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The Fine Art of Meditation, Part Three

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: You now walk the path of perfection, and you must be so to walk that path, the path of enlightenment, a free man in a free world, subject to nobody, to no power, even the power of karma. Find your guru, a helper on the inner path, and do everything you can for him. It is your mission in this life, realization of the Self God and helping others do the same. The refined, inner energy that you experience in your deepest meditations is always there. Be that intangible, tangible energy and don’t be the emotions that you feel; don't be the thoughts that you think. Signposts for successful meditation, be aware of being aware, feel the power of the spine, sit in a state of pure consciousness.

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. We are continuing with "Merging with Siva", Chapter 37 titled: "The Fine Art of Meditation" drawn from the "1972 Master Course" and we're starting with the second half of: Lesson 257. "Overcoming Karma "Why would you ever want to place demands of perfection upon yourself? You now walk the path of perfection, and you must be so to walk that path. What is this perfection? First, it is a clarity of cognition. Second, it is a bursting of actinic love for your fellow man. Third, it is an openness and willingness to serve and fit in, in any capacity. Fourth, it is living a contemplative lifestyle better every day. Fifth, it is mastering all of your yoga disciplines given to you by your guru. Sixth, it is the ability to hold responsibility, maintain a continuity of your own karma yoga, yet have the mobile quality to be ever ready to do something different without losing continuity of what you have been doing in holding your responsibility. "If you can gear yourself to accomplish all this, you are on the path of enlightenment and you will surely prove to yourself, when you have your realization, that you are a free man in a free world, subject to nobody, to no power, even the power of karma. How could That which is formless and causeless be subject to anything?" Lesson 258 "Finding Your Guru "I am often asked, “When one feels it’s time to travel the spiritual path, do you recommend he aggressively seek a guru or passively wait and see what happens?” When one is ready to swim, should he walk around the swimming pool, or should he dive in and get on with it? Naturally, he would dive in and take each thing that comes along in a very positive way. "That is the thing to do. Otherwise, in waiting and putting it into the intellectual mind, all the different doubts come up and make a big fog which again he has to live through. He missed his timing. "The guru-disciple relationship is so central in Hinduism. A guru is a helper on the inner path. Visualize a rocky stream path leading up a high mountain. The guru is there to help you over some big boulders and through the swamps and to send out a scout to help you back on the inner path if you become externalized. You don’t need a satguru all the time. Most of it you have to do yourself, after you have his grace and learn the rules. But, he is there when you need him inwardly; he is just there, and that is reassuring. Do everything that you possibly can for your guru. The guru is like the wind. You may not always have him as close to you, so throw yourself into his work selflessly. He has a mission that came to him from his guru and his guru’s guru. It is your mission in this life, too, realization of the Self God within and helping others do the same. "I have been asked many times, “How does one choose a guru?” Well, if you were in a crowd of people and you hadn’t seen your mother and father for five or ten years, you would immediately know them. You could pick them out of a large crowd. You’d immediately know. And so it is with the guru. There are, shall we say, commercial gurus. Pick a guru. Here a guru, there a guru. A guru, in the classical sense of the word, doesn’t have a great many devotees. He might have a lot of people who think he’s really great, especially if he chants well or does something that is outstanding. It’s easy to get a lot of followers. Traditionally, a guru can only take a few close disciples, and he generally does. "If you’re looking for a guru, try to feel his vibration. Better still, talk to his students to see if they have any substance. Ask them, “Have you had any inner experience?” If they start talking about everything, telling you all about it or try to convert you, be cautious. On the other hand, if they look content within themselves and test you out a little to see if you’re sincere, you know that they’re taught to be wise. Look at the students. See how they interact among themselves. In this way, you get to know the caliber of the man who is their satguru. Find out who his guru is and where the line of darshan power comes from. Then you get to know, to really know. Don’t be too hasty in picking your guru. That is the best advice. Maybe it’s not for you in this life to have a guru. Maybe next life or the life after that. There’s no hurry, and yet there is a great sense of urgency on the spiritual path, a great sense of urgency. Don’t go hunting for a guru. Just be alert enough to know when you encounter him." Then we have my commentary: Sometimes in public talks I get asked the question “Is a guru necessary?” So this is kind of awkward cause I'm the guru, right? So they're asking me if I'm necessary. Anyway, I try not to smile and I take their question. I reply by asking the question: "Do you need a teacher to learn to sing devotional songs?" And then answer the question by saying: "Anyone can learn to sing simple devotional bhajans without a teacher. However, if you want to learn to sing the more difficult carnatic songs, a teacher is definitely needed. Is a Guru Needed? By worshipping regularly at a temple and reading scripture you can make some spiritual progress without a guru. But if you want to maximize your spiritual progress in this lifetime, you definitely need a guru." Back to the text: "How does one know whether an inner experience is real or imaginary? Well, we don’t have to go very far in answering that question, because everyone has inner experiences. Two people are in love. They fight. They separate. That’s an inner experience. And it’s real, isn’t it? That emotion, that tearing apart, those wonderful mental arguments where nobody quite wins, they’re all real. Even such an argument is an inner experience, but of a more externalized, instinctive-intellectual or gross nature. Yet, it’s very real. It shakes the muscles. It can even make us perspire. It lives within us. It could keep us awake at night or give us disturbing dreams. It’s a real and a vital experience. We have to go through these grosser inner experiences first before our inner life becomes more refined. They are just as real, seeing light within the body, light within the head and hearing the inner sounds. All of the things you have read about come to you after you have gone through the inner experiences of the instinctive and intellectual mind. First we go through our inner instinctive experiences, then our intellectual experiences, then our intuitive or creative experiences. Finally, come to the Self, which we realize is the totality of all inner experiences, being beyond experience itself." Lesson 259: "Going Into Meditation "The refined, inner energy that you experience in your deepest meditations is always there, was always there and shall always be there. It’s just there. You don’t have to call upon it. It’s just there. Just be aware that you are it, and not that you are any other of the many other types of things that you can be. Just be that intangible, tangible energy and don’t be the emotions that you feel. "Don’t be thoughts that you think. Don’t be the stomach that’s hungry. Don’t be the body that’s moving. Don’t be the place that you’re going to. Just be that energy. Then you can do anything in the external world and really enjoy it." So commentary: The Shum word that we use regularly in our meditations is: anif The sublime vibration of a place or platform of worship, an altar outside or inside; finding the place within yourself that is absolutely quiet; in anif, we are deep enough within that all of the forces of the mind can be seen and we are, like the hummingbird, totally quiet; from anif, we look out and see the forces equalizing themselves. Back to the text: "Here are some basic signposts for successful meditation. Remember them and do them slowly on your own. First, sit up nice and straight with the spine erect and the head balanced at the top of the spine. Proper posture is necessary because the very simple act of equalizing the weight and having it held up by the spine causes you to lose body consciousness. Just the equalizing of your weight can do that. Breathe deeply and rhythmically. Feel the energies of the body begin to flow harmoniously through the body. Now try to feel the warmth of the body. Simply feel the warmth of the body. Once you can sense physical warmth, try to feel the totality of the nerve system all at one time, all of the five or six thousand miles of nerve currents. It’s simple. Feel it all at one time and grasp that intuitively. Now, this nerve current is being energized from one central source, and we’re going to find that source. It’s in the central core of the spine. Feel that energy flow through the spine and out through this nerve system, which finally causes warmth in the physical body, which you’ve already felt. But now don’t feel the warmth of the body. Don’t feel the nerve system. Feel only the power of the spine. Once you have done this, you are ready to meditate. You’re alive in your body. You look alive. You look vital. Your face is beginning to glow. Next simply sit in a state of pure consciousness. Be aware of being aware. Don’t be aware of a second thing. Simply be aware that you are aware a totality of dynamic, scintillating awareness, vibrant right in the central source of energy. It’s closer to what you really are than your name, than your intellectual education, than your emotional behavior or the physical body itself, which you only inhabit. From this point in your own personal meditation you can take off and travel in many different directions. "If your guru has given you a mantra, for instance, contemplate on the inner vibrations of the mantra. Chant it to yourself, or follow whatever inner instructions he has given you. Coming out of meditation, we perform this process in reverse. Again feel the power of the spine and let that power flow right out through the nerve system, energizing the miles and miles of nerve currents. Feel your nerve system coming to life. Feel the warmth of the body as we come back into physical consciousness. Finally, open your eyes and view the external world around you and compare it to the internal world that you very rapidly just touched into in your meditation. It’s easy to remember this entrance and exit to meditation. Do it often. Get to know the energy flows of the body. Live in the pure energy of the spine. Lean on no one. If you must lean on something, make it your own spine." Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day. [End of transcript.]