extract from 'Living With Siva' by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
. courtesy of Himalayan Press
The finest times to meditate are before dawn, at noon, sunset and
midnight. All four of these times could be used, or choose one. The
meditation should be from fifteen minutes to one-half hour to begin
with. What to meditate on? The transmutation of the odic forces back
to their source, the actinic force. Through perfect posture, asana,
we transmute the physical forces and the emotional forces. Through the
control of the breath, pranayama, we transmute the intellectual forces and
move awareness out of the area of the mind that is always thinking--the
great dream.
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There are two forces that we become conscious of when we begin to meditate: the odic force and the actinic force. Actinic force is pure life energy emanating from the central source of life itself. Odic force is magnetism that emanates out from our physical body, attracts and merges with the magnetism of other people. The odic force is what cities are made of, homes are made of. The actinic force, flowing through the physical body, out through the cells and through the skin, eventually becomes odic force.
As soon as we begin to meditate, we become conscious of these two forces and must be aware of how to deal with them. The odic forces are warm, sticky. The actinic forces are inspirational, clean, pure, true. We seek in meditation the actinic force.
Establishing Your Sadhana (Sadhana= spiritual disciplines)
Where does sadhana begin? It begins within the home, and it begins
within you. This is ancient wisdom recognized not only in India, but
among many great civilizations of history. Thus upon the wall of a famous
ancient Greek temple and oracular center at Delphi was inscribed "Know
thyself." The religion of the Greeks, which was in many respects not
unlike Hinduism, is long since gone, but remaining temple ruins testify
to its magnificence. By disciplining your mind, body and emotions through
sadhana, you come more and more into the inner knowing of yourself.
You will first discover that when the breath is regulated, it is
impossible for the thinking mind to run wild, and when the breath is
slightly held, it is impossible for more than one thought to remain
vibrating in the mind at a time. You will experience that when the nerve
currents are quieted through diaphragmatic breathing, it is impossible
to be frustrated, and it is possible to absorb within yourself, into the
great halls of inner learning, into the great vacuum within you, all of
your problems, troubles and fears, without having to psychoanalyze them.
Then we automatically move into the next step, concentration. The
hummingbird poised over the flower held at attention, begins to look at
the flower, to concentrate on it, to study it, to muse about it, not to
be distracted by another flower--that is then awareness moving. Awareness
distracted, here, is awareness simply moving to another flower, or moving
to another area of the mind.
Give up the idea that thoughts come in and out of your mind, like visitors
come in and out of your house. Hold to the idea that it is awareness
that moves, rather than the thoughts that move. Look at awareness as
a yo-yo at the end of a string. The string is hooked to the very core
of energy itself, and awareness, flows out, and it flows in. Awareness
might flow out toward a tree and in again, and then out toward a flower,
and then in again, and down toward the ground and then in again. This
wonderful yo-yo of awareness--that is a good concept to grasp in order
to become more acquainted with awareness. Awareness held at attention
can then come into the next vibratory rate and concentrate.
Take a flower and place it in front of you. Breathe deeply as you sit
before it. Simply look at it. Don't stare at it and strain your eyes. But
simply become aware of it. Each time awareness moves to some other area
of the mind, with your willpower move awareness back and become aware of
the flower again. Keep doing this until you are simply aware of the flower
and not aware of your body or your breath. Then begin to concentrate on
the flower. That is the second step. Think about the flower. Move into the
area of the mind where all flowers exist in all phases of manifestation,
and concentrate on the flower. Move from one area to another--to where all
stems exist, to the stem of that particular flower, to the root that that
particular flower came from, and to the seed. Concentrate, concentrate,
concentrate on the flower. This is what concentration is--remaining in
the thought area of the particular item that you are aware of and flowing
through the different color and sound vibrations of the thoughts. How
does it work? The powers of concentration--it is only a name. Actually,
what is happening is you are flowing awareness through the area of the
mind which contains the elements which actually made that particular
flower, and you are perceiving how all those elements came together.
LESSON 87 from Merging with Siva
Step 3 - Meditation
After we are able to hold awareness hovering over that which we are
concentrating upon, we come into great powers of observation. We are
able to look into and almost through that which we are concentrating
upon and observe its various parts and particles, its action and its
reaction, because we are not distracted. Even observation in daily life,
as a result of regular participation in the practice of concentration,
comes naturally. We are able to see more, hear more, feel more. Our
senses are more keen and alive. Observation is so necessary to cultivate,
to bring awareness fully into the fullness of meditation.
This leads us then into our very next step, meditation. Meditation
and concentration are practically the same thing, though meditation is
simply a more intense state of concentration. The state of meditation
is careful, close scrutiny of the individual elements and energies which
make up that flower. You are scrutinizing the inner layers of the mind,
of how a flower grows, how the seed is formed. You are observing it
so keenly that you have forgotten that you are a physical body, that
you are an emotional unit, that you are breathing. You are in the area
of mind where that flower exists, and the bush that it came from, and
the roots and the seed and all phases of manifestation, all at the same
time. And you are seeing it as it actually is in that area of the mind,
where the flower that you first put awareness at attention upon, then
began to concentrate upon. Then you are meditating on the actual inner
area of the mind where, in all stages of manifestation, that particular
species actually is within the mind.
LESSON 88 from Merging with Siva
'Contemplation'
Out of meditation we come into contemplation. Contemplation is
concentrating so deeply in the inner areas of the mind in which that
flower and the species of it and the seed of it and all exist. We go
deeper, deeper, deeper within, into the energy and the life within the
cells of the flower, and we find that the energy and the life within the
cells of the flower is the same as the energy within us, and we are in
contemplation upon energy itself. We see the energy as light. We might
see the light within our head if we have a slight body consciousness. In
a state of contemplation, we might not even be conscious of light itself,
for you are only conscious of light if you have a slight consciousness
of darkness. Otherwise, it is just your natural state, and you are in
a deep reverie. In a state of contemplation, you are so intently alive,
you can't move. That's why you sit so quietly.
Yogaswami once said, "I went in and in and in, and so deep within, that a
bird was sitting on my head." That is the type of teaching he would give
to cause people to think that the physical body was so quiet and quiet for
so long that a bird was just sitting on his head, didn't even know it was
a man sitting there--"I went in and in and in and in so deeply that a bird
was sitting on my head." Go in and in and in and in so deeply that a bird
could sit on your head, through the stages of attention, concentration,
meditation and contemplation of the inner energies of the universe itself.
When you are in the mind of energy, in that rarefied consciousness, you
are not conscious of the Earth or any planets. You are just conscious of
the strata of energy that runs through Earth, space and planets. It's not
even really energy. We are only conscious of energy when we are conscious
of something that seems to be not energy. However, this is contemplation,
the very source of that which is within and running through form.
by Satguru Sivata Subramuniyaswami
