Chinmoy - 101 Meditation Techniques

from the writings of

Published by Aum Publications at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Sri Chinmoy Centre

Sri Chinmoys first book,
Meditations: Food for the Soul,
was published in 1970.

Copyright 2009 Sri Chinmoy Centre
Copyright 2013 Sri Chinmoy Centre (ebook)

ISBN: 978-1-938599-36-1

Front cover photographs by
Sri Chinmoy Centre members
Ahuta, Kedar, Pranlobha, Sharani and Unmesh.

Also commercial photographs by licensing agreement.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book
may be reproduced without express
written permission of the publisher.

Aum Publications
8610 Parsons Blvd.
Jamaica, New York 11432
USA

www.srichinmoy.org

Contents

Stilling the Mind

During my deep meditation,

I lose all my minds differences

The way a river loses

All its differences in the sea.

Chase away the monkey. The mind is like a monkey. If you are attacked by a monkey which constantly bites and pinches you, you have to threaten the monkey. Then each time it comes, if you strike it vehemently, eventually the monkey will feel that it is hopeless to try to bother you. You must always remain as vigilant as possible. When an undivine thought enters into your mind, immediately you will chase it away. If you are constantly vigilant, eventually these thoughts will give up and no longer come to disturb you.

The most important thing is practice. Today your mind acts like a monkey. It is knocking all the time at your hearts door and disturbing the poise of the heart. But as many times as the mind comes to you, just chase it away or deliberately place your conscious awareness on something else. If you allow it to distract you, it will only gain strength. You have to know that in this world, everybody has pride, vanity and self-esteem. So if you keep your hearts door closed each time the mind comes, if you pay no attention to the mind, then after some time the mind will find it beneath its dignity to bother you.

Grab the mind. Feel that inside the heart there is something which is infinitely more powerful than the mind. Feel the soul, and bring the soul forward from the heart. Feel that there is intense power inside the soul. You may not see the soul, but bring forward your inner strength and then grab the mind. Say to the mind, You allowed me to remain quiet for a few minutes, and I am grateful. But I am still praying and meditating, still crying for peace, light and bliss, and now you are not allowing me to continue.

Put the mind into the heart. Just grab the mind and put it into the flood of the heart. As long as it allows you to meditate, you do not have to worry. But when it starts bothering you, when it starts creating pain, that means it is resisting. It is not allowing you to receive more peace and light from Above.

Treat the mind like a naughty child. Just grab the mind and feel that it is like a naughty child. Before, it was asleep and allowed the mother to remain silent or pray to God. But now the child is up and it wants to cause mischief. It does not want to allow the mother to aspire any further, to achieve more peace, light and bliss. So what will the mother do? The mother will threaten the child and say, I am still praying, I am meditating. You must not bother me, you must not disturb me, or I will punish you.

Cut the thought to pieces. To make your mind vacant, you should not allow any thought to enter into your mind and take shape. Suppose a name comes. As soon as the first letter of the name appears, you kill the name. You have to make your mind vacant, as empty as possible, with your power of concentration.

Suppose a thought, or a vibration, or something else is coming. Immediately, shoot an arrow and pierce it into pieces. An idea comes, somebodys name comes, or some thought comes. Immediately, just throw it out. It must not come and enter into your mind. Before it touches your mind you have to cut it into pieces.

Inside the ocean. But if you already have thoughts and ideas within you, within your body, within your mind, then you have to meditate like this: be as relaxed as possible. Feel as if you are inside the ocean. Then absorb those thoughts and ideas so that they do not have a separate existence. They are lost in the sea. If they are already within you, throw them into the sea. If they are coming from outside, then do not allow them to enter into you. After doing this your meditation is bound to be successful.

Racing with a train, flying with a bird. If you have a good thought, feel that you are an express train racing on and on, or a bird flying up. If you have a divine idea, just run with it to your destination. But if wrong, false, undivine thoughts come, do not stay with them. Please discard them immediately.

Use a superior power. The reason that you are constantly bothered by thoughts is because you are trying to meditate inside your mind. The very nature of the mind is to welcome thoughtsgood thoughts, bad thoughts, divine thoughts, undivine thoughts. If you want to control the mind with your human will, then it will be like asking a monkey or a fly not to bother you. The very nature of a monkey is to bite and pinch; the very nature of a fly is to bother people.

The mind needs a superior power to keep it quiet. This superior power is the power of the soul. You have to bring to the fore the light of the soul from inside your heart. You are the possessor of two rooms: the heart-room and the mind-room. Right now the mind-room is obscure, unlit and impure; it is unwilling to open to the light. But the heart-room is always open to the light, for that is where the soul abides. Instead of concentrating on the mind proper, if you can concentrate and meditate on the reality that is inside the heart, then this reality will come forward. Then, when you are well-established in the heart, when you are surcharged with the souls light, at that time you can enter into the mind-room to illumine the mind.

Before meditation

Pray to God to give you

A silence-mind.

Guard the door. To control your thoughts, feel that there is a room inside your mind, and naturally the room has a door. It is your room, so you can stand outside the door and not allow any thought to come in. You can keep the mind-room under lock and key, and stand at the door. Since it is your room, who can enter without your permission? But if you leave the door open, anybody can come in, and once they are inside it is difficult for you to throw them out. So you have to prevent them from coming in.

Allow only your friends. If you want to learn meditation without going through concentration, you must feel that you are standing at the door of your inner room. When you stand at the door, you allow only your friends to enter into your room. You do not allow strangers or your enemies.

You have to welcome only good thoughts, divine thoughts. These are your true friends. Undivine thoughts, hostile thoughts, must not come into your mind. Your mind is constantly receiving thoughts, and you have to be very careful. You have to welcome only divine thoughts Then, play with these divine thoughts in the garden of your mind. Play with thoughts of divine qualities: divine love, divine power or divine peace. Then a time will come when you will see that there are no thoughts. Your entire being will be surcharged with inner Divinity.