Excerpts from Divine Discourses on Meditation

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sairam

Sai sister Rajani,

please find below excerpts from Divine discourses on Meditation.

Hope you would find it interesting

Sairam

Crishnan/Trichy

 

Prayer versus meditation

 

"There are two roads to fulfillment: prayer and

meditation. Prayer makes you a supplicant at the feet of God.

Meditation (dhyana) induces God to come down to you and

inspires you to raise yourselves to Him; it tends to make you come

together, not place one in a lower level and the other on a higher."

Sathya Sai Speaks V, 'Lamps Lit from the Same Flame'

 

Teaching meditation

 

"Can anyone train another in meditation? Or claim to

train? It may be possible to teach a person the posture,

the pose, the position of the legs, feet, or hands, neck, head or back,

the style of breathing, or its speed.

But meditation is a function of the inner man; it involves deep

subjective quiet, the emptying of the mind and filling oneself with the

Light that emerges from the divine Spark within. This is a discipline

that no text book can teach and no class can communicate"

Sathya Sai Speaks VII, 'Questions Answered'

 

On meditation…….

 

"You need not rely on another for success in mediation and soft

repetition of the name (dhyana and japa) and await contact with some

sage in order to get from him a mantra for recitation. Pray to the God

within, and you will receive guidance."

Sathya Sai Speaks VII, "The Commentary on the Message"

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi was once asked, "How long should one practice

meditation? 15 or 30 or 45 minutes or an hour?' His reply was, 'You

should continue doing it till you forget that you are meditating. As

long as you are conscious (physically aware) that you are meditating, it

is no meditation at all."

The consciousness of body and mind and the thought of yourself should

become totally extinct.The experience of only the object of your

meditation should subsist, i.e. nothing Else but the presence of

divinity.

The state of meditation is experiencing but without the consciousness

that you are experiencing.

 

Schedule for meditation

 

Recommended time is before dawn (between 3 and 6 AM, auspicious time

is 4:30-5:15 AM'

Sathya Sai Speaks VI, 'Eyelids & The Pupil')

 

But regularity is most important. Swami also recommends a

few minutes of meditation in the evening after dusk. Swami told the

students that you have to look at any object --flame, idol, or picture

for 12 seconds with total concentration and without blinking

eyelids.This is concentration (dharana).

 

Twelve dharana concentrations make one meditation (dhyana). This means

that meditation should last for 12x12 = 144 seconds. Thus, proper

meditation need not last more than 2 minutes 24 secs.

 

Twelve meditations equal one samadhi, which amounts to 12x144 seconds =

28 minutes 48 seconds.

However, it is not something that one does by sitting for

a couple of minutes or hours.

Contemplation of the Lord should be always at all places

 

Posture for meditation

 

Sit on a special mat/piece of cloth/cushion that you use for prayers.

This acts as an insulation for not earthing the body currents. Sit

straight because, "when the body is straight and quiet, the mind is also

straight and quiet. If you cannot control your body, how can you

control your mind"

Relax the hands in two ways: (a) place hands in lap, with one palm on

top of the other with thumbs touching at the tips or (b) rest your arms

on your knees with the palms facing upward and the fingers in chin-mudra

posture . The symbolism of the fingers in this posture is explained in

the section on soft repetition (japa).To regulate the breath for Soham

session, keep "the tip of the tongue gently on the rear of the teeth."

Sathya Sai Speaks XI, "Bhakti, Stage by Stage"