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

This is the unfailing sign of a true yogi. With practice and experience, you will find your gaze becoming increasingly still. A still gaze channelizes the five secondary energies. Any hurdles from hiccups, sneezing, burping are removed by perfecting your gaze. Still gaze aids superior concentration which in turn helps the free flow of energy in your body, and when energy starts to flow freely, pain and numbness begin to disappear. Restraining movement of the eyeballs is one of the last hurdles in perfecting a still posture.

Gentle Smile

This may seem insignificant but it’s an important factor in acquiring overall stillness of the body and mind. Once you are firmly seated, keep your body firm but relaxed. Relax your facial muscles and just smile gently. A subtle breeze of calmness starts to flow when you smile gently. You can try it right now; just relax your face, lower your gaze keeping your eyes half-closed and smile. The frown, the tension will disappear immediately.

Position of Tongue and Teeth

Your tongue should touch the front part of your palate. It is particularly important because formation of saliva can interfere with your perfect stillness. If your tongue touches the palate, any saliva keeps moving down on its own. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself swallowing every now and then. The act of swallowing raises body consciousness. Teeth should be slightly parted and lips just joined – no clenching of teeth, no pouting of lips, just a normal, natural body posture.

Your posture should be firm but not tense. It should be steady and comfortable. You should neither be stiff as a robot nor pliable as a child’s plastic doll. And, please don’t forget to smile gently while you meditate; there’s enough sadness in the world as it is. Meditation may be hard but it’s not sad. When you sit down to meditate you exude a certain energy, a good posture with all the above mentioned eight elements greatly helps in the free flow of that energy. With your legs crossed, hands joined, still gaze and straight back, channelization and retention of the energy occurs most naturally.

With a comfortable posture and natural stillness, it becomes much easier to build the concentration required for great meditation.

Concentration

Three monks were meditating together by the riverside. Two of them were senior and considered themselves to be more advanced than the third monk, who actually had remained doubtful of their claim. Their monastery was on the other side of the river.

“It’s normal to have supernatural powers when you are enlightened,” one of them said. He got up walked on water, across the river, and came back walking on the water. “I’d just gone to bring my shawl.”

The second monk showed no reaction but the junior one sat agape. Before he could get over the miracle, he had just witnessed, the second senior monk also got up and performed the same feat. “I’d forgotten my alms-bowl back there,” he said in a matter of fact tone while sitting down.

Now, the junior monk was almost shell-shocked. He realized it was their confidence and conviction that they could walk on water. Not to be outdone, and to test his powers, he too got up with the intention to walk on water. Two steps from the bank and he fell down in the river, his robe soaked in water. The senior monks laughed hysterically. Still not giving up, he came out and tried to run across the river. He fell down again.

“Do you think we should tell him,” the first monk said to the other, “where the stones are?”

Building your concentration, the most important aspect of a good meditation, is like walking on water. But once you know where the stones are, it becomes a lot easier to do so. Concentration is focus with precision–one careful step at a time, one moment at a time. The only way to retain your concentration is by retaining it in this moment, the present moment, and then the next moment, and the next, and the next and so on. If you maintain the sharpness of your concentration from one moment to the next, you stand to gain extraordinary rewards from meditation.

In our current world where you have millions of websites and mobile apps, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter and other distractions, achieving concentration is more difficult than it has ever been in the history of our race. Yet, if you wish to meditate, you have to go back to the basics, to an ancient lifestyle – frugal and simple. This lifestyle is not to be followed necessarily at all times (good if you do that though) but certainly while you meditate.