Course in Meditation: Part 2

Swami Kriyananda
Video Transcript

I want to talk now about beginning meditation and the first thing we need to think about is
the proper position for meditation. I saw an advertisement for meditation once in which
somebody was sitting in a Lazyboy chair with his feet up and his head back. Well, this is the
worst possible position because you want to have a very positive mental outlook. When
you lean back, you tend to be passive. You don't have the same alert attitude that you
have when you're sitting upright.

So the first and most important thing is to sit upright. The second thing is to keep your
body still. The third thing is to keep it relaxed. Now you may say, "Well, how can I keep it
relaxed as well sitting up as I can if I'm lying down flat on my back?" Well, you can't, of
course in one way but the thing is you're supine position is when you practice for a long
time to go to sleep and in fact, you'll find if you keep your spine straight and you can get
used to having the muscles to keep the back in that position that it won't take long before
the whole body can be relaxed and that sense of uprightness is a part of your relaxation
because what you're doing is not only relaxing the body but directing the energy upward
and keeping the spine straight like this enables you to have that upward kind of relaxation
instead of merely a collapsing kind of relaxation.

We'll go more into that. First of all, I want to show you a variety of positions in which you
can sit. This position is one that many people can assume very comfortably, sitting cross
legged with the leg up on the other thigh in a sort of half lotus position as it's known.
Another position would be full lotus but I'm not going to take you into that one. What I'd
rather take you into is one that perhaps would be easier for you to practice which is known
as the perfect pose or siddhasana. For many of you, these positions may be difficult in
which case a simple tailor position is good. You can just cross your legs like that. The only
thing is that in this position after a while the pressure of the foot against the outer part of
the lower part of the leg will tend to make your legs go to sleep and so also it tends to
throw you backwards more and to create a little bit more tension in the back. These other
positions are actually better. You can also simply put one foot in front of the other and
relax them without actually putting them in the more formal position that I mentioned.

If you're interested in getting a meditation seat, you can write to our publisher and get
them. To sit on one of these is also an easier way of getting your body to be completely
relaxed yet in a firm position like this. There's another thing the publishers make which is
known as a meditation seat, meditation bench and you can sit in it this way. When you sit
and as long as you've got me in this position, let me show you how to hold the body. The
chest should be up. The back should be straight. You might almost think of your body as a
bow where the front of the body is the wood of the bow and the spine is like the string that
strings the bow. When the bow is unstrung, then it goes like this. As soon as you string the
bow, you've got this arch here and you can feel that spine. In fact, you're going to learn in
these lessons how important it is to feel the spine and to feel the energy actually moving in
the spine.

Now I'd like to show you another position which will be easier for you probably and one
that Westerners particularly with these Western knees that we're born with might find
easier for a long period of time and that is simply sitting in a chair. I'll show you how. The
position that most people in the West find the most comfortable is sitting in a chair. Make
sure it's an armless chair because then you can have your elbows out more easily. Place
your hands palms upwards on the thighs at the juncture of the abdomen. Bring your
shoulder blades a little bit together, not tightly together but just enough to sort of
corrugate your back so it will be easier to keep it upright and keep your feet flat on the
floor, chin parallel to the ground, your chest up as I said earlier and just be in this position.
It's a very easy one to assume.

Now there are several things that would help you. Each one of them is not terribly
important but all together they actually add up to making it a lot easier. One is if you
would have a woolen blanket and run it down over the back of your chair, over the seat of
your chair and under your feet. The yogis in ancient times discovered that animal fur of
any kind has an insulating effect against certain subtle currents in the earth that tend to
pull the consciousness, the energy downward and what you're going to be trying to do in
meditation is lifting it upwards toward the heaven within. In fact the ancient traditions
used deer skin or something like that but a woolen blanket is a perfectly good Western and
modern day adjustment to that old way of doing it. If you want to be really super careful
and exact about these things then you can even cover the wool with a silk cloth which
actually helps to insulate even more.

Another thing that's helpful is to face east as you meditate. North is OK, any direction is
acceptable but you will find that there are certain currents from the east and in a different
way from the North that help to calm your mind, to focus your mind and direct it at the
point between the eyebrows which is what we'll be doing later on. It's the position most
use it for achieving enlightenment. In fact, you can meditate facing south, west, any way
you want to, any place, sitting in any direction you want to but these are little helps and as
each one is added to the other, the whole becomes a much greater benefit to you, an
advantage.

One thing that you will find extremely helpful is to have a place that you set aside and don't
ever do anything there but meditate. I don't know if you know much about vibrations but
every thought that you have, in fact science has discovered that the whole universe is
made of vibrations. Vibrations of matter, vibrations of feeling, vibrations of consciousness,
every time you think there's a vibration that goes out from you and it permeates to some
extent the atmosphere of the house or the ambiance where you go. As you go into places
where people have meditated, prayed very deeply or if you go to some place where some
great saint has lived and try to meditate there, if you're sensitive, you'll feel a difference.
You can go into a room where you've been meditating in for some months, let's say, and
immediately you'll begin to feel more like meditating. When you go into the dining room,
into the kitchen, the vibrations there are more of food. When you go into the bedroom,
the vibrations you've created there are more of sleep so if you have either a separate room
or a fenced off area, let's put a screen, let's say, around the area where you meditate, you
can put that in a corner of your bedroom but when you go there, don't ever do anything
there but meditate. You'll find that without too much of a delay, it may take a few months
but you'll begin to feel just as you go in there, the sense of upliftment.

Another thing that will help you in that same respect, more in a time sense now than in a
space sense is to meditate at the same time every day. By meditating at the same time,
you know, I remember for example I lived in India for some years and I had errands to run
in Calcutta for a certain period of time and when I was going into the city I couldn't have a
regular time for eating. As a result, it wasn't very long before I lost my appetite. If you eat
at the same time every day then when that time comes you feel hungry and the same thing
is true for any human activity. If you're used to doing it at a certain time then that's when
you feel like doing that. Sleep, for example, getting up at a certain time, whatever it might
be so if you meditate at the same time every day then you will find that when that time
comes it's a lot easier for that period of time to put all extraneous thoughts aside.
Otherwise, you might think, "Well, but what am I doing here? I've got all of these other
things to do." You might find your mind drawn into restlessness so try finding a time that is
good for you and then meditate at that time every day.

Other rules would be to meditate when you wake up in the morning. The first thing,
before you get involved in worldly activities, busyness, outward relationships and so on,
and the last thing you before you go to bed at night. Not only are those times important
because they are sort of the beginning and the end of the day but also the thoughts you
take into your subconscious can change your habits. The best way to change a habit is to
take an affirmation at night and take it into the sleep world. When you meditate before
you go to bed and take that peace into your subconscious it will help you to become a
more peaceful person as a natural thing. If there's some habit you want to change then
affirm that change before you go to sleep. Take that affirmation into the sleep world but
make it a positive one. Don't say, "I am not this," but rather, "This is what I will be."

I had an interesting experience like that many years ago. I wanted to give up smoking. I
was 21 years old and I decided that smoking just wasn't where it was at and so I tried but
every time I drank a cup of coffee or enjoyed the nice full feeling after a meal, that desire
for a cigarette came back because I had been used to enjoying the cigarette particularly at
those times. So for a year I went on like that and it was like Mark Twain who used to say,
"Smoking is the easiest thing in the world to give up. I've done it a hundred times." A
thousand times, I think he said. Anyway, I kept feeling, however, instead of "Oh, I've
failed," I kept thinking, "I haven't yet succeeded."
One night after about a year of this, I remember just suddenly I absolutely decided I would
not. I told a friend of mine I'm giving up smoking. He sort of laughed and said, "Oh, yeah,
we've heard that one before," but I'd really had made up my mind to that. I carried that
thought into sleep when I went to bed. I was already in bed, carried it into sleep before I
went to sleep. The next morning I woke up without any desire. I remember that for two
weeks I carried a half empty package of cigarettes in my pocket and gave them around to
my friends but I never once from that moment to this, some forty-two years later had the
slightest desire for a cigarette.

You'll find also if you do this when you wake up that the first thing you do, you think of God
- first thing you do is think of meditation. The first thing you do is offer yourself up to a
high thought or you could also walk in place and wake yourself up. "I am awake and ready,
awake and ready." Or, "I am positive, energetic, enthusiastic" and in these ways help to
invigorate your mind before you actually sit to meditate. Before you wash your face and
brush your teeth and all those things, think about these inner things, these higher things.
Think of God. Think of what your real purpose in this day will be.

Well, now, the best times to meditate then are at the same time every day. Yes, the best
times would be when you wake up and before you go to bed. There are other points to
consider that are helpful, too. One is to realize something that the yogis or I should say go
along with it. I don't expect you to realize it quickly but this is something the yogis
discovered many, many centuries ago which was that at certain times of the day there are
changes in the electrical currents of the earth and the atmosphere. You can actually feel
this yourself to some extent - for example, at sundown. Do you notice how at sundown the
energy changes? There's a stillness that comes over the air, comes over the whole
countryside. You will find if that you can meditate at or close to dawn, sunset, noon and
midnight--I'm showing the positions of the sun then at those times of change, at those
times of pause, you will be able to penetrate more deeply into the inner silence.

It's interesting. The Zen Buddhists have that classical question of two hands clapping make
this kind of sound, what is the sound of one hand clapping? The answer to that question,
of course, is that there is no answer but in the very realization that there is no answer, the
mind is still and in that stillness suddenly you can meditate. If you can in some way catch
objective nature or your own inner nature at that point where you're still, then you'll be
able to meditate more deeply.

Yogananda often would use this when disciplining his disciples. He would say something
that was totally un-understandable and at that moment of stillness when the mind was
stunned into silence, then he said what he really wanted to say. But until then he
encountered so much resistance of restless thoughts that he wasn't able to get through so
if you can make your mind just suddenly still for a moment or if you can catch some
moment in time, some moment in nature, some moment in your affairs when you can be
still, that's a good time also to meditate. In fact, it would be good to meditate for a few
minutes just any time you have a little bit of stillness.
It would help you also to have an altar. An altar is a focal point of your heart's energy as
well as of your concentration. An altar can be without images or with images. If there is
any image of a sacred type that inspires you, you can put that on the altar, photographs of
great saints and Masters, put that on the altar. A lot of people don't like the idea of having
anything between them and God. Well, the answer to that is quite frankly that they have a
heck of a lot between themselves and God in their own minds, their restless thoughts, their
desires, their attachments their preoccupations, their world of all these involvements and
so on and to focalize on certain beings whose consciousness was pure, whose
consciousness was clear, it helps to be in that kind of influence. It helps to be with people
who are spiritual and whose minds are calm as opposed to being with restless people who
just catch you up in their vortex and draw you away from your own center. So in this way if
you can have pictures of saints on the altar, if they inspire you, it's a good thing. If you
don't, if you just want a symbol or to you the most beautiful thing might be a picture of the
galaxy, anything that uplifts your heart's energy, focalizes your mind is good.

Another thing that you'll find helpful is maybe candles on the altar. There's something
about candle light that is inspiring. It's beautiful. Light is a good thing. Theoretically you
could meditate in darkness but in darkness there tends to be a certain lowering of
awareness. When there's light, there's more awareness. There's more to it than that but I
don't want to go into it at length but the mind is more protected when there is light. In
darkness is a time when sometimes you're open on a lower level and that may not be so
good. A blue light is also a very good thing to meditate in and if you want to have in your
meditation room a blue light above you that can be very calming.

Now then with these few introductory remarks, let us just sit upright. You sit in one of the
positions I've shown you, whether on the floor, on a woolen blanket or in a chair the way
I've said. Place your palms, your hands palms upward on the thighs at the juncture of the
abdomen. Bring your shoulders back, chin parallel to the ground just like I'm doing right
now and close your eyes and inhale, counting mentally to 12, hold 12, exhale 12. All right,
start. Inhale [counts] that speed. Hold [counts]. Exhale [counts]. Immediately inhale
slowly. We're going to do this six times. Again [counts] [repeats inhale, hold, exhale];
Breathe only through the nostrils – exhale - once more - now inhale, tense the whole body,
throw the breath out and relax. Inhale, tense, exhale, and relax - once more.

Now lift your eyes upward. Keep them closed but look upward and focus your gaze and
attention at the point between the eyebrows. I don't mean cross your eyes or anything like
that but just at a point about arm’s length, let's say, above your forehead. Focus your eyes,
your attention at the point between the eyebrows. This is the seat of concentration in the
body. We'll go into it again in another class but focus there and visualize a halo of golden
light. Within that halo of golden light, visualize a blue field. In the center of that blue field,
see a star, five pointed star. In fact, this is a vision that will come to you naturally and
spontaneously in meditation whether you visualize it or not. It is a description of what is
called the spiritual eye. When the mind is very calm, the spiritual eye is suddenly visible.
Even people who have never meditated before, know nothing about these practices, many
have seen this light and have exclaimed in wonder to me when I mentioned it to them,
described it to them.

Concentrate now on that star and feel your energy penetrating that star. Calm your body.
Keep it relaxed. Feel the energy penetrating that star and going into a kingdom of infinite
light, brilliant white light. Feel yourself completely freed of all cares, all worries, all
responsibility, all memories and plans for the future. You are living in the eternal now in
that infinite white light, surrounded by joy, surrounded by peace. Enjoy it as long as you
can. Then when you come out of that state keep your mind always a little bit looking back
toward it and feel that underlying all the restlessness of your daily activities, there's always
that realm of peace and light and joy.

Peace, Peace, Amen