II. PURIFICATION PRACTICES
Meditation is a withdrawal from the objective world and life and single mindedly concentrating on the Inner Self until one is totally absorbed in that which is one's own Truth.
But only when we sit for meditation we find how really difficult it is, in the beginning, to withdraw the mind from the relative plane to the Absolute. Only a proper understanding of the wandering nature of the mind and pursuing suitable practices will help us in this regard, to get total control over the mind.
So we shall start the practices one by one with trust, sincerity, enthusiasm, good hopes and an open heart.
One needs to do only one practice each day, in the beginning, but devote at least one hour for it. Once you are acquainted with all the practices you will be able to cover all these practices within an hour.
1.Cave meditation
a Follow the five preliminary steps described earlier.
b. Read carefully the following instructions and do the practice.
Imagine that you are sitting in a small cave. Keep your organs of perception and mind within the cave. That means you are not seeing or hearing or thinking of any thing or anybody outside the cave. If you see, see only the darkness in the cave. If you hear, hear only the vibrant silence of the darkness. If you think, think only of the darkness in the cave. Enjoy that state of solitude within the imaginary cave where you alone exist.
Mind may go outside the cave to family, working place, relatives, friends, enemies etc. There is no need to get upset over it. Every time patiently bring back the wandering mind to the solitude of the cave.
Slowly, the mind will detect the joy and peace in the solitude within the cave and remain within the cave; it won't go out. Let it enjoy that peaceful solitude within the cave quite a good long time.
2. Withdrawal from the past and future
a. Follow the five preliminary steps.
b. Read carefully the following instructions and then do the practice with closed eyes.
While sitting for meditation the mind tends to go back to the past memories and either get excited by the pleasant experiences or suffer from the unpleasant experiences.
Otherwise it will go forward and get excited about the future dreams, plans and gains, or, get worried, anxious and fearful about its future losses.
After understanding the fickle nature of the mind consciously bring it back from the thoughts in the past and the resultant feelings and keep it in it's original thoughtless state for a couple of minutes. The mind may go out again to the past; but never mind it. Be conscious of that and patiently bring it back to the original state.
Repeat the same practice by bringing back the mind consciously from the future as well and keep it in the original empty state quite a good long time.
3. Unconditional Love
a. Follow the preliminary steps.
Observe whether you have any severe feeling of anger or hatred in your heart towards anybody from your close family members, or, even any one in any part of the world. Remember, even if you love the whole world, but hate a single person, then that love is partial and limited. With such a polluted mind one cannot enter the joyful, thoughtless state.
So, close your eyes and spend some time observing very carefully whether there are any severe hatred in your mind against anybody. Then, expand your mind and let your love flow towards even your bitter enemies unconditionally.
Once all the hatred vanishes from your heart and it is filled with unconditional love then the mind will very happily come back into its peaceful thoughtless state. Enjoy that thoughtless state quite a good long time.
4. Forgiveness
a. Follow the preliminary steps.
b. Read the following instructions and do the practice.
There may be many suppressed wounds and guilty feelings in your psyche. They can affect the meditative mind in a dangerous manner. So, observe and detect if there are any such negative feelings in your heart.
Then, to get rid of the guilt etc., if you find any in your psyche, earnestly and sincerely ask for forgiveness from those who were deeply affected or wounded by your selfish, cruel thoughts, words and actions.
If others have hurt your feelings heal those deep wounds in your heart by whole heartedly forgiving the persons who used the cruel words and actions on you. Sometimes some of their words and actions are so cruel you find it very difficult to forgive them. Then you use the magic sentence, "O, God, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing"
Close your eyes. Spend some time bringing into your mind one by one the names and forms of those persons who were wounded by your words and actions and ask for forgiveness from each person. Then visualize in your mind, one by one, the names and forms of the persons by whom you were hurt, and forgive them. Pledge in your mind that you will get into good terms with the same persons on your part and bless them.
Soon you will find a serene peace settling in your mind. With that inner peace withdraw your mind even from the thoughts connected with those people and enjoy the joyful thoughtless state of the mind quite a good long time.
5. Desirelessness
A desireless contented state of mind is very important for a successful meditation. It is because of the false expectation of the mind to enjoy happiness from the worldly objects, pursuits, name, fame, money, materials, wife, husband, children, father, mother, sister, brothers, friends, positions, organizations, etc, that it wanders from one desire to another. But a discriminating mind will soon understand the impermanent, transitory nature of the objects that bring only certain fleeting pleasures and that also with the accompaniment of pain. So they maintain a detached spirit in both gain and loss, pleasure and pain, love and hatred and enjoy the resultant tranquility. With such a tranquil state of the mind, keeping the true happiness within, they withdraw their thoughts from objects and objective desires and enjoy that thoughtless joyful state of the mind.
So, close your eyes and spend some time in observing whether you are suffering from any objective attachments. Then first mentally transform that attitude to a spirit of detachment and with the consequent tranquility withdraw the thoughts from relative objects and enjoy that joyful tranquil, actionless, thoughtless state of the mind for quite a good long time.