea of ​​tranquility

Meditation is like diving to the bottom of the sea, where everything is quiet and calm. There may be a lot of waves on the surface, but deeper the sea is calm. In its deepest depths the sea is silence itself. When we begin to meditate, first we try to reach our inner being, our true essence - the bottom of the sea, so to speak. If the waves come from the outside world, they do not affect us. Fear, doubt, anxiety and all earthly vanity will simply be washed away, since there is indestructible peace within us. Thoughts cannot disturb us, since our mind is peace itself, silence itself, unity itself. Like fish in the sea, they jump out and swim, but leave no trace. So when we are in our highest meditation, we feel that we are the sea and the animals in the sea cannot disturb us. We feel that we are the sky and all the flying birds cannot disturb us. Our mind is the sky and our heart is the endless sea. This is meditation.

Becoming Truth: Contemplation

With the help of concentration we focus on one point. Through meditation we expand our consciousness into the Vastness and enter into its consciousness. But in contemplation we turn into the Vastness itself, and its consciousness becomes truly our own. In contemplation we are at the same time in our deepest concentration and in our highest meditation. In contemplation we move towards the truth that we saw and felt in meditation, we become completely one with it. When we concentrate on God, we can feel God right in front of us or next to us. When we meditate, we will definitely feel Infinity, Eternity and Immortality within ourselves. But when we contemplate, we will see that we ourselves are God, that we ourselves are Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Contemplation means our conscious unity with the infinite eternal Absolute. In contemplation, the Creator and the creation, the lover and the Beloved, the knower and the known become one. At one moment we are the divine lover and God is the Beloved Supreme. The next moment we switch roles. In contemplation, we become one with the Creator and see the entire Universe within ourselves. When we look at our own existence, we do not see a human being. We see something like a source of light, peace and bliss.

Concentration produces a feeling of alertness. Meditation creates a feeling of vastness. Contemplation gives an idea of ​​an indivisible unity.

Meditation versus contemplation

If we meditate on a specific divine quality such as light, peace or bliss, or if we meditate abstractly on Infinity, Eternity or Immortality, then all the time we will feel within us a fast train moving forward. We meditate on peace, light or bliss while the fast train is moving non-stop. Our mind is quiet and calm in the vastness of Infinity, but there is movement; the train moves endlessly towards its goal. We imagine a goal, and meditation takes us there.

Not so in contemplation. In contemplation we feel the whole Universe and the most distant Goal deep within ourselves. When we contemplate, we feel that we contain the entire Universe with all its infinite light, peace, bliss and truth. There are no thoughts, no forms, no ideas.

In contemplation, everything merges into one stream of consciousness. In our highest contemplation we feel that we are nothing other than consciousness itself; we are one with the Absolute. But in our highest meditation there is a dynamic movement going on in our consciousness. We are fully aware of what is happening in the inner and outer world, but what is happening does not affect us. In contemplation, too, we are not influenced by what happens in the inner and outer world, but our entire existence has become an integral part of the universe, which we contain deep within ourselves.

Concentration exercises

If you want to develop your concentration power, here is an exercise you can try. First, wash your face and eyes thoroughly with cold water. Then make a black dot on the wall at eye level. Face it about 10 inches (25 cm) away and concentrate on it. After a few minutes, try to feel that when you inhale, your inhalation is actually coming from a point, and that point is also inhaling, receiving its breath from you. Try to feel that there are two of you: you and the black dot. Your breath comes from the point, and its breath comes from you.

After 10 minutes, if your concentration was very strong, you will feel that your soul has left you and entered the black dot on the wall. At this time, try to feel that you and your soul are changing places. The soul takes you into its world for realization, and you bring the soul into the physical world for manifestation. In this way you can develop the power of concentration very easily. But this method requires practice. There are many things that come very easily with practice, and just because we don't practice, we don't get results.

2. Vision and reality.

Another exercise you can try is the following. First, make a very small circle on the wall at eye level and place a black dot inside it. It must be black; not blue or red or any other color. Then stand facing a wall three and a half feet away and focus your attention on the circle. Your eyes should be relaxed and half-open. Let the power of your concentration come from the middle of your forehead. After three to four minutes, open your eyes completely and try to feel that from head to toe you are the eyes. Your entire physical being becomes nothing more than a vision, and that vision is focused on a point within the circle. Then begin to make the object of your concentration smaller. After a few seconds, try to feel that your entire body has become as small as a point on the wall. Try to feel that the point is another part of your own being. Then enter the point, go through it and end up on the other side. On the other side of the point, turn around and look at your own body. Your physical body is on one side, but thanks to the power of your concentration, you have sent your subtle body to the other side of the point. Through your subtle body you see your physical body, and through your physical body you see your subtle body.

I concentrate for the sake of success in the journey of my life. I meditate for the sake of progress in my life's journey. I contemplate for the sake of the Divine process in the journey of my life,

When you began to concentrate, your entire physical body became one vision. At this time, the point was your reality. When you have entered the point, then vision and reality become one. You were a vision, but you were also a reality. When you looked back at yourself from the point, the process was reversed. At that moment, you became a vision outside of yourself, and the place to which you turned - your body - became a reality. Then vision and reality became one again. When you are able to perceive vision and reality in this way, your concentration is absolutely perfect. When your power of concentration can take you to the other side of the point that you called reality, at that time your entire being will be far beyond both vision and reality. And when you can feel that you have transcended your vision and your reality, you will receive limitless power.

If you are my disciple, then when you concentrate on the black dot inside the circle, you can try to see yourself there - your own face of aspiration. Feel that you exist here and nowhere else. Then try to feel that your being, your face, your consciousness - the whole thing - has been replaced by mine. Someday you will feel that your former being has been completely replaced by mine, and then you will establish your inseparable unity with me, and the power of my will will definitely enter into your life.

3. My heart friend.

Just as you can concentrate on the tip of your finger or on a candle or some other material object, you can also concentrate on your heart. You can close your eyes or look at the wall, but always think of your heart as a dear friend. When such thinking becomes most intense, when it completely absorbs your entire attention, then it means that you have gone beyond ordinary thinking and entered into concentration. Physically you cannot look at your spiritual heart, but you can focus all your attention on it. Then gradually the power of your concentration enters the heart and takes you completely out of the realm of the mind.

If you are not very clean high degree, if your heart is dominated by countless dark desires, then before concentrating on your heart you should call for purity. When you feel the Living Altar deep in the deepest corners of your heart, this is purity. When you feel the divine presence of the inner altar, you are immediately purified. At this time, your concentration on the heart will be most effective.

4. Pulse of life.

Some seekers prefer to concentrate on the beating of their heart. If you want to do this, don't be afraid that your heart will stop and you will die. If you want to be a real hero in your spiritual life, you can practice focusing on your heartbeat. This is an invaluable opportunity for you to enter into endless life. Every time you hear the sound of your heartbeat, you will directly feel your endless, immortal life in it.

5. Inner flower.

For this exercise you will need a flower. With half-open eyes, look at the entire flower for a few seconds. When you concentrate, try to feel that you are this flower. At the same time, try to feel that this flower is growing in the most remote corners of your heart. Feel that you are a flower and you are growing inside your heart.

Then gradually try to concentrate on one individual flower petal. Feel that this petal you have chosen is the embryonic form of your reality-existence. After a few minutes, concentrate again on the whole flower and feel that this is the Universal Reality. So move back and forth, concentrating first on the petal - the embryonic form of reality, and then on the whole flower - the Universal Reality. While doing this, please try not to let any thought enter your mind. Try to bring your mind to a state of complete peace, silence, silence.

After a while, please close your eyes and try to see in your heart the flower on which you were concentrating. Then, in the same way that you concentrated on the physical flower, gently, with your eyes closed, concentrate on the flower in your heart.

Meditation Exercises

1. Heart - rose.

Please imagine a flower inside your heart. Let's say you prefer rose. Imagine that the rose is not fully bloomed; she's still a bud. After meditating for two or three minutes, please try to imagine that petal by petal a flower is blooming. Watch and feel the flower unfolding petal by petal within your heart. Then, after five minutes, try to feel that there is no heart at all, there is only a flower inside you, called the “heart”. You don't have a heart, you only have a flower. The flower has become your heart or your heart has become a flower.

After seven to eight minutes, please feel that this heart flower has filled your entire body. Your body is no longer here; You can smell the rose scent from head to toe. If you look at your feet, you will immediately smell the scent of roses. If you look at your lap, you will smell the rose. If you look at your hand, you will smell the scent of roses. Everywhere the beauty, aroma and purity of the rose filled your entire body. When you feel from head to toe that you have become only the beauty, fragrance, purity and delight of the rose, then you are ready to take your place at the Feet of your Beloved Supreme.

2. River of consciousness.

When you meditate, try to make your mind accept three qualities: purity in your whole being, modesty in your whole being and gratitude in every member, in every cell. As you inhale and exhale, feel the river of divine consciousness flowing through you without any compulsion or effort. Feel this river of divine consciousness flowing in and out in constant unity with the Source, the Supreme.

3. Offer it to God.

When you inhale, feel that you are breathing in the immortal qualities of God, and when you exhale, feel that you are offering your ignorance to God.

At present we feel that ignorance is our property. Although we say that ignorance is very bad, we do not want to give it up. But we must know that ignorance is not our true wealth, our true assets are peace, light and bliss. During meditation, offer your false possessions to God and accept your true possessions from God. Ask God to take what you have and what you are and give you what He has and what He is. What you have is an aspiration, an inner call to become divine. What you are is ignorance. Ask God to take both your aspiration and your ignorance and give you what He has and what He is: Infinity, Eternity and Immortality.

4. Golden creature.

Try to feel that you are in the heart of God, the Inner Pilot. Although you have not seen the Almighty, still mentally imagine a human being, all made of gold. Imagine that He is right in front of you, and you are inside His heart or in His arms or at His Feet. Don't think that you are eighteen or forty or sixty years old. Think that you are only a month old and that you are inside the very Heart of the Almighty or in His arms.

5. The expanse of the sky.

Keep your eyes half open and imagine the vast sky. First try to feel that the sky is in front of you; then try to feel that you are as vast as the sky, or that you are the vast sky itself.

After a few minutes, please close your eyes and try to see and feel the sky inside your heart. Please feel that you are the universal heart and that within you is the sky that you have meditated on and identified yourself with. Your spiritual heart is infinitely more spacious than the sky, so you can easily contain the sky within yourself.

Exercises in Contemplation

1. A game of hide and seek.

Try to imagine the golden being and feel that It is infinitely more beautiful than the most wonderful child you have ever seen on earth. This being is your Beloved Lord Supreme. You are the divine lover and the golden being is your Beloved Lord Supreme.

Now try to imagine that your own existence, like the existence of your Beloved, is on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas or at the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean, whichever is easier for you. As soon as you feel it, smile internally.

After a few seconds, please feel that you yourself are the Beloved Supreme and that the golden being is the divine lover. It's like a divine game of hide and seek. When you become the Beloved Supreme, the divine lover seeks you, and when you become the divine lover, you seek your Beloved Supreme. One moment you are a divine lover, and the next moment you are the Beloved Supreme.

At first, please do the exercise with your eyes half open. When you become proficient in it, you can close your eyes.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q When I sit down to meditate, I have to concentrate, quieting my mind, with such tension that I cannot get in touch with my inner self.

A You may not know it, but you are doing the right thing. When you try to keep your mind calm and quiet, you concentrate. In concentration you try to control your thoughts and emotions. Concentration must pave the way for meditation. To meditate, you must have already disciplined yourself to some extent emotional life and a restless mind. When you succeed in driving away all the thoughts that trouble your mind, sooner or later your inner self will come to the fore, like the brightly burning sun dispelling the veil of clouds. Currently, the inner sun is obscured by clouds of thoughts, ideas, doubts, fears, and so on. When you can drive them away, you will see that your inner self shines, shines and radiates right in front of you.

Q How can you tell if you are concentrating or meditating?

O When it is concentration there is great tension; it is like an arrow entering a target. If you feel the intense force energizing you, then this is the result of your concentration. But in meditation there is peace and a sense of spaciousness all around, especially in the mind. If you feel deep within you an immense sea of ​​peace, light and bliss, then this is the result of your meditation. Meditation is all about peace, balance and vastness. There is tension here, too, but tension bathed in a flood of light. The highest light is not necessary in concentration and often does not occur.

In addition, concentration requires immediate results. She is ready to do anything to achieve her goal. Meditation feels like it has infinite time at its disposal. This does not mean that meditation neglects fleeting time. No, she appreciates fleeting time, but in the current time she sees endless time. That is why in meditation there is infinite peace.

Don't give preference to any of these experiences. If the Supreme wants to concentrate in and through you, then you allow it. Again, if He wants to meditate in and through you, then you allow that too.

Q Once we have learned to meditate, should we continue to practice concentration?

O As a general rule, seekers who are just entering the spiritual life should begin with concentration for at least a few months. Once they learn to concentrate, meditation becomes easy. But even when you are able to meditate, it is advisable to concentrate for a few minutes before starting your daily meditation. If you are concentrated, you are like a runner clearing the path of obstacles before starting to run. Once the track is clear you can run very fast. At this time you become like an inner express train that stops only at your destination.

Q How do we approach contemplation after finishing meditation?

O Contemplation comes after many years, when a person has greatly advanced in spiritual life. Contemplation is the highest rung of the inner ladder. Very, very few spiritually aspirated people have the ability to carry out even limited contemplation and they certainly cannot do it of their own free will.

Contemplation must be mastered before realizing God, so contemplation cannot be ignored or avoided. In your case there is no need for contemplation because your concentration and meditation are not yet perfect. When your concentration is perfect and your meditation is perfect, it will be necessary to perfect your contemplation. Then you will truly be able to enter into the Supreme.

How can you succeed in outer life if you do not have the power of concentration? How can you progress in the inner life when you have no peace of meditation?

Two Wings to Fly: Prayer and Meditation

Our prayer gives us a life full of peace.

Our meditation gives us a heart full of beauty.

I pray, I meditate

I pray. Why do I pray? I pray because I need God. I'm meditating. Why do I meditate? I meditate because God needs me.

When I pray, I think that God is high above me, above my head. When I meditate, I feel that God is deep inside me, inside my heart.

The prayer says: "I am helpless, I am impure, I am weak. I need You, O Lord Supreme, to strengthen me, to purify me, to enlighten me, to improve me, to immortalize me. I need You, O Lord Supreme."

The meditation says: “Lord Supreme, by your infinite generosity You have chosen me as your instrument to manifest You here on earth as You wish. You could have chosen someone else for this role, but You have given me this wonderful opportunity. I offer my constant gratitude, my heart of gratitude."

Prayer is purity. It purifies the mind, which is always subject to doubt, fear, worry and worry and is always attacked by bad thoughts and bad impulses. When we pray, a purification takes place in our minds, and purity increases our ability to perceive God. In fact, purity is nothing more than the ability to perceive God. Every time we pray, our internal reservoir increases, reaching its maximum. And then purity, beauty, light and delight can enter this reservoir and play there together in the depths of our heart.

Meditation is enlightenment. She enlightens our heart. When enlightenment occurs in our heart, insecurities and desires disappear. At this time we sing the song of inseparable oneness with the Universal Consciousness and the Transcendental Consciousness. When our heart is enlightened, the finite in us enters the Infinite and becomes the Infinite itself. The shackles of millennia fall from us, and the freedom of infinite Truth and Light greets us.

The prayer says to God: "Beloved Supreme, You are mine. I consider You mine, completely mine. Grant me Your divine qualities in limitless measure so that I can be Your perfect instrument here on earth."

Meditation says to God: "O Beloved Supreme! I am yours. You can use me according to Your good will at any moment of Eternity. Through me, fulfill Yourself here on earth and there in Heaven."

The most best definition prayers - pray daily. The best definition of meditation is to experience it with all your soul. The best definition of yoga is to live it sincerely. The best definition of God is to love Him and only Him unconditionally.

Prayer is something very intense and upward. When we pray, we feel that our being is a one-pointed flame rising upward. From the tips of our fingers to the top of our heads, our entire being prays and sends its call upward. The very nature of prayer is to reach God by ascension.

Meditation is something vast and endless, which ultimately turns into Infinity. When we meditate, we become completely immersed in the vast expanse, in the endless sea of ​​peace and bliss, or we open ourselves to the infinite expanse and it enters into us. Prayer ascends upward; meditation extends in breadth. Meditation continually expands into peace, light and delight. When we meditate, we gradually discover, feel and become a whole universe filled with light and delight.

Thy will be done

In our prayers there is often an elusive desire for something, a passionate desire to achieve something or become someone. We can call it aspiration because we pray to become good or to have something divine that we do not have, or to be free from fear, envy, doubt and the like. But at the same time, there is always a subtle tendency on our part to eliminate something from ourselves.

We also always feel ourselves, so to speak, asking God for alms. We feel that God is high above us, while we are below. We see the gap between his existence and ours. We look to Him and cry to Him, but we do not know when and to what extent God intends to accomplish what we ask of Him in our prayers. We feel that we are helpless. We only ask and then wait for one drop, two drops or three drops of compassion, light or peace to fall on us. Sometimes there is a shade of transaction or exchange: I - for you, you - for me. We say, "Lord, I give You my prayer, so please do something for me. Please help me, save me, realize me."

But in meditation we do not ask God for any help, any gift or divine quality, we simply enter the sea of ​​His Reality. And then God gives us much more than we could ever imagine. In prayer we feel that we have nothing, but God owns everything. In meditation we know that everything that God has, we also have or will have in due time. We feel that whatever God is, we are the same, only we have not yet revealed our divinity. When we pray, we ask God for what we want. But when we meditate, God gives us everything we need. We see and feel that the whole Universe is at our disposal. Heaven and earth do not belong to someone else, they are our own reality.

The highest prayer: “Thy Will be done.” This is prayer of the absolute highest level, and it is also the beginning of meditation. Where prayer ends its journey, meditation begins. In meditation we say nothing, think nothing, want nothing. In the meditation-world, the Supreme acts in us and through us for His own fulfillment. Peace-prayer always asks for something. And the world-meditation says: “God is not blind or deaf. He knows what He must do to realize Himself in me and through me. Therefore, I will simply transform into the Supreme in spiritual silence.”

Two roads to realization

Prayer and meditation are like two roads. Prayer is always for ourselves, for our lives, for the sake of loved ones and dear ones in our own small world. If we pray well, God will give us two wings to fly on high. But meditation is for the whole world. When we meditate well, we feel one with our own expanded reality. If we can follow the dear meditation, we are warrior heroes. At this time, we can carry the entire burden of humanity on our gigantic shoulders. When we fulfill our meditation life, we realize not only God, but also ourselves and the whole world.

For those who want to realize the Supreme, I always say that meditation is of utmost importance. But in the West there were saints who knew God only through prayer. They had no idea about meditation. But the power of their prayers and their aspiration carried them into the world of meditation and transcendence. Both approaches are effective. When we pray, we rise to God, when we meditate, God descends to us. Ultimately the result may be the same.

The Need for Prayer

Once one has advanced in meditation, prayer is no longer necessary. By then we realize that God always knows our needs and cares for us infinitely more than we care for ourselves. Prayer is not necessary because we belong to God and are His property. When we renounce our personal pretensions and surrender ourselves completely to God, then God takes us as part of Himself and makes us His chosen instruments.

But before we make great progress in spiritual life and feel our unity with God, prayer is necessary.

If we receive something through prayer, we can tell the world, "I prayed for it, that's why I got it. Look how close I am to my Father!" We are like children who are hungry. We ask the mother for food and she feeds us. Yes, she would have fed us anyway, but the fact that we ask for food and our mother listens to our requests brings us joy. And this convinces our minds that she truly cares about us. Thanks to our inner connection and closeness with our mother, we can ask her for anything we want.

God could do everything for us unconditionally, but that would not give us the same satisfaction. In a running competition, once you run the entire distance, you will be thrilled to receive a prize. You ran so fast and finished so hard, and you feel like you've earned a prize. But if someone who was just a spectator wins a prize, he will not feel satisfied because he did nothing to achieve it. God can give everything unconditionally, but we are more satisfied if He gives us something after we have prayed for it or worked for it.

The patience tree is what I need for my prayer. The flower of gratitude is what my meditation needs.

However, we must know that during prayer we feel that as individuals we are separated from God. We feel that He is in one place and we are somewhere else. At this time we are not in our higher consciousness where we feel that we are one with God. If we feel that we and God are one, then the question of prayer does not arise, since at that moment our needs are His needs.

We can say that prayer increases our closeness to the Supreme, while meditation increases our oneness with the Supreme. First we must feel that we and God are intimate friends; then we can realize our reality-unity with God. Before meditation, if we can pray for a few minutes, we can develop our intimate connection with the Supreme. Then we can meditate to become one with Him.

In the higher spiritual life there is no comparison between meditation and prayer. Meditation is infinitely deeper and broader than prayer. In the West, prayer is used with considerable effectiveness by seekers. But a real seeker who wants to go to the most distant Beyond must feel that meditation is a higher step on the ladder of God-realization. When we meditate, we discover, feel and transform into a whole universe of light and delight.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q I would like to know if I should pray for something I want or just for God's Will to be done?

O Prayer for the fulfillment of the Will of God is the highest form of prayer. But a beginner finds it almost impossible to sincerely pray to God that God will realize him as God wants. Therefore, when a seeker is just taking his first steps, it is advisable for him to pray to God for what he thinks he needs most: be it patience, purity, sincerity, humility, peace, and so on. And then God will give the seeker a little peace, light and bliss, which are the precursors of something infinite that will enter into his inner being. Once the seeker has received a little peace, light and bliss and these have become established to some extent in his inner being, at that time he will have confidence in God's activities as well as in his own life of aspiration.

When one is making rapid progress or has already made some progress, he feels that there is some reality within him and that this reality will not disappoint or abandon him. And then he realizes that God is fully aware of what he needs most and is eager to give him exactly what he needs. When the seeker feels such trust within himself, the time comes for him to pray: “Thy Will be done.” At this time, he can sincerely say: “God, I want to bring You joy only in the way You wish.”

Prayer is best expressed in my daily life when it becomes a spontaneous, self-denying willingness to submit to the Will of God.

Q How to Pray Effectively?

O For your prayer to be most successful, it must be outwardly inaudible, but you can form a sentence of a few words that will convince your aspiring mind. The heart is already aspiring, but the mind needs aspiration. Therefore, it is better to give prayer a verbal form.

You can make a sentence by writing it in your heart. Then try to see it there. Once the words are written down, you can go back many times to see them. If you want to repeat a sentence, that's fine, but it's not necessary. How to repeat a prayer? There are two possibilities. Either write it once in your heart and read it there again and again, or write the same thing over and over again - whichever gives you more joy.

Q How can you make prayer more intense?

O You can make your prayer most intense with a heart of gratitude. When you pray, feel that the prayer comes from your heart and you should feed the prayer with gratitude. If you do not feed prayer with your gratitude-heart, it will not become strong. Nothing Divine will be strong until you are grateful to the Almighty. Every moment, your heart of gratitude should fuel your inner call. This will strengthen your prayer, your aspiration, your devotion and all your spiritual qualities.

When I pray, I kneel selflessly and in solitude. When I meditate, I lift up my heart wholeheartedly and completely.

Q What is the best way to pray for others?

O Firstly, before you start praying, you should call on the Almighty. When you call upon Him, He will surely appear unseen. You will not see Him in human form, but you will be able to feel His presence. In the presence of God, try to see and feel the one for whom you are praying. If you know how to call on the Almighty and feel in His presence those for whom you pray, this is the most effective way to help them through prayer.

But before you ask the Almighty in prayer to help someone, first ask Him if you should pray for this person. If you receive a message or have an inner feeling that you should pray for that particular person, only then should you do so. Suppose someone is very sick and you want to pray to God to heal him. You must know that God probably wants him to have this experience now for the sake of his own inner development. You must know that God has infinitely more love for this particular person than you or any other person could ever have. If you ask God to heal him, you may only be going against God's Will. But if you pray for oneness with the Will of God, then God can say: "You have become one with my Will. Now I will be happy if you ask to heal this person."

Q Do you ever pray?

O To be completely honest with you, I don't pray; I also don’t need meditation, although I meditate. Once one has realized the Supreme and consciously become one with the Absolute Supreme, there is no need for prayer or meditation. But I have students, so I meditate for them the way I used to meditate for myself many years ago. When I meditate on them, prayer is automatically present because in trying to help them in their spiritual awakening, I am calling upon them the infinite blessing, light and compassion of God.

They say that prayer is the daughter of suffering. But I say that prayer is the mother of delight.

The power of mantra

I cleanse my body by repeating the name of God.

I purify my vital by serving God.

I clear my mind, freeing it for God.

I purify my heart by meditating on Compassion - the Love of God.

Chanting: mantra and japa

A mantra is a magical formula. It can be a syllable, a word, several words or a sentence. When you repeat a mantra many times, it is called japa. A mantra reflects a specific aspect of God and each mantra has a special meaning and inner power.

If you cannot enter into the deepest meditation because your mind is restless, this is the right opportunity to use a mantra. You can repeat "Supreme", "Almighty", "OM" or "God" for several minutes. Also, if you are under attack on the emotional, vital plane and bad thoughts or bad vibrations penetrate you, you can chant OM or the name of the Supreme. In this case, try to do it as quickly as possible. When you are trying to free your mind from impurity, you should chant the mantra as quickly as if you were running to catch up with a moving train. However, during regular japa, recite the mantra at a normal pace, but with all your soul. But don't drag out the sound for too long, otherwise you won't have time to chant the mantra five hundred or six hundred times when necessary.

Achieving complete cleansing

If you want to achieve the utmost purification of your nature, then japa will give the greatest effect if you perform it systematically, step by step. On the first day, repeat "OM" or "Supreme" or the mantra given to you by your teacher five hundred times. The next day chant six hundred times, on the third day seven hundred, etc., until you reach one thousand two hundred times by the end of the week. Then start decreasing by a hundred every day until you reach five hundred times again. This way you can climb up the tree and get down from the tree.

Please continue this exercise week after week for a whole month. And then, whether you want to change your name or not, the world will give you a new name: Purity.

It’s okay if during japa you make a mistake and lose count, it’s okay. Just continue with whatever number is close. The purpose of counting is to isolate your mind from other things. When you count, you will not think about anyone or anything else. While counting, you should try to enter the realm of silence that lies deep within the mantra. Later you won't need to count at all. Your consciousness will be focused on what you are repeating and you will begin to feel that you are meditating only on the inner meaning of the mantra.

In most cases, it is better to say the mantra out loud. But, if after a few minutes of repeating the mantra you can feel that there is someone within you - your inner being - who is repeating the mantra for you, then you will not need to speak out loud. In the silence of your heart, your inner being will do japa on your behalf.

Japa should be done in the morning or during the day, but not immediately before going to bed. If you do japa when the body is tired and wants to go into the world of sleep, the mind will only become agitated and lose its one-pointed concentration. You will simply load the mind mechanically and will not gain any benefit. If japa is not done sincerely and with soul, it is useless. Therefore, you should do only one hundred, two hundred or, in extreme cases, three hundred repetitions before going to bed. If you meditate before going to bed, you will invoke peace, light and bliss, but if you repeat the mantra five hundred to twelve hundred times before going to bed, you will invoke strength and energy and will not be able to sleep.

Often, when you complete your japa, you will hear the mantra repeating in your heart. You do not pronounce it, but your inner being has started repeating the mantra spontaneously.

Internal sound

During meditation, seekers sometimes hear the sound OM, although they have not spoken it out loud, and no one in the room has done so. This means that someone has sung or is chanting OM to himself and the meditation room retains this sound.

You can recite the mantra while you are driving or walking down the street or in a public place. If you sing to yourself while walking down the street, you do not withdraw into yourself; you are simply trying to protect yourself from the busy world. You increase your inner strength and inner capabilities. Subsequently, when you are internally strong, you will no longer need to recite the mantra; you will be able to walk the streets without being disturbed.

Any method of spiritual discipline will necessarily have two inevitable and inseparable wings: absolute patience and unwavering determination.

If you are trying to maintain a high consciousness while in a public place, it may be difficult for you to go deep within and bring peace to the fore. But even when you're surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the outside world, you can easily pick out the louder sound from it. This louder sound is not a destructive sound, but a sound that contains indomitable power. It gives you a sense of how potentially great and divine you are. If you can bring the divine to the fore internal sound which comes from your heart, or if you can enter into this inner sound, then you will see that the external noise of the world is not comparable to it. To your surprise, you will see that the sounds that bothered you a minute earlier no longer bother you. On the contrary, you will feel the achievement that instead of hearing noise, you will hear divine music performed by your inner being.

Essence of OM

OM is a single, indivisible sound; this is the vibration of the Supreme. OM is the source sound of the Universe, because with this sound God set in motion the first vibration of his creation. The most powerful of all mantras is OM; OM is the mother of all mantras. Every moment God creates himself anew within OM. OM has no birth, OM has no death. Nothing but OM existed, does not exist and will not exist forever.

OM is one letter in Sanskrit, represented in English by three letters (AUM), but pronounced as one syllable. The syllable OM is indivisible, but each part represents a separate aspect of the Supreme. A represents and embodies the consciousness of the Creator God, U embodies the consciousness of the Guardian God, and M embodies the consciousness of the Transformer God. Taken together, AUM is the spontaneous cosmic rhythm with which God embraces the Universe.

The sound of OM is unique. We usually hear a sound when two objects hit each other. But OM does not need such action. This is anahata, or non-emphasis; it is a silent sound. A Yogi or Spiritual Master can hear OM spontaneously arising in the innermost depths of his heart.

There are many ways to chant OM. When you chant it loudly, you feel the omnipotence of the Supreme. When you chant it in a whisper, you feel the pleasure of the Supreme. When you chant it to yourself, you feel the peace of the Almighty.

The universal OM used by the Supreme is the endless ocean. The individual sound OM sung by a person is a drop in this ocean, but it cannot be separated from the ocean, and it itself becomes the whole ocean. When a person chants OM, it touches and evokes the cosmic vibration of the supreme Sound.

It is best to chant OM loudly so that its sound can vibrate even in your ears and permeate your entire body. This will convince your mind and give you a great feeling of joy and achievement. When you sing loudly, the M sound should be at least three times longer than the AU sound.

No matter how serious a person's mistakes are, if he chants OM many times from the innermost depths of his heart, the almighty Compassion of the Supreme will forgive him. In the blink of an eye, the power of OM transforms darkness into light, ignorance into knowledge, death into immortality.

OM has infinite power; simply by repeating OM, anyone can realize God. All that God has and all that God is, within and without, all this OM can offer to man, because OM is at the same time the life, body and breath of God.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q You said that we can increase our purity by repeating OM five hundred times a day. But for me, repeating OM five hundred times a day is very difficult. Can you advise me what to do?

A If you find it difficult to do five hundred repetitions in a row, you can do this in several stages. Ten times at different times of the day you can practice OM repetition, repeating fifty repetitions each time. Let's say you want to drink ten glasses of water throughout the day. If you try to drink all ten glasses at once, you won't succeed. So you will drink one glass now and then, one or two hours apart, another. This way you can easily drink ten glasses of water. Instead of chanting OM five hundred times at once, early in the morning you can repeat it fifty times, then an hour later, another fifty. If you repeat OM fifty times every hour, it will not take you more than a minute or two per hour. Since you can easily dedicate two minutes per hour to God, distribute the repetition of the mantra in this way.

Music and Meditation: Sound and Silence

Music has the key that opens the Heart-Door of the Almighty. She herself is the key.

Universal language

Music is the inner or universal language of God. I don't speak French or German or Italian, but if music from any of these countries is played, immediately the heart of the music enters my heart or my heart enters the music. At this moment there is no need for external communication; The internal connection of the heart is enough. My heart communicates with the heart of music and in our communication we become inseparably one.

Meditation and music cannot be separated. When we cry from the innermost depths of our hearts for peace, light and bliss, this is the best way of meditation. The closest thing to meditation is music, soul-filled music that awakens and elevates our aspiring consciousness. We cannot meditate 24 hours a day. But we can probably meditate for two hours every day. At other times we may perform or listen to music. When we perform or listen to soul-filled music, spiritual music, we are immediately transported to a higher realm of consciousness. When we perform music with soul, we rise high, higher, even higher.

Whenever we listen to soul-filled music, we feel inspired and delighted. In the blink of an eye, music has the power to lift our consciousness. But if we also pray and meditate, then we are undoubtedly more enlightened and realized than a music lover who does not lead a conscious spiritual life. Every spiritual musician consciously spreads the light of God on earth. God is the cosmic performer, the eternal performer, and we are His instruments. But there comes a time in the process of our evolution when we feel that we have become completely one with Him. At this moment we are no longer instruments, we are musicians ourselves, divine musicians. Who creates the right tool? Almighty. And He inspires the performer to play well.

Let's not try to understand music with our minds. Let's not even try to feel it in our hearts. Let us simply and sincerely allow the bird-music to soar in our heart-sky. In flight, she will certainly reveal to us what she owns and what she is. What she possesses is the message of Immortality. What it is is the path to Eternity.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q Can certain types of music make us sad and change our spiritual state?

Oh yeah. There is music that is truly destructive to our inner essence. This music comes from the gross physical or lower vital. Undivine music tries to awaken our lower vital consciousness and throw us into the world of passions. A spiritually aspiring person will immediately be touched by this music.

Music has terrible power. We can get burned by fire, but we can cook food with it and do many other good things. It's the same with music. Divine music immediately raises our consciousness, while undivine music lowers it and tries to destroy our sincere inner cry for a better, spiritual life. Vital music lowers our consciousness. For a few fleeting moments or hours we have pleasure, but then this pleasure plunges us into the lower vital consciousness, where temptation is great. From the world of temptation we enter the world of disappointment, and from it we enter the world of destruction.

We all know that vital music is most widespread throughout the world. Soulful music is not as widely appreciated and very few people appreciate soul music. People feel that she is like an outsider invading their consciousness. But in fact, this is due to the fact that spiritual music awakens our eternal essence - the soul that is waiting deep inside to come to the fore.

Q Can we use music as an aid in our spiritual life?

A We can definitely use music to help us in our spiritual lives. Music and spiritual life are like twin brothers. We can't separate them. How can we separate two fingers, two eyes? They exist side by side. If one eye sees poorly, we feel that our vision is imperfect. Music and spiritual life can easily go together; one complements the other. Music helps the spiritual seeker to go deeper in order to receive ultimate satisfaction from life, from truth, from reality. Spiritual life, in turn, helps music to offer the whole world its possibilities and strength, which are the light of the soul.

Q What does “soul-filled” music mean?

O What do we mean by soul-filled music? If you claim that this is music that embodies the soul, then I want to tell you that you are wrong. You should feel that soul-filled music is a light that wants to express itself in a divine way. Just as darkness wants to prove its power on earth, so light wants to manifest its reality and divinity in a special way. Light is the soul of everything. Light is the soul of music, the soul of love and the soul of all arts. When light divinely manifests itself in the form of music, it is the music of the soul.

Soul-filled music is music that immediately lifts our consciousness to the highest. Soul-filled music introduces us to a world of aspiration. From the world of aspiration we enter the world of realization, where our inner being is filled with light and delight.

Soul-filled music is music that seeks to ultimately transform our consciousness. It draws us into the Universal Consciousness and makes us feel that we are in harmony with the highest, the deepest, the distant.

It also makes us feel that God Himself is the Supreme Musician. When we perform soulful music, we realize that we are not musicians; we are just tools. We are like a piano, a violin, a guitar, and the one who constantly plays us is God. If we truly perform soul-filled music, we will feel that we are an instrument and someone else is singing and playing within and through us. This other is our Inner Pilot, the Supreme.

God the Creator is the Supreme Musician, and God the creation is the highest music

When we listen to soul-filled music, or when we ourselves perform soul-filled music, our inner being immediately rises up, higher, higher. It rises and enters into the Beyond, which is constantly trying to help us, guide us, shape us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soul-filled music or perform a soul-filled piece of music, we feel an inner thrill throughout our entire being. From the tips of our toes to the top of our heads, we feel that a river is flowing through us, a river of enlightened consciousness.

Following deep prayer or meditation, music is of utmost importance in our spiritual life. Meditation is like a straight road or a shortcut to a goal. Music is a road that is absolutely free: it may be a little longer, but it is completely free of obstacles. If one can play or listen to soul-filled music, the power of one's own meditation increases. Music, soul-filled music complements our aspiration. Similarly, if a spiritual seeker wants to be a musician but has no musical training, he can become a good musician because prayer and meditation contain all the possibilities. You may have never studied music, but if you pray and meditate with your soul, then in your prayer, in your meditation, by the grace of the Almighty, the power of music will grow.

Q How can we know if the music is spiritual and the musician is an aspirant?

O Whether a musician is aspiring or not, that is of no concern to you. This concerns only God. Someone may seem spiritual, but if his music lowers your consciousness, then he is not playing spiritual music. When you listen to music, if it lifts your consciousness, you will know that it is spiritual music. It happens that a musician is aspiring and also performs spiritual music, then you are very lucky because you receive inspiration from both the music and the musician.

Q What's the best way to become one with soul-filled music?

O The best way to become one with soul-filled music is to have a strong inner conviction while listening that when you inhale, the breath immediately enters your soul. And as you inhale, you should feel that the Universal Consciousness, the divine Reality, the divine Truth also enter into you. Then, as you exhale, try to feel that you are exhaling the ignorance that covers your soul. Feel the veils of ignorance being lifted and thrown away. If you can consciously imagine and feel this, then this is the best way to become one with the soul-filled music.

Music is God's dream. We don't need to know what she looks like or how she acts. Its very existence keeps us alive.

Receptivity - opening yourself to the light

The more gratitude you bring to the Supreme Pilot within you, the more and faster you will increase your

What is receptivity?

Receptivity is the flow of cosmic energy and cosmic light. Receptivity is the ability to absorb and accommodate the divine gifts that the Almighty showers on you during your meditation. If you want to be receptive, consciously try to bring light into your being when you sit down to meditate. Once you have brought the light inside, direct it towards Right place, into the spiritual heart. Then try to become that light.

If you feel that you have little receptivity, pray for more. Don't be satisfied with the receptivity that you have. If today it is a tiny puddle, then turn it into a pond, then into a lake and finally into an endless ocean. Receptivity can be expanded gradually and indefinitely. But without receptivity you cannot achieve anything in spiritual life, even after many hours of meditation.

One way to increase receptivity is to become like a child. If a mother says to a child, “This is good,” he has no inclination to think that it is bad. No matter how far you have advanced in spiritual life, you can make the fastest progress by having a childlike attitude, a sincere and genuine feeling like a child.

Gratitude

The easiest and most effective way to increase receptivity is to offer your deepest gratitude to the Almighty every day before meditation. Many of your near and dear ones are not leading a spiritual life, but you have accepted it. How is this possible? This is possible because the Supreme within you has given you aspiration, while many, many people still do not have it. You must feel that He has chosen you for the spiritual path. And since He has given you aspiration, you have every reason to offer your gratitude to Him. He will be able to give you greater receptivity if he sees that every day you increase your gratitude. When you offer gratitude to God, your inner vessel immediately becomes larger. Then God can send more of his blessings upon you or enter you more fully with his own divine existence. God is infinite, but only according to our receptivity can He enter into us. God is like the sunshine. If I leave the curtains open, sunlight comes in. If the curtains are closed, the sun cannot penetrate. The more we move them apart, the more God enters us with infinite light. When we give thanks, immediately the light of God flows into our being.

Gratitude means self-sacrifice to your higher self. Your gratitude is not intended for anyone else, it is intended for your own higher self. Gratitude helps you identify and feel oneness with your own highest reality. You should always be grateful to the Inner Pilot, the Supreme. When you are full of gratitude, receptivity automatically increases.

Every morning, try to greet God with just one thing: an ever-increasing gift of gratitude.

EXERCISES

1. Susceptible area of ​​the body.

One way to achieve immediate receptivity is to silently repeat the word "Supreme" over and over again as quickly as you can.

First, select a point on the body, say the third eye, and concentrate on it, repeating the word "Supreme" as quickly as possible. Then choose another point and do the same. It is better to move from top to bottom than from bottom to top. The place where you concentrate does not have to be a psychic center. It can be any area you want. If you can do this in seven different areas of your body, you will definitely find that you are receptive in one of them.

2. The call of a child.

To create sensitivity when you do not have it, try to feel that you are only 3 years old, just a baby. You have neither mother nor father, no one at all who would protect you, and you are alone in the forest very dark night. Darkness is all around you. Death is dancing right in front of you and there is no one to help you. What will you do in this case? From the very depths of your heart, with absolute sincerity, you will cry out to God. When an inner call of this kind comes, the Almighty will definitely open your heart and make you receptive.

3. Depend on God.

You can increase your receptivity if you feel that you are absolutely helpless without the Supreme and that with the Supreme you are everything. This thought, this truth, you can write down in your heart. Try to feel that your inner existence and your outer existence are completely dependent on the Supreme. If you feel that your whole existence is meaningless and useless when He is not within you to guide you, to mold you, to give shape to you and at the same time to realize Himself in and through you, then your receptivity will expand. Try to feel that you are the chosen child of the Almighty simply because He is using you, but if you with your pride are using yourself out of your own ego and pride, then you are thousands of miles away from Him. When you are far from Him, you are nothing, but when you are one with Him with dedication, devotion and self-denial, you are everything. When you feel that you are one with Him, automatically your receptivity expands.

4. Inner joy.

Another way to expand your receptivity during meditation is to try to consciously feel inner joy. If you cannot immediately feel inner joy, try to imagine for a few seconds or a few minutes that you have it. It won't be a lie. Your imagination will strengthen your aspiration and help you bring true inner joy to the forefront over time. The very essence of inner joy is expansion. When you expand, receptivity automatically increases, like a vessel that gets bigger and bigger.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q I am not as receptive during meditation as I would like. Why is this so?

O Sometimes this happens because our dedication to the Almighty is not yet complete. Sometimes the mind resists, sometimes the vital resists, sometimes the physical or even the subtle physical resists. If there is any of these resistances, negative forces take hold of us and our receptivity decreases. Until we are truly sure of what we want, the life of desire or the life of aspiration, negative forces will stand between our desire and our aspiration. These forces are always on alert. They seek to separate our aspiration from our desire. Then they try to strengthen our desire and kill our aspiration and very often they succeed. But a spiritually alert person will take aspiration and enter into desire to transform it. If desire penetrates aspiration, then the latter perishes. If aspiration enters into desire, at the same moment it is transformed.

At other times, you may be unreceptive because you have become too serene, contented. You do not feel the inner call because you are happy with your financial situation or achievements in your inner life. When you are satisfied with everything you have, why should you call about something more?When this feeling of self-satisfaction lives in you, then the inner call ceases and your receptivity comes to an end.

If you say “no” to your bad thoughts and “yes” to your aspiration to become a perfect instrument of God, then limitless receptivity will immediately become yours.

You can listen to sounds accompanying meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, for example, a meditation called “Bloom in Your Smile” in mp3 online on music and meditation sites. Here, on numerous music resources, you can easily find all the music on the Internet! Listen for free and enjoy online, or save music tracks to your computer!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meditation - turn life into an endless celebration

Live happy life– this is true art. The art of living fully can be defined as a program personal growth. This unique internal platform must certainly combine old and modern meditation techniques that will help you become stronger, happier, and more confident day by day. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meditation is a wonderful spiritual experience, a moment of truth, a moment of self-healing and balance of body, mind and spirit.

The first step into simple meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is considered to be the study of Sudarshan Kriya - a breathing technique that purifies and balances the physical body, mind and spirit. This powerful technique will allow you to relieve yourself of stress naturally and very effectively. Human nature is infinite, and you can allow yourself to rest in yourself, in your nature.

Powerful meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - practice of silence

The practice of silence, as a method of consciously shifting attention from external objects and distractions within oneself, has been used since ancient times in many traditions as a path to physical renewal, mental and spiritual reconstruction. During the powerful Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meditation, you will relax the mind, which is constantly in an active state, and experience an extraordinary feeling of peace that will remain with you even after the meditation is completed.

Explore the depths of your being. Do it slowly, systematically, wondering what you really are. To experience the depth and sensitivity of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's home meditation, it is necessary to receive the mantra from a qualified teacher. Sahaj Samadhi uses a simple sound, the mental reproduction of which helps the mind to calm down and relax.

When your restless mind and nervous system are given the opportunity to rest in deep silence, then the blocks and all kinds of clamps that slow down your spiritual progress gradually dissolve. And someday they will disappear completely. Regular practice self-meditation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar completely, its quality and richness by maintaining your nervous system at rest, and maintaining a positive state of mind throughout the day.

Meditation (Dhyana)

Before reading this section, we recommend reading the Dharma page on our website.

The best object for meditation and contemplation is always Brahman,
and the idea that God is in everything, and everything is in God
and everything is God - this is the idea on which
the mind must be concentrated.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Volume 3.

There are no particularly important conditions, but loneliness and solitude
during meditation, as well as keeping the body still are very helpful,
and for a beginner they are sometimes almost necessary conditions.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Volume 3.

So, Meditation...

Meditation is the very essence of Yoga practice. This is a time when your consciousness changes, moving away from your usual thought processes and emotional disturbances. Sri Aurobindo was against complex meditation practices (complex kriy), including monitoring nadi(subtle energy channels), or multi-stage visualizations of Deities ( Dev) in energy centers ( chakras) and on separate parts bodies. He also did not recommend compound breathing practice ( pranayama) with breath holdings ( kumbhakami) or locks ( bandhs) in the energy body. This is due to the fact that, on the one hand, simple energy kriyas can only have some healing effect, and more complex kriyas, on the other hand, can easily lead to serious disorders if they are performed even with seemingly insignificant inaccuracies.

Instead, Sri Aurobindo proposed a very simple and yet very difficult Method of meditation practice. Simple because it requires almost no special yogic knowledge at first. The basis of this method is the sincere disclosure of oneself to the Divine Consciousness-Power. Superconscious, this Power itself descends into the body of the yogi, changing and gradually making it Divine.

Why is this seemingly simple method at the same time quite difficult? At the beginning of spiritual practice, we are driven by mental illumination from the Truths that have been revealed to us; the emotional enthusiasm of the vital energy which saw the possibility of endless expansion and elevation of its nature; the call of our true Heart. We feel uplifted throughout our entire being. But the movement of the emotional part of human nature is extremely fickle and ups are inevitably followed by downs. The mind requires new ideas, it is always ahead of the body, in its dreams we already must be perfect ( siddhas) and the mind does not understand why this has not happened yet. Movements of the spirit require uncompromising sincerity from us. If we do not follow his guidance, which may want to completely change our everyday life, if we are not ready for this, then the spiritual call becomes quieter, no longer insisting on anything. We lose the tendency to spontaneous meditation, interaction with Consciousness-Power becomes more veiled, because we, clinging to our usual life, have ceased to be sincere in our calls. Apathy and uncertainty about what should be done often begin to set in... But the Spirit in us, once awakened, is not ready to so easily lose the battle for which it came into this world. Hiddenly he continues to guide us, sometimes reminding us of the Truth we must find. It is to this ever-living Spirit that these lines are addressed...

Our human nature must learn Great Patience. Our mind must understand that the energies and the body need a Method, and in order for this method to bear fruit, a sufficient amount of time is necessary for a fundamental change in nature to become possible. The emotional-energetic part of our being will need to learn to be calm and receptively open to Consciousness-Force. So gradually, step by step, we have to transform our entire being. There is no other way.

However, it is rare to find such a patient and attentive person ( Dhairyam), who is able to use this simple Method.

Basic Dhyana

Sit in a quiet, secluded place, take a comfortable, stationary position for meditation (usually a sitting position on a mat or chair). This position of the body will free up the perceiving mind and that part of the consciousness that monitors our motor activity. Give yourself the intention to devote this time to self-knowledge. Offer this action and all its fruits to the Lord. Begin the preparatory part of dhyana - observe your thoughts from the outside, without becoming attached to their content. Having found an area in your consciousness that is not affected by thoughts, try to expand it. This can be called a spatial approach. You can stop mental activity by increasing the gap between thoughts. Or by opening the area of ​​the thinking mind upward to the Superconscious area above the head. In the latter case, mental activity immediately stops. The latter method requires a fairly developed consciousness and is not advisable for beginners. As a rule, it takes from several weeks to several years to implement this preparatory stage. In any case, if you managed to get rid of the veil of thought, even for a very short time, you will be surprised to feel how wonderful your consciousness feels in this new status. There are no more distractions, the experience has become brighter and more intense. From this moment the consciousness is ready for pure contemplation.

In Integral Yoga, the main centers for concentration are: 1) the region of the Spiritual Heart, located in the middle of the chest, 2) the region of the Transcendental Superconsciousness, the source of the Primordial Shakti (Conscious Force), located above the crown of the head.

We can say that the Superconsciousness and the Primordial Shakti are everywhere, at every point in space, however, these centers are the gates through which it is easiest to enter. This is due to the location in the nadi channels of the consciousness-force concentrated in these centers.

These two centers make it possible to release your True Self.

The region of the Spiritual Heart makes it possible to reveal the Individual Divine Self. At the same time, the yogi experiences a state of immortality and a feeling of absolute Freedom and Joy, and also receives knowledge of his other selves. This is liberation ( mukti), found in the Heart.

The center above the head, located in the Sarhasradala chakra, reveals the Transcendental aspect of the Lord, who stands above all his incarnations in the world and enjoys their Play. In this area, the dynamic aspect of Adi Shakti is also manifested - the Primordial Personality of the Force - the Mother of the World. She gives birth to all universes and all the movements and forces in them.

Three realizations: Individual, Transcendental and Cosmic consciousness are fundamental in Integral Yoga. However, they cannot come immediately, because... are the fruit of long-term meditation practice, as a result of which human consciousness is transformed into a higher one. But even just a mental understanding of these aspects of Consciousness brings the Yogi closer to their realization.

Concentrating during dhyana on the indicated centers, in silent prayer contemplating his Spiritual Heart and the Sahasradala chakra - the area above the head, the practitioner begins to realize the described experiences as originally inherent in his true Self.

When the first experiences of liberated consciousness are experienced and we, even if only for a very short time at first, no longer identify ourselves with the body, emotions or mind, a feeling of Power comes to us. She is everywhere, she surrounds our body, she is our body itself. We can also feel its Highest manifestations in the Sarhasradala chakra. From those heights Consciousness-Power descends into our mind ( manomaya kosha), energy ( pranamaya kosha) and physical body ( annamaya kosha) and transforms him into a perfect divine form ( varam rupam).

So, holding thinking process and emotions in a passive state, move your attention to the area of ​​​​the Spiritual Heart. Contemplating God within yourself and having established yourself in inner Sincerity, concentrate in the area above your head on the Highest and His Luminous Power. Like a flower or a cup, open yourself to this descending Force and Divine Consciousness. Open your mind, your emotional being. Uncover these areas to change them and transform them into their higher form. Listen to your sensations, vibrations in your body, and in the silence of your mind, track how your consciousness changes; trust God, because this is the most natural movement that a living being can make. Open up to Heaven and ask Him for a new Mind and a new Heart...

Some time will pass, perhaps several days, months or years. You will establish yourself in your Heart and the Wisdom of the Highest Self - the Spiritual Sun above your head. You will feel that Consciousness-Power descends, transforming not only your mind and heart, but also permeates your entire body, pouring streams of joy throughout it. The Descending Force enters the hands, the stomach, where it works with vital energies, descends to the feet, working with the subconscious. Consciousness-Force also descends into the space around the body. The very sensation of the body will change: it will be experienced more and wider than the boundaries of the physical shell. From this period the work of integration with the Cosmic Consciousness begins.

Open your whole body, all the space around, to the Divine Mother. Track the openings of the Mind body, the Emotional-energetic body, and the work of Shakti with the physical body. Strive to rise with Consciousness higher and higher: one meter above your head, two, ten, Infinity... With its elevation, the experience of space, time, cause-and-effect relationships will also change. The whole Body will be filled with the nectar of Ananda - Divine Joy. Alternate between meditations with your eyes closed and with your eyes slightly open. During such spiritual practice, the words of the Sacred texts come to life, they are experienced as the reality of your true Self.

The higher your consciousness rises, the more clearly you feel the space under your body. This opens the area of ​​the subconscious - tantric Patalas, Hells. Until the Spiritual Sun shines in its fullness in the body, it is not worth devoting to this area special attention. But if the Light has become stable, you will notice how it passes down, illuminating everything and dissolving all fears, removing distortions and clamps that manifest themselves in the physical world as illnesses or failures. The conscious stage of working with these levels should occur only after the blessing of the Spiritual Teacher.

After meditating on the Higher levels above your head, try to feel the space in front of the body, behind the body, on the right and left, bringing these higher vibrations down to the level of the body and below. Try not to move consciousness from one area to another, but to unite, joining one area to another, creating the Great Ball - Maha Bindu - the All-Abiding, One Omnidirectional Consciousness.

The state of Maha Bindu is characterized by the absence of boundaries. There are no more objects for concentration, no special techniques. Consciousness changes throughout space from quality to quality. This is the original natural effortless state ( Sahaja). This is a state of stopped, strong, trained and transformed Consciousness. During the period of opening the Space of All Directions and awareness of Maha Bindu, both quiet basic meditations and work with Mantra are performed. Mantric vibrations reveal the solar nature of the Manifested World.

This type of meditation can be practiced dynamically, i.e. while walking, talking, eating, and also while sleeping.

Thus, contemplating Brahman - the Highest Consciousness-Power in ourselves and in all beings all the time - we close the circle of day and night. The Yogi realizes great Liberation - knowledge of His Primordial Nature and Superpowers begin to manifest in his Body.

He looks straight and God looks through his eyes... This is the completion of all Yogas and the Great beginning of a new Journey...

Much more time will pass, and these realizations will deepen until the physical body itself is completely transformed.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

Structured Dhyana

Meditation on the planes of consciousness

Target

In complete and sincere dedication, reveal all the plans of the consciousness of a human being to the action of the Divine Shakti, which systematically replaces them with Her Super-Guidance.

Method

Before starting the practice, make an internal appeal and dedicate your action and results to the Almighty.

Accept correct posture(spine straight). Focus your attention on the Sahasrara chakra (the space above your head). Maintaining concentration, open this space like a blossoming snow-white lotus, the Supreme Light-Bearing Source, transformative Power and Energy. Throughout the entire practice, it is necessary to maintain concentration on the descending energy of the Divine Shakti, and also to be turned towards the Divine with all sincerity.

Concentrating above your head, successively reveal to Adi Shakti (Primordial Consciousness-Power) the following planes of consciousness:

Maintain concentration in the center above your head, with all upper centers (Buddhi, Manas, Chitta) and the space around these centers opened by the Light-Bearing Shakti.

Without losing concentration, reveal to your Consciousness the five main pranas (subtle energy that supports the functioning of the entire body with the help of the 5 winds):

1. Udana vayu (prana moving upward throughout the body, centered from the base of the neck to the crown of the head - is a channel of communication between physical life and the higher life of the Spirit).
2. Prana vayu (prana which acts in the upper part of the body, centered in the lungs, and is the breath of life as it brings universal force to the physical system).
3. Samana vayu (prana in the center of the body, regulating the alternation of prana and apana at their meeting point, which is most important in the balance of vital forces and their actions; mediator in the assimilation of food, digestive fire).

Integrate the pranas with the Light-Bearing Source above your head.

4. Apana vayu (prana located in the lower part of the body, participates in the excretory processes of the physical body; the breath of death, since it releases vital force from the body, its replenishment due to the downward flow slows down the aging of the dense body).
5. Vyana vayu (prana that permeates the entire body and distributes energy throughout it; blood circulation and the distribution of a significant part of digestible food depend on it).
6. Keep all five pranas open.

In your concentration, return to the center above your head and hold all the centers and pranas of the Sukshma Dehi (subtle body) in complete and sincere surrender to the Divine Shakti.

1. Skin covering. Feel how the Light, gently touching the skin, penetrates and begins to saturate the surface of your body. Gradually penetrates and circulates through veins and vessels, entering the circulatory system.
2. Light fills all internal organs,
3. muscle tissue,
4. bone tissue,
5. joints, tendons,
6. the whole body.

Your entire body is permeated with Transformative Luminous Energy. In complete dedication, with all sincerity, open up to Power, Energy and Consciousness. Maintain this concentration.

Bring your attention to the center above your head and maintain the full opening of Sukshma (subtle) and Sthula Dehi (gross body), as well as the space around you, open to this Force.

Light within, Light without, above and below, Light around you. There is nothing other than the Luminous Transforming Space.

Open your eyes slightly and maintain this concentration for some time.

After completing dhyana, present all the results to the Almighty and try to maintain the achieved state throughout the entire post-meditation period.

Signs of advancement

With proper and prolonged concentration, the following signs of progress are possible:

Primary signs:

1. Increased concentration power, clarity of concentration.
2. Overcoming tamas and drowsiness.
3. Suspension of the thought process.
4. Light pressure in the upper part of the head, subsequently a feeling of the presence of the Force throughout the body.
5. Feeling of body dissolution.

Signs of further progress:

6. The flow of thought practically stops, and the ability to control it appears.
7. Feeling of pleasant coolness above your head (activation of the Sahasrara chakra)
8. Internal and physical feeling of expanding space
9. There may be sensations of internal wave-like movement and twisting.
10. A state of causeless joy, lightness and purity, both internal and physical.
11. The vision and physical sensation of descending Light Energy and a feeling of Joy throughout the entire being.
12. Intuitive knowledge about any object
13. Restoration of impaired body functions
14. Feeling the presence of the Lord in Everything
15. The ability to influence current circumstances with the power of Consciousness - Aishwarya Siddha.

Aparathas(obstacles on the way).

Always remember that all the results of this meditation, as well as its process, must be dedicated to the Divine. Deviation from this main rule can lead to consequences such as the generation of unfavorable samskaras, which can subsequently cause yogic difficulties and falls. In addition, it is a mistake to perform the practice out of a state of personal interest and desire for siddhis (superpowers).

The Lord is everywhere, I reveal myself to yours To the Highest State

Meditation "Bell of Silence"

A 30-minute meditation during which a bell sounds at various intervals to remind you of the silence of the mind. The practitioner should try, while contemplating the area above the head, to remain in thoughtlessness between the two strikes of the bell. If this task turns out to be difficult, then try to maintain inner silence while the bell sounds. The meditation ends with three strikes.

This meditation can be done at home by putting the disc in your mp3 player. It can also be performed while moving. To do this, you can use the player with headphones. Also, the settings of a modern player allow you to set the playback mode with repetition of the composition. Thus, this meditation can become an hour, an hour and a half, etc.

Download Meditation "Bell of Silence"

Try to let the sound of the bell bring you peace and joy.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE

Lord abiding everywhere, I open myself to your Supreme State

In the Indian practices of meditation and yoga, there are several spiritual leaders who have also become secular figures.

The guru known throughout the planet, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, with whom meditations are carried out to this day, has gathered a huge number of followers and students. Thanks to his teachings, the world learned how to relax correctly without unnecessary thoughts and what needs to be done for proper breathing.

The importance of personality

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born in 1956 and amazed his family from childhood. At the age of 4, he knew by heart many passages from ancient scriptures, which he easily quoted in Sanskrit. Meditation also attracted Sri Sri, and his spiritual guru was one of the comrades of Mahatma Gandhi. By the age of 17, the talented student was able to graduate from university and receive a bachelor's degree.

Sri Sri is a true mentor and friend for hundreds of thousands of people striving for peace on earth and performing various feats of humanism. Thanks to the wisdom and inner strength of the guru, his students bravely fight natural disasters, eliminate the consequences of terrorist attacks and solve many global problems of our time.

Today, Ravi Shankar is already fluent in meditation techniques and yoga. He tries to work on this constantly in order to create new forms of enlightenment and relaxation for people of the 21st century.

Organization “Art of Living”

In 1981, an international organization with an educational and humanitarian focus was created. The non-profit project was called “The Art of Living”, and Ravi Shankar was destined to become its permanent leader. It was this foundation that began to disseminate meditation techniques suitable for people of any faith, culture, and age.

The status of the world organization has constantly increased and today “The Art of Living” is negotiating with the UN Council, as well as International organization Healthcare. The Sri Sri Foundation helps support human values ​​and reduce aggression throughout the world.

Sudarshan Kriya

In 1982, Sri Sri proposed his own breathing technique. Sudarshan Kriya was the result of long-term meditative practice of a guru who was in complete silence in India.

The essence of these exercises is to seek absolute freedom and overcome stressful conditions. Correct breathing opens your own source of energy and brings long-awaited peace. At the same time, the main task of man is to search for universal rhythms, according to the laws of which not only the breathing process, but the whole world exists.

Today Sudarshan Kriya is the most important part of training in the “Art of Living” courses. Classes help you gain clarity of mind, get rid of negative emotions and awaken your creative abilities. In addition, breathing techniques allow you to remove excess waste and toxins from the body.

Ashram and basic courses

Meditation conducted by Sri Sri in person is possible only in the Ashram. People who have enrolled in “The Art of Living” courses go there. However, no one can guarantee a meeting with the guru, because he constantly travels around the world. However, hundreds of thousands of people come to the Ashram to get acquainted with the unique program of unity of body and soul.

“The Art of Living” currently offers four programs.

Basic course from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The introductory or basic course lasts two weekends and takes about 18 hours. As part of this program, participants practice yoga, learn important asanas, get acquainted with Sudarshan Kriya, chant mantras and meditate at general meetings.

Group breathing exercises represent 4-5 circles of 25-40 inhalations and exhalations.

Then several simple breathing cycles are carried out, and then 150-200 inhalations and exhalations at a fast pace per minute. This is done to the special rhythm formed by Sri Sri’s voice on the recording.

As for mantras, the most popular are:

• Om Namah Shivaya,
• Shiva Manas Puja,
• Bhavanyastakam,
• Shivoham,
• Atmastakam and others.

Those who complete the basic course have the right to participate every week in satsang - a general meeting with lectures and meditations.

Sahaj Samadhi

This is rather the second part of the main course. So-called rapid enlightenment involves studying bhakti yoga in addition to other practices.

Also at this stage, each participant is given a separate individual mantra. There is an opportunity to gain new knowledge from the lectures and teachings of the guru.

Advanced course

This part is completed in 4-10 days. It is recommended to take the course 1-2 times a year so that the procedure for cleansing the soul and body becomes permanent.

As part of this course, participants delve deeper into meditative practices, continue to organize their breathing system, and also learn to remain silent for a long time. This course is available in different Ashrams.

In Russia, for example, there is such a monastery on Lake Baikal. Competent meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Russian is available, perhaps, only in this place.

Instructor course

This dedication is for those who wish to conduct seminar classes themselves. Here people are introduced to self-paced course development techniques and Hindu ancient rituals.

You can take such a set of classes only in India under the guidance of Sri Sri.

Ways to get into meditation

Sri Sri's meditations are varied and include many different mantras and relaxation techniques. However, achieving a state of thoughtlessness can be difficult. The Indian guru recommends paying attention to the basic techniques that help you achieve a deep immersion into your inner world.

• Physical exercise, yoga, tai chi help bring a little fatigue into our body. It is this borderline state that helps to smoothly relax the mind.
• Correct breathing through Sudarshan Kriya and pranayam helps to carry out meditation without unnecessary effort.
• Sensual pleasures at correct use also contribute to entering a meditative state. First of all, we are talking about sound, smell, sight, taste and touch.
  Each of the senses corresponds to the basic elements: fire is the eyes, aroma is earth, taste is water, sounds are ether, and touch is air.
  As we move through each sense, we can move beyond it and enter into a deep session of relaxation. There is even a separate direction - Laila Yoga - which involves dissolving in something.
• No less effective can be considered emotions. When you are surprised, a special state without thoughts arises. At the same time, a negative emotional mood can also lead to meditation, because shock is a serious change.
  But working with negative emotions is quite dangerous, so a beginner should not do this. But sublime sensations, such as love or compassion, bring the necessary serenity to the mind.
• The last help tool is intelligence. Receiving new knowledge and comprehending it, a person experiences a certain excitement, he changes his background in life. Intelligence helps you leave any restrictions and sets you up for meditation. This is commonly called Gnana Yoga.

The essence of meditation according to Sri Sri

According to the Indian guru, real meditation is absolute deconcentration, that is, relaxation without thinking about anything. Sri Sri meditation is immersion in oneself and awareness of love as God. Therefore, there is no need to worry or worry during the session.

Meditation does not involve concentration. You just need to follow the instructions and smile at people. It is in a state of complete relaxation that our mind acquires maximum liveliness and freshness, learning to maintain concentration subsequently without effort.

One should not contemplate closely. Just let your consciousness experience the vastness of inner space, and then you can even develop your intellectual skills.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar believes that meditation involves two approaches.

1. One of them is going inward, deeper, when a person accepts and approves all the results of Divine intervention. This approach is called Nivritti.
2. The other side is Pravritti, which means that one goes out into the outside world and notices all the details. He pays attention to problems and knows how to fix them. That is, one must go into meditation with awareness of everything that exists and with its complete acceptance.

From Sri Sri's point of view, meditation has three main principles, which are presented in the form of statements:

• I do nothing;
• I am nothing;
• I do not want anything.

Correct meditation according to the teachings of Sri Sri creates harmonious energy around a person, which helps him build relationships with the world around him. It also improves health and provides a positive attitude that protects against mental disorders. Two breathing techniques contribute to conducting competent relaxation sessions - Sudarshan Kriya and Pranayama.

Personal participation or correspondence meditations

This year, one of the most famous meditations on the planet was January 17th. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar conducted this session in absentia format, but people around the world could watch the online broadcast and follow the words of their guru.

The purpose of such universal meditation was a request for peace and prosperity throughout the entire earth. Sri Sri invited absolutely all people to carry out similar work with consciousness, regardless of their nationality or beliefs.

In addition, this practice did not require any special preparation, and you just had to follow the instructions spiritual teacher. It was the meditation on January 17 with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar that was able to unite the hearts and minds of people, bring inner peace to thousands of souls and create a powerful flow of energy.

The absence of an image of the guru in front of oneself should not be the reason for weak or infrequent meditation. As the teacher himself says, it is enough to purchase recordings of Sri Sri’s voice, his lectures, reading mantras, and meditative exercises. This is especially important for beginners who find it difficult to relax on their own at home. Of course, meditation by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Russian is not so common, but you can listen to discs with original tracks, comprehending the divine essence without knowing the language.

Types of Meditations

Hari Om

The sound “OM” means presence unconditional love and helps to envelop the body with prana. According to Sri Sri, only the energy of sound and the vibration carried out have true meaning. The syllables themselves that make up the mantras have no meaning.

The Hari Om Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meditation has been practiced for a very long time. Its main goal is to activate the chakras that will help move the Kundalini energy. “Hari Om” is considered to be a universal mantra that relieves suffering and pain.

Meditation from Sri Sri with a mantra belongs to a group of guided practices and is aimed at working with 7 basic energy centers located along the spine. This technique is taught as part of the Advanced course, as well as in yoga classes at the “Art of Living”. You can also purchase the appropriate discs and tapes so that the guru's instructions will allow you to quickly achieve the desired effect.

Guided meditation “Ho-He”

From Sri Sri's point of view, going beyond one's own mind is associated with a feeling of joy. Sincere laughter is always based on the sound “Heh”. Therefore, the guru advises starting with simple meditations using several sounds. So, you can energetically repeat the syllable “Ho” 6 times, and pronounce “He” 7 times. This helps to activate all energy centers.

Such guided meditation is possible with the Sri Sri disc, but it is difficult to do on your own. To begin, you should relax and sit in a comfortable position so that your spine remains straight and your shoulders are slightly lowered and pulled back. Don't forget to keep your eyes closed. During meditation, the head may fall a little to the side or down, but there is nothing strange about this.

Sahaj Samadhi

This is the best version of meditation with a mantra. He is ancient technique natural spiritual growth. This meditation brings peace to the heart and relieves stress and tension. During the time of immersion into oneself, a person learns to discover his own inner nature. He lets go of everything, which means he becomes who he is.

Optimal learning of Sahaj Samadhi is possible only from a trained instructor. It is he who will help you effortlessly dissolve into yourself and achieve a state of true enlightenment, which is called Samadhi.

By practicing this meditation as part of courses, you can learn to achieve high experiences at home.

The basis of this technique lies in sound vibration. Traveling into the depths of the soul is possible only with the right mantra. It is given out individually during classes.

Then you need to learn how to use this sound effectively so that the vibrations are positive. Sahaj Samadhi classes usually last three days - an hour every day. Subsequently, just one-minute practices twice a day are enough.

Practice silence

One of the main ways to shift attention from the distracting outside world to yourself is through silence. One of the most strong meditations Sri Sri teaches you to relax the mind and achieve complete peace in absolute silence.

You can use this technique at home if you approach it slowly. At first, you will need a simple and short mantra from the guru, which must be reproduced mentally.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar always teaches that meditation should be effortless. You can relax and give rest to your mind and nerves only in a state of deep silence. This allows you to remove various energy blocks and clamps that interfere with spiritual progress.

1. The nature of our soul is closed from us by three things: intellect, desire and our own ego. It is meditation that helps to stop these phenomena for a while. When a person meditates, he emits positive vibrations, and this is more important than words.
2. The specific meditation technique does not matter. The main thing is not to forget about the need for silence and stillness. The “Art of Living” courses offer. The only good thing about it is that it can be done anywhere and at any time.
3. Start, i.e. adolescence. At 8-9 years old, the body is already quite flexible, and the mind is ready for complete deconcentration. To dive deeply into meditation, you should perform the practices daily and take the Advanced course every 3-4 months. Then, in a couple of years, changes for the better will be planned. However, you should not constantly evaluate the quality of your meditation, otherwise it will be difficult to obtain a true experience of absorption and dissolution.
4. You can even practice the practice of silence at home. You can meditate before meals at any time of the day. Keep your home quiet and favorable atmosphere for best results. Meditate as many times as you need to clear your mind.
5. Lack of concentration does not mean lack of effort before the session. To enter a state of meditation, it is important to choose the right asanas and the right breathing technique. But when you have already sat down to meditate, no action is needed. That's when you will realize the truth that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar teaches - meditation simply happens.