advice on "dhyAna" for a novice?

[Guest guest]

Dear Prapatti Group Members:

 

Shari Mani wrote:

 

I would like those among you who engage in

any kind of contemplation, no matter how "simple",

to give me suggestions on (a) how to concentrate,

and on (b) what to concentrate.

 

Adiyen's reply:

Adiyen would like to share a technique which is helping me improve in

dhyana but I must admit that I am still far away being perfect. The

technique used - I must hasten to add - is not corraborated by any formal

yoga school. Therefore if I am doing any thing wrong please feel free to

say so.

 

In a day, there are two places we do dhyana. During the

Gayatri/Ashtakshara Japam and during Manaseeka ArAdhanam.

 

I have found that the 'dhyana' is easier when we do manaseeka Aradhanam.

For example, it is easy to imagine Emperuman being offered all the sixteen

upacharAs and finally requesting Him to do Yoga-Nidra in the lotus of your

heart and doing a little service of pressing his legs and shoulders etc.

(which I enjoy having my sons do - Kausalya says: Yadannaf PurushO Bhavati

TadannAs tasya DevatA:). You can be very imaginative about it. During the

snanam you can imagine that you are taking Emperuman to Hrishikesh and

having Him take a dip in the Ganges! I tend to enjoy this a great deal.

Since the wandering mind is anyway made to wander with Emperuman and yet it

is focussed on Him - We kill two birds with a single stone so to speak!.

 

Now coming to mantra japam, I have found that if you do the japa faster

the mind is more focussed. You can focus on the meaning, Svara and the

Lord. I have found that focussing on Sri Ranganatha for 10 Gayatris and

then on Lord Srinivasan for 10, Lord Varadhan for 10, Lord Sampath Kumaran

and so on keeps the mind actively engaged in Japam. Bharga: is the

effulgence that emanates from the Lord's ThirumEni whether He is at the

center of the solar 'orb' or residing in the 'garbha gruham'. As a

beginner these are definitely helpful and it is left to Emperuman how He

decides to guide me further.

 

Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan

[Guest guest]

Srimathe Narayanaya Namaha

 

Dear Sri Mani,

 

On 8/21/98 8:05 PM you wrote,

 

-------------------------Quote----

In such a short time, how can I successfully calm my mind and

concentrate on the paramAtmA? All too often, my mind wanders and thinks

about something completely unrelated to nArAyaNa.

It is easier to focus on the last funny episode of Seinfeld or the next

meal than to think about God! This is my practical experience.

------------------------Unquote---

 

I don't know whether I am answering your question or not. But I would

like to bring to notice what I learnt about Yoga.

 

In Yoga, meditation is one of the important step. As per what I read

in a book about Yoga, published by the Ramakrishna Mutt, it says that

(This is not an exact representation of the words in the book )

 

"..the mind will wander from one thing to another thing when one

starts the meditation. At this point the person who is doing the

meditation may feel ashamed that he is not capable of concentrating on

a particular thing or object. But note, one need not feel like that.

The first step in meditation is to allow your mind to wander freely

about whatever it thinks or focuses about. It may even be a rubbish.

But how long will this continue. Never, forever. There will be a point

at which you WILL get rid of all these wanderings. One cannot explain

this occurance but it is sure to happen. This is just like cleaning

our house. Everyday we get a lot of dust and other unwanted things in

our house. But are we not patiently cleaning our house everyday? Once

when we get rid of all the dirts, doesn't our house become very

pleasant to see and live. Likewise, allow the mind to wander as a part

of cleaning process of the unwanted thoughts in your mind. But one

needs to be patient and keep on trying it till reaches the point where

he can concentrate on just what he wants to. After that there is

nothing that can stop you from concentrating on whatever you want".

 

As said above, I am not sure whether this is a convincing answer for

your question. But I thought I will just share what I read. Also, the

mistakes if any in the citation above, is entirely due to my penning

and not to what is published by the Ramakrishna Mutt

 

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Mani,

You have raised a very pertinent question, since I am also faced with the

same problem while doing sandhyAvandhanam. While I can claim no knowledge of

"dhyAna" nor do I do any sort of contemplation on the Lord, I thought I

would share with you what I try to do during these times of mind wavering

(especially since you have asked for opinions from any and all).

When I start doing Gayathri Japa, my mind invariably starts roaming

elsewhere. (A favourite one is to think of what I would get as tiffin

immediately afterwards :-) In those times, I start trying to think of a specific

image of the Lord and try to keep that fixed in my mental screen. This image is

one where MahAVishnu is in a standing pose, with four arms, having conch,

chakrA, mace and a lotus flower. I have seen this photo in my grandparents'

house and I like this image a lot. Now, after I start keeping this image in

the mind's frame, after a few seconds, the mind starts wandering again. In

order to prevent this from happening, I try to start concentrating on each one

of the aspects of the beauty of the Lord, like his eyes, his red lips, his

smile, his "kireetam", his chest, etc. Since each one will take a few seconds

to absorb in the mind's screen, by the time I go through a cycle, my Gayathri

Japam would have been over :-). Of course, I don't succeed in this all the

time, but I try to do this since it helps focus me atleast for a few seconds

on the beauty of the Lord.

I am not sure whether this helps or whether this was indeed what you were

looking for. Just thought I would share my experience.

 

Regards,

R. Sridharan.

 

-----------

R. Sridharan Tel: (65) 874-6717 (O)

Senior Engineer, (65) 773-5235 (H)

Kent Ridge Digital Labs (formerly Fax: (65) 774-4990

known as Institute of Systems Science), Internet: sridhar

21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace,

Singapore 119613.

-----------

[Guest guest]

I am forwarding this mail as per Sri Parthasarathy's request.

 

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

 

 

______________________________ Forward Header

Re: advice on "dhyAna" for a novice?

Author: parthas at INTERNET-MAIL

08/25/98 2:13 PM

 

> -------------------------Quote----

> In such a short time, how can I successfully calm my mind and

> concentrate on the paramAtmA? All too often, my mind wanders and thinks

> about something completely unrelated to nArAyaNa.

> It is easier to focus on the last funny episode of Seinfeld or the next

> meal than to think about God! This is my practical experience.

> ------------------------Unquote---

>

 

In my school (Padma Seshadri), when we were taught transcendental

meditation , we were told that we should not make any

effort to abruptly curb's the mind's wanderings. I remember my teacher

asking us to "go with the flow,... and gradually get back to the mantra."

One of the things she told us was that concentration during meditation was

a skill acquired only with practice, and that in the early

stages, it was not uncommon to have only 10 minutes of "concentrated"

meditation in an hour of meditation... Breathing was also something

that was emphasized (I think someone described the usefulness of

regulated breathing very nicely in an earlier mail); pranayamam was

prescribed before we started our meditations. However, I must confess

that it is hard to practice all that we learn. I find it very hard to

concentrate when I meditate too. It is really so much more easy to

get distracted thinking about other things...

 

I am glad that Mani brought up this topic. The discussions so far have

been very educational. I am looking forward to learning more as the

thread progresses.

 

Regards,

-- Partha

---------------------------- Forwarded with Changes ---------------------------

parthas at INTERNET-MAIL

8/25/98 2:13PM -0400

TV Venkat at USMTNMO2

*cc: bhakti at INTERNET-MAIL

Re: advice on "dhyAna" for a novice?

-

[Guest guest]

Mani Varadarajan wrote:

> These days, the only time I seem to have for any

> sustained contemplation is during my morning

> and evening sandhyAvandana. Even these are

> limited to a few minutes, the period during

> which I do the gAyatri or ashTAkshara japa.

 

I know exactly what your situation is, being in it myself.

> I would like those among you who engage in

> any kind of contemplation, no matter how "simple",

> to give me suggestions on (a) how to concentrate,

> and on (b) what to concentrate.

 

This is a technique which has helped me, YMMV. In my reading of the

bhagavad gItA, for a long time I did not pay too much attention to the

phrase samprexyaM nAsikAgram svaM dishashchAnavalokayan.h (chapter 6).

Similar phrases are to be found in many other places including

upanishhads. Sha.nkara's commentary on this verse is very useful, in a

practical sense. He points out that it's not gazing at the tip of nose

which is enjoined, but just the convergence of sight.

 

After contemplating on sha.nkara's explanation, I observed that even

when the eyes are closed (in meditation), the eyeballs move around and

this state of a "convergence of sight" is not reached. In the beginning

I found it useful to keep my eyes slightly open and direct the gaze

downward, _as if_ looking at the tip of the nose, so that a "steady

gaze" can be obtained. Also, in the beginning some conscious effort may

be necessary to make the gaze steady. But later it becomes more natural.

For some reason looking down helps make the gaze steady, but looking

straight ahead the eyeballs tend to move around. Making the gaze steady

helps calm the mind. This helped a whole lot for me.

 

This is not the same as some haTHa yoga practices where the person

stares at some thing without blinking for a long time. I have tried it

and it only dulls the mind and makes it sort of blank. Does not serve

much purpose IMHO. What I mean is holding the gaze steady is not the

purpose. However, holding the gaze steady _during_ contemplation on

Ishvara helped me a whole lot. If you try this out, one caveat. When

looking downward there is no need to exactly look at the tip of the

nose. There will be one particular position of the eyes where you'll

notice no discomfort and also the gaze becoming steady. Also don't force

things too much. Otherwise you may get some headaches. Holding the gaze

steady can be practiced at other times also. Eg, while walking etc.

 

Rama