6 Capítulo Hong So

Chapter Six: Preparation

RELAXATION

The best way to relax the body is first to take a few slow, deep breaths, to free the blood stream of any excessive build-up of carbon. Try this exercise:

                        Inhale, counting mentally to 12 —

                        Hold the breath, counting 12 —

                        Exhale, counting 12.

                        Repeat this process 6-12 times.

                        Now, inhale deeply; tense the body all over till it vibrates.

                        Throw the breath out and relax simultaneously.

                        Repeat this tension and relaxation once or twice more.

It is very important, from now on, to hold the body still. You may not find it easy, at first. Accustomed as you may be to moving constantly, the moment you determine to sit still you may want to fidget. But the more you can hold your body motionless, the easier you will find it to continue doing so.

If you sit really still, you’ll only find it difficult for the first five minutes or so. Presently, you’ll begin to enjoy your increasing freedom from the usual human condition of being muscle-bound.

                        Dump the body, mentally —

                        and visualize yourself surrounded by space —

                        space all around you,

                        space slowly entering through the pores of your skin —

                        like a soft cloud — like a cloud of light —

                        into your whole body, bringing total relaxation

            Check your body every now and then to make sure it is still relaxed. Any time you feel tense again, inhale, tense the body, throw the breath out and relax.

By consciously tensing and relaxing the entire body, you’ll find that even those muscles which have grown tense without conscious awareness on your part become relaxed again.

            Psychological relaxation is important, also. You can’t meditate deeply — in fact, you can’t really meditate at all — if you are tense psychologically. Among the main causes of psychological tension are feelings of hostility — of competitive anger and the desire to exert power in some way over other people.

            Focus your attention, therefore, in the heart. Imagine light flowing outward from your heart.

For most people, the rays of energy that flow outward from their hearts are rays that create bondage — to things, to circumstances, to plans and projects for the future. Or else, they are rays sent out to do battle with other rays, to subdue or overwhelm them.

                        Imagine in your heart a kindly light.

                        Send that light outward in rays of blessing to everyone —

                        Mentally bless the world — all beings — everything, both animate and inanimate —

                        For all things, whether or not you know it, are made of life, of consciousness.

       From your heart, then, bless not only all beings in your neighborhood, but all beings                                                       everywhere.

                        Bless the rocks — the deserts, oceans, and high mountains — the whole world.

You will feel blessed, and filled with inner peace, when you serve as a channel of peace and blessings to all.                                                                       --From the article, Meditation for Starters, Swami Kriyananda

§

            1) Sit on a straight-backed, armless chair (you may prefer one with a padded seat), at a height convenient for placing your feet flat on the floor.

            2) On the chair, extending onto the floor in front of it and up over the back of the chair, place a woolen blanket. The purpose of the blanket is to insulate your body from certain downward-pulling currents in the earth that are apart from the pull of gravity. If you’d like even better insulation, cover the blanket with a silk cloth.

            3) Sit away from the back of the chair. Keep your spine straight, your elbows and shoulders back (drawing the shoulder blades slightly together), and your chin drawn slightly in, parallel to the floor.

            4) Place your hands palms upward on the thighs at the junction of the abdomen.

            To relax the body, bear in mind that it may hold many knots of tension of which you are not consciously aware. The way to release those lingering tensions is to increase the tension first, deliberately:

• Inhale. Tense the entire body until it gently vibrates. Then throw the breath out forcibly and relax. Practice this exercise two or three times. Then concentrate deeply on the sense of peace and freedom that permeates your body.
• Next, for even deeper relaxation, inhale slowly counting mentally to 12; hold the breath counting to 12. Exhale again, counting to 12. Practice this exercise six to twelve times.

            This practice can also help us to achieve release from mental and emotional pain. The stress that accompanies such pain usually produces physical tension. By relaxing the body, as outlined above, then extending the thought of physical relaxation to the release of tension in the mind and in the emotions, we can achieve mental and emotional tranquility with the release of tension in the body.

            Whenever you feel anxious or fearful about anything, or distressed over the way someone has treated you, or upset for any reason, inhale and tense the body. Bring your emotions to a focus in the body with that act of tension. Hold the tension briefly, vibrating your emotions along with the body. Throw the breath out, and, keeping the breath exhaled as long as you can do so comfortably, enjoy the feeling of inner peace. Remain for a time without thought.

            When the breath returns, or when thoughts once again bestir themselves in your mind, fill your brain with some happy memory that will provide an antidote to your emotions. Concentrate for several minutes on the happiness of that memory.

            Throughout this process, look upward, and mentally offer yourself, like a kite, into the winds of inner freedom. Let them sweep you into the skies of superconsciousness.

Relaxation Exercise

            After practicing the relaxation exercise as described above (tensing and relaxing the body, then taking several deep, slow breaths to a rhythmic count) visualize yourself surrounded by infinite space. Vast emptiness stretches before you — below you — behind —above.

            After some time, concentrate on your body. Release into vast space, like thin wisps of vapor, any lingering tension in the muscles.

            Release your awareness of the body. It, too, is becoming part of the vast emptiness all around you.

            Now, bring that feeling of space upwards in the body — from the feet to the calves, the thighs, the hips and buttocks, the abdomen, the hands, forearms, and upper arms, the back, the chest, the neck and throat, the tongue and lips, the facial muscles, the eyes, the brain, the very top of your head.

            This body is no longer yours. You are the essence of which it is but an expression —the subtle consciousness of absolute peace that permeates all things, but that is untouched and unaffected by anything.                                                             --From Awake to the Superconsciousness, Chapter Six

§

Method for inducing relaxation

First, close eyes, expel breath, switch off attention and energy from the senses. Feel and mentally watch the heart and circulation and calm it down by the command of will as you stop a watch by gently touching its spring. With calmness you can arrest the activities of the entire physical machinery. Then switch on the current in the spine and brain, disconnecting your current from the five sense telephones. Convert your brain into a divine radio, catching the Cosmic Sound and the Song of God. Or you may switch off entirely the body and brain bulbs and merge with the Omnipresent Cosmic Dynamo. You can return at will, snatching yourself from the Infinite Omnipresence and switching on life in your body-bulb, thus caging your omnipresence there. Keep switching on and switching off the life current in the body until you know you are a part of the One Light which lights all the heavenly lamps of atoms, stars and all living creatures.

Those who know how to leave the body consciously can return to it consciously. People who die by accidents or are otherwise forced out of the body cannot re-enter it at will, but bodies under suspended animation can be reawakened by physical and mental methods

Do not leave the body by imagination; learn to do it actually by releasing consciousness (1) from the muscles, and (2) from the senses by withdrawing the life force from the five sense-telephones. After sensory relaxation is achieved the heart calms down, and the consciousness and energy lodge themselves in the spine.

Involuntary relaxation consists in the ability to calm the heart at will and raise consciousness upward through the seven centers and out of the medulla into Infinite Spirit.

--from Yogoda Super-Advanced Course, Lesson 10 (1930)

POSTURE

            What is the best posture for meditation?

            You might consider the best posture a prone position, flat on your back!

The trouble with this position is that it make it easy to slip passively into subconsciousness, instead of soaring in superconsciousness.

In Western religious practice, kneeling is traditional for prayer and worship. Kneeling helps to induce a spirit of humility — of self-surrender.

The problem with kneeling in meditation is that it makes it difficult to keep your body relaxed.

In meditation, you want to rise above body-consciousness, and you can’t do that if you’re tense.

In meditation, moreover, it’s a self-defeating attitude to try to impress anyone with your humility. To try to impress God, moreover, who knows every ripple of feeling in your heart, with a mere posture of humility would be foolish.

If you can forget yourself, that will be humility enough In fact, the best definition of humility is complete self-forgetfulness.

Another good definition is complete self-honesty. Humility isn’t self-abasement. It’s forgetting one’s petty self in the contemplation of a greater truth.

            Meditation can be a religious act, but it needn’t be. The real point of meditation is to help you discover your own full potential.

            In the Eastern Orthodox Church they pray and worship standing up. This practice, too, makes it difficult to relax, and thus to rise above body-consciousness.

            The best meditation posture is the one recommended in the East: Meditate sitting down.

Whether you sit on the floor in traditional cross-legged or lotus position, or whether you sit on a chair, is not particularly important There are advantages to sitting in die traditional lotus pose, or in any of several positions like it The disadvantage, for many Westerners, to sitting in this position is that they find relaxation not only difficult, but impossible, when their legs are bent in seemingly impossible pretzel shapes. The question of rising above body-consciousness becomes moot Instead of asking themselves, “When will my soul soar?” they wonder, desperately, “Will I ever walk again?”

            In fact, there are only two rules that are essential.  They are these:

            The spine must be kept straight, and the body, relaxed.

A straight spine induces a positive mental attitude, and also enables the life-force in the body to flow freely toward the brain.

            So — sit in a chair, if you prefer. The chair should be armless.

Your woolen blanket (as well as the silk cloth, if you have one to use) should descend over the back of the chair, over the seat, and down under your feet.

            Place your hands palms upward on the thighs, at the junction of the abdomen.

Keep your elbows back, your shoulder blades drawn slightly together, your chest up — all the while emphasizing relaxation, don’t be tense

            Hold the chin slightly back, parallel to the ground.

            Look upward, and close your eyes.

--From Meditation for Starters, article by Swami Kriyananda

(6:11) The yogi should have a firm, clean seat, neither too high nor too low. He should cover his seat first with kusha grass, then (cover that with) a deer or tiger skin, and then (place upon that) a (wool and/or silk) cloth.

A foundation mat of interwoven kusha grass is a way provided by Nature for protecting the meditating yogi from dampness in the earth. There is no other reason, nor any special, mystic meaning for using kusha grass. Its use is only its dampness-dispelling properties. Since this grass, though it grows abundantly in India, is not available everywhere, its non-availability need be no excuse (as a few bigots have actually insisted!) for not practicing yoga in other countries!

To begin with, even sitting on a firm, flat surface in Padmasana, Siddhasana, or some other yoga asana, while helpful for young yogis in keeping their bodies steady and for calming their nerves, is not essential for older devotees. Many Westerners, especially, find that sitting cross-legged forces them to concentrate more on their aching knees than on the spine and in the spiritual eye! For such persons, and for those everywhere who are so completely accustomed to sitting on chairs that any other position would constitute an unnecessary penance, Paramhansa Yogananda recommended that one simply sit on a straight-backed, armless chair, with the back upright (not touching the back of the chair), and the hands placed palms upward on the legs at the junction of the abdomen. The chin should be parallel to the ground, and the shoulder blades drawn slightly together (to hold the spine straight by “corrugating” the back). The chest should be held high, not sunken: there should be no forward stoop. The stomach and abdomen should be relaxed, not held in, and should therefore protrude slightly forward.

This position of the spine and chest is what is meant in the Gita by “Arjuna’s bow,” which (as we saw) Arjuna allowed to slip. What that means is that he slumped forward. The bow didn’t literally “slip from his grasp,” as Chapter 1 of the Gita symbolically suggests. The position indeed suggests a bow, with the front of the body resembling the arch of the bow, and the spine resembling the string.

More is given on the meditative position in the next stanzas. In this stanza Krishna says to cover the mat of kusha grass with the skin of a deer or a tiger. Traditionally, these animals should have died a natural death, though if one wants such a skin he must more or less take what he can get these days. (My own Guru’s deer skin clearly displayed a bullet hole.) Animal skins are not easily come by, and serve a purpose for which other coverings—woolen blankets, or silk cloths—can be substituted. Deer skins are said to be helpful in achieving peace of mind. Tiger skins are said to generate will power, and are generally recommended only for those who practice sexual self-control, in the thought that the energy generated will conflict with that of people who don’t practice abstinence, and will therefore cause tension between the upward-pulling energy in the spine and its downward-moving tendencies.

All this is, however, quite arcane. The physical effect of these skins is negligible compared with their more mundane purpose: to insulate subtle energies in the body from other, downward-pulling earth energies.

Perfectly adequate for general purposes, and for most people (so Paramhansa Yogananda said), are the energy-insulating properties of wool and/or silk. If you sit on the floor, place a woolen blanket beneath you. If you sit on a chair, place the woolen blanket in such a way that it comes under the feet, over the seat, and over the back of the chair. You may, if you like, cover the wool with a silk cloth.

It is important that your seat be firm (not wobbly), and clean. Preferably, no one but you should ever sit there. Some of the benefits of solitude can be achieved by setting aside a room in your home for nothing but meditation. By allowing no other activity to take place in that room, you will gradually build up vibrations there that will tangibly help you to achieve inner silence. You will, indeed, feel those vibrations the moment you enter the room.

If you cannot set aside a separate room for meditation, it will be possible to create some of the same effect by screening off a portion of some other room—perhaps your bedroom.

One reason for having one’s seat (suitably insulated) on the ground when you meditate is to protect your body, in case you should slip suddenly into a deep meditative state, in which case your body might fall over and injure itself. The best position for this purpose, and one which presses on certain nerves that, Yogananda used to say, will help to steady the body, is Padmasana (the lotus pose).

A firm seat need not mean a hard one! Hardness will not only soon become uncomfortable, but will cause the legs to go numb. Ease and relaxation are primary considerations.

--From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Kriyananda

POSITION OF THE EYES

            You must get used to the practicing of this Technique with your eyes gently concentrated upon the point between the eyebrows. Do not strain the eves. However, if you are not used to holding the eves in this position, practice some of the time with your eves half open, but most of the time with eyes closed. You can practice with eyes closed, and in leisure hours lie down on your back, and watch the breath, mentally chanting “HONG-SAU”. The more you practice in your leisure hours, the greater will be the results Work overtime and you will gain still better results.              --From Praecepta Lesson 22 (1936)

§

            A major vehicle for the brain’s energy is the eyes. Look into the eyes of anyone possessing a strong, vibrant personality (many people’s eyes, alas, are spiritually dead), and feel the intensity of this energy-flow. Observe how people’s eyes can seem almost to blaze with anger, to freeze in contempt, to sparkle with laughter, to melt with kindness and love. It is only when an abundance of energy flows through the eyes that the manifest these mental states so clearly, but this flow of energy does more than manifest them. It affirms them, and thereby helps to develop them.

Take care, then, that your eyes express only spiritual qualities, for it is literally true that, as you see the world, so you yourself will tend to become. The eyes, in revealing one’s mental states, suggest also the general portion of the brain in which the consciousness at those times is centered. Particularly, when the mind slips toward subconsciousness and the energy becomes centered in the lower brain, the eyes tend to look downward, when one is involved in the world, or otherwise active on the conscious level, the energy becomes centered more in the mid-brain, and the eyes tend more naturally to look straight ahead, and when one enters a state of superconsciousness, the eyes are drawn automatically to gaze upward.

These directions may be observed to some extent even in normal wakefulness. When a person withdraws mentally from reality, whether in discouragement or in fatigue, he tends to look down. If his withdrawal is for the purpose of pondering something, he may look down and slightly off to the side, as if in partial recognition of the objective world around him. If he desires to relate to the world completely, he will look it “straight in the eye”. If he is inspired by something inward, he will tend to look up, if by something outward he may look diagonally upward, as if divided between outward consciousness and superconsciousness.

Much more might be written about the involuntary movements of the eyes. Restless and constantly blinking eyes, for example, indicate a restless mind, quiet, unblinking eyes, a calm mind; staring eyes, a blank (or, sometimes, a veiled) mind. Eyes that look as if pressed inward from the sides suggest mental worry; eyes relaxed at the sides, inner peace, eyes drawn slightly outward at the sides, devotion and a sense of oneness with the Beloved. Shifty eyes indicate untruthfulness-an unwillingness to face reality squarely. Sagging lower lids indicate a downward pull on the mind, whether from ill health, fatigue, dissipation, or despair. Firm and slightly raised lower lids indicate an abundance of vitality, and a radiant inner sense of well being. A tendency to look calmly off to the side indicates a more-than-usually intelligent person.

Again, the right eye represents a person’s rational nature, and left eye, his emotional and “feeling” nature. When reason is uppermost in his consciousness, he tends to think and to express his awareness more through the right eye. When feeling is uppermost, he thinks and expresses himself more through the left eye.

I write these things not so that you may sit judgmentally over your fellow men, but that you may live more consciously through your own eyes. Remember, they are the windows of your soul. Used rightly, they can be made instruments of great blessing and inspiration to others. Just as important, they can help you to affirm and deepen those states of consciousness which you want to develop.

When you sit for meditation, look up toward the point between the eyebrows. I don’t mean to cross your eyes, but only to direct their gaze upwards, focusing them at a point no closer than your thumb, when held up at arm’s length from your body. You might think of your eyes as being situated only in the upper part of their sockets.

Superconsciousness is a fine line of awareness that divides consciousness from subconsciousness. The Spirit, similarly, rests forever at a point midway between all dualities. Closed eyes denote subconsciousness, open eyes, wakefulness. Thus, half-closed and half-open eyes, with the lower lids relaxed and slightly raised, and the upper lids relaxed and slightly lowered, denote the state of superconsciousness.

If you can meditate in this position without becoming distracted by outward visual images, you will find it most helpful to do so. Your eyelids may quiver at first, but you will find them becoming still as your mind grows calm.

Otherwise, practice this half-open and half-closed position for a time, and then close the eyes, keeping them focused upward. Even with the eyes closed, however, feel that their lids have simply relaxed so completely that they happen to meet.

As you meditate, focus every perception at the point between the eyebrows. (Actually, of course, the frontal point in the brain that you should stimulate by concentration is behindthe bone.)

Every sound that you hear, think of it as emanating from the Christ center, or refer it mentally to that center. Treat every other sensation, every thought in the same way. Direct all the feelings of your heart upward in aspiration to the point between the eyebrows.

Gradually, as you come to feel God’s blissful presence within you, you will recognize this as the doorway through which the soul communes with him.           --From The art and science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 5:7

§

Look up, now, toward a point midway between the eyebrows. This point is known in ancient tradition as the Spiritual Eye.

Don’t cross your eyes so as literally to look at that point, but gaze at a point a little beyond Try holding your thumb out at arm reach. Focus on it there, but don’t get too specific.

The main thing is that you focus your attention at the point between the eyebrows.

Remember those signs you used to see before rural railroad crossings? “Stop, look, and listen!” That’s what you should do now:

Stop worrying and planning, the world will still be there when you come out of meditation Leave it, for this short period of time, to its own devices.

Don’t only look, but gaze deeply into — behind — the darkness of closed eyes at the point between the eyebrows.

Listen — not with your ears, merely, but with your whole being. Seek to resonate with the vibrations of Infinity.

            The point between the eyebrows is the seat of concentration in the body.

Have you ever noticed how, whenever you concentrate deeply, you tend to knit your eyebrows?

The point between the eyebrows is also the seat of superconsciousness, and of ecstasy.

Have you ever noticed how, when you feel happy, you tend to look upward — even to raise your eyebrows? Everything about your body reflects the inner flow of energy. If you feel depressed, your body’s energy flows downward.

As a result, you tend to lower your head, and to look down You may turn the corners of your mouth downward.   Your shoulders sag. Your spine slumps.  Even while standing, your weight rests heavily on your heels, even your gait seems heavy.

But whenever you feel elated, your life-force flows upward — You raise your head, and look upward. Your mouth curves upward in a smile. You sit up straight, throwing your shoulders back. When upright, you tend more to stand on the balls of your feet, and to walk with a light step.

Look upward. Feel the energy m your body soaring upward, as if freed of its earthly fetters for this brief time.                                                           --From the article by Swami Kriyananda, “Meditation for Starters”

§

            Throughout the practice of this technique, look upward so as gradually to raise your consciousness.  Do not, however, concentrate at the Christ center until it becomes natural for you to feel the flow of the breath at that point.                                               --From The art and science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 10:7

BREATHING EXERCISES

            When you sit to meditate, begin by inhaling, counting mentally to 12; hold the breath, counting to l2; exhale, counting to 12. Gradually, if you can do so comfortably, increase this count to 20-20-20, but keep the count equal for all three phases of breathing. Repeat this breathing exercise six to twelve times.

            Then inhale, tense the whole body; throw the breath out and relax. Repeat two or three times. Your body should now be completely relaxed, and your mind ready for meditation.

-- From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 3:7

§

• So as to decarbonizes the blood stream, and thereby to calm the body, inhale, tensing the whole body, throw the breath out and relax. Repeat two or three times
• Inhale and exhale slowly and deeply several times, making the period of inhalation, holding, and exhalation the same (Suggested counts 20-20-20, or 12-12-12.) Don’t strain. Repeat six or twelve times.
• Mentally check the body to make sure it is relaxed. Periodically, check the body again during your practice of the technique.

·       Begin your actual practice of the technique by first exhaling, slowly and deliberately.

-- From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 9:7

§

            I suggested earlier that you begin your meditation by tensing and relaxing the body two or three times. Let me now suggest that you bring greater will power and deeper awareness to this practice.

            The best way to relax the body in meditation is consciously to withdraw the energy from it. Pranayama techniques in yoga books usually focus on breathing exercises. Prana is also, in fact, the Sanskrit word for “breath”; there exists a close connection between the breath and the energy, or life-force. Those breathing exercises are particularly useful in helping to raise the energy in the spine.

            For now, try again the exercise I recommended earlier: Inhale, gradually tensing the whole body until it vibrates. Be fully aware of the energy behind that tension and vibration. Then exhale forcibly and relax, releasing the energy from the muscles. With relaxation, feel the energy withdrawing from the body. Repeat this exercise two or three times. Then take several deep, slow breaths, as I’ve suggested before: Inhale counting to 12, hold counting to 12, exhale counting to 12. Then, with deep relaxation, draw the energy up the spine by concentration at the point between the eyebrows.

-- From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Chapter 10

§

            Practice the following exercise three times a day: Exhale slowly, counting from 1 to Now, while the lungs are empty, mentally count from 1 to Inhale slowly, counting from 1 to Then hold the breath, counting from 1 to 6. Repeat eleven times.  --Yogoda Super-Advanced Course, Lesson 5, Swami Yogananda, 1930

OPENING THE HEART

As a focus for your devotion, you may find it helpful to set up an altar in your place of meditation. Include pictures on the altar, if you like, of saints, or of images of God, or of infinite light and space. (You may even find photographs of stars and galaxies helpful, as reminders of the vastness of space.)

A helpful practice also, if it pleases you, is the burning of incense as a devotional offering. The sense of smell is closely related to the memory faculty. You may recall, for example, catching in some fleeting scent a reminder of some childhood episode that awakened a host of associated memories. Incense, when used regularly in meditation, will help to create meditative associations in your mind, and bring you more quickly, therefore, to inner calmness.                        --From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Chapter Seventeen

§

Think of your heart now as a lily (In Eastern tradition the suggestion would be to think of it as a lotus. )

See the petals spread out in all directions — just as they lie on the surface of a pond. Think of those heart-petals as rays of light and energy: energy of desire, of attachments; of likes and dislikes.

Now, mentally turn these heart-petals, these rays of energy, upward — so that they no longer reach outward in desire or aversion to the world, but upward in love and aspiration to Infinity: — to the brain, and outward through the doorway of the Spiritual Eye. Offer yourself in stillness to this practice.

--From the article, “Meditation for Starters,” Swami Kriyananda

§

            When Paramhansa Yogananda published his book Cosmic Chants, he wrote in the “Prelude” to it  that each of the chants contained in the book had been “spiritualized.” That is, he had sung it over and over until, in the singing, he had received a divine response. Here is a fascinating aspect of music as a vehicle for states of consciousness: Not only do certain kinds of music help to transmit the mental states of their composers; even after they have been composed they can be further impregnated with power. This esoteric truth becomes easily understood if we remember that many people can sense in the vibrations of a room or of a building the consciousness–whether happy, or sad, or nervous, or spiritually inclined–of the people who have lived there, and not only the consciousness of the architect. A building is not, essentially, more substantial than a song. All things exist as vibrations. All, ultimately, is consciousness. Matter is not really solid at all. The very rocks are only manifestations of subtler realities. Songs, too, can acquire vibrations according to the uses to which they are put. To sing the spiritualized chants of a master, particularly with a consciousness of attunement with him, can be a very powerful means of attracting his grace.

            Attunement is, of course, the most vital factor in fitting oneself to receive any vibration. Even a radio can pick up a station only when it is tuned to its wavelength. Since our attunement is clearest with states of consciousness that we have perceived directly ourselves, Yoganandaji wrote that the greatest benefit comes from spiritualizing a chant oneself, by singing it repeatedly, more and more deeply, day after day until it lifts one into  superconsciousness. Thereafter, he said,  whenever one sings the same chant it will induce that state of consciousness. This is one reason why it is good to stick loyally to one spiritual path, and to one set of spiritual techniques, instead of trying many paths in the name of “broad-mindedness.” For once, by long practice, a specific practice has been “spiritualized” through some form of divine contact, it will quickly induce a divine state of awareness every time it is undertaken again. In the same way, although a variety of chants may be more interesting, and in that sense more inspiring, than sticking to one chant for a long period of time, the way really to spiritualize a chant is to sing only that one for days, weeks, or months together, taking it deeper and deeper into oneself as you have been taught to do with affirmations, until through it one achieves some definite divine contact.

-- From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 8:7

§

From Awakening to Superconsciousness

            The spiritual purpose of chanting is not to develop powers, but to give one control over the mind, that he may direct it one-pointedly toward God. If chants and mantras can bestow power over objective nature, how much greater their effectiveness when their aim is to benefit the chanter himself. The highest purpose of chanting is to help awaken us to our own spiritual potential: to bring us closer to Self-realization.

            Spiritual chanting is heartfelt prayer, deepened by the dimension of music and by the building power of repetition. Repetition is not for the purpose of getting the Lord’s attention: It is to deepen the intensity of one’s own prayer. To repeat a chant mechanically, in a singsong manner, has virtually no spiritual value.

            Spiritual chanting is different from singing songs or hymns. I’ve written well over a hundred songs myself—for instruction, inspiration, and reflection. Such music serves a different purpose, however. Though it may inspire, it doesn’t lift the mind into a meditative state.

How to Chant

            The art of chanting correctly is, first, to practice it with full awareness of its inner purpose. That purpose is not to awaken sentiments or to stir up the emotions. It is to focus the heart’s feelings and raise them toward superconsciousness.

            The Maharani of Cooch Behar told me she’d once asked her family priest why he intoned his chants so loudly. “Well, you see, your Highness,” he explained, “God is far away. If I don’t shout, how will He hear me?” God isn’t far away, of course. It is we who distance ourselves from Him by the “noise” in our own minds, a noise people often carry with them into their prayers and meditations.

            Loud chanting does have its place. It is good at the start of meditation—not for the reason that priest gave, but to command attention from our own minds. For loud chanting creates a magnetic flow. Like a mighty river, it can dissolve the eddies of thought and feeling that meander idly along the banks of the mind. Like a magnetic military leader, it commands attention from your thought-soldiers and fires them with zeal.

            Once you’ve got their attention, chant more softly, more inwardly. Direct your energy upward, now, from the heart to the Spiritual Eye.

            Once your conscious mind is wholly engaged in chanting, bring it down into the subconscious by whispering. While chanting in the subconscious, offer the chant there, too, up to superconsciousness at the point between the eyebrows, until you feel your entire being vibrating with the words, the melody, and the rhythm.

            At last, chant only mentally, at the point between the eyebrows. Let your absorption lift you into superconsciousness. Once it does so, and once you receive a divine response, you will have spiritualized the chant. From then on, any time you sing the chant it will quickly carry you again to superconsciousness as if on a magic carpet.

            To spiritualize a chant, keep it rotating in the mind—for days at a time, if necessary: not only in meditation, but as you go about your daily activities. This practice is also called japa. Christian mystics, too, speak of the continuous “prayer of the heart,” and of “practicing the presence of God.” All this is japa.

            The higher aspect of chanting involves listening to the mighty sound of AUM, and becoming absorbed in it. You’ll hear this sound first in the right ear. Gradually let it permeate the brain and the entire body, until every cell vibrates with that sound. After that, try to hear AUM in everything you do, in everything you perceive. This is true japa, when the mind no longer repeats words, merely, but is intoxicated with the bliss of the “music of the spheres.”

            The Cosmic Sound is described variously in the world’s scriptures. The Jews and Christians call it the Amen. Muslims call it the Amin. To the Zoroastrians it is Ahunavar. To Hindus and Buddhists it is AUM. In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John, the Cosmic Vibration is called the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

            The word AUM is an attempt to capture in human speech the sound of the Cosmic Vibration. By attuning one’s consciousness to that sound (by Christians called also the Holy Ghost and the Comforter), one enters the stream of vibration that proceeded out of the Spirit, and that merges back into the Spirit at creation’s end and at the end of the individual soul’s cycle of outward wandering. By merging in AUM, liberation is attained.

            Once the mind is focused by chanting, and the inner energy is awakened, take your chanting inward. Don’t only “make a glad noise unto the Lord,” as the Bible puts it: Listen for His answer. Meditation is listening, as I’ve said. Feel yourself chanting in attunement, above all, with the Cosmic Sound. Harmonize yourself inwardly with that sound…

What Words to Use?

            There is not a strong tradition of chanting in the West. Most of the chanting I’ve heard has been Gregorian chant, which is little heard outside of monasteries, or chants transported from India. Buddhist chanting, like Gregorian chant, is a recitation of scripture and is not, therefore, an appeal of the heart to God. The Indian form of chanting usually involves repeating various names of God. Since these names are foreign to most Westerners, and don’t possess the deep emotional associations they have for most Indians, they are less deeply meaningful, in themselves, than they are for people who grew up in India, or else are not always meaningful in the same way.

            I suspect that for most Westerners the words have more a mantric influence than a sentimental appeal. The sounds uplift, but the words are less easily associated in the Western mind than in the Indian with mental images of Rama with his bow, Sita in her selfless service to Rama, Krishna with his flute, Ganesha with his elephant’s head, and so on. The extreme antiquity of Hindu culture has guaranteed an abundance of symbols, most of which have lost their inner meanings even for Hindus. The lack of such visual associations with the names may, in one way, be an advantage for Westerners, since it forces them to focus more on the sounds of the names, as they allow those vibrations, which are powerful, to uplift them.

            Other aspects of the Indian chants—the melodies and the rhythms—are often soul-stirring, and need no further explanation. India has developed a tradition of chanting as an expression of deep, intimate love for God. There is power in such chanting, even if you don’t really relate to the words you’re singing.

            Paramhansa Yogananda, as a great yogi whose mission was to disseminate the yoga teachings in the West, introduced a new kind of chanting here. It is based on the repetition of meaningful phrases, rather than of the divine names. Some of the chants he wrote he translated from Bengali or Hindi songs. Others, he wrote himself. This kind of chanting is more like a repetitive prayer set to music, and is better suited for meditators, who understand the importance of combining the soul’s appeal for divine grace with self-effort. For by singing God’s names only, what remains in the mind is the thought “God will do it all for me.” What Yogananda’s method of chanting accomplishes is to awaken in the mind the thought “In these ways I will cooperate with His grace.”

            One of his chants goes:

            “I am the bubble, make me the sea.

            So do Thou, my Lord! Thou and I, never apart,

            Wave of the sea dissolve in the sea,

            I am the bubble, make me the sea.”

            Very simple, you see? And very easily memorized. When such a chant is sung repeatedly, the mind is easily lifted up into meditation.

            Some of Paramhansa Yogananda’s chants go further in the direction of personal affirmation, and are less similar to the traditional concept of prayer. An example of such a chant begins with these words:

            “Why, O mind, wanderest thou?

            Go in thine inner home!”

            These chants, too, are powerful, spiritualized as they were by a great master. They are in many ways better suited for people who follow the path of meditation. I myself have sung them for as long as I’ve been meditating—nearly fifty years. The inspiration I derive from them is precious to me beyond words.                                                                                                                                     -- Chapter 13

GENERAL ADVICE

Best Time to Concentrate

The four times of change during the day correspond to the four seasons. Noon is summer; 6 P.M is the rainy season, or fall; midnight is the winter; early morning is the spring. There are four changes which invade the body during these four magnetic seasons of the day. The purpose of this Technique is to realize the changeless in the four changing periods of the body, by vitalizing and magnetizing it with Life Currents and Cosmic Consciousness. These Currents arrest change and suspend the decay in the cells. Therefore, it is best to practice the changelessness-producing Technique four times a day for sure scientific results.  Meditate between 5 and 6 A.M.; 11 and 12 A.M., 5 and 6 P.M.; 10 and 12 P.M ; or 11 and 12 P.M.                                                                                                     --From Praecepta Lesson 21

§

            It’s important to prepare yourself properly for meditation.

If, for example, you try meditating after a hearty meal, your body’s energy will be working hard to digest your food.

Just try talking philosophy, or pondering any deep subject, after eating a hearty meal You’ll miss many of the fine points of the discussion —that, or you’ll get indigestion as you forcibly redirect your energy to the brain!

Before meditating, eat lightly Better still, don’t eat at all, or wait some time after eating

The best times to meditate are:

• on awakening in die morning,
• before meals,
• late at night, just before going to bed.

Those considerations aside, there are good times to meditate in an impersonal sense, also — when subtle changes take place in the earth with the shifting positions of the sun:

                        at (roughly) six a.m. — twelve noon — six p.m. — and at midnight.

 If none of these times suits your personal schedule, then choose other times that are suitable But make it a point, if possible, to meditate at the same times every day. In that way, you’ll develop a habit pattern It will become easier, then, to put aside distracting thoughts as you begin your meditation.

            The earth-energies I’ve mentioned are subtle, but very real.

Many high civilizations of the past have emphasized the importance of attunement with them. Many primitive cultures of our own day emphasize this importance, too — but is it only our own arrogance, born of our addiction to technology, that labels them primitive?

Others of the earth energies that would be good for you to take into consideration are certain subtle forces — I’m not referring to gravity — that draw on the life-force in the body, pulling it downward.

In meditation, you see, you want the life-force in your body to flow upward, toward the brain I’ll go more deeply into this aspect of meditation later. Suffice it for now to say that you can help to insulate yourself against those downward-pulling energies, while you meditate

The insulation is not some “cutting-edge” electronic gadget, but a simple woolen blanket. A deer skin is even better. As a preparation for meditation, it will help you to sit on one. You may not consciously experience its benefits, but take it on faith from others whose consciousness, after years of meditation, has grown highly refined in these matters. Their ability to make this observation is as matter-of-fact as yours would be in telling a blind person that the sunlight makes it possible to tell objects apart.

            A further beneficial insulation would be a silk cloth, placed over the blanket.

            The direction in which you face while meditating will also affect your concentration.

— Mind you, neither direction nor insulation is essential: These are only aids. —

            If convenient, then, sit facing east. If east is inconvenient, owing to the lay-out of your home, face north.

According to many ancient traditions, enlightenment comes from the east — I don’t mean from the Orient, but from a direction east of wherever we happen to be.

According to some of those traditions, liberation, similarly, comes from the north. In this case, of course, our concern is liberation from bondage to the tensions resulting from too much attention to the ego and its needs.

            Let’s weigh those claims in the light of what we know of history, and of present times. As far as I’ve been able to observe, the flow of civilization does seems to be westward. Think about it.

A greater spirit of freedom, also, seems generally to reside in the northern part of every country — whereas the spirit of ecarboni, or faithfulness to tradition, is more generally found in the south.

            Freedom — and orthodoxy — both manifest themselves in many different ways.

The spirit of freedom is expressed in ways as diverse as a spirit of rebellion, on the one hand, and a yearning for spiritual freedom on the other.

The spirit of orthodoxy is expressed in ways as diverse as backwardness, or dogmatism and bigotry, on the one hand, and steadfastness to those human values which have been tested, and found true.

In meditation, you want both enlightenment (the energy that comes from the east) and soul-freedom (the “northern” kind of energy). Of the two, however, enlightenment must come first Therefore, east is the best direction to face in meditation.

If you can set one special place aside for meditation, all the better.  It may be simply a screened-off portion of your bedroom.  Best, to be sure, would be a room entirely dedicated to meditative practices.

The purpose in keeping a space devoted strictly to meditation is to build up in that space an “atmosphere,” or vibration, of calmness and concentration.

After several months — it may happen much sooner — you will be amazed at how calm your meditation space feels, from the moment you enter it.

--From Meditation for Starters, article by Swami Kriyananda

§

            Generally speaking, it is best to meditate in quiet places, and at quiet times of the day. It is also good occasionally, however, to discipline the mind. Don’t pamper it. You may even like to meditate, sometimes, in noisy places, as a mental discipline. Don’t sit where people will see you and wonder what you’re doing. Or, if the place is public, don’t sit in such a way as to call attention to yourself. In this case, you might practice looking ahead of you with open eyes.

            One way of becoming virtually invisible in public is to put out the thought “I’m not here.” Send no mental tendrils out to your environment. Rather, put out a vibration of non-being—somewhat along the principle of modern noise-cancellation technology, where sound waves are nullified by projecting sounds of an opposite wave pattern. Obliterate “people-consciousness” from your mind. You’ll be surprised to how little an extent people notice you. Quite possibly they won’t notice you at all: That is, they may see you, but they won’t observe you.

            Wait two or three hours, if possible, after a heavy meal before beginning meditation. If this delay is impossible, however, or inconvenient, don’t worry about it. Obstacles, if unavoidable, should be welcomed: They help to strengthen the will power.

            Be more conscious of living in a world composed of energy and vibrations. Remind yourself always that you are not the body: You are consciousness working, through energy, to animate the body.

            Above all in meditation, be happy! If you want to experience peace, meditate peacefully. If you want to know love, offer love first, yourself. It isn’t that superconscious states can be created by right attitudes. They don’t appear by command performance of the conscious mind, but are the fruits, rather, of right meditation. However, you can hold yourself in readiness for those experiences by placing yourself on their “wavelength,” instead of clinging with “scientific objectivity” to opposite states of consciousness.

--From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Chapter Seventeen

§

(6:24) Relinquishing without exception every self-willed longing; restraining mentally all sensory involvement in the world;—

(6:25) patiently calming the intuitive intelligence, and absorbed in the Self, the yogi, relinquishing all other thoughts, gradually attains perfect peace.

When one first sits to meditate, a million distractions come to dissuade him from the effort. If he meditates with half-open eyes (which is the ideal position), he may be distracted by circumambient lights or movements. In this case, it is permissible to close the eyes.

Sounds, of all sensations, are the most likely to invade one’s inner “battlefield” of Kurukshetra. In that case, he may use ear plugs, or a “T”-shaped board on which to rest his elbows, lightly pressing the thumbs on the tragus of each ear. It is good in any case to find a silent place for meditation. If such is not available, then choose some place containing such a confusion of sounds that no particular one stands out distractingly; or else a place where one continuous sound drowns out all others: a waterfall, for instance, or a flowing stream.

Smells can be used to advantage by creating one scent (an obvious suggestion is incense) that not only diminishes other odors but becomes gradually associated in the mind with devotional exercises and uplifted feelings.

Tastes are relatively easy to dismiss, but if any taste lingers in the mouth from food recently eaten it may help to sip a little pure water before sitting to meditate.

Touch, finally, can at least be made less distracting by wearing loose, comfortable clothing, sufficiently warm and sufficiently light for the occasion, so that the body neither shivers nor perspires unduly.

The patience counseled in the last stanza is necessary for calming the mind. Paramhansa Yogananda likened it to a glass of water into which dirt particles have been stirred. One cannot command the water to become clear, but if one allows the glass to sit for awhile the impurities gradually settle to the bottom, or else rise to the surface of their own accord, to be skimmed off.

The average man, whose thoughts (especially during activity) become completely integrated with his consciousness, doesn’t realize how restless his mind is. When he sits to meditate, he may be aghast to find how his consciousness seethes and roils with one idea after the other, one plan after the other, one sensation, one memory, one intention after the other. Discouragement may seize him in a vice-like grip. Let him continue calmly to discipline this fractious colt, the mind! It will gradually come under control, and will behave as he directs it to.                --From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Kriyananda

§

·                  Sit very still throughout your practice of the technique. Any physical movement (and also any unrelated movement of thought or emotion) will further excite the breath.

·                  Every now and then, mentally check the body (especially the nose) to be sure it is relaxed.

--From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 10:7