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Q: In your last column you wrote "As a meditator, you are at the center of meditation," and went on to explain that if you don't understand who you are, you cannot meditate. How do I gain an understanding of myself so that I can meditate? Isn't meditation supposed to give us that understanding?

A: It is true that you are at the center of your meditation-if you are not present with your full self-awareness, you cannot meditate-but it is also true that meditation helps you gain an understanding of yourself. This is the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma: meditation helps you capture your mind and turn it inward, but you need to have your mind with you and you need to be able to turn it inward in order to meditate. Overcoming this dilemma is an essential part of meditation; it can be done only by gaining a basic understanding of yourself.

Self-understanding requires self-analysis. Observe yourself and see what is delightful and what is unpleasant. Discover what drags you into the past and prevents you from remaining in the present. What makes you sad and interferes with your ability to remain cheerful? What creates inner unrest and causes your mind to attend to something other than your meditation? Based on the conclusions you drw from this self-analysis, you can devise an appropriate strategy for letting go of unwanted thoughts and focusing instead on the object of meditation. I'll give you an example from my own experience.

One of my sisters married at an early age. She was only a few years younger than me, and we were very close. Soon after her marriage, I emigrated to the United States, and each time I heard from my family, they mentioned that my sister was having a rough time. According to Western standards, she was being abused by her new extended family. When I sat for meditation I immediately thought of her and could bring my mind to my practice only with a great deal of effort. When I returned to India, I heard the details of her ill treatment, and this further fueled my disturbance. I was both sad and angry-I wanted to go to her home and settle this matter, but I was powerless because Indian culture dictated that it was not my place to interfere. I lost my peace of mind. When I tried to meditate I was consumed by thoughts of my sister and could not stop making plans to rescue her.

Years earlier I had been initiated into the tradition of the Himalayan sages and had been meditating faithfully, but now I could not collect myself for even five minutes. After some time, I traveled to Rishikesh to see my teacher, Swami Rama, and during the two-day journey I was obsessed with thoughts of my sister. Finally, I put my problem before Swamiji, and he said, "Your problem is that you are not able to see the distinction between your duty and your attachment. Go on discharging your duties without any attachment. Take your bath in the Ganges, and instead of meditating, contemplate on what I have just said. Then, with a new mind-set, start your meditation." This formula worked like magic. I realized that, because of my attachment, I could not see beyond my sister's pain. Lacking self-analysis, I was unable to see that I was so deeply affected by this attachment that had become an integral part of my mind. And as a result, when I tried to meditate, my mind was more with my sister than with me. With this realization, my mind returned to me and I began to meditate as peacefully as I had before.

Q: I have trouble believing that the main obstacle to meditation is lack of self-understanding. Doesn't everyone in the world have a basic understanding of themselves?

A: No, unfortunately, they don't. In fact, many people lack even the most basic understanding of themselves. However, anyone who sincerely commits to self-assessment will eventually gain self-understanding and when they do, meditation-the inward journey-becomes easier. Those who refuse to know themselves encounter countless obstacles when they attempt to meditate. They do not know what they are looking for, why they are looking for it, or what they expect from attaining it, and yet they go on groping in the darkness and call it meditation.

Self-understanding allows you to look at the source of your disturbance objectively. It helps you draw a line between yourself and the source of disturbance and see that you have been identifying with that disturbance. Self-understanding helps you gain a right perspective on yourself and your relationship with what has been disturbing you. And this perspective enables you to discern whether the cause of your disturbance is outside of you, inside you, or both.

In the example I have just given, I realized that my sister and I had certain duties toward each other, yet no two people ever share the same fate. Diversity is the law of nature, and this law applies in every realm of our lives. I saw that while I must try to do everything in my power to see that my sister was happy, I must not let my sense of duty become contaminated with attachment, anger, aversion, and anxiety. I could help her only if I honored the circumstances of her domestic life. This is what I mean by "self-understanding." In this example, the understanding of my "self" includes both who I am in relation to myself and who I am in relation to my sister, and this self-understanding enabled me to reclaim my composure and inner stability. When I did, I was able to both meditate and find a way to help my sister.

Q: You make gaining this basic level of self-understanding sound simple. Yet in my experience it is extremely difficult. Why can't we pause for a moment, think who we are, and place ourselves, as a meditator, right in the center of our meditation and meditate?

A: Understanding who we are is not the work of a moment. It takes time and sustained attention. Frankly, people don't want to spend time finding out who they are. We are immersed in a culture that says, "I want it, and I want it now." We want to achieve the result of meditation instantly, and if possible, through someone else's effort. Yet in many other aspects of life we expect to spend a great deal of time and effort achieving our goals. We study for years to become a computer scientist or an archeologist, for example. Then we are willing to spend months writing programs or invest decades in locating and digging up fossils. Yet spending even an hour contemplating who we are, what our problems are, what is distracting us, and finding a way to remove the causes of this distraction so we can meditate to attain peace and inner joy, seems to be too much of an investment. When we are at work we put our personal issues aside, but during meditation we fail to do that because somehow we are not convinced that meditation, which leads to peace and inner joy, is as important as our means of livelihood.

Q: What is it that clouds self-understanding and causes us to forget who we are and who others are in relation to us? How can we keep ourselves anchored during meditation so we are not distracted by thoughts and emotions?

A: It is our attachments that could the mind. Because of them the mind keeps returning to the objects it considers most important. Attachment cripples the power of discrimination and leaves no room for the mind to even consider whether or not it makes sense to live with the misery it causes. A mind that is clouded by attachment goes on treasuring that attachment and at the same time it complains that it has lost its ability to attend to the task at hand-be it meditation or a project at the office.

-Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Yoga International september 2004

~~~~~

I found this very helpful in being clear and focused in meditation, and awareness of distracting attachments. I suppose I am attached to sharing this so that we may all be more aware, and better at meditation.. he he.. but this is a fine attachment and won't distract the mind. How to handle family problems in regards to clarity of feelings and emotions was particularly helpful to me, and hopefully to you too.

Love and light being, Teo Cloud9 Cloud9

Have the heart of a gypsy, and the dedication of a soldier -Beethoven in Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Original Post

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Thank you Teo for this very helpful post on meditation. Unfortunately I have not meditated lately as often as I used to, and when I do my mind is dancing all over the place UFO Doggy CoolDance Angel2, and it is not at all where it is supposed to be Cloud9.
I will make an attempt to let go of interfering thoughts Juggle while meditating.

2Hearts Violin 2Hearts
The issue of applying awareness to daily life is more a matter of how aware we are than what the choreography of our karma may provide. Both are intertwined.

Teo and I were just discussing the fact that there are a number of different Yogas that one can associate with different chakras, harmonics, etcetera. Can we not have Bhakti in our hearts Shakti in our words and point of view, and Samadhi in the crowns of our heads? Can we let those pure energies distill and purify our animal natures through the more grounding karma yogas?

The irony of self awareness, is that if one approaches it from the perspective like Buddhists that the "self" is not real, one still has awareness of the moment and the dance of life without having to have a sense of self.

Dhiravamsa's comment that the word "alone" is a contraction of "all" and "one" always fit in very harmoniously with that notion that one can practice Vipassana Meditation (literally "passive watchfullness") without having to define or actively analyze ourselves adding to the noise of the already existing internal dialogue that gives us a sense of our "self."

The cycle of the breath is always underneath all the noise of our thoughts and analysis of what we perceive as our "self."

The greatest self awareness occurs when there is no notion of self or need to analyze it. Silence is the golden key by which the doors to creation are unlocked. A studied musician like Teo can tell you that the rests and silences are as important as the notes.

I figured I'd add a few notes of my own for Chinese New Year.

Happy New Year.

I understand that the celebration goes on for about 10 days in this year of slightly late celebration. Gong Hey fat Choi.

Nick (Gung Ho Fat Boy) and his cat.

Happy Rooster! Cockadoodle doo!
TRUE ESSENCE OF YOGA
Divine discourse of H.H. Sri DATTA SWAMI

Yoga is the most prestigious field of spiritualism. People think about 6 wheels (Chakras) or lotus flowers present in the spinal card, which are not seen by the eyes. They are imaginary and so they carry some inner meaning. When you say a face as a moon, fools search for moon in that face. But, wise people see similarity in the face and moon. Similarly, wheels and lotus flowers should not be searched in the spinal card. Spinal card is the main nerve, representing mind, which is the base of love. All these wheels or lotus flowers are the bonds of love in the various relatives like parents, wife or husband, children etc. They are compared to wheels or the revolving whirlpools in the ocean, which attract a swimmer and drown him. Similarly, these love wheels are compared to lotus flowers, since the lotus flowers attract the bee by sweet fragrance and bind it. Similarly, these love flowers attract any one and bind them. “Kundalini” is the mind which is the energy travelling as waves like a serpent, should cross all these love wheels connected to 7th lotus flower in the head called “Sahasrara”, which is Buddhi or intelligence that takes the decision, which is the firm love on God.
Bhagavat Gita is called as the main scripture of Yoga (Yoga-Sastra). Why there is not even single reference to these wheels or lotus flowers in anywhere in Gita or even in Upanishats? Since they are not real, they are not even mentioned. The author of the Gita was Krishna, who was called Master of Yoga (Yogeswara). Krishna also says that the real yoga was lost since long (Sa kaleneha mahata….). This means that in the beginning, Sages in India knew the real yoga and loved God only crossing all their family bonds. In due course of time only, this true yoga was lost. Why? The middle age Indians were unable to cross their family bonds and so failed to succeed in Yoga. They wanted to cover their in ability by twisting the very concept of yoga. The family bonds were removed from the concept and only wheels or lotus flowers are left fixed. Now, they close the eyes and say that they have seen the lotus flowers or wheels, which are only imaginary. Now they cross these wheels by their imaginary “Kundalini” and say that they have succeeded in Yoga. These blind teachers are also not to be blamed, because they were trained like that by their blind teachers. This misinterpretation was done long time back and hence, even at the time of Krishna, He told that yoga was lost since a long time. We cannot catch those original culprits, who were the top most twisting masters and so the present tradition also cannot be blamed. Only rectification is the way left over. Some say that they see light, which is only an imagination. After all, the mind is a form of energy and on its concentration imaginary light can be imagined. Instead of such a week light, you better see a strong light with your open eyes. What is the use of these imaginary lights and colours, without achieving the Lord through your love, which excels the various worldly loves.
I pity the foreigners, who are trapped in this false imaginary line of yoga, who are wasting their precious lifetime and energy. In fact, they are the best to succeed in yoga, if the reality of the yoga is exposed. Their family bonds are very weak and their love towards God is real, which is proved by their huge sacrifice of money to God’s work. Money is the fruit of work and its sacrifice for God’s work is “Karma phala tyaga” as mentioned in Gita. Again, the middle age Indians twisted this word “Karma phala tyaga” as sacrifice of the fruit of the work like praying God instead of sacrifice of money. The reason was that these Indians were unable to sacrifice money to God due to their strong love on their children. Foreigners ask their children to earn after certain age. Indians store money even for ten generations and still continue to store only. Since prayers, meditation and knowledge are very much diverted to God, India was blessed by God with good language, good mind and good knowledge. Since foreigners are good in sacrifice, God blessed them with good wealth. Even Indian spiritual centres were strongly funded by foreigners only. Swami Vivekananda cried, “Why my India suffers with poverty in spite of so much spiritual knowledge?” Sacrifice of money (Karma phala tyaga) and sacrifice of work (karma Sanyasa) put together constitute the God’s service, which is the real Yoga (real proof of love) called “Karma yoga” in Gita. Foreigners are the best in this karma yoga and so they easily succeed in yoga. Throughout Gita, this karma yoga was explained as yoga and wheels or lotus flowers are not at all mentioned.

surya
www.universal-spirituality.org
A very interesting quote/post Surya, thank you! Asian

What Pandit Rajmani Tigunait was eluding to in Yoga International september 2004 was about separating from attachments such as family worries when practicing the TM exercise - or non-exercise of calming the mind.

Reading what you shared here reminds me of a Tantric Tibetan Buddhist writing not long ago where the author says something like: "Concentrating on the breath is not the thing. That is just to keep the mind busy so that it won't think!" Though even in what he says, concentrating on the breath is good, just not the end in itself.

I found what Pandit Rajmani Tigunait said helpful, because indeed, if one is trying to quiet the mind of thoughts, often family and responsibility worries make it impossible. He gives clear example with his worrying about his sister, and how he finally decided that his calmness outweighed his family responsibility - his worry, and he was able to relax or meditate.
quote:
Originally posted by dattaswami:
TRUE ESSENCE OF YOGA
Divine discourse of H.H. Sri DATTA SWAMI

Yoga is the most prestigious field of spiritualism. People think about 6 wheels (Chakras) or lotus flowers present in the spinal card, which are not seen by the eyes. They are imaginary and so they carry some inner meaning...

Much of this quote is about how the chakra information is imaginary, or not relevant. Like concentrating on the breath as in my example above, I think they are and are not at the same time. Let me explain in more detail:

In the Chemetan or Egyptian mythology Thoth/Tahuti holds a staff called the Caduces which has winding spirals called Ida and Pingala in Hindi (talk about mixing myths!) Between the spirals are said to be the chakras-meaning wheels, and though Sri DATTA SWAMI says that they are imaginary, kerilian photography has taken some type of pictures of them and my own reference is from Barbara Ann Brennan's "Healing Hands Of Light" where she gives full visual descriptions. She was a scientist at NASA which gives her more credence than some snake-oil-salesperson eh? The graphic on the right is how she describes an aura or human-energy-field when it is in good shape. Similar but connected to another field of study is the seven endocrine glands all seemingly on the exact points where these wheels or energy vortexes or chakras are! Because I am a musician I enjoy looking at the similarities to the seven note musical scales.

I grew up in Berkeley California and have had enough discussions about chakras for a few lifetimes! Nut But whether they are "imaginary" or "real" or even just important is what I'm addressing here. Just as the Pentatonic music scale of 5 notes fits nicely under the 5 fingers of the hand, therefore I practice "runs" going the full length of the keyboard with that scale, the seven - or six as you mention - energy centers layer nicely with seven levels of awareness - and coordinate with the endocrine glands that are associated. If someone is fearful and trying to survive, it can be said they are "stuck" in the first chakra, the adrenalin gland. Creative energy is in the second, the gonads. You can go up the endocrine glands and there is a type of synchronicity with the chakras in a loose way. So layered on the musical scales, going from C to D then E then F is a nice type of resolution. This is likened to "achieving the heart level" in chakra-babble. As you go up to the seventh step, if you just stay singing that note, you want to hear the next octave, the note above it, and this seems similar to some chakra mystical connection from our highest center to a cosmic next octave or Atman-Brahman type of thing. So musically the chakras have a neat way of representing spiritual growth or evolutionary stages. Parmenides a Greek writer made a story about a chariot with 2 horses and 7 gates. Again you have the central pillar (Sushumna) and 2 snaking coils, this time horses. In Voodoo or more properly Vodoun which means life, they have the 2 snake gods Aida Weedo and Dumbalah which seem to layer on the snaking coils as well. And to top all of this off...

DNA strands are spirals with life energy information eh?


http://Givnology.com/chakras.htm

This is taken even farther, if you can believe it, in the book "Nothing In This Book Is True But It Is How Things Are" where he explains cell mitosis dividing from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 and the "Flower Of Life" of the 8 cells/circles is said to be the basis of ALL things, including our musical scales! On the linked chakra page above, he explains how to visualize chakra points outside of the body and create a Mercaba which looks synchronistically like the Hebrew Star Of David, and within this Mercaba he says space and time travel are possible. OK I think I have worn out my little notes on whether chakras are imaginary or just mumbo-jumbo, they are obviously both!

I like to chant the major scale and visualize healthy energy throughout my body, I sing: "Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet" or sometimes "...Purple White" for the last two. I do this and IMAGINE my "system" being "tuned up" or all my energies being healthy and appropriately in their right places. Green for the heart feels right as nature is full of greenery. The blues and top colors make me think how they are "royal" colors! The entire transition from the red to the white seems logical in a spiritual way, the body has red blood cells and such, the spirit is in a bright white light eh?

So I do this visualization, singing the major scale and playing my being as an instrument, and feel tuned up and recharged. THEN I DETACH FROM THIS IDEA COMPLETELY And I simply let my mind rest, try to empty it of all thoughts, all chatter, all worries and materiality.

In my example here, I showed how I am quite attached to this chakra business, those imaginary wheels or whatever, but how I go through that process, tune up and have a nice resonating harmonizing creshendoing musical finale "in my head," then completely break any mental attachments and rest my mind into the absolute nothingness.

That's my musical interpretation of "Full awareness in order to meditate" using whether or not chakras are worth anything as the attachment that I detach from in order to meditate. And my Kundalini or life force healthfully and joyfully raises up my visualized spine of musical notes and colors, blossoming to a healthy happy human bean flower.. he he.. Colors then sprouts in my Ateph hat (Chemetan headdress) and the heavenly healthy energy flows back down mainly the front of the body, as mentioned in "Cultivating Male Sexual Energy" which all creates what is called "The Microcosmic Orbit" and I am fully sure that everything from my DNA to my cells to my spine to my endocrine glands to my entire being to the cosmos are more tuned up and harmonic. Ta-Da!

I like how Nick said: "Dhiravamsa's comment that the word "alone" is a contraction of "all" and "one" always fit in very harmoniously with that notion that one can practice Vipassana Meditation (literally "passive watchfullness") without having to define or actively analyze ourselves adding to the noise of the already existing internal dialogue that gives us a sense of our "self.""

The real idea is to not need to think about much, but when you "come back" from "the void" it is nice to have a harmonic landing pad eh?

May we all be in harmony and have excellent use of silence as the great composers do. Amen and Awomen. And so it is.

Love and light being, Teo

Have the heart of a gypsy, and the dedication of a soldier -Beethoven in Beethoven Lives Upstairs

I found this very helpful in being clear and focused in meditation, and awareness of distracting attachments. I suppose I am attached to sharing this so that we may all be more aware, and better at meditation.. he he.. but this is a fine attachment and won't distract the mind. How to handle family problems in regards to clarity of feelings and emotions was particularly helpful to me, and hopefully to you too.

 

Thank you again Teo.
This information is interesting and quite helpful.

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