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Just remember the homeless family who has no bed to lie in.

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Should you find yourself stuck in traffic; don’t despair.

There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.

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Should you have a bad day at work;

Think of the man who has been out of work for the last three months.

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Should you despair over a relationship gone bad;

Think of the person who has never known what it’s like to love and be loved in return.

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Should you grieve the passing of another weekend;

Think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for -15.00 to feed her family.

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Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance;

Think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.

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Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror;

Think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.

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Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking “what is my purpose”;

Be thankful. There are those who didn’t live long enough to get the opportunity.

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Should you find yourself the victim of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities;

Remember, things could be worse. You could be them!!!

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Should you decide to tell the above to a friend;

You might brighten someone’s day!

” May all people who are close to my heart- my family, my parents, my very close friends; they all find true happiness.”

” May all people on earth- whether I know them or not, whether I like them or not, all find their true happiness. “

“May they all find true happiness. I love them all. Everybody is my friend. No one is my enemy”

Meditation deals with contacting the ‘consciousness‘ within us, which by its very nature is peaceful, calm and rejuvenating.

In order to understand mediation, it is important  to know this ‘consciousness’.

In the spiritual language, this consciousness is known as ‘self’ . From now onward I will refer this consciousness as ‘Self’

Here is a very interesting  experiment to know the presence of this consciousness (self)  in you. You can do this experiment right now. In the next 10 minutes you’ll experience the presence of self in you.

A practical test:

Just choose a word , any word. It may be anything.

You can choose the name of a God or  a saint or any ordinary name- Anything of your choice- Krishna, Ram, Jesus Christ, Allah, Aum, George Bush, John Karry, Saddam, Osama, America, love, hate anything!!! Your imagination is the limit.

Have you chosen the word? OK now what you have to do is this:

“you have to repeat this word exactly 40 times silently in your mind (with your eyes closed and without using any external means for counting) and no thought should come in your mind during repetition”

You have to repeat exactly 40 times, no less no more. If during repetition, you forget counting, repeat it again. It is irrelevant whether you repeat it exactly 40 times in 1st attempt or in 2nd , 3rd or nth attempt. Main thing is that you should repeat it exactly 40 times in your mind.

Be careful: Counting should be in your mind . No external means (not even fingers of your hands) should be used for counting. Count silently with your eyes closed and don’t allow any thoughts to come in your mind while counting,

Rest assured: This is NOT a test of your concentration. There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

When you finish it, come back and I will ask you some questions. So stop reading further and do what has been instructed. Next Para is relevant only to those who’ll try this test. Just do it now.

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Have you done it ? OK . Welcome back !

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So you have repeated a word exactly 40 times in your mind and no (or some)  thought/s came in your mind during repetition. Right?

Please choose among the following options the one that suits you most:

(1) I repeat the word exactly 40 times silently in my mind and during repetition no thought came in my mind.

(2) I repeat the word exactly 40 times but some thought came in my mind during repetition.

(3) I repeat the word exactly 40 times but could not do it in first attempt as some thoughts pop up in mind and I lost counting. So I restarted counting and finished in the 2nd, 3rd , ____th attempt (write your attempt)

(4) In my 2nd, 3rd, .nth counting attempt, no thought came in my mind.

(5) In my 2nd, 3rd, .nth counting attempt some thoughts came in my mind, but I did not forget counting and repeat exactly 40 times.

(6) I could not repeat exactly 40 times in any of my attempts because every time I start repeating, thoughts kept coming in mind and I forget counting.

Have you chosen your option, the one which suits you. I hope you have chosen.

Now irrespective of which option you have chosen, I ask you:

How can you say so that the option you have selected suits you? How do you know?

In the answer of this question, lies the presence of self in you.

Just tell me : How can you say that the option you selected is suitable for you ?

Suppose you have selected the option no. (1), i.e. you are the one who repeat the word silently exactly 40 times and no thought came in your mind during repetition. Just tell me how can you say so. How do you know that some thought came or didn’t come? After all your  mind was engaged in repeating a word exactly 40 times, then who was there in you watching the flow of thought , who was there watching your mind as it repeats the word ? Who is there who knows that some thought came or not came . It must not be your body (as there is no participation of it in the test), it must not be your mind as it was busy repeating a word exactly 40 times. So what it is ?

You may say – ‘Well I was watching. I was aware, careful that no thought come in my mind. I was observing the flow of thoughts and I can say with confidence that while I was repeating the word, no/some thought/s came in my mind.

Who was watching ? your body ? your mind ?  or you ?

If you were watching the flow of thought while your mind repeated a word, you should be different from your body and mind. Right ?

Irrespective of what is the option among the above six  that you have chosen, one thing is certain.

There was someone in you who was carefully watching  the whole repetition and who in the end gave you the report regarding your performance i.e. whether any thought came in your mind or not. This inner knower is self.

The one who makes you aware of the existence of any thought or image and of exactly what it is, is nothing but the self, the witness. inside and outside, no matter what happens, no matter what you do, the self sees everything.

To know that knower i.e. self is true meditation.

Have you got a taste of this self through the above test ? I hope you experienced its presence in you.  Now let me tell you why this self, the so called third aspect of our existence is the central theme of meditation and is considered as the soul of meditation.

Self : The supreme consciousness

The whole universe is nothing but pure consciousness. Scientific researches  have taken us up to the point where we can convincingly say that at the quantum level it is just the play of energy that is going on in the entire universe. (everything  has a mass and thus can be converted into energy. Remember the famous Einstein equation
E = MC^{2 )}

However the spiritual world is of the view that in the ultimate analysis, in a more deeper level (something still beyond even the reach of quantum physics ) everything in the whole universe is pure consciousness (known also as supreme consciousness or God ). And it is just the play of this consciousness that is going on. The whole universe is a manifestation of this supreme consciousness.

Everybody who is a part of this universe (which includes everything on our planet including you ) is made up of this supreme consciousness. Self,  is nothing but a part of this  supreme consciousness in its purest form.

What is self? It is the pure awareness of “I am”, the original “I’ consciousness which has been within us ever since we come into this world. Even though that ‘I’ exist in the woman, it is not a woman, even though it exist in a man, it is not a man. That ‘I’ is without form, colour or any other attribute. We have superimposed different notions onto it- notions like “I am a man / woman/ an American/an Indian”. But when we wipe them all away that “I” is nothing but pure consciousness.

Meditation is nothing but an systematic art of realizing this self.

Omkar delightfully encourages:

1. proper & deep breathing
2. it relaxes the mind
3. it concentrates the mind
4. it connects the body with the mind
5. it echos our internal anxiety
6. increase the amount of oxygen in your blood

HOW

1. Take a deep breath in.
2. Pronounce the letter “a” like “arrr for 2 seconds as you release some breath.
3. Blend that sound as you change the sound to pronouce the letter “u” like the u in “you” for 3 seconds as you release more breath.
4. Blend that sounds as you change the sound to pronounce the letter “m” like the ‘m’ at the start of mother for 5 seconds as you release the remaining breath.
5. Finish to silence for 10-15 seconds and listen to the echo in your mind, as you repeat from step 1.

It’s entrancing because it is so simple yet requires the focus of your mind.  It is relaxing because it removes clutter from your mind as well as calms your breathing to a deep conscious controlled steady breath.

ADVANCED

1. As you pronounce the ‘a’ try to build the sound in your stomach, as you pronounce the ‘u’ let the sound rise to your chest, and as you pronounce the ‘m’ let it come from your lips.  You will see the sound then moves with your volume of breath from lungs to throat to lips in a delightful flow.
2. Over weeks/months you will see that Omkar echos your own spirit – clear and beutiful like a sing bird when you are happy, stiff and dry when you are anxious.
3. It’s also actually a simple, smart, and powerful way to encourage good breathing; as well as flooding the mind with a single focus to measure, pronounce, time, and listen to the act of saying aum.
4. The slow release of breath means that your lungs have a greater chance of absorbing the oxygen in the air.

NOTES

1. Do not rush to pronounce the early letters (‘a’ and ‘u’) and leave no breath for the later  (‘u’ and ‘m’).  Omkar is an exercise in controlled deep breathing.
2. ‘The sound ‘om’ or ‘aum’ is considered as the sound of the universe i.e. if you could hear it in space, the sound you would hear is ‘aum’.  It’s actually just the natural sound that comes from the human larynx.
3. In religions such as Christianity and Islam, ‘ahmen’ or ‘amin’ is used.
4. Om is also drawn as a shape, but this post refers to the sound alone.
5. If the timing is too long or short then adjust to suit your lung capacity.
6. Even in the silence, try to hear the memory of the sound also.
7. Continue for as long as you wish, 5minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes.
8. It’s especially lovely in a group where you can hear your voice and spirit literally tune into your neighbours.
9. You might find your voice is rusty to begin with but after a few cycles it should settle.  If not, then clear your throat and start again.
10. If you get dizzy then just stop and allow your breathing to return to normal.
11. Following the normal timings your breathing will slow to just 4 cycles per minute – slow and strong.  The normal rate is quoted as much as 12 per minute! (Wikipedia)