You Think That You Are Meditating. But You Are NOT!

Abstract: You may be sitting straight and you may be thinking you are meditating. You are doing something with the mind but it is not meditation. Meditation requires a different mind. The outgoing mind, the objectifying mind, the mind with desires and ambitions, this mind cannot be really meditating. Yes, it may be trying to concentrate and do some exercises and going through valuable training, a valuable process of discipline. This is not completely useless.

Meditation is the ultimate process when one has laid the foundation of spiritual life, when one has overcome the constant pull of the senses and has become the master of one’s senses, when one through true discrimination and true inquiry, has realised the absolute hollowness of all that is perceived and therefore has overcome the natural tendencies of the mind towards appearances and has succeeded in turning away completely from the desire for names and forms and attachment to objects and experiences, when one has learned the techniques of withdrawing the mind from the outer appearances, and when one has cultivated and created within a state of quiescence, balance, and equipoise. In that condition of being firmly grounded in virtue, that condition of perfect sense-control and self-restraint, in that condition of conquest of desires and the mastery of one’s passions, in that condition of inner stability and equipoise, one begins to gather oneself and move towards the concept or idea of what you feel of the Reality as opposed to appearances. This–the ingathering of the totality of your being, and the centralising of this ingathered power in one specific self-chosen direction,–is the object of your meditation, and the keeping up of a continued and unbroken movement of the ingathered totality in that particular direction of your entire being. This ingathered and directed, when this continued unbroken movement succeeds, you are in a state of meditation.

So it is the successful movement, continuously, in a self-chosen direction, of the totality of your being, ingathered in a unity–a unified whole–that is called meditation. All other things are individual private notions of meditation. All other things are only what you think to be meditation. Meditation requires being perfectly grounded in virtue. Virtue means certain spiritual qualities which are absolutely indispensable prerequisites for the interior life of meditation, without which meditation is impossible. There are certain spiritual qualities, which are the building blocks for the structure, which ultimately attains the pinnacle of meditation. Meditation is, as it were, the point of the pyramid. It cannot be created in air. It is created from the broad base on hard earth. The structure goes on and on and then you attain that point where there is that one stone–that is meditation. And, therefore, it is a process which is grounded in virtue. Virtue means spiritual qualities and why those spiritual qualities are insisted upon is very simple to understand. Because they are the refined qualities which keep out of your nature forces that are the direct antithesis of the Divine experience–factors which are direct contradictions of the state of meditation and of the spiritual experience. As long as these contrary forces and factors are there, it is not possible to rise in spiritual experience. You cannot be wet and dry at the same moment. And in order to put out those factors and forces there is only one way. That is, you have to create in your nature a strong positive movement within yourself and then they are no more. They are countered and overcome. They cannot remain, because they are merely the negation of certain virtues or positive forces. They have no separate or independent existence and identity by themselves. So to overcome them, certain positive factors (virtues) have to be created in you. Those positive factors are called virtues for want of a better term. They are spiritual qualities which are essential in order to keep out of your nature those factors that are unspiritual and directly contradictory to and the antithesis of the experience which you are trying to attain.

Based upon this essential ethical change and readjustment meditation is an interior process. The senses always have as their main task the keeping of your entire psyche in an exteriorised condition. That is the very nature of the senses, and unless you know how to control your senses, the psyche can never be ingathered. The ingathering of your psyche is absolutely indispensable and necessary for meditation. So, control of senses comes as the next preliminary condition. But if the psyche is in a constant state of effervescence within, then even in spite of having success in making it ingathered, you cannot initiate this process, which requires a certain degree of stillness. Therefore, next comes the calming of the mind, its desires, the passions, the various ambitions, the constant attachments and the cravings that keep the mind always in a state of flux and ferment. They have to be overcome, and this does not come in a day. This is a process that takes time. This process of attaining a certain extent of absolute quiescence of this mind takes many years. Even if it takes years, it is worthwhile. Spiritual life cannot be in the presence of impatience. It cannot be done in the presence of haste. The eagerness must be there, tremendous eagerness–tremendous enthusiasm,–and at the same time it should be accompanied by patience. So, this state of quiescence can come about only if you are able to cast out of your mind miscellaneous desires, attachments, overwhelming ambitions, plans and schemes and what not. All these things have to give place to a unified aspiration. The mind wants only one thing. In that it should not want anything else. Total elimination of wants is impossible. Hunger, the desire for food and drink, desire for clothing and other desires by their very immediacy in your life are so very demanding and you cannot get rid of them. A father will have plans for his child, but all miscellaneous desires have to be completely out along with all ambitions and planning, and there should be unified aspiration, meaning that, by and large, the maximum predominant emphasis in your mind will be upon that ultimate goal. The mind is relatively unified, even though there may be in its periphery some of these unavoidable desires of the immediate life you are living. Mainly, it will be unified, and when it is thus unified, all dispersal will go. There will be no ambitions, no other desires, no other attachments, no other passions, and cravings. The mind will be totally in a state of ingatheredness and unity. We call it in Sanskrit Ekagrata.

Ekagrata means attainment of a state of one-pointedness. This mind alone, which has now been rendered subtle by giving up gross sensual experience, by totally eliminating the sensual desires, and by renunciation, attains a state of purity. See, mind is also matter. It is a very subtle matter compared to physical matter. Compared to spirit it is also matter. When it is filled with earthly tendencies, passions and greeds, it is full of Tamas and full of Rajas, i.e., it is very close to the presence of the quality of inertia and becomes still more gross due to the presence of the quality of restlessness, selfish desires and activities. When these have been transcended and to a certain extent mastered, then mind attains a state of purity and subtleness. Then the mind assumes an upward direction. It is always horizontal in its dynamics.

It assumes a state of upward direction only when it attains a state of subtlety and purity. Such a mind, rendered pure, rendered subtle by absolute purity and virtue, sense-control and elimination of desires and passions, only becomes the instrument which can think of the Atman–the Reality. Otherwise normal gross mind has not the state in which it can think of the Atman–the Truth or the Reality. It only gets the capability of thinking about the Atman when it is thus rendered subtle and pure. That mind should be engaged in meditation. Thinking that you are meditating is only a thought in your mind.

You may be sitting straight and you may be thinking you are meditating. You are doing something with the mind but it is not meditation. Meditation requires a different mind. The outgoing mind, the objectifying mind, the mind with desires and ambitions, this mind cannot be really meditating. Yes, it may be trying to concentrate and do some exercises and going through valuable training, a valuable process of discipline. This is not completely useless. It will always prepare the mind in a certain way, but ultimately this total transformation in your interior, by bringing the mind into that state of subtleness and purity, is absolutely necessary to initiate the process of meditation inside, because that is the instrument. A subtle, pure mind, completely still and calm and totally inward, that is the instrument for meditation. With that mind alone one can really meditate.

Do We really Want God? Are We Really Serious about Spiritual Life? NO!!

The scriptures tell us that our fundamental error is wrong identification. We, who are universal Spirit, have identified ourselves with that which is actually an object to us—our body and mind. To get over this wrong identification, they have prescribed different yogas that are suitable to the nature of different individuals.

However, Lord Krishna makes it very clear that in the final analysis there is only one way to cross this ocean of samsara and that is to take refuge in Him alone. In the last teaching verse of the Gita, He is even more specific. Abandon all dharmas, He tells us—all your ideas of what is right and wrong—and take in refuge in Me alone.

Why is it, when Lord Krishna is so specific, and when we know that the essence of the spiritual life—no matter what our yoga—is surrender, that we are unable to do it easily? The truth is, no matter how much we say we want God, most of us are unwilling to let go of control of our own life. Part of us may want to surrender, but another part of us doesn’t want to let go of control. Why is this?

If we examine it, we will find that normally there are two reasons. One, we have unfufilled desires. There are things that we want. We are afraid that if we let go of control of our life, if we surrender totally to God, we may not be able to fulfil those desires. This requires sharp discrimination. We have to realise that there is nothing in what we desire that will give us permanent happiness. We have to examine our experience and recognise that there is no real happiness in anything in this world. Unless we do this discrimination, unless we convince ourselves of this truth, then the quality of surrender that is required by Lord Krishna is out of the question.

The other reason that we are reluctant to let go of control of our life is fear. We don’t know what might happen if we do. The purpose of all our spiritual practices is, in fact, to give us confidence in God, indeed, to convince us that it is safe to let go, that we have nothing to fear. But if we continue to think that the purpose of our spiritual practices is to get something for the ego, then we are perpetuating our problem. We’re protecting our ego and its desires and fears.

We have to recognise that we need to deal with are our desires and our fears. Our desires we deal with by analysis. The way to deal with our fears is to take chances. We have to become vulnerable. We must trust God in spite of our fears. Our fears want us to protect ourselves. Wisdom says, I must conquer this fear, I must trust God in spite of the fear.

We think that courage is some great quality, and it is. But it is actually doing the right thing, doing our duty in spite of our fears. Our duty as seekers is to trust God. Our duty as seekers is to take refuge in God alone. That we may have fear, that we may have reluctance is beside the point. We must do what is right, we must do our duty in spite of any reluctance, in spite of any fear. And God is always there to bless our choice and to help us.

Therefore, while wrong identification may be our fundamental problem, it can be cured by surrender and trust, by recognising that there is no happiness in anything in this world and that God is safe to trust.

Early Morning Meditation Talk given in the Sacred Samadhi Hall of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh.

Swami Atmaswarupananda, Canadian born in 1925, moved to Sivananda Ashram Rishikesh, India in 1974. He started giving short talks at the end of the daily morning meditation in 1995. He is a disciple of the great saint Swami Chidananda, the spiritual successor of the illustrious founder of The Divine Life Society and Sivananda Ashram, Swami Sivananda.

Lost Your Initial Enthusiasm for Spiritual Life?

The spiritual life, especially in the beginning, can be a very emotional experience. We can have an emotional reaction to a particular spiritual encounter, to a teaching or to a teacher — our hearts are filled with enthusiasm, and nothing seems to be more important to us than the spiritual life. It may seem to be so important that we may even leave our previous life and enter into a new life where we can spend more time in spiritual practices.

After some time, however, we may find that or enthusiasm begins to wane. We may get diverted into other activities; some of our old interests may re-appear. This is the time when, in Gurudev’s words, we should do a stocktaking; we should see where we really stand. What is our actual attitude to the spiritual life? How important is ti to us? How important is it compared to some of the other things in our life, such as the desire to be recognised, to be well thought of, to have power, to have money? These are all competitors to our spiritual life.

If we discover that they are there, we should not be too shocked. Why shouldn’t they be there? They were there before we took a real interest in the spiritual life. They were just submerged by our initial enthusiasm, they simple haven’t been dealt with yet.

One by one, we should examine these competitors, compare them to our spiritual aspirations, and ask if they are worth fulfilling. Is it important for us to have more money? Is it important for us to have power? Is it important to us to have recognition? It may be important, but how important is to compared to the goal of life: God-realisation? We should frankly assess this and ask what is to be gained by having more money or power or recognition. Is it really important to us, or is it just something that we are caught up in ? Through own own analysis, we can discover that these things have no ultimate meaning.

However, we should never underestimate the desire for these competitors or any others that we may discover. They are each one of us. They are part of being a human being. They are nothing to be ashamed of unless we refuse to recognise them and to deal with them. But recognise them and deal with them we must, or, one way or another, they will sneak back into our life, and they will constantly undermine our spiritual aspirations.

Source: pgs. 124-125, Trust God by Swami Atmaswarupananda

Swami Atmaswarupananda, Canadian born in 1925, moved to Sivananda Ashram Rishikesh, India in 1974. He started giving short talks at the end of the daily morning meditation in 1995. He is a disciple of the great saint Swami Chidananda, the spiritual successor of the illustrious founder of The Divine Life Society and Sivananda Ashram, Swami Sivananda.

Meditation and Spiritual Life — a Review

If there is a book that I will always and strongly recommend to someone who is determined to make, not just progress but, monumental progress in his spiritual journey ere emancipation, it shall, undoubtedly, be Swami Yatiswarananda’s “Meditation and Spiritual Life“, which is a spiritual handbook, guide, companion and reference book to every spiritual aspirant whose goal is but self-realisation.

At every turn of one’s life, the book can be consulted for solace, hope, guidance and encouragement. It can be read from any and all angles, yet it will remain steadfast in its message, i.e., spirituality is the solution to all of life’s problems, troubles and misery.

If it is read by dyed-in-the-wool atheists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and their coterie, it is bound to light the flame of spiritual emotions in their empiricist-hardened hearts that have remained gloomy by prolonged circumscribing limitations imposed by their studies and exposure to myopic thinking.

In spite of what the title insinuates, the book does not ram indigestible spiritual truisms down anyone’s throat, not even that of a willing spiritual aspirant disposed to accepting God, religion and spirituality in general. Swami Yatiswarananda submits the problems for discussion, analyses them thoroughly, and in a clinical fashion, dissects every part of them, and then offers solutions to face or adroitly handle them.

At the same time, not given to mincing his words, Swami Yatiswarananda from the Ramakrishna Order, a disciple of Swami Brahmananda, the illustrious direct disciple and spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, has dished out priceless pabulums and invaluable spiritual instructions in his 705-page “Meditation and Spiritual Life”, a posthumous publication based upon the class notes of his lectures given to his Western disciples in the early 20th century.

The book is divided in the following fashion:

a. Part One – The Spiritual Ideal,

b. Part Two – Spiritual Practice: i) Preparation ii) Techniques

c. Part Three – Spiritual Experience

d. Part Four – Spiritual Tidbits.

It is a book that every serious aspirant who has set his goal of life as god-realisation must have, should read over and over, and that too on a daily basis. The author’s words have an unfailing, enduring effect on the mind and psyche of “sadhaks”; they percolate through the hardest karmic resistance to the core of our cells, jolting every one of them out of their worthless reverie.

The said powers do not come from the printed pages but from the depth of the Swami’s sadhana, his deepest convictions, truest reliance on God, unassailable trust in the words of the scriptures and his long-drawn-out training that he received from his guru, the playmate of Sri Krishna, the cowherd boy of Vrindavan. Not everyone who lives in Cambridge was graduated from its renowned university, and not everyone who had had a true Guru will successfully emerge as the one that Gitacharya has spoken of in Gita 7:3. Such a rare soul is the author of “Meditation and Spiritual Life”, in my considered view.

I studied the book in the early 90s; my life changed. It has been my boon companion all these years, and I have again, like all consequential books that have informed me, perused (yes “perused”; not “read”) it, paying very close attention to Swami Yatiswarananda’s instructions in respect of the obstacles that, thus far, been the obdurate mean stumbling blocks that have obstructed my hopeful progress. It has again changed yet another perspective of myself, making me even stronger and better than what I have been.

The author’s dilation upon the following subject matters is supremely delectable [this is not a case of mixed metaphor; rather synaesthesia], preternaturally outstanding, astoundingly brilliant [again, this is no British hyperbolism; rather a choice of words that attempts to describe an ineffable quality]:

1. Importance of Japa (=chanting): this has been very extensively dealt with in several pages;
2. Spiritual life is not an ordinary life: a life of clear definition of life’s goal and ideals;
3. Eschewing the company of worthless people who are the flotsam and jetsam of one’s journey in the ocean of life;
4. Lifelong Sadhana — until one’s final breath;
5. Being careful of one’s thoughts — they are bound to destroy one any moment;
6. Why only the intrepid will remain in spiritual life?
7. Humans are in the constant condition of yearning for validation from everyone;
8. Who is fit to help, reform and teach others?
9. People given to any sense pleasure is unutterably doomed, renewing their visas to re-enter earthly life;
10. Dangers of one’s imaginations and fancy;
11. Who can meditate?
12. Daily harmful conduct that will spell immediate disaster;
13. Hypocrisy and jealousy, the twin malady of human beings
14. Importance of proper breathing;
15. Validity of astrology and superfluity of a belief in it;
16. Test of true spiritual experience;
17. One who has no god-consciousness throughout the day is unfit for spiritual life;
18. Enemies
19. Pleasures
20. Sex

If I shall live long enough, I shall make it my lifelong mission to read this book man

When Everything and Everyone Have Left You!t

It is often good if everything you relied upon is taken away from you, and you are left without any worldly support. It is good if all old values, friendships and attachments are broken, and you find all that you had clung to disappearing into the blue. It is good that all forms of external consolation, all hopes in other people, crumble. For then you will be forced to turn to the Divine, who alone is our eternal and only true friend and guide.

Swami Yatiswarananda

This experience is very painful, but for many people it is very necessary. Otherwise, they forget God and their own spiritual destiny. You do not know anything about your own future. You cannot rely on perishable things. But that is what people do. Sometimes, the treatment is more painful than the diseases, but one has to undergo it. The stronger the disease, the stronger must be the treatment.

…All suffering is for our training. Our instincts are to be controlled and burnt in the fire of spiritual striving.

Source: [Chap 17] pg. 266, Meditation and Spiritual Life by Yatiswarananda