Meditation

[Tirisilex]

How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

[devotee]

Namaste Trisilex,

Originally Posted by Tirisilex

How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

You may not get much response here because it is said that you should learn it under a good teacher/Guru. I will explain it in brief here :

Meditation is focusing of one's mind on a thought or anything. You may also meditate on a form. All thoughts except the thought on which you are meditating should be discarded and the mind has to be trained. Meditation is nothing but training your mind to stay focussed on one thought. There are various stages in meditation. After due practice under the guidance of your teacher/Guru, you may attain oneness with the object/thought on which you were meditating. There won't be any difference between the observer and the observed. However, you have to go still beyond this. In that state there is no observer or the observed ... no thought at all ... no duality. However, this state & also the previous state is not only dependent on practice ... it depends upon a lot of things (there are eight limbs of yoga) & the greatest role is of grace of your Self-Realised Guru or the Self.

For your detail information, you may like to read Patanjali Yogsutras. There are various ways to meditate. Paramhansa Yogananda has written a very good book on techniques of meditation : "Metaphysical Meditations".

I must warn you that it is not advisable to go on this path alone without a proper Guru.

OM

[Ashvati]

How does one go about finding a guru (especially living in the united states) and about how expensive is it?

[devotee]

Namaste Ashvati,

Originally Posted by Ashvati

How does one go about finding a guru (especially living in the united states) and about how expensive is it?

Finding a Guru will depend upon your spiritual progress. When you are ready, Guru will appear ... that is what they say. Guru must be Self-realised ... which is not easy to find.

There are many teachers (teachers are not necessarily Guru) who can teach you meditation. There are many schools teaching Yoga which can teach you.

However, the authentic ones known to me are :

a) Self Realisation Fellowship started by by Maharishi Yogananda
b) Schools teaching transcendental meditation, started by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
c) Brahma Kumaris
d) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (alive)

There are other good schools also from many other sampradayas but I don't know much about them.

If you decide to join SRF (Self Realisation Fellowship), the cost of learning is negligible. It is a correspondence course for more than a year (it is not only meditation but many valuable things to learn) & the fee is nominal.

OM

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Tirisilex:

In my humble opinion, there is a lot of stuff to be overcome before true meditation can begin. It is a slow path. Conquering certain base desires is a start. Limiting intellectual discussion is another.

I totally agree with Devotee about Guru coming to you, not the other way around. Finding a picture of a Guru, and hanging it on your wall, then saying, "This is my guru" is delusion. There needs to be personal contact.

As far as providing a list of authentic ones, I would never go there. Swami Nithyananda (yes the recently fallen one) was authentic to his followers and may be still to some. Many others (including some that Devotee mentioned) come and go with varying degrees of controversy. For example many claim that Sri Sri charges too much for seminars. Another problem I see with many of these organisations is what I alluded to before: Because they are so big, it is difficult to have any personal contact with the guru. The logistics would be hard to talk to a million followers, knowing them all by name.

So look around, and then at the right auspicious moment, your bonafide true Guru will appear to you. Use your gut. From then on it will be easy.

Of course this is just my opinion.

Aum Namasivaya

[devotee]

Originally Posted by Eastern Mind

As far as providing a list of authentic ones, I would never go there. Swami Nithyananda (yes the recently fallen one) was authentic to his followers and may be still to some. Many others (including some that Devotee mentioned) come and go with varying degrees of controversy. For example many claim that Sri Sri charges too much for seminars.

EM, you have added the list mentioned by me to likes of Nityananda ? Wherever organisation will be there, there will be controversy. However, you have to find your way in this real world.

Yes, Sri Sri sessions are slightly charged higher than perhaps what should have been. I was talking about organisations who give authentic lessons. SRF and Brhama Kumaris are classic ones. BTW, it depends upon the learner\ to decide.

Please don't make sweeping remarks. It is not good.

OM

[kd gupta]

Originally Posted by Tirisilex

How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

Procedure and purpose of meditation or yoga has been explained in gita chapter 6 from 10 to 32 shlokas .

[Eastern Mind]

Originally Posted by devotee

EM, you have added the list mentioned by me to likes of Nityananda ? Wherever organisation will be there, there will be controversy. However, you have to find your way in this real world.

Yes, Sri Sri sessions are slightly charged higher than perhaps what should have been. I was talking about organisations who give authentic lessons. SRF and Brhama Kumaris are classic ones. BTW, it depends upon the learner\ to decide.

Please don't make sweeping remarks. It is not good.

OM

Devotee: Yes, its up to the individual. I was not personally criticising anyone. I merely said, that there is grey matter (varied opinion) on almost everyone. In fact, I thought I made it cleart I'm not willing to express my opinion on any of it.

Aum Namasivaya

[Arav]

Originally Posted by Tirisilex

How do we meditate? Is it just focusing our minds? Or is it some kind of insight meditation?

This is how I meditate:

Keep your back strait and take deep breaths. Feel the energy in your body flowing. After you do that for a little bit, begin to feel your body heat. Feel it radiating all over your body. Next, feel every nerve in and on your body. Just feel everything about your body. Then, find the very source of the nerves, which is the spine. Feel the energy in the spine, feel the force and the power of the spine. Now, you are centered in the spine and meditation can begin. You should now become aware of awareness, simply be aware that you are aware and not of anything else. When this is taken to a certain degree, thoughts will stop.

This is the form of meditation that I practice and read in a book by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.

Just a note: I read somewhere that Samadhi is the state in which you are meditating with no idea of meditation.

[Sahasranama]

Meditation is really a buzz word these. In fact many people who claim that they are meditating, are only doing relaxation exercises.

In the yoga sutras of patanjali pratyahara (sense withdrawal) and dharana (concentration) precede dhyana (meditation).

A guru is always helpful, not only because of the esoteric reasons that ritual practices need to be given in a lineage of authentic teachers, but also, because there are so many methods out there. It's easy to lose sight.

But Hinduism offers a lot of accessible methods to reach the state of dhyana easily. Worship of the deities, agnihotra, mantra japa, chanting stotras and singing bhajans can all lead to a state of dhyana.