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

The practice involves observing complete silence. That means, not holding any type of conversation. Please see the chart below:

For instance, you undertake the practice of observing silence for two days or 48 hours. Any face-to-face verbal interaction, watching TV, playing video games or engaging in other interactive activities are red impact items. They signify instant failure. If you do that, it means reset the clock and begin your practice from the beginning.

If you end up reading newspaper etc. during those two days, the quality of your practice comes down by five percent (see the weightage column) but you can still continue because it is a ‘green’ mistake.

During your period of silence, you can at the most take one book at the beginning. But ideally, you should just be in a room in your own company. If you end up sleeping for 18 out of 24 hours just because you can or because you have nothing else to do, you need not bother with observing silence business. It is wasting your time. After all, we are not observing sleep but silence.

The more mindful and alert you are, the better your practice. When in complete silence, you start to become aware of the talkative nature of your mind. You begin to see how your mind is restless like the baboon that cannot stay on any branch longer than a few seconds.

Initially, your ability to meditate is going to retard while observing silence. You are likely to experience a certain restlessness as well. It is only natural. With persistence and patience, a quietude begins to dawn. And that is going to get you ready for good meditation. Observing silence is comparable to preparing a fertile ground to sow the seeds of meditation.

The practice of observing silence is absolutely critical for the seeker desiring to reach the ultimate state. When you are enjoying yourself listening to your iPod, the external noise seems to subside automatically. The music in your ears makes the outside sound almost immaterial. Similarly, when you are able to channelize internal noise, it transforms into music. And when you start to hear your inner music, everything offered to you in the external world almost ceases to matter.

A good practice of silence does not have any dialogues, conversations – written or oral, gestures, interactions or engagements. Mauna is not merely restraint of speech, it is quieting your actions, speech and thoughts.

Ekanta – Solitude

A woman said to another, “My husband is so touchy. No matter how much I try to avoid, the slightest thing sets him off.”

“Still not bad, I tell you,” the other said, “mine is a self-starter.”

The mind too is a self-starter. It knows how to ruin perfect moments by going off on its own.

If you truly wish to discover yourself, you must learn to live in solitude. I can promise you that your truth will dawn on you only in silence and solitude.

The Sanskrit term for solitude is ekānta. It is the hallmark of a person who has turned inward – their love for solitude. An unmistakable sign of a restless mind is its inability to embrace solitude. For the quiet mind nothing is as profound as solitude and for the restless, nothing is more terrifying.

There are only two types of people who are comfortable in solitude: the lazy and the yogi. The former lacks awareness while the latter radiates with it.

By solitude, I do not mean that you live in a remote place but have access to TV, books, internet and the rest of it. By solitude, I mean that you are just by yourself. You in your own company.

The only person you have to talk to you is you, the only person you have to listen to is you, the only person around is you. The only object of engagement for your mind is you. When you are bored, you go back to yourself and when you are happy, you share it with yourself. During the practice of solitude, you do not even see others, let alone meet them or talk to them. The only person you get to see is you.

Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita,

Ātmanayēvātmanātuṣṭaḥstithprajñastaducaytē 64

The one who dwells within and is contented within is indeed a yogi. The seeker who has turned inward finds greatest bliss in solitude. In such a state, he can uninterruptedly enjoy the bliss within.