Regularity: It’s crucial to meditate every day, even if it feels mechanical or you’re not fully engaged. The act of not surrendering to the mind’s desire to skip meditation is important. Martin Luther’s example of praying for two hours on busy days highlights the commitment to regularity. Swami recommends meditating at least twice a day, in the early morning and evening.
Meditate every day, even if it feels mechanical or you lack desire. Consistency prevents surrendering to the mind’s resistance
Regular Time: Meditating at a fixed time daily helps habituate the mind, making it easier to settle down and enter deeper states of meditation over time. This consistent routine becomes a powerful asset, even if it initially feels mechanical. Examples of monks maintaining their meditation routines even in hospitals illustrate the power of this habit.
Practice meditation at a fixed time daily. This habituates the mind to quieten down and makes deeper meditation more effortless over time.
Fixed Place: Designate a specific, sacred space for meditation, whether it’s an entire room or just a corner. This place accumulates positive vibrations over time, becoming a haven for peace and inwardness.
Cleaning Up the Mind: This involves “starving the negative and feeding the positive”. The analogy of the two wolves (dark and light) in our nature is used: the one you feed is the one that grows stronger. Instead of directly confronting negative thoughts or emotions, which can strengthen them, it’s more effective to replace them with positive influences. Surround yourself with spiritual music, lectures, pictures of deities, and inspiring life stories.
This involves “starving the negative and feeding the positive”. Instead of directly confronting negative thoughts, replace them with positive influences like spiritual music, lectures, and inspiring stories.
Avoid Bad Company: Be mindful of the influence of your social circle, including online interactions. Seek out like-minded individuals or spiritual content (books, talks, movies) to create a “holy company”. It’s sometimes necessary to withdraw from social situations that feed negative aspects of the mind.
Be mindful of your social influences, including online interactions. Seek out like-minded people or spiritual content and reduce engagement with those that feed negativity.
Asceticism: A degree of self-restraint from excessive consumerism and worldly engagements is beneficial. While not about being a “spoiled sport,” it’s about reducing the pursuit of constant external gratification (latest gadgets, vacations, fine dining) to focus on inner growth. If there’s a significant gap between what you truly desire (spirituality) and what you are doing in life, it’s a sign to take immediate action.
Practice a degree of self-restraint from excessive consumerism and worldly pursuits. This helps shift focus from external gratification to inner spiritual growth.
Quietness Before Meditation: Avoid jumping directly into meditation after intense activities like using phones or social media. Allow for a period of quiet preparation before sitting.
Feeling of Detachment and Eternity During Meditation: When you sit for meditation, cultivate a feeling of detachment from worldly roles and relationships. Imagine the world has disappeared, and it’s just “I and my Lord”. This approach helps in making the mind vast and peaceful.
Yearning: The most crucial condition for spirituality is genuine yearning or longing for God realization. Even if this yearning isn’t strong, try to simulate it by imagining what it feels like, drawing inspiration from vivid descriptions in the lives of saints.
Contact with an Enlightened Person: Coming into contact with a truly enlightened person, even once, can make the reality of God and spiritual realization profound and undeniable. This experience can set you on an irreversible path of spiritual progress.