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

Listen to the sound for a few minutes if you are meditating on an external sound and then turn off the source, or simply chant the mantra a few times if you are meditating on a mantra.

Breathe deeply for about five minutes with both nostrils.

Close your eyes or half-close them if you like.

Start recalling the sound you just heard. Or start recalling the mantra you just chanted if you are meditating on a mantra.

It is best to meditate on a mantra you have been initiated into.

The power of initiation cannot be overstated, however this is not the right place to go in detail regarding initiation. If you haven’t been initiated in any mantra yet and you really wish to meditate on a mantra, feel free to do so. When it comes to meditating on a mantra, there are no hard and fast rules. All those rules apply when you want to invoke a mantra according to the science of mantras (which is a different subject matter altogether). Thus, initiation is the least of our worries when meditating on a mantra. The sacred syllables of the mantra silently work on your inner transformation.

When chanting on a mantra, if you simply maintain the same pace during a session, you may experience periods of restlessness and torpor more quickly and frequently. Feel free to vary your pace to retain freshness and clarity. For example, let’s say you are meditating on the simple mantra of Shiva, Om Namah Shivaya.

Once you’ve chanted a few times, mentally start recalling the mantra:

Om – Namah – Shivaya.

Om – Namah – Shivaya.

Om – Namah – Shivaya.

Here, the en-dash ‘–’ indicates a small pause.

If you experience restlessness while meditating, just slow down the recall. It could be:

O–m – Nam–ah – Shiv–aya.

O–m – Nam–ah – Shiv–aya.

O–m – Nam–ah – Shiv–aya.

You could slow it down even further by adding more pauses or longer pauses. For example:

O–m – Na—m–ah – Sh—iv–a—ya.

Or even longer:

O–——m–——Na———m–——ah – Sh———iv——–aya, and so on.

If you experience laziness or dullness, you could reduce the number of pauses and increase the pace of recall. This is the best way to maintain your concentration with mindfulness and alertness. It keeps the mind alive and focused.

Meditation on Formless

Some people have a natural disliking for forms and sounds. They find meditating on their breath pointless. Fortunately, there’s another practice in concentrative meditation where you can mediate on void, or on the formless as it’s called.

If you wish to meditate on the formless, there are two ways to do so. Here’s how to do it correctly:

Assume your yogic posture.

Deep breathe a few times to normalize your energies.

Simply close your eyes and remain thought free. That’s it.

Please note that being thought free is not the same as observing your thoughts. You must not observe or watch your thoughts while meditating on the formless. Instead, it is a practice where mind is directly looking at itself. Meditation on the formless is the hardest to do without guidance because there are a few subtle points which can only be demonstrated and not documented. A master is a must if you wish to champion this form.

On my own journey, it took me more than one thousand hours to just be able to recognize correctly the difference between loss of clarity (a subtle form of dullness where you feel thoughts have subsided) versus actual thoughtlessness. I remember the first time I started experiencing thoughtlessness with perfect awareness; it was such an unusual state of mind that I felt nauseated. Due to intense practice, my mind could remain thoughtless but my body thought something was going wrong within. This went on for more than 300 hours spread over 6 months. But once past that stage, being thoughtless was one the most beautiful states of mind. It was like the calm lake on a sunny day. You feel complete, rested, at once at peace. Thoughtlessness of the mind with awareness is a feeling like no other. You feel life bubbling inside you, you get in touch with your soul. It’s the audience falling pin-drop silence after a thunderous applause just before the beginning of a great opera performance.

The other form of meditation on the formless is called expansive meditation. In this you experience yourself merging in the supreme consciousness. Here’s how to do it right:

As always, sit comfortably in the yogic posture.

Deep breathe a few times.

Visualize a bright, effulgent light or a dark infinite universe. This is the expansive aspect in this meditation.

Gradually visualize that your body is disintegrating and merging in the vast, expansive, infinite universe.