Thursday, August 17, 2017

Whose Eclipse?

The solar eclipse craze is difficult to explain but I read that it is the first solar eclipse since 1776 to be seen ONLY on American soil. Perhaps the 1776 symbolized the eclipse of the British lion (monarchy) while this one symbolizes, in my view, at least, the eclipse of the freedoms and values upon which our country was founded. "Just sayin ' " I wouldn't mind if it foretold the "eclipse" of America's president by resignation, impeachment or rejection by the American people as a whole. Otherwise I remain relatively uninterested in the whole thing. Somewhere on earth a solar eclipse is said to occur every 18 months or so.

Be sure to put on your "blinders" if you're going to watch it!

Joy!

Swami Hriman

Monday, August 7, 2017

Deepening Your Meditation - an audio class recording

This afternoon, Monday August 7, I gave an afternoon workshop on DEEPENING YOUR MEDITATION here at Ananda Village during our annual week of SPIRITUAL RENEWAL. 

Some of the folks here on retreat said they couldn't make it owing to other service projects and could I record it? Then I forgot my cell phone in the trunk of the car but one of the attendees offered her cell phone.

So this is just an audio mp3 file: 1.5 hours long. Don't know if anyone will find it useful. Our focus was both general and specific at times as to the method of mindfulness that Yogananda called HONG SAU. So if you don't know this technique the recording will only be somewhat useful.

Here's the link on Dropbox: please let me know if it doesn't work as these things are something of a mystery to me:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dhar9v9j93w53nf/Deepen%20your%20meditation%20class%20Hriman.mp3?dl=0

Below you will find the handout that accompanied the class: formatting seems odd but it's all there:

Spiritual Renewal Week – 2017
Part 1 – Overview:
·       Smriti – Remember WHY you meditate!
·       You have to WANT to “Be still & know”
·       Always start your practice with “smriti” : prayer : poem : chant
·       Don’t mistake technique for its goal: stillness awaiting Superconsciousness
·       Leave time for inner silence; silent prayer; inner communion

Part 2 – Hong Sau technique
·       Teaches us concentration at the spiritual eye  and breath using mantra
·       Produces the quality of inner peace : gateway to higher consciousness
·       Is non-control a deeper focus than control of breath
·       Goal is to enter into breathlessness; therefore it IS a pranayam
·       Two hours a day : become a master in THIS life!
·       Breath transcendence is India’s gift to the treasury of human knowledge
·       Relationship of breath to mind; mind to breath

Part 3 – Practice Techniques
·       Bookend Hong Sau with the “triple exhalation”
·       Follow breath from bottom, middle section, top of nose (& reverse)
·       Index finger : optional mindfulness technique : link to medulla & ego
·       Optional exercises to deepen:
·       Place awareness at medulla and observe breath entering and exiting Sp.Eye.
·       Practice a few minutes with eyes open to stay present
·       While practicing, count how many seconds before thoughts arise; lengthen;
·       Notice and enjoy, but do not control, pauses or shallowness of breath
·       Intuit breathlessness
·       Hong Sau in the spine: the “little kriya”

Part 4 – Silence is Golden
·       “Dump the body” (mind and senses) into the lake of Superconsciousness
·       Empty oneself of thought and self-preoccupations first
·       Like gazing but gazing within
·       Sit at the door awaiting with joyful expectancy “His coming”
·       That grace of Superconsciousness can flow into you
·       Eight aspects: peace, wisdom, energy, love, calmness, sound, light & bliss

·       Practice in spurts during the day: driving; waiting; between actions.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Joy is no "Object" : The Land Beyond Our Dreams

How odd it is that in the English language we say: "Money is no object" when we mean to say "Don't worry about the money, spend what you want or need!"
Image result for gold coins
But it is also true that money is indeed not an object, as such. Yes, you can hold in your hand a 10 rupee note or a $100 bill or a gold coin. But as an "object" these things have no intrinsic value beyond the idea and perception we have of them and which is shared with others. Money is essentially an abstraction. A mere idea. We could use sea shells or cows as money for all the difference it makes to the idea.

Well, when I say "Joy is no object" I do NOT mean that joy is a mere thought or abstraction. Rather, I mean that true joy cannot be found and held fast in any thought, emotion, object, or sense experience!

Yogis discovered long ago a secret that even our bodies do not know: we can live without or with very little breathing. Normally our bodies are designed to keep us breathing at all costs and I, for one, wouldn't argue with its design and intention.

But, as I say, long ago yogis discovered that by specific and exacting methods one could suspend the breath and not "just" remain alive but in fact enter into a blissful experience that, with regular practice, can be summoned at will even later while breathing and acting normally in daily life.

This is not merely some healthy way to get "high." Discovering that life exists more fully in a state that is transcendent of the physical body is an enormous release of self awareness from the prison of mortality itself.

Like so many things in life: it's a step by step process. Yogis tell us, moreover, that this is the reason we have been created: to discover who we really are. We are to discover that we are not the personality confined to one human form and condemned to live impermanently and all too precariously, chained by our breath and heart beat to this form.

Admittedly, the vast majority of human beings are quite eager to pursue as much pleasure and accumulation as they can get. Few are ready to embark on an inward journey towards consciousness Itself: to our Creator, Consciousness and Bliss, one and the same.

Nonetheless, the spread of yoga and meditation throughout the world heralds the awakening of an innate and intuitive desire for universality in both self-definition and in society in an increasing number of people. The history of yoga and the existence of great yogis--masters of life force--provide a continuous testimony down through the ages of what is possible.

I recall as a boy being taught that the term "Catholic" meant "universal." I found the idea thrilling though only later did I discover it wasn't quite the case for my Catholic faith as such! But all faiths more or less teach that we are children of God and in this lies the seed of the actual, inner experience, born of meditation (and cessation of breath) that we are One; we are not this body.

Therese Neumann
In a similar vein, we have modern evidence that it is possible to live without food or water. In the person and life of Therese Neumann, we have validated proof of this fact. For more see: http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/12/therese-neumann-mystic-victim-soul.html


Using the methods of yoga-meditation, bringing the breath steadily and naturally under control we approach the zone where our thoughts are stilled and, not unlike the pleasure of sleep but while remaining conscious (indeed, MORE than merely conscious: intensely aware), we experience a state of wholeness, of satisfaction, of security that is incomparable, persuasive, and pervasive like no other worldly pleasure or accomplishment can ever match. It is ours; our home; no one can take it and it depends on no outward circumstance!

Image result for the last smile
Paramhansa Yogananda - "Last Smile"
What is interesting is that daily forays into this "land beyond my dreams" begins to transform one consciousness with an all pervading sense of calmness; quiet joy; confidence (without ego); insights and love for all without thought of self.

Paramhansa Yogananda coined the phrase "land beyond my dreams" to express this state of "super" consciousness, as opposed to the dreamy state of subconsciousness. 

With proper training, focused discipline, and a pure motive linked with intense yearning, it's not difficult to achieve the beginning states. These alone are worth the effort even if going beyond them into states described down through ages (using terms like cosmic consciousness, samadhi, moksha, liberation and the like) has yet to arrive.

For the sake of description, if not for instruction, imagine your mind crystallizing into a simple but pure state of quiet, inner awareness. Your thoughts have gone to rest, like thrashing waves that have become becalmed and that have dissolved into the resting sea. It's somewhat like gazing out the window at a panoramic scene. But, instead of your gaze going out and away from yourself, it is turned inward as if upon the mind or the awareness itself as an "object" of contemplation. 

Imagine gazing inwardly at your own awareness. Consider the image of looking into a mirror when there's a mirror behind you and the images are multiplied toward infinity. This is more complex than I would actually suggest beyond the simple idea that you are looking at your own awareness which, not being a thing at all, leads you into this "land," a place of feeling which is thrilling in a deeply calm and knowing way: like coming home.

Such experiences can come upon us under any number of circumstances in life. Much poetry is written about such things, being described in an infinity of ways for it brings us to the hem of infinity itself.

But the yogis discovered how to reach this land by the daily practice of specific, often called scientific, methods of breath awareness and control. Yogananda's most famous and most advanced meditation technique is called Kriya Yoga. See Chapter 26, "Kriya Yoga," in his landmark story, "Autobiography of a Yogi." https://www.ananda.org/autobiography/#chap26 Yet most any time-tested technique that suits one will suffice for the beginning stages of meditation. 

Yogananda taught a mindfulness technique of concentration using the mantra, Hong Sau (which loosely means "I am He" or "I am Spirit" Peace" etc). Hence the technique itself is called "Hong Sau." Its essence however appears in every tradition of meditation, east or west, down through the ages. It does so for the simple reason that breath awareness is the key and the link between ordinary consciousness (of body and personality) and the higher state of awareness whose most notable outward characteristic is absence of or reduced breath. To learn Hong Sau you can go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaoRRg0gxr0&t=128s

As the breath, so the mind. "Heavy breathing" is intense and passionate body or ego awareness. By contrast, deep mental concentration requires or is accompanied by quietness of breath. Thus body transcendence requires stilling the breath and heart. It's truly that simple, though the vistas of awareness that open up are Infinite! 

I'll stop now for I have accomplished my main point of inspiration and sharing.

Joy to you,

Swami Hrimananda