Meditation 7
Swami Vivekananda had prescribed several steps towards a good meditation –
1st step is to assume a posture and pray that the posture can be retained till the end.
2nd step is to pray for the well being of all, eliminate all selfish thoughts
3rd step is to do a few pranayams or breath control exercises (a maximum of three, because pranayams, although it is said that they can help in controlling the mind better by controlling the vital forces in the body, can be dangerous if not performed under the supervision of a qualified person)
4th step is to go for the actual meditation, for atleast half an hour.
Swami Vivekananda also advocated letting the mind run around for sometime before even trying to focus it. The mind like an errant child, after playing for sometime will get tired and come back to its resting place, just as a child goes back to its mother after being tired with a day’s play.
Another way which is advocated by spiritual seekers is to let the mind work its way instead of trying to focus it, and let the will and self merely witness its works in a disinterested and detached way. This is like you are watching some cinema without actually getting attached to the story, knowing all the while that it is a movie and you have no stake in it. But again, it is very difficult to detach the will from the thoughts.
It often helps a theist and dualist to meditate upon a form of a chosen deity which is luminous and full of bliss, ever smiling. That feeling provides lot of peace to a troubled mind.
Swami Vivekananda insisted on meditation as not only a means of attaining perfection through knowledge of the Self, but also for the secular education. He said that education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in human beings, which means that everything which is taught from outside is already there within. One will just have to make a conscious effort in retrieving that knowledge from inside. Thereby through deep thinking on particular subjects and through concentrated and sustained effort, which are also forms of meditation, a lot of scientific “discoveries” have been made which had been lying all along within us. That’s why often after reading about a theory we have that “aha” feeling, that ‘I also knew this’! Because the impression of that knowledge is carried within, the external reading merely corroborates the intuition and we cannot understand it unless we ponder over it truly and deeply. James Watt’s invention of steam engine by looking into the steam emanating from the kettle was no accident. It came as a revelation from within. So were the “eureka” moment of Archimedes, the apple of Newton, and special relativity theory. Most great paintings and music have their origin from within, a sudden soul stirring inspiration from a deeply concentrated thought process aimed at creating something “joyous”. That’s nothing but meditation.
1st step is to assume a posture and pray that the posture can be retained till the end.
2nd step is to pray for the well being of all, eliminate all selfish thoughts
3rd step is to do a few pranayams or breath control exercises (a maximum of three, because pranayams, although it is said that they can help in controlling the mind better by controlling the vital forces in the body, can be dangerous if not performed under the supervision of a qualified person)
4th step is to go for the actual meditation, for atleast half an hour.
Swami Vivekananda also advocated letting the mind run around for sometime before even trying to focus it. The mind like an errant child, after playing for sometime will get tired and come back to its resting place, just as a child goes back to its mother after being tired with a day’s play.
Another way which is advocated by spiritual seekers is to let the mind work its way instead of trying to focus it, and let the will and self merely witness its works in a disinterested and detached way. This is like you are watching some cinema without actually getting attached to the story, knowing all the while that it is a movie and you have no stake in it. But again, it is very difficult to detach the will from the thoughts.
It often helps a theist and dualist to meditate upon a form of a chosen deity which is luminous and full of bliss, ever smiling. That feeling provides lot of peace to a troubled mind.
Swami Vivekananda insisted on meditation as not only a means of attaining perfection through knowledge of the Self, but also for the secular education. He said that education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in human beings, which means that everything which is taught from outside is already there within. One will just have to make a conscious effort in retrieving that knowledge from inside. Thereby through deep thinking on particular subjects and through concentrated and sustained effort, which are also forms of meditation, a lot of scientific “discoveries” have been made which had been lying all along within us. That’s why often after reading about a theory we have that “aha” feeling, that ‘I also knew this’! Because the impression of that knowledge is carried within, the external reading merely corroborates the intuition and we cannot understand it unless we ponder over it truly and deeply. James Watt’s invention of steam engine by looking into the steam emanating from the kettle was no accident. It came as a revelation from within. So were the “eureka” moment of Archimedes, the apple of Newton, and special relativity theory. Most great paintings and music have their origin from within, a sudden soul stirring inspiration from a deeply concentrated thought process aimed at creating something “joyous”. That’s nothing but meditation.
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