BELOVED MASTER,🔗

THERE ARE SO MANY MEDITATION TECHNIQUES. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR ME?

Go by the results!

If a technique appeals to you, simply try it out.

Put your whole energy behind the effort. Do it with greatest sincerity, believing fully that it will work for you. In a few days' time, you will know whether it is the right technique for you.

In the beginning, I suggest you practice 'action' techniques rather than 'sitting' techniques, because initially, there might be too much disturbance inside you. If you sit still and try to meditate, all you will be witnessing will be the tremendous disturbance inside.

So when you are just getting into meditation, choose 'action' techniques. These are cathartic meaning liberating, cleansing techniques. They facilitate expelling all the words, thoughts and confusions in us. These techniques are outwardly active, but inwardly, they can lead you to an experience of peace, of silence.

Once you have settled into meditation, once you have cleansed all your unwanted thoughts and confusions, you can try out any technique you want.

Now, how do you measure the correctness of a technique?

If a technique is helping you feel more relaxed, more centered, more sensitive – it is working. If it is making you more joyful, helping you expand, feel more energetic – it is working.

If you find none of these things happening, it is not working. Simply put it aside and start working with another technique.

But have patience! Don't be greedy for results and throw away perfectly workable methods.

Usually, among the first five or eight techniques you choose, there will be one that is right for you.

Locate it.

Pursue it.

ENTERING INTO MEDITATION

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

Meditation is the path that takes you inwards. But to move inwards, you must start with the outside. Right now, you are at the periphery. You are still testing the waters, dipping one toe in to see if it is too cold!

Many people come to me and say, Master, I know nothing about spirituality. I have never tried meditation before. Am I ready? Where do I begin?

I tell you: the best place to begin is where you are right now!

Right now, everything you understand about yourself is related to your body, your emotions and thoughts. Whatever you think is you is nothing but your body, your emotions, your thoughts.

So start from there! Simple.

Step 1 : Work on your body

How do you feel about your body?

We all carry impressions, ideas about our own bodies. These impressions are not our own. Almost always, we have picked up these impressions from other people's opinions of us. We carry a lot of negative feelings about our bodies. You may not even be aware, but in your unconscious mind you will be carrying deep negative impressions about your body.

Very, very rarely have I come across someone who is completely comfortable with his body. To be comfortable with one's body does not mean assuming everything about your body is good. It is just being at ease with your body the way it is.

All your life you hear*, Your body is prone to fall sick! Your body is your limitation in enjoying! Your body cannot take stress beyond a certain point! But for your body, you can fly!* Especially on the spiritual path, the body is projected as the greatest obstacle to achievement.

So you develop an unnatural hatred towards your body. This gets rooted deeply in your unconscious mind. You begin to think that your body is working against you. But the truth is, this body is the boat to carry you across the river of sansar (worldiness)! Can you move about in this world without your body? Can you work towards meditation or spirituality without your body? Can you even read and understand this book without the help of your eyes, your brain?

It is true that one must ultimately go beyond the body. But you don't do it by fighting with your body. You do it by understanding and accepting your body, and working on your body to make it fit for meditation.

Remember, the body is a powerful instrument, both in the material sense and in the spiritual sense. It is your best and unfailing friend. Through the body you can move about in the material world; through the same body you can move towards the Divine. It is a wonderful tool in your hands. This might be difficult to accept because all your life you have identified so completely with the body. But unless you break this identification, you can never move beyond the body.

So the first step is to start paying attention to your body. Unless your body is functioning well, be sure you can never enter into meditation. Whatever negative feelings (or even positive feelings) you have about your body, simply drop them! Simply drop them.

The first step is to cleanse the body.

What is meant by cleansing the body?

We all have disturbances, energy blockages, complexes – all these things are part of our physical system. Removing these blockages and disturbances is to cleanse the body.

How are energy blockages and disturbances created in our body?

Right from childhood, we learn to suppress our natural emotions. Because in society, we cannot always express ourselves as we wish.

For example, when you get angry, the body immediately produces the chemicals necessary for fight. The body produces enough energy to attack a man! Because anger is an essential survival tool for all animals, the body prepares you for fighting the other. But in our civilized society, we can't always express our anger. The other person might be someone you are afraid of - your boss, or your wife! So whatever energy is generated, remains unused. This excess energy stagnates in your body and creates a block in the energy flow.

The same thing happens with all emotions – desire, fear, grief etc.

Most of the time, you are afraid to let your body express itself. You live in deep fear and mistrust of your body. You think that your body doesn't know the language of civilization; that it doesn't recognize the rules of society. If you set your body free, you are afraid about what might happen? Who knows what your body might do? So you think you have to control; you have to repress.

When you continuously suppress your emotions, not only do they create blocks in your physical body, they eventually lead to mental illness as well. For instance, continuously repressing anger can lead to hysteria.

In the same way, mental disturbances can manifest as physical diseases. Not only cardiac disease or migraines, even skin allergies and peptic ulcers are caused by stress. Recent research has shown that over 80% of our diseases are psychosomatic in nature – that is, our physical and mental states are both responsible for these diseases.

There are many meditation techniques to dissolve all the blocks and repressions in your body.

Once you are free of these blocks, you will see for yourself how your body blooms naturally. Your body begins to look more beautiful, more divine. Your body is not you, but your body is here to support you. You will enjoy a beautiful and friendly relationship with your body.

Not only suppressed emotions, but our poor habits also cause disturbances in our body. The body is a purely physical mechanism. Naturally, it will be affected by how you eat, sleep, exercise and rest. As I always say, all your diseases are your guests! You invite them upon yourself with your careless treatment of your body.

For example, when you eat something spicy, your eyes begin to water; your body starts protesting, I can't handle this! But do you listen? NO! And then, you complain about your eyes watering.

When you watch television till midnight, your whole system is screaming, I need rest! But as usual, you ignore it and then complain about tiredness the next day; you talk as if it is a disease of the body.

Be very clear: your body has its own wisdom. You are completely out of tune with your 'body intelligence'. Your body is continuously giving you signals, but you don't have the intelligence to understand these signals.

Why do we eat?

The simplest explanation would be, To get energy.

But does your food actually energize you? After a meal, do you feel energetic or sleepy? Most of us feel sleepy!

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

Because our choice of food is poor, and because we continue to eat long after our stomach is full, we feel sleepy after eating. We throw anything and everything into our stomach. We throw food into it as if it were a garbage bin! We treat our stomach like a garbage bins. With every meal, we are taxing our digestive system. No wonder we don't feel energetic after eating.

When you eat excessively and don't exercise enough – you become lethargic. A lethargic body is completely unfit for meditation. Not only that, diseases attack the body easily when your energy levels are low.

Exercise can help you expand. When you exercise, every cell of your body expands. Your lungs get filled with oxygen and the impurities are thrown out along with the carbon-dioxide that is expelled.

In our lifestyle, we don't have time for either exercise or rest.

What we call as rest is not restful. How many of us wake up feeling refreshed and joyful? If you have rested properly, you should dance your way to the bathroom every morning! Instead, when the alarm goes off in the morning, what do you do? Switch it off and go back to sleep!

Real sleep is when the body is totally at rest; when all its stress has been released; when your systems can take care of all repair and maintenance work. How often do we enjoy deep, undisturbed, dreamless sleep? Very rarely! But be very clear: only on those days have you actually slept!

You may be wondering, what does all this have to do with meditation? There are two reasons why we are discussing this subject. The first thing is, a physically fit body helps you enter deeply into meditation. But more importantly, practicing meditation itself can help you rest better. We will be working with techniques which will enhance the quality of your sleep. When the quality of your sleep improves, the quality and productivity of your waking hours increases naturally.

Step 2: Work on your thoughts

Thoughts are the most fanciful things in our life!

Most of the time, we have no control over our thoughts. Our thoughts lead us wherever they wish to. If you start speaking all your random thoughts aloud, you will be ashamed to hear your own words! Our thoughts have no connection with other, no relevance to the present; they don't even make any sense. Yet we entrust our very life to these thoughts. We live by these thoughts!

MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

This is true. Most of the time we think about money, power or sex. We may give our thoughts different names – but finally it boils down to one of these three things. Here sex is not just sex, but indulgence of any kind.

If you are working at the office, you are ultimately doing it for money, for power.

If you are taking a holiday, your thoughts are focused on indulgence.

Just consider: what do you think about all the time?

It is sure to be one of these three things!

How often do you reflect on truth, on beauty, on goodness?

What is the need? you may think. Does my life depend on truth or beauty? My life depends on how much money I can make, how much power I can acquire!

But thoughts have the power to alter your life. When you reflect on something constantly, it can alter not only your state of mind, but also your state of life. When you constantly think about beauty, your life becomes more beautiful.

Be aware of what thoughts enter and leave your mind. Right now your mind is a 'free-for-all zone'. Any thought is free to enter, fight with other thoughts to occupy maximum space, stay as long as it pleases, and leave whenever it feels like. You have no control over the thoughts that are enter your mind and influence your life.

Just watch your thoughts.

Watch what is happening within you when certain thoughts enter.

You will notice that whenever thoughts related to anger, lust or greed enter your mind, they create a certain discomfort in your system. Whenever your ego is awakened, you feel uncomfortable. See what thoughts make you feel joyful and peaceful. Retain those thoughts and throw out the rest!

Become the watchman of your mind. Become aware of the flow of thoughts. See how deeply you identify yourself with your thoughts! You will find that your thoughts arise from your deepest unconscious mind. If you can alter the thoughts in your unconscious mind, you can alter the flow of your conscious life!

Try this: if you want to transform some aspect of your conscious life – for example, if you want to get rid of your anger or your prejudice – simply give instructions to your mind to make the change, just before you go to sleep.

You will be amazed to see, with repeated instructions to the unconscious, your conscious life too changes in the same direction!

Step 3 : Work on your emotions

Your emotions create your world.

Whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not – you are God!

You create your world out of your own feelings and emotions.

Be very clear: whatever is the state of your consciousness, your life will have the same quality.

When your feelings are clear and positive, the whole world becomes a beautiful place. Existence showers blessings upon you. When you are full of love, you will see love everywhere. When you are filled with hatred, you will receive only hatred.

This is not a moral story. This is the Truth. We are unable to perceive this because of our limited understanding. We begin to MEDIATION IS FOR YOU search for reasons. The truth is, each of us is 100% responsible for the quality of our lives. When you begin to work on your emotions, you will see for yourself how true this is!

We don't realize how deeply our emotions influence us. In fact, we may think that all our actions are controlled by our mind, that we are using our intelligence to make decisions – but the truth is, most of your life is a result of your emotions.

There are three steps to work with your emotions:

1. Recognize your strongest emotions

What is it that moves you?

Which emotions control your actions?

Does your life revolve around hostility, aggression, and anger?

Are you frequently depressed for no reason?

Is it more important for you to love, or fight?

Be honest with yourself!

You must first acknowledge your emotions – otherwise how are you going to transform them?

Very often, people who live in a hostile environment develop a strong affinity for the negative emotions. They need it; it is a survival technique for them. They get all their energy from their negative emotions.

Research has proved that in the times of war, the crime and suicide rate in society goes down drastically. Because people have an open platform to express their negative emotions, they need not commit their crimes privately!

Even Hitler has said, If you want to make a country powerful, create enemies! The enemies need not even be real; they can even be imaginary enemies. As long as people are in a hostile situation, they feel strong. When they are rebelling, they feel powerful. All our energy gets very easily channeled into negativity.

Even depression is nothing but anger turned upon oneself. When you express the emotion, it is anger. When you repress it, it becomes depression. But both are the same negative energy.

When we focus on our negative emotions, when we nurture our sense of separateness, when we create an experience of 'me versus them', the ego feels very powerful. That's why many of us enjoy situations where we can be in a fighting position.

The positive, softer emotions always make us vulnerable. Love, joy, compassion – these are very fragile states of mind. When we experience these emotions, the boundary between ourselves and the world becomes weaker. The ego feels less powerful. That's why we all are afraid of these emotions. In a deeply unconscious way, we are afraid of love – because in love we have to surrender the ego.

But spirituality is nothing but the process of losing one's ego. If you are afraid even to love, because it makes you feel vulnerable – how will you move inward into meditation?

2. Focus on your positive emotions

What is your normal day like? Just think.

Throughout the day, you are flooded with different emotions. When you wake up, you are feeling joyful – or at least normal. Then your wife comes in with your coffee, and while putting it down on the table she spills some of it – and immediately, you are angry.

After a good breakfast, you are back in a good mood. Then you get caught in traffic on the way to work – and you are ready to kill someone! At the office you have a project that's not going well – again, you experience stress. And so on.

Every minute, you are being bombarded by emotions. You are living your life on a rollercoaster of emotions. How long can you cope?

Fortunately, all our emotional experiences are not bad. For most of us, there will be some moments during the day when we are silent, joyful and meditative.

It could be a simple, everyday thing.

Sipping a cup of tea in your garden.

Taking a shower.

Listening to music.

Playing with your children.

There are moments like this in each day, for each of us. But how many of us focus on these moments?

When someone asks us, How did your day go? we only remember the traffic, the spilt coffee, the incomplete project.

For a change, why not focus on the positive experiences, the positive feelings in each day?

Try this experiment.

For 24 hours, continuously recollect ONLY the good things that happened that day. Be grateful for even little things: that it wasn't raining when you had to leave for work, that the marigolds in the garden are in bloom. Be thankful to your housemaid for not taking the day off. See, these are the things we forget! On the day when the maid doesn't turn up, we never forget her – but when she does come, do we notice? Do we remember to thank her in our minds?

So when I say remember every positive thing, actually do it. Do it with complete sincerity. Just for 24 hours! You will see how your life feels transformed. Once you have tasted the joy of staying with positive feelings, you would never allow yourself to fall into depression again.

This exercise is not for fun. It is a survival technique! When you throw stones at life, life is going to throw stones back at you. If you greet life with flowers, you will get flowers in return. Later, you will receive a meditation technique that focuses on welcoming life with gratitude.

3. Learn to transform those negative emotions

You may ask me, what happens to all the negative emotions you experience during the day? Even if you focus on remembering the positive feelings, the negative emotions are still there in your system! And they are accumulating all the time.

Through meditation, you can dissolve the old blockages in your system – but you have to be careful that new blocks don't develop. Every moment, you are facing new circumstances. For example, there are people who are going to make you angry, again and again. What are you going to do with all that excess energy circulating in your system?

Learn to transform the negative energy that is created into positive energy.

Remember, energy is neutral. Anger is neither good nor bad. Sexuality is neither good nor bad. These are just forms of energy. MEDIATION IS FOR YOU

It is up to you to use them creatively or destructively. Just as a knife can turn destructive in the hands of a child, but can be a life-giving instrument in the hands of a surgeon, you can use the same energy to produce radically different results.

If you learn to channelise your energy correctly, you can replace anger with creativity; turn your energy towards art, towards music, towards sports.

Learn to paint. Take up a sport. Cultivate a hobby. Go dancing! These are all pathways for energy, just as anger is!

The only difference is, these are creative pathways. Redirect your life, give your ordinary life a creative dimension. In this way, all your destructive energy is transformed into creative energy, with positive results.

When you start focusing on your positive emotions, you will find that your life automatically changes for the better. When you feel love, you give love, and you receive love. It is a beautiful cycle. Unless you have experienced this, it is impossible to believe. But it actually happens.

And don't think you have to be born with this attitude. Don't say, Oh, that man is so lucky, he is always walking around with a smile on his face. I'm the only one who is under so much stress!

A positive attitude is something that is cultivated. When you become filled with joy, misery will be afraid of you! Anger cannot touch you. Only when you cultivate a state of bliss inside can you make any progress in meditation.

Transform your life with love, laughter and gratitude.

Turn life into a celebration.

Only then can life become meditation.

TOWARDS MEDITATIVE LIVING