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

“Four years ago,” the man said, “I’d decided that I wanted to be a full-time writer. I began working on my novel. I vowed to eat the same boring lunch every day to remind myself that if I wanted a better tiffin, I needed to get published. Four years, diligently, I worked on my book. Yesterday, a publisher offered me a publishing contract with a handsome author’s advance.”

The singular most important, by far the most significant quality that a meditator must have is willpower, the resolve to not give up in the face of challenges. Irrespective of what path you are on, your determination to persist and persevere, your resolve to tread the path, determines the outcome.

The Sanskrit term for a vow, for a resolution is saṅkalpa. When you take a decision, a stand, you have taken a sankalpa. The practice of sankalpa strengthens your willpower like no other.

A critical point to note is that you need not give up or take vows that extend your whole lifetime.. Those vows are often unnecessary and unnatural. While practising sankalpa, like all other yogic practices, vow to do something (or not do it) for an initial period of 40 days. Thereafter, you can decide if you want to repeat or carry on with them forever.

Think of passing an entrance examination, say for securing a place in a prestigious institution, in a much sought-after course. You ought to prepare keenly. You may take things a little lightly once you are in, but initially you have to work hard. The quality, discipline, intensity of your preparation directly affects the outcome. It is the difference between failure and success.

The same applies to the yogic practice of sankalpa. Once you have kept your resolve for the set period, you can go a little easy thereafter. During the period of your practice, however, it is paramount that you don’t waiver. When you keep your resolutions, something amazing happens: your mind starts to listen to you a lot more, almost as if it understands that it’s in the hands of a determined individual. If you vow to do something but let it go without a determined and monumental effort, you will really struggle to keep any resolution you make the next time.

How to Do It Right

The only mantra for successfully keeping the practice of sankalpa is to not give up, no matter what.

Let us assume you vow to sit still for 30 minutes every day for the next 40 days. You decide to sit still like a rock in the same posture for those 30 minutes no matter what. For that half hour, with great will power and determination, you are going to build your concentration with great mindfulness. You are going to make every attempt to remember that during the hour of your practice, each time your mind wanders off, you will gently bring it back to your object of focus.

A certain degree of determination is required to do the aforesaid. As you progress with resolve, you will find your conditioned mind becoming feeble. You will experience an inexplicable inner strength. Such new found strength will enable you to reach sahaja, an emergent natural state of bliss ultimately. During your period of sankalpa, if you miss your practice even once, it is a hundred percent breach of practice and requires restarting. As part of the practice, you can resolve to do anything at all. Sitting still is merely one example.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Unless of course, you are taking the chartered flight. Remember though, in the dense forest of desires, in the deep ocean of proclivities of the conditioned soul, in the endless and baseless sky of expectations, no plane can land. The discipline to keep your resolve gives you the wings of confidence and wisdom to soar high.

Mauna - Silence

The most beautiful music in your life will come from sublime silence. It is the melody of the soul. During my days of intense practice, I was in complete solitude and silence for 100 days. Those 100 days were the most beautiful days of my monk’s life. There was only the sound of silence. In that silence, meditation happens almost effortlessly, wisdom dawns naturally, harmony arises automatically.

The practice of observing silence is called mauna in Sanskrit.

Silence of the speech leads to silence of the mind.

Human mind is always talking. It is not possible to listen to your mind if you are talking as well. It is, furthermore, impossible to quiet your mind if you are not paying attention to what it is saying. And, in order to listen to your mind, you must be quiet. Quietude of the speech is paramount to experience complete silence of the mind.

As part of the practice of silence, you need to start with small periods first. The shortest being at least one straight stretch of 24 hours. If you are merely observing silence of the speech by refraining from speaking, you are only 50 percent there.

How to Do It Right