Meditation: Full? or Empty?

Ishavashya Upanishad: “That is full, this is full, from that fullness comes this fullness and if fullness is taken away from fullness, only fullness remains.”

I'd like to take a break from politics in America and from the doom and gloom that might be derived from contemplation thereupon.

Instead, I'd like to explore the experience of true meditation: by "true" here I mean what happens when we go beyond the "doing" of techniques and attempt to enter the "being" of silence. Again, as in past articles, I am not focusing on anything absolute or cosmic.

The entrance fee to higher states of consciousness (aka "superconsciousness") is generally the necessity to become inwardly silent. This includes the cessation of subconscious images and random thoughts, memories, and sense impressions. Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras in the most profound and important aphorism (the second one of 197 or so) describes the state of yoga as "the neutralization or cessation of the reactive mental processes of likes, dislikes, memories, creative mental images and the like."

In this space, I ask: "Is the experience of silence in meditation an experience of fullness? Or, emptiness?"

I have heard my teacher, Swami Kriyananda, comment that there are two directions of awareness in meditation: expanding or dissolving. These can be further contrasted in pairs such as:

• Offering oneself into a greater Self (God, guru, Light, etc.), or being open or receptive to receive (the same: God, guru, Light, etc.)
• A feeling of expanding consciousness or a feeling of dissolving the sense of ego awareness (I don't say "dissolving of consciousness" as this is would take us down into subconsciousness)
• It can be described in various ways, including, for example: devotional self-offering (expansion) or devotional receptivity (receiving). In expansion of ego-consciousness there is a concomitant dissolving of the ego self. In the dissolution of ego-self there becomes space (emptiness) to be filled.
• Astral signs or phenomenon can appear to your insight sight or subtle senses: any one or a combination of the five astral senses (prototypes of physical senses) can be experienced; or, darkness can "appear"; light can dim into a dark light and so on.
• Vibrant sense of space and energy can envelope you, or, perceptions of space and energy can begin to dissolve.
• To complicate matters, what begins to expand, or what begins to dissolve can resolve into its opposite. Dissolution of ego awareness can be replaced by an expanding light, energy, sound, and so on. 
• One can approach this space of silence with the attitude and feeling of devotion; or, energetically; or, with mental intensity, will and concentration; or, with a mixture of all three elements.

So these apparent opposites are not really opposite. 

[As an aside: At the Ananda Meditation and Yoga center in Bothell WA (USA), we have initiated a new series of meditation classes: each can be taken independently, or, as a series. Addressing the needs of the human mind and heart, we take our basic techniques that are taught in our traditional “Learn to Meditate” classes, and re-orient them towards focusing the mind (“Mind Fullness meditation”); healing the heart of grief, hurts, depression and other harmful emotions (“Peace Fullness meditation); enhancing the health, healing and vitality of the body (“Health Fullness meditation), and using meditation as prayer and devotion and to achieve Self-realization (“Soul Fullness meditation). (This article is not to describe these classes. For more information on these, go to www.AnandaWA.org.)]

Buddhism is associated, generally, with extinction of ego consciousness and the description of meditation and its goal as being emptiness: sunyata. (This term actually has several meanings or emphases.) Whatever its doctrinal associations and differences, my interest and use of the term is simply that during meditation one can intend to and/or experience the cessation of thoughts, emotions, and bodily movements as an end in itself. 

There are those teachers or branch traditions that assert that emptiness is "all there is" and is the goal. How literally that is stated, I don't know. It's not very appealing unless your down on your luck. The point is: there exists a teaching in the field of meditation that NO-THING-NESS not only exists as a state of consciousness but is the bedrock of reality and the goal of meditation and life.

In most other meditation traditions and in the meditation teachings of Ananda (based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda), it is happiness, or, more technically, joy (bliss) that is the goal of life and of meditation. Again, I'll stop short of attempting to define any absolute. Just speaking here casually.

Emptying the mind of ego involvement is certainly one very important channel to the fullness of joy. Into the seemingly empty space of the no-thing-ness state rushes, pours, or slowly fills the peace, joy, and unconditional love which is our own true Self and the source and underlying reality of all creation.

In "Autobiography of a Yogi," Chapter 7, the levitating saint, Master Mahasaya, asks the young Mukunda (future Yogananda): "You often go into the silence but have you developed anubhava?" Yogananda commented that the saint was reminding him to love God more than meditation. The saint went on to say: "Don't mistake the technique for the goal."

Just as science now tells us that “empty space” is anything but empty, being latent with energy, so too quietness of mind and breath will often be slowly or instantly filled with a subtle by powerful and vibrant sense of latent potentiality. As we approach infinity, "nothing is always." (You can quote me on that one.)

Seasoned meditators find that sometimes their deeper meditations alternate between emptiness and fullness. Other such meditators may, by temperament, tend dominantly toward one or the other. In general, the more one goes by the mind, the more one inclines toward emptiness. The more one goes by heart or by energy, the more towards expansion or fullness. These are very general statements, however.

In practices such as kriya yoga (which is a subset of the science of Raja Yoga), the meditator is focusing on drawing life force (prana) inward through the chakras and up the central astral spine towards the brain. This focus is obviously a positive, fullness-oriented one but an intended result of this is quieting the mind. The immediate consequence can be described as either full or empty, though not absolutely.

I do aver, as Paramhansa Yogananda taught and as my teacher (and founder of the worldwide work of Ananda), Swami Kriyananda reassured us, that contrary to some teachings, “emptiness” as “nothingness” is NOT the final statement on reality. “No wonder,” Kriyananda would sometimes quip, tongue firmly in cheek, “that teachers in that line of thinking opted for a “rain check” by offering to come back and help others!” No one wants to submit to what amounts to suicide of the Self. The deeply embedded instinct for survival may be described as a delusion as it relates to the human body or ego, but it is not so in respect to existence and consciousness itself. Consciousness is the bedrock reality: it is eternal, unchanging and ever-new Bliss, Paramhansa Yogananda declared, representing a long line of Self-realized masters going back thousands of years! Satchidanandam: God is ever-existent (Sat-immortal), ever-conscious (Chitta-omniscient), ever-new joy (Ananda).

Joy to you,

Swam Hrimananda

Hope for a Better World

I was contemplating an article on meditation but put it aside because no matter how many people state that they are turning off the news, even more are agonizing about it. The sense of uncertainty, fear, and dread is too pervasive to ignore right now.

Let’s start by facing fear in the face. Maybe things won’t be as bad as we fear, but maybe they’ll be worse than we can know. So rather than be merely hopeful; or, in denial; or Pollyannaish, let’s march over to the closet door, open it and face the ghost we imagine is standing there ready to devour us.

Events such as Donald Trump’s election and inauguration are symbolic turning points, yes, but it’s not as if such spring up like mushrooms after a rain. They’ve been a long time growing. I’m not going to pretend I’m a historian or social analyst or have been an avid and educated follower of news or events. But I want to share a mixture of insights from Paramhansa Yogananda and his disciple and founder of Ananda, Swami Kriyananda, and perhaps peppered with a few of my own.

On a practical and political level, I think it is possible that President Trump will survive an eight year term of office. At first I comforted myself by saying “There’s no way that guy can make it for a second term.” Just the other day, however, I put my mind to the test by asking myself: “Who will be his opponent in the next election?” What I came up with is a decidedly weak roster of challengers from either or no political party. Besides, the incumbent always has an advantage. Notwithstanding a predictably long and loud line of protest marches to come, the keys of power and control are in his hands and unlike more balanced or honest chief executives, Trump has no moral compass to rein in his impulses.

Most commentators are likely saying that at first he will consolidate his power base with a hand-picked support team. Fair enough. All newly elected CEO’s tend to do the same. But in this case, what flows from the top is unclean and greedy.

The stock market may be rejoicing at this moment but the odds are great that they will be weeping sometime in the next two to three years.

Real and honest news reporting and analysis probably died with Walter Kronkite, or maybe a little later. But even if it didn’t, we are entering a period of time when self-promotion and self-interest has so become the norm, that whom can the general public trust? Who among the mainline news organizations doesn’t have its own self-interest and profits guiding it? Who among them isn’t being influenced from behind the scenes? We simply cannot know except what we read, hear, or view through the media.

Thus, just as many people are saying  “I’m turning off the news” and going about my life, so many more will simply find the sources of information they feel in tune with, right or wrong, accurate or false, or find the people they want to associate with, good, bad or indifferent. Some will be “deniers;” some will be earnestly seeking the truth; some won’t care; some will “just like” what they like to hear, truthful or not. The fracturing of public opinion will continue to accelerate. This is obviously a continuation of the breakdown of communication such as we have seen in the last many years in Washington D.C. and in state houses everywhere. This trend, this breakdown of “civil dialogue” and shared ideals will continue.

Public disobedience, civil or uncivil, by large groups or by individual government employees in positions of power, will rapidly accelerate. Disruptions of one kind or another, from traffic to government functioning or dishonesty, will become ever more visible and rampant.

These trends will no doubt outlast Trump because their underlying causes (fear, distrust, loss of self-respect, hopelessness, loss of income, etc.) have a long way to run. American cannot be great again by becoming isolationist. The world has gone too far in the direction of interconnectedness and America’s role in the world is far too large, for better or worse.

But one way or another, our nation, and others with us, will suffer greatly: economically, militarily, and in morale, self-respect, hope, confidence and faith in ourselves and our future.

A new way of life and attitudes have been and are unfolding but the old forms, attitudes, and power structures are fighting to retain supremacy. And, for now, they have the purse strings and the jack boots. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “those in power do not surrender it willingly.”

We will see people of sensitive awareness, intelligence, goodwill striking out on their own in various constructive directions. Others, merely rebellious will “strike out” destructively. But some of it will include the formation of intentional communities of people of like mind. (Most of these will be high-minded, because negativity is generally not cohesive unless it is also coercive.)

9-11 showed us that this nation is not exempt from the wave of violence caused by the fault zone where east meets west in the Middle East. Values, lifestyles, attitudes of old and of new and emerging consciousness meet face to face there. The new (the West) is by no means wearing only white hats. Nor is the old (the east) only bad guys. But the long-term winner is destined to be those, East or West, who accept the humanity and equality of all people and who understand that “all lives matter.” It is not bombs or technology that will win. It is this awakening consciousness. The West has led the planet in this but for now even the West is struggling with going backwards toward tribalism. The war is with hearts and minds, not nations or cultures or religions. The human race will not survive unless the desire for peace and equality survives and wins over tribalism.

Hurricane Katrina showed Americans that we cannot depend on Big Government to save us. Big data has showed us that there is no privacy and that George Orwell’s “Big Brother” already exists.

Mikhail Gorbachev recently posted that he sees the world arming for war, even nuclear war. Swami Kriyananda, our spiritual guide and founder of Ananda, would sometimes state publicly that probably “millions would die” in coming wars, plagues, or “natural” catastrophes (or all three).

None of this sounds very encouraging, does it? And yet I AM hopeful. Indeed, more than hopeful because despite the violence and conflict that is shaping up to take place, it is necessary to usher in a new age of relative peace and harmony. Yogananda predicted that after a time great upheaval, caused in part by what he called (at the time) “international criminals,” humanity would be so sick of war and chaos that the planet would enjoy 200 years of relative peace. Unfortunately for us, he didn’t give any dates! Until recent years these predictions seemed vague to me. No longer. It is clear to me how, even step-by-step, these things could possibly take place. Yogananda predicted that during such times “no place on earth will be safe.”

Of course these can be averted. But just as the major consuming nations cannot agree on how to combat global warming, or even that there IS global warming (America perhaps being the most recalcitrant), so too humanity at large is slow to adopt new attitudes and sustainable lifestyles. If we were to turn “on a dime,” much could be averted. But, let’s face it, most people tend to make sacrifices and difficult changes only when forced or when no other choice exists. Ditto for most nations: the conflicts in the Middle East which have gone interminably are perfect examples. It’s so obvious to billions that they are fighting for no real reason but it’s not obvious to them. (Reminds me of the Irish “troubles” not many years back. No one else could really understand what the fuss was about, but for them it was non-stop killing and revenge. Look at the genocide in Rwanda.)

Millions will turn to faith, especially through meditation and with the support of other meditators and organizations like Ananda. And this, really, is, in essence, the divine relief and succor being extended through the yoga masters to the world. This is the opportunity to turn within and to do so in cooperation with others to form a phalanx of awakening consciousness which will be the real force for change. Issues like global warming, racism, exploitation, gender, religious or national discrimination will dissolve like morning fog under the sunshine when millions, nay, billions, meditate daily, seeking inner peace when none exists in the outer world.

We will not be passive, closing our eyes to shut out the world. We will close our eyes to draw on inner, divine resources of strength, courage, compassion and wisdom. With eyes wide open, we will work with others, whether in protest marches, in helping and welcoming the hurt and injured, and in developing sustainable resources and lifestyles for the time when humanity will embrace them en masse.

“There is no god, but God. No good, but God.” Tat twam asi (Thou art THAT); “Do not your scriptures say, ‘Ye are gods’?” Our divine Self is guiding open hearts and clear minds to give birth to a new understanding of reality and nature: all aspects of the divine avatara (descent) into manifestation.

March with joy; march with God! There is, as the title of one of Swami Kriyananda’s 150 books declares, “Hope for a Better World.” At Ananda in Seattle our affirmation for 2017 is: “I stand calmly amidst life’s storms. Strength and courage fill my body cells.”

Swami Hrimananda 

A friend and local Ananda member (from India) sent in this comment and link. It's not for the feint at heart but it is interesting.

Great article!! Lot of saints in India have predicted about these difficult times and peaceful time thereafter.Here is an article that gives more indepth information about these
http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-healing/world-war-3-survival-guide/ 

May Justice Roll Down like Waters : a new era has begun

Visit my new blog inspired by the Autobiography of a Yogi and find there inspiration and courage for the years to come as our world and our nation struggles against the rising tide of conflict and rebellion.

Here's the link:

https://dailyay.blogspot.com/

Swami Hrimananda