You must know with certainty what meditation means, and how meditation can help you. Is meditation a complete therapy or do you need a therapist on whom you can lean for many, many years and still not understand yourself? First of all you should understand that your life has two aspects: life within and life without.
It is easy to adjust to the external world, but it is not so easy to understand the self within, because you thoughts, emotions, desires, and appetites can lead you in many different directions. Once you understand that life is not merely relating to people and having things, then you will come to realize that life has a deeper purpose, that of fulfillment. With this knowledge you should first try to understand yourself and then adjust to others in the external world.
Understanding yourself philosophically is different than understanding yourself in a practical way. Sometimes modern teachers say that you can understand all the problems of life if you know meditation. This may be true if you understand meditation well. Actually the word meditation has not been defined in any of the English dictionaries. According to the encyclopedia, the word “meditation” means “contemplation” and “contemplation” means “meditation,” so there is no explanation there. Even in the Bible the word meditation has not been well explained.
The word “meditation” means “to attend to something with full devotion and commitment.” You need to come to know yourself on all dimensions and levels. When you understand this truth, then you can begin to systematically understand the whole process of going within.
No therapist in the world claims to be perfect, and if therapists are not perfect, then there is no chance that they can make you perfect. At some point you will learn that you are your own therapist―you have to be. You have to be independent, and not lean on external crutches. You want to obtain that education that has not been imparted to by colleges, universities, or any other external source.
When you have finished examining and learning about the external world, then you want to know the world within. You find that the mind is a small foot-ruler, and you want to measure the whole universe with the help of that small ruler called the mind. You will become disappointed, for when you examine the facts, the mind itself is very small instrument.
The school of meditation says that you have to learn to go beyond the mind, to a state of tranquility, equanimity, and equilibrium. Once you attain that, then you can easily adjust to the external world and fulfill the purpose of life. That is called contentment. If you expect to find something different, some other experience besides contentment, then you will be lost on the path of meditation, but if you want to be a good human being, and attain perfection, then mediation is a very helpful way. It is a form of self-therapy.
Many people engage in meditation and yet they are disappointed with the results. They expect too much from doing nothing. They don’t want to do anything and yet they expect a lot. They are attracted by fake claims, they have unrealistic expectations and they dwell on spurious experiences. They think that a muscle spasm or a warm bottom signifies the awakening of kundalini. Actually, if you want to work with yourself, if you want to know and understand your internal states, to understand yourself on all levels, then meditation is the only way to do that.
There are three schools or approaches which are very close. One is called prayer, another is contemplation, and the third is meditation. All three of these schools make you a aware of your innermost being, the center from where consciousness flows on various degrees and grades. The purpose of these three schools is to lead you to that fountainhead of life and light from which this power flows, and there is a system for achieving this. In your whole life you are asked to move externally. Meditation is a journey which leads you ahead without movement. In this journey you don’t move and yet you go forward. In meditation you are motionless.
The Body
The first step is to learn to work with your body. The body is a very useful instrument, but it can create a barrier on the path of meditation. Normally, a body should be healthy and free from disease. But disease can come from three sources: worry, hurry, and curry.
All of the psychotherapies emphasize that worry and conflict are everywhere. If you have conflict you cannot make a decision. And if the mind is not properly guided and directed, if it is not under control, you do everything in a disorganized and hurried manner. Your behavior is not coordinated. If you eat too much too fast, and eat the wrong things, that will make you ill as well. These three―worry, hurry, and curry―are the main sources of disease and distraction for the body.
To obtain understanding within and without, you will have to learn to understand your entire functioning, and to do that, yoga and meditation give you a discipline. It is a beautiful discipline. It tells you to work with your body first, not because your body is something great that can lead you to meet God or experience samadhi, but because actually it can be a great obstacle if you do not understand it. The body can become a source of pain and misery for you. A little bit of pain can disturb you so much. If the body is not kept healthy then the mind is constantly distracted.
The first point in working with the body is learning how to be still. Normally, no one in your home, neighborhood, or school teaches you how to be still. Everyone gives you other instructions: “Be smart, alert, and move nicely. Learn to move faster and faster in the world.” But no one tells you how to be still. The greatest of all strength comes from stillness and the inner silence. These two are very close. If you learn to be still, you can come to enjoy that stillness and peace that cannot be provided by any object in the world.
For a man, the finest, the most satisfying of all world’s objects is a relationship with a woman, and for a woman, it is a relationship with a man. But even when people have that, they are often not satisfied and not completely happy. If, however, you learn to be still you can experience something great and profound, something that you never imagined before because it wasn’t taught to you. But to accomplish that, first, a state of physical stillness must come.
This is explained by Sutra 1:46, which describes the proper posture for meditation. “Sthira sukham asanam.” Asanam refers to posture, sthira means steadiness, and sukham means comfortable. Choose a posture that is both steady and comfortable, not one that is both steady but creates pain for you. Steadiness of posture, according to the science of meditation, means keeping your head, neck, and trunk in a straight line. If you systematically practice this it won’t take more than six months for you to attain your goal.
You can sit comfortably on the edge of a straight-back chair, as long as your head, neck, and trunk are straight. That is a meditative posture called maitri asana the friendship posture. Many people have strange ideas about meditative postures. They think that good posture means twisting their legs and making their form elegant. Meditation has nothing to do with the upper and lower extremities, except that they should be arranged so that the spinal column remains comfortably aligned in a straight line.
People often ask which meditative posture they should choose; whether they should use the lotus posture, the accomplished pose, or the easy pose. But if the spinal column is not correctly aligned, you can choose any posture you want and it will not help. When you learn to keep your head, neck and trunk straight, then your limbs will not disturb your posture. Remember that if you sit correctly ten minutes a day for fifteen days, you can attain some progress.
The first thing is to ask yourself to be still and not move. You will observe at first that the body moves because you have never disciplined your body. When this happens, you mistakenly think your kundalini is awakening, but actually you have not yet accomplished anything. You have not made any effort and yet you expect kundalini to rise. The fact is that the body has never been disciplined, so it rebels. So when you want the body to be still it moves, and these movements have nothing to do with kundalini.
In the beginning as you sit still for some days you will observe that the gross muscles move. Next the muscles twitch; it is the second obstacle that comes. When the muscles twitch like that or when any part of the body throbs or twitches, that is not the throbbing which the yoga manuals describe as a sign of progress. It is just the release of tension.
The third obstacle to arise is shaking. The body shakes or perspires because you are straining. If you do not accept an idea you experience mental strain, and that mental strain leads to strain in the nervous system. It becomes agitated. So you should first learn to be still; simply learn to be still. Don’t attend to any other thing, but just ask yourself to be still. After a few days you will observe that you are able to arrest these body movements, these throbbings, twitchings, shiverings, and shakings.
. . . to be continued