What is Meditation?
What is meditation? This question could be answered dozens of ways. Meditation is one of those words like “love” that has so many connotations.
According to my longtime meditation teacher, the late Sri Goswami Kriyananda, founder and spiritual preceptor of the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago:
- Meditation is the art and science of getting rid of things, such as anger, jealousy, and other constrictive emotions that make life painful.
- Meditation removes the obstacles that prevent us from the vital skillful means to see Life clearly.
- Meditation allows the mind to be calm like the surface of the pond. Then we are able to see beneath the pond’s surface as well as above it.
- The goal of meditation is to make the world around you more beautiful.
The Object of Beauty Meditation
My primary meditation practice is the “Object of Beauty”, an ancient and universal technique found in most mystical traditions.
Please feel free to download these recordings of the Object of Beauty Meditation for your own use.
Some basics guidelines about meditating:
- The body and mind like consistency. Choose a regular time and a private, quiet place to meditate. Be sure to make the space clean and tidy.
- If you can, try to meditate before your day gets too hectic. Allow enough time at the end of your meditation to sit in its silent vibration.
- It’s important the body is comfortable. No fancy postures needed. Just be sure the spine is straight and the hands are in a relaxed pose on the thighs. Five minutes of closing your eyes and following your breath is a good start.
- Above all, be patient! When students tell me they can’t meditate, what they mean is they haven’t allowed themselves the time and space to quiet the mind. Remember this is a practice. Observe and detach from the mind’s habit of expecting perfection or instant enlightenment! Be gentle and patient with yourself.
- The mind loves to wander! Think of your meditation practice as being similar to taking a walk with a beloved three-year old child who, like all children, loves to wonder, straying off the path in pursuit of the next new and shiny object/thought. Your job as the Meditator is simply to—gently and patiently—steer the mind back onto the path, back to the meditation. Over and over and over and over again. Until one day, there is no effort at all!
- So, dear Meditator, until that day, find joy in your practice!
I’m happy to answer your questions about meditation. Please go to the Contact page to connect with me.
Another resource is my article on the State of Being Called Witness.
My Meditation Story
I came to meditation in 2003, desperately anxious, unable to find peace of mind, grieving my mother’s transition and overcome by the news that my younger son, father of two with a third on the way, was volunteering to serve in Iraq. Anxiety about my son was a familiar dread that began in 1986 when he enlisted in the Army at the age of 17. He’d turned 21 under the Iraq desert stars during the Gulf War. This time promised to be much worse and even more dangerous. This peacenik was near collapse with stress and anxiety.
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Some wise voice deep in my soul told me something had to change. Since I had failed to change my son (or anyone else for that matter), it became clear that the “something” needing change had to be me! A series of fortunate “coincidences” led me to a meeting with meditation teacher Swami Pranananda. She confirmed that indeed I had the power to heal my pain. She said the solution was quite simple. I needed to answer the question, “Did I want to be right or did I want to be happy?”
Sparked by that compelling question, I pondered all the ways that being “right” had not made me happy and all the ways that being happy was an elusive state of mind.
I needed to change, starting with changing old habitual patterns of thinking. I found practical ways to change with the help of the ancient and yet so contemporary teachings of Kriya Yoga and its meditation techniques. After practicing meditation for several years, I entered the Temple of Kriya Yoga’s Meditation Teachers Training Program and completed my studies in early 2008. Under Swami Pranananda’s guidance, I went on to teach at the program’s student teaching retreats and serve as a Mentor to students in the program.
Practicing meditation has indeed brought me a peace of mind I could not have imagined all those years ago! Meditation allows me an ability to see life clearly, to step up and solve the problems life brings with wisdom, compassion, and equanimity. Most importantly, meditation has replaced that old underlying unhappy anxiety with Joy and Gratitude.
The Ancient Tradition of Kriya Yoga
Sri Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras 1700 years ago. He refers to Kriya Yoga, which is called the yoga of effort. Kriya means “action.” Yoga means “yoking.” Kriya Yoga is yoking the mind to an action in a systematic and disciplined way which leads to a state of higher consciousness.
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Many Westerners think of “Yoga” as the practice of various physical and often athletic poses. This is Hatha Yoga, originally meant to prepare the body for meditation. Hatha Yoga by itself is not Yoga! Hatha Yoga is one of eight limbs that make up the practice of Yoga. The eight limbs form a sequence from the outer to the inner worlds:
- The Laws of Abstention (Yamas)
- The Laws of Observance (Niyamas)
- Asanas (Hatha yoga postures)
- Breath Control (Pranayama)
- Sense-Withdrawal (Pratyahara)
- Concentration (Dharana)
- Meditation (Dhyana)
- Contemplation (Samadhi)
Kriya Yoga is not a religion or a theology or a belief system about how to live your life. It is a series of techniques, which when practiced, enable you to become a mystical scientist, to have a primary experience and to discern the Reality directly, for and by yourself.
No need to follow what someone else claims to be spiritual truth. A teacher is one who has practiced and had their own enlightenment. You can tell by their presence or vibration that they walk their talk.
They are willing to share many classic techniques and meditation practices so you may learn through your own direct experience and through your own practice. It is thenyou discover what it means to attain states of consciousness such as Contentment, Serenity, Equanimity, Compassion, Wisdom and Non-violence.
Kriya Yoga is predicated upon the Laws of Karma (the Laws of Cause and Effect) and upon the principle of Aham Brahmasmi, “I Am the Creative Principle.” This means each one of us is capable of acting to change our circumstances in life. All change starts first with changing our thinking, then changing our speech, and then changing our behavior. Thought is the beginning of all change. Test this out for yourself.
“Yoga, a philosophy of happiness through spiritual wisdom… is a way to find happiness of all levels of your being: physically, mentally, and spiritually. Yoga is a way to achieve serenity and calmness. There is no mystery or magic in yoga. It simply is an accomplishment through time-tested mental and physical techniques…of self-control through harmonious living.”— Goswami Kriyananda writes in The Spiritual Science of Kriya Yoga.
My Lineage
I am so grateful to receive guidance from the ancient lineage of Kriya Yoga through my guru Swami Pranananda who is a disciple of Sri Goswami Kriyananda. It is a rare and precious gift to have a living teacher to learn from instead of dry textbooks!
Sri Goswami Kriyananda was a disciple of Sri Shelliji who was a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. Paramhansa Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswarji who was a disciple of Sri Lahiri Mahasaya. Sri Lahiri Mahasaya was a disciple of Sri Sri Babaji, the spiritual fountainhead of the Kriya Lineage.
I am deeply grateful to all the lineage holders of Kriya Yoga whose teachings have brought me and so many others great peace of mind, equanimity and wisdom.
