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.....~~~

3.Meditation
Simran: The Path of Awakening our True Self
Dr. S. S. Sodhi*

* 22 Woodbank Tr. Halifax, NS Canada.B3 M3 K4
The writer of the article taught at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
“The highest truth is that which we can only realize by plunging into it. And when our consciousness is fully merged in it, then we know that it is no mere acquisition, but that we are one with it”.
The Art of meditation is, no doubt, the kernel of religious evolution. Without the practice of concentration and meditation, no man can ever expect to reach the highest state of spiritual enlightenment. When we study the lives of the great Christian, ***, Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan and Sikh mystics, we fully realize that they reached the highest spiritual consciousness through the power of concentration and meditation. Huxley, in his famous book “The Perennial Philosophy”, comments:


“The biographies of the Saints testify unequivocally to the fact that spiritual training leads to a transcendence of personality. In all circumstances and in relation to all creatures, so the Saint ‘loves his enemies’, or, if he is a Buddhist, does not even recognize the existence of enemies, but treats all sentient beings, sub-human as well as human, with the same compassion and disinterested good-will. Insofar as they are Saints, they are astonishingly alike. Their actions, are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation to the universe and its spiritual ground.”

Pragmatic Value


Apart from the religious and cognitive attainments of man through the practice of concentration and meditation, the present author recognises its pragmatic value in the integration of the human mind and personality.


Meditation leads to the state of transcendence in which the person achieves a level of self-understanding and continuously realises the nature and quality of his relationship to the Ground of Being. This realisation leads to an acceptance and understanding of what is, and so psychological openness based on faith and love, rendering any psychological defences irrelevant.


In the cases of Saints such as Saint Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Baha U’llah, Lord Buddha, Guru Nanak and several scores of others, it seems evident that the experience of transcendence through meditation occurred with such frequency and intensity that it became a permanent element in their lives, colouring every thought and action.


“Meditation”, states the Bhagavad-Gita, “leads the individual into a state of enlightment in Brahman… A man does not fall back from it into delusion.”



A deluded mind becomes extremely disturbed and agitated by some of the secondary emotions such as, power orientation, hatred, and jealousy. One way of overcoming the disturbing conditions of the mind is to cultivate positive power of concentration and meditation.


Patanjali, a famous Indian philosopher outlines the following steps to reach the perfect state of meditation:
a. Yama – mental control.
b. Niyama – physical regulation and mental training.
c. Asana – Posture.
d. Pranayama – breathing exercises.
e. Pratyhara – withdrawal of mind from sense objects.
f. Dharana – concentration.
g. Dhyana – Meditation.
h. Samadhi – Super Consciousness.


Until it attains high states of consciousness, the mind functions almost entirely through nervous system. Through ethical observation, physical as well as inner cleansing, the individual can cultivate a kind of self-acceptance leading to contentment and other such qualities.


It is desirable that one tries to relax the body when one practices concentration. Physical relaxation is extremely helpful for mental repose, so it is advisable to sit in a relaxed position (asana) and let the whole neuro-muscular system loosen up.

Tension, anxiety




It has been experimentally shown that nervous tension and free floating anxiety can be removed or decreased by willfully relaxing the neuro-muscular system. In relaxation exercises, rhythmical breathing (pranayama) is also found to be efficacious.
After practicing relaxation for a few minutes, one should take a symbol or personal aspect of God on which to focus the mind. In the practice of concentration the entire mind can be made to converge on a symbol, a personal aspect of God, signifying the universal qualities of Divine Ground. For example, a devout Christian should take Jesus or the Madonna as his ideal and concentrate the mind on one or the other. With an Indian background one can take any of the Incarnations who are spiritually loved by the Indians.


In the beginning, one will observe that the mind will run away to previous thoughts and to objects of senses. It is observed that libidinal experiences and negative thoughts come to the surface of the mind usually at this time. One should not be discouraged and give up the practice of meditation when one finds that it is difficult to hold the mind on a spiritual symbol for more than a few seconds. Experience has proven that the mind becomes steady and peaceful within a short time.


By practicing meditation for some months one can gain power to hold continuously the thought of the particular aspect of Divine Ground (God-Consciousness).


When concentration is very deep and the mind does not waver but remains focused on the object of thought, that is meditation. It is a degree of the depth of concentration in which the mind flows continuously to an object as


“oil poured from one vessel to another”.


In the vast majority of cases of divine relationship, people have to cultivate understanding of Divine Ground by remembering the incidents in the lives of divine personalities. Also, the repetition of the name of God develops a spiritual aspect of cognitive and affective relationship with the Divine Ground. Once it is established, the meditation becomes spontaneous and enjoyable.
When the whole mind is completely withdrawn from the objective world and is focussed on the object of realisation, when love reaches its culmination, and as such it makes the devotee the veritable embodiment of love, the individual transcends the limitation of personality and directly experiences the absolute in its integrated Unity. We say he has reached the state of super-consciousness (samadhi).


According to St. Teresa of Avila “The best sign that anyone has made progress is that she thinks herself the last of all and proves it by her behaviour, and that she arrives at the well-being of others in all she does. This is the truest test”.

Serious matter


If that is so, the yogi through samadhi (super-conscious experiences) reaches the state of Universal Consciousness – a state in which the subjective and objective worlds are completely identical. The manifestations merge to form one absolute existence. Without differentiation of any kind – a merger with the Divine Ground.


These experiences not only change the intellectual side of knowledge of the reality behind the phenomenal world, but they also change the quality of the emotional life of the person.
In this tension-filled, power-oriented world, where relaxation is achieved by changing the blood chemistry through the use of various drugs, the techniques of relaxation, and meditation should be taken seriously by those who are concerned with bringing about positive orientation to human behaviour. If the restructuring of thought processes can produce a self-actualisating individual, it must be tried, before other physio-chemical approaches or the so-called short-cuts are put into universal use.




Bhul Chuk Mauf

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

I think, quiet time, meditation, solatary time, reflection time, whatever people want to call it, i.e. an invetory of ones deeds and actions and asking Waheguru to help you against the 5 thieves for that day is benficial.

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Randip Singh
Sikh History Website

"Let no man be proud because of his caste/race (Jaat).
For the man who has God in his heart, he alone is the true Brahmin.
O stupid fool, be not proud of your caste/race (Jaat), by this pride many sins arise.
Everyone says there are four castes/races (Jaat), but they are all created from the Lords seed (essence).
All men are moulded from the same clay, but the potter has fashioned it into vessels of numerous forms.
By joining the five elements, the form of the body is made, no one can say that the element is less in one and more in another" Pg 1128 SGGS

Meditation: Call of the Divine
Gajindar Singh*

* 2983, Sector 61, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar. 160 062. (Punjab).

Guru Granth Sahib is replete with exhortation to Godliness, Truthful conduct and life-long practice of moral conduct. The stress is on good clean life, detached from erring acts but not essentially from the worldly pursuits. The difference between Guru Nanak’s path and other established religions is that others do not stress so much on giving priority to extrusion of faults. They rather hasten to initiate the individual presuming that, in due time, the behaviour of the man would automatically cleanse itself of moral weaknesses. This has been exploited by certain religious orders to form a mass base of the half-inclined and semi-initiated followers who have created havoc with the pristine value-based systems without their seriously accepting the concerned disciplines.




Even though the matter has been dealt with in great detail in the Guru Granth Sahib, there is an on-going serious debate in the Sikh community about the methodology of meditation.



It is held by some scholars that in spite of stress on the practice of naam simran, they do not find clarity on the rules and methods of meditation in the Guru Granth (or in other standard works of Sikh savants) specifying the science and procedure of Naam simran in practice. They hold that the people, who are immersed into long hours of recitation of guru-bani feel the vacuum, andgo in search of a methodology of meditation since the mere reading of the Gur-Vak is not the desired purpose. It has led many Sikhs to approach the ill-informed bhais, granthis and the self-acclaimed Babas to become their keen followers, who complement the seekers’ travails with the Yogic and Nath theories, firmly discarded by the Sikh Gurus.


Kou sast ibcrt muiK igAana .
pUja itlku tIrT iesnana .
invlI krm Aasn cxurasIh ien mih sa:it n Aav{ jIxu . [SGGS: 98]
They utter the six philosophic schools orally,
Worship, applying marks, visit holy spots to bathe,
The eighty four asanas and the yogic practices,

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

Contd.

They indulge primarily in reintroducing the practices of trance and breath-control or reading en masse, through the Adi Granth, in the style of Al Koran, or the continuous chanting of Ramayan, etc.



There are more mendicants in the Sikh inhabited areas flourishing on the ignorance of the Sikh populace by preaching, in a hushed manner, the secret of the so called naam-dan. In order to maintain their hold on these hapless unfortunates, they strictly forbid them to discuss the methodology and the confidential diksha of naamwith anyone and to remain glued to the Baba himself.





The Babasprefer it this way, so that the subject remains perennially dependent on them and need not strive to improve his character and behaviour as such. The Gurus sing of total surrender, giving up the personal ego and fusion of Self with All-Pervading Para-Brahmas the ultimate objective. Far from the Babas’ stance strongly influenced by the traditional Nath or Yogic practices rejected in Sikhism, Guru Nanak’s mission was to prepare the initiate to the purest and highest level of conduct:

[SGGS : 4]


You are All Virtue; I have none,
Without virtues there cannot be any meditation.




When a person gives up resistance built on personal ego, a state of harmony takes place. This is experienced by each individual at least once in life-time, may be, willingly or unwillingly. This is, for instance, clearly visible in the people at the thresh-hold of Death. Now, every one knows for sure that Death has to occur, but people go round living their normal span of lives, unmindful of the approaching hour of the supreme renunciation, doing their normal acts as if the Final Act is going to happen to all others, but not to them:

That day is fast approaching,
Mother, father, brother, son and wife,
Ponder, who is whose?

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

Sikh 80 ji

These are good articles but for ordinary people it is hard to do all that. For the beginners like me, analyzing our deeds in context of Hukamnama we take every day( and Gurbani we recite every day). I think it will be better to improve ourselves this way in stead of trying meditation in the beginning. Just sharing my views in context of meditation.

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HAR bisrat sda khuari Mehla 5
pk70

in my limited understanding, meditation is a core component of sikh life. it seems to me that "leaving it for later" would not be in harmony with Guru sahib's teachings.

sorry if i've misunderstood something.

ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ ਮਹਲਾ ੩ ॥
Sirīrāg mehlā 3.
Siree Raag, Third Mehl:

ਸੁਖ ਸਾਗਰੁ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਹੈ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਪਾਇਆ ਜਾਇ ॥
Sukẖ sāgar har nām hai gurmukẖ pā*i*ā jā*ė.
The Name of the Lord is the Ocean of Peace; the Gurmukhs obtain it.

ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਈਐ ਸਹਜੇ ਨਾਮਿ ਸਮਾਇ ॥
An*ḏin nām ḏẖi*ā*ī*ai sehjė nām samā*ė.
Meditating on the Naam, night and day, they are easily and intuitively absorbed in the Naam.

ਅੰਦਰੁ ਰਚੈ ਹਰਿ ਸਚ ਸਿਉ ਰਸਨਾ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਣ ਗਾਇ ॥੧॥
Anḏar racẖai har sacẖ si*o rasnā har guṇ gā*ė. ||1||
Their inner beings are immersed in the True Lord; they sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord. ||1||

ਭਾਈ ਰੇ ਜਗੁ ਦੁਖੀਆ ਦੂਜੈ ਭਾਇ ॥
Bẖā*ī rė jag ḏukẖī*ā ḏūjai bẖā*ė.
O Siblings of Destiny, the world is in misery, engrossed in the love of duality.

ਗੁਰ ਸਰਣਾਈ ਸੁਖੁ ਲਹਹਿ ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
Gur sarṇā*ī sukẖ laheh an*ḏin nām ḏẖi*ā*ė. ||1|| rahā*o.
In the Sanctuary of the Guru, peace is found, meditating on the Naam night and day. ||1||Pause||

ਸਾਚੇ ਮੈਲੁ ਨ ਲਾਗਈ ਮਨੁ ਨਿਰਮਲੁ ਹਰਿ ਧਿਆਇ ॥
Sācẖė mail na lāg*ī man nirmal har ḏẖi*ā*ė.
The truthful ones are not stained by filth. Meditating on the Lord, their minds remain pure.

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਸਬਦੁ ਪਛਾਣੀਐ ਹਰਿ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਨਾਮਿ ਸਮਾਇ ॥
Gurmukẖ sabaḏ pacẖẖāṇī*ai har amriṯ nām samā*ė.
The Gurmukhs realize the Word of the Shabad; they are immersed in the Ambrosial Nectar of the Lord's Name.

ਗੁਰ ਗਿਆਨੁ ਪ੍ਰਚੰਡੁ ਬਲਾਇਆ ਅਗਿਆਨੁ ਅੰਧੇਰਾ ਜਾਇ ॥੨॥
Gur gi*ān parcẖand balā*i*ā agi*ān anḏẖėrā jā*ė. ||2||
The Guru has lit the brilliant light of spiritual wisdom, and the darkness of ignorance has been dispelled. ||2||

ਮਨਮੁਖ ਮੈਲੇ ਮਲੁ ਭਰੇ ਹਉਮੈ ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਵਿਕਾਰੁ ॥
Manmukẖ mailė mal bẖarė ha*umai ṯarisnā vikār.
The self-willed manmukhs are polluted. They are filled with the pollution of egotism, wickedness and desire.

ਬਿਨੁ ਸਬਦੈ ਮੈਲੁ ਨ ਉਤਰੈ ਮਰਿ ਜੰਮਹਿ ਹੋਇ ਖੁਆਰੁ ॥
Bin sabḏai mail na uṯrai mar jameh ho*ė kẖu*ār.
Without the Shabad, this pollution is not washed off; through the cycle of death and rebirth, they waste away in misery.

ਧਾਤੁਰ ਬਾਜੀ ਪਲਚਿ ਰਹੇ ਨਾ ਉਰਵਾਰੁ ਨ ਪਾਰੁ ॥੩॥
Ḏẖāṯur bājī palacẖ rahė nā urvār na pār. ||3||
Engrossed in this transitory drama, they are not at home in either this world or the next. ||3||

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਜਪ ਤਪ ਸੰਜਮੀ ਹਰਿ ਕੈ ਨਾਮਿ ਪਿਆਰੁ ॥
Gurmukẖ jap ṯap sanjmī har kai nām pi*ār.
For the Gurmukh, the love of the Name of the Lord is chanting, deep meditation and self-discipline.

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਸਦਾ ਧਿਆਈਐ ਏਕੁ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾਰੁ ॥
Gurmukẖ saḏā ḏẖi*ā*ī*ai ėk nām karṯār.
The Gurmukh meditates forever on the Name of the One Creator Lord.

ਨਾਨਕ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਈਐ ਸਭਨਾ ਜੀਆ ਕਾ ਆਧਾਰੁ ॥੪॥੭॥੪੦॥
Nānak nām ḏẖi*ā*ī*ai sabẖnā jī*ā kā āḏẖār. ||4||7||40||
O Nanak, meditate on the Naam, the Name of the Lord, the Support of all beings. ||4||7||40||

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Jasleen_kaur ji

You have totally taken my comments in a wrong way There are some people who sit alone then meditate, how they do it is beyond my understanding because mind needs to be stilled. If we dont start working on our minds as per guidance from Gurbani, mind will keep wandering. I pointed out about the beginning. The preparation to be worthy of Him is a must as stated about the different realms in Jap Ji. It is also called a systematic character development. By the way, during Satguru Nanak, there were yogis practicing meditation(tap), Guru ji questioned it and told them that without unconditional love and faith there would be no liberation. Guru ji also said" While doing meditations and other hardships, you never get out of ego"
I was just pointing out that in the beginning, the preparation of heart for His love is a must. Going over different techniques of meditation will not help. People teach meditation even without mentioning name of God at all.
What you are trying to say with this Guru shabad is not clear because Gurgani doesnt advocate these kinds of special tapas(meditations). When I get time I shall support this statement with Shabad. Thanks for pointing out, because it has given me a chance to give detail of what I said in a few words.

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HAR bisrat sda khuari Mehla 5
pk70

PK ji

i'm sorry to be unclear. (veerji? bhenji?)

i'm not trying to say anything with Guru's Shabad... Guru sahib is. i was simply trying to show that meditation is a necessity in the life of a gursikh.

yes, Guru sahib tells us that meditation WITHOUT love for God is useless. but that's not the topic of discussion, is it? i assumed that since this is a sikh forum, a topic on meditation would be meditation from a sikh point of view. i apologize if i misunderstood.

you yourself have stated in other topics that there are no stages of development in sikhi, so i do not understand how one would not be ready to engage in meditation on naam from the very beginning. how does your theory of "preparation" and "systematic character development" fit in with there being no stages of development in sikhi? i apologize if you find my questions stupid, i'm new at this and have difficulty understanding what appear to my simple mind to be contradictions.

fateh!

(btw, what is your name, if you don't mind? i would feel more comfortable having discussions with people if i could address them by name. sorry if this makes you uncomfortable)

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Jasleen _ Kaur ji
Guru Fateh
Sorry I am late in responding to your questions
You can call me G N Singh if you wish !

Let me answer your question regarding my comment about levels of Sikhi.
I strongly feel that there are no levels for understanding Gurbani. Why? Because, as I have encountered some people with long experience in understanding Gurbani, sadly I have found their minds totally closed and they are glued to what they strongly believe in. Speaking about such people, there is no level to understand Gurbani. At whatever level they start, they
just stick there, if any one try to share a new idea, they will draw their swords to defend what they believe in. If they note some other one is convinced with the new idea, they dont forgive him/her either. Growth is stopped totally. It will not be odd to say here another thing also, even though as I have stated above there is no level of understanding Gurbani; there are levels of Sikhi as Satguru ji has beautifully expressed in Jap Ji Sahib. In Japji Sahib in Stanza 34, Satguru ji states about the purpose of life. Here the realm of dharma is discussed,it is followed by realm of knowledge where one widens once approach towards the world with the help of knowledge achieved through Guru guidance. Efforts are put to develop character systematically. Karm khand starts. After winning over all five primal forces with the Guru guidance and by obeying His Ordinance. Levels of Sikhi become very clear. Realizing the purpose of life, following Guru Guidance, seeker starts battling with in to over come ego, anger, lust, greed. Earlier, Guru ji teaches about falling in love with God. Even for that, negative forces make us battle with them. I hope I have answered your questions.
Last not least, I have found your questions very interesting.

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HAR bisrat sda khuari Mehla 5
pk70