Make your meditation part of your daily routine.
MEDITATION is like everything else in life – the more you practice, the more benefit you will receive from your efforts. A regular and sincere meditator will tell you that meditation brings the ultimate reward. It enables us to transcend the noise of the mind and the waywardness of our emotions so we can live in the light of the purest part of our being, our soul.
In our Adelaide classes we offer numerous techniques and guidance and encourage you to try a three week daily meditation practice so you can anchor yourself in your own meditation journey.
Getting started at home
Below are 21 simple exercises taken from Sri Chinmoy’s writings on meditation that you can begin to practice at home. Some of them will resonate with you more profoundly than others, so we encourage you to experiment and see what appeals to you the most. Remember, before you begin, that putting on some fresh clothes, clearing your room of clutter, lighting incense, using a candle and displaying fresh flowers can really help to create a more meditative consciousness.
After the meditation exercise each day we encourage you to take a few moments to jot down any insights and inspirations that may come from the meditation. This process can really help us to really assimilate the peace and joy of the meditation and also serve as inspiration down the track, when we look back at how far we have progressed. 🙂
Here is some of Sri Chinmoy’s flute music you can playing softly whilst you practise the exercises.
21 DAY MEDITATION CHALLENGE
Week 1 – DAY ONE
Meditation Technique for Day 1
“When you sit down to meditate, try to breathe in as slowly and quietly as possible, so that if somebody placed a tiny thread in front of your nose it would not move at all….Each time you breathe in, try to feel that you are bringing infinite peace into your body … When you breathe out, try to feel that you are expelling the restlessness within you and also the restlessness that you see all around you.”
Positive Action: Motivating Yourself
“Why do we meditate? We meditate because this world of ours has not been able to fulfill us. The so-called peace that we feel in our day-to-day life is five minutes of peace after ten hours of anxiety, worry and frustration. We are constantly at the mercy of the negative forces that are all around us: jealousy, fear, doubt, worry, anxiety and despair. These forces are like monkeys. When they get tired of biting us and take rest for a few minutes, then we say we are enjoying peace. But this is not real peace at all, and the next moment they will attack us again.”
“It is only through meditation that we can get lasting peace, divine peace. If we meditate soulfully in the morning and receive peace for only one minute, that one minute of peace will permeate our whole day. And when we have a meditation of the highest order, then we get really abiding peace, light and delight. We need meditation because we want to grow in light and fulfill ourselves in light. If this is our aspiration, if this is our thirst, then meditation is the only way.”
“If we feel that we are satisfied with what we have and what we are, then there is no need for us to enter into the field of meditation. The reason we enter into meditation is because we have an inner hunger. We feel that within us there is something luminous, something vast, something divine. We feel that we need this thing very badly; only right now we do not have access to it. Our inner hunger comes from our spiritual need.”
Quote for the day
“I meditate
So that I can inundate
My entire being
With the omnipotent power of peace.”
Sri Chinmoy
Remember to take a few moments to sit quietly after your meditation and journal should you wish. 🙂
Week 1 – DAY TWO
Meditation Technique for Day 2
After practicing the exercise from Day 1 a few times, then with each breath “try to feel that you are breathing in infinite joy and breathing out sorrow, suffering and melancholy.”
Positive Action: Creating your Personal Meditation Space
Create a beautiful space where you will practice your meditation. Arrange flowers and candles there. Place some images of nature, something vast and beautiful, or a spiritual teacher. Keep some inspiring books there. Set up a sound system where you can play spiritual music. Make it a sanctuary where you will want to spend time. Only use this space for your meditation, spiritual reading and reflection. This will help provide an environment that is conducive to a more fulfilling inner experience.
“When you meditate at home, you should have a corner of your room that is absolutely pure and sanctified – a sacred place which you use only for meditation. There you can make a shrine…. It will also help if you burn incense and keep some flowers on your shrine. Their colour, fragrance and pure consciousness will give you inspiration. From inspiration you get aspiration. It is the same with using candles during meditation.”
“When meditating, it is important to keep the spine straight and erect, and to keep the body relaxed… The lotus position is not at all necessary for proper meditation. Many people meditate very well while seated in a chair.”
Quote for the day
“Every day there is only one thing to learn:
How to be honestly happy.”
Sri Chinmoy
Remember to take a few moments to sit quietly after your meditation and journal should you wish. 🙂
Week 1 – DAY THREE
Meditation Technique for Day 3
“If you cannot enter into your deepest meditation because your mind is restless, this is an opportunity to utilise a mantra… Each mantra has a special significance and inner power…. The most powerful of all mantras is ‘Aum’; ‘Aum’ is the mother of all mantras.”
“It is best to chant ‘Aum’ out loud, so its sound can vibrate even in your physical ears and permeate your entire body. This will convince your outer mind and give you a greater sense of joy and achievement. When chanting out loud, the ‘M’ sound should last at least three times as long as the ‘AU’ sound. In the twinkling of an eye, the power of ‘Aum’ can transform darkness into light, ignorance into knowledge and death into Immortality.”
Positive Action: Setting a Time to Meditate Every Day
Choose a good time – first thing in the morning – when you can set aside 15 minutes to be calm and quiet. Be realistic; choose a time when you are actually going to be able to get up and give it your best effort – every day.
“If you are regular and punctual in your meditation, you will notice your own progress. If you can meditate sincerely and soulfully at a fixed hour every day, a time will come when you will become an expert. At that time, you will be able to meditate while doing anything, and you won’t need a fixed hour.”
Before you meditate in the morning, make sure you shower or at least wash your face to refresh yourself, and wear clean, light and loose fitting clothing.
Quote for the day
“Peace that comes
From the inner awakening
Is the peace everlasting.”
Sri Chinmoy
Feel like you are getting into a routine? Take a few moments to sit quietly after your meditation and journal should you wish. 🙂
Week 1 – DAY FOUR
Meditation Technique for Day 4
Concentrate on a candle flame, first on the whole flame and then on a single point. Whenever thoughts enter into your mind, gently bring your attention back to the flame. Feel that your concentration is coming from deep inside you, from your heart, not from your mind. Feel that nothing exists except you and the flame.
Positive Action: Starting with Concentration
“For a beginner it is better to start with concentration. Otherwise, the moment you try to make your mind calm and vacant, millions of uncomely thoughts will enter into you and you will not be able to meditate even for one second. If you concentrate, at that time you challenge the wrong thoughts that are trying to enter you. So in the beginning just practise concentration for a few minutes.”
Quote for the day by Sri Chinmoy
“Do you need happiness?
Then do just three things:
Meditate regularly. Smile soulfully. Love untiringly.”
You’re doing great! Keep going. Why not write down your favourite inspirational quotes to help you commit them to memory. 🙂
Week 1 – DAY FIVE
Meditation Technique for Day 5
Concentrate on a flower, first on the whole flower and then on a single petal. Whenever thoughts enter into your mind, gently bring your attention back to the flower. Feel that your concentration is coming from deep inside you, from your heart, not from your mind. Feel that nothing exists except you and the flower.
Positive Action: Developing Your Concentration
“When we concentrate, we are like a bullet entering into something, or we are like a magnet pulling the object of concentration towards us. At that time, we do not allow any thought to enter into our mind, whether it is good or bad. In concentration the entire mind has to be focused on a particular object or subject. If we are concentrating on the petal of a flower, we try to feel that nothing else exists in the entire world but us and the petal.”
Quote for the day
“Now is the time to make good use of time.
Today is the day to begin a perfect day.”
Sri Chinmoy
What did you gain from today’s experience? By writing it down it might bring further clarity for you. 🙂
Week 1 – DAY SIX
Meditation Technique to Try: The Vastness of the Sky
“Keep your eyes half open and imagine the vast sky. In the beginning, try to feel that the sky is in front of you; later try to feel that you are as vast as the sky, or that you are the vast sky itself.
“After a few minutes please close your eyes and try to see and feel the sky inside your heart. Please feel that you are the universal heart, and that inside you is the sky that you meditated upon and identified yourself with. Your spiritual heart is infinitely vaster than the sky, so you can easily house the sky within yourself.”
Positive Action: Do Not Be Discouraged
“Please do not be disturbed if you cannot meditate well in the beginning. Even in the ordinary life, God alone knows how many years one must practice in order to become very good at something. If an accomplished pianist thinks of what his standard was when he first began to play, he will laugh. It is through gradual progress that he has achieved his present musical height. In the spiritual life also, you may find it difficult to meditate in the beginning. But do not try to force yourself. Ten minutes early in the morning is enough. Gradually your capacity will increase. If you practice every day, you will make progress in your inner life.”
Quote for the day
“Do you want to be always happy?
Then give up fighting
For negativity
And learn the beautiful art
Of self-encouragement.”
Sri Chinmoy
What encouraging words can you put to pen in your journal today? 🙂
Week 1 – DAY SEVEN
Meditation Technique for Day 7
Choose the technique that worked best for you this week and practise it again, with a focus to go deeper within.
Positive Action: Focus on GRATITUDE
Concentrate for a few minutes on gratitude – on everything you have to be grateful for in your life. You can repeat the word ‘gratitude’ like a mantra, or repeat today’s aphorism.
“Gratitude means self-offering to one’s highest self. Your gratitude is not going to somebody else; it is going to your own highest self. Gratitude helps you identify and feel your oneness with your own highest reality.”
“Each breathing moment is a miracle.”
“One quality can solve all your problems – everybody’s problems – and that quality is gratitude. Constantly offer your gratitude. Everyday count the petals of your gratitude-heart and open another petal..”
Quote for the day
“My own gratitude-heart is all that matters.”
Sri Chinmoy
Try making a list of seven things you can be grateful for at the end of this first week in the 3 Week Meditation Challenge. 🙂