by Om Swami
Hurdles of Knowledge
Arjuna questioned Krishna on the battlefield saying that war was not the way to go and that it would result in bloodshed. Krishna, in reply, said:
yadātemoha-kalilaḿbuddhirvyatitariṣyati,
tadāgantāsinirvedaḿśrotavyasyaśrutasya ca.56
Your intelligence is lost in the forest of delusion, Arjuna. You’ve read too many books and heard too many sermons. Your knowledge is not your own. You will only realize the truth when you get past second-hand knowledge.
When we let our mind rest in its most natural state, the stream of primal consciousness flows unimpeded. Until then, all knowledge acquired from secondary sources remains a hurdle.
Now I shall describe, O Parvati, the obstacles which arise from knowledge. Sitting in the Gomukh posture and practising Dhauti (washing the intestines by Hatha Yoga). Knowledge of the distribution of the nadis (the vessels of the human body), learning of pratyahara (subjugation of the senses), trying to awaken the kundalini force, by moving quickly the belly (a process of Hatha Yoga), entering into the path of the senses, and knowledge of the action of the Nadis; these are the obstacles.57
This is a clever verse. I have personally known many seekers who link fitness of the body or asanas, postures, with direct realization. This is a grave mistake. How long you can hold your breath, how well you can bend your body, how clear is your nose – these may add to your physical fitness but have no direct relation to the insight that dawns from meditation. During my own journey, I never bothered with any of these. There was a short period of time when I practised postures to get rid of the pain but nothing beyond that. I simply meditated. Day and night, that’s all I did, meditation. Everything else, many yogic feats, simply followed on their own. It is important to be free of concepts and conceptualization. As a meditator you must rise above all definitions and beliefs passed down to you. Simply let the truth dawn on you in its purest form.
If you are committed to practice, everything becomes very simple. Sit down and build concentration on the object of your focus or contemplate with mindfulness. When you do that, you will run into obstacles, distractions, hindrances, hurdles. Gently bring your focus back to your object of meditation. This is the whole science of meditation, the rest is commentary.
Ekagrata – Concentration
If Arjuna, the great archer and warrior, from the times of Krishna, was one of the five Pandava brothers. His immediate younger brother, Bhima, was a ravenous eater, almost a gobbler. Once it was a new moon night, it was dead dark, and Bhima felt really hungry in the middle of the night. He sneaked into the kitchen, managed to find food and condiments and started eating. He had been doing this ever since he was a kid. On this particular night, however, Arjuna was awake and he followed Bhima to the kitchen. When he saw his brother eating in such pitch darkness with perfect ease, it startled him.
He had an insight, “If Bhima can find his way to the kitchen and food, and eat in this dark as if it were broad daylight,” he thought, “why can’t I do the same with archery?”
Arjuna started practicing at night with great focus and perseverance. Later, it was this skill, of being able to shoot in the dark that allowed him to win an important battle against a formidable opponent called Jayratha.
The term is ēkāgratā, single-mindedness, for concentration. If I split this word for better understanding, it is comprised of ēk, one, and agra, proceed. It means to proceed with oneness, with focus, with synchronicity, in a channelized fashion. Imagine a rope-walker, he is doing the act with utmost one-pointed concentration. A momentary lapse in his concentration can cost him dearly. Just before you enter into the meditative state, a certain uninterrupted stillness is required for a reasonable period. If you can learn to concentrate, meditation happens effortlessly. Yogic texts are replete with exercises on the art of concentration and in many, if not most, terms concentration and meditation have been interchanged freely. In simple words, as you must know by now, concentration is the practice of fixating your mind on one single object. You can do so on a form, on your
breath, on a sound or anything else that appeals to you.
Even if you practice mindful or any other form of contemplative meditation, you will still benefit immensely from the practice of concentration. It improves your memory and contributes to the overall wellbeing of the brain. Our brain, which is a muscle, gets a good workout from practicing concentration.
The most important point to remember here is that you must not engage in any intellectual examination while doing this exercise. Do not examine, appreciate, analyze or condemn your object of visualization. Just focus on the object and try your best to maintain your focus. Your mind is going to wander off every few seconds, bring it back. Do not hold long sessions of concentration initially. Instead, hold sharp, short, crisp and lucid sessions of no more than ten minutes each. You can gradually increase the duration. Sitting still for an hour while your mind is wandering off all the time will not bring results as quickly as you holding your posture and lucidity for ten minutes but practising rigorous concentration with utmost alertness.
How to Do It Right
It’s best to sit in the standard yogic posture, with your legs crossed preferably.
The practice of concentration is almost identical to the practice of concentrative meditation with only one fundamental difference. When you practice concentrative meditation, you allow yourself to slip into a state of ascending consciousness. While doing the yogic practice of concentration, however, the sole focus is to improve the duration and quality of your concentration (which you can then use to enjoy better meditation).
The other important thing is that in concentrative meditation, you are allowed to take a break every now and then to rejuvenate yourself. You could meditate for five days in a row and then take a break over the weekend. In the yogic practice of concentration, absolutely no break is allowed. It must be done every single day without fail for at least 40 days in a row.
The chart below shows the important elements of this practice and their impact on the quality of your concentration.
The far left column shows the various aspects to ensure good practice – a still body, a still mind, alertness and lucidity. The ‘description’ column is self-explanatory. ‘Weightage’ here refers to how important the various aspects are in the overall practice. ‘Impact’ tells what happens if you fail to fulfil that aspect of the practice. When impact is shown in red, it means that as soon as you violate that particular criteria, ideally you should start again. Yellow bar means to be mindful and the green bar (not present in this practice) means it is normal and you can continue. As an analogy, think of a driving test. When you are behind the wheel with the testing officer next to you, it is clear that certain mistakes are considered ‘Instant Failure’ items while there are other points where a degree of leniency is used. If you fail to indicate while turning, or fail to check your blind spot when changing lanes for example, your test is terminated right in that moment and you are asked to turn back. Whereas, if you are not vigilant in constantly checking your rear and side view mirrors and are only doing so intermittently, the testing officer will mark you down, but he or she may still give you the license. All practices henceforth will have items classified as “Instant Failure”, “Warning”, and “Need Improvement”. Under the Impact column in the table, Red means instant failure, Yellow are warning signs and Green are to be taken as areas for improvement.
For example, let’s say you hold a session of concentration for ten minutes. During those ten minutes, you should be alert, in one posture – still like a rock or tree, focusing keenly on the object of concentration and trying your utmost to maintain lucidity. Maintaining lucidity means that your mind may become dizzy, or the image of visualization has disappeared, or the sound of the mantra just got lost in distractions and deviations. At that time you remind yourself of your resolve to concentrate and bring back your mi
nd to the object of concentration; this is lucidity.
Let’s say during those ten minutes you move your limbs or torso; this is a red impact item and failing to keep your body still means you’ve compromised your practice. Reset the clock and start from the beginning. The same goes for still mind. It’ll be near impossible for beginner and intermediate meditators to keep their mind still for ten minutes. But, since this is a practice, every attempt should be made to maintain alertness and lucidity so you may shift your attention back to the object of concentration every time your mind wanders off. If you realize that your mind had wondered off for more than a few minutes and you hadn’t even noticed, be honest with yourself, reset the clock and start your practice from the beginning.
If you find lapses in alertness and lucidity (yellow-impact items) while practising concentration, although it greatly affects your practice, gently be mindful and continue your practice. Unlike the red-impact items, you don’t have to stop your practice.
The important thing is to do it for at least 40 days without missing any day in between. You can also maintain a daily journal where you could mark yourself against the criteria of still body, still mind, alertness and lucidity. That way you will be able to measure the improvements in your practice.
Think of a champion vaulter. His score depends on his ability to hold the pole at perfect angle, run at perfect speed and to lift from the ground at perfect time to jump higher than the bar. For that one perfect performance, he has to jump thousands of times. He must have made countless mistakes while practising to deliver that one flawless performance in the competition.
Meditation is your performance on field where as a yogic practice is your trial runs off-field. Concentrative meditation is what you do flawlessly after you have corrected your mistakes in the practice of concentration.
Think of the time you tried to put a thread through the needle.
That was one pointed concentration. You were alert, focused, clear and still. Moment after moment, when you mentally maintain the same clarity, stillness and alertness, you meditate flawlessly.
Trataka – Still Gazing
Many years ago, someone who used to work for me was struggling with poor memory. He wanted to be alert and disciplined but it was almost like laziness was a disease and he was suffering from it. Not in the physical sense because he was out and about working on stuff all the time but there was no productivity, focus or any significant output. We (him and I) figured he severely lacked focus.
I told him to practice trataka for three months every day. It would help him with his memory and focus. He followed the instructions diligently and at the end of three months, there was remarkable improvement in his memory and recall. But, memory improvement wasn’t the main thing. As a result of the practice, another, totally unexpected, thing happened. He reported a blurred vision in spite of wearing spectacles. He went to the optometrist only to find out that he no longer needed the prescription glasses (for short-sightedness or myopia). He had been wearing glasses for more than a decade.
I’ve observed on numerous occasions that yogic practices do channelize the flow of various energies in the body. It changes your gaze, gait and movements. It even affects your speech in its own positive way. You slow down a bit but become more effective, more mindful.
An unfailing sign of a true yogi is stillness of the gaze. Even some advanced meditators struggle to keep their eyeballs still (even when their eyes are closed). Stillness of the gaze has a remarkable effect on the energy flow in your body.
There is a specific yogic practice to perfect your gaze. The method of fixing your gaze on an object is called trāṭaka.
Movement in the eyes, flickering of the eyelids represent a subtle flaw in your posture as well as meditation. Practice of trataka is the best practice to eliminate this flaw. Like all other yogic practices, do it every day for at least 40 days to benefit from it.
How to Do It Right
Assume the standard yogic posture for meditation, preferably cross-legged.
Light a candle, at a distance of about three feet, in front of you. You can also keep any other object than a candle if you prefer.
Ensure the candle or any other object of focus is at your eye-level.
Watch it unblinking for a minimum of seven minutes. You can gradually increase the duration.
During the actual practice, try to be aware of your wandering thoughts and gently bring your mind back to the object.
Please see the chart below:
You will notice that still body and still gaze are red impact items, which means if you move your body or shift your gaze while practising trataka; that is instant failure. Reset the clock and start again. If you are unable to control your eye movement and end up blinking, it’s not a problem, simply be mindful and carry on. You may experience your thoughts flow. Ideally it should be restricted but it is natural and a green impact item, which means you don’t have to stop your practice.
Let us say you decide to do trataka for a period of seven minutes. For those seven minutes, you must be still like a rock restricting your eye movements as well. It is important to not blink at all. Tears will start to roll down, but you should stay unmoved. If it gets really uncomfortable, you can blink. The ability to not blink improves over time and with practice.
Each time your mind goes off the tangent, bring your focus back to the object. You can do trataka on any object, but doing it on a candle flame has a purifying effect on the mind. It is best to do the practice at least twice a day: in the morning and before going to bed at night. Steadily and gradually increase your ability to stay unblinking as part of this practice. It requires patience and resolve.
The right practice of trataka helps one still the mind and calm it down. It acts as a catalyst in building one-pointed concentration with better memory retention and recall. However, these are not the only benefits. As stated earlier in this book, your body is run by ten different energies, five primary and five secondary. The five secondary ones are called nāga, kūrma, kr̥kara, dēvadatta and dhanañjaya; they are responsible for belching, sneezing, blinking, yawning and twitching respectively.
The practice of trataka stills the five secondary energies giving you control over the aforesaid involuntary functions of the body. Such control is necessary for the advanced seeker who wishes to enjoy uninterrupted tranquil equipoise. During meditation, if any of the above five occurs, an awareness of the body emerges instantly, abruptly breaking the state of oneness.
The practice of trataka is the easiest way of introducing anyone to the practice of meditation, even kids above the age of six years. As they experience a certain stillness and calm from still gazing, they would automatically be drawn to the beauty of meditation.
Shravana – Listening
A customer walked into McDonald’s and said, “One large fries to go, please!”
“Would you like fries with that?” “I just asked for fries only.”
“Oh, sorry about that. Would you like to upgrade?”
“But, I already ordered large fries!” the customer said frustrated. “Of course! Dine in or take-away…”
In our highly distracted world, most of us are hearing alright but very few are listening. Listening is an art and there’s a yogic practice to perfect this art. At its root, even being alert in meditation is nothing but carefully listening to your mind.
The Sanskrit term is śrāvaṇa. It means to listen. The practice of listeningis a simple and powerful way to build your concentration.
The one who practices the art of listening undergoes a rapid transformation in their ability to remain concentrated.
Listening requires that you be alert and attentive in the present moment. Let us say you are attending a lecture in some class on Marketing. If you are not paying attention, in other words not listening, to what the lecturer is saying, sitting in the class is anything but useful. To
know what the teacher is saying, you have to listen, and in order to listen, you have to pay attention. That is concentration.
A man approached Buddha once and said, “I want to become wise. Please tell me how do I operate better in the world? What do I do to not mess my relationships?”
Buddha spoke, “It is very simple. You only have to be mindful of two things – listen attentively to others when they are talking and even more attentively to yourself when you are talking.”
The practice of listening does not require that you sit in a meditative posture. You can do it multiple times in a day. You could even do it while driving or commuting.
How to Do It Right
Put on your favorite song, at home, while driving, jogging, anywhere.
Promise yourself that you’ll pay full attention to the song.
Listen to the song with complete mindfulness and alertness.
This is the art of active listening. This is the practice in anutshell. Put on your favorite song and make it a point to listen to every word in that song. It is not as easy it sounds though. How many times have you found yourself playing your favorite song with the intention to listen to it fully only to find a few minutes later that the song has already finished? You probably replay the song to hear it again.
Even with the most melodious song, it takes certain training for the mind to stay at it. You may listen to the whole of the first stanza, parts of the second stanza but somewhere in between the first and the last, your mind wanders off. You stand unaware. In the practice of listening, bring the act of listening to the forefront of your mind. You do that by listening attentively. When practicing listening, avoid leaving it playing in the background; doing that will actually weaken and dilute your concentration. Just putting on music and not listening to it makes your mind used to living with noise.
