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Thread: am I meditating?

  1. #1
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    Smile am I meditating?

    Hello all,

    I have mentioned several times how limited my grasp is of the spiritual opulence of Hindu tradition.

    I don't really know how to define or experience some of the tried and tested Dharma practices which so obviously benefit those who understand how to express themselves in that way and experience something more than I yet comprehend.

    Since coming to Sanatana Dharma I have noticed how some realisations come out of the blue without any thought.

    Today my sister came round. I haven't seen her for weeks because she was visiting her husband's family in Malaysia. As we spoke I was looking at her and I could clearly see our resemblance. It was very odd because this is my sister who I have known all my life. Other people may have said we look alike but I could never see it.

    Almost as soon as I saw this resemblance, I realised the aspect of Oneness between us and again in a flash realised how by being shown this physical image of myself in another I was being pointed towards realisation of Oneness with everyone.

    Maybe I haven't put it clearly into words but it was a lovely feeling and I can't
    refute the fact that something very literal and manifestly real happened which had never happened before as I looked at her and saw myself so clearly. I didn't build up to it through mental speculation and make it happen, it just did.

    The only thing different to every time I saw her before is that I have found Dharma. Ok it wasn't your full on miracle or vision but it was the simple shift in reality which I immediately realised I had achieved. Was this a miracle?

    Yes and no

    Yes because I saw something in plain sight I had looked at all my life and not seen before.

    No because I was paying attention to her in a way I had not done before. Normally I would only half pay attention when she was speaking. I wasn't really interested and was always thinking of myself or some distraction. When she spoke today I just listened about what her kids were up to and I was interested. I recognised I was doing it and I intentionally paid more attention and suppressed my ego as much as I could manage and the sense of similarity got more intense.

    I smiled when I realised the real lesson, which I think is that by investigating and now practising Dharma, pushing deeper in the direction which bears fruit just brings more joy.

    This tiny mundane example is a confirmation to me of the potential of Dharma to guide me to a 'physical / real world' shift of consciousness.

    The other sort of realisation for me is like using little understandings for pieces of a jigsaw, taking years of gathering together the pieces and even when complete, like looking at a masterpiece and taking years of looking at the picture to realise the meaning.

    I don't sit in proper positions and follow classic methods because I don't know them yet. I trust that by learning them I will open the pathways more easily but for now I just sit and think and try to allow my thoughts to flow freely but logically one to another on consideration of any point until I gain clarity.

    Am I meditating? ?

    Rog

  2. #2

    Re: am I meditating?

    Namaste rog,

    It is taught by Swami Lakshman Ju, that 15 minutes of meditation whilst remaining in the real world (karma yoga) is the equivalent of a year in self confined meditation.

    In my opinion you are, yes; that was a shift in perspective.
    I find that it is of great importance to try and associate with the state of awareness and feeling at this time, to become aware of the shift in your own conciousness, so as to recognise ones state of conciousness as moving.

    Which, it would appear that you are.



    praNAma

    mana
    Last edited by Mana; 16 May 2012 at 12:53 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: am I meditating?

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namast


    Quote Originally Posted by rog View Post
    No because I was paying attention to her in a way I had not done before.
    At the end of the day , it is all about paying attention. It is about ever-refreshed attention. You have said it well. It is when this attention is effortless, easy , yet fully alert and calm that insights and connections come.

    praām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: am I meditating?

    Vannakkam rog: I will mostly just echo what others have said. Certainly it seems to me you're approaching things correctly. Of course, being egocentric, 'correctly' might just mean 'as I approach things'.

    I would hesitate to try to 'force' anything. There is wisdom in taking it slowly. Learning to sit still, do crazy penances, austerities, a ton of scriptural reading, a lot of yoga, etc, can bring on a sense of expectation that may not be met. Then one meets with disappointment. All in due time, as they say. Sometimes those flashes of insight, or shifts in consciousness come at the most unexpected times.

    An analogy for this might be the 100M sprint. Coaches work on their athletes, after a certain point of expertise, to relax. It seems ironic that a sprinter, who needs to literally explode with all sinews and muscles trained, into full acceleration, also needs to relax.

    Waiting for more of your long-winded posts. (Seriously)

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: am I meditating?

    Vannakkam EM and all. (I have just looked up Vannakkam's meaning)

    I am enjoying this forum because it seems lively. I posted on a few others and I had advice today about how to perform what I think is called puja. I intentionally won't say 'worship' because that word is tied up in my mind with ideas of falsehood and deceit.

    The advice was;
    "The easiest way to progress in current times is chanting the Name of God as per our religion of birth. If you are not interested in chanting as per your religion of birth, we can offer a Hindu chant that is more Universal. This would be the most sincere way to worship as a Hindu."

    I sent this reply.....

    Thank you for the answers you offer, your advice is helpful to me.
    I do not think you are wrong as from your POV this advice is pure and wise for anyone who carries a positive feeling about the name of 'God' in their culture.
    I feel the name of God in my 'religion of birth' is Jesus. For so many years I have equated this vibration to represent disappointment, falsehood and many negative emotions. I think it would be a challenging and confusing experience for me to chant that name whereas if I use traditional Hindu words which are fresh to me to express my new realisations, the sounds are not tainted and are unlikely to reroute my mind back in to darkness.
    I can see as I grow there may come a time to do puja for Jesus but it is wrong thinking in my POV to imagine that a name linked to a deluded meaning for 'God' is the way to go when there are names which are as fresh to me as my Dharma realisation.
    I stress that I know the name or image of Jesus is not a deluded image per se for anyone for whom it represents goodness, Oneness, Brahman etc but its not for me.
    OM_

    Strangely I am finding great comfort in the number 10......a totally bizarre thing to have said only a month ago!
    I am no mathematician and I'm using it in a poetic sense rather than mathematical (strap in and stay with me here)..............

    Through understanding the basics of Dharma and receiving a spark of realisation in some Hindu teaching, I had an overwhelming moment of clarity which went something like this.......but of course my words will be insufficient......

    I was contemplating Brahman, Oneness and 'bliss'. It occurred to me that bliss, Oneness, is both in a pure state of stillness and infinitely bounteous at the same 'time'.
    I realised that the number zero is absolute and pure, indivisible and unchanging so much so that it isn't really a number!
    As soon as you move away from zero on any scale, lets say to '1' or 'minus 1' you instantly have infinite possibility! Any shift away from zero even just as far as 1 intrinsically contains infinite subdivisions (fractions or fractals however you like to conceive it).
    Each infinite fraction (point of consciousness) is an intrinsic part of the 1 it makes up and yet it is also 1 (a unit) in its own right.
    So I feel that the number '10' conveys this intellectual thought into a feeling as I use it to represent a visualised form of this realisation.
    I think its the same as OM followed by silence.
    To me the '1' represents all that is manifest, every object, every atom, every thought or feeling or incident, every name and every universe and every realm.
    None of this can be if it is not dimensionally relative to zero. In other words, you can't have '1' on a scale until you have 'zero' to begin with.
    Zero can exist on its own but a unit needs zero before it can be. So without the infinite indivisible source of Brahman nothing can ever or could ever manifest in any dimension.
    I'm using this analogy of linear distance but I feel this applies to every dimension, time, space or manifest expression of any kind.

    Like all metaphors it has its limitations but it has helped me

    I am not doing Puja to '10' because even though I am using it to conceptualise Brahman, it is too soon for me to be so 'abstract'. I think this is why Hindu 'Gods' are manifest in common and familiar form which eases the mind towards pathways of realisation. Also I'd be mixing my metaphors!

    I suppose in the final analysis you are 100% correct. The real God of my culture is not 'Jesus' at all, it is Science and Mathematics and look at me, I'm using it as a focus because it carried vibes of certainty and truth - Cosmic!
    Ha ha ha ha....even while writing this I have shifted from being convinced you are wrong to realising how perfect your advice is......the only thing that changed was my understanding


    Thankyou

    Rog.


    I am realising I need to calm down a bit on the meditational side of Dharma and balance it with some action.
    Today I was home alone and I lit two candles and offered a gold celtic coin I found to my Ganesh by placing it in front of him. I did this after meditating on the meaning of gold which I will explain just now. I just repeated "Sri Ganesh" which I used to get a feeling of sustaining and clearing the way.

    It was weird as if I was forcing it a bit,

    my fearful ego said "stop being ridiculous and sit down",

    my fretful conscience said "you're only doing this to be a smarty pants and its all a pretentious show of ego",

    my confident atman said "trust me because this wisdom you are trying to connect with has stood the test of time for millions of souls and comes from the same source as that you have attained and know to be real"

    On gold......I go metal detecting as a hobby and I have now found 3 gold celtic coins

    I will never sell them unless I am desperate because my appreciation of them is honestly not financial. It is magical to pick it out of the ground and know it was dropped over 2000 years ago and it looks identical. It has lain there pristine while civilisations has risen and fallen and now you have it in your hand.
    I felt like this before I found Dharma but only a month ago the idea of offering a gold coin to a god would be the most ignorant stupid and blind act of moronic religiosity.

    In light of Dharma I see that the physical matter which we see as the metal gold is like all matter in that it is sustained throughout its existence through an aspect of Oneness which is aware. Therefore this awareness (Oneness / Brahman) has chosen to sustain this matter above all other common elements He manifests and to do so He is 'sustaining' gold and moreover renders it beautiful to our worldly senses aside from any financial value. It follows therefore that it is a physical aspect of Brahman's power to sustain and radite beauty perpetually.

    Its meaning is not money to me so now in light of the above realisation it is not only logical but also very satisfying to give it to 'Ganesh' in 'Puja' which I feel is more an 'acknowledgement' than a 'worship'.

    I am very aware suddenly of how much of my posts are 'I' 'I' 'I', me me me.
    This is worrying me that part of my intention on the forum is to be noticed and get attention - ego rush!

    but I am gaining so much by reading also and although lengthy I assure you my posts are a fraction of what is occurring inside me just now so once again -
    Thank you and please pull no punches with any replies as like above when I think you are wrong it might still take me forward to a place where I catch up with you even on one tiny point.

    Rog
    Last edited by rog; 27 April 2012 at 09:30 AM.

  6. #6
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    Re: am I meditating?

    Vannakkam: Gold is considered very auspicious within SD. 24 carat stuff.

    There are better places to get advice on how to do a puja.

    Aum Namasivaya

  7. #7

    Re: am I meditating?

    Namaste rog,

    I am inspired by your enthusiasm! And I share your love of numbers, I see that you are considering the notion of infinity:

    शून्य = zUnya = zero

    अणु = aNu = atom, minute

    You will love fractals!

    On meditation it is worth noting that, and this is of the utmost importance, Practise in early morning and at night fall; helps to regulate our body clocks and keep us on the right path.



    praNAma

    mana
    Last edited by Mana; 27 April 2012 at 01:09 PM.

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    Re: am I meditating?

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté rog

    Quote Originally Posted by rog View Post
    In light of Dharma Rog
    You have mentioned dharma several times in your posts above. A noble endevor. It would perhaps serve you well to get comfortble with this term as it has several facets that are rewarding... let me offer one:

    dharma धर्म - this word is rooted dhṛ meaning that which upholds, supports, preserves. It is a basic functional quality of this universe and many times see it as the quality of viṣṇu, He that uplifts, preserves and supports.
    It is almost talking the basic physical laws of nature that allow this full functioning universe to exist. At this level it is beyond philosophy.

    Now let's add in the notion of sanātana dharma. This sanātana means eternal , perpetual , permanent , everlasting. So sanātana dharma is that which uplifts and supports eternally. This sanātana dharma is also called ārṣa dharma.

    This ārṣa means 'derived from ṛṣi-s' - the great seers, who have viewed and experienced the essence of creation (sattā). From here our values arise - from here different schools of thought manifest.


    praām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  9. #9
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    Re: am I meditating?

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté mana

    Quote Originally Posted by Mana View Post
    शून्य = zUnya = zero
    I can see how we would say śūnya is zero. It can be called bindu or mark like a dot , defined (also) as zero.

    Yet as suspected śūnya has so much more to offer in terms of its definition. In various schools it is considered void, hollow , barren, empty. If we use the femine gender, śūnyā́ is a barren woman. If we call out śūnye , it means a lonely place - we can see the connection.
    If one says aśūnyaṃ it means void of results , ineffectual.

    Yet this śūnya has many spiritual implications as one considers looking at wake, dream, sleep and this śūnya condition that might be experienced. Yet we can leave that for another time.

    praām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  10. #10
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    Re: am I meditating?

    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan View Post
    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namast rog


    You have mentioned dharma several times in your posts above. A noble endevor. It would perhaps serve you well to get comfortble with this term as it has several facets that are rewarding... let me offer one:

    dharma धर्म - this word is rooted dhṛ meaning that which upholds, supports, preserves. It is a basic functional quality of this universe and many times see it as the quality of viṣṇu, He that uplifts, preserves and supports.
    It is almost talking the basic physical laws of nature that allow this full functioning universe to exist. At this level it is beyond philosophy.

    Now let's add in the notion of sanātana dharma. This sanātana means eternal , perpetual , permanent , everlasting. So sanātana dharma is that which uplifts and supports eternally. This sanātana dharma is also called ārṣa dharma.

    This ārṣa means 'derived from ṛṣi-s' - the great seers, who have viewed and experienced the essence of creation (sattā). From here our values arise - from here different schools of thought manifest.


    praām
    Vannakkam yajvan,

    I am trying to be careful in my use of new words. I realise how powerful words are and how a word like 'religion' vibrates as a different reality for an atheist and a Hindu, one invokes a thought and feeling of falsity and the other invokes feelings of confidence in the reality of awareness of Brahman.

    I am trying to appreciate the fullness of meaning in the Sanskrit words before I use them or I risk polluting them with misunderstanding.

    I use 'Dharma' to represent my sense of finding a definite pathway rather than looking at 'Hinduism' in a purely intellectual way as I did at first sight.

    Once I made that shift I felt 'entitled' to call myself a 'Hindu' but that word still feels surreal when applied to myself because of the erroneous connection in my mind of that word representing 'Indian Culture' or 'a religion' which then connects with feelings of falsity.

    I read the meaning of Sanatana Dharma and I feel blessed that I had never heard these words before because I can use them to label my experience of 'realising Hinduism is true' that I have experienced recently with no prior misunderstandings clouding that expression of meaning.

    I'm posting my explanation because as you have taken the trouble to speak to me I want you to understand my meaning as best as possible

    I will make mistakes in my understanding of new words so please do let me know as I want to keep these words 'pure' in their meaning.

    I love the way some words can only be explained by several english words. I find this helps to perceive the word more as a feeling because it is the expression of several aspects all at once.

    I got my use of the word Dharma from this I read from another Hindu resource-

    Sanatana is:
    Eternal
    Perennial
    Never Beginning nor Ending
    Abiding
    Universal
    Ever-present
    Unceasing
    Natural
    Enduring

    Dharma is:
    Harmony
    The Way
    Righteousness
    Compassion
    Natural Law
    Essential Nature
    Morality
    Truth
    Teachings
    Tradition
    Philosophy
    Order
    Flow
    Spirituality
    Religion
    Wisdom
    Purest Insight
    Divine Conformity
    Cosmic Norm
    Blueprint
    Inherent Nature
    Intrinsic Nature
    Law of Being
    Duty

    thanks for chatting everyone if I lived in India or near a temple I could go and chat but you guys are my only Hindu friends just now - Thanks

    Rog

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