A Meditation for Modern Living
There have been so many studies in recent years advocating meditation for managing stress, improving mental functioning and overall health and wellbeing. But in the 25 years that I’ve been teaching yoga, very few people really understand meditation or make it a regular part of their lives. Why is this so? Well, most often what I have heard is, “I’m too busy. I don’t have time.” Or “I tried it a couple of times, but I couldn’t stop thinking?’ Or “I can’t sit on the floor cross-legged like that.” These are all excuses. A regular practice of meditation can make a difference even if as little as 10 minutes per day. Regular means doing it more often than not doing it – at least 4 out of 7 days. I’m sure everyone listening to this podcast wastes at least 10 minutes each day! As far as not being able to stop thinking – don’t worry, you won’t. You will keep thinking, thousands and thousands of thoughts – the purpose of meditation is not to stop thinking, but to learn how to witness thoughts, to create space between you and the thought to reduce your reactivity and attachment to thoughts. And you can sit in a chair and meditate. Trust me. There is no meditation God watching you that will judge you as a failure for sitting in a chair. You’re the only one that will judge out of some pre-conceived notion of how you should meditate. Today, I will teach you a meditation practice that is good for beginners with multi-tasking minds that never seem to find quiet space, but this is also an excellent practice for more advanced practitioners. First, I will explain the practice and then you will be guided through it. Therefore, if you are driving as you listen to this podcast, you can listen to the explanation, but then wait until you are home to do the actual practice. Or you can find a place to park your car and take ten minutes to begin calm your mind and balance your energy. The practice is called Ajapa japa. Japa means the repetition of a mantra with effort, whereas ajapa means the mantra repeats spontaneously without effort. We all begin by repeating the mantra, but at some point, with regular practice, the mantra will begin to repeat without effort. You will hear it in the sound of the breath as you practice. In the same way as the breath moves rhythmically every moment of your life, the mantra repetition is linked to the breath thereby creating a pulsation of energy rhythmically moving and supporting you. There are 3 components to this practice. The first is the breath and if you know ujjayi breathing, use that technique. If you don’t know ujjayi you can simply breathe in a slow and relaxed way, focusing on the beath at the vocal cords. The second component is what is known as a psychic passageway. This use of the word psychic means that it’s created by the mind. For this practice, the awareness creates this passageway between the navel and the throat in the front of the body. The breath moves along this passageway – inhaling from navel to throat and exhaling from throat to navel. The third component is the mantra and the mantra is linked to the breath and the passageway. The mantra is So-ham. On inhalation, there is mental repetition of So as the breath moves slowly and deeply up from the navel to the throat, and on exhalation there is repetition of ham as the breath moves slowly back down to the navel. It is sometimes said that So-ham is actually the sound of the breath especially if you are able to breathe in ujjayi and over time you may begin to hear it contained there. The actual meaning of So-ham is, “I am that.” Meaning I am the higher consciousness. And through inference, we can then say that I am NOT this. I am that, I am not this ego with all of it’s likes and dislikes and reactions and emotions and doubts and fears. I am my higher Self. Of course, it will take practice to fuse the awareness with these three components: breath, passageway and mantra. The mind will wander, think about all sorts of things, or maybe even space out, but there is the work! When it wanders, catch it and bring it back to the practice again and again. Before we get started, I want to let you know that you can find recordings teaching you how to do ujjayi breathing and a separate ajapa japa meditation on my website swamiatmarupa.com. So now is the time to either prepare for the meditation practice or turn this off until later if you are driving. Outline of practice: Settle into comfortable sitting position and close the eyes Be aware of the natural spontaneous breath for a minute Begin to breathe slowly and deeply (in ujjayi if you know it) Establish the awareness moving between the navel and throat on inhale, then throat to navel on exhale Each time the mind wanders, bring it back Stay alert After a few minutes, add the mantra So-ham, inhaling So from navel to throat and exhaling ham from throat to navel Continue for a few minutes, remembering that every time the mind wanders, bring it back to the practice Stop the practice and return to the natural breath for a minute and be aware of how you feel Take a couple of deep breaths and open the eyes