Meditation Exercises

RELAXATION EXERCISE

Before each meditation exercise it is worth spending a few minutes relaxing the body. One way is to imagine/feel the tension moving out of your muscles and down your body so that all the tension finally runs through your feet and into the ground.

Sit with a straight back, but do not overdo it so that the back becomes tense. Concentrate on focusing your awareness/attention on specific muscles of your body. Starting with your head, feel the tension drain downward out of your face. Move your awareness down the neck – imagine that you can push the tension downward and that the muscles relax and soften. Continue down the body, especially work on the shoulders and stomach muscles. Keep moving the tension downward until you reach your feet. At this point imagine all the accumulated tension is forced out of your feet and into the floor. Now bring your awareness to the centre of your chest. Imagine that there is a vast sea of peace in the centre of your chest. Spend a few minutes enjoying the tranquillity within yourself.
Key points of exercise

* Get rid of the tension within the body.

* Be aware of the tension - and the tranquillity - within yourself.

Purpose of exercise

* Relaxing helps us to ‘centre’ and to feel that we are in the present moment

. Breathing into the heart centre

Please breathe in and hold your breath for a couple of seconds, and feel that you are holding the breath, which is life-energy, in your heart centre. This will help you to develop your inner meditation capacity.

2. Becoming aware of the breath

When you sit down to meditate, try to breathe in as slowly and quietly as possible, so that if somebody placed a tiny thread in front of your nose it would not move at all. And when you breathe out, try to breathe out even more slowly than you breathed in. If possible, leave a short pause between the end of your exhalation and the beginning of your inhalation. If you can, hold your breath for a few seconds. But if that is difficult, do not do it. Never do anything that will make you physically uncomfortable during meditation.

3 Breathing in peace and joy

The first thing that you have to think of when practising breathing techniques is purity. When you breathe in, if you can feel that the breath is coming directly from God, from Purity itself, then your breath can easily be purified. Then, each time you breathe in, try to feel that you are bringing infinite peace into your body. The opposite of peace is restlessness. When you breathe out, try to feel that you are expelling the restlessness within you and also the restlessness that you see all around you. When you breathe this way, you will find restlessness leaving you. After practising this a few times, please try to feel that you are breathing in power from the universe, and when you exhale, feel that all your fear is coming out of your body. After doing this a few times, try to feel that you are breathing in infinite joy and breathing out sorrow, suffering and melancholy.

4. Cosmic energy

Feel that you are breathing in not air but cosmic energy. Feel that tremendous cosmic energy is entering into you with each breath, and that you are going to use it to purify your body, vital, mind and heart. Feel that there is not a single place in your being that is not being occupied by the flow of cosmic energy. It is flowing like a river inside you, washing and purifying your entire being. Then, when you breathe out, feel that you are breathing out all the rubbish inside you—all your undivine thoughts, obscure ideas and impure actions. Anything inside your system that you call undivine, anything that you do not want to claim as your own, feel that you are exhaling.
This is not the traditional yogic pranayama, which is more complicated and systematised, but it is a most effective spiritual method of breathing. If you practise this method of breathing, you will soon see the results. In the beginning you will have to use your imagination, but after a while you will see and feel that it is not imagination at all but reality. You are consciously breathing in the energy which is flowing all around you, purifying yourself and emptying yourself of everything undivine. If you can breathe this way for five minutes every day, you will be able to make very fast progress. But it has to be done in a very conscious way, not mechanically.

5. Total breathing

When you reach a more advanced stage, you can try to feel that your breath is coming in and going out through every part of your body—through your heart, through your eyes, through your nose and even through your pores. Right now you can breathe only through your nose or your mouth, but a time will come when you will be able to breathe through every part of your body. Spiritual Masters can breathe even with their nose and mouth closed. When you have perfected this spiritual breathing, all your impurity and ignorance will be replaced by God's light, peace and power.

Imagine that you can see your breath entering your nose and slipping slowly and silently down into your lungs. Feel your breath is filling your chest cavity, energising your entire body. Keep your awareness in the centre of your chest. Imagine that you are in the centre of your own chest. Observe your breath coming in and bring with it all its positive energy. Then watch as your breath is exhaled carrying away negative feelings and emotions and even thoughts. Try to stay centred in your chest all the way through this exercise - keep your awareness in the centre of your chest.

Key points of exercise
* Feel your awareness is in the centre of your chest.

* Observe your breathing in a relaxed and detached way.

* Do not force your breathing.

Purpose of this exercise.

To slow, calm and relax your breathing – this in turn helps to calm and quieten the mind, to prepare yourself for meditation. It is important that our breathing is calm and relaxed before we attempt to focus on the next level which is single pointed concentration. We need to spend a few minutes “letting go” of our hectic outer activities and the impact they have on our mental state. A breathing exercise is perfect for this.
There are many different breathing exercises, this particular one also serves to help us become aware of a more subtle space within ourselves – the centre of the chest houses the Heart centre. The Heart centre is a sweet and peaceful space which we will use in subsequent meditation exercise.

Exercises in Concentration
1. The dot
If you want to develop the power of concentration, then here is an exercise you can try. First wash your face and eyes properly with cold water. Then make a black dot on the wall at eye level. Stand facing the dot, about ten inches away, and concentrate on it. After a few minutes, try to feel that when you are breathing in, your breath is actually coming from the dot, and that the dot is also breathing in, getting its breath from you. Try to feel that there are two persons: you and the black dot. Your breath is coming from the dot and its breath is coming from you.
In ten minutes, if your concentration is very powerful, you will feel that your soul has left you and entered into the black dot on the wall. At this time try to feel that you and your soul are conversing. Your soul is taking you into the soul's world for realisation, and you are bringing the soul into the physical world for manifestation. In this way you can develop your power of concentration very easily. But this method has to be practised. There are many things which are very easy with practice, but just because we do not practise them we do not get the result.
2. Vision and reality
Another exercise you can try is this. First make a very small circle on the wall at eye-level, and inside it make a black dot. It should be black; not blue or red or any other colour. Then stand facing the wall, about three and a half feet away, and focus your attention on the circle. Your eyes should be relaxed and half-open. Let the force of your concentration come from the middle of your forehead. After three or four minutes open your eyes fully and try to feel that, from head to foot, you are all eyes. Your whole physical existence has become nothing but vision, and that vision is focussed on the dot inside the circle. Then start making the object of your concentration smaller. After a few seconds try to feel that your whole body has become as tiny as the dot on the wall. Try to feel that the dot is another part of your own existence. Then enter into the dot, pierce through it and go to the other side. From the other side of the dot, look back and see your own body. Your physical body is on one side, but on the strength of your concentration you have sent your subtle body to the other side of the dot. Through your subtle body you are seeing your physical body, and through your physical body you are seeing your subtle body.
When you began to concentrate, your physical body became all vision. At that time the dot was your reality. When you entered into the dot, then vision and reality became one. You were the vision and you were also the reality. When you looked back at yourself from the dot, the process was reversed. At that time you became the vision outside yourself, and the place to which you returned—your body—was the reality. Then, the vision and the reality became one again. When you can see the vision and the reality in this way, your concentration is absolutely perfect. When your power of concentration can bring you to the other side of the point which you were calling reality, at that time your whole existence will be far beyond both vision and reality. And when you can feel that you have transcended your vision and your reality, you will have boundless power.
3. My heart-friend
Just as you can concentrate on the tip of your finger, or on a candle or any other material object, you can also concentrate on your heart. You may close your eyes or look at a wall, but all the time you are thinking of your heart as a dear friend. When this thinking becomes most intense, when it absorbs your entire attention, then you have gone beyond ordinary thinking and entered into concentration. You cannot look physically at your spiritual heart, but you can focus all your attention on it. Then gradually the power of your concentration enters into the heart and takes you completely out of the realm of the mind.
If you do not have purity in abundant measure, if countless earthly desires are in possession of the heart, then before concentrating on the heart you should invoke purity. Purity is the feeling of having a living shrine deep in the inmost recesses of your heart. When you feel the divine presence of an inner shrine, automatically you are purified. At that time your concentration on the heart will be most effective.

4. The heartbeat of life

Some seekers like to concentrate on their heartbeat. If you want to do this, do not be afraid that the heart will stop and you will die. If you want to be a real hero in your spiritual life, you can practise concentrating on your heartbeat. This is the golden opportunity for you to enter into the endless life. Each time you hear the sound of your heartbeat, immediately feel there your infinite, immortal life.

5. The inner flower

For this exercise you will need a flower. With your eyes half closed and half open, look at the entire flower for a few seconds. While you are concentrating, try to feel that you yourself are this flower. At the same time, try to feel that this flower is growing in the inmost recesses of your heart. Feel that you are the flower and you are growing inside your heart.
Then, gradually try to concentrate on one particular petal of the flower. Feel that this petal which you have selected is the seed-form of your reality-existence. After a few minutes, concentrate on the entire flower again, and feel that it is the Universal Reality. In this way go back and forth, concentrating first on the petal—the seed-form of your reality—and then on the entire flower—the Universal Reality. While you are doing this, please try not to allow any thought to enter into your mind. Try to make your mind absolutely calm, quiet and tranquil.
After some time, please close your eyes and try to see the flower that you have been concentrating on inside your heart. Then, in the same way that you concentrated on the physical flower, kindly concentrate on the flower inside your heart, with your eyes closed.

Concentration Exercise with Flower

“The Inner Flower. For this exercise you will need a flower. With your eyes half closed and half open, look at the centre of the flower for a few seconds. While you are concentrating, try to feel that you yourself are this flower. At the same time, try to feel that this flower is growing in the inmost recesses of your heart. Feel that you are the flower and you are growing inside your heart.

Then, gradually try to concentrate on one particular petal of the flower. Feel that this petal which you have selected is the seed-form of your reality-existence. After a few minutes, concentrate on the entire flower again, and feel that it is the Universal Reality. In this way go back and forth, concentrating first on the petal – the seed-form of your reality – and then on the entire flower – the Universal Reality.

While you are doing this, please try not to allow any thought to enter into your mind. Try to make your mind absolutely calm, quiet and tranquil.

After some time, please close your eyes and try to see the flower that you have been concentrating on inside your heart. Then, in the same way that you concentrated on the physical flower, kindly concentrate on the flower inside your heart, with your eyes closed.”

“Each time an undivine thought enters into your mind, throw it out of your mind. It is like a foreign element, a thief, that has entered your room.”

“In the beginning you may not be able to concentrate according to your satisfaction because the mind is not focused. The mind is constantly thinking of many things. It has become a victim of many uncomely thoughts... When your mind starts getting illumined, it will be very, very easy to concentrate for a long time, and also to concentrate more deeply.”