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.

The Value of Meditation - an excerpt from a satsang

We are all familiar with the feeling of being small and constricted in our heart. When we feel insecure, inadequate, angry, sad, frustrated, blaming, hateful, greedy, jealous, rejected, isolated, craving,  what we do experience is a the sense of smallness or constriction of our sense of being and that is what we are calling as the sense of apoornata.

When we are experiencing a sense of apoornata, naturally our responses to life will come from that sense of Apurnata.  In fact our whole life is run under the spell of apoornata. Apoornata is characterized by the basic sense that I am separate from, different from, distinct from everything else and therefore  naturally I am incomplete. With apoornata there is a sense of dissatisfaction, a sense of all not being well with me.

This sense of apoornata comes from ignorance of my real nature being Poorna, complete, whole.  As we have been studying now the consciousness that one is is totally Poorna. Purna means that there is no form of limitation whatsoever in the consciousness that one is. Infact consciousness is the illumining  presence because of which even the sense of apoornata Is revealed.

In the presence of self revealing consciousness pleasant thoughts, pleasant sensations, pleasant feelings as well as unpleasant thoughts unpleasant sensation unpleasant feelings are revealed. We can use an analogy of the sky, the blue wide open sky, in whose presence the clouds are floating around. These clouds keep changing their shape. They come and go. Our consciousness is like that wide open blue sky, in whose ever-presence, thoughts both pleasant and unpleasant, feelings both pleasant and unpleasant, sensations in the body both pleasant and unpleasant come to go.

As we meditate over a. of time we become aware that we are  an unconditional presence, in whose illumining presence, different types of  thoughts, feelings, sensations, come, mark their presence, only to go away. The consciousness that we are,  we realise is clear. It is not affected or tainted by the quality of thoughts, feelings, sensations, objects that are revealed in its presence.

This is why meditation becomes so important.  This topic of samadhi which is coming up now is meant to show you in what will become the truth for you, when you take to a practice of meditation. Naturally when I say a practice of meditation it means a consistent practice of meditation.

Meditation is a training of your mind. Therefore it requires consistent practice. The nature of the mind is to be restless and to wander. So our first job is to train the mind for ekagrata, for being focused. We can adopt very simple practices for training our mind to be focused at a particular point of attention.  We don't really need guided meditation for training our mind to develop focus. Guided vedantic meditation comes after that and then comes meditation without guidance where you are simply there and you can guide yourself and finally meditation in which you find that you do not really require thoughts to be there - you just are.

So these simple practices of focusing your attention, to develop ekagrata,  are undertaken by just sitting quietly in a very relaxed manner and fixing your attention and observing either on your breath or the sensations in your body or the sounds around you or a mantra or the image of a deity or a picture.  In these kinds of meditation, you are training your mind to come back to a constant point which you have chosen. So whenever the mind wanders away you simply notice it and in a very non-judgemental manner you bring back your attention to wherever you have chosen to fix it, either your breath or the sensations in your body or the external sounds or your mantra. The attitude is one of friendliness, openess, receptiveness to whatever is your experience now.

And in one particular meditation you can even alternate between all of these - for sometime you focus on your breath, the for sometime you can focus on the sensations of your body,  then you can listen to the sounds around you and finally you can come to mantra. The point is that whatever you have chosen to focus your attention on, when your mind wanders you bring it back as soon as you notice it.

These practices themselves are very fruitful because after a while you become aware that thoughts come and go,  feelings come and go, sensations come and go, in the conscious witnessing presence that you are. The conscious presence that you are is not really tainted by any of these. Then it becomes very clear that you are the drg, and these are all drshya - they are mithya because they depend on your conscious presence to reveal themselves, because though  they are imbued with consciousness thru and thru they are all impermanent.

You must become familiar with yourself as being the self-revealing conscious witnessing, illumining presence untainted by whatever is revealed in your presence.

Om Tat Sat

Psychological Processing of Kashaya- the old hurtful impressions

Kashaya is the term, I use  for indicating old impressions which come up when we are meditating or even in our daily life, which totally hijacking  our wisdom,  put us in a trance of unworthiness , incompleteness, insecurity, fearfulness etc. You cannot avoid kashaya.  It is better to learn how to handle it. Kashaya is actually useful because we can use it to understand what our old out-dated beliefs which no longer serve us are. Kashaya  gives us an opportunity to understand the layers of old beliefs that have the potential to rob us of our wisdom and put us in the old trance of unworthiness and insecurity.  

Since it hijacks our wisdom, it is not possible to have sakshi bhava towards it.  Shastra recommends ignoring it using sakshi bhava,  however unless you are an advanced sadhaka,  you will not find it possible to do that.

Is there a way out?

Yes there is.

Our first assumption for this method to work, is that one is a student of Vedanta, who has had a insight into one’s truth being self-evident, self-revealing, ever-existing consciousness, that is free of one’s mental world. It is not difficult to have this insight if one has been doing pranayama or japa meditation, or any kind of meditation for that matter,  for a while. During pranayama, if one does it consciously, one’s mind becomes very quiet and one finds that the self-evident consciousness one is very much present there. So because of shraddha in Shastra and using  anvaya and vyatireka logic one can come to the conclusion that the self-evident consciousness one is, is always present and it is not dependent upon the condition of the mind. In fact we should use our moments of quietness to firm up this understanding. That is why the practices that enable us to enjoy a quiet mind are useful and important.

When an incident of kashaya  coming up happens, then one wants be able to practice the sacred pause, so that one does not get overwhelmed. How to do that? Any states of mind in which you are feeling you are unworthy and insecure is a result of kashaya -  so as soon as you feel this sense of something not being okay with me, some sense of unworthiness, insecurity, a critical inner voice, feelings of anxiety, anger, shame, fear, hurt and guilt,  it means kashaya has emerged. Recognize it as kashaya  maybe by just whispering to yourself ‘this is kashaya’. Immediately you BREATHE slowly several times and saying to yourself  ‘Time to pause’.

We are not interested in doing anything to make the difficult painful state to go away. We simply recognize it as kashaya  and allow it to be there. There is no attempt to avoid it or fix it or make it go away by doing something. Letting it be there does not mean that we believe in whatever it is saying to us. It is just acknowledging without denial, that these feelings are there. So simply allowing it to be there, we take up the next step.

We allow our cognitive mind to investigate and enquire more into it with interest and gentle care, with a natural curiosity to know the truth.  This naturally demands more focussed attention towards this experience. We can use the following questions to help us :- How am I experiencing this feeling in my body? What is my belief behind this? This is a vulnerable area of my psyche. What is it telling me. What does it most need?

 The kashaya  will be felt in your body somewhere perhaps in the throat, heart, belly as irritation or tightness, or a sinking feeling in your stomach, or restlessness or constriction or even pain. So just pay attention to where in your body you are feeling it.

It is very important  when investigating, that your attitude is  non-judgmental and kind, because that creates a safety net whereby you can honestly connect with your feelings.

Now you can understand your suffering. And let the natural outcome of your understanding that you are suffering, be compassion towards yourself and not demeaning self-criticism or dismissing it as mithya. Compassionately try to sense what that wounded, hurt, frightened part of psyche needs at that time. Don’t think as Vedantins do, that all this is mithya, and so why should I appease it? If it was truly mithya for you, it would not hijack your wisdom.

Now having understood one’s suffering offer a gesture of your care that would address this need of the wounded psyche. Nourish that wounded  psyche. Maybe you need to offer a message of reassurance that you are there to hold and comfort the suffering psyche, even as one would comfort a child in pain. Maybe you need to offer to be there in companionship or love. Maybe a gesture of forgiveness. You will need to discover which gesture of kindness will comfort the wounded psyche. It could be just a whisper. Thich Naht Hanh offers a whisper of comfort such as “Darling I care about your suffering”.  Or it could be ‘I love you’ or ‘I am here for you’ or ‘It’s not your fault’.

It is very healing to additionally gently place a hand on the heart or cheek. What is particularly helpful is  visualizing  the heart center filling up with warm, radiant light.  You can even visualise  your Guru or a loved family member or friend sending you love. Even the smallest gesture of offering love will nourish your psyche.

What happens as a result of this kind of psychological processing, is that there is a space now. In that space you can go to the next level of investigation, to understand the conclusions or beliefs behind the feelings. Possible conclusions centered on ‘I’ may come up, like “I am not lovable”, “I am not worthy”, “I am a failure”, “I am insecure”, “I am not safe”. At the level of your own individuality, you need to be able to dismiss each of these, cognitively. For this you may need to take help of a wiser person.

It is only after this that you are ready to see the kashaya as mithya ­ - in fact as you repeat this process several times, you will find these conclusions no longer affect you the way they did before – now they have become mithya for you and you will be able to appreciate your self to be self-evident, self-revealing consciousness that is invariable in every experience and unaffected by them. Not only that you will recognize that everything here is in the all-pervading consciousness that you are – so nothing is really separate from you.

Om Tat Sat.

.... This article is inspired by Tara Brach's talks on RAIN of Self-Compassions