Let's start off by asking an important question – perhaps the
most important question:
What do you want?
What is the one thing you want more than anything else?
You may say different things: freedom, success,
love, money; but the essence of all these is happiness.
We want them because they give us happiness. Happiness is a sweet feeling;
a flow of love; an expression of joy. We want it limitlessly and all the time.
"There is in the living being a thirst for limitlessness"
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
Where do we look for it?
Maybe you like chocolate icecream, and someone else likes vanilla. Two different icecreams –
two different responses. So where is the happiness? Not in the icecream! It's in the mind. It's a mental
experience; a mental feeling. Happiness is a state of mind.
If you think your chair is a throne, then for you it will be a throne!
There's three things wrong with looking for happiness externally: for one, it's always limited.
You can't find anything infinite in this world – it always has a fixed
size and shape, so it can't give unlimited happiness. Two, it never lasts forever. What's the best part about eating an icecream?
The beginning! After a while you get used to it, then you get sick of it!
And so it is with every worldly object – it can only give a limited and temporary experience;
a limited and temporary amount of happiness. And three, there's always pain to counteract the pleasure.
The universe is a world of opposites – for every action there is a reaction! There's the same amount of pain for
every amount of pleasure.
So we can only find infinite happiness in the mind, not in the physical world.
If that's so, then that's where we should look for it – in the mind. You don't use a torch
to look for light – the light's already within the torch.
Happiness is in the mind, and that's where we should look for it.
How do we get it?
So we want happiness, and not only happiness but infinite happiness, and that happiness
is in the mind. Now what's the process of looking for infinite happiness in the mind?
Meditation. Meditation is the process of looking within yourself for infinite peace and happiness.
But don't believe a word I've said! Why? Because you have to experience it for yourself!
It's a personal experience. You have to actually eat a banana to know what it tastes like!
Meditation is an internal process, and the important thing is to practice it.
There's a story about a fisherman who took a well-read intellectual out on his boat.
The intellectual asked the fisherman if he could read. "No" was the reply. "Then half your life has been useless,"
the intellectual remarked. Suddenly the boat was capsized by a huge freak wave. They were both in the water,
when the fisherman asked, "Can you swim?" The intellectual was swallowing water as he just managed to reply, "No!"
"Now your whole life has become useless!" the fisherman concluded.
What follows is a brief explanation of how meditation works, and how to practice it.
It's not difficult. It's a very simple technique. You just have to do it, because as in the story,
it's the doing that counts!
Let's go on now to see how the simple and effective technique of meditation can change your life for the better.
But before we go on, allow me to introduce myself:
 |
|
My name is Acharya Gunamuktananda Avt.
I attended the University of Otago School of Medicine in New Zealand for five years before training in
meditation, yoga and natural health sciences in Australia, the Philippines and India. I've now been a qualified meditation teacher and yoga therapist since 1995, and am currently consulting
and teaching in East Asia.
|
Acharya
Gunamuktananda
lecturing at the Le
Meridien Phoenicia
Hotel, Malta
Now I'll explain a little about the psychology of the mind and how meditation works, then you can sign up for the free
online email Meditation Course to learn more.
How do we meditate?
In a nutshell, we have to concentrate on the idea of infinite happiness.
Concentration means only one thought. But there's usually many different thoughts in the
mind, almost all at the same time! So how do we control them?
Try this exercise: Close your eyes, and for about a minute try not to think about a pink elephant.
You can think of anything you like, but not a pink elephant! Try it now.
Did it work? Probably not. Why? Because when you tell your mind not to
think of something, it doesn't take any notice of the "not". It only sees the "something."
Suppression doesn't work. The mind is too curious for that!
Then what's the answer? If you have a garden full of weeds, the best way to control them
is to plant a tree right in the middle of them. As it grows, it will naturally smother the weeds.
And so it is with the mind. We have to channelize all our thoughts towards
a greater one; a stronger one; a more positive one. And the strongest
and most positive thought is that of infinite happiness; what in meditation we call bliss
– perfect peace and contentment.
How does it work?
So how does meditation work?
That positive thought is introduced into the mind through what we call a mantra.
Of course you've heard the word before, but what does it really mean? It means a word or phrase that "liberates the mind."
Although we rely mostly on our eyes, sound has the most powerful effect on the mind.
So the internal sound of a mantra is a very powerful way of creating a feeling in the mind.
Here's how:
First it acts as an object of concentration, because the mind has to have something to focus on.
Then it vibrates the mind. Everything has a particular vibration; everything
and everybody. You like someone when their vibration suits your own. You like music that suits your
own vibration. The mantra gives your mind the vibration of infinite happiness, and you feel it as bliss.
Then last but not least is its meaning. "As you think, so you become." If you think negatively,
your life will be negative; but your life will automatically be positive if you think positively. We're continually in the
process of becoming the object of our ideation. So the meaning of the mantra is vital.
It must be the most uplifting ideation; the most positive of thoughts. Again: infinite happiness; perfect peace
and contentment – bliss.
Ready to try it?
We'll do that in the first session of the email course. Sign up now for the free online course
and prepare to be transported!
Meditation and Yoga Philosophy
The course is a series of 8 sessions – you'll receive one every 3 days. Enter your name and email address in the form below, then press the Subscribe button.
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