An intense meditator is someone who holds an average of six sessions of meditation in a span of 24 hours and does so on a regular basis, minimum period being six months. Average session of such a meditator lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. Anything more than that is considered supremely intense.
A keen meditator is the one who meditates an average of four times in a span of 24 hours, each session lasting a minimum of one hour. A meditator who meditates unfailingly with this discipline for at least one year can be called a keen meditator and not just someone who does it for a few weeks.
This has been my own experience too, that, ultimately, if you are serious about experiencing the supreme bliss through meditation, sooner or later, you will have to intensify your practice.
You may ask, who has time to meditate for that long in this day and age? Just to give you some context, at the peak of my practice, for roughly seven months, I meditated for nearly 22 hours every day. Out of everything I had ever tried in my life, it was the most difficult and most exhausting endeavour I had ever undertaken. It was also the most rewarding, I may add. Naturally, I didn’t start putting in the long hours from the word go; rather, built it up over several years. Clear results come through according to the quality, duration and intensity of your practice.
From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Most of what I’ve stated above applies to the practice of concentrative meditation, the kind that requires you to sit down in a specific posture and build your concentration. As you know by now, this is not the only type of meditation. There are many other options. And this is where I share the incredibly powerful practice of a mindful day.
In the practice of a mindful day, you could realize the benefits of intense and keen meditators without actually leaving for the Himalayas. You can elevate your consciousness to a degree beyond imagination for the average mind, all the while holding your job and comforts. This is the only practice I know on the path of meditation that transforms an ordinary life into an extraordinary one. It is walking the ordinary path in the extraordinary way.
How to Do It Right
It’s very simple but it’s only with practice that you can perfect it. You don’t have to sit in any yogic posture. Instead, carry on with your normal routine. It’ll be like any other day but with one great difference – you’ll do everything, every little act, with utmost mindfulness.
When you get up in the morning and brush your teeth, do it mindfully. Watch how you wet your brush, put the toothpaste on and brush. Feel every single stroke, realize how peppermint bursts against your taste buds and how you feel this freshness in your mouth.
When you step into the shower, experience the living energy in every single drop of water. Bathe mindfully. When you apply shampoo, facewash, conditioner and soap, etc., feel it. Be present in the moment. Think that you are bathing a divine body, as if you are offering ablutions in a sacred ritual.
When you sit down to have your breakfast, eat as if you are doing a yajna, as if you are making fire offerings to the divinity in you. When you work, drive, walk, talk, listen do so with mindfulness, by being present in the moment. Ask yourself the one most important question to bring yourself back into the present moment, “What am I doing right now?”
Initially, you’ll keep forgetting that you are supposed to do everything mindfully. You may brush mindfully but by the time you reach breakfast, you maybe grabbing the sandwich, gulping scalding coffee and rushing through your front door. You may be agitatedly flicking FM channels while waiting in the peak hour traffic. It’s alright. You can’t change your lifestyle overnight, but you can be mindful. Every time you remember that you are not being mindful, you just ask yourself, “What am I doing right now?”
This is the easiest way of walking the extraordinary path while still living and enjoying the pleasures of this world. Over time, as you progress, your priorities will become clearer to you. You’ll know what truly is worth treasuring and what all you should focus on. As they say, your heart is where your treasure is. As you find your treasure, you will have discovered your truth.
Silence and Awareness
A seeker approached a master who lived in extreme solitude. For tens of miles near his cave, there lived no one.
“You must feel really lonely here,” the seeker said.
“Now that you are here, I’m lonely indeed,” the master replied. “Earlier I was rejoicing in my own company.”
Silence and awareness has an intimate relationship. It plays a crucial role in correct meditation. Silence of the mind is the outcome of a good meditation and silence of the speech is the hallmark of a great meditator.
Even if you can’t be mindful, and you can’t sit down and meditate, if you at least learn to be silent, you will most certainly progress on the path.
When we meditate, one of the greatest hurdles is our thoughts. Often thoughts take the form of conversations. Whatever you may have talked in the past keeps playing back in our head while you meditate. It’s an irresistible urge – the urge to talk. If you look around you will find most people are talking most of the time. The urge to talk arises directly from the restless mind. Whether such talk is useful or useless, positive or negative is subject to individual interpretation.
At any point in time, the average human mind is engaging in one of the three forms of conversations.
Gross Conversations
All conversations held with others using words or gestures are gross conversations. Most of us spend the majority of our day engaging in gross conversations. This could be in the shape of writing emails, phone calls, in-person conversations and the like. While a lot of what we do may be required to operate in this world, most of it is unnecessary, in my view.
Gross conversations add to the unrest of the mind. A good way to start turning inward is to reduce the number of these conversations as much as possible. Given your personal, professional and social engagements, it may not be possible for you to cut down on these a great deal immediately but getting started with resolve will unfold the path for you step-by-step.
Once you get used to staying quiet for long periods, you will experience certain quietude of the mind. That naturally diminishes the urge to talk. Next time you want to talk about weather, politics, etc., hold the urge for it is unlikely you will gain anything out of it, and, chances are that the other person is not actually listening to your point of view anyway. Most people are not really listening but simply waiting for the speaker to finish his point so they can begin theirs.
Mental Conversations
Whenyouare nottalking tosomeone, chances are, youare holding a communion with yourself. Thoughts when pursued are mental conversations. These do not allow your mind to rest and settle. Mental conversations are also the greatest hurdles in holding lucid sessions of meditation. We are so used to talking that when we are not talking to others, we are talking to ourselves. The unfailing sign of a restless mind is its inability to stay quiet. A mind that is brooding over matters, or a whining negative mind, a lustful passionate mind or a talkative restless mind are examples, triggers and boosters of mental conversations. The only two ways, of stopping these conversations are either engaging your mind elsewhere, which is a temporary fix, or quieting your mind, which is a permanent solution.
Mindfulness is the first step in putting a lid on mental conversations. Each time you find yourself holding a mental conversation, just be mindful. Ask yourself the golden question, “What am I doing right now?” A certain awareness will arise. Don’t try to stop a mental conversation by instructing yourself to stop it or by curbing it. Instead, stop it either by ignoring it or by shifting your attention.