Meditation

MEDITATION

Mankind has forever been in the quest for peace and happiness. To achieve this, different methods of practices and rituals have been adopted, but peace and contentment still elude mankind. In pursuit of materialistic, worldly and selfish motives, mankind has faced enormous mental trauma, stress and anxiety. Both religious teachings and scientific data indicate that worldly and materialistic desires are insatiable and pursuit there of results in restiveness and restlessness of body, mind and soul (conscience).

In this effort to achieve peace, man with limited knowledge moved towards meditation of some particular style and character. In our endeavor to understand the depth of meditation, it is vitally essential for us to know the definitions of some of the words and concepts that have been used in this article.
The conscience is defined in the Thesaurus dictionary in the following ways:


•"the faculty, power, or inward principle which decides as to the character of one's own actions, purposes, and affections, warning against and condemning that which is wrong, and approving and prompting to that which is right; the moral faculty passing judgment on one's self; the moral sense.
•"as science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self-knowledge... but the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind as well as a consciousness of our own actions.
•"Conscience is the reason, employed about questions of right and wrong, and accompanied with the sentiments of approbation and condemnation. It is common to all men.
•"the awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong: Let your conscience be your guide.
•"the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration.

The concept of God – the concept that God is an Eternal Action or Process and not a ‘‘thing’’ separated from its parts. It is the source of all aspects, of every thing and therefore all matter and energy . It is the primary cause of all action in physical reality.

Kindly read on...a very informative article by a sikh...
it is pdf file and cannot be copied ...

http://www.thelivingtreasure.org/art...Meditation.pdf

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~

so because you have met people who's understanding of Gurbani has not grown with time, you do not believe that OTHER people's understanding CAN grow?

i'm sorry. i study and pray every day that my understanding WILL grow. i can only hope your theory is wrong. i'm sorry to say that, i don't mean in in a personal way. but i think it's in all of our best interest to be able to grow in our understanding of Gurbani, even if you know some people who do not.

fateh!

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Meditation ...........Contd
What is desired of the seeker is to understand how to surrender while there is yet time to understand the truth while he is alive, healthy, hale and hearty, and acknowledge that his strength and might is going to yield to a higher Truth, in spite of his myriad wishes and preferences. He must, therefore, acquiesce to act in accordance with the Divine dispensation, accepting the maxim that He is the Doer, beyond our reckoning and our limited view of matter.

In my childhood, adjacent to our backyard was the kitchen of our family hotel, where the cook’s mate used to sit and hack the chicken. I was fascinated and awe-struck to see that butchering, as chicken after chicken was guillotined. Some used to make shrill noise and dreadfully undergo the ordeal while others perhaps understood the inevitability of the final blow to come and submitted silently or with a mild whimper. So is the destiny of man. After elevation to the highest positions of power and pelf, he must go, depart with a whimper or lot of noise, but go he must. While living life in Society as a useful member, therefore, passionate infatuation with the mundane matters may be re-focused, instead, with the same zeal to atonement with the Lord:
[SGGS 100]
Like a child enjoys drinking milk,
Like the penniless man is satiated with wealth,
Like the thirsty feels the cool with cold water,
So does this mind feel atoned with God!
There are innumerable similes given in the Guru Granth Sahib on this very subject, to demonstrate the state of God-intoxicated mind and its intensity, compared with the normal worldly behaviour.
Like the dying of the moth over a lamp,
Like the thief making entry for theft,
Like the elephant overpowerd by sexual urge,
Like the house-holder dealing in malpractices,
Like the gambler unable to resist gambling,
O Nanak, in passion join with the Lord!
Meditation is, thus, not in inducing trance-like state of mind, but consciously to love God as one does the material things.


That is the uniqueness of the Sikh parlance. The scriptures are universal and open to all members of society. Everyone understands the texts according to one’s given intellectual level. The understanding person lives in the midst of this world, fully participating in its functions and routine, but with the difference that he is not lost head-over-heals, but acknowledges the direction of right and wrong. It is important to be upgraded by honest practice of truth and truthful living. Guru Gobind Singh added the oath-taking at the time of khande-ki- pahul administration as a precondition.

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~

The first step is, therefore, to follow unquestioningly a routine to imbibe the discipline in action.




Based on this stipulation, the succeeding stage for the seeker is to fully immerse in love and presence of God, as an all time activity. Such a person sheds the selfish view of the world and life as he has no time any more to promote self-centered activities, even being a house-holder.



The true Gursikh, in the final stage, perceives himself as a part of the cosmos, without his own small ego or worldly worries bothering him, verily the true purport of Vairag:
Those God-centrists who are imbued with the Beloved’s love,
Nanak, they are merged in the true love day and night,
God-centrists have true love whereby they attain to the True Lord,


Human mind has been prone to the hypnotic inducement for a long time. It is deeply imprinted in it, fully convinced that meditation is what the Indian yogis have defined since the ancient times. In Christian, and other occidental systems, meditation denotes a similar discipline of concentration into a state of trance. In Islam, the prayer is fixed in time and postures. But Guru Nanak broke fresh ground by redefining meditation as different from this classical view-point.


He pleaded with the Muslim audiences to shed mundane worries and get into the state of communion with God. The meditation of trance is, at best, of a temporary and periodic duration, and, once out of it, the subject reverts to worldly affairs with the same trickery which is part of his mental make-up.

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~

jasleen_kaur ji

As in the beginning I wrote that it was my view( about level of understanding Gurbani ) and it doesnt mean I am right or you are wrong. I just expressed my views with example. You disagree, so it be, it doesnt bother me. I would not call you wrong regardless of my stand in this context.

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HAR bisrat sda khuari Mehla 5
pk70

Meditation..... Contd [Last Part]


Many Siddhas and monks who had abjured the world to find celestial peace showed their impatience, their boiling rage and baseness of nature, like the famous Durbasa Rishi, and even the recorded exploits of those who had graduated to the level of celestial beings, gods, goddesses, including their chief Indra.



They at times behaved worse than ordinary people with overpowering weaknesses in their character. These holy men lost their composure on such minor issues and occasions as begging alms and misbehaving with house-holders. This was leading humanity nowhere, and was counter-productive and a waste of many lives.



There is a story of a nun who was very fond of apples but wished to get rid of this fascination. She would keep the apple near her pillow and tried to keep her mind away from its aroma.



She became a nervous wreck as it became too much to either ignore it or eat it and find peace. It is nothing more than the classic hath-yoga behaviour. It leads to a sense of rage, frustration and longing which further results in aggressive relapse in any person. Guru Nanak was against such practices.

Then, what is the new methodology as propounded by the founder of Sikhism about meditation? It was the fervor of sincere devotion, sublime love and a state of God-intoxication when man realized that there was nothing he could do since ultimately God was the Doer. And he would glow with that knowledge and not want even for a moment to be cast out of such a psychical state of mysticism. That is the mantram of Wah-e-Guru.

It is affirmed that all names by which God is remembered are sacred, and may be freely employed, as desired and convenient for the Sikh, without any hesitation or reservation about it being either of classical Sanskrit, Arabic or of any other religious usage, so far that these satisfy the disciple. More than one hundred names have been used in the Guru Granth Sahib, which are repeated and sung with relish by the Sikhs.

But the state of ecstasy of Wah-e-Guru remains unmatched for a Sikh in enchantment and love with God, where nothing is abhorrent and all enchants!

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A state of beatitude is only possible by adopting fully the purity of mind and action. One may claim riddance of falsification, but the mind must be brimming with adoration and love for the Creator and His creation at the highest level.




For such souls, each and every moment is a discovery and enchantment over the unmeasured variety of God’s infinite reach. One gives up a myopic view of life and the universe. Guru Nanak calls this attitude the state of Vismad.


It is perhaps for this situation prevailing in the so-called spiritual scene, that in Sikhism, intoxicants are taboo and the prohibition is sought to be strictly enforced:





In the final count, it is the sincerity and honest submission of Man that fashions his character, on the role model of the Creator himself, and merges his ego in the Lord, and becomes forever one with Him. This is the sublime state of meditation in Sikh parlance:
[SGGS: 292] There is none other higher thought:
Than living in God, constant in mind.

[It is the last Part of the Article, One may kindly post anything related to this thread]

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~

Hope you like this as much as I do. I had to share it with you.

From Bandginama by Raghbir Singh

Through repetition of God’s Name, we begin to be moulded in His pattern and we begin, to assimilate His virtues. The story goes that a certain Man told a Mahatma of his yearning to find God. The Mahatma advised him to repeat God’s Name. The man rejoined, “When I resort to
Nam, my mind wanders.” The Mahatma asked, “What do you hold in dearest affection?”


He replied,“My milch-buffalo is my dearest possession.”

From Guru Arjan Dev

The Mahatma said,“In seclusion, visualize your milch-buffalo”

The man did what he was told he closed the doors of his room and concentrated his mind on the buffalo. The man’s wife complained to the Mahatma that her husband had shut himself up in his room for days together and showed no signs of emerging from it. The Mahatma went to the man’s house and asked him to come out of his room. He replied, “How can I come out? I am a she-buffalo, my horns are long, and they will not allow me to come out of the room.”

The Mahatma said, “You are right. Now cease to think of the she-buffalo,

think of your real self, and by so doing, you will begin to think of yourself as
a man.”


A few days later, the man went to see the Mahatma. The Mahatma patted him on the back, and said that mental concentration was full of potentialities,“ Just as you turned into a she-buffalo and back again into yourself, similarly, if you so desire, you can transform yourself into an angel, and from an angel into God.”

The value of Nam transcends that of charity, meditation and austerities.
He who meditates on God’s name
realizes all his objectives.

pun dan jap tap jete sabli upari namu
Hai Hari rasna jo japai tis puran kam

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gux gwvw idnu rwiq nwnk cwau eyhu || gun gaavaa dhin raath naanak chaao eaehu ||To sing Your Glorious Praises day and night - O Nanak, this is my heart-felt desire.

Respected aad ji,

Thanks for a nice post.I missed it due to connectivity problems that I am bogged down with. Yes., I do appreciate the message that has gone through this parable. Kindly post one or two of this kind as I have not any background on this.


Regards

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~

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~~~**Jap mun Satnaam sda Satnaam...sda satnaam sda satnaam.....~~~