Here Today; Gone to Maui!

There's nothing like being a tourist to view life as a play, actors entering the stage and the exiting, to be seen no more!

Ah, indeed....paradise....Hawaii is no place for serious thought.......seriously?

Every time something deep comes into my mind, a mango or papaya intervenes, or the sound of crashing surf across the street reminds me of the waves I am missing!

Well, we've enjoyed our brief time here, though time stands still when there's nothing going on and no appointments to meet, or decisions to be made!

It's interesting how we humans, parading in our swim suits and beach attire, are SO self-conscious of appearances when, in fact, being far from home and away on vacation, no body will remember you or care. The few who notice have no comment and what judgment they render is silent and fleeting!

If one were at home, at a pool, spa, or lake, and being around friends, the self-consciousness would grow in leaps and bounds, but why should it? Sigh.......one advantage of being "mature" is the ease and conviction with which one simply doesn't care to imagine what others might think or see!

Seeing all these people parading by I wonder what stories are there to tell! Imagine how much their stories differ from their outward appearances!

I think it is good that one takes a break from routine and from familiar surroundings and people. It is good for the soul to be unknown and to shed the "clothes" of self-definitions and the expectations and opinions of friends in order to be "naked" before our soul and our God.

We've had a lovely time here on Maui and are thankful for the friends who have made it possible to take this break from a very intense schedule.

The politics of America faded, thankfully, from view, and so have many other things, yet, not everything. There are existential issues that no one can dismiss.

A dear friend, for example, has been in transition from this world, fading daily, but not quite gone and not quite there. The pall of death, its meaning and its finality, weigh upon the waves as I ride them joyfully toward the shore. It's not sadness for her departure, nor yet for any sense of my own loss, but rather the question lingers, "Will I be as present and joy filled as she when my time comes?" The sense of impermanence of life, indeed it's lingering meaningless, hovers like a dark cloud.

Not that I have a particular investment in meaninglessness, it's just, rather, the question of WHAT exactly is MOST meaningful? What parts are important and what parts are NOT!

When in my mid-twenties I traveled to Europe and Asia for over a year, I remember flying back to America and praying that I not get caught up in the littleness of life (again). Well, I've learned that it's not the details that are the problem; it's our attachment and identification with them. After all, it's no small detail when one is hungry or thirsty! It can become pretty important then.

Why can't I just take a vacation? A vacation is NOT a vacation from issues; it's a break to put them in perspective. If you don't plan or take a vacation, you are avoiding your issues!

I am deeply grateful for the grace of a true Guru, for the practice of kriya yoga, true friends and the privilege of spiritual service. All of these bring the parade of life's potential meaninglessness into clear and beautiful focus.

Joy to you and welcome home to me!

Hriman

Taming the Monkey Mind – Part 3 – Monkey Business!

It’s important to get along with your pet monkey. It’s also important to establish that you, the Self, are the alpha of your one-monkey troop. So, now it's time to teach your monkey some meditation tricks. It’s no use berating him (or “her,” but “him” sounds better). No, we have to demonstrate that our Self is a true and inspired leader. More on this soon, but, first:

“A word from our Sponsor,” Emperor Soul (Sole):

No amount of meditation tricks is going to trick your monkey into believing you want him to lie still unless YOU really do. There is, you see, something else needed and it's not a trick. It has to be real. You will be surprised by what I have to say.

Simply put: you have to WANT to be still. Yes, I actually wrote that. You object by saying, “Well, heck, that’s what meditation is all about and of course I want to meditate!” Paramhansa Yogananda may have responded to someone who said just that when he wrote: “The soul LOVES to meditate but the ego HATES to meditate.” 

You can trick your monkey but you cannot trick your Self. Very few meditators have reached the point, sustainably and consistently, where they have no inner resistance to meditating and do so consistently. 

Moreover, none of them are reading this article because what few of these exist don’t need to. You might argue by saying it’s your monkey that HATES to meditate and you wouldn’t be wrong, but there’s something deeper than mere habit that resists meditation, too.

It’s called many things but most commonly we call it the EGO. Yes, the monkey is part of the ego, but mostly the monkey is active, reactive, and restless, a product of necessity, survival, and habit. But there is something deeper and more still; it is dark, like the subconscious — meaning very difficult to “see” — because always “behind you” yet always there. If and when it decides you are more than a meditator and are, in fact, a serious devotee and disciple seeking Self-realization through ego-transcendence, it will put up a fight that will make the monkey seem like a pet. 

It is, in effect, the master of the monkey. This series of blog-articles are about the monkey, not the monkey’s master. That’s not an article; that’s a scripture; and more than a scripture; that’s the “greatest story ever told.”

For now, however, let me say this about that: the secret to achieving stillness in meditation is that you must truly and sincerely, and with energy, WANT to be still. Whether your incentive finds expression in philosophical or intellectual terms, devotional feeling, or by sheer will power (or, most likely, some combination of all three), it must be there for you to have the power, the patience, and, in time, the skill to train your monkey to become a pet monkey.

This is why you should never be very far from having a quiver of arrows handy that enumerate the many important and inspiring reasons WHY you want to meditate. When the monkey is acting out whether by mere habit, by stress or circumstantially-driven emotions, or the influence of its master ego, you, the peaceful soul-warrior, must reach behind you and draw from your quiver several peace-dipped arrows, one by one, reason after reason (powered by determination and ignited by inspiration) to anesthetize the monkey.

Because if “you” don’t really want to meditate, the monkey’s going to stay on top. Every day, therefore, you must stay in touch with the peace of meditation or any other aspect of the benefit(s) of meditation that inspire you to want to meditate as soon as you get up, or as often as you can.

OK, our sponsor (the soul) has spoken. 

Now, back to our subject: meditation techniques to train your monkey.

   

   1.       Begin every meditation (if needed) with an examination of conscience (an old Catholic term, I believe). What’s bothering me right now? What’s on my mind? Acknowledge this and promise it that you’ll come back to it after meditation. Write it down if you must.

   

   2.       Otherwise, start every meditation in your heart. Take whatever time you need to settle and harmonize the feelings of the heart in the direction of peace, calmness or devotion: that, “Aaah, I have come home! Good to see You again, old Friend!”

   

   3.       Assuming the monkey needs some petting, you should have in your routine no less than two pranayams (breathing techniques). Use them with consecutive breaths to energize and relax first the body; then the heart and finally the mind. (I do this in the kumbhak (holding phase) of sequential breath cycles by filling first the body with breath, energy, prana; then holding it behind the heart; and then finally in the mind, clearing out the fog of restless thought so the sunshine and blue skies of mental clarity break through.

  

   4.       Then, stepping away from controlling (yama) the breath, slip into merely observing and “watching” (niyama) the breath. Do so with keen, focused, and calmly engaged interest. (I am not giving a technique per se, but the “bhav” or feeling with which to observe the breath with whatever technique you’ve been taught.) You might imagine your breath as an old friend. He’s been with you since your birth, remember? Imagine you are sitting together on the couch, intent upon one another but not necessarily talking; enjoying each other’s silent company, like real friends do.

  

   5.       If you do speak, do so with each other in a simple way. Use a mantra or affirmation with each breath.

   6.       If thoughts enter the room, like a waiter eager to ask you “Is everything all right” just as you are in the middle of an important sentence, then consider this response:

a.      Observe the thought passing through.

b.      Observe your reaction to the thought.

c.      Notice that the two (thought vs reaction) are two, separate things (not one thing)

d.      Discard or dissolve the reaction;

e.      Notice the thought vanishes.

f.       Enter (however briefly) space-mind (the space where the mind resides—devoid or waiting for the next thought).

g.      Gradually expand the time and depth of your resting in space-mind-time.

h.      Enjoy Being there.

i.       Or, if you're not ready for space-mind-time, then go back to your conversation with the breath.

Well, it’s been nice BEING with you. When you are finished, tap on your pet monkey’s shoulder and say, “It’s time to get back to work!” Smile at him: he’s your friend, too.

Joy to you and yours,

Nayaswami Hriman

Taming the Monkey Mind - To use a Thorn!

"Use a thorn to remove a thorn." So it is said in rural India. Great yogis have taken inspiration from this down-home country wisdom to suggest that we use the monkey mind to tame the monkey mind.

It is typical for beginners in meditation to report that their group meditations (e.g. in their meditation classes) are more satisfying and deeper than their private meditations at home. While the reasons for this are obvious enough -- after all, they are new at this and haven't an established daily meditation practice at home -- the meditator saddled with the monkey mind can look back at this and use it to his advantage too.

And here's how: rather than use a pre-recorded guided meditation, teach yourself to be your own guided meditation instructor. (I assume you have a technique and a meditation routine that you use, whether strictly or loosely; literally or creatively.) Start slow with just a piece of it. One peace at a time, in other words.

Since you already have a talking head inside of you, why not train that talking head to guide you through the steps of your routine or technique? "Inhale, 1, 2, 3......, hold, 1, 2, 3.......exhale, 1, 2 3." While my example here is simple it is meant only to give you a hint. 

Imagine mentally talking your way through some stretches; to sitting in correct posture; to a chant, affirmation, intention or prayer; to deep breathing, pranayam, watching the breath and then, finally.....using a creative visualization to take you i...n..t..o.........s...i...l...e....n....c.....e!

There! The monkey just talked himself out of a job! Hee, hee.........Did you get what I just did (said)? Do you need a little more on this?

While the monkey minder (gyana yogi) will, in principle, be more, well, how does one say this politely, "mental," I find that even "bhaktis" (those who are devotional by temperament) will sometimes complain of monkey breath. So the bhakti should chant, read or recite poetry (aloud if necessary), read prayers or talk to her guru or deity until her monkey breath is sweet and she feels like going inward, doing perhaps some more breath cleansing work, before entering into silent, inner communion with the object of her devotion.

The active type (karma yogi) will be a monkey-gymnast: physically restless; wanting to move about after 30 seconds of "meditation." The Energization (Tension) Exercises by Paramhansa Yogananda are excellent for this. Hatha yoga can also be excellent, too, of course, but the EE go faster both in pace and in less time spent. The gymnast will probably do well and enjoy learning up to a dozen breathing exercises (pranayams), blissing-out on the energy soothed or aroused (alternately) before consenting to enter the silence, even briefly.

In each of these three "types," it is important to note (even in contradistinction to the standard or literal advice given in meditation classes), "even a little practice" of stillness will bring you back to the cushion and bless you with the benefits of true meditation.

Here's what I'm saying: I am supposed to teach my students that up to 1/4 of sitting time should be in silent meditation (without use of techniques). But I assure you that the reality is, especially for the monkey I have in mind, that this is not time well spent when it is imposed upon the mind. 

Better it is to have 30 seconds, 60 seconds, two minutes of peaceful rest in the Self and get up feeling refreshed, inspired, divinely blessed..........and looking forward to the next opportunity to meditate than to wrestle with the monkey on the mat, sweating, cursing and fighting and deciding meditation "is not for me."

Naturally I don't want you to use this counsel as an excuse to finish your techniques, burp and get up! You should aspire to 1/4 of your time in silent, inner communion; it's just that "when the bird and book disagree, believe the bird." (Audubon society proverb). Yoga is about direct perception and experience, not belief, ritual or rules.

In the next article on the Monkey Mind, I will share a routine with general suggestions for the monkey mind to try digesting: (don’t do all of them; pick and choose; experiment; mix and match; be playful, enthusiastic, and inspired to find the no-name, no-form joyful, peaceful transcendent God-Self within you)

Until that time, don’t monkey around; mind your monkey; chat with him (or her); bargain; negotiate; give reassurance of your undying gratitude to the monkey who (thinks he/she) runs the Enterprise.

Here’s a chant for you and your monkey: O My Mind, learn thou self-control (repeat); Go not in the house of senses (repeat); Learn thou, learn thou Self-control! (by Paramhansa Yogananda)

Swami Hrimananda