The Power of Siddha Yoga Meditation
Excerpt from Lesson 1:
THE GOAL OF SIDDHA YOGA MEDITATION
The Goal of Siddha Yoga Meditation Is Attainable
The ultimate goal of our practice is to become established in the Heart—to live
from that place of fullness. Throughout this course, you will be exploring ways
to realize this goal.
As we begin, hold the understanding that everything you need for a successful practice
of Siddha Yoga meditation is accessible to you:
- To begin with, the goal of meditation, the supreme Self, the Heart, is within you
in its fullness—your own Self is already one with the supreme Self.
- In addition, you have a human body. The scriptures of India say that with this human
birth you have the potential to enter greater and greater levels of awareness. Living
in this body, you can enter the Heart and come to recognize your oneness with God.
- Furthermore, the attainment of that goal becomes a realistic possibility because
you have received shaktipat initiation. Your own divine inner power, Kundalini Shakti,
has been awakened by the Guru’s grace. The conscious power that was once dormant
in you is now awake. The Guru’s grace has awakened it and it can unfold. It can
support you in your efforts to go beyond the limitations of habitual awareness and
to enter the bliss and freedom of your own true nature.
- In addition to awakening your inner power, the Guru’s grace and guidance are always
abundantly available to you. You can readily access them through her teachings and
the Siddha Yoga practices, as well as through all the materials and learning events,
such as this course, that support your sadhana—
So, once again, you have all the essential ingredients to achieve your goal. The
only thing that remains is for you to wholeheartedly give yourself to that pursuit.
Even though the Self is completely present within you, until you become immersed
in the experience of it, how fully does it exist for you? You may understand it
on an intellectual level; it may be part of your theoretical belief system, but
the only way to become established in the Self is to enter within your own being
and to perceive it directly again and again.
* * *
Watching Thoughts Arise and Subside
When I was a child, my family used to escape from the summer heat of the city by
renting a cottage at a small lake. Sometimes, as we were swimming in the lake, a
speedboat would go by, creating waves in the usually placid water. This was an exciting
event for us children—a time to float and let the waves rock us up and down. When
I was about nine years old I discovered something that fascinated me. When a speedboat
went by, I could dive down and stay under the water and look up and watch everyone
else going up and down on the waves. Somehow that was always very satisfying, watching
all that movement from a place of stillness.
Try this now. Breathing freely, watch the flow of your thoughts. If you struggle
to eliminate thoughts, you are only giving energy to them. So don’t try to eliminate
your thoughts. Don’t become involved in their content. Just don’t give energy to
them in any way. Instead – simply watch thoughts arise and subside like waves. By
simply regarding your thoughts as forms arising and dissolving in Consciousness,
you allow your mind to become still and rest in the Heart.
* * *
Excerpt from Lesson 3:
BREATH
Be at Ease
This is a wonderful teaching for our modern age. Many of us have developed ways
of pressuring ourselves—pushing hard to prove something, to please, to keep up,
to get things "right", or to meet goals that are unrealistic. However,
meditation is a time to let go of all that.
Once you’ve created the time and space for your practice, once you’ve invoked grace
and taken a comfortable and steady posture, the next step is to offer your mind
an object to focus on—one that will naturally lead it to the Heart—such as the breath
or the mantra. With this focus you allow yourself to follow the natural pull inside.
You release into meditation.
As you steadily give yourself to the practice of meditation, you can remember the
Guru’s love and the shakti that has been awakened in you. You can hold the understanding
that your goal of meditation is already with you, in you. As you learn, step by
step, to enter into the experience of the Heart, you are progressing toward your
goal, often in ways you cannot immediately perceive. Be at ease. Everything in its
own time.
