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Q. What is meditation?
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Ans.
Meditation is a simple process
Of watching your own mind.
Not fighting with the mind
Not trying to control it either
Just remaining there, a choiceless witness.
Whatsoever passes you simply take note of it
With no prejudice for or against.
You don't call it names
That this should not come to my mind
That this is an ugly thought and
This is a very beautiful and virtuous thought.
You should not judge
You should remain non-judgmental
Because the moment you judge, you lose meditation.
You become identified.
Either you become a friend or you become a foe.
You create relationships.
Meditation means
Remaining unrelated with your thought process
Utterly unrelated, cool, calm
Watching whatsoever is passing.
And then a miracle happens:
Slowly slowly one becomes aware
That less and less thoughts are passing.
The more alert you are, the less thoughts pass
The less alert you are, the more thoughts pass.
It is as if traffic depends on your awareness.
When you are perfectly aware
Even for a single moment, all thinking stops.
Immediately, there is a sudden stop
And the road is empty, there is no traffic.
That moment is meditation.
Slowly slowly those moments come more and more
Those empty spaces come again and again
And stay longer.
And you become capable of moving easily
Into those empty spaces with no effort.
So whenever you want you can move
Into those empty spaces with no effort.
They are refreshing, rejuvenating
And they make you aware of who you are.
Freed from the mind you are freed
From all ideas about yourself.
Now you can see who you are without any prejudice.
And to know oneself
Is to know all that is worth knowing.
And to miss self-knowledge is to miss all.
A man may know everything in the world
But if he does not know himself
He is utterly ignorant
He is just a walking Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Freedom without awareness is only an empty idea.
It contains nothing.
One cannot be really free without being aware
Because your unconscious goes on dominating you
Your unconscious goes on pulling your strings.
You may think, you may believe that you are free
But you are not free, you are just a victim
Of natural forces, blind forces.
So there are two types of people. The majority
Follows the tradition, the society, the state.
The orthodox people, the conventional
The conformists ? they follow the crowd
They are not free.
And then there are a few rebellious spirits
Dro
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Q. There are so many, very different kinds of techniques. Do they have some common meeting ground?
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Ans.
There are one hundred and twelve methods of meditation, but witnessing is an essential part of all one hundred and twelve methods. So as far as I am concerned, witnessing is the only method. Those one hundred and twelve are different applications of witnessing.
The essential core, the spirit of meditation is to learn how to witness. You are seeing a tree: You are there, the tree is there, but can’t you find one thing more? – that you are seeing the tree, that there is a witness in you which is seeing you seeing the tree. The world is not divided only into the object and the subject. There is also something beyond both, and that beyond is meditation.
So in every act...and I don’t want people to sit for one hour or half an hour in the morning or in the evening. That kind of meditation is not going to help, because if you meditate for one hour, then for twenty-three hours you will be doing just the opposite of it. Meditation can be victorious: witnessing is such a method that it can spread over twenty-four hours of your day.
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Q. What are the different meditation techniques?
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Ans.
Meditation involves concentrating on something to take
our attention beyond the random thought activity that
is usually going on in our heads. This can involve a
solid object or picture, a mantra, breath, or guided
visualization.
Typical objects employed include a candle flame or a
flower. Some people use pictures, such as a mandala - a
highly colored symmetric painting - or a picture of a
spiritual teacher in a high meditative state. Mantras
are sounds which have a flowing, meditative quality
and may be repeated out loud or inwardly. The breath
is also a common focal point. Finally, guided visualization
is also considered by some to be a form of meditation.
A guided visualization can help to bring one into a
meditative state; also, visualization may be used once
a meditative state has been reached to produce various
results.
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Q. What is Yoga?
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Ans.
Developed in India, Yoga is a psycho-physical discipline with roots going back about 5,000 years. Today, most Yoga practices in the West focuses on the physical postures called "asanas," breathing exercises called "pranayama," and meditation. However, there's more to it than that, and the deeper you go the richer and more diverse the tradition becomes. The word "Yoga" means union. Linguistically, it is related to the Old English "yoke." Traditionally, the goal of Yoga is union with the Absolute, known as Brahman, or with Atman, the true self. These days the focus is often on the more down-to-earth benefits of Yoga, including improved physical fitness, mental clarity, greater self-understanding, stress control and general well-being. Spirituality, however, is a strong underlying theme to most practices. The beauty of Yoga is in its versatility, allowing practitioners to focus on the physical, psychological or spiritual, or a combination of all three.
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