Meditation
Ram Dass Bir Singh Khalsa, Copyright 2001, RDBSK
Meditation is not sitting for thousands of years struggling to become mindless. Meditation is the action of becoming aware of all that is, within you and outside of you. You focus and direct your mind within you, deep, deep within you. So deep within that you end up back outside, never to be without. You become aware of all, within the one action of meditating.
When we master this act or action, it's like waking up from a mind-numbing dream. It's like being reborn into a fantastic movie full of infinite energy, light, joy, and bliss. The word ecstasy doesn't even come close. This is not something you believe in - IT IS THE ACT OF KNOWING THROUGH DIRECT EXPERIENCE. Before you can even ask the question, you just know. It's called Giaan Yoga - union with knowledge. It's all waiting for us to remove the obstacles and open the doors.
These obstacles are nothing more than subconscious programs: called toxic thoughts by the new age therapist, phobias by the psychiatrist, and samskaras by the yogis. These little buggers can become so potent that they lead us around like the strings on a puppet. We may sit for hours in a meditative posture trying to go deep within, but within minutes we either get hit with a flood of toxic thoughts, or our mind starts jumping around like a monkey. Yet in reality, they are nothing more than little bits of electro/chemical energy that create the addictions in life, cause the karma of life, and prevent us from experiencing our true self. How many of us have ever tried a Buddhist vipassana meditation on the development of insight? Can we be mindful of all our actions, or do we just act out of addictions, phobias, hate trips, guilt trips, and trips that we can't even begin to imagine? From a Zen meditation on the sound of one hand clapping, to a Hindu meditation on the sound of OM (it's actually ONG) - it can all become quite a challenge - until we clean the junk out of our minds, and cut the superstrings that pull us around in toxic circles.
"Meditation is a technique to break addiction to thought; in essence it is directed concentration." Dr. Andrew Weil, M. D.
Meditation is to transcend distractions
and experience the Real You.
How many of us have ever tried to keep the mind fixed on one thought and follow that thought to its source? It's called Transcendental Meditation. As soon as we try to fix our mind on one thought, other thoughts pull it away. These myriads of thoughts prevent us from going anywhere, except around in circles. The difficulty is we have spent too many years, if not lifetimes, storing toxic thoughts or programs into our subconscious mind. Becoming conscious of this is the first step in meditation.
The next step is to simply let them go, right? I think many of us know that these programs have become so vast from over feeding and attached to us - that it is not easy to just sit and let them go. As soon as we begin to meditate, our mind starts jumping around like the monkey (called monkey mind) and we get hit with a flood of screaming thoughts, desires, and emotions that turn into commotions. Letting go of these pesky commotions or thoughts, is not so easy. Fortunately we have thousands of potent meditations contained within Kundalini Yoga, to dissolve their electro/chemical hold. Here is just one:
Meditation To Quiet the Mind
Sit straight. Put your left palm flat against the center of your chest, with the fingers pointing towards the right, the left thumb extended up towards the chin. Your right palm is flat on top of the back of the left hand, thumb extended up towards your chin. Now calmly breathe in through both nostrils and breathe out through your rolled tongue. (Open the mouth slightly, extend the tongue out slightly, and curve the tongue in a 'u'.) You are exhaling out, through the rolled tongue. Breathe long and deep.
"This will give you the deepest silence of the self. You'll hear the silence. Silent meditation is only where you can hear yourself. Otherwise, it's not silent. When you can extend to the point where you can hear your own heartbeat, you are done! -Yogi Bhajan (12-27-95, from "Keeping Up," Volume IV #1, 1997.)
Inhaling through a rolled tongue will stimulate certain meridians and cause our glandular system to secrete. This in turn will change the chemistry of our brain, and delete toxic programs. When you are done with this meditation, remember to dance a jig for a few minutes to reconnect yourself to your body and the earth plain. Yogi Bhajan calls this a: "Calm, quiet, silent, solitary meditation." (Inside of us all is a world within worlds, just waiting for us to experience.)
"If I Do Not Go Within, I Go Without."
Conversations with God - book 1, by Neale Donald Walsch
Site created by, Ram Dass Bir Singh Khalsa. Copyright 2001 RDBSK.
Disclaimer
This website is intended to provide you with information only. This information is not intended to replace professional medical care. If you believe that you may suffer from a physical or emotional impairment, seek help from a licensed health care professional. The exercises provided within this web site are to be used at your own discretion and under professional guidance. They are not offered in substitution for medical advise or treatment. Our goal is to complement medical care by encouraging healing of the body, mind, and spirit. Best results are obtained by exercising common sense and body awareness in the practice of Kundalini yoga and meditation, and supplementing it with a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Meditation as Medicine, 2001, by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. and Cameron Stauth. Medical Meditation balances and regenerates the body's ethereal (bio) and physical energies , forging an extrordinary alliance. Dr. Khalsa details the meditation with far more power than standard meditiation: exact positioning of the hand and fingers; particular mantras; specific breathing patterns; and a unique focus of concentration. Check it out and see for yourself.
Two books on Medition, which are like no others, that I recomend are:
Meditation For Absolutely Everyone, 1994, by Subuagh Singh Khalsa. If you want to keep it simple, than this little 96 page book with audio tape is all you really need to truly experience meditation . It contains mantras and breathing meditations on the audio tape from the sicence of Kundalini Yoga.
Feel the Kundalini Energy