|
Meditation
practice has often been sought for a variety of reasons, the
intention from a scriptural point of view is clear: meditation
is to help us attain the fulfillment of the human incarnation:
the realization of our oneness with the infinite Self,
Brahman. This is the goal of yoga.
Most of us, however, begin mediation practice with less lofty
ideals and more immediate concerns. In bhakti yoga (the yoga
of devotion) it is said that people come to the spiritual path
for one of four reasons: to seek release from pain; to seek
better worldly circumstances for themselves or others; to gain
knowledge; or due to a high stage attained in a previous
birth. So initially it can be helpful to reframe the goal in
terms that seem more personally accessible to us: learning how
to cope with stress or pain, achieving inner serenity,
responding to the longing for spiritual fulfillment, or
investigating consciousness or the nature of existence. Some
of us nourish the hope that meditation will make us a better
person: clearer and more capable of helping others and our
planet. All of these are worthy goals in themselves; as our
practice develops, the desire for liberation will make itself
felt.
The real problem for most of us is not our goals, but rather
the process of fulfilling them.
A Multitude of Practices
Divine Consciousness is vast, and every yogi experiences it in
a slightly different way. It is a bit like the blind men and
the elephant. One man feels the tusks and says, "The elephant
is sharp," while another feels the tail and says, "It is long
and thin." Still another feels the ear and says, "It is flat
and wrinkled."" Likewise, the various systems of yoga approach
divine consciousness from a variety of directions. The Hatha
and Tantra yoga systems focus on the movement of Prana and
kundalini, the bhakti yoga tradition discusses experiences
arising from devotional feeling, and the ashtanga (raja) yoga
of Patanjali delineates stages of samadhi. Hatha yoga texts,
like the Gheranda Samhita and the Hatha Yoga
Pradipika, describe transformations occurring within the
physical vehicle as it is purified by practicing the different
limbs of hatha yoga: shat karma (kriya), asana, pranayama,
hatha yoga mudra, pratyahara, dhyana, and samadhi.
These texts also describe changes in the yogi's subtle body
and in the flow of energies through the physical and subtle
channels. Both hatha yoga and tantra yoga emphasize arousing
the kundalini energy, the reservoir of prana at the base of
the sushumna (the subtle body channel overlain by the
physical spine). When this energy begins to rise up sushumna,
it causes sattva guna (the quality of purity, clarity,
and peace) to increase in the mind, and meditation becomes
easy and natural. According to the traditions of tantra,
kulakundalini, the reservoir of kundalini stored at the
base of sushumna, must be united with akulakundalini,
situated in the sahasrara chakra, in order for
liberation to be attained.
In hatha yoga, the activation of kundalini is achieved mostly
through pranayama practice and hatha yoga mudras (more
advanced practices in which the body is held in a specific
posture while bandhas [locks], breath retention, and
concentration are synchronously performed). In tantra yoga, a
primary method is sequential visualization of the first six
chakras as a means of removing the limitations of
individualized consciousness contained in some of the petals.
Qualities such as carelessness, cruelty, negligence, fear,
anger, gullibility etc. are purified a little more each time
kundalini passes through the bindu (center) of the
chakra. This is why tantrics practice methods that arouse the
kundalini: mantra, pranayama, meditation on the kundalini, the
company of an enlightened teacher, and devotional methods such
as puja (worship) and kirtan (chanting).
Bhakti yoga, which is related to tantra through its emphasis
on mantra and deity, focuses on the purification of the
emotions and develops love for God, usually through the
vehicle of relationship with one's ishta deva (an ideal
form of God). As a friend once said to me, "The truly amazing
thing is that although God is so vast, it is still possible to
have a personal relationship." Most devotees of bhakti yoga
experience a relationship with God that is intensely personal
in nature. This relationship, as various scriptures describe,
takes various forms according to individual proclivities: we
may feel that we are the servant of God, or the lover of God,
the child or the parent of God in a child form (such as the
baby Jesus or the baby Krishna), the friend of God, or even
that we have a great love for God without any defined form.
Bhaktas (practitioners of bhakti yoga) can choose among a
number of practices, such japa (repetition of a name of
God), singing, chanting, meditation, performing puja, reading
or hearing stories about the lives of saints, etc. By constant
practice of these methods with the aim of keeping God's
presence continually in one's heart and the contemplation of
the Beloved continually in one's mind, the devotee strives to
attain true surrender. It becomes a one-pointed practice, and
one day the individual ego dissolves into the divine ego, and
universal love is experienced. Then the devotee worships God
in everything because the light of the Divine is perceived as
reflecting in everything. The experience of this love is
intensely blissful, and persistent cultivation of it
ultimately bears the fruit of liberation. Enlightenment in
bhakti yoga is said to be experienced in four ways: salokya
(residing in the same realm as the deity), sarupya
(residing in the same or like body as the deity), samipya
(living in close proximity to the deity), or sayujya
(complete absorption into the deity).
In ashtanga, or raja yoga, codified by Patanjali in the
Yoga Sutra, kundalini and chakras are not mentioned.
Surrender to God is mentioned as a method, but discussed only
briefly. The emphasis of the text is on the nature of mind
itself, and how mind is transformed through the practices of
ashtanga yoga, kriya yoga, and the different stages of samadhi,
until the liberated state, kaivalya, is attained. The
discussion of these stages of samadhi is fairly complex.
Beginning Meditation
It is sometimes said that the first stages of the meditaion
process are the most difficult. The first distraction is the
physical body. Sometimes there is real pain in sitting, and
sometimes the ego just tries to distract us by creating itches
we will want to scratch. Sometimes there is hyperawareness of
the physical body: heartbeat, the breathing apparatus, blocked
sinuses, digestive discomfort, or some other pain in the
physical body. When the body relaxes, sometimes the head falls
forward or backward.
The second obstacle is the mind, which is accustomed to
flowing outward and often resents the effort and discipline
required to turn our attention inward-it creates all kinds of
excuses about why we should be doing something else. Or,
instead of being too rajasic, the mind becomes
tamasic. Occasionally students report that when sitting
for meditation they become unconscious and remember nothing of
the experience. The mind becomes quiet and falls into a kind
of unconscious sleep, instead of going into dhyana or samadhi.
People who experience this state usually describe it as
something like this. "I went away somewhere, but don't know
where. I don't remember anything. I don't think I was asleep,
but. . . ." Many Yogis has described this state as a kind of
yoga nidra, related to deep sleep. When
the person wakes up again the mind will go back to the object
of meditation automatically. The aspirant has been successful
in the attempt to quiet the mind, but there is too much
tamas guna present. Although the person may feel rested
afterwards, the feelings of peace, clarity, and well-being
associated with dhyana and samadhi are absent. Vigorous
Pranayama practice before meditation, and conforming strictly
to a yogic diet (one that excludes meat, fish, eggs, garlic,
onions, mushrooms, alcohol, and any type of sedative
substances), as well as regularly practicing yoga asanas,
usually correct the situation.
True meditation, by contrast, creates feelings of peace,
relaxation, or euphoria. Instead of resenting the process of
meditation, the mind begins to look forward to it. It is worth
striving for. And it comes, sooner or later, when we learn to
sit without moving the body and we persist in our efforts to
concentrate and re-concentrate on the singular focus of our
practice. This will happen more quickly and will be deeper if
some technique for quieting the breath and mind, such as
Pranayama, chanting, or devotional singing, is practiced
first. At some point the magic happens. The effortless flow of
awareness from the mind to the object of meditation arises in
the mind, and we wonder afterward why we resisted meditation
practice so hard and for so long.
As Meditation Deepens
When we begin to spend more time in mediation, awareness
deepens; perceptions of the physical body may diminish while
perceptions of the subtle body may appear, leading to a
seeming alteration of normal spatial relations. A person may,
for example, lose consciousness of the body from the neck
down, and feel as if the head is expanding, or as though the
body is levitating, or that their body is now facing in a
different direction. Sometimes people report that they feel as
though there is a great distance between their head and their
hands or knees, as though galaxies intervene. The body can
feel as light as cotton. Pressure or tingling can occur in
various parts of the body due to the movement of Pranic
energy. Sometimes inner lights appear in places in the body
relating to the chakras, the energy centers of the subtle
body. An aspirant going from dhyana into lower samadhi may
lose body consciousness with a jerk so violent that the body
falls over. When meditation deepens into the lowest stages of
samadhi, these sorts of experiences may continue; one may, for
example, hear the inner sound current emanating from the
anahata chakra (the heart center), or feel as though a
light is filling the head and nothing else exists, or a great
light may appear at the ajna chakra (behind the eyebrow
center), and the mind sometimes dissolves into it. Sometimes
the form of a deity appears in the mind; one may feel as
though it is actually present and one can talk to it. One may
dream of chakras, or kundalini rising, or deities, or
spiritual masters.
One of the most common experiences of meditators is the
spontaneous stopping of the breath. When the mind goes deeper,
the breath naturally becomes shallower. In the West we say
that this is because the metabolism slows and oxygen demand
drops. The yogis say that the brain accumulates more prana and
so less breath is needed. Yogis explain that meditators can
suddenly notice that they are not breathing and yet feel
perfectly comfortable. But then the unconscious fear of death
arises and the person will have to breathe. As Yogis observe,
"A preconceived notion about the necessity of breathing
distracts one's mind from experiencing a higher state."
Experiences Attributable to Spiritual Devotion
In Bhakti yoga certain observable bodily changes may take
place. They are described in Narada's Bhakti Sutras,
and there are also references to them in the Ramayana,
the Mahabharata, the Srimad Bhagavata Maha Purana,
and various other religious works of the Hindu tradition.
They are known as the ashta sattvika vikara, or the
eight purifying changes. These devotional symptoms do not
appear in all yoga practitioners, but neither are they
particularly uncommon. Because many people experience them
spontaneously in the company of a spiritual master; or when
chanting or singing devotional songs, or from mystical
experiences that occur in sadhana, from religious ceremonies,
or even from reading scriptures or the lives of saints, it is
important for yoga teachers and practitioners to understand
them. They also can be seen among aspirants in a variety of
spiritual paths including some shamanic traditions, where they
are often interpreted as evidence of voluntary possession by a
deity or benign spirit.
But according to yoga, the ashta sattivika vikara occur
because the emotions of devotion interact with certain pranic
flows in the chakras of the subtle body and begin to purify
the body-mind complex. Each of the five lower chakras controls
the manifestation of energy into one of the five states of
matter: solid, liquid, luminous, gaseous, and pure space. When
emotions arise, they interact with the energies of these five
centers, and the result is physical expression of an emotional
state. When the emotions of love or longing for God or
spirituality arise, the resulting expressions are considered
positive because they purify the subtle nerve channels, or
nadis.
The concentration of prana rotates every hour among the five
lower chakras. The first of these ashta sattvika vikara
is called stambha, meaning "stunned." It occurs when
devotional feelings arise while prana is concentrated in the
solid or "earth" element, at the muladhara chakra (at
the base of the spine). The body becomes still and cannot
move, and the mind and breath may be temporarily inactivated
as well. If the prana is concentrated in the liquid or "water
element" at the svadhishthana chakra when a strong
devotional feeling arises, another of the ashta sattvika
vikara, called ashru (weeping), can occur. It is
said that the tears of devotion are cool and come from the
outside corners of the eyes, unlike tears of anger or
bitterness which come out of the center of the eyes or the
inside corners. Ashru is seen often in ashrams where there is
a great deal of devotional sentiment; people find themselves
spontaneously crying without understanding why.
When the prana is concentrated in the manipura chakra,
where the luminous or "fire element" resides, two expressions
of purifying change are possible. One of these is called
baivarna - the skin can radically change from one color to
another, and the devotee may feel quite tired. The other is
sveda, or sweat. Great heat can be created in the body,
causing copious, spontaneous sweating, "as if," in the words
of Swami Rama, "the person just stepped out of the water."
When the prana is concentrated in the anahata chakra,
the seat of the gaseous or "air element," a variety of changes
can happen: spontaneous rapid breathing or trembling, called
kampa; or blocking of the voice so that one cannot
speak and only hoarse sounds come out (svarbanga); or
pulaka, when the hairs on the scalp prickle or stand
up, goosebumps arise on the skin, and there is a feeling of
joy in the heart. When the prana is concentrated in the
vishuddha chakra (located at the base of the neck), an
experience called pralaya can take place. The body
faints, and if standing, it may fall to the floor. Other
bhavas, such as unconscious dancing, singing in ecstasy,
chills, and release of mucus from the throat and head, can
sometimes be observed; about these Swami Rama has written:
"These are natural processes of purifying the body, mind, and
nerves. Ancient yogis recognized that intense sattvic emotions
were inherently strong in only a few, rare people, and so they
developed other means whereby anyone can purify the body and
awaken kundalini, for example, through the practices of hatha
yoga (pranayama, shat karma, mudra, etc.)."
Experiences Attributable to Kundalini
Texts from the traditions of tantra and hatha yoga describe
the activation and rise of kundalini energy within sushumma
nadi from the base of the spine into the head. As kundalini
rises, it creates sensations of peace, ecstasy, and great
energy; it rises smoothly in some people and more violently in
others. This energy makes the mind go deep much more quickly,
and the yogi longs to meditate. For this reason it is
considered desirable to activate this energy.
How do we know when kundalini becomes active? The answer is
simple: it can he felt as an energy moving inside the spine.
When kundalini begins to move, all of its energy may not be
released from the muladhara chakra-sometimes only small
amounts will rise up sushumna. But if even a spark reaches the
ajna chakra, it can stimulate a strong spiritual experience,
such as the vision of a deity.
When kundalini moves only in the muladhara or a short distance
above, it may stimulate light and sensations in other chakras,
as well as movement of other pranas in the body, which in turn
can be experienced as physical sensations. And having once
moved upward, the energy does not necessarily stay at the
level to which it has risen. My guru has often explained that
there are only two permanent seats for kundalini energy: the
muladhara chakra at the base of the spine, and above
the vijnana chakra. The vijnana chakra, a triangular
structure which forms the base of the pyramidal sahasrara
chakra, is a complex energy center that is the location in the
subtle body for the mahat, or cosmic mind. Its bindu,
or center, is called shrii. It is only when shrii
is pierced, and the cosmic mind is transcended, that kundalini
passes through a one-way valve which prevents it from flowing
back down sushumna. Until this takes place, kundalini rises
upward when the yogi meditates, but will go back down again,
quickly or gradually, when the consciousness externalizes
following meditation.
According to some hatha yoga texts, the rise of kundalini from
muladhara to ajna takes from
3
to 18 years and can be experienced in various ways. In the
beginning it may be felt as a sensation like an insect
crawling inside the spine or an itchy or tingling feeling on
the outside, or a feeling of liquid or air passing through a
pipe, or as a mildly painful sensation at the base of the
spine. In the second stage the sensation of movement increases
and a snake-like upward coiling motion can be felt. In the
third stage it is said that kundalini "jumps like a frog." It
may go quickly from one chakra to another, but may not rise
further until the mind goes deeper. In the fourth stage the
energy shoots up very quickly "like a bird flying from one
tree to another." Swami Rama says: "When kundalini reaches
ajna chakra, everything becomes illuminated, and one's
understanding of the reality and illusion of the world
increases enormously."
The following experience, recounted by an Indian woman, is, I
think, typical of those yogis who follow the path of
kundalini.
The kundalini became active very early in my spiritual
journey, quite a while before I met my guru. But it took 18
years for it to pierce ajna chakra, and still its journey
isn't complete. In the beginning it would spiral upward in the
area of the first three centers, or it would jump to manipura
chakra. The blissful sensations would come when it came to
anahata or vishuddha, but that happened less frequently,
because my mind had to go deeper in order for it to occur.
This went on for many years, and sometimes my head would turn
from side to side in meditation, which Swamiji said once was a
less desirable way for the kundalini to get through mastak
granthi [a blockage at the base of the skull]. Then I started
to be able to feel it coming into my head, both the front and
back pathways. But one day when I was meditating it came so
powerfully to ajna that it was like this huge lightbulb turned
on inside my head, and when I came out of meditation and
opened my eyes I could hardly see anything because this light
was so bright. A powerful thought shot through my mind that
all of the experiences of my life that I had thought were so
terrible were actually of very little consequence, and that
liberation is our fate.
In order to prepare the body for the auspicious event of the
activation of kundalini, yogis eat a sattvic diet and
regularly practice asana, pranayama, meditation, and sometimes
shat karma, ritual, and mantra as well. If the nervous system
of the physical body and the nadis and vayus of the
subtle body have not been sufficiently purified in advance by
these practices, difficulties such as temporary illnesses,
mental disorientation, or emotional confusion can occur. This
most often happens when the student has previous samskaras
of strong meditation practice, but the physical body has
not been purified and prepared in this life by the practices
of hatha yoga. In these individuals, kundalini may become
active quite suddenly in response to a small stimulus: hearing
a certain mantra chanted, for example, or entering the
presence of a spiritual master, undertaking pranayama or
meditation practice, or ingesting certain herbs.
Difficulties can also arise for people whose kundalini becomes
active after a number of years of meditation practice in a
spiritual path that does not use the concept of kundalini
energy or teach physical practices for strengthening the body
and nerves. In both of these cases the remedy is the same as
the preparation: regular practice of asana, pranayama,
meditation, shat karma, and a sattvic diet. Ayurvedic
treatments may also be needed to balance disturbed doshas
and settle sleeplessness or mental or emotional agitation.
Final Word
Having reviewed meditation experiences as they are presented
from the perspectives of several paths, we should try to be
clear about why these teachings are given. The first reason is
so that students will not be frightened by these experiences,
or worry that they are doing something incorrectly. They are
expressions of a natural process that unfolds inside of us as
we come into contact with higher consciousness. The second
reason for discussing these experiences is to show that there
is no single way to spiritual realization; rather, a variety
of paths exist. If we understand this clearly, we won't make
the mistake of evaluating others' experiences on the spiritual
path in terms of our own experiences, or our own path.
The experiences discussed here can be taken as encouraging
signposts along the way for us and for our students, but only
if we understand that there are multiple signposts along
several roads. We will not all experience the infinity of
divine consciousness in the same ways. Divulging spiritual
experiences in situations which might invite feelings of
criticism, competition, envy or inferiority in ourselves or
others is always to be discouraged.
Finally, we should not make the mistake of confusing
experiences with the goal. Experiences are temporary; the goal
of kaivalya (liberation) is permanent. The great saints
from all traditions make it quite clear that this goal is
achieved not only by arduous inner practice, but also by
striving to live a virtuous and selfless life in every moment.
|
