Hari
OM
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation.
Meditation & Life, with Sw. Chinmayananda
(Gurudev).
We are now exploring the writings of Gurudev on our focus subject of
Meditation. The book is a thorough treatment of the subject and extends to over
170 pages of closely printed text. No attempt is intended, here, to present the
text in its entirety. However, important paragraphs and quotes will
be given, within a summary of each section. You
are encouraged to use the links on sidebar to obtain a copy for yourselves from
CM publications. Please remember that each of the posts under this title is part of a
thought flow and it is important to go back and read the previous post in order
to refresh and review the context.
Prepare for Meditation, cont'd.
Posture.
It is not possible to express Love or devotions with one's sleeves
rolled up and fists clenched. It is equally true that kneeling on the floor
with hands folded and eyes raised that you cannot convey a sense of vengeance
or hatred.
Posture counts for a lot in our activities and posture can give away
lots of information about what is really going on within. Not only does your
mental condition advertise its nature upon the physical body, but the position
and condition of the physical body, to a large extent, determine and affect
your mental attitude. This close connection between the two is what prompted
the Rsis to advise a conducive posture for greatest meditational blessing. Not just any posture will work to our
advantage in this activity.
Thought Massage.
Experienced Masters advise that the meditator next relax the body.
As you settle into full aasana, it will be inevitable that tensions and
twitchings will occur. Relaxation itself takes practice. It is effected through
a process called thought massage. In this, one closes the eyes and sends the
thoughts down the body, attending each and very muscle.
Starting with the neck, find the tense points and with the mind
instruct the muscle to 'drop'! Then come down to the shoulders and again find
the culprits and use the mind to release the muscles. Again, move down, now to
the chest. Inspect the tensions there and drop them. Then on down to the belly
region. Check in at the equivalent points on the back with the same focus. Now the hips, thighs and so on… right down to
the toes. Don't forget the arms and
fingers. Experience will show that relaxed arms can be most comfortably rested
if the hands are laid in the lap, fingers lightly interlocked. When the body is
fully relaxed it may fell that the body has become heavier; this is as it
should be. In this position, it is as if you are hanging your overcoat up. The
body now is merely the clothing of the inner being. Your attention is can now
move away from the physical as you enter the meditation seat proper.
The strength of meditation does not depend upon the kind of seat you
use. Once you have learned the art of meditation, you will be able to enter the
state no matter where you are. Until that time of falling naturally into the
meditative state, however, following the set procedure and posture is of
importance in the training of the mind and the body. Ideally, for the beginner,
there will also be an external point of focus such as a murti of one's
ishta-devataa, or an OM symbol, or a cross; something which represents the
Higher Spirit for this lesser spirit to centre upon.
