|
Be
Still and Know: The Importance of Meditation
By J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda)
In his famous
book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie stated
that the best way to be thought a fascinating conversationalist
is to listen attentively, and with interest. This principle applies
also, though of course not in quite the same way, to the practice
of prayer.
Most people
when they pray talk to God rather than with Him. They don't take
the time to listen, in deep inner silence, for His answer. Prayer,
however, to be most deeply meaningful, needs to be a two-way communication,
a giving and receiving - like conversation. And while it would be
absurd to think in terms of "fascinating" God with our
part of the conversation, there are proven ways of making our prayers
more effective. Listening is one of them.
How many people
ever think of prayer in this way? Usually, they think of it as begging
for special favors, as though prayer were a petition submitted before
the aweful majesty of an imperial throne. Many, no doubt, question
whether the Lord will even single them out for special attention
from among the multitudes appealing to Him daily. Perhaps they fear
they might be judged presumptuous if they tried to interest Him
beyond the actual subject of their petition. Whatever the case,
most people talk a lot, like inadequate conversationalists, but
seldom think of listening in return.
The difference
between the one-way street of normal prayer and actually conversing
with God is simply the degree of involvement - on both sides. Of
course, there can be no question of trying to "fascinate"
Him with our conversation. The Lord has all creation to engage His
attention, besides the perfection of love and bliss in which He
eternally dwells. One petty life in the great scheme of things cannot
particularize His interest to the point of making Him fascinated
with it! When we approach Him, however, with deep love, dedication,
and trust, we appeal to that cosmic, but at the same time deeply
personal, love which He feels for every one of his human children.
Prayer must
come from the heart. That is what I mean by conversation. As there
is a world of difference between talking at someone and talking
with him, so there is a universe of difference between petitioning
God and including Him in the needs we feel.
We need to involve
Him in our lives, in our love for Him. How can we hope to do that,
if we merely pray to him? That's like talking at somebody.
Leaving aside
the question of fascination, conversationally, how are we most likely
to involve anyone in anything that interests us? It isn't much different
from listening for answers to a question. We involve them best when
we include their reality in our own. To awaken concern in them for
our needs, we must show an interest in their needs. To get them
to participate in our lives, we must participate in their lives.
To get them to show love for us, we must love them, first.
All this involvement
on our part is, in its own way, a kind of listening. We need, in
the same way, to listen to God. The kind of prayer that most often
wins a response is one in which the person praying converses with
God: calls to Him, while at the same time listening for His silent
response in the soul.
And that is,
essentially, what is meant by the practice of meditation. Meditation
is the act of listening for, and hopefully, in time, listening to,
God's whispered response in the soul.
Why not try that, next time you pray to God? Instead of merely offering
up a petition for His consideration, try involving Him in your needs.
Meditation is
more than a practice conducted at specific times of the day. It
is a habit of mind, a way of life. Try sharing your thoughts and
feelings with God all day long. Listen for His guidance, His approval
- yes, even His silent laughter within! When you share your life
with Him, your meditations also will be much deeper.
When people
exclude the practice of meditation from daily prayer, it usually
means they aren't really convinced there is anyone "up there,"
listening to them. All too easily, their prayers become a process
of simply talking to themselves.
Well, one may
ask, does God really listen anyway? You'll never know, if you don't
give Him a chance to reply! Just as in any conversation, the degree
of listening, and the response it awakens, is in direct proportion
to the degree of one's own involvement in what he is saying. Why
else is it that the prayers of saints have been, often, so much
more effective than those of worldly people? God is no respecter
of persons. His response is according to the depth of sincerity
in the person praying.
In conversation,
people tend to think of listening as something one does after he
has said his piece. Personally, however, I've found that there is
much better communication if one "listens" - that is to
say, is sensitive to the other person's reactions - even during
the act of speaking to him. When lecturing, also, even though I
don't expect people to start up a conversation with me from the
audience, I've found it helps, while lecturing, to "tune into"
their needs, to respond to their unspoken reactions, to feel as
though I were speaking to each one of them individually.
On the subject
of lecturing, I've found it helps also to "listen" even
before I begin speaking. By that I mean that I meditate and try
to tune into what the people in this particular audience need to
hear from me.
In the same
way, Paramhansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi), who
brought teachings and techniques from India to the West, used to
say that prayer is most effective when it is offered after some
contact with God has been achieved in deep meditation.
Western society
generally identifies meditation with the thinking process. We are
told to meditate "on" a particular subject. Vaguely, we
suppose this means to think in circles around it, hoping for a deeper
understanding of it. Only comparatively recently has the teaching
come to the West that silence itself is the wellspring from which
true understanding arises. In other words, true, and especially
spiritual, understanding is not the product of thinking one's way
to it, but of direct inner perception. As Yogananda wrote in his
autobiography, "A truth cannot be created, but only perceived."
Meditation,
in this deeper sense, begins with the practice of stilling one's
thoughts and emotions.
Yogananda told
the story of a man who was told, as a means of developing spiritual
power, to be very careful not to think of monkeys. Of course, the
next time he sat to meditate, the first thing he thought about was
monkeys! The more he tried not to think of them, the more he probed
his memory for every variety of monkey he'd ever read or heard about.
Monkeys gradually became an obsession. At last, he returned to his
teacher and cried, "Take back this teaching of yours! All it
has done is give me monkey-consciousness, not God-consciousness!"
At this, the
teacher laughed genially and explained, "I only wanted to help
you realize how difficult it is to develop spiritual powers, without
first learning to control your own mind." He then went on to
explain to his student the positive aspects of meditation.
So then, the
first lesson is: Don't live in "monkey consciousness"!
Instead of trying not to let thoughts and emotions enter your mind,
dwell on positive opposite practices that will exert a calming influence
on your mind.
The breath is
one such influence, when it is used rightly. Not only does the breath
reflect one's mental states: It also greatly affects them.
Take the breath
as a reflection of thought and feeling. When a person is agitated,
his breathing automatically speeds up. When he falls asleep, his
breathing rhythm changes: two counts of exhalation, to one of inhalation.
When he is deeply concentrated, he tends to hold his breath. When
he is calm, his breathing becomes calm also.
The reverse
also is true. By breathing agitatedly, one tends to create an agitated
mental or emotional state. A photographer, when taking a photo demanding
sensitivity and concentration, learns to hold his breath before
clicking the camera shutter.
By calm, deep
breathing, similarly, the mind and emotions grow calm also, releasing
us from any turmoil that may have been seething within us. This
is why the advice is so often given to people who are angry or upset,
"First, take a deep breath, and count to ten."
A good practice
when sitting to meditate is to do a few deep breathing exercise.
The yoga teachings offer a number of such exercises, some of which
I explain in my yoga correspondence course, "The Art and Science
of Raja Yoga." Less sophisticated than many of these, but quite
effective, is this:
Sit upright, and breathe deeply through the nostrils counting 1-12.
Hold the breath 1-12. Then exhale, again to a count of 1-12. In
this particular exercise, don't hold the breath out, but begin again
immediately with another inhalation. Repeat this exercise six to
twelve times.
Your posture
during meditation is important. We've all seen photographs in advertisements
of people "meditating" according to the Western notion
of relaxation: a person reclining comfortably on a "Lazy Boy"
chair, his feet up, his head tilted back on the headrest, his entire
posture suggestive of a mood of abandonment. The yogis of India
would smile at this passive attempt at relaxation. The fact is,
while relaxation is essential to deep meditation, passivity is one
of the pitfalls to true relaxation.
There are two
directions the mind can take once it relaxes its grip on conscious
thought processes. One is to sink toward subconsciousness. This
is the direction taken when one's relaxation is passive. The other
direction is to rise toward superconsciousness. Deep meditation
is possible only in the intensely positive state of superconsciousness,
or soul-awareness.
To attain this
state of consciousness, it is important to sit upright with a straight
spine. Traditionally, one does so sitting on the floor with the
legs crossed, preferably in one of the yoga positions such as the
half or full lotus pose, or siddhasana (the "perfect pose"),
but Yogananda said that it is quite all right to sit on a straight-backed
chair, with the feet flat on the floor.
Sit away from
the back of the chair. Place your hands palms upward at the junction
of the thighs and abdomen. Hold the shoulders back to help keep
the spine straight. Hold the chin parallel to the ground.
Before the deep
breathing exercise, relax the body. First, inhale; tense the whole
body till it vibrates; then throw the breath out, and with it all
tension. Repeat this process two or three times.
After the deep
breathing, concentrate on relaxing more and more deeply - not physically
only, but mentally and emotionally. Feel space in the body.
Look upward,
concentrating your attention at the central point between the two
eyebrows, the seat of spiritual vision. Offer up all thoughts and
feelings in deep concentration at this point. Call mentally to God,
"Reveal Thyself! Reveal Thyself!"
Gradually, you
will feel His peace stealing over you, like a weightless waterfall.
More on the
Art and Practice of Meditation:
• Be
Still and Know: The Importance of Meditation
• Practical
Hints for Meditation
• How to Sit Comfortably
• Creating a Routine: Steps
to Deep Meditation
• Meditation Keys
for Beginners
|
