Meditation
“Prayer is when the mind is one-pointed and man talks to Infinity. Meditation is when the mind becomes totally clean and receptive, and Infinity talks to the man." ~Yogi Bhajan, The Aquarian Teacher Training manual, p. 129
What is Meditation?
Meditation in Kundalini Yoga contains specific, practical tools that carefully and precisely support the mind and guide the body through the use of breath, mantra, mudra, and focus. The range and variety of meditation techniques in the Kundalini Yoga tradition is truly extraordinary.
Yogi Bhajan passed on hundreds of meditations tailored to specific applications. There are meditations that reduce stress, work on addictions, increase vitality, and clear chakras, to name a few. While there exist many, many styles and approaches to meditation, what set this approach to meditation apart are its precision, effectiveness, and practicality.
Cleansing the Mind
“Meditation is a process. At any time which is peaceful (the best is the early morning time, before the dawn), you’ll be surprised that in a couple of minutes a lot of thoughts will start coming to you - the X-rated thoughts, the ugly, angry thoughts. If you let those thoughts pass by, this is meditation.
All those thoughts that can pass at that moment of your life can never enter your subconscious mind, and they will not bother you again. This procedure of cleansing the mind is called meditation. It takes about three minutes to get those kinds of thoughts, and sometimes they continue to bug you for about half an hour. But, if you physically don’t move, the mind becomes still. That is the foundation, or the beginning of the meditative mind.
Once your mind starts becoming still and not having any thoughts, you will feel cosy, and that cosiness cannot be described even by me. All I can tell you is that it is very comfortable, it is very cosy, and you will want to do it again and again. But in the beginning you cannot do it for a long time. Gradually, as you develop that cosiness, this thought-hitting process becomes shorter and shorter.”
~Yogi Bhajan, 2/21/78
There is a myth that when you sit down you should be able to quiet your mind. The mind generates thousands of thoughts per second. When you sit quietly and turn the focus inward, you become very aware of what is going on in the background of your mind. Distractions are the rule. Just keep going back to the mantra or other points of focus. Do not evaluate or react to the extraneous thoughts. Let them be processed by the mantra. Have patience with yourself.
Meditation can frequently be blissful or very cosy as the meditative mind establishes a place of elevated consciousness. Sometimes meditation can be downright miserable. Meditation is a cleansing process. You may find yourself observing some very unpleasant, ugly thoughts while you’re meditating. The important thing is, keep up! The mantras and meditations are doing their job. You’re cleaning out and getting rid of negativity that has been covering up the divine light inside you.
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"A person, who has the patience to allow the mind to go through its antics while remaining firmly planted, will experience something. That “something” is different for each individual, but it will be, in some way or another, a reawakening of the self. With this new awareness comes inner change, then outer change."
~Shakti Parwha Kaur