Lesson 86 - Q&A – Finding your meditation routine

From: Yogani
Date: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:22pm

New Members: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the web
archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first
lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"

Q: I have just recently begun following your practices (went back to
the beginning). I have been involved with yoga and meditation for
several years. I wonder is it all right to continue to use background
music and aromas to enhance my meditation, or am I distracting from
it? What about mala beads? Also right now, I only seem to be able to
get in about 10 minutes - how important is it to meditate for the
full 20 minutes every day?

A: Of course, it is not for me to upset your established comfortable
environment for meditation. If you are most comfortable with incense,
aromas, background music, or whatever, it is your choice. However, I
do suggest you carefully read all the lessons on meditation,
including the Q&As, for comments on external environmental things
while meditating. Remember, meditation is for going in. If we are
vibrating with music or other sensory inputs, this is not part of
using the mantra, and there is the chance that our attention will be
divided. This can take away from our attention settling naturally and
deeply into pure bliss consciousness. Of course, as pointed out in
the lessons, it is possible to meditate easily in airplanes, busy
waiting rooms, or practically anywhere. So what is a little
background music? It may not hurt, but it is not part of the
meditation either, and it is something else besides thoughts that you
will be easily letting go as you favor the mantra. You decide what
works best for you. You are in charge.

Ten minutes is much better than no minutes, and ten minutes twice a
day is much better than twenty minutes only once a day. There is a
natural cycle of meditation and activity that is optimized by
meditating twice a day. The "twice" is at least as important as the
length of meditation.

If you are smooth in activity after twenty minutes of meditation,
then do your best to build it into your daily schedule. You will
accomplish so much more inner purification if you can get in the
habit. On the other hand, try not to be erratic about it -- twenty
minutes this time, ten minutes next time, then fifteen... The more
regular it is, the more like clockwork it is, the better your nervous
system will like it. Once the habit is in place, the nervous system
will practically meditate itself. You will close your eyes and be in
pure bliss consciousness immediately, and the peace and bliss of that
will stay with you throughout the day and night. Meditation
habituates our nervous system to be in pure bliss consciousness
naturally. It really does work like that. It takes regular daily
practice over a long time. As the obstructions are gradually removed,
the experience of pure bliss consciousness steadily rises. It is like
watching a tree grow. I wish I could say it is like watching a kudzu
vine grow (much, much faster). Maybe for a few advanced souls born
with pure nervous systems it is.

Mala beads are for a different kind of approach to meditation, and to
pranayama as well. They are for counting. Malas were around long
before clocks, and the number of mantra repetitions and breathing
cycles were counted to have a measured approach, so as not to overdo
or underdo practices. This produces a small restriction, especially
in meditation, because it ties the mantra to an outer activity,
ticking off the beads one by one with the fingers. It becomes an
unconscious habit, yet still we are regulating the mantra with an
outer activity. With the clock, we can let the mantra (and the breath
in pranayama) go naturally according to the unique purification need
of the nervous system. We have talked a lot about this already. Using
the clock is a flexible approach to measuring the amount of inner
practices. Of course, we will peek at the clock now and then, but in
time we find that our automatic inner clock is nearly as good as the
outer one. The outer clock then becomes an occasional confirmation of
the inner one. There is a lesson on this in the meditation Q&As
called, "Watching the clock."

Malas may also have a sentimental value, a bhakti value, and that is
an okay reason for wearing them. Whatever stimulates your bhakti is
good, as long as you are not blasting off the planet in a kundalini
overdose. A mala may be part of your ishta (ideal) if it connects you
with your chosen ideal. And maybe your meditation and pranayama
learned elsewhere are mala-based. That is okay too. The mala has not
been outdated, not going the way of the buggy whip any time soon. It
has been around for thousands of years. But keep in mind, the mala is
for measuring how much we do in practices. In these lessons we use
the clock for that. That's the difference.

I wish you the best on your journey homeward.

The guru is in you.

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