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

I am the state of excellent happiness. I am all-pervading and beyond stain.

I am the limitless and endless Sattva alone. I am replete with Supreme Bliss.

I am of the nature of happiness, which is Supreme Bliss.

I am pure, secondless, and eternal. I am devoid of beginning. I am free from the gross, subtle and causal bodies.

I am of the nature of wisdom. I am the emancipated One.

I have a wondrous form. I am free from impurity. I am the one latent in all.

I am the refined Supreme Truth. I am of the nature of Wisdom- Bliss alone.

I am of the nature of consciousness. I am of the nature of happiness. I am the eternal Soul. I am the primeval consciousness.

I am beyond passion or faults.

I am neither existing nor non-existing.

I am not of the nature of anything. I am of the nature of the actionless.

I am beyond parts.

I am the pure, the enlightened, the eternal, the all-pervading and of the nature of the significance of Om, of the spotless, and of Chit.

I am Sacchidananda.

Even a mindful reading of the contemplative prompts can be very effective in gaining insight into your true nature.

The power of contemplative meditation cannot be overstated. If you stay situated in the sentiment of your true nature, you will find yourself increasingly unaffected by the worldly petty affairs. You won’t feel hurt in relationships. Your outlook towards others will completely change. In any given circumstance, you will remind yourself that the true you is beyond the damage others’ words or actions can cause. You start to realize that you are greater than the total of your labels, titles and emotions. You truly are, Sacchidananda.

Mindful Meditation

In Old Path, White Clouds, Thich Naht Hanh writes about Buddha’s first practice of mindfulness that he discoursed to a group of children soon after his enlightenment. I hereby quote the passages below:

Siddhartha [the Buddha] quietly gestured for the children to sit back up and he said, “You are all intelligent children and I am sure you will be able to understand and practice the things I will share with you. The Great Path I have discovered is deep and subtle, but anyone willing to apply his or her heart and mind can understand and follow it.

“When your children peel a tangerine, you can eat it with awareness or without awareness. What does it mean to eat a tangerine in awareness? When you are eating the tangerine, you are aware that you are eating the tangerine. You fully experience its lovely fragrance and sweet taste. When you peel the tangerine, you know that you are peeling the tangerine; when you remove a slice and put it in your mouth, you know that you are removing a slice and putting it in your mouth; when you experience the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine, you are aware that you are experiencing the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine. The tangerine [that] Nandabala offered me had nine sections. I ate each morsel in awareness and saw how precious and wonderful it was. I did not forget the tangerine and thus the tangerine became something very real to me If the tangerine is real, the person eating it is real. That is what it means to eat a tangerine in awareness.

…