A humble supplement to Shri Sadananda's points on Meditation

[Guest guest]

Concentration means the mind is occupied with only one topic or

activity. Be it a mathematical problem, be it playing chess, be it car

driving, be it awaiting the service of the opponent in Tennis, be it

talking on the phone, be it a performance of surgery -- the person

concentrates totally on what work there is on hand. But the work

itself consists of a series of steps, of logic, of cause and effect,

of action and reaction. Concentration is not meditation. Nor is it

japa. The latter is a ceaseless repetition of one verbal expression

and a consequent concentration on the meaning or significance of the

same. Whatever the mantra used, japa should not be a mindless

repetition. The japa with or without counting of the number of

repetitions is a prerequisite to meditation because it has been found

by experience to be the best way to warm up the mental framework for

it to be ready to plunge into the exercise of meditation.

Concentration therefore, for purposes of Spirituality, begins with a

japa (this is one way -- my personal experience). This is the

preparation for meditation. It needs a lot of will power and faith.

Concentration now is the containment of the mind either on one of the

psychic centres within the body or on any divine form or name or

mantra. Concentration on subtle objects should be tried only after

concentration on gross objects has been perfected.Concentration is

dhAraNa.

Meditation (dhyAna) comes next. It is the art of maintaining perfect

continuity between successive thought waves so that there is no gap or

interval and so that there is throughout only one identical thought,

no more a wave which rises and falls. (At this point My personal

experience is still in the wishful future!)

tatah punah zAntoditau tulya-pratyayau

cittasya ekAgratA pariNAmah

(Patanjali's yoga-sutra III-12)

Meaning:

The mind becomes one-pointed when similar thought waves arise in

succession without any gaps between them.

 

All the minor diverse thought waves are swallowed by one great flat

'wave' of concentration on one object and no other. The meditator

keeps his attention on the knower and watches the thought-waves

arising and subsiding in the mind. He becomes aware that between any

two thoughts there is a gap. In this gap, the triad of knower, known

and knowledge (jnAtA, jnAnaM, jneyaM) disappears and there is only the

knower. This is pure Oneness, where no division between subject and

the absence of object or between knower, knowledge and known remains.

The truth is realised that the knower alone exists. When the object

and the power of knowing reappear, it is the knower which releases

them out of itself and then enjoys its own creation, as it were. In

the gap between thoughts there is only the knower. The 'flat wave of

concentration' without any gaps is this state of Oneness of the knower

in whom the other two parts of the triad have merged.

It is then we need a total involvement of the heart and a

self-abnegating cooperation of the mind. If a movie camera shoots a

continuous piece without moving the camera and without the object

moving even a bit, the projection of this film will look like a still

photograph with all the identical images fused into one. The science

of training the mind and the heart to do this is meditation.

Pranams to everybody on the list.

Professor Krishnamurthy.

 

 

 

 

 

==

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

You are invited to visit my Spirituality Home Page at

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/

and also to my article on Cosmic Day of Brahma in

http://indiaheritage.com/rendez/article1.htm