All welcome. You are waiting for the transfer of the last lesson from the Meditationfest cycle - meditation lessons from leading teachers of this practice. This lecture was given by Swami Veda Bharati,
who will introduce you to the ancient Himalayan tradition of meditation. And I will translate this lesson for you.
This is one of the most interesting lessons from this cycle, in which the teacher Bharati will give some very important tips to those who want to start meditating and to those who have been doing this for a long time. These recommendations relate to the correct meditative posture, your attitude, whether it is possible to fall asleep during the practice session. They will not be superfluous to anyone, so I highly recommend you to read them. Personally, I find them more useful.
Swami Veda will also talk about meditation in Western culture and even in Orthodoxy! Quite interesting and informative.
Unlike other articles in the Meditationfest series, this one will not contain information about a specific meditation; only general teacher advice and his reflections will be present here. But this does not make it any less interesting, I assure you.
Ancient Himalayan Meditation Traditions
Swami Veda Bharati says that his goal is to convey the knowledge of Himalayan teachers to the masses, giving them the opportunity to achieve inner peace and tranquility through this practice. The teacher again addresses the issue of the positive effects of meditation on the body and spirit of a person. He argues that meditation brings balance to the work of the left and right hemispheres, so that they begin to work in concert.
It also improves the performance of the body, which is controlled by these two parts of our brain. Thanks to this practice, inner silence is achieved, in the absence of which your mind turns into a “devil's workshop”, as it is constantly tormented by hundreds of thoughts and worries and does not find peace.
You can learn to replace all these thoughts with one phrase (the mantra for meditation). There is something beyond the rational, logical mind, it is a kind of serenity, and it will resonate with the mantra, manifest itself within you.
Tips for meditators from the master of meditation
Do not concentrate on your feelings.
The teacher does not recommend strongly concentrating on his feelings during meditation and not trying to analyze them. In other words, you don’t need to ask yourself constantly, “Do I do everything right? Do I feel those feelings or not? Maybe I feel wrong?” Do not think about it, asking yourself such questions is the same as, having fallen in love, thinking about the correctness of your experiences and what they should be. After all, everyone has everything differently, individually, you just have to go through it, and not compare with any of your expectations.
Forget about discipline
Swami Veda advises you to forget about discipline and just enjoy the practice. It is not necessary that it be a burden, relax and rest during meditation, let it be organically woven into your daily rhythm. Let your day begin with it and thus it will always announce about its beginning, charging you with strength and vigor for the whole day.
Take the correct posture
Swami Veda makes a very ingenious remark when jokingly says that all the seats in cars, chairs in airplanes, all chairs in offices is part of a global conspiracy that prevents people from breathing normally, opening their lungs completely. Indeed, the truth is that what you have to sit on often does not allow you to keep your back straight. (Note: I completely agree with this, after I started doing breathing exercises, I noticed that I breathe much better when my back is straightened. And the seats are really terrible everywhere, now I'm just sitting on one of these.)
Therefore, it is better to meditate on a chair with a stiff and straight back. The legs should touch the floor. (The lotus pose is not necessary at all, says Bharati)
Advice how to stop the internal dialogue
Many complain that during meditation it is not possible to stop the internal dialogue. (Note: I also did not learn to do this, although there is progress.) Swami Veda says that this is normal and natural for a beginner. To think, to think about something forever is a habit of our brain. He is so used to working. And then we tell him to stop, stop thinking! It is not so easy. And therefore, during meditation, all incomplete thoughts begin to appear, we think about situations, problems that have not been brought to a logical conclusion. In this regard, meditation becomes a guide for life.
(Note: this is true, the thoughts of many important and correct decisions were born during meditation.) The teacher advises not to get involved in these thoughts, but simply to observe distantly, otherwise you will be captured by the flow of free associations and take you very far. This process you no longer control.
If you catch yourself thinking that you have started thinking about thinking, watch this thought for a while, as if from a distance, and then straighten your back, quickly relax your body and continue to do what you did. Slowly and smoothly return the mind to a calm state.
Can I fall asleep during meditation?
We fall asleep during meditation due to the fact that the brain has become accustomed to the fact that as soon as we close our eyes we fall into a dream.
This is also due to the fact that we live in a society of "total lack of sleep": every day we get tired, lack sleep and our body is in tension. The whole day we are in this condition and we just relax, our brain immediately gives the body to fall asleep.
Bharati says that even if we fall asleep while meditating, this session of meditation cannot be called lost! The quality of sleep during meditation is different from normal sleep, and when you wake up after falling asleep while meditating, your state still became meditative, that is, you got the effect of the practice while you were sleeping!
Meditation in Western Culture and Orthodoxy
Swami Veda argues that the view that meditation has not spread in Western culture and is solely an attribute of Eastern traditions is mistaken and based on ignorance of history. Even within Orthodoxy there was a similar tradition - Hesychasm, the spiritual practice of Orthodox ascetics. More details about it can be read on Wikipedia. According to Bharati, the great conqueror Alexander the Great, he studied the art of yoga, which he brought from India during his conquest campaign to the countries of Asia.
For some time it took scientists to somehow investigate this state and provide confirmation of the benefits of meditation for the body. Scientific studies of this practice began in the 1930s. The countries whose scientific community has become interested in this issue, besides the United States, also Russia and Japan and other states.
Swami Veda himself is a student of the guru who, in addition to the master of meditation, was also a scientist and contributed to the study of this phenomenon. Bharati himself has in his book arsenal a rich bibliography of practical work, numbering several thousand copies. He also continues to study meditation at his university, using a scientific approach.
Some more recommendations
Meditation will fill you with love for people, says Bharati, such emotions as envy, malice will not be available to you. Through practice, improvements are achieved in the immune system, you are less sick, pleasure centers become more active, and endorphin production rises (the neurotransmitter responsible for pain suppression and pleasure is known as the “happiness hormone”, although no hormone).
Final comments
In conclusion, the teacher advises to be ambitious, but in moderation. You should not have high expectations and wish them to come true instantly. No need to immediately conquer Everest. Have patience and perseverance and then a wonderful practice of meditation will bring you invaluable benefits.
In conclusion, as usual, I want to add something from myself. I found the Swami Veda Bharati lecture very interesting and informative, and his advice is very helpful. I agree with almost everything. The only thing that seemed to me to be not quite correct was the call of the teacher to abandon the discipline. It seems to me here he is somewhat exaggerated. Yes, meditation should be easy and gradually it will become your habit, it will not be difficult for you to practice it every day.
But at the beginning of your practice, a certain level of discipline is still necessary, since you will often want to “score” on a lesson, and do something else and you will find a thousand reasons for this. This is due to the fact that practice does not, as a rule, give an instant effect, and people who are annoyed by this are lazy and stop meditating. It is not necessary for this to happen to you, so you still have to force yourself to follow a certain regime.
Especially since it is difficult for a beginner to just sit still for 20 minutes, and he is not able to relax, and it also takes some amount of will to keep the practice. But then, you will already be doing it easily, every day, because you will feel the wonderful effect of meditation and you will no longer imagine life without it, just as I do not imagine!
That's all. You will also find the final review article of all the lessons from the meditation masters (I will publish it soon), where I will present the squeeze from all the lectures, give what I considered most important and give tips that will help you choose the practice for yourself.
