A POMPOUS professor came to a Zen Master to learn. Instead of listening, he started blowing his own trumpet. The Master asked for tea and when it was brought, started pouring a cup for his guest. He kept pouring tea into the cup without stopping. The cup overflowed and the tea spilt on the table. Irritated, the professor shouted: stop, can’t you see the cup is full?
The master said: so is your mind. Unless you empty it what can you learn? Acquiring knowledge is a transmission process. For this transmission to take place effectively and effortlessly, one’s mind has to be empty and still. Only then the teaching, learning and above all the transmission can happen.

Basic knowledge that we all learn from childhood, the type that learn our three ‘R’s with, is intellectual knowledge. To read, write, and calculate we use our head, our mind, to acquire the needed knowledge. At this level of knowledge transfer what happens is communication.
Another type of knowledge needs the heart to be involved; one’s head is no use here. Can you become a poet using your head; can you become a singer or a painter using your head? You need passion to be a master.
The son of a potter watched his father and picked up the art. He became famous as a master craftsman. People came to him and asked to be taught the way he learnt it. He said, “I don’t know how to teach you. If you want just watch me and do.” What was merely an intellectual communication becomes collaboration between master and the taught, when the heart is involved.
Spiritual knowledge is knowledge of the highest kind; it is not knowledge really but wisdom. This can neither be taught nor learnt. Spiritual wisdom, the Truth of the Universe, has to be experienced, by transmission from an enlightened Master who is willing to transmit it from his Being to your Being.

At this level, it is a communion of beings, far beyond collaboration and communication.
Spiritual wisdom happens; it’s not taught or learnt. It happens in the silencing of your mind. It happens when your chatter, both inner and outer are stopped. Meditation is the key to silencing the mind. No spiritual knowledge is possible without the aid of meditation. Ego fills the mind otherwise. To go beyond ego, to go beyond mind, to go beyond chatter, meditation is the answer.
PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

MOTHER was trying on her new fur coat. It was very expensive. Her young daughter watched her curiously and remarked: imagine how much suffering the poor animal would have had to undergo for you to have this fur coat! Mother turned to her daughter angrily: how dare you speak about your poor father like this. These days you young people have no respect for elders!
Our mind leads us its own way, sometimes strange ways, in the way it thinks and responds. Thoughts rise and fall chaotically within our mind; nothing is logical; they rise, live and fall. It is not thinking; it is just association. Association causes dilemmas. Fathers turn into poor animals.
When we bring your thinking process into consciousness our desires too become conscious. As of now they are mostly unconscious. You realise only after a while that whatever led into a problem is just association, not your desires.
We try to suppress desires or fulfil them. Suppression does not work. Fulfilment does not remove desires, it creates more desires. Bring your desires to consciousness from unconsciousness. If the desire is really worth fulfilling, the desire itself will have its energy for fulfilment. If not it will disappear. Either way you are in relaxation.
Energy is the source of desire. The same energy that converts food into muscles, circulates blood, moves your body. Between body and energy desires happen; they are closer to energy than body; they are more powerful than body. If you change your desires your whole body can change. Writing is the best way to raise desires to awareness.
Once a week give an appointment to yourself for 30 minutes and ask your Being what it wants. Just listen to your mind and note down. Whatever is necessary will stand, whatever is not will disappear. Many of our desires are not our own deep desires. We have life and energy to live only our own desires.
To mind your mind we need contemplation, concentration and meditation. Guiding our mind is contemplation; centring on one subject is concentration; when mind disappears into that subject and no mind remains it is meditation. When you become aware of this table it is contemplation; when you centre yourself on the wood it is concentration; when your mind become the wood it is meditation.
Meditation makes you aware of the reality. It liberates you.

– Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Nine out of ten people, if asked where their mind is, will point to their head, where we think our brains are!

Brains are not where our minds are. Mind is all over our body; within each cell, within the cell structure, embedded in the intelligence of the DNA and other building blocks of the mind body system that we are. There is as much mind in our little finger as there is in our head or our heart.

Mind is not fixed and permanent; not our cells as well. Cells die and are recreated every second. Our entire mind body system undergoes renewal every so often. What we are now is not what we were a year ago, not what we will be a year from now. Our mind body hardware is constantly renewed.

Yet, we behave the same way as we did a year ago or ten years ago, by and large. We are just as greedy, just as angry, just as depressed as we were a year or many years ago unless we have taken dramatic measures to change. We seem programmed in our behavior pattern.

We are programmed. We are programmed in our belief systems and attitudes based on our past experiences and memories of these experiences. It is these memories that drive us in all our actions. Unfortunately, all these memories lie in our unconscious mind.

We are driven by our unconscious, not by our rational mind as we wish to imagine.

We call this software of emotion filled memories that lie buried deep in our unconscious, samskara. Samskara are the embedded memories of our past, sometimes of previous lives, that drive us into action in the future (Karma). Since samskara are from the unconscious, we are unable to do anything to stop them, to control them or modify them. Unless, a big unless, we learn to penetrate the unconscious.

We can indeed penetrate the unconscious and dissolve our samskara, so meticulously built by our mind since childhood.

All we need to do is to bring ourselves into the present moment. In the present moment, no samskara exist, as these are products of our past. In the present moment, we have neither regrets nor anticipation. We just are.

Meditation leads us into the present moment. Meditation leads us into awareness of our samskara and from there into their dissolution. Meditation gives us control over our life, taking it away from the embedded software of our mind.

Nithyananda

www.nithyananda.org

Our mind is a minefield; it is a madhouse; it is a monkey.

The only thing certain about our mind is its absolute uncertainty. The only thing factual about our mind is that it is totally and absolutely illogical, irrational, random and unconnected.

If we were to sit down and pen our thoughts over even five minutes with no editing, we would think that these belong to a madman. There would be no logical sequence, as one would assume in our mind’s working.

Thoughts flit through our mind, past to future, future to past, back and forth. At one level, it is thoughts, ideas, and concepts. At another level it is memories of past experiences leading to anticipation of future possibilities. Then there are dialogues and rehearsals about how we could have done things better and how we should do things better. Imaginations, fantasies, and dreams follow. Then follow a spate of emotions from lust, greed and anger through fears and jealousy to discontent.

There is always in the background a constant chattering noise of worries.

We have no control over any of these activities of our mind. The more we try and control the more vigorously the thoughts that we try to control break out.

Just imagine a situation if someone tells you not to think of a monkey. The only certainty then would be that you would think of nothing but monkeys!

Suppression of thoughts is impossible. It only ensures creation of more such thoughts. That is why people trying to follow the path of renunciation and celibacy as monks and priests erupt into behavior patterns that they so desperately try to suppress.

All that you can do to stop your mind is to refuse to get involved in its shenanigans. Watch your thoughts as if you are an observer, without getting involved, without being an actor in the drama. Watch your thoughts as you would watch clouds in the sky with no involvement. Your mind loses interest, your thoughts will slow down and you will move towards a no mind zone. You need to say, stop; I want to get off.

Meditation leads you into the awareness to stay uninvolved with your thought process. It helps you stay in the present moment, without being tossed to and fro into the past and future. Meditation alone can still your mind.

Nithyananda has revealed a  unique  meditation technique called Nithya Dhyan that one can explore!!

http://www.lifeblissmeditation.org/intro.htm

Meditation results in holistic health. It gives good health on the physical, mental and emotional levels. Specific health benefits reported by some who meditate are:

1. The stabilization of high and low blood pressure, blood sugar, body heat and heartbeat.

2. The balancing of mind/body rhythms.

3. Reduction of muscle tension, stronger bones, immunity from disease.

4. Cleansing – quicker elimination of toxins and body water.

5. Overcoming insomnia and improved quality of sleep.

6. Enhanced energy, increases work capacity

7. Longer life span – improved body metabolism and body cells with a longer life span.

8. Secretion of healthy body chemicals – increased secretion of natural anti-depressants, enhanced secretion of endorphins, the body’s ‘happy chemicals’

9. Relationships – Meditation inherently puts you in tune with yourself and others. The direct result of this is deeper, more meaningful interpersonal relationships with family, friends and with everyone you encounter in your daily life.

10. Intelligence – To work efficiently, one needs intelligence. Meditation ignites your innate intelligence making you more aware and sharp. The natural result of this is improved, efficient and effortless performance in whatever you do.

11. Creativity – Each of us holds within us an undiscovered treasure of talent and potential. Meditation reveals and helps you realize your inner talents and latent creativity.

12. Authenticity – Meditation allows you to touch base with the real you, and makes you realize your uniqueness. Self-confident then becomes a natural by-product.

13. Balance – Most of us live life as a roller-coaster ride, held in the sway of emotions like: worry, jealousy, discontentment, fear, anger, guilt etc. over which we have no control. Meditation enables you to be centered in yourself, have a solid inner balance and thus, be the master of your own self.

14. Relaxation, peace, bliss – A natural by-product of meditation is something we spend almost a lifetime trying to attain; inner relaxation and peace. With meditation, you automatically drop out of the vicious cycle of fear, greed and stress and enter the virtuous cycle of bliss.

15. Holistic spiritual growth- To measure intellect, we have IQ or Intelligence Quotient, which is measured by many standardized tests. Of late, another measure is gaining importance, especially in the corporate world, namely EQ or Emotional Quotient. However, the most important factor of our lives – inner satisfaction and fulfillment – is what matters at the end of the day. Meditation enhances this very important factor of life, SQ or Spiritual Quotient, besides also increasing IQ and EQ.

16. Life – As of now, our mental setup is rigid and reflects our personality Because of this self-image we carry in our minds, we face a lot of troubles in life and are not able to enjoy life completely Meditation simply reprograms the software of the mind so that we can live life completely.

17. Ultimate potential – You are like an airplane with the potential to fly, but you think you are an ox-cart because you have not actualized your potential. Meditation simply makes you realize and experience who you really are and the enormous capabilities you have been born with.

Meditation is just being blissful in the moment

Meditation is just being blissful in the moment. When you are at complete peace in the present moment, you are already in a state of meditation.

Recall any moment in your life when you have experienced extreme beauty: the sun rising suddenly from behind a mountain, or the first time you heard a lovely piece of music. Suddenly you became totally still, wordless. In the presence of the beauty you became spellbound, you couldn’t think any more. You were just silent, relaxed, in thoughtless awareness. You were completely dissolved in that beauty. That moment was meditation!

After a few moments your inner chatter started again. Your mind said, “What a beautiful sunrise!” The moment the words appeared, you were out of meditation! You can either think or meditate you can never do both.

Meditation is just being. It is experiencing the present moment without resistance.

The possibility to become a different conscious being is present only in human beings. Animals don’t have the potential to become enlightened, to become different conscious beings.

Another thing about meditation is, being playful meditation is a big adventure. To become serious about meditation is to miss the whole point. Celebrate meditation. Simply enjoy it.

Another aspect to meditation is to have patience. Don’t start worrying about the results the moment you start meditating.

If you are greedy for instant results, you actually prevent the process from settling down in your system, you yourself block the whole process.

Enjoy solitude. Give yourself a chance to experience your inner environment. When meditation becomes a part of you, bliss will flower naturally.

Any technique, any method which raises your consciousness is meditation.

Meditation can even be a simple breathing technique. It can be a simple repetition of a word or simply sitting. In the Zen tradition, just sitting is meditation. Your may think this is the easiest thing to do but in fact, just sitting is the most difficult meditation. Anything can become meditation if it raises your consciousness.

What is the Right Way to Approach Meditation?

The first thing is, be sincere. Keep an open mind. Have the openness to experiment. Be enthusiastic.

There is a beautiful term in the Zen tradition to describe the attitude – the beginner’s mind. It means looking at every single thing in life as new, so everything in life is excites you.

The second thing is, be optimistic. Bliss is a perfectly realizable goal for you, even if you are completely unfamiliar with meditation.

Once a man approached the great enlightened master Ramana Maharishi and asked him. ‘Bhagavan, am I qualified for spiritual life?’

Ramana answered him with a question ‘Are you alive?’

The man was startled. He said, ‘Yes of course!’

Ramana replied, ‘That is enough. You already have the necessary qualifications  for spirituality!’

The very aim of human life is enlightenment. The possibility of becoming lies in the Kundalini shakti, an extraordinary potential energy which is hidden inside every human body. If it can be awakened, it will take you to a different plane of consciousness a different plane of Existence.

What is Meditation?

Relating to Space – the Only Element that can Reflect Consciousness

Meditation is falling in tune with nature, with Existence. This is your natural state, your true state of bliss. This is connecting with the Ultimate Consciousness.

You see, the universe or the macrocosm is made of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air and space. In the same way, the body, the microcosm, is also made of the same five elements. We can relate to the macrocosm, the Whole, the Divine through any or all of these five elements. The microcosm can experience the macrocosm by relating with these five elements that pervade both.

Relating to the macrocosm through the earth element is worshiping through idols or deities. Deities are made of the earth element, such as clay, brass, copper, etc. So worshiping through them is worshiping through them is worshiping through the earth element. Relating through the water element is offering abhishekas, holy baths to deities or bathing ourselves in holy rivers. Relating through the fire element is performing homas, fire rituals. Relating through the air element is chanting mantras, divine chants. Relating through the space element is meditation. Through these five ways, we can relate to the macrocosm.

Understand, out of the five elements, space is the only element that can reflect consciousness. The four grosser elements, earth, water, fire and air cannot relate with or cannot reflect consciousness. Only space can reflect consciousness. And the way to relate with space energy is meditation.

1. When is it a good time to meditate?

This is always a controversial question! All the youngsters think “I can do this in my old age after I have lived my life fully and don’t have anything else to do.’ All the elderly people think, “I should have done this in my young age when I was fresh and energetic.’

So the question is not just how long to meditate everyday, but also when to make the decision to include a meditation practice in your routine.

Meditation is just like reading an owner’s manual before you start driving the car. The person who does not read the owner’s manual before driving the care will naturally meet with accidents. In the same way, meditation is like the owner’s manual for you body and for your life. The person who has not started meditation before entering into life will end up with suffering and depression at one point or the other.

Please understand, meditation is the basic need for every life. It is not an option. It is a very basic need.

Aft the age of seven, you need meditation because until then, as a child you are by nature in a meditative state. It is only after seven that you start getting conditioned by society and drop out of your true nature.

To really understand and enter into meditation, one important thing needs to happen in you – psychological revolution.

What do I mean by psychological revolution? It means a clear understanding about the Self, world and god.

As of now, the understanding that you are carrying about life is not complete. That is why you are not able to experience a peaceful, relaxed feeling in your system. When I say the words ‘psychological revolution’, I mean having a clear understanding about the Self, world and god; that is having a clear understanding about the source of the Self, the source of the world and the source of god.

The understanding that is able to give you a completely restful feeling, through which you are able to solve all you problems, through which you are able to find your own life solutions, is call psychological revolution.

Only a person who has gone through this psychological revolution can meditate. Until then, any technique that you try will seem to fail at some point in time.

People come and tell me, “the moment I close my eyes, I get more thoughts than when I did not meditate. If I am in action, doing something I have fewer thoughts. The moment I close my eyes and try to meditate I have more thoughts.` This means the psychological revolution has not happened.

If you straightaway close your eyes and start meditating, you may have an increased number of thoughts. So in the initial level, I always give a technique which is not directly a meditation, but is more a contemplation. When you work with the technique, it won’t lead you directly to a thoughtless state. It will lead you towards more and more clarity. It will lead to the psychological revolution.

The psychological revolution will develop an intense inner space where you can analyze your understanding, consider your decision and rethink again and again your desires, fears, worries and all that you consider as the basis of your life.

So in the initial level, taking up a technique that can awaken you, that can help the psychological revolution in you, is the best way to start.

Start meditating here and now. Neither age nor time can be the reason to postpone meditation.

The next question people ask is whether they should meditate in the morning or in the evening. My answer is that the goal is not to make meditation a quantity of life, but rather a quality of life.

Meditation Benefits Your Physical health

Meditation has the power to transform you physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

See, physical health means digesting whatever you eat and having that food become part of your body. Mental health means digesting all the ideas and problems that you encounter and forming a clear solution. In other words, it is living without conflict. Spiritual health means receiving all the great teachings and energy, digesting them and living a liberated life. Having all three is total health.

Meditation is also a complement to medication. Through meditation, you can regulate your blood pressure and blood sugar and you can increase your body’s resistance to disease. Through meditation, it is possible to heal even chronic problems like skin allergies, asthma and arthritis. No disease can escape the power of meditation.

Meditation Benefits Mental Health

- Awakening of Intelligence and Flowering of Intuition

On the mental level, meditation enhances clarity of thought. Meditation is also a proven way to improve concentration and memory power. Above all, meditation leads you from intellect to intelligence to intuition.

With meditation, you go beyond the mind, into the being. In the being no rules exist. You become free to explore your full potential. That’s why with meditation you will suddenly find yourself at ease with your surroundings, easily able to cope with new situations. You rediscover your spontaneity.