Beloved Master
We are sometimes asked to meditate on something to gain some clarity but when we are sitting, we are trying not to think about anything. When does sitting become meditation? We have been sitting with you this week in meditation and you mentioned there are several phases to this sitting. Would you kindly give us some insights on this.
Thank you.
Ma Prem Saraha
Posted by: Ma Prem Saraha @ Shanthi Category: Meditation Dialogues: 5
It happened today, we had our usual one hour sitting, and this time I did not help, I just sat with them, and there were quite a few there today, and what happened - the first 40 minutes, most were a mess, nothing happened, people were just in the verge of sleep. There was nothing happening, it was just very depressing, and then I started to help, and help them enter meditation, and then it was all good, there was joy, there was meditation happening.
This is what I saw, until you are initiated to this, until this is shown really and actually, nothing is going to happen. People are just going to sit with eyes close, and enter into a deep sleep, that is all. I will tell you now what I told them.
The whole fault happened when they sat, and hoped something will happen. They did not sit, just put the body in a sitting position, that is all and hoped something will happen, and this is the first fault. Suresh, who has been with me a long time said that I have never taught meditation for the last ten years that he has been with me, and for this I said, until you are, and that is part of the work of mastery, meditation can't happen.
So when they went to sit, the body did, but they did not, and this is the key, and key fault. So the first step is to be ready and to make sure you are getting into being seated, and then the body will follow, and this is the start. But one more thing I saw, that until one is sitting with one who has come to meditation, the other cannot come to see how to do this.
This is the reason why I said from now onwards I will sit with everyone an hour a day, and in this sitting, when the mastery is there, I can help them to enter it, and as they enter this more, they will know how too.
To write and to tell you how to meditate will not help that much, a taste has to be given, and the taste is you being present in a state, you, and a state, in which the mind is not engaged, it might be there, but not engaged, and you are seated. For meditation, the Master is a must, for real meditation, but before the Master can help, one must on one's own comes to mastery, so what can be done. Beloved Shanti, see if your mastery is there, are you the A and the reality is B. If the reality is there, then you are not and then you can't sit, only the reality is sitting.
This is the first flaw, you must come not to be victim of outside, and to have you be there, and then to this that is there, which is you in your mastery, can enter meditation.
What is meditation can be known when you are sitting with one who has become meditation.
this is the transference.
All over the world people meditate, and know most are not in meditation, for even simple mastery is not there, and they are playing victims, and are caught in false, so most are just sitting there without being there, and hoping in that semi-sleep state something will happen, and this is wrong.
So first get to some mastery, and then feel you are there, and then you are ready to sit, and then let this being that you have come to in mastery be seated, and then the Masters energy will be there, and with that the first taste of meditation will happen.
You have had this, and you know this, just the mastery part I have not explained. Now get to some mastery and then in that you are present, and let this that is present which is Shanti, sit, and you are sitting with this, and then all else will happen.
As it comes up in our daily sitting I will write more, if it comes up and this can help.
Ok ... Mastery first, and then you are, and that which is, or you are, sits, and is seated ... then meditation ... ok ... and know the Master is with you.
Posted by: Master Dhyan Vimal
Thank you beloved Master.
You also mentioned this week that before we sit, we need to start preparing for it at least 1-2 hours ahead. Just to start disengaging and coming back to ourselves. Then it's back to basics with either Master's breath or saying the Mantra to help prepare for the sitting. Is there anything else that we can do to help us get into the right state for sitting?
At your feet with gratitude
Ma Prem Saraha
Posted by: Ma Prem Saraha @ Shanthi
A new thing came up yesterday after the meditation and we started to talk about it, and one of the key points that came up is that, the whole act of sitting for an hour, is an act not to feed the mind and the ego, it's to put some time aside in which one cuts off the blood supply to the mind and the ego, and suspends the workings of the mind and the ego.
There are two keys, and the way I have seen it only two keys. One is the suspend the ego, and with this the real A or self happens, or the word being is, you are, and the next step is when you are, you are moving to dissolve, and this is the nature of the self, the real self or being, the moment you are that, it starts to dissolve.
There is no other movement, first from being a mind and an ego, one comes to be, and this being is that which is not the mind and the ego, and when you know you as that which is not the mind and the ego, or the false self, you are, and this is the A.
And this A, because any word given to it can be part of the mind, so we just call is the A, and this when its present and is touched, it starts to dissolve, and these two processes are the action of meditation, nothing else. And at the end it's samadhi, oneness.
This is an amazing insight, for the nature of the real self which is not the mind and ego, all it wants to do is dissolve, and nothing on one's part is needed to be done. All one can do is to come back to this A, and to remember one is here now, and in that all happens.
So the act of sitting is nothing but an act of not feeding the ego and the mind, just to be, the mind and ego can't grow or be alive. If you watch the whole day, whatever you look and talk to and do, is something the mind and the ego needs, and that is fed, it's food is outside, and the movement and the dramas, and the ideas. So the whole of one's living and life is used as the food for the ego and the mind. Everything is to establish the self, over and over again, and once you stop doing this, and the self has no more food to keep it alive, and know this, its very very hungry, and it needs constant input, when this is cut off, it will settle and die.
So take up the silent sitting first as an act not the feed the ego and the mind, and this by itself is an amazing act, and all else will follow, naturally. If sleep comes, it's ok, if the body hurts it's ok, and know that sitting that one hour is working so the demand of the ego and the mind is not fed and given, and this when one knows and is participating in not feeding the ego and the mind, one is a disciple, and then the deeper meditation happens.
Posted by: Master Dhyan Vimal
Beloved Shanti,
Another insight for meditation from today, and this insight is something everyone knows, those who have been with me, but it's worth saying it again, which is one must awaken Mastery before even meditating. So the first thing before or during sitting, in the beginning one must enter mastery, over oneself, which is to shift from being the experience to being the experiencer, from being involved and being enslaved by the outside to being the center of it, and this is what is missed most often in the name of meditation.
So Mastery Meditation is the first, one has to enter this, and this when it's established, one can enter the second stage of meditation, which is just to be this center, this A, and to be there, in deep remembrance, and then all that comes up is a tool to remain here, and to remain the center. If thoughts come or sleep comes, it can be used to stay the center, to stay as the stillness which one is.
When this is there, then one can sit to die into this, and just to be this, and know when this has happened, only then the other is, and then the meeting with the other, which in the beginning is the Master, and in that the connection happens, the energy of the Master can flow to you, and this is established, and when this is there, then meditation starts to happen.
And in this meditation without your effort much things happen, and in the deeper sense this is the real meditation, all else is to come to this. All the idea of watching the mind, and watching the breathing is to awaken the watcher, and when this watcher is awakened, then one is, totally is, and that which is connects, and sitting with this connection is meditation.
So the first part do all you can to be in mastery, to come back as a creator, and to watch that you have not given away your power, so this goes back to the seven seated states, and this is what has to be learned and lived in the act of meditation.
Another thing that came up and worth mentioning is that the ego and its nature that prevents one from really healing from the past and living the moment, and what was seen is that the whole idea of the ego is born because one can't accept what one is, and what life has led one to be, and this is in relation to the past. The way I have seen it, all of the past is nothing but a reality, or a truth that shows one that one has to drop that idea of oneself, of being this or that, and accept what the reality has shown. If one has found oneself being poor in the past, then that is what one is. If one found oneself ugly then that is what it is, that ego that you are more than that has to be dropped. The past helps one to accept what one is and what one is not, at least to that point of time, and the ego is born when one wants to escape this, and be something other than the past, or lives in a way to change the past, or to compensate for the past.
When one sits with one's past and allows it let one accept what one is, and which works as a tool for not allowing the ego to grow, one can heal, and this is a beautiful state to sit in, and make it a meditation.
So in a way when I say I am boy from a small fishing village, it's a meditation of the acceptance of the past as it is, and with that healing happens, and hurts can't live on or be created.
Just a thought for the day ...
Posted by: Master Dhyan Vimal
Beloved Master
After spending the whole week struggling to sit, I finally managed to sit this morning for more than an hour and it was delicious. The body was still and the mind settled very quickly. I could see the labels and masks that I had been carrying all week and observed how loaded I was at the end of the day and as a result, my mind was restless and my body was uncomfortable when I tried to sit.
Thank you for insights Master.
Posted by: Ma Prem Saraha @ Shanthi