A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

Published in India by Jaico Publishing House

Worldwide publishing rights: Black Lotus Press

Copyright © Om Swami 2016

ISBN: 978-81-8495-945-1

Om Swami asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

www.omswami.com

The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Contents

Home Sweet Home

Introduction

MIND, THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS

The Nature of the Mind

The Journey of a Thought

When Thoughts Become Desires

When Desires Become Expectations

When Thoughts Become Things

THE PATH OF MEDITATION

What Meditation is Not

What is Meditation

Four Stages of Mental Stillness

Six Principles of Meditation

ELEMENTS OF GOOD MEDITATION

Attention

Posture

Concentration

Mindfulness

Alertness

THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION

Before You Begin

Concentrative Meditation

Contemplative Meditation

Mindful Meditation

Observant Meditation

Spirited Meditation

VIRTUES OF A GOOD MEDITATOR

The Mother of Meditation

Compassion

Truthfulness

Gratitude

Empathy

Humility

Faith

HURDLES ON THE PATH

Physical and Environmental Hurdles

Emotional Hurdles

Restlessness

Dullness

Stray Thoughts

Random Images

Other Hurdles

SEVEN YOGIC PRACTICES

Ekagrata – Concentration

Trataka – Still Gazing

Shravana – Listening

Sankalpa – Resolve

Mauna - Silence

Ekanta – Solitude

Tyaga – Letting Go

MONITORING YOUR PROGRESS

Self-Awareness Journal

Meditation Journal

MEDITATION IN A NUTSHELL

The Two Paths

Silence and Awareness

Mental Exertion and Relaxation

THE REALIZATION

The Nine Stages of Bliss

Epilogue

Notes

Home Sweet Home

Have you ever unlocked the main door and entered your home after a vacation of two or four weeks? You are greeted by the smell of a closed home, a sweet smell of dust. You throw yourself on the couch and you let out a big sigh. You say, “Home, sweet home.”

No matter how beautiful the vacation might be, after a while you start missing home. You want to get back to a familiar setting. Your home may not be the plushest, it may not have the luxury of room service and housekeeping, and yet you feel most comfortable in your own home. There’s a natural ease, a sense of belonging, a different sort of freedom. It beats the luxuries of the five-star hotels.

The same goes for our soul as well. Our body is not its permanent home. Our individual consciousness is eternally trying to merge in the supreme consciousness. It wants to go home. It may not be an eloquent orator to tell you so clearly but that’s what it wants to do. Because we are beings of immense freedom and infinite potential, and here we are caught up in the petty tendencies and desires of our mind and body.

The soul wants to go back to its source. This is the most fundamental law of nature, of creation and destruction: everything must return to its source. Our body may be temporary, our minds conditioned, our consciousness a wary traveller, but our soul knows where it belongs.

That’s why every person at some point of time in their lives is forced to think about the meaning of their lives. Everyone, who’s experienced even a minute of fulfillment, embarks on a journey greater than their individual existence. That journey could be the path of Einstein or the passion of Christ; it could be the path of Buddha or the moksha of Vedas.