Meditation is Learning to reside in Self

General principles of meditation,  the alert witnessing, as generally described by Swami TV
Atma Bodha (meditation verses 36-40)

-Sitting in a quiet place in a comfortable position on a chair or mat keeping the body absolutely still.
-Witness the body as the “gross mechanical process”, and see that it is from the “Witness/Observer/Self” point of view.
-With a stillness of the body, the mind also becomes still. The mind is just the “subtle mechanical process”.
-Witness the mind,  and any remaining noodle thinking will gradually disappear.
-The Self is not the intellect, or ego of the person who is meditating, nor the timekeeper etc. just the observer.
-With greater clarity, the Witness can be gained and regained quickly (in case of disturbance).
-Also, over time, the witnessing can be maintained during other walks of life such as walking, eating etc . Being mindful and aware of all actions and functions of the body and mind as they act together for any functions to work together.

Alertness and constant Attention to the Mind is Meditation!
-Watching the mind causes the mind to break up any “noodle (twisted, busy)” thinking of past and future, and remain in the present moment and think only as needed.
-This is the Vedantic way to allow the mind to be silent (unlike the yogic method of forced silence).
-This method is also called Jnana Agnihi (knowledge based “flame of attention”) that eliminates/burns off past and future “perceived” issues.
-Need to kindle this flame as much as possible with this understanding.  And this requires no “effort”. No deep thinking, no analysis etc, just watching.

**”Achintanam eva Brahma Chintanam”  Such thoughtless, silent mind is then free to allow Atma realization.   Mind has become “no mind”.  Mind dissolves in Atma.
Stabilized such understanding, leads to SarvaAtma Bhava and Tattvamasi follows.

**This kind of Attention has no “forced effort”, and so it does not exhaust one (no Karma). It brings freshness and freedom and allows Love to express and spread. This brings one into the spiritual dimension.

This brings Joy in day-to-day Life in whatever Prarabda karma brings to the body-mind complex for its transactions.

Remind oneself that true Meditation is ongoing Attention!!

Transcend the Immediate…

Get this expression: the immediate. What is the immediate? It is the body, mind, surroundings, and developing situations in which I find myself. This is the immediate. The immediate changes from time to time, but it is still the immediate.    This causes thoughts to appear and wander all over.

I watch my mind (as I watch a flow of river). I am inspired by it because there is always beauty in watching.
The mind always flows and brings a lot of content. The mind begins with a thought about something and steadily builds upon that thought. It is like stacking brick upon brick and building a wall. Brick by brick or thought by thought, the mind creates a situation. The situation may not be physical or factual; it is entirely mental. I see this situation and pulls me into it. This happens all through life.

Can I disentangle myself from this flow?  Just ask, “How? How to disentangle from the flow?” It is very simple – by watching the flow. One may say that it is not easy. That may be so. Therefore, just try to watch the flow. That should not be difficult. If you fail, try again to watch the flow. You can notice one thing: as you try to watch the flow, the situation created by the flow loses some of it burden. If you continue to watch the flow, the situation starts to melt away. Let it take its time; you continue to watch the flow. Gradually the situation will melt away. The mind gradually becomes slow and you transcend the immediate.

Now I transcend the immediate (created by the wandering mind of flowing thoughts). I allow the immediate to drop, but I remain simple. However complex the immediate may be, as I transcend I remain simple and single. I am. There is nothing else. I am. I alone am.

Keep it Simple and Single – Aham Asmi

Not Me and Mine – This brings in Mind, and its role play and much more complexity.

………………….

One has to tell oneself “relax” and see what happens.  “What am I – the material body, the thinking body, or the inner light of awareness?” I am that light; I am the awareful being. It is obvious because I am aware. I am not physical, but aware. The physical cannot be aware. I am aware of the surroundings, the people, and the hall even without opening the eyes. I am aware of the surroundings through the prism of the mind. The mind is very quiet as I am aware. Then notice the distinction between being aware vis-à-vis thinking. When I am aware there is almost no thinking, no flow of thoughts. That is what we call the silent mind. I am aware of the silent mind.
Be aware of the sounds around – sounds afar or the sounds nearby – but without naming the sounds and without judging them. The trick is being aware without naming and judging.  That is meditation.  For example, visualize you are walking in the woods alone. If you go on walking and thinking, you do not know what is meditation. That is not meditation. Suppose you are walking and aware of the surroundings – trees and plants – in a general way, with only that much of the mind’s involvement. You are aware and desist from naming any tree or plant. Do not even judge as good or not good; just be aware. Also be aware of your walking. There is no flow of thoughts. That is meditation, a walking meditation. At present I am aware of the sounds around without naming. There is indeed a small involvement of mind, but no flow of thoughts.

Now I am aware of the body – this body. Can I be aware of the body as “this body,” without projecting it as either mine or as me? You need not identify all the time. I am aware of the body as “this body,” either as “mine” nor as “me.” Scan the body: the feet, legs, knees, thighs, seat, abdomen, chest, hands, shoulders, back, neck, face, skull, this body. Scan the body again, checking when the sense of me arises: the feet, legs, knees, thighs, seat, abdomen, chest, hands, shoulders, back, neck, face, brain and skull, the head in general. Where do you sense the sense of “me”? . If you carefully discern, you find that you get the sense of “me” in the brain cells, not in the heart. This is learning, not knowledge. The person defined by “me” and “mine” is in the head. People take that as real but it is not, which means the brain cells are  projecting “me” and “mine.” You have to counter that, but not by putting more knowledge in the brain cells, because that becomes “my knowledge.” That is not the solution. You counter it by learning, meaning you see that the “me” and “mine” person is located in the brain cells. That is the first step.
The second question is, “Is this me and mine real?” (Transient Ego?)

Then the third and final step is to abide in the heart: descend, arrive in the heart, and abide as “I am,” aham asmi. This is entirely different from “me” and “mine.” It is the simple “I am” in the heart.

“I am this and that” is complex, which is the brain. “I am” is not only simple, but also single. This is the mantra – simple and single I am in the heart. This is learning; wisdom, if you will. This is the mahãmantra – I am in the heart; aham asmi. or even aham aham aham.

“Meditation offers an opportunity to understand the movement of thought”

Understanding with love is Jnana. Love with understanding is Bhakti. With contemplation there is transformation of the consciousness to blossom as saranagati. 3 steps
a) Accepting Sarva – Accepting ALL is the Higher Power.   As saguna forms: Akasa (space), vayu (wind), agni (fires), apah (waters in all forms), prithvi (solids of all forms).  Also as Sattva (intelligence), rajoguna (energies), tamoguna (matter).
And all the Nirguna (unseen)forms,  is together the Higher power.

b) All happens by Will of the Higher power.
– laws of nature
– life/death, consciousness
contemplation on this leads to self-surrender

c) I look at myself.  the inner workings of my body, my breathing, heart,my mind, thinking, life, death etc.
Whatever happens in this body-mind is Sarvah Sivah. Sarangato’ham. I surrender myself to that Higher power. Instant liberation and fragrance of freedom!.

Be alert and also relaxed; not stressed or sleepy. You become alert just by telling yourself to be alert. Sitting upright helps. The alertness is awareness. It is your nature. It is intrinsic to you, but it does not feel that way because the mind is making a lot of noise. You see that. Even though awareness is my very nature, my very essence, I do not feel that way because the mind is making a lot of noise. This is not knowledge; it is learning. See the difference. This is learning or understanding oneself.
How do I learn about myself, understand myself?  I have to guide myself. This does not mean that I am belittling the scriptures or the guru.  I have to understand myself in order to become free from sorrow and fear. There is no choice. It is not optional.

The only way is by looking at myself, by being attentive to myself.  By examining, I can see the difference between awareness and thinking, and the connection between the two.
When you are aware, if you notice, you are not thinking or at least you are not thinking much, and when you are thinking you are not aware. Thus, thinking acts as a veil. See the connection between awareness and thinking. I am aware of myself; I am not thinking about myself. Suppose I start thinking about myself. What happens? Very soon I become unhappy or insecure or both. On the other hand, when I am aware of myself I am what I am – neither unhappy nor insecure.
The thing to be done is to sit alone and be aware of yourself. In other words, I look at myself. That is meditation.
Meditation is neither an escape from life nor an escape from the world.  Meditation is not an intellectual affair. Meditation is not pursuing an image or a sound or a vision in the sense that something will appear. Whatever appears is not real. Meditation is not a pursuit of a goal. If I am alert and look at myself, that is meditation.

You need not make an effort to put the world aside; just look at yourself. A miracle happens. The world is put aside; the world vanishes. Try to get this.
The world exists only by your permission. If I deny permission – simply look at myself and deny permission – the world does not exist anymore. The world exists by my permission. This is the drsti-srsti vãda. I look at myself and realize that the world exists by my permission. This realization is meditation.

Meditation is an art; it is beauty; it is the science of life.  When I look at myself, I do not feel myself as the body. I feel myself certainly, but not as the body. Somehow, I am beyond the body. I look at myself.
As I look at myself clearly, I am not the thinking mind. Battling the mind is not meditation. The mind is only battle with all its conflicts, whereas as I look at myself, as I be myself, which is one and the same, I do not feel myself as the thinking mind. This is a revelation about myself. I look at myself.

Sthira sukham ãsanam is a sutra, and serves as a pointer in meditation. . Sthira sukham ãsanam becomes a meditation. Sthira is about the body, sukham is about the mind, and ãsanam is about myself. Thus, the sütra presents viveka, discrimination, very well. The three dimensions – body, mind, and myself – are clearly understood. It is not knowledge, but understanding.
It is obvious that there is a mix- up. The spiritual is getting mixed up in the physical and psychological. What is to be done? There is nothing to be done. It is not about doing. It is about understanding the error or mix-up. Understand by contemplating, nididhyãsanam. In this, you guide yourself. Outer guidance is there, but primarily you guide yourself. When one is one’s own authority, it liberates, whereas outsourcing the authority corrupts.

Sthira’. The body is sthira. Become sthira by sitting upright and keeping it still. In fact, keeping the body still without any movement is itself samadhi because there are no thoughts. Keep the body still without any movement, except for the breath. A thought may come, or an urge to move – ignore them. You may do this sthira meditation 3-5 minutes once or twice a day. It will bring an enormous transformation. Be still.

Sukham’. Now we come to the mind. To be relaxed is very much possible. There is stress in some parts of the body; that is the mind affecting that part of the body. Relax all parts of the body. Sport a smile, which relaxes the muscles of the face and brain cells.

When you relax and remain alert, that is understanding. To be relaxed and aware is sadhana. Sadhana is not strenuous effort. Effort leads to conflict, not understanding. As you learn to relax and be alert, you understand and are aware of the mind. Sukham. Now the body is still and the mind is relaxed, and I am aware of it.

Ãsanam’. “I be” in the heart. To “just be” is not a method, a system, or even a word because a word is not the thing. It is myself. As I hear the word “being,” I reach beyond the expression of that word and arrive at myself. Just be. Why “just be”? Because there is nothing to do. All actions are in the body and mind, whereas “I am” – the being – is actionless. Just be. The being is the inner light because being shines as knowing. What about God? God alone manifests as this pure being. Being is God.

Look at yourself. Sit upright and remain relaxed.
The vagrant mind becomes quiet and calm by itself. It is not an induced quietness or calmness. It just becomes quiet by itself when I look at myself. This is the first step in the journey of self- knowledge; namely, I look at myself. This is meditation – looking at myself. As I look at myself, I encounter the body.

I am aware of the body as “this body.” I am aware of the organs of action: the legs that move around, the hands that hold things, and the organ of speech that speaks. I am aware of these functions. Then I am aware of the eyesight in the eyes, the hearing in the ears, smell in the nose, taste in the tongue, and touch in the skin. I am aware of these faculties. Just being aware of “what is” is not belief, faith, or speculation; it is not any image or vision. All of those are not meditation. Being aware of “what is” is meditation. As you are aware, you understand. That is learning, in contrast to the knowledge of the brain.

When I am aware of the breath, which is life, breathing becomes slow as you are aware of it – in out, in out. Don’t manipulate breath. Just be aware. It is very simple. If you manipulate * breath, you are the doer. If you are aware without manipulation, you are the witness. The breath functions by its own laws, which are the laws of nature. There is no will involved. Every single time I am aware of something, I am stepping back. I step back from breath as I am aware of the breath.
The mind is mostly very quiet. I am aware of the mind, which is calm and quiet. I am aware of this silent mind. You may notice that when you are aware of the mind and it becomes mostly quiet, it is neither pleasurable nor painful. Pleasure and pain are merely states of the mind that happen by habit. I understand the mind, its movement, and its states. This is direct learning. You learn about the mind by watching it. I am aware of the mind.

Be aware of the brain. You can easily locate the sense of mama, mine, in the brain. Also locate the sense of “me” in the brain. Where are “mine” and “me”? They are in the brain cells. They arrived there by habit. Be aware of “mine” and “me” in the brain cells. Stepping back is tricky, but keep trying. As you are aware of “me” and “mine,” you have already stepped back. To be able to step back from “me” and “mine” is a blessing; it is divinity. That is the godliness. Up to this it is anãtmã, non-self. Put it aside.

Now I am aware of my own being. This is Self, Atma. This is the foundation of all non-self – the basis or the base or the Ground. How to be aware of my own being? Just be. “I be” as I am aware of my own being. I am aware of my own being as “I be”; aham aham aham.

What is meditation? Flowering of thought into awareness is meditation. Flowering of thought into attention is meditation. When you are attentive to the movement of thought, it slows down and even vanishes. That attentiveness is meditation. Then how can you separate it from daily living? You cannot.
When you pay attention to a raindrop falling on the ground, it is meditation. When you pay attention to the body and its condition, it is meditation. When you pay attention to the words of the speaker, it is meditation. Attention is meditation.

Meditation is not a particular doing; rather it is the being. Because meditation is not a doing, it cannot be means to an end. It is both the means and the end. It is the being in which means and end merge.

Relaxed attention, relaxed awareness is meditation. The inner being, which is the relaxed awareness, is meditation. Not only is there a lot of confusion about meditation, it is important to note what is not meditation.
If you enclose yourself in a dark room, is that meditation? When you come out of that kind of meditation, you will go back into the world the way you were before – jealous or happy or greedy and so on. It is only isolating yourself from the world for a short while.
Pursuit of an image or a form of God or a particular power center is an activity of thought, an activity of the believing mind. It is not meditation. After all, an image cannot be the Truth. When you drop such pursuit by understanding, you have taken the first step towards meditation.
Pursuit of a vision is not meditation. Image is in the present and vision is in the future. Both are not meditation because visions are many and are projections of thought. Dropping such pursuits is a step towards meditation.
Pursuit of happiness is not meditation. It creates duality between you and happiness.

In the context of nididhyãsana (Vedantic meditation), even a silent chant is not meditation. It is karma. It is likely to make thought mechanical and becomes a routine.
Sitting in a given posture and engaging in mental activity is not meditation. It is physical, superficial. Meditation cannot be separate from daily life, daily living. Separating meditation from daily living and making it isolation, self- enclosure, pursuit of an image, vision, God, or happiness, and then becoming a worldly person again at the end of that exercise is an everlasting play. Be aware of that game.
Be attentive in life. That is meditation.

Looking at myself is a miracle because as I look at myself, the world vanishes.  If I withhold permission, the world cannot touch me. That is the miracle of looking at myself.
Learn to relax as you look at yourself. The idea is to remain alert and relaxed and look at yourself. Sadhana is not struggling to know more. The secret of sãdhana is to look at yourself, stop struggling, relax, and understand yourself by looking at yourself.

To look at myself is a miracle because as I look at myself, the mind remains quiet. The thinking process has come to a standstill all by itself. That is samadhi. It is effortless, and that is the miracle. As I look at myself, I remain alert effortlessly. I look at myself – ãtmanaiva ãtmãnam pasyet.

Visualize a light shining by itself. Visualize the sun shining by itself. These are the outer lights. When you look at yourself, are you not the inner light, the âtma-jyoti. As I look at myself, I am one with that inner light. As I look at myself, I am connected to that inner light, the light in the heart. Looking at yourself is the same as being with yourself because being is the same as shining – being shines.
Look at yourself. That is meditation; anywhere, anytime. The whole world can wait. Look at yourself.

“Truth – “the unknown,’ which is not an object of thought, cannot be contained in the mind,”

I am relaxed and looking at myself. That is the way to understand myself. As I look at myself, first I encounter the body. Make it a mantra. Idam sariram. this body. That prevents intuitive identification.
Then comes the subtler aspect of looking at myself, namely, looking at the mind.  It appears silent when you watch it, but the moment your guard is down, it starts its machinations. That is what this mind is – ever spinning and controlling life just for its fantasies. That is what the mind does, but it is silent when I watch with alertness.

Like “watching” from a bank the flow of a river and its, content in which you not involved in the flow or in the content and you remain unaffected  by avoiding all judgment and labelling. That is called “watching.”

Similarly, I “watch” the mind in order to understand its movement; not condemning or justifying, certainly not identifying. Often, some incident of the past, which is part of the memory, arrives into the flow of the mind like a wave. I become alert, but then I should not identify with it. Then only there can be alertness. Identification with this wave of memory leads to either pleasure or pain. You seek the pleasure of the past, which is a mistake because pleasure comes with pain. Therefore, as the memory comes like a wave, stop identifying with it. Do not try to seek pleasure from it, even when it is pleasurable. Remain alert and watchful. When the wave is painful, watch it with all its pain. There should be no condemnation or effort to stop it. That leads to struggle, since the wave has arrived already. Therefore, watch it. Every time the wave arrives, watch with patience. The wave comes again and you watch it again. That is not repetition; it is patience. Be certain that by patience, you will eventually become free from the torture of the past. Watch with patience. There is no other way to avoid the problem of the past. Watch with patience.

Then, consider again the content of the flow of the mind. The mind always tries to peep into the future. Understand one thing clearly: the future is utterly unpredictable in the way the word “predictable” is understood. I look at this attitude of the mind to peep into the future, and I advise the mind, “O mind, allow the future to reveal itself. Do not try to peep at the other side of the wall. Leave the future alone. Do not peep into the psychological future. Enjoy the uncertainty of the future. Enjoy the unpredictability of the future. O mind, become wise. Enjoy the glorious uncertainty of the future.”

I try to watch the content of the mind in order to understand the movement of the mind, and that is meditation. Watching and thereby understanding the mind is meditation.

Swamini Srividyananda