Namaskar! Today I'd like to talk about some tips for deepening your meditation experience. Of course, this whole channel talks about different advices for deepening meditation.
But I thought, putting them together in one video, it may be easier for you to follow. So, I'll go from the external and go gradually towards the internal. So, first of all, the external physical - place, where we sit in meditation.
We can choose any part of our house: maybe, a small portion of our room, doesn't have to be big, one by two meters would be fine. And then sit there for the meditation. Sometimes, going outside to meditate in any quiet place where, you know, especially, if our job is full of tension or stress, or so much sensory input, so much noise.
. . We need to get away once in a while to some quiet place for half a day or even a few hours, maybe one day, according to our capacity and availability.
It's not good to meditate in our place of sleeping. So, choose any part of of the room or house to do your meditation and time - same time every day. So when we do meditation same time and same place because we're creatures of habit, it becomes very natural - at that time we meditate at that place.
Another thing about time is Sandhya's. The yogic texts talk about the Sandhyas. That means, the time between.
. . For example, the morning Sandhya is 45 minutes before sunrise until 45 minutes after sunrise.
And evening Sandhya is 45 minutes before sunset until 45 minutes after sunset. So, these times are very ideal, conducive because environment is very conducive for meditation. Also, early morning, you know, in many Buddhist temples around the world, where they practice meditation, the first meditation is at 5:00 a.
m. So, this is a very, very good time to meditate because, naturally, the pineal gland, the uppermost gland on top of the head, which is the spiritual gland, it is active in the early morning and late night. So, that's about the external physical.
Then, come to the internal physical - the physical body. So the yogis say that meditation is your appointment with God, that Supreme Consciousness, that most important Universal Consciousness. So, when there is an appointment, you dress well, you are on time, you try to be your best.
So also, with our physical body, cool bath or half bath before meditation makes our body cool, our nervous system cool, our brain cool. And the yogis, they used to love meditating in cool climates, even the first yogi - Sadashiva. He would go to the Himalayas during the summer time to escape the heat of the Indian plains.
So, with a cool body and a cool nervous system, it's very easy to enjoy deep meditation. The other thing is about our posture. The posture in meditation is extremely important.
It should always be upright. I remember, when I went to the center one time, and I saw people were sitting for the meditation and many were going like this. .
. And I thought, "Oh, this is how you meditate! " So, I would sit down and I also started going like this.
But actually, this is poor posture. So, when our head is nodding or it's tilted or our bodies are swaying, our posture is poor, it means, we're not able to concentrate well. So, upright posture in the Lotus position is very important.
As well as the tongue. The yogis call the tongue the most dangerous organ. Why is that?
It's because with the tongue we speak and with the tongue we eat, we taste food. So, if this tongue, this organ is out of control, we might eat too much, we might speak the wrong things. So, Mamsa - means control of tongue.
And that's why also as part of the position of medication apart from the Lotus position, or the Half Lotus position, we curl the tongue, so that it touches the upper part of the palate. And this simple practice of touching the tongue to the upper part of the palate helps to control the tongue and introvert the mind, deepens the meditation practice. Then, about the physical body, also our food.
If the food is very spicy or very hot, or it's very oily, it heats up the system. So remember: a cool body, cool nervous system, cool brain is ideal for meditation. So, we don't want to have food, which is very heavy or constipating, otherwise, the concentration will not be good.
Next is, if our body is tired, then we cannot sit upright. So, if you've had a long day, you've had a very tiresome day, take a short nap, and then sit for your meditation, that will help you very much to get the proper energy physically and the good rest will help you to concentrate well. Now let's come to the mental.
In this channel, my colleague has talked about the Yama and Niyama the ten moral principles, universal principles. So, it's very important what we do outside of meditation. It affects how we are in meditation, what we're feeling, because our goal is something very subtle, transcendental, pure, invisible.
So, to catch that subtle flow we have to live a life, which is, you know, if I've hurt someone, I've said some bad word, or I've taken something that doesn't belong to me. Certainly, these small little mistakes are going to come and affect that subtle flow I'm trying to generate from my concentration in meditation. So, the Yamas and Niyamas are very helpful to make a peaceful mind, a peaceful, you know, the inner environment for meditation to take place.
Another thing is about the. . .
For the mental is a liberal use of imagination, so, you know, when we're meditating, if we can do a checklist turning off the outer ear, turning on the inner ear, turning off the outer eye, turning on the inner eye, turning off the external body, turning on the internal body. Be liberal with the use of imagination in meditation. Of course, when you learn your technique from your teacher, you have a structure, but within that you're able to intuitively, you know, flow and find a space in your meditation, which makes you feel more comfortable and deeper.
This you will feel yourself as you practice. You know, Lord Buddha, he was a great yogi and he had the capacity that. .
. There's a certain subtle nerve related to the throat chakra called the Kurma Nadi, and Buddha had a capacity to control, complete control over this Kurma Nadi and that enabled him to sit for long hours of still meditation. There was another saint of India whose name was Valmiki, the word Valmiki comes from the word Valmika, which is anthill.
So, Valmiki, he could sit for such long meditation, and still in deep with upright posture that the ants would build a house around his body. So, this is the importance of the correct posture and this helps to make the mind more concentrated. Mentally, also is to have a firm determination.
Again, Buddha's story, you know, his eight. . .
Sankalpa - one of his eight. . .
. . .
of the noble truths was that firm determination. And Lord Shiva, Shiva gave that first secret of success with a firm determination. Because the journey is long The practice of meditation is lifelong and to get or touch that subtle flow within us which is beyond the mind, it is a practice that requires quite a bit of determination and willpower.
So, how to get that firm determination? Rejecting all negative thoughts. So, when my mind is flowing positive ideas, I motivate them, I'm inspired.
My heart center is strong and I have the zeal and determination to go forward. So, this firm determination is another important aspect of the meditation. And when we meditate also, from the spiritual side some useful tips are: when we do our Kirtan, the "Baba Nam Kevalam" meditation, when we raise the hands and we imagine that our meditation is a service.
So when we're singing the the "Baba Nam Kevalam" with that ideation: "Love is all there is", we're imagining that Supreme Entity you know, the Jnana yogis, the yogis that conceive, you know, that goal is something impersonal that is a Universal Consciousness, Supreme Consciousness is a formless. . .
But the Bhakti yogi conceived of that Universal Consciousness is something more human, more within our human frame, body, our mother, father entities. And so, when you're singing and you're trying to please that entity, then this makes your mind happy. And you will start to feel the subtle flow that comes with the meaning of that "Baba Nam Kevalam" mantra.
So, the other useful tip about meditation is to make the mind one pointed. This is called Agriya Buddhi in Sanskrit, "like the tip of a needle". Because our goal is that formless, invisible transcendental consciousness.
Mind is defined as a phenomena wherein thoughts constantly emerge and dissolve. So, in our mind is a constant state of clash and cohesion. So, in order to channelize all those thousands of thoughts the mind has to be one-pointed, Agrya Buddhi, like the tip of a needle.
So, in our meditation, we try to develop this quality in our practice. And finally, we come to the social side. The social side also is important because, you know, that collective meditation, if we can find a place where there's a collective meditation going on.
Even a gold vessel - it needs to be polished sometime. So, once a week, the collective meditation will strengthen our individual practice, and the synergy we get from everybody meditating together, it certainly helps us in our individual practice. Another thing is attending seminar or retreat.
So every six months or maybe once a year, once every three months depending on what is available. That collective energy of so many people meditating five times a day, doing yoga exercises twice a day, doing the Kirtan dance long hours. There's a tremendous, intense build-up of energies and this will help you very much to deepen your meditation, it gives you a boost that carries you for many days and weeks thereafter.
And finally, when we do meditation from the other side of social aspect whatever service we do, we do the service as an act of selfless. . .
not wanting anything in return. We're, actually, fulfilling the purpose for the whole creation. We help someone to move along the path to better their life, to improve their condition and to help them to come to the touch of spirituality.
We're fulfilling the plan of that Cosmic Father, Cosmic Mother: that everything comes from the One, everything returns to the One. So, when we're assisting that Consciousness in that Cosmic plan, this certainly will help us to get a deep experience in meditation. So, these are some of the points physically, mentally and spiritually, socially that will help us to have a deeper experience of meditation.
Please try some of them or all of them and I'm sure, you will enjoy the beneficial results. Thank you. Namaskar.
