Meditation by Swami Viditatmananda

Guided Meditation by Swami Viditatmananda

Opening the heart in the non-dual vision

In the vision of Shastra there is only non duality. You are that non-dual self and everything that you can objectify is non- different from yourself. So if you recognize Shastra’s vision, you can very well say “I am self-evident, self-revealing, changeless, formless, infinite, boundaryless, everfree, pure consciousness and there is nothing here that is separate from myself. I alone apparently manifest as all that is here - whether it be snakes, scorpions, lizards, ant, elephant, a blade of grass, tree, clouds, wind, fire, water, earth, space, time, humans, gods, different planes of existence. There is nothing here that is separate from myself.”

If there is a wave in the ocean and it recognises itself as water, then as water when it looks at the ocean, it sees only itself. Every wave in the ocean is nothing but itself. The foam, the bubbles….they are all but itself. There is nothing that is separate from water.

As a result of this vision the wise person enjoys a heart filled with loving-kindness and compassion towards all, a heart free of harsh judgements and criticism.

अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च...Bhagavad-Gita 12.13

He is one who has no hatred for all beings, who has the disposition of a friend, who is most compassionate…..

The wise person sees all beings as himself. So he does not have any hatred or ill-will towards any being even if that  being causes him some pain. Seeing himself as all, he understands the pain behind the behaviour of a person who is trying to hurt him. His vision is very clear. He sees all beings as waves in the ocean of consciousness that is his own self and so he is free from ill will towards all beings.

He is now a friend to all beings. He has the feeling of loving-kindness towards all. He is most compassionate. He is ready to help all,  in whatever capacity he can, if they need help. Helping is natural to him. In fact he is a refuge for all beings.

This was about the wise man. For those who have yet to attain this vision, who want to attain this vision, opening one’s heart to all beings by bearing no ill-will or hatred towards others, filling the heart with loving kindness towards all being and a spontaneous readiness to help others when they need, becomes an important sadhana.

The prayer लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु becomes meaningful and it becomes an important attitude he deliberately cultivates in his life.

Om Tat Sat

Meditation on Consciousness using light as example

Sunlight is the illuminator, the प्रकाशकः. It is

Formless - निराकारः
Division less - निर्विकल्पः
Pure, can't be polluted -निर्मलः, शुद्धं
Free of boundaries, infinite in space and time - निस्सीमः, अनन्तः
Uninvolved, independent of what is illumined in it's presence असङ्गः, स्वतन्त्रः
Changless - निर्विकारः

 The light of consciousness that shines as "I"  is like the sunlight. It is an illuminator ...in it's presence alone every thought gets revealed, the world is revealed. It pervades all that it reveals and yet is independent of what is illumined/ revealed in it's presence.  Being independent it is untainted by whatever is revealed in it's presence. It is formless,  all pervading and free of all divisions. It is changelessly ever-presence. Light reveals the room ...when the room is dirty, light does not get dirty. Light is changeless. So too is the light of consciousness.

The light does not do an action of illuminating. Action requires motion and motion requires limitation. If we take example of the hand ...motion is possible for the hand because  hand is limited in space. Therefore it can move. Whereas light which is all pervading in this room, cannot move. It is akarta. In it's presence everything gets illumined. So too  in the presence of the light of all-pervading consciousness, all actions are revealed .... consciousness is changeless, motionless. It cannot do action. It never does any action.

You can meditate thus.

Savikalpa-samadhi with reference to the antahkarana from Drg-Drshya Viveka

उपेक्ष्य नामरूपे द्वे सच्चिदानन्दतत्पर:।
समाधिं सर्वदा कुर्याद्हृदये वा अथवा बहि:।। 22

 Disregarding both name and form, the seeker engrossed in sat-cit-ananda must make the mind always absorbed in it by practicing samadhi either in the heart or without.

सविक्लपो निर्विकल्पः समाधिर्द्विविधो हृदि।
दृश्यशब्दानुवेधेन सविकल्प पुनर्द्विधा।।23
Samadhi the absorption of the mind is of two kinds, namely absorption recognising a distinction of subject and object (savikalpa Samadhi) and the one without recognising any distinction of subject and object (nirvikalpa Samadhi). Savikalpa Samadhi is further subdivided depending upon its association with Drishya (cognized object) or shabda (the words of scripture). Thus, three types of samadhi can be practiced in the heart.

 कामाद्याचित्तगा दृश्यास्तत्साक्षित्वेन चेतनम्।
 ध्यायेत् दृश्यानुविधोयं समाधिः सविकल्पकः।।24

The internally cognized thoughts such as desire etc. are available in the inner organ. One should contemplate on pure awareness as there direct illuminator. This is called drishya-anuviddha- savikalpa-samadhi - absorption of the mind while recognising a distinction with the help of the ( internally) cognized thoughts.

अस‌ङ्ग सच्चिदानन्दः स्वप्रभो द्वैतवर्जितः।
अस्मीति शब्दविद्धो‌‌ऽयं समाधिः सविकल्पकं।। २५

One should contemplate, "I am un- attached, sat-cit-ananda, self-effulgent, non-dual." This is called shabda anuviddha savikalpa-samadhi - absorption with the recognition of distinction, mixed with scriptural words. (25)

For assimilation and owning up of Vedanta's teaching Shastra recommends being indifferent to objects of the sense-organs, the workings of our mind and instead being committed to recognizing our true nature to be ever-existent, indestructible, independent, infinite consciousness.

So we started with baby steps of practicing  Vipassana meditation in which we put aside all our preoccupations with past, present and future and instead brought our attention to focus on our moment to moment experiences brought in by our sense-organs organs (jnanedriyas).

 In this kind of Vipassana meditation it is very easy for the mind to become calm and peaceful. It is in this calm and peaceful mind that we are able to it assimilate certain basic truths pointed out by Vedanta. 

We simply observed in an open and receptive mind,  sensations, sounds, perceptions of light and shadow against our closed eyes, aromas and watched our breath.   We concluded from this meditation the following truths :-
1.  The objects brought in by the sense-organs are all changing drishyas -so they are impermanent.  
2. Seeking permanent security and  satisfaction with ourselves from these is futile. 
3. We also assimilated from this meditation that the truth of the observer ( the feeler, the hearer, the seer,  the smeller, the breather) is self-existent, self-revealing consciousness who never changes in spite of all the changes being observed. In fact the self-revealing consciousness that we are, is the one in whose ever-presence all these observations take place. 
4. We also gave a training to our mind at a very simple level to be accepting, to be receptive, even reverential towards our moment to moment experiences, acknowledging them to be Ishwara's manifestations.

When thoughts distracted us during the Vipassana meditation, we simply brought our attention back to observation of our breath. If the thoughts are very painful and difficult to bear and therefore extremely distracting and not allowing us to continue our Vipassana, then we need to learn to handle them through compassionately staying with the feelings while breathing deeply and saying our mantra . .and later after meditation,  processing them psychologically when we are ready.

In the next level of assimilation, we can continue with Vipassana, which is observing clearly, this time, our thought world. As we observe our thought-world, instead of getting drawn into it, we use the thoughts that occur,  to shift our focus from any thought/feeling/ memory to the illuminater of the thought - who is the self-existent, self-revealing witness-consciousness, my very Self.

 One needs to do this repeatedly during meditation, and even every now on then when not meditating, so that one very clearly recognizes oneself to be the changeless sakshi chaitanya, who is independent of thought,  in whose ever-presence the changing thoughts are cognized. If required go over all the logic Vedanta provides you for understanding this.

When your understanding of yourself is firm, that you are the sakshi-chaitanya, now you can contemplate on the nature (svarupa) of the Sakshi being totally independent, self-revealing, free of knower-knowing-known triputi in every experience.  Deeply assimilate that the three-fold factors in every experience is mithya ....they have no independent existence apart from Sakshi caitanyam, moreover they are impermanent. They are just appearances which come to go - born gone, born-gone. They are not intrinsic to consciousness.  Therefore they can never affect Sakshi caitanyam. 

It goes without saying that these kind of meditations have to be repeated again and again .... सर्वदा कुर्यात् the Shastra says.

Om Tat Sat

Vedantic Vipassana Meditation

We use Vedantic Vipassana meditation to achieve the following objectives.

1. To train  ourselves to be open, receptive and reverential towards all that is here, acknowledging that all that is here is a manifestation of Ishwara’s all-knowledge. Therefore it is all in order. It is all as it is meant to be at this time and place. So I can allow myself to let go of my resistance to what is and be open and receptive to whatever is manifesting as every moment of experience. Going a step further I can enjoy a certain reverence towards whatever is knowing it to be not separate from Ishwara.
2. To recognise or rather to assimilate the nature of all that is objectified, to be impermanent and dependent ....on many factors, as well as the observer
3. To recognise and assimilate the ever-presence of the self-revealing simple conscious being in whose presence all this is objectified, is revealed, to be the Sakshi chaitanya or witness-consciousness who is unaffected by whatever is illumined in it's presence.

These objectives presuppose a study of Vedanta.

What is Vedantic Vipassana meditation?

As human beings we are endowed with a great power and that is the power of attention. Our attention can be directed towards the stories our mind is concocting about ourselves and the world around, which can lead to a great deal of conflict restlessness and distraction of the mind. We can endlessly occupy our mind with a egoic thinking about the past or future leading to a great deal of sorrow and anxiety. We can also occupy our mind with a lot of creative thinking in the present which is good. Or we can occupy our mind in the present, with a lot of practical problems that we need to solve or all the little things that don't matter, like the many little irritations in our current life.

So when our attention is occupied thus,  what happens is we simply do not have the space or leisure to discover the nature of life or the true nature of ourselves.

So what we need to do, is prayerfully disengage our attention from these kinds of preoccupations and re-engage our attention during meditation,  in a mind that is open, receptive, friendly, accepting, in repeatedly observing our moment to moment experiences of bodily sensations, sounds, perceptions, aromas, breath. We have disengaged our mind from it's habitual preoccupation with past memories, futuristic thinking, creative planning or dissatisfactions with the present.

As a result, fairly soon, the mind becomes free of restlessness ...it becomes peaceful and we become aware of our own spacious conscious  presence, in whose presence all the changing momentary sensory experiences of bodily sensations, sounds, perceptions of shadows and light against our closed eyes, aromas and breath takes place.  One assimilates that whole of life is impermanent in nature and dependent on many local factors, as well as the conscious observer. And that experiences of life, simply keeps taking place in accordance with the vast Order of cause-effect relationships that I as an individual did not create. Out of that appreciation automatically a mantra of surrender ‘Om Namah Shivaya Gurave’ arises and subsides repeatedly.

This peaceful mind can be used to recognize and assimilate several truths revealed by our Vedanta studies.

As one repeats this vipassana meditation again and again, it begins to dawn on oneself, that as the observer of these momentary experiences of bodily sensations, sounds, perceptions, aromas and breath, in reality, one is a silent,vast,  spaciousness, a self-revealing conscious presence ..and the consciousness presence that one is, is unaffected by anything revealed in ones presence. In fact one is svatantra is assimilated. One has arrived home ...recognizing and assimilating that I am Sakshi chaitanyam ...svatantram...independent of all that observed.

All that one studied in Vedanta is validated in one's own assimilation. The Sakshi chaitanyam I am is ever-unchanging.Freed from one’s perpetual preoccupations with past, present and future one has the space to assimilate the truth of impermanence of life, and the permanence and non-conceptual reality of it's observer, oneself.