Allow meditation to find you

Once people realise I’m a meditation guide, many come to me saying, “they find it difficult to meditate”. Is this the case with you? In case you can’t make it to my classes, here’s a perspective.

Don’t think of meditation as something you have to do. Meditation is not something that you do as an activity. Allow it to transcend from being a verb to a state of being.

In a way, it’s similar to sleep. Sleep is not something you “do”. You can only transition from waking upto sleeping. What you do is only the preparation, not the act of falling asleep itself. You can consciously lie down, close your eyes, relax your body and mind and get comfortable. Then sleep happens. The state of meditation is similar. In the yogic texts, it’s a state defined as deep dreamless sleep while awake. It is often referred to as the fourth state (chaturya).

The four states of mind (consciousness) according to yoga philosophy:

• Jagrata — Waking, conscious state. Mostly emitting beta brain waves.

• Swapna — Sleeping, subconscious state/dreaming. Mostly emitting theta brain waves.

• Sushupti — Conscious meditation state/the sleeping, unconscious state/dreamless sleep. Mostly emitting delta brain waves.

• Turiya — Deep meditative state/superconscious state/sleepless sleep. Mostly emitting gamma brain waves.

Meditativeness is your natural state:

The chaturya (turiya) state is a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object. Where you can create distance between you — the observer — and everything you are observing.

Remember that this is an effortless state you reach naturally. When you watched that beautiful sunset, as the sky exploded into a myriad of colours, you didn’t remember your past worries, or future anxieties, or even your name or your nationality or any other identity. You went beyond all your constructs and were completely absorbed in the moment.

This can be called meditation and all of us have experienced it — naturally.

Training to meditate:

Simply start by training yourself to be still. Once you can find stillness in the body (asana) then train to find stillness in the mind. There are many tools for this including:

• Pranayama (Conscious breath)

• Mantra (Sonic awareness)

• Asana (Movement, dance, spatial awareness)

• Trataka (Hyper-focussed awareness like gazing into a candle)

• Visualisation (Visual awareness)

• Mindfulness (Awareness of here and now).

Find one that works for you. And then when you can stay still, spend some time in self-enquiry. In observing the observer. In witnessing the one who witnesses.

Don’t push. Allow meditation to happen:

The more you push, the less likely you are to reach that state and experience peace.

Recognise when people say they are going to meditate, they don’t mean the state of meditation, but the preparatory practices — sitting still, relaxing, mantra chanting, all of which can be ‘done’. Don’t confuse the practices with the state.

Once you understand that meditation is a state, then your only job is to create the right circumstances. You simply focus on what you can ‘do’ — relax, sit still, concentrate — sometimes the state comes fast, sometimes it does not. Either one should be fine.

With practice, you can reach the meditative state more often and with more consistency you can be meditative all the time. Do what you can, then let go of the outcome. Allow meditation to find you.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com

Connect with Anjaan across social media @MeditateWithAnjaan

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