This practical guide to meditation with breathing and light is intended as a connecting component of a larger Laya Yoga meditation course, available to all who have previously studied meditation. These are not internal practices given to initiates in Yoga or Sufi Orders, which must be kept secret and given individually, but can be taken into account as preparation for other practices. The spiritual exercises discussed can be treated as important general foundations, which, however, should never be forgotten even by those highly advanced in practicing the spiritual path.
Meditation (Contemplation) is a great art that requires great attention, peace and perseverance, but after the incubation time it brings clearly sublime harvests and truly tangible results. It is advised that the process of growth be slow and methodical, not sudden, and that you wait until you have achieved mastery or perfection in a given practice before moving on to the next. Some practices require a delicate (subtle) perception of the subtleties of the phenomenon of life manifestation.
In ancient times, as well as today among those continuing the best traditions of mysticism and spirituality, before an adept was introduced to meditation techniques, even simple ones as described here, he (she) waited for a period of time, often even five years, until the teacher was sure of his sincerity as a candidate for an adept of the spiritual path of development. After such a waiting period (with no initial guarantee of acceptance), the person could gain knowledge about spiritual exercises. Previously, the only possible internship could be physical work as a novice. So many spiritual practices given without prerequisites are a great treasure but also a great responsibility. Today, 70-90 percent of adepts, after 2 or 5 years, can rarely be found as active students of the spiritual group they supposedly joined. Of what worth are those open to all who leave before they are truly incorporated? They are worth the sin of sacrilege that they always commit if they take up spiritual practice with a meditation master and then abandon it wilfully or rather wilfully abandon practice together with their master, because as it was said in the old writings: “whoever takes up the treasure of spiritual practice and then abandons it is like a thief who abandoned what he had previously stolen.” Now we can confidently study the knowledge of spiritual practice leading to enlightenment and begin an authentic adventure with meditation.
Breathing exercises
Subject
The key to enabling a student of the spiritual path of Laya Yoga to understand the purpose of breathing practice lies in the realization that we direct the energization of our magnetic field through the ebb and flow of various types of energy, which we learn to value as one of the achievements of spiritual sensitivity.
1. Breath Awareness (Śvasapraśvasa)
Become aware of the breathing that we normally do unconsciously. A very common result is a certain slowing of the rhythm and an intensification of fuller breathing. Students are cautioned against doing anything other than minimally slowing down (relaxing) or intensifying their breathing. However, over time, the small effects of long-term and patient practice add up. Conscious breathing should be very gentle and calm. Over time, longer and longer breathing sessions are practiced.
Because personal intervention in the rhythm and quality of breathing is caused by the fact of conscious control of the active functioning of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is managed by the unconsciousness, where there is intrusion of the light of consciousness into the area of mental motivation unknown here before and generally described as intuition. In fact, the functioning of thought (thinking) is observed by a rather variable balance between the central nervous system and the autonomic system. Thus, a conscious change of this modulation caused by the application of the esoteric law according to which the normally unconscious function of consciousness can be recreated, achieving the realization and freedom. It is actually possible to withdraw these functions from the control of the vegetative system by bringing them into consciousness, triggering the truly intuitive functions of higher levels of thinking operating in less understood levels of the brain normally removed to the unconscious, dark state, and then consciousness gains a whole new perspective.
2. Breathing Intensification
Relearning how to breathe with your muscles to obtain maximum oxygenation conditions is also known as breathing intensification;
a) firstly, while inhaling, gently hold the first contraction of the abdominal muscles, then exhale from the chest until all the air in the lungs is completely expelled (Praćchardana).
b) secondly, when you inhale, you inflate your lungs by expanding first the abdomen and then the chest (Bhastrika I).
3. Awareness of Breath Energy
Become (be) aware of the ebb and flow of cosmic energy during each inhalation and exhalation.
a) Inhale: consciously absorb the cosmic energy on all planes of existence at a point in the centre of your body (solar plexus);
b) Exhale: consciously emit this energy from your heart centre in your chest after receiving a personal sensation within your being and expand it out into space.
4. Expanding Consciousness
Now include an additional element: organizing the swirl (momentum) of consciousness. During each inhalation, focus not only on magnetism, but also on individual awareness at a point in the centre of the body (manipura – solar plexus, qalbi or heart, centre). The navel is the lower base of the solar plexus area, and the sternum is its upper part. Your sense of the essence of a point in space contrasting with the surrounding world is enhanced. With each exhale, expand not only the magnetism, but also the consciousness from the centre of which you will reach an even wider horizon, until it dissolves into completely (totally) undivided consciousness, up to the cosmic dimension.
5. Internalization
Observe (pay attention to) short pauses between inhaling and exhaling. We are again warned against prolonging the breath hold for too long, although this could be necessary (useful) to re-teach the muscles of the diaphragm and throat to breathe in accordance with the Hatha Yoga exercises (Jalandhara and Uddiyana Bandha). There is a flow of energy (pranah) which enters the physical body passing as breath into the lungs and is then distributed through the circulating blood until it is released in the cells of the body.
6. Deindividuation
Deindividuating the impact of a conscious process is, in other words, complete reordering. Be a person aware only of the cosmic vibration of the rhythm of space of the universe of the individual breath considered as the instrument of the entire process of feeling in this fullness. In this phase you are no longer aware of the existence of the physical body of the soul, which inhales or exhales becoming energized by the cosmic power and radiation, the vibrational awareness of which lies between concentration in the centre of individuality and the state of expansion on the threshold of dissolution in cosmic consciousness. You are only aware of the flow and ebb of cosmic energy and cosmic consciousness passing through you. So when you inhale there is a total flow of pranic energy on all levels affected by this pressure, as it raises the spinning forms or focused centres of which our being is the final example among the spinning infinity. It is no longer ourselves who attract energy towards or into ourselves. We are no longer aware of the limitations of our body or our subtle energy double (linga śarira). It is no longer inside or outside, but there is complete fusion (laya, fana).
We are only aware of the rising and falling flow of energy and consciousness. Only on the crest (mane) of the wave is there awareness of one’s individuality. It is a fact that soon the fleeting sensation disintegrates, because when you exhale you no longer imagine that you are a ray or expanding consciousness, but it is the energy and cosmic consciousness from which this concentrated centre radiates by dissolving into its own substance. This is evident here, so that the control of consciousness operates at the level of consciousness beyond the place where it is still personal, individual. It is a matter of precisely achieving and maintaining yourself just above the threshold of consciousness between the state where consciousness is not yet individualized and the place where it is already individual. Further transitions during separation are the second marking of the transition between inhalation and exhalation from a state of non-individuated consciousness to the feeling of light above the threshold of individual consciousness.
Light Exercises
Introduction
Practices of concentration and contemplation with images representing the luminous shapes of figures and symbols lead to awakening, to awareness of the luminous nature of consciousness, to a state generally represented as enlightenment (jyotisvarupaya; nuriat). This effect is immediately noticeable in adepts as their being becomes radiant.
This contributed to the creation of the epiphany (in the sense of the archetype, as it is written with a lowercase letter) of its own luminous nature by projecting it onto the screen of the mind, where it is accepted as an aspect of forms and shapes in the imagination or even symbols of the deeper layers of the psyche. Then the next step is to raise (ascend) oneself beyond a certain point, where it is limited by the optical dichotomy of subject and object (according to the Oxford dictionary ‘object’ is more real and material than ‘subject’), which reabsorbs all forms in consciousness, which now themselves become a topic of contemplation. This is caused by allowing the higher self to take over.
Consequently, at the first stage, the stream of activity of everyday ideas is ordered by intending (planning) the end: the inner idea of the anima – the internal structure of the soul, the luminous form (form of light) originally contained within it – develops further. In the second stage, the influence of creative imagination (imaginings) is quieted (controlled) and this is self-identification with luminous intelligence. This means moving from concentration in duality (the duality of this world), to contemplation – where everything becomes one (the heavens).
1. Imagine that you are looking into the sheltered light of an oil lamp or candle, or into bright sunlight. You are aware that consciousness is limited only to the confrontation between this light and consciousness – nothing more.
2. You become more and more aware of the identity of nature between the light that is perceived and the light that perceives.
3. Now, instead of looking at the light, imagine that you are under the light and it is pouring down on you, like a rain of light covering you with light.
4. This causes you to be aware of light falling upon you, but you are deeply aware of the covering of your skin in mental light – the light of glory, radiance, splendour or the resurrection body of the Gnostics (Jnanis, Knowers, from Gna-Zna (Knows)-Jna) that spreads around. Sensation is very important – you can feel the light, more than you can see it – it is mainly around your back, shoulder blades, arms and above your head. Give yourself completely to this feeling (pratyaya) of light.
5. The presence of the internal structure of this luminous body (jyotisvarupa) becomes more and more distinct and emphasizes the luminous structure in the chakras (latifs);
a) an intense outflow as if the sun from the heart chakra under the sternum inside the breast (anahata; ruhiya) forward, as if the sun was pulling you forward;
b) light flowing from the same cardiac centre is returned through the shoulder blades and then through the back;
c) the expansive radiation flowing from the head (sahasrara; haqqiya), mainly above but also from the sides, which appears to be not only centrifugal, but also forming a concentrated multi-colored wave like a spectrum or rain described by Zoroastrians as a royal crown;
d) higher concentration sends radiation from the pineal gland, popularly known as the third eye (or more precisely, bodhini), resembling the light of a star and having enormous penetrating power, like x-rays, because it is the centre of individual insight, the centre of divine intuition (fully active in avatars (saviours), heralds (people sent by God with a special mission to humanity called paghambar in the East) and tulkus carrying the lines of spiritual teaching established as paths leading to the Gate of Heaven;
6. Now all these structures are experienced simultaneously, as interacting each with each other. It looks as if through the light, the crown centre gently falls, like a subtle curtain, on the structure of light emitted from the heart centre.
7. Now we will use the power of imagination to enrich and expand (discover) the psyche, but this limits us within the barriers of duality. Now we cross the threshold between light understood as an object and light as a subject, in other words as consciousness.
8. The key to allowing the mind to transcend its limits may lie in the symbolism of dawn – a very powerful contemplation on the qualities of light before it becomes physically perceptible. The innate intuition becomes sharper towards non-physical light, and the direct feeling of light becomes subjective. And unexpected structures seem to be contained in this twilight and appear as ephemeral visions of something exceedingly beautiful: the face of an angel, a temple of light, a galaxy of luminous beings. There may even be a visitation by an angel (deva).
You may notice that the images that are projected are not held in the object perceived by the senses and projected by the constantly acting memory activity on the mind, but in the archetypes of the soul which concretize themselves in forms perceived internally. So, it is not a practice of focusing on the structures described, but a sensation (conditions) where we allow the soul to express itself spontaneously, according to its own manifestation.
9. In the final stage, you suddenly become aware of yourself, not as a light body, but as pure light intelligence (aham, aqil), beyond form (shape) or place (space), simply as shining consciousness and radiation. This is the threshold of spiritual enlightenment.
We can distinguish two degrees here:
a) the first is the awareness of essence (existence) “the eye through which God looks”, consciousness is perceived as an extension of a greater intelligence or entire intelligence systems that extend one another, creating hegemons of light;
b) there is only awareness of undivided intelligence, not as if “something else” or “outside” or extrasensory (transcendental), but the essence (source) of the self.
And finally, a quote for deep reflection:
“The light of the body is your EYE. If your Eye is healthy, your whole body will be in light. But if it is sick, your body will also be in darkness. So see that the light that is in you does not become darkness. If therefore your whole body be in light, and have nothing dark in it, it will be all in light, as if the light were shining upon you with its splendour.” (L.11.34-36).
ADDITION
List of Great Enlightened Souls Living Today (20th century)
(Contemplating the name and essence of one of these souls truly leads to enlightenment, bringing liberation from the bonds of karma, and even a short sigh towards them brings relief and joy of life – if only it is sincere).
Swami Premananda Maharaj (Śivaite, Avatara);
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born 1918) (Śivaite);
Swami Ram Das (Śivaite);
Sun Myung Moon (Father Moon) (born 1920);
Meher Baba (Pir Merwan Sheriar Irani) (1894-1969);
Guru Maharaj Ji (born 1958) (avatara);
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (born 1926);
Alice Bailey G.V. (1880-1949) (paghambar);
Bo Yin Ra G.V. (Śivaite, paghambar);
Satya Sai Baba (avatara) (born 1926);
Bhagawan Sree Rajnesh (Osho) (born 1931);
Mirza Gulam Ahmad and His succession (khalif, avatar);
Swami Yogananda Paramahansa Maharaj, (Śivaite, paghambar);
Sri Sri Anandamurti, Paramahansa (Śivaite);
Benjamin Creame (Śivaite);
Elizabeth Clare Prophet (Guru Ma, paghambar);
Swami Muktananda (Śivaite);
Sri Umadevi Wanda Dynowska G.K. (Śivaite, paghambar);
Swami Baba Sivananda G.P. (from Darjeeling) (Śivaite, avatara Himavanti);
Swami Prabhupada Paramahansa (born 1896) (Krishnaite);
David Berg (Holy Father Mo) (born 1919);
Frederic Franz (President of the Watchtower Society);
Eleonora Reuter (Swiss Saint, died 1998) (Śivaite);
Swami Hariharananda Paramahansa; (Śivaite).
Hum!
Many Blessings on your Path to Awakening and Realization!
Om Namaśśivaya! Hum!
Aćaryaćarya Swami Lalita-Mohan G.K.
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