6. The meditation techniques

in the following pages have been drawn from the ancient scriptures, from the teachings of great spiritual teachers and masters, who have themselves turned to ancient spiritual traditions across the world for inspiration.

Many techniques I have modified on the strength of my own experience. Some have been created by me, and some have been borrowed and presented exactly as they are.

Since the roots of many techniques have been lost in obscurity, they belong to no one; no one has monopoly over them.

The truth is, no true master is concerned about the name of the technique. He is concerned about whether it helps you or not. So simply enjoy the technique, and be sure to pass it on to anyone who might enjoy it.

Spread the fragrance of meditation!

ANANDA NATANA - ECSTATIC DANCE

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

Dancing is a powerful form of meditation!

Both formal dance and free dance can be meditation techniques. Free dancing is also a great cathartic technique. Here, the idea is to lose yourself in the dance. A seasoned dancer will be able to do this even in formal dancing, because he or she is no longer conscious of the rules. Just like we speak correctly without feeling grammar as a hindrance, the seasoned dancer will dance naturally, even when the dance form is formal. But if you are an amateur, then it is better to enjoy 'free dance', or you will feel restricted by the rules.

INSTRUCTIONS

Free dancing means that there are no steps, no rules, nothing. Just let your body move as it pleases. Let the dance flow freely. Be playful, enjoy yourself. Become part of the tremendous energy of dancing.

There are two stages to free dancing: dancing and resting.

Dancing (21 minutes)

Close your eyes and begin to dance. Don't bother about steps. Let your body loose.

Let your unconscious mind dictate the dance! Don't be concerned about how you look, how your clothes are looking. No one is watching you; this is not a performance.

When you keep dancing, you will not feel tired. More and more energy will surge up inside you and you will keep going. The more you dance, the more energetic you will be!

Unlike in other meditations, don't be aware of the dance, or the dancer. Enter deeply into the dance. Dance as fast as possible, as freely as possible. Forget yourself totally. Become the dance! Let the dance become you.

Stillness (10 minutes)

At the end of 45 minutes, wherever you are, in whatever position

you are, just drop down on the floor. Just fall! Lie down. Be silent and still.

In the abrupt change from frantic motion to sudden stillness, you will experience a moment of blankness. You will have no thoughts in your mind; just

a silence. In a few moments, the thoughts will start coming back. Watch the thoughts calmly. Don't fight them, don't get lost in them. Just remain aware. You will become aware of a lasting peace inside you, a great silence which remains even after the thoughts return. Carry this peace, this silence with you throughout the day, carry it into your sleep. You will wake up feeling new, refreshed.

AHAM BRAHMASMI

ABOUT THIS MEDITATION

This is a difficult, but beautiful meditation. It is the meditation of all-inclusiveness. Normally all our meditation techniques are based on negating something – I am not the body, I am not the mind. Here, we do just the opposite – include everything, and come to the conclusion, I am All.

INSTRUCTIONS

Sit in meditation with eyes closed. Be aware of all that is in you and outside you.

Start with yourself. Be aware of your body, your mind, your thoughts, your breathing, your feelings. Include them all in yourself. Remain unfocused, flowing. Be aware of your breath. Be aware of the fluid form of your body. Your body is not as rigid as you think!

When your eyes are closed, you will become aware that your body subtly

changes shape, changes form, becomes heavy, becomes light, expands, shrinks. Only your idea of it remains constant. That's why we don't notice these changes.

Often, we notice this in an unconscious way. When you are in a hostile environment, when you are afraid, feeling separate and isolated, you get a shrinking feeling. When you are joyful, loving, flowing, you feel as if you are filling the whole room. When you are inclusive, you can feel yourself expanding.

Include everything in your Being. Don't say, I am Not. Instead, say, I am. Slowly, you will start to feel that there is no center in you. With no center, where can the ego stay fixed? The ego needs the sense of separateness. In all-inclusiveness, where is the place for the ego?

With the ego gone, only consciousness remains. Consciousness that extends to include the sky, which becomes part of you. It includes the sunrise, which is happening in you. The smell of the morning, which is also you. You find that the breeze is blowing within you. The trees and the rocks, even the stars that you cannot see, are all within you!

It is a tremendous experience. Unless you experience it, how will you understand the interconnectedness of everything? Your boundary has always been so small – now it expands to include the whole of Existence!

ANTARA DHYANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

From time immemorial it has been said, Close your eyes, and see your true nature within. This is exactly the instruction that Shiva gave Devi, in the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra 2, that ancient treasure-house of meditation techniques.

The eyes play a dual role. When they are open, they are the messengers who bring all the news of the world to you. When you close them, they give you the vision of your inner world.

But closing your eyes doesn't mean simply closing your eyelids! When asked to close our eyes, we normally close only our eyelids.

2 Enlightenment techniques in scripture form

Behind our closed eyelids, we continue to see images of the outer world. We switch off the TV outside, and switch on the TV inside! Our eyes are never really closed.

There is one very effective way to still the movements of the eyes. Just imagine that your eyeballs have turned to stone! In its place, you now have two small lumps of smooth round stone! Visualize it. The moment you do, you will find that not only have your eye-movements stilled, but your thoughts have stilled too. When your eye movements are stopped, your thoughts slow down tremendously.

INSTRUCTIONS

Close your eyes and imagine that your eyeballs have turned to stone.

Don't do anything else, just try and remain in that state. It's not going to be easy. It is going to take you weeks of practice before you are able to remain in that state for even a few seconds. But it is well worth the effort – because you will be looking within for the first time.

You have never seen your body from the inside.

Now, try to see every limb from the

inside. When you move your arm, you have been aware of it only from the outside - now, become aware of it from the inside. Travel through your body from the inside.

Start with one fingertip. Become intensely aware of it. Be aware of nothing but that fingertip! Then slowly move upward, up the arm. Go to each limb. Become aware of each limb. Go totally into each limb. You will experience tremendous sensitivity in each part of your body.

When you experience your body from within, you will automatically become aware that you are not the body. You are witnessing the body, then how can you be the body? You become free of the illusion that you are the body. You break your identification with the body.

Now you are free to move deeper, into the abyss of your mind. Begin to see your mind from the within. This is not easy. Initially, all you will be seeing is the inside of your head. But that is not your mind. Your mind is separate from your brain. Think of what you normally imagine as your mind. See it from the outside. Now, reverse the process. Enter the mind and try to see it from within.

With practice, it will happen. Just like your body, you will see that you are separate from your mind. You are the witness.

If you are not your body, you are not your mind – then who are you?

You are the one who is witnessing both. That is your true self. You cannot witness your true self, because you are not outside of it. That which you cannot witness is You.

Have patience with these techniques, don't expect instant results. Miracles are not going to jump on you on the very first day! Don't get disheartened. When the experience happens, it will be worth the effort. It will create a permanent change in you.

Be prepared!

ATMA SPURANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

This is a technique to be aware of ourselves every moment, in every action. Originally from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, this was the technique made popular by the great master Gurdjieff in the West.

INSTRUCTIONS

All you have to do is remember yourself, remember I am - when you are eating, drinking, walking, talking. Be aware that you are, discover within yourself an everliving current.

Don't imagine it is simple. We cannot maintain our awareness on ourselves for more than a few seconds. Then we forget. You think

you are remembering, but your mind has already jumped to a new thought!

Self-remembering is NOT thinking; it is simply awareness. If you think, I am, you have missed the point. That is what we usually end up doing – repeating the words*, I am, I am.* The words are not the experience. Don't verbalize. Just feel, I am. Don't think about it.

When you are walking, stop for a moment and be aware that you are. Carry this awareness. Be aware that you are experiencing the sun on your face, the wind in your hair. Be aware of the one who is experiencing. Just feel, I am. For a moment, you will be thrown

back into yourself! You get a glimpse of deep silence, of reality. This simply cannot be explained in words, you have to experience it.

When you touch something, just feel the touch. When someone touches you, feel the touch, feel the one who is being touched. Your consciousness becomes still sharper.

Retain this awareness at all times. This is an anytime-anywhere meditation. In fact, make it an all-the-time meditation!

CHITAAKAASHA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

Meditation on the sky is meditation on emptiness. The clear blue sky is intensely empty. To meditate on it is to enter into clarity.

INSTRUCTIONS

Choose a day when the sky is clear blue, cloudless and vast. In a

quiet place, simply lie on your back and start looking at the sky.

Don't blink – even if your eyes begin to water. Just keep staring. Your eyes will begin to hurt; ignore the pain. Once the tears have cleansed your eyes, it will become easier to stare.

Don't start thinking about the sky! Don't start thinking about how wonderful and blue the sky is looking. The moment you start

thinking about it, you separate yourself from the sky. Your job is not to think about the sky, but simply to enter into the sky.

Just by looking, feel the clarity of the sky. Be aware of the purity of the blue sky. Enter into that clarity. Move deep into the sky. Go on looking deeper and deeper into the sky, as if you are looking for something further and further in its depth.

Keep on staring till you become one with it. Not till you think you have become one with it! When you have become one with it, you will know for yourself. It may take an hour or more. Don't stop, don't let your attention wander. Don't take your eyes off the sky.

Now close your eyes. If the union has really happened, you will feel the sky inside yourself. You will feel that the sky has entered you! Your mind would drop, your thoughts would drop away. Remain in that sky.

In the beginning, it will be only for a few moments. But with practice, you will experience this state for longer and longer periods. With the clear sky within you, you will experience no-mind.

HRIDAYA KAMALA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

This meditation is one of the ways to open your heart center. The heart is the portal through which you can enter reality. This meditation is especially useful if you are a head-oriented person, if you are more based in the intellect than in the emotions.

Actually, almost all of us are head-oriented. Heart-oriented people can't survive very long in today's world. So we have all made our minds strong. Our heart center is weak, because we don't give it enough exercise. We don't operate from the heart, we don't act from the heart.

Try looking at the world from your heart, and you will discover a unity in the world. The mind sets up barriers, the heart dissolves barriers. Activating the heart center naturally creates a gushing of love in your life.

INSTRUCTIONS

Simple, though strange!

The only thing you have to do is: imagine yourself as headless!

It is not funny; this is a tough technique.

Walk, sit down, feel as if you are headless.

Feel that your head has disappeared.

All your focus is now on your heart.

In the beginning it will be just a pretence; you will feel weird and disoriented.

What happens to all my sense-organs? How will I see, hear, speak?, you will ask.

Your sense-organs have not disappeared – they have simply slipped into your heart region!

Just like how blind men use their hands to 'see', you will be using your heart. You will be seeing with your heart, from your heart.

Try it. You can do it.

Stand before a mirror and look deeply into your eyes. Feel as if you are looking from your heart.

Allow every act to be controlled by the heart. Feel the love in your actions.

By and by, you will feel the heart center flowering, actually flowering. You will feel a blossoming inside.

And then you will feel the onrush of love.

You will find your every act becoming more loving. That is why, when someone is in love, we say – he has lost his head! When you are flowing with love, when your heart center is overflowing, you actually lose your head. Your actions are no longer controlled by the head.

There is no specific duration for this meditation. Just do it whenever you feel compelled to. And you will keep feeling compelled. As you keep practising this meditation, you will find yourself growing more and more loving. Your relationships will improve dramatically. You start perceiving the harmony in the world. You move a step closer to God.

JYOTI STAMBHA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

The technique is from Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. It says: Consider your essence rising from center to center, up your spine, and so rises 'livingness' in you.

The spine is the base of both your body and mind. Your body and mind are both rooted in the spine. Your age rests in your spine. If your spine is supple, you are young; if your spine is rigid, you are old!

The seven major chakras, or energy centers, are located along the length of the body. At the base of the spine is the muladhara chakra, the sex center. On the crown of the head is the sahasrara chakra, the center that opens us to God.

The spinal column is the passage for energy. In this meditation, you will move your energy upwards from the muladhara, right up to the sahasrara.

This movement doesn't happen easily. Because it is against gravity! It is very easy for your energy to move downwards. In fact, 80% of our energy is locked in the muladhara. It is like a weight pulling you down to the earth. Haven't you noticed how heavy your lower back always feels?

When this energy is drawn upwards, and released through the sahasrara, you will feel a tremendous weightlessness, a freedom. You will get a taste of bliss.

INSTRUCTIONS

Sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed and your spine erect.

Now imagine yourself as if you are a Being of Light. This is not just imagination. You are light, all is light. You are just not used

to thinking of yourself as energy. You have got so used to seeing yourself as just matter.

Imagine that you are a column of light.

Now move your attention to your sex

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center. Feel that this center has become bright and alive, like a ball of light. Now imagine the light moving upwards, up to your navel center. You will feel a warmth rising inside. This is real warmth! When the navel also becomes a bright ball of light, a source of light, start moving upwards.

Feel the light moving upwards to your heart center. Feel the light and warmth in your heart. Feel your breathing become deeper, feel your heartbeat become more relaxed.

Picture the energy move up to your brow chakra, the space between your brows. Feel the whole region engulfed in light. Gradually, move up into the crown chakra, the energy zone at the very top of your head.

You may have many strange experiences when the energy reaches your crown. You may feel dizzy or nauseous. Your head is not used to handling this much energy. Sometimes, if there is too much energy moving into the head, it may be felt as an explosion in the head. Don't be afraid. If you are feeling dizzy, if you are falling, allow yourself to fall. Even if you feel you are going to faint, don't worry. This is the state of deepest sleep, known as yoga tandra. Many meditators experience this state, and it is nothing to be scared of. You will come back to normal in half an hour.

When the energy reaches your head, your whole head becomes warm. Your head becomes a ball of light.

Now, release the energy into the cosmos. Feel as if your head has become a flower, a beautiful lotus flower. Let the flower blossom gently, and release its energy into the cosmos.

A word of caution: NEVER leave this meditation incomplete. Before you start, ensure that you are going to be undisturbed for at least two hours. During the meditation, ignore every other

disturbance. If you leave the meditation halfway, the energy will get clogged in that particular center, and cause physical or mental problems.

This meditation is a beautiful way to transform your sex energy into spiritual energy. When you practise this regularly, you will notice that your sexual desires are gradually stilled. You will feel more and more prayerful throughout the day. With so much energy going to your head, you will feel more alive, you will work more efficiently. And most importantly, you will be in a perpetual state of joy.

STOP THAT ACTION!

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

Our life swings between the polarities of doing, having and being. In life, we are forever focusing on 'doing'. We move restlessly from one activity to the next. Our whole life, we are just doing and doing and doing. We are working, we are talking, we are getting involved in relationships, we are moving, we are planning. Physically and mentally, we are constantly doing something.

Why are we doing? Because we are caught up with having. We are always trying to possess more and more. Having makes us feel very powerful. So we try to acquire more money, more prestige, more friends, more girlfriends, more certificates, more health, more beauty, more knowledge.

In the middle of doing and having, we don't even realize that we have forgotten how to be. The truth is, being precedes both doing and having. But it is a long time since we have touched that core.

Stop! is another technique drawn from Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, and made popular by Gurdjieff.

This technique is simple: all it involves is stopping suddenly - in the middle of whatever you are doing! You must not be aware that you are going to stop. So it is better to let someone else watch you through the day and simply scream Stop!, as he or she pleases. It is something like playing Statue!

When you suddenly stop an action which you are totally involved in, you are shocked into silence. In that instant, you are thrown back upon your Being.

INSTRUCTIONS

This meditation can be done individually, or in a group. One person can be chosen to give the Stop! command. But the command should not be given too often, or you will constantly be prepared for it.Whether you are walking, talking, working, dancing – when you hear the

command, just freeze. Simply drop the action and become a statue. Even if

you have one arm up or your mouth open – it doesn't matter. Do it with utter sincerity. Don't try to get into a more comfortable position. Even a moment late is already too late.

You can even play this game by yourself. When you are running, taking a

shower, drinking your tea – just order yourself, Stop! And don't try to stop, just stop.

When you are completely absorbed in an activity, and suddenly you stop, the very stopping can throw you off-balance. You are thrown into your center, you experience a moment of silence, a moment of meditation.

STOP THAT IMPULSE!

MEDITATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

Stopping is not concerned with physical activity alone. You can just as easily stop an impulse, a desire, an involuntary action or feeling.

Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop. When you are miserable, if you are crying – then in the middle of that crying, command yourself – Stop! you will be surprised to see how easily

you can stop! You just stop, that's all.

Even a sneeze that is coming up, uncontrollable, irresistible, can be simply stopped halfway.

When you are angry, so angry that you want to hit the other person or break something, just stop.

If you suddenly see your child, your wife, your friend, if you feel a sudden impulse to give them a hug - just stop.

What happens when you just stop? There is an energy flowing outward from

MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

you, towards the object of your attention. Even when you are talking, walking, your attention, your energy, is always flowing outwards to other objects, other people. Your attention is your energy. When you suddenly stop the outflow of the energy, what happens to it? It flows back into you. Your energy, your attention, moves suddenly inward. Once again, you are thrown back into your silent center.

Once you have glimpsed this center, you will never lose yourself in activity

again. Even as you are doing, you will be constantly aware of being. You will touch your inner silence, you will become aware that all activities are simply ripples on the surface. This is the mood of perpetual meditation.

KAMA HARANA

MEDITATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

This is also a Stop! technique. But the difference here is, you will not be stopping suddenly, stopping in the middle of the action or the impulse. Here you will practise a slow, controlled stopping of impulses or desires.

When a desire arises, consider the desire well. Be deliberate. Face the desire in its full force.

Be aware that you are feeling this impulse, this desire. Then, suddenly, drop it. Just drop it.

Suppose you see a beautiful woman and desire arises in you. Examine your desire. Be attentive to what is happening to you at that moment. Be aware of how your body is feeling feverish, trembling. Be aware that your pulse is racing, that you cannot think clearly. Notice how the desire seems to have taken control over you.

Do not judge yourself or the desire; don't tell yourself, this is a bad desire. Don't have any opinion, simply witness it.

Then suddenly, drop the desire.

It is possible!

You can simply drop it.

Be very clear: you are not suppressing the desire! Do not suppress the desire. Suppression is the root cause of most of our psychological problems.

Don't think, How can I quit?

It is only when you fight with an impulse, suppress an impulse, that it becomes stronger.

When you have considered something fully, it becomes easy to quit.

The moment you say, I quit, you become separate, you become the watcher. You are watching your body filled with desire, your mind filled with desire – but they are not you. At that moment, you become aware

that none of these is you. Once again, you are thrown back upon your Being.

This meditation is excellent to rid yourself of addictions. We all hear about chain smokers, alcoholics, womanizers, who one day simply quit their addictions and never returned to them. They didn't try to quit – they simply quit, that's all!

With this meditation, not only the action, but the urge itself will drop. You don't have to struggle with your addiction because the desire itself will be no more.

KRISHNAVENU

MEDITATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

This is a beautiful 'emptiness meditation'. It is a technique to empty out whatever is inside you, so that you can receive the energy of the cosmos into yourself.

Sit still in a calm, silent place. Just become aware of your body. Feel completely at ease with your body.

Now, imagine that your body has become a bamboo! Become a hollow bamboo. Be perfectly at rest. Your whole body, your skin, your flesh, your bones, are all part of the bamboo. Inside this space, there is nothing but emptiness, hollowness, silence.

Let even your mind be passive. Don't wait for any experience; just be.

Suddenly, you will find energy pouring into you. These are not esoteric ideas! They are perfectly practical techniques. They may seem odd to you because you haven't explored this dimension earlier. Just try out and see for yourself. When you make yourself hollow, when you no longer resist, Divine energy starts flowing into you. You become a flute for the music of the Divine.

You need not do anything, you simply have to become hollow. This is not easy. You are always used to being someone, something. To become hollow requires great love, great trust. If you are working with a master, become a hollow flute upon which your master can play. It is easier to give yourself up in love, than to a mysterious Divine energy.

At first you will be a hollow bamboo, but then the time will come when the bamboo itself disappears. There will be no more You.

This process can take time, but the results are amazing. Even as you lose yourself, you feel yourself to be one with the spirit that pervades all.

PRANA STAMBHANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

This technique is from Vipassana.

Watching the breath continuously is the very essence of this meditation. It has led more people to enlightenment than any other technique.

Vipassana works with the simplest and toughest of techniques: increasing awareness.

There are three ways in which you can do vipassana:

a) Deep awareness of your body, your actions, your mind, your heart.

When you walk, when you move your hand, when you smile, do it with awareness. Know perfectly well that it is you who is doing that action. Be alert. Not a single moment should pass in an unconscious state. Not a single action should happen unnoticed by you.

Just like your body, watch your heart and mind. Be aware of every emotion that rises in your heart. Be aware of every thought that passes in and out of your mind. Don't have opinions, don't evaluate anything – just be a witness.

b) The second way is to watch your breathing. Feel your belly rise and fall with every inhalation and exhalation. The navel, the source of your life-energy, is in the region of the belly. So when you pay attention to the navel, you become aware of the flow of life-energy in your body. As you become more aware of the belly, you will see that your heart and mind fall silent.

This is the natural and relaxed way of breathing – from the belly. We have forgotten how to breathe like this. Babies breathe from the belly. Sometimes in deep sleep, we also go back to belly breathing.

c) The third form of vipassana is to watch the breath as it enters your body – at the nostrils. Be aware of the cool air in the nostrils. Feel the ease with which the breath enters and leaves the nostrils.

You can combine two forms, or even all three forms. But do only whatever happens effortlessly for you.

Vipassana can be practised both sitting and walking.

Sitting

(Duration: 45 minutes + 15 minutes rest)

Sit in a comfortable position, spine erect, facing straight ahead. Keep your eyes closed and breathe normally. Stay still without shifting positions.

Watch the rise and fall of the belly

when breathing in and out.

Don't concentrate on the breath, just watch it. If you find other thoughts, feelings or physical sensations coming up, allow them. Witness those also and then return to watching the breath.

It is the process of watching that is important, not what you are watching. Witness everything!

(After 45 minutes, drop even the watching. Simply drop everything. Relax and let go.)

Walking (Duration: 20 minutes + 10 minutes rest)

Here your awareness is totally on your feet, as they touch the ground.

You can walk in a circle, or in a straight line of about 15 steps, going back or forth. You can practise this meditation simply going from room to room in your house, or out in your garden.

86 Eyes should be lowered, and focused on the ground a few steps ahead. Just as you watch the belly in sitting meditation, watch and be aware of the contact of each foot with the ground. If other thoughts and sensations come up, allow them. Nothing is to be seen as a distraction. When you have finished witnessing the sensation or the thought, go back to watching your feet.

PRANA SHUDDHI

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

This technique focuses on exhaling – deeply, completely. All our life, we focus on inhaling. Inhalation is life, exhalation is death. Life is tension, effort. Death is relaxation.

Because of our fear of death, we are afraid even to exhale! The emphasis is always on inhaling; exhaling happens because we can't help it.

Research shows that we simply don't exhale enough. Of the six thousand sacs in your lungs, only two thousand are emptied when you exhale. The other four thousand remain filled with stale air. That poisonous air stays in your chest, causing diseases, causing anxiety.

In this meditation, you stop inhaling and turn your focus on exhaling. You experience the opposite dimension. You experience the total emptiness of exhalation.

INSTRUCTIONS

In this technique, you silently intone a word ending with the syllable Ah. It could be any word. Do it silently, and focus on the ending, on the Ah. With the Ah, you become completely empty. Your breath moves out entirely. For just a moment, you are not breathing. You experience a moment of death!

Since the moment of birth, we have been inhaling and exhaling – but we have never been aware of this moment, this gap. When you become aware of it, you become a witness to your own death. You realize that you can go beyond your breath.

We hear about death all the time, we see death – but we never imagine that death can happen to us. Yet every time you breathe out, your system is silently preparing for death! Your system is accepting the state of death.

When you empty yourself of breath, you empty yourself of life – with all its tensions, misery, ideas, desires. It is a moment of supreme relaxation. Sometimes we do it unknowingly. When we are tense or upset, when we want to relax, we heave a great sigh. After such a sigh, there is a moment when you don't inhale, you just stay empty. In that moment there is a feeling of great peace.

For just that moment, when you are not involved with life, with doing and having, the being behind it all is revealed. You get a glimpse. Once you have seen it, you cannot forget it.

Such a simple practice, but with such lasting effects! When you continue with this meditation, you will become more relaxed, more peaceful. Anxiety can't touch you easily. Whatever the external circumstances, you will find yourself able to cope more easily. Once you have glimpsed a moment of death, with deep awareness, how can the issues of life overpower you?

PRATIBIMBA DHYANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

You are always flowing outward. Your energies are always focused on the outside world. When you look at something, your consciousness flows towards it. Your focus is never on yourself, it is always on the object of your attention. At all moments we are aware of something outside of ourselves. Whenever we become intensely aware of something – a beautiful sunset, beautiful music – we lose ourselves completely in it. This is a tremendous experience – but this is unawareness. In awareness, one is aware not only of the object, but also of the subject. You become aware not only of what you are looking at, but of the one who is looking – You.

Ordinarily, your energy is always flowing outwards, into the external event. According to the Taoist experience, you could turn this energy back upon yourself, instead of squandering it in the outside world.

This is concentration.

INSTRUCTIONS

Stand before a full-length mirror and look at yourself. Take a good look at yourself from the outside. You are the subject, and the reflection in the mirror is the object of your attention. You will feel your energy flowing towards the object. Look at your eyes from the outside. You are looking, and the reflection is being looked at.

Now imagine a reversal of roles! Try to imagine that the reflection is looking at you. This can be frightening at first. You are not used to thinking of your reflection in that way, as something that can observe you.

Even if the feeling is strange and frightening, keep at it. In just a few moments, you will feel a great change. You will feel the energy start to flow from your reflection, towards you! This can be really frightening, really disconcerting. All your life you have been used to extroversion, to the outward direction of energ y flow. To suddenly experience this can be a shock. But you will definitely feel the flow- because you have now closed the circuit. By closing the energy circuit, you have ensured that

the energy is not wasted, it is flowing back towards you. You are conserving your own energy for yourself.

Practise this technique for a few days, and you will feel a definite change. You will be more energetic, more vital. You will feel more centred, more at peace.

You can practise this throughout the day – not just with yourself, but with anything you focus on. When you have passed your energy to something, imagine it as returning the energy to you. It could even be an inanimate object, it does not matter. You will feel the energy flowing back towards you, rejuvenating you, revitalizing you!

SHAKTI DHAARANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

An unspeakably beautiful meditation. It is more like a prayer than meditation.

This meditation is a direct way of putting you in touch with the energy of all of Existence. It is best practised at night, just before you go to sleep. If you do it during the day, be sure to rest for fifteen minutes afterwards to assimilate the energy, or you will be in a daze for hours afterwards!

INSTRUCTIONS

Choose a cool, dark room with enough ventilation.

If you choose, you can practise in a private space outdoors.

Kneel on the ground. Use a mat if it helps you feel more comfortable. Raise yourself up on your knees, and raise both your arms towards the sky. Turn your face skyward and wait.

In a moment, you will feel the energy of Existence flowing into you. Be unresisting. Let the energy enter into you.

You will feel a trembling in your arms; then slowly your whole

body will begin to tremble and sway with the energy. Allow the movements.

As you drink in the energy, you become the point where earth and heaven merge. You begin to feel floaty, as if your body is no more.

When you feel completely saturated, bend down and kiss the earth. Place your hands, palms downward, on the earth. Give all your love to the earth. Feel it flow out from your lips and your palms. Simply

become an instrument carrying the divine energy into the earth.

Repeat this seven times. Each time, each of the seven major chakras is energized. If you repeat it more than seven times, you may feel over-energized and restless.

When you have finished your prayer, go to sleep in that prayerful state. Fall into the energy, sleep in it. When you wake up, you will feel refreshed and revitalized.

SHAKTI STAMBHA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

An ancient and powerful technique, drawn from Sufism, a branch of Islam.

This is as simple as a technique can get. All you have to do is whirl, turn round and round and round – the way you used to do as a child.

Whirling is a powerful centering technique.

The beautiful thing about this technique is that your body will be whirling, going round and round – but your inner Being is right at the center, unmoving – like the unmoving center of a moving wheel.

INSTRUCTIONS

No food and drink, at least three hours before the meditation The meditation has 2 phases: whirling and resting

Whirling

Whirling is usually done in an anti-clockwise direction, with the right arm held higher, palm facing upwards, and the left arm lower, palm facing downwards.

If you are uncomfor table whirling anti-clockwise, switch to clockwise.

Whirling can be practiced for

hours – for as long as you feel comfortable. But you will need to whirl for at least one hour to experience the 'energy whirlpool'

Start with whirling slowly, let your whole body be soft and unresisting.

As you whirl, the passing images will become blurred. Let them flow past. Don't try to focus on anything – it will make you dizzy or nauseous.

For the first 15 minutes, go really slow. Then build up speed over the next 30 minutes. After 45 minutes or so, you will feel as if the whirling has taken you completely over.

There will be action and movement on the periphery of the circle, but at the center will be a certain stillness. You will feel as if you are a witness to all this action, not a participant in it.

Resting

When you are whirling so fast that you can't stay upright, your

body will fall by itself. Don't plan the fall. If your body is soft and pliable, you will not get hurt.

As soon as you fall, turn over onto your stomach so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body become one with the earth.

Keep your eyes closed. Remain in the same position, passive and silent, for at least 15 minutes.

After this meditation, remain silent and meditative for a few hours.

Some people may experience a sense of nausea during this meditation. This will disappear in a few days. If it persists, discontinue the meditation.

SUKSHMA SHAREERA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

This method is a way of becoming aware of your own etheric presence. It will be easier for you to practise this meditation if you are used to Palming.

We all have seven bodies, and every body can be used as a door into the Divine. After the physical body, the etheric body is the easiest to realize because it is closest to the physical body, it is just outside the physical body.

The etheric body interpenetrates your physical body and extends beyond it like a shell.

INSTRUCTIONS

When you have practised palming, you will sometimes feel as if you are weightless, as if you are ready to fly. This feeling may come to you at other times as well, when you are practising some other meditation.

When you are feeling this way, just close your eyes and become aware of your body.

Become aware of your form. With closed eyes, feel the form of every part of your body, moving from part to part. Feel the form of your fingers, of your

hand, of your arm. Feel your legs, your trunk, your head. Become aware of the form of your whole body.

When you try to feel your form, it will appear before you. Gradually, you will notice that around your body is a bluish light. This light will go on spreading, an increasing aura around your physical form.

Initially, practise this with your eyes closed. When you are able to see your aura well, you can try it with your eyes open.

Choose a totally dark room. Preferably, practise at night. When you start seeing the aura with your eyes closed, slowly open your eyes.

You will see the same bluish aura around your physical form! For the first time, you will be able to see your etheric body.

We experience this body many times in our life, but we are unaware of it. When you enter a room full of strangers or a room full of friends, you can easily tell the difference, even if you are blindfolded. When a person is feeling hostile towards you, his etheric body shrinks away from yours. When you are feeling angry, anxious or sad, you get a shrinking feeling. This is your etheric body shrinking. When you meet a beloved person, both of you may feel as if you are flowing towards each other. This is your etheric body expanding. Without being aware of it, we use the signals of our etheric body to evaluate a situation or to communicate with each other.

When you see your aura, don't do anything. Just sit and watch. Even as you watch, the aura will begin to spread. It will become bigger and bigger. When you are not doing anything, your energy does not move outward. It accumulates in your etheric body.

As your aura grows stronger, you will begin to feel a deep sense of peace. You will experience a silence. When you practise this meditation frequently, this sense of peace becomes a permanent experience.

SURYA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

Meditating on light can bring you some of the most beautiful meditation experiences. When you meditate on light, you fall in tune with an all-pervading, powerful energy. You become part of the current that sustains life.

INSTRUCTIONS

Duration: 21 minutes

Practise this meditation in the morning. With sunrise, all living things turn to the sun for energy. Become a part of this great tide.

As soon as you wake up in the morning, you can practise this. Just lying in bed, close your eyes and inhale. As you inhale, imagine golden light pouring into you through your head. The light is pouring into you, right down to your toes. It is flowing out through your toes! Don't think that this is just something you are just imagining. As you imagine, so it happens. The energy actually flows into you.

When you exhale, imagine the opposite. Imagine a great darkness climbing into you from your toes, and traveling up to your head. The darkness escapes through your head.

The golden light is male energy – strengthening and sustaining. The darkness is female energy – calming.

You can also practise this at night, just before going to bed. If you fall asleep doing it, it can be a beautiful experience.

Continue this for two or three months, and you will see great changes in yourself. This technique is great for moving your sex energy (muladhara energy) upwards. Your lower back will feel free of the heaviness that is always there. Your energy moves up to the higher centers.

YANTRA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

When you meditate on any object, an energy cycle is gradually built up between you and that object.

Yantras or energy maps are essentially geometric diagrams that have been etched on metal, wood or paper. The earliest yantras were spontaneously created by spiritual masters at the peak moments of meditation. In the early books on meditation, yantras have been referred to as the diagrammatical representations of the structure of the universe. Just as pyramidical structures are known to absorb and retain energy, yantras also have a specific geometric structure that allows them to store energy for long periods.

When a spiritually evolved person meditates upon the yantra, he transfers healing energy to the yantra. The yantra then acts as a battery that stores this healing energy. When an ailing person meditates upon the same yantra, the energy is transferred to him, and he experiences a glimpse of the spiritual ecstasy that first gave birth to that geometric form.

INSTRUCTIONS

Duration: 21 minutes

Since the chakras are the energy portals of the body, we absorb energy most effectively through the chakras. This meditation uses

MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

the healing yantra to facilitate chakra healing.

Focus on the chakra where you are experiencing a problem. Keeping your eyes continuously on the healing yantra, try to imagine that you are 'seeing' the yantra from that chakra. Focus your attention towards the yantra from that chakra. Imagine energy flowing to you from the yantra.

Create a cycle of energy between you and the yantra.

Feel the flow.

Do this for 10 minutes.

Next, close your eyes and imagine that the yantra has entered your body at the point of that chakra.

Hold the yantra at that point. Allow its energy to diffuse throughout your body. Feel the healing energy flowing through the ailing organ or limb.

Do this for 10 minutes.

If you wish, you can repeat the cycle.

Continue this meditation for 21 days.

NITHYA DHYAAN - LIFE BLISS MEDITATION

Relax… rejuvenate… radiate

My mission is to create a new cycle of individual consciousness in planet Earth, causing Collective Consciousness to enter into the Superconscious zone. To achieve this, the Mission aims to initiate one billion people into the unique meditation - Nithya Dhyaan, and one hundred thousand people into 'living enlightenment'.

Man by his very nature is an un-clutched and blissful Being. What do I mean by the term un-clutched?

Let me explain:

Every thought that arises in us is like a bubble that forms, rises and dies. Every thought independently rises and dies before the next thought comes up. For example, if you are sitting in a chair and suddenly get up, the moment you have decided to get up, that moment the thought of sitting has left you. If you are working on your computer and decide to shut down the machine, that moment, the thought that you want to work has died. So every thought is unconnected and happens in series, one after the other. One thought has to die before the next one comes up. This is our true nature.

Our true nature is to renounce thoughts every passing moment. By the word renounce, I mean simply allowing each thought to rise like a bubble and burst and allowing the next thought to rise. Our thoughts have only a vertical existence, like rising bubbles.

This process of allowing thoughts to rise and die without trying to connect them is what we mean by being un-clutched. As long as this natural process is allowed to happen, things are alright.

But what we do is, we start connecting these thoughts randomly and forming a shaft. By doing this, we convert the vertical and unclutched process into a horizontal one with linear connectivity. Here

starts the whole problem. As long as each thought is allowed to rise and die, we can take any amount of load at the physical and mental planes and our Consciousness will remain light and blissful. Once we start connecting the thoughts, our Consciousness suffers and we start feeling burdened. It damages our Being.

All emotions like worry, lust, discontentment, jealousy, fear, ego and attention-need are purely because we find a connection between independent incidents, between independent thoughts and create a concept for ourselves and start relating with that concept. We create an imaginary shaft with our thoughts and we suffer because of this.

It is these emotions that create all forms of violence be it religious wars, social conflicts or political unrest. The basis or the root of all forms of violence is our emotions and the basis of our emotions is our habit of creating imaginary shafts of our thoughts and empowering them to work on us.

The key thing we do while creating these shafts is, we choose the thoughts depending on whether we want pain or pleasure. We pick pleasant thoughts at random and connect them to form a shaft of pleasure or pick negative thoughts and connect them to form a shaft of pain. We create shafts of pain and pleasure alternately for ourselves and keep oscillating between these two emotions. To unclutch from this shaft is the master key to a blissful life.

If you deeply analyse how we connect our thoughts instead of renouncing them, you will understand how we create suffering for ourselves. It is the mind that finds the connection. As such, there is no connection between our thoughts.

We have been trained to all the time feed on words and thoughts. That is why we create these shafts. We feed on words because we operate out of fear or greed all the time. Out of fear or greed, we create connectivity in our thoughts. We are afraid to let go of this process because if we let go, there is nothing else to hold on to. We have never experienced an un-clutched state of mind where there is no shaft, there are only bubble-like thoughts.

In the un-clutched state, there is no scope for fear or greed. You will simply BE, that's all. But it becomes difficult to understand that we can exist without this shaft of thoughts.

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We fail to see how mythical the whole thing is. Our mind is a myth. We have empowered it and become a slave to it, that's all. It is nothing but mental slavery.

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Just see the play of the mind! Your mind can make you or break you. That is why we need to be free from it.

Just watch the thoughts rising in you. Clearly see how each thought rises and dies and the next thought comes up. Observe how you effortlessly connect these thoughts and create ideas and concepts. Watch the play of these concepts upon yourself; you will understand how you create the whole myth. I tell you: Connecting thoughts is the Original Sin.

Living in an un-clutched fashion is the only way to a blissful living. Just decide that you will not connect any two thoughts, that you will not pass any judgment on any thought or any incident. The moment you find yourself connecting, simply un-clutch from it. Keep un-clutching every time you remember this technique; your mental setup will automatically be transformed.

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

When you work in an un-clutched fashion, you will find your capacity expanding; you will take on a lot more responsibility without getting stressed; you will not experience mood swings between pain and pleasure; you will be blissful all the time. We are so used to happiness that comes in with a reason. This reason is again a shaft that we create with our thoughts. Once you stop creating these shafts, you will be blissful all the time.

By the term un-clutched, I do not mean that you should be aloof and cold to people and situations around you. Try to understand: Just don't connect your thoughts and start the process of creating shafts, that's all.

Remember that you are a beautiful and un-clutched Being by nature; that is enough. You will stop creating misery for yourself and for others.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Sit in Vajrasana with hands on your hips. Sit on your mat on the floor with both your legs stretched out. Next fold both the legs, one after the other at the knees and rest your posterior on your heels with your toes turned outward. Let your hands rest on your

lap. You can use a cushion or a rolled turkey towel under your ankles. Sit comfortably with your head, neck and spine in a straight line. Now close your eyes and breathe chaotically for 7 minutes.

Step 2

Continue to sit in Vajrasana. Form 'chin mudra' with your fingers. This is how we form the chin mudra: Place your hands on your knees. Your hands with open palms should be facing upward. Let the tip of the index finger touch the tip of the thumb, as if forming a circle. The three other fingers, arms

and the hands remain relaxed. You will now hum intensely for 7 minutes.

Step 3

You may now sit cross-legged on the floor if you wish to or continue to sit in vajrasana and for 7 minutes you will take your awareness from the muladhara chakra to the sahasrara chakra.

Muladhara chakra – base of the spine Swadhishtana chakra – 2 inches above the muladhara Manipuraka chakra – at the navel center Anahata chakra – at the heart center Vishuddhi chakra – at the throat center Ajna chakra – between the eyebrows Sahasrara chakra – top of the head

Dwell on each chakra for a minute with the awareness that – the chakra is pure; the chakra is filled with energy the chakra is overflowing with bliss; the chakra is radiating Nithyananda.

Step 4

For 7 minutes just be un-clutched in silence. Sit without connecting thoughts to each other.

Step 5

For the last 7 minutes you may sit and chant the Guru Puja Mantra or just sway with the flow of the mantra on the cassette, and

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

offer your gratitude to Existence and to the Master who is the embodiment of the Existential Energy. Offer your gratitude with your whole being.

ANYTIME - ANYWHERE MEDITATIONS

109

ENTERING INTO MEDITATION

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

Eating, sleeping, walking, working - every moment, you have a chance to transform your daily living into a spiritual practice.

Even driving, listening to music, playing and gardening can be powerful meditation techniques, if you practise them with awareness. The simplest of daily acts, performed by every single one of us, are presented here, along with tips for transforming them into easy and fulfilling everyday meditations.

ACHALA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

This meditation is drawn from Zen. The Zen word Zazen, meaning just sitting, is a tough meditation. The most difficult thing is to just sit, doing nothing. To sit simply is to allow your mind free play. Your mind is going to come up with all kinds of arguments, reasons, excuses against this technique. It will try to convince you that this is a sheer waste of time. If you persist, the mind will become sleepy, it will daydream, it may even start hallucinating.

The whole purpose of this meditation is to let the mind play all the tricks it wants. Because one day the mind is simply going to get fed up of playing with you. One day the mind is going to realize that it can no longer control you with its games.

Then the mind drops of its own accord.

INSTRUCTIONS

You can sit anywhere, but make sure that there is no disturbance. If there is too much movement, it might disturb or distract you.

Watching nature is a good thing. Even indoors, you can watch the sky through the window. You could sit facing a plain white wall. Or you could simply face a corner of the room and watch that corner.

Don't focus your attention on anything. Let your eyes be half-open and unfocussed, your attention diffused. Let your gaze rest softly in the distance. This will relax you.

Let your breathing be relaxed and natural.

Find a comfortable posture in which you feel sure you can stay without moving for at least half an hour. Use a mat or cushions if required. When the body is unmoving, the mind also falls still.

Keep your spine straight. Use support if required, but try to do without it.

Rest one palm in the other, with the thumbs touching to form a circle.

Remain alert and aware, be receptive without allowing your attention to focus on any particular thing. Be present in the moment, moment to moment.

In the beginning it will be difficult to just sit, doing nothing. But in a few days you will start enjoying this tremendously. Layer by layer, you can actually begin to feel the mind drop. And finally, one day the moment will come when the mind drops altogether. You will glimpse the state of no-mind.

ANANDA DHYANA

The meditation takes its name from the Sufi mystic Abdullah. Abdullah was famous for his ever-smiling face. It is said that even on his deathbed, Abdullah was laughing. Finally some of his disciples couldn't help it; they asked him, what was so funny about dying!

Then Abdullah gave them the secret that his own master had taught him. He said, Remember that your happiness is always in your hands. Your happiness is 100% your own choice. Every day, life gives you a chance to be happy or miserable. What you choose is up to you!

INSTRUCTIONS

There can't be a simpler meditation technique than this! But don't be deceived by its simplicity; it is the most simple, basic techniques that really work.

Every morning, as soon as you get up, even before you open your eyes, sit up in bed.

Call yourself by name.

Ask yourself, What are you going to choose today? Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be miserable?

Naturally, first thing in the morning, you are not going to choose misery! So your mind will say, I choose happiness.

Then reply, Then be happy, that's all!

It's as simple as that! When you are faced every day with the truth that your happiness and your misery are entirely in your hands, you will stop blaming the external circumstances. You will develop an attitude of being happy - not because of external circumstances, not despite them – but irrespective of them. You are happy because you are happy, that's all.

ANIMA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

Have you noticed how you feel heavier on some days than on others? Actually, the weight you feel is the weight of your body, not of You. You are weightless. From constant identification with the body, we tend to think of ourselves as possessing weight.

Your body is just matter, naturally it will have weight.

If you notice, a person when sleeping or unconscious is always heavier than when he is awake. When your consciousness is alive, you are lighter. You don't just feel lighter, you become lighter.

To experience the true lightness of your Being, you have to go not only beyond your body, but beyond your mind as well. Because the mind also has a certain weight. When you are unhappy, you feel physically heavier. You feel as if something is dragging you down. When you are happy, you feel light, you feel as if you are 'walking on air'! Because when you are happy, you forget the body, you forget the mind. Even without effort, you feel yourself weightless. But in normal life, you are controlled by external circumstances. In this meditation, we learn to create the feeling of weightlessness at will.

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

INSTRUCTIONS

Just sitting anywhere, start thinking of yourself as weightless.

Keep your spine straight and your eyes closed. When your spine is straight, you will already start feeling a sense of weightlessness.

How do you make sure your spine is perfectly straight?

Sit straight, and slowly start moving your whole spine backwards and forwards. Sway gently, just a little. At one point, you will find that you are more at ease. Keeping this point as the center, start moving your spine sideways. Suddenly you will experience a position where you feel light, almost weightless. This point is where the center of gravity is least. At this point, your spine is perfectly straight.

Now, start imagining yourself as weightless.

In the beginning it won't be easy. You will keep feeling your weight. But tell yourself that you are weightless; feel the weightlessness. Suddenly, a moment comes when you realize that you are weightless. And that is the truth!

This is not a way of hypnotizing yourself. In fact, all your life you live under the illusion that you have weight. You feel the weight of the body, and imagine it to be your weight. This is the process of de-hypnotizing yourself.

Keep feeling the weightlessness, keep feeling it.

When you are deep in meditation, you break the identification with the body completely. You break the boundary of the body. You have infinite power. You can occupy infinite space. But you have squeezed yourself into the volume of a body! This is the root cause of your pain, your misery, your heaviness. When you recognize this, you automatically feel your own weightlessness.

When you go very deeply into meditation, you can even carry your body with you. Your body is lifted up by the sheer force of your consciousness. It defies gravity and starts rising in the air. This is what is known as levitation. There are many yogis and yoginis who can perform levitation.

To feel weightless is to become free of body and mind. To feel weightless is to become pure consciousness, even for a few moments. This technique is complete relaxation, total rejuvenation.

HAASYA DHYANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

How often do you laugh?

When we laugh, we are completely unaware that we are performing a great spiritual practice!

Laughter is the most intimate way of connecting with your source. So easy, and so powerful. This is one meditation that every single person has already practised, sometime in life. Laughter is a tremendous source of energy. Just laugh, and you can feel the energy surge from the source and flood you.

When you laugh, you lose your boundary. You lose your sense of self. You become possessed by the laughter.

And have you noticed? It is impossible to think and laugh at the same time! When you are laughing – suddenly, you experience a moment when thought is no longer possible. You experience nomind!

The laughter I am talking about is not giggling. It is not a sarcastic half-smile, half-laugh. It is a beautiful, expansive laughter, laughter that fills your being and overflows from you. It is laughter for no reason. Actually you always start laughing for some reason – but once you start, the laughter takes hold of you! Then you laugh simply because you are laughing, that's all. Just the joy of laughing keeps you laughing. You are not even aware of that.

The Japanese monk Hotei was known as the Laughing Buddha. His whole spiritual message could be condensed into a single act – laughing! He would wander from place to place, stand in public places and simply begin to laugh – a roaring, belly laugh. His whole body would be shaking with laughter. The laughter would rise from him and spread all around in a great wave of energy. And his laughter was so infectious that the whole town would be laughing with him. The whole town would be blessed with laughter. Without techniques, without effort, without even being aware of it, an entire town would glimpse the state of no-mind.

What a supreme meditation technique laughter is!

INSTRUCTIONS

Every morning, first thing upon waking, stretch yourself like a baby. Have you noticed babies stretching when they wake up after

sleep? Stretch this way and that, bend and twist your body. Feel every muscle being stretched!

Then, without opening your eyes, begin to laugh.

At first it will require some

effort. But soon real laughter will begin to bubble up within you. If nothing else, just your comic attempts at laughter will be enough to make you really laugh!

Once the laughter takes you over, just let go. There is no duration. Laugh till you are tired of laughing. As you progress, you will find that you are able to sustain the laughter longer and longer.

The Buddha has said that if one can laugh continuously for just forty-five minutes, one can become enlightened! Just fortyfive minutes of laughing!

So laugh as long as you can. You will find the energy to keep laughing surge within you.

Long after you finish laughing, the waves of laughter will still be there in you, just beneath the surface. Just a few minutes of morning laughter can transform your whole day!

MOUNA BINDU

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

This is a 'listening meditation'.

Listening meditations are passive meditations. You don't have

We always live in a storm of sound. Sounds are always moving towards us, crashing upon us, engulfing us. We are lost in the storm. But at the center of the storm, there is a silence we haven't heard. This meditation makes us aware if the silence in the center of the storm of sound.

INSTRUCTIONS

Sit down somewhere, anywhere. The noisier the place, the better! Look for a place with continuous sound. It could be a natural sound, like the gushing of a river or a waterfall. Or it could be a railway station, a marketplace.

Sit silently. Feel the sounds coming towards you from every direction in waves. With sounds flowing at you from all directions, feel yourself at the center of this storm of sound.

You are at the center, and sounds are flowing towards you.

Feel: at the center, where you are, there is no sound! At the center is total silence. If there was sound at the center, you would not be able to hear the sounds outside. The sounds are entering you, penetrating you, but they stop at the center.

Inside you, there is a point where all sounds stop. It is from that point that every sound is being heard. Try to locate that center.

Suddenly, you will locate it.

Suddenly, your awareness will turn inward.

Your awareness will shift from the outer world of sound. You will be at the center, where there is silence. There is a point where no sound can enter. That point is You.

Once you have heard that silence, you will never again be disturbed by sound, never touched by sound.

We always think that we are hearing sounds with our ears. With this technique, you discover that sounds are not heard in the ears, or even in the head. The sound is always heard at the navel point! That is the center of sound.

Why the emphasis on noise? Because excessive noise has the same effect as plugging your ears! When the sound is unintelligible, continuous, when you can no longer distinguish separate sounds, then the sound itself becomes a barrier. You cannot try this technique with songs – because the language will be intelligible to you, you will focus on the meaning, you will immediately use your head. It has to be plain noise.

In the middle of the noise, just try plugging your ears with your fingers. Suddenly, you will hear a new sound – the soundless sound. This new sound is the absence of sound. There is such a sound, and you can easily hear it!

With sound, we begin to flow towards the source of sound; with soundlessness, we begin to flow inward, into our own center.

Learn to listen to both, the world of sound outside, and the soundless sound at the center. Move from one to the other. Move from the outer to the inner, and back again. Each time, your sharpness of perception will increase. Learn to move easily between the inner and the outer world, and you will see the play that all is!

PRATYAAHARA DHYANA

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

This technique shuts out the signals that come to you from the outside world. Whatever you perceive of the world is through the information that comes to you from your five senses: through sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.

This meditation negates all the experiences that come through the senses. When you close yourself to the world, you also close yourself to your body. Your energy returns inward.

INSTRUCTIONS

This meditation can be done anywhere, anytime.

Wherever you are at the moment, note the signals that are coming to you through your senses. You can see the flowers in the garden. You can hear the birds sing. You can feel an ant creep up your leg.

What do you do?

Simply close your senses.

Just imagine that you have become blind. Imagine that you cannot hear the birds, cannot feel the creeping of the ant.

Imagine that you have turned into a statue, that you have frozen. Imagine that you can no longer move.

Go deeply into this feeling.

You can do it!

How?

Just stop breathing for a single moment, and your senses will close on their own.

When breath stops, sensation also stops. Hold your breath and see. Can you feel the irritation on your skin? Even the sounds recede into the distance. Your body actually feels frozen. You cannot lift your arm!

This is an excellent technique for relaxation.

When you can no longer flow outward, when you can no longer receive information through the senses, you become thrown back upon yourself. You become an island of silence. In that silence, you will find your own center.

Now, even when you look out, even when you listen, you will be doing it from that point of silence at your center. And once you discover this point, you will never again get lost in the uproar of the senses. At will, you can shut out your senses, you can become the witness of your senses.

SPHOORTI BAANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

Meditations where you are doing something are the best ones for beginners. It is easier to maintain awareness when you are doing an action, rather than sitting still.

This is a dynamic meditation, a 'running meditation'. Why running?

When you are running, you are naturally alert, aware. When you are running, you experience a beautiful unity of body, mind and spirit. It is as if everything inside you is functioning as one, with only one goal. When you sit still, only your body is sitting still, your mind is still racing! Your body and mind are divided. Your body is sitting, but your mind is on its own trip!

When your body is running, the opposite happens. When you are running, your mind sits still. Your mind stops talking. And when you continue to run, after a while, the running takes you over. Then neither body or mind is yours. You belong to your running. You become the running!

INSTRUCTIONS

Choose a time to start your run. Early morning is the best, next is late evening. Sunrise and sunset are the times when your body is most open, most receptive to the energies of nature.

Choose a path which is fairly straight and easy, not too tough, with a fair amount of silence and solitude. A path where you can focus on your running, without worrying about falling off the edge or being run over by traffic!

If you are not used to running, start off with short distances – say half a mile. Then you can gradually increase the distance.

After that, just run!

Breathe deeply, from the stomach. Run with every limb. When you grow tired, don't push yourself. Rest and enjoy the rest period. Take off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your bare feet. One energy source we have lost touch with is earth

energy - because of artificial flooring everywhere, and because we no longer enjoy walking barefoot.

In India, it is considered a sacred exercise to walk barefoot. That's also why you are not allowed to use footwear inside many places of worship. The energy level in these places is high, and it is best to keep all your senses open to receive the energy.

If the path is good, running barefoot can be a tremendous

experience. Try it on grass, or on the beach. Just being in touch with the earth is being connected with the source of life.

It is a beautiful way of staying centered.

Don't get caught up in the extras of running. Don't time

yourself, don't try to improve your performance. Don't run to lose weight! Of course, if you also lose weight, that's good – but don't run for a reason. Simply run.

If, after running for many days, you find that the act is becoming monotonous, drop it and switch to another meditation. Try swimming, try dancing. Come back to running when you feel like it.

Apart from the basic instructions you will need to follow, don't make rules for yourself. Rules destroy the joy of the meditation.

FIVE-MINUTE REFRESHERS