29/05 - My Practice

By the day, the quality of my meditation is improving. By quality, I mean the stillness of mind during the practice. For example, it is becoming easier to watch my breath, easier to watch my thoughts and easier to keep my spine erect. 

I am not sure what the right way to meditate is. I have never had a Guru instruct me nor have I ever had complete faith in one. I follow a simple practice where I watch my breath as I perform Pranayama. Rather than just watching my breath for meditation, this helps me combine the benefits of both the practices. After Bhastrika, Kapalabhati & Anulom Vilom,  I switch to just watching my whole body for a few moments and just try to settle down to prepare for the next practice.

In the next practice, I keep asking myself the following question every 30 seconds:  'What is the next thought?'. And then I simply watch out for the next thought. This is something I picked up from Eckart Tolle's YouTube lectures, and I felt this was a very intuitive way to be alert to one's thoughts. 

As I watch, many things arise. Faint sounds, voices and slowly thoughts find their way. As these thoughts begin to extend, the sense of alertness begins to subside, perhaps. What I noticed today was when I took a deeper breath and affirmed to watch my thoughts again, the ongoing thought disappeared and a silence suddenly returned. All of this of course happened in a matter of a 10/15 seconds, before I again repeated my question, to keep my attention and sense of purpose stable. 

In the end, after a few rounds of this practice, I chant the only mantras that I know and open my eyes. My legs of course, are logs of wood by this time :)

May everyone be happy and at peace

Aum