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

The other important thing is that in concentrative meditation, you are allowed to take a break every now and then to rejuvenate yourself. You could meditate for five days in a row and then take a break over the weekend. In the yogic practice of concentration, absolutely no break is allowed. It must be done every single day without fail for at least 40 days in a row.

The chart below shows the important elements of this practice and their impact on the quality of your concentration.

The far left column shows the various aspects to ensure good practice – a still body, a still mind, alertness and lucidity. The ‘description’ column is self-explanatory. ‘Weightage’ here refers to how important the various aspects are in the overall practice. ‘Impact’ tells what happens if you fail to fulfil that aspect of the practice. When impact is shown in red, it means that as soon as you violate that particular criteria, ideally you should start again. Yellow bar means to be mindful and the green bar (not present in this practice) means it is normal and you can continue. As an analogy, think of a driving test. When you are behind the wheel with the testing officer next to you, it is clear that certain mistakes are considered ‘Instant Failure’ items while there are other points where a degree of leniency is used. If you fail to indicate while turning, or fail to check your blind spot when changing lanes for example, your test is terminated right in that moment and you are asked to turn back. Whereas, if you are not vigilant in constantly checking your rear and side view mirrors and are only doing so intermittently, the testing officer will mark you down, but he or she may still give you the license. All practices henceforth will have items classified as “Instant Failure”, “Warning”, and “Need Improvement”. Under the Impact column in the table, Red means instant failure, Yellow are warning signs and Green are to be taken as areas for improvement.

For example, let’s say you hold a session of concentration for ten minutes. During those ten minutes, you should be alert, in one posture – still like a rock or tree, focusing keenly on the object of concentration and trying your utmost to maintain lucidity. Maintaining lucidity means that your mind may become dizzy, or the image of visualization has disappeared, or the sound of the mantra just got lost in distractions and deviations. At that time you remind yourself of your resolve to concentrate and bring back your mind to the object of concentration; this is lucidity.

Let’s say during those ten minutes you move your limbs or torso; this is a red impact item and failing to keep your body still means you’ve compromised your practice. Reset the clock and start from the beginning. The same goes for still mind. It’ll be near impossible for beginner and intermediate meditators to keep their mind still for ten minutes. But, since this is a practice, every attempt should be made to maintain alertness and lucidity so you may shift your attention back to the object of concentration every time your mind wanders off. If you realize that your mind had wondered off for more than a few minutes and you hadn’t even noticed, be honest with yourself, reset the clock and start your practice from the beginning.

If you find lapses in alertness and lucidity (yellow-impact items) while practising concentration, although it greatly affects your practice, gently be mindful and continue your practice. Unlike the red-impact items, you don’t have to stop your practice.

The important thing is to do it for at least 40 days without missing any day in between. You can also maintain a daily journal where you could mark yourself against the criteria of still body, still mind, alertness and lucidity. That way you will be able to measure the improvements in your practice.

Think of a champion vaulter. His score depends on his ability to hold the pole at perfect angle, run at perfect speed and to lift from the ground at perfect time to jump higher than the bar. For that one perfect performance, he has to jump thousands of times. He must have made countless mistakes while practising to deliver that one flawless performance in the competition.

Meditation is your performance on field where as a yogic practice is your trial runs off-field. Concentrative meditation is what you do flawlessly after you have corrected your mistakes in the practice of concentration.

Think of the time you tried to put a thread through the needle.

That was one pointed concentration. You were alert, focused, clear and still. Moment after moment, when you mentally maintain the same clarity, stillness and alertness, you meditate flawlessly.

Trataka – Still Gazing