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Fluctuations in consciousness bring about an immediate change in our emotions and thoughts.
Note 1
Meditation is your way to silence the fluctuations in consciousness.
2
Thoughts of lust, negativity, jealousy, envy, hatred, possessiveness are normal. For, an average human mind gets more than 60,000 thoughts in a span of 24 hours. It is but natural that a number of those thoughts are going to be undesirable. Having a bad thought doesn’t make you a bad person. No one can escape impure thoughts. We don’t have any control over our thoughts. Any thought can come and hit us from any direction. But what we do have control over is whether we want to pursue that thought or if we want to turn it into an action.
4
the wise don’t feel guilty for having unwelcome thoughts. They know they don’t have to act on them. And by action, I’m not just referring to physical actions but mental ones too. When we cling to a thought or follow its track, we are performing a mental karma, and that, in turn, is the seed of all physical actions.
5
Whenever you are bothered by any lingering thought, simply ask yourself the following three questions and watch it become feeble in no time: From where has this thought originated? Where is it traveling? Where has it disappeared?
Method
Just like two pieces of wood can be rubbed together to produce fire and the same fire later consumes them both, intellect and concentration support the contemplative meditation. But when the fire of insight arises, it consumes both intellect and concentration, giving way to pristine awareness. This is the ultimate state for a meditator – not only understanding the nature of thoughts and rising above them, but living in complete awareness.
Nice
And this brings me to the moral of the story: there are no calming thoughts really, just like there are no stable waves.
No calming thoughts
A thought that’s appeasing today could well be disturbing tomorrow. For example, you love someone today and their thought brings you joy, but tomorrow you may fall out of love and those same thoughts of them will give you grief. A good meditator knows that thoughts, at their best, can only calm the mind temporarily and intermittently.
Quite an amazing thought. isn't it?
The lifespan of every thought, however good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, is exactly the same. It emerges. It manifests. It disappears.
Thoughts that you do not let go leave an imprint on your mind. That imprint is the residue. Meditation is the process of washing away that residue. It is the cleaning of your slate and keeping it that way. When we fail to abandon our thoughts, they assume different forms. They can become desires, expectations or emotions.
Very helpful
Expectations are those desires you believe you have the right to see fulfilled. Due
What is expectation?
expectations, majority of which is a big load of rubbish. With mindfulness
When ego clings to a desire, it transforms into an expectation.
What is expectation?
When we are unable to let go of our thoughts, some of them become emotions, and then we attach emotions to our desires and expectations.
What is emotion?
Imagination is nothing but pursuit of a train of thoughts.
What is imagination?
Memory plays a pivotal role in correct meditation. When you are able to retain only a part of your memory – that is, the object of meditation – you move towards achieving the tranquil state. However, memory is also your greatest hurdle in meditating correctly. Primarily because your memory is an accumulation, a storage tank, of your psychic imprints. Simply put, memory is the residue I’ve talked about.
Memory is hurdle in meditation
Your mind operates on the famous computing principle of GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. If you do ill, speak ill and think ill, the residue is going to leave you sick. If you do well, speak well and think well, the outcome is going to be well. Excess of anything results in excess residue.
GIGO
This is meditation if you ask me. It is your ability to retain your virtues in the face of all adversities. This grace and presence of mind comes with correct practice of meditation.
What is meditation?
Ultimately, meditation is silence and presence of the mind. When your mind is at once silent and present, you are deep in meditation.
meditation
It comes with great, persistent, prolonged, intelligent, alert, intense and correct practice.
Stage 4
Buddha said, “The one who knows the reality of one thing knows the reality of everything.”
Buddha said.
The golden rule of meditation is: you cannot not think about something by thinking about it.
Meditation Golden rule.
If I’ve to sum up the act of meditation in a single phrase I would say ‘presence of mind’.
Meditation in one phrase
Stabilize the mind Settle it completely Settle it firmly Settle it intensely Clear it of obstacles Pacify your mind Completely pacify it Channel the mind into one stream Settle the mind in equipoise
For meditation
Joined Hands Your hands can cross each other or they can be one on top of another. Putting your left hand on top of the right keeps your body warmer, influences the right brain and fuels your feminine aspect. Resting your right hand on top keeps your body cooler, affects your left brain and boosts your masculine energy. These differences are quite subtle but as you progress, you will notice even the subtlest of changes caused by the minutest of modifications in your posture. Ideally, your thumbs should join each other at the tips.
Joined hands
concentration is about – forging ahead with focus and alertness.
What is concentration?
The two greatest demons in meditation – restlessness and laziness. The former robs you off your patience and the other costs you your lucidity.
Demon of medition
breath or anything else. Change refreshes the mind and brings the lucidity
When you contemplate on something for long enough, you start to acquire the properties of your object of meditation. The basis of contemplative meditation is that eventually you become what you meditate on.
Very important for medition
Mind does not understand good-bad, right-wrong, moral-immoral. These are the definitions we have fed into our conscious mind. At its root, mind only creates, understands and reacts to a thought.
Mind function
Mindfulness is the path to liberation. You are your own greatest friend and your own worst enemy. If you are mindful and your mind is under control, you are your friend whereas if your mind is unrestrained, you are your worst enemy.
Good
The mindful practice is a powerful way of staying in the present moment. And the present moment is always stress free.
Mindful practice
Practice of gratitude lends incredible emotional strength. If you are emotionally strong, you can succeed at anything, anything at all. Gratitude makes you emotionally pure and such purity in turn allows you to love unconditionally.
Gratitude
Faith, with all its paraphernalia and practices, is for inner strength and not to please an external God.
Faith
“When you fight, fight as if everything depends on you. And when you pray, pray as if everything depends on God.”
74
No sadhana is possible without a fit body.
Hfg
Balance is crucial. When you feel restless, relax; and, when you feel lazy, exert, concentrate.
Balance
A good meditator puts his religious practices on hold during the intense practice of meditation. Most religions recommend certain actions to be pleasing to God or a ticket to heaven and they also label many acts as sins. Meditation is not one of them. It is not done to gain a place in heaven or to acquire any religious merit. The sole purpose is to wipe your mind clean of its inherent tendencies so you may write a new story. Anything that conditions the mind will eventually become a distraction in meditation. From that perspective, religion is but a hindrance for a serious meditator.
Religion Is obstacle
The important thing is to do it for at least 40 days without missing any day in between. You can also maintain a daily journal where you could mark yourself against the criteria of still body, still mind, alertness and lucidity. That way you will be able to measure the improvements in your practice.
40 days meditation
Concentration without meditation is pointless and meditation without concentration is useless. Both are not possible without mastering the art of listening. Whether that's listening to external sound or inner noise, outer world or inner thoughts, it's all the same.
Relation between concentration and meditation
A critical point to note is that you need not give up or take vows that extend your whole lifetime.. Those vows are often unnecessary and unnatural. While practising sankalpa, like all other yogic practices, vow to do something (or not do it) for an initial period of 40 days. Thereafter, you can decide if you want to repeat or carry on with them forever.
40 days habit!
There are only two types of people who are comfortable in solitude: the lazy and the yogi. The former lacks awareness while the latter radiates with it.
Two kind of solitude lovers.
A free mind is the only true freedom anyone can ever have.
Free mind
Meditation is pointless if it doesn’t inspire you to lead a virtuous life.
Pointless Meditation
Most people are not really listening but simply waiting for the speaker to finish his point so they can begin theirs.
Common conversation
