Meditation, some answers

The beauty of the breath behind life in birds flying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4f_1_r80RY=1s

Originally Posted by Gem

My basic point was you can categorise all meditations into either volitional or non-volitional practices. I had two different examples of non-volitional practices including breath awareness and listening to the 'sound current' as Seeker mentioned, but there are a range of other non-volitional techniques like body scanning or even candle gazing. The volitional techniques require you to generate something volitionally in imagination (mantra, visualisation etc), or controlling breathing like in paranyama. Not saying one is better and the other is worse, just making the point that the two types can't go together.

Gem,

You are absolutely right in your categorization of meditation techniques. There are two ways- forced one and just be normal. Hinduism calls these hath-Yoga and Sahaj-Yoga.

My experience tells me that in the initial phase, volitional method is necessary or more helpful. As i found it, eventually everyone ends up with some kind of non volitional method, even those who starts with some kind of volitional methods.

As usual, i would like to go in the details.

As far as chanting of mantras are concerned, there are three ways of it. One is from the tongue, then from the throat, then only from the heart (mind). This progression happens naturally if one continues practice long enough. And, this last stage of repeating the mantras from the mind automatically becomes non-volitional.

But, the question is why volitional methods are necessary in initial stages?

The answer lies in the process how does our mind operate generally. Our mind processes the thinking/actions in four step method. Or, in other words we can say that mind has four parts/qualities- imagination, evaluation/wisdom, Memory, self/ego/will power. Each and every action of us has to go through by all these three processes.

Let us take an example to understand this clearly. Say, you think of having a cold drink. That is imagination and that may initiate for many reasons like being thirsty or seeing some other person having one. Now, you will judge in your mind whether you should take it or not? Are you hungry or not? And, is Having cold drink is good for you or not? That is wisdom and it decides in the favor of having it then the memory part of the mind will come into play. You will access your memory from where you can get one cold drink. Like, is there one in your fridge or you have to buy it from a shop and from which shop? And, lastly, your self ego/will power direct your body to take the necessary action for completing the job.

it looks somewhat lengthy process but in reality it happens very fast. So fast that we are unable to realize how it happens exactly. Volitional meditation uses the last quality of the mind (will power) the most.

We all drive vehicles like cars and motorcycles. And we know that in all geared vehicles, we have to put the vehicle always in the first gear when start from standing. Many readers would also be aware of the fact the in the gear boxes, the size of the first gear is always the biggest and as we moves up, the gear sizes become smaller and smaller.

So, the question is why we do not use the lowest sized gear as the first one. The answer is that we need the most of the power when the vehicle is stand still and with the increasing of the speed the vehicle needs less and less power. The same applies in the meditation too. We need the most power on the initial stages and as one moves on further, he/she needs less and less effort. And, to generate the most of the concentration, we has to use volitional methods.

When we use any mental practice regularly and long enough, it becomes a habit. Habit means that the repetition of that particular practice has gone beyond conscious mind and entered into subconscious. That means that is going to happen automatically without any effort from the conscious mind. So, the point is even if we start doing mantras as a volition method and do it long enough, sooner or later it would become a habit of the subconscious and then conscious mind would able to witness as just like one's breathing.

I would like to put forth one more analogy to understand the need of force in the starting stages. We all know about Space rockets. These rockets have initial boosters which give rockets escape velocity so that they can clear the gravitational field of the earth. Once clearing that zone, not much of the force is required so initial boosters detach from the rockets and the rockets moves on only on inbuilt engines. The same happens with volition methods. These act like initial boosters, which are necessary to clear some major initial hurdles. After clearing those, volition methods detach automatically from the process and only non- volition methodology kicks in. One needs not to take any conscious action about that because there a default mechanism in place to take care of that. There is only one difference. Unlike space rockets, in spiritual journey, there come two such initial stages where brute force is required. After crossing those two, things tend to calm down.

with love,
sanjay

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 213 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by zinnat

When we use any mental practice regularly and long enough, it becomes a habit. Habit means that the repetition of that particular practice has gone beyond conscious mind and entered into subconscious. That means that is going to happen automatically without any effort from the conscious mind.

Excellent point.

In 2018, while under anesthesia during a life-saving "blood on the brain" operation, the surgeon mentioned afterwards that, whenever they thought that they were losing me, I would start audibly chanting "something". Although he mispronounced it somewhat, I recognized it as my mantra. Even when one is unconscious, the mantra can arise quite spontaneously.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Gem

You have to imagine a mantra, so realistically, it doesn't 'just come' - you have to make it happen. But the inner sound current is like focusing on the sound which is already in your head, usually a high pitched buzzing initially at least. That's a good meditation because the sound is soft and finely detailed and you can listen more and more closely to discover subtler nuances of it and be 'absorbed' by it. It conforms to principles of 'observe it as it is' rather than 'make it as you want it to be', which puts it in the non-volitional category of practice.

And the inner sound current can be heard as various other sounds, which may begin at the crown of the head but can then descend down the spine until the body is filled with the Sound or the Nada.

"It is easiest to hear this Sound when it is quiet, particularly at night-time. Once you have identified this Sound, then you place your awareness on it without wavering. Resting your mind in the Sound, you continue to listen, going further and further into the Sound itself." ("Mind Beyond Death", Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche).

Peace

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

In 2018, while under anesthesia during a life-saving "blood on the brain" operation, the surgeon mentioned afterwards that, whenever they thought that they were losing me, I would start audibly chanting "something". Although he mispronounced it somewhat, I recognized it as my mantra. Even when one is unconscious, the mantra can arise quite spontaneously.

What? That's amazing!
Yes, this reg mental practice later becomes what I call being on auto-pilot.

Whoa, that is some 2 min youtube Legrand!!!

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Legrand

The beauty of the breath behind life in birds flying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4f_1_r80RY=1s

I just attended a live presentation by Rupert Sheldrake on morphogenetic resonance and he specifically discussed this phenomenon of birds flying in flocks without colliding. His positions are very consistent with Jung's understanding of the collective unconscious both on the species level and at a higher level.

Great video !

[Gem]

Originally Posted by iamthat

And the inner sound current can be heard as various other sounds, which may begin at the crown of the head but can then descend down the spine until the body is filled with the Sound or the Nada.

Just listen to the sound in your head...

"It is easiest to hear this Sound when it is quiet, particularly at night-time. Once you have identified this Sound, then you place your awareness on it without wavering. Resting your mind in the Sound, you continue to listen, going further and further into the Sound itself." ("Mind Beyond Death", Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche).

Peace

Yup.

[Unseeking Seeker]

fulcrum of inner sound current appears to be centreless

likewise, each sense has an inner polarity ...

[Gem]

Originally Posted by zinnat

Gem,
You are absolutely right in your categorization of meditation techniques. There are two ways- forced one and just be normal. Hinduism calls these hath-Yoga and Sahaj-Yoga.

Ah. Interesting.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I think the idea that the volition should be employed initially to develop a habitual mantra thought pattern and a force of volition is required to figuratively launch us into to space is somewhat misguided, but I still appreciate this thread as a good explanation of mantra meditation.

Let us continue.

As i mentioned before, for starters, an aspirant has to be in the posture which suits him/her the most, then start repeating mantras of one's choice and try to focus on the sound of that repetition.

Two important things here which should be kept in the mind. First, though the posture does not matter but it is very important to be absolutely still in that posture throughout the whole session. Not even a tip of the finger should be moved.

One may ask why it is so?

The reason lies in the default mechanism of the human body. As we now know that the amalgamation of the mind and consciousness is spread throughout the body with the help of the brain so that mind can gather all inputs from the different parts of the body. In meditation, we have to withdraw it from the body and get it back to its main seat. As the consciousness and the mind cannot be separated so mind also pulls consciousness from the body to the eye seat. But, if we keep our body parts moving, due to the default mechanism, mind would have no option but to pay attention towards the body parts and we cannot allow that happening in meditation otherwise mind would not be able to generate enough pull to move the consciousness. That is precisely the reason why closing of the eyes is also essential during meditation. It is very difficult to meditate with open eyes, tough not impossible but next to impossible especially for new aspirants.

The second point i want to highlight here is about breathing. As many posters mentioned in this thread about the importance of focusing on breathing. I would like to advice a slightly different approach.

As i found it from my experience, the mantra should be synchronized with the breath. If the mantra is not long, it can be done easily. Even if it is long, one can break it into parts and so that each part can be synchronized with the breath. This method may be a bit difficult in the starting but proves very helpful later.

The advantage of of this method is that once coming into practice when subconscious forms the habit of repeating the mantra in perfect synchronization of the breath, merely focusing on the breath would start the repetition of the mantra without any effort of the conscious mind. One may call this phenomenon as indirect/secondary habit.

This is something like when we train our pets to remember their names. We call their name while feeding them and after some time, they would start reacting to their name even without food. Or, smokers feel like going for the bowels after they smoke their first cigarette in the morning. Though smoking has no relation with the bowel movements but because smokers use to smoke in the toilet so in due time bowl moments indirectly connect with the smoking.

with love,
sanjay