Meditation Techniques: Meditation on an object

By  

Meditation Techniques: Meditation on an object

Meditation can either be on an object, or otherwise, can be objectless. In the initial stages, it is easier if you start by concentrating your mind on a selected object. Later, if you have brought over karma of spiritual practices from the past, you will yourself quickly be led to another technique that might be more appropriate to you inner nature.

The selected object may be a symbol, a flame, an image of a deity, a saint, or if you initially prefer, even an animal or ordinary individual you really love ... This really is the right approach too, for in each and every thing in Nature is the Light of God. What really is essential is that we inherently feel a great drawing towards the chosen object, symbol, image, person ...

As the ' Brihadaranyaka Upanishad' explains, it is not the physical person who is attractive, but the atman (soul) within that attracts us. Meditating fully on God, aver the Masters is very difficult, because God is infinite.

The great battle of meditation is to calm the restless thoughts of the mind. Only when truant thoughts quiet down, and you manage to concentrate on God alone (in (whatever aspect you perceive him) can you contact Him. No matter what the large number of frill benefits that meditation showers, do it with the objective of making an acquaintance with the Divine One. And no matter how often the mind may waver, keep bringing the focus back to the object of concentration.

Commence your meditation by sitting with your spine straight and relaxing your entire body. Once calm and composed, fill your heart and the whole being with a feeling of love and joy. Behind the darkness of your closed and upward turned eyes, see your select image, symbol ... in the area of the third eye (slightly above and between the eyebrows). The third eye (also referred to as the astral eye, the medulla center, kutastha chaitanya, Christ consciousness center, and the star of heaven) is the seat of concentration, will power, and transmission in our beings. Unless you are spiritually advanced, this 'seeing' will only be with the mind's eye and you will not literally see the object or image.

Use imagination, visualisation, and feel the presence of the image. Focus your entire thought process on the image, its inherent qualities, its purpose, shape and form, and any other tenet that your soul may light forth from within. As you do this for a few minutes, with practice you will begin to experience a bursting forth of vibrations in the astral center.

This is a clear indication of your beginning to go deeper. Feel and receive this blessing and behold the image expanding in size as it envelops your whole body .See it growing and gently spreading over the whole sphere of universal consciousness. Maintain the focus of your attention at the kutastha center and go deeper within.

Naturally, discover the waning awareness of your own little self, and cast yourself into the sea of multitudinous ripples of vibratory pulsations, soothing love, and light of the tiny image you had begun with. The body you knew, has now melted in this omnipresent vastness. The mind as such seems to have become functionless. Know that you are no longer you, but only a spark of the omnipresent One.

Stay with the feeling for as long as you can. Feel your soul being released from its shackles of bondage by the power of your omnipotent image. For long have you discarded your soul needs, and once too often have you stifled its ardent calls. All that exists is God manifesting as you are experiencing Him at that very moment. Receive Him. Speak with Him in the language of your heart.

Do not relate with Him as a beggar, but as His own little child. A beggar only receives what he asks for, but a child can demand his birthright and a share of all the goodness and wealth of the father. God is not to be feared, but is to be loved. Do not be God fearing; be God loving.

Even if apparently God does not seem to answer your prayers and the notes of your call, know that as you pray without any static disturbance from your mind radio, the vibrations of your wireless message have been picked up by Him. In due course, when the time is right, He will surely deliver the noble desires of your heart.

Stay in the consciousness of omnipresence for 10 to 15 minutes or longer if you can, and then slowly, gently, feel the omnipresent consciousness and the image narrowing back to its source in the center of your heart and mind. Realize you have been suffused with this Divine consciousness, but just as a little cup can hold only so much and not the entire ocean, so too must you seek to expand the cup of your awareness and love, to be able to receive all that your meditative practices may offer you.

Try not to get up immediately after your practice, but to stay put for some minutes, chant a hymn, or to just be silent and use the newly acquired Divine energy to send messages of love, healing, and thanksgiving to the many you know and do not know (no matter how far away in time and miles), mankind in general, nature, the animal kingdom, the plant and mineral kingdom, and the whole of existence in general. Above all, never forget to thank God Himself for the blessing of the opportunity to be able to meditate upon Him.

See also: )