I am sure there are many more ways.
In one of my books namely “Meditation – Important things you need to know”, I have hinted that most meditations ultimately lead you to the same destination irrespective of their form and origin. The time taken to reach the destination may differ in each case though.
But then, I have also made an important observation that for this to happen, the meditation technique should take you to a ‘threshold’ beyond which the onward journey just becomes automatic. You reach the threshold only when there is ‘gradual intensification of the focus on the meditative target’.
Let me explain what I mean by gradual intensification of the focus.
Take for example, the mediation on the sound OM as I discussed in a previous episode. You start with a gross concept of OM, that symbolizes God as an overseer of creation, sustenance and reabsorption of the world.
In the next stage you start focusing on the various aspects of OM as an etymological entity – its three component letters A, U and M, and their correspondence to the three aspects of God. You make a shift from a gross concept to a subtler symbolic concept.
Then you start focusing on the sound itself – its aural properties of sudden buildup and gradual decay. You map the buildup to creation (or the first two letters A, and U), and the gradual decay to absorption (the elongated M). From an actively vibrant state to a silent inactive state.
And then you go into further finer focus namely, you start observing how your breath changes depending on the sound variations, and so on.
Somewhere down the line, you reach the threshold. From then on, things move automatically forward.
Supposing, instead of moving on a successive intensification of focus, you start diverging. You start imagining the creation, sustenance and reabsorption aspects of God as three forms of God, say for example the Hindu Trinity Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara, or as the Christian trinity - Father, Son and the Holy spirit. You are actually concretizing the abstract notion of God into a religious notion of God.
Then on, you will get into mental preoccupation, leading to more details of each of these three forms, and so on.
So, instead of calming down the Mind, you would be making it more and more active, taking you further away from the threshold, making a march in the reverse direction.
Similarly, when you follow the Kundalini based meditation techniques, if you get stuck in the mysticism projected at each stage, the vivid imageries and psychic powers associated with each Chakra and so on, you make a reverse journey instead of moving forward.
Some techniques are more prone to slipping back and such techniques would take forever to reach the threshold.
As long as the meditation technique gradually nudges you towards the threshold, it is fine. One technique may take more time as compared to some other technique. But eventually you will reach the threshold.
I will discuss various stages one passes through as one approaches the threshold. They are the successive stages of Samadhi, about which I will be discussing in subsequent episodes.
What happens after you reach the threshold?
That is a difficult question. Somewhere we have to draw a line between what we can explain logically, and something that is beyond. If everything can be explained logically, then we are talking about material things.
Our logic ultimately boils down to our sense perceptions. It is not capable of explaining something which is beyond the senses or beyond the Mind.
Either we have to admit that there is nothing beyond the material world that can be perceived by our senses – much like the way modern science does, or we have to accept the possibility of domains beyond our senses, the way many ancient philosophers did.
For more than one reason, I choose to be open to the possibility of the existence of domains beyond our senses and the Mind. It would be oxymoronic to claim that we can prove or disprove the existence of such domains that are beyond our sense perception and logic.
Let me take you as far as we possibly can, before we reach the final landmark, so to speak. Please do join me in the next episode when we will start moving towards the threshold that we are talking about.
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2019-2020
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