In realizing our nature, we must expand our consciousness and come to our Wholistic nature. This is where meditation comes in. It helps us to expand our awareness or consciousness of our life and life around us. Everyone is pursuing happiness, and the Holy Ones tell us happiness is our very nature. However, to come to this realization, we have to expand our awareness of our Wholistic nature.

The first step in the process of expanding our awareness is the desire to have the awareness of our Wholistic nature.

We need to understand that this desire is the Soul’s natural inclination or desire to manifest and express the Divine Will in the Causal body, Astral body, and finally to the Physical body. This inclination or desire has a different form in each of the bodies, and we must become aware of the desire in each body and fulfill each stage or each body’s desire. The only way to do this is to become aware of what the desire is at each body: Physical, Astral, and Causal. Through calming down the mind, breath, and lower ego, we are able to see our desire.

Each Soul ultimately has a unique purpose that it must fulfill in life in order to be in harmony with God, or its higher nature. Until we become aware of this desire or purpose, it is very difficult to be in harmony with the Divine Will, with the Christ/Krishna Consciousness. Most people will interpret this call for Wholistic completeness as a dissatisfaction with their everyday life. Rather than attain transcendence or attain awareness of their Wholistic nature, and what would fulfill their Soul, Casual body, Astral body, and Physical body, they just feel a dissatisfaction or discontent with everyday life. With the proper guidance and techniques, we can go inward to find or discover the desires and answers that are unique to our Soul’s reason for taking an incarnation. We can discover what is necessary for fulfilling those desires. However, we must calm down the mind, breath, and ego in meditation to make this discovery.

We need to understand there is a Major and a Minor aspect of this desire. The Major aspect is that we are created in the image of God. We are created as a unique expression of Divinity for some unique purpose of God, and each unique expression will seek its own fulfillment. The Minor aspect of desire is that the Soul, in each moment of each incarnation, will strive to be in harmony. However, until we are aware of how to attain this harmony, we cannot be living in harmony, and therefore, we will not be happy or enjoying our life. It becomes our responsibility to find or discover the harmony, the purpose, the experience where as Christ said, “Let Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  This brings us to meditation, which allows us to discover our Wholistic nature, and the purpose of our creation, and the purpose of what we hope to fulfill this specific incarnation.

No one takes an incarnation without having a specific purpose to fulfill. That very purpose is what attracts us or draws us down to the Physical incarnation. To go along in life without knowing our purpose is a very discordant way of living. This is why most of the world is stressed, unhappy, and unfulfilled. They believe it is natural to be discontent with life, rather than believing it is natural to go within and find the harmony and contentment. When it comes to finding our purpose, we need awareness, but we also need power, energy, and concentration.

WE CAN BE OPEN TO LIFE

One of the greatest obstacles in spiritual evolvement is the idea or belief (and therefore practice) that we must protect our self from life, or that we must protect our heart from getting hurt. This idea is a natural evolution of the lower ego, but this belief has to continue evolving as we evolve. We must allow an openness and the willingness to learn and grow in order to progress. The alternative is to allow the ego and its self-protection to close us off from life, thereby closing us off from learning and growing.

We can be open to life, and embrace life while still having healthy boundaries. We come to the realization that our nature is Satyam, which is also the nature of God. We understand that we don’t get love or Satyam from other people, or from activities. It is our very nature. Our interactions and relationships with other people are where the boundaries are. These are the rules we use when relating with other people. We can be open to life and have healthy boundaries. Having healthy boundaries means that we don’t have to accept everything that others want to give us. We understand the difference between love, Satyam, which is our nature, and the healthy boundaries of relationships with others. If our relationships are healthy, they are beneficial for our self and the international community. They are not harmful in any way. When we have healthy boundaries, we don’t have to close off any part of our self. There are things that we might outgrow and no longer wish to participate in, so we gently go beyond it.

The process of self-discovery starts with our self but continues into awareness of God.  We begin with the study of our Self, our Wholistic nature. Lahiri Mahasaya taught Kriya Yoga so that those who could not believe in the divinity of someone else could discover their own Divinity and the Divinity of all life through Kriya Yoga.

Hazrat Inayat Khan said the greatest religion of all is the study of life. The study of life is more than just studying the Physical life. It is the study of life Wholistically. If we accept that responsibility, then self-discovery becomes our religion, defined as the rejoining the small spirit with the large Spirit. We do not need to have a great library of theology to define our religious beliefs. Our direct experience with our self becomes our religion, our path. This process can be very simple. We continue to make minor adjustments while learning and growing.

All of humanity wants to be happy, to feel love, have friendships, know about their immortal nature, and feel free. The person who is studying Self-realization is no different from anyone else; it is just a matter of where they are looking to get that love, freedom, friendships, knowledge, and health. Most of the world is looking outside themselves. They are looking for security in money or relationships. They are trying to find love with other people. They are trying to find freedom with money and power so they can do whatever they want, thinking there will be no cost or causation. Those who are studying Self-realization have the same desires to feel freedom, experience love, to have a healthy body and mind, in wanting to have knowledge of God or our Wholistic Self. They differ in that they have accepted responsibility to discover their true nature

The Royal Path brings all responsibility to our self. We don’t say, “I have no one to love.” We say, “I’m not feeling love today. I need to focus more on Om Satyam. I need to express more love and identify with love.” We begin to identify with our Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram nature. When we do this, we experience that we are complete. We begin to realize that all life is created from this Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram nature and that we can appreciate, enjoy, and delight in life. The difference between the true spiritual devotee and the world is that the worldly person is still trying to collect their happiness and love from external sources. They have become collectors, possessors, and owners. True spiritual devotees already have the sense of ownership of their Soul, and they begin to appreciate and delight in the beauty, love, harmony, and joy. It is their very nature, the very nature of life, and the very nature of God that they are striving to appreciate and delight in at all times.

The Royal Path is about the study of our nature, the nature of life, and the nature of God.

The Royal Path is one of the gentlest paths because it allows us to unfold at our own pace. When we have a revelation about a weakness or insecurity that we have, it is easy to accept and to make the effort to willfully change. But if someone else points out a weakness or insecurity, we react in an aggressive manner to protect our self from an attack. The Royal Path allows us the path of self-discovery, which is the gentlest way. Not every discovery will be beautiful because we have some samskaras, false ideas, and illusions, but with the willingness to learn and grow, it will still be a gentle process of self-discovery. We begin by accepting the theology that we are created in the image of God. We accept the guidance of the Holy Ones and the Realized Souls as inspiration and examples that it possible to attain our wholistic or Divine nature.

The yoga tradition is about the study of our Wholistic nature. Yoga is not a religion or a religious order. It is a scientific tradition of Physical health and harmony, Astral health and harmony, Causal health and harmony, and realization of the Soul and how we are created in the image of God. The Royal Path includes the practice for the Physical, Astral, Causal bodies, and the Soul. We do right activity (Karma Yoga) for the Physical body, right activity (Bhakti Yoga) for the Astral body, right activity (Jnana Yoga) for the Causal body, and right activity (Meditation Yoga) for the Soul.  We identify with the nature of Satyam, which is what meditation truly is. Meditation is not the repetition of mantras (japa yoga) or concentration. Meditation is when we have the union with our Soul and/or God. There may still be a subtle idea of separateness between our self and God, but with a connection between the Soul and God.

Yoga means connection or union. When we do yoga, we are trying to experience the connection with our Wholistic Self, or the small spirit joining the large Spirit. The techniques and practices of yoga are very simple and easy.  However we have years and even incarnations of creating habits that must be changed.  We have been thinking that we are incomplete and that something outside of ourselves will fulfill or complete us. These habits may be difficult to break, but the process of breaking them is still very simple…we identify with our eternal nature, and with the eternal nature of Satyam, God.

The Royal Path includes techniques on meditation, which will be simple and in harmony with our body and breath. Pranayama techniques allow for recharging and re-identifying with the Christ/Krishna Consciousness, which is the purest form of prana. Pranayama is defined as: the control of life force and identifying with the life force. The Royal Path gives us techniques of how to go beyond the idea of incompleteness (ego). The Mayac sheath and the small ego, or idea of incompleteness (original sin), is our greatest obstacle. The Royal Path is complete with techniques, celebration, chanting, and singing. It provides time to socialize, which allows us to feel connected to fellow travelers on the journey. It provides time for music, dancing, appreciating nature, and enjoying healthy foods, which are all things that make life at the Physical an enjoyable life.

The easiest way to enjoy life and do the Royal Path is to realize that the lower ego is there for our self-development. It isn’t our enemy. It isn’t evil. The ego that says, “I want what I want, when I want it,” is there to protect the Soul, the Causal body, the Astral body, and the Physical body. It protects the bodies in order to unfold and grow as a human being. The ego helps us to develop and evolve as an infinite spirit. We just need to learn to channel it from self-centered to what is self-beneficial and in harmony with all life. It will take study to do this. We need to develop the vision to see what brings us suffering and disappointment, and what brings us joy and laughter.

 

Upanishad…sitting close to our Soul, sitting close to God.

“Sitting close” means sitting close to our Wholistic Self. Every human being has the innate desire for happiness, love, joy, and friendship. Unless we come to our Wholistic Self, we will find life to be incomplete. We will find ourselves struggling to feel secure within our own nature. We will struggle to be satisfied with who we are and who we want to become. We will find it difficult to maintain loving, kind, and compassionate friendships and relationships. This struggling with life is what brings about suffering for humanity. However, if we come to our Wholistic nature, we will discover how to live within our nature of Satyam (Divine love), Shivam (Divine harmony), Sundaram (Divine joy).

There are two basic religious schools of thought. One is that there is only God, an idea of oneness. The other thought is that God is away in the heavens, and there is God’s creation, which is the idea of separateness. Both schools of thought are true. In reality, there is only one God, one life, only a oneness, of which everything in creation, including us, is a harmonious aspect. But there is also the Mayac sheath, which makes life appear to be a separateness. With this idea of separateness, God unmanifested seems to be separate from the manifested, and the Soul seems to be separate from God, and each unique Soul seems to be separate from other unique Souls. The Mayac sheath is the illusion, or the idea of incompleteness.

To come to our nature of Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram, we must embrace the philosophy that we are created in the image of God. Whether we accept the oneness or the idea of separateness with the Mayac sheath, it is irrelevant in our education because either way, we will be pursuing the greatest miracle…self-knowledge, and the realization that we, and everyone else, are created in the image of God.

The journey can be very simple—we accept intellectually that we are created in the image of God. We accept that God the Absolute, which always has been, is now, and forever shall be, is without form. From this formless God the Absolute, or Satyam Consciousness, came the Word, the only begotten, the first born, the Christ/Krishna Consciousness. From the Christ/Krishna Consciousness comes the Holy Stream, the Aum. Then around a tiny piece of this God Consciousness, Christ/Krishna Consciousness, and Holy Stream a tiny golden net is woven, and this become the unique Soul.

To this unique Soul is given the mind, with its four attributes, which are the ego with the ideas of ownership, then the higher mind, the lower mind, and the field of memory. To the unique Soul and mind are given the senses and Astral body. To all these are given the Physical body, with its five organs of senses, and the creation. This becomes the small spirit that is created in the image of the large Spirit. The small unique body correlates to the entire Physical creation, which is the body of God. The Astral body (the senses) is the spirit body of God. The Causal realm (the mind) is the mental sheath of God. The individual Soul correlates with the connection of every unique spirit within the interwoven of life, or the Cosmic Soul of God. Then there is the Holy Stream, the Christ/Krishna Consciousness, and then God the Absolute without form. This theology that we are created in the image of God is what we accept intellectually, and work towards experiencing. Then we set out on our journey of self-discovery and discover the truth behind this philosophy for our self.

During all times and all traditions, Holy Ones have come to the planet and have given the message that we are created in the image of God. If we have not yet discovered this for our self, we must start the journey of self-discovery with this faith. We can utilize the guidance of the Holy Ones and Satgurus as inspiration on the way, but we must unfold and discover this truth (that we are created in the image of God) for ourselves. Every Realized Soul has said that we are eternal yet people still fear death. The fact that we are told we are eternal Souls is not enough to remove the fear of death. This is why we need to discover for ourselves our own eternal Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram nature.

We make the discovery of our Wholistic nature our life goal. We discover that the eternal absolute God Consciousness is part of our nature. We discover that we have the Christ/Krishna Consciousness, the harmony, the truth of all life, the alpha and omega; we also have the delight and beauty of the Holy Stream or Aum. We discover that our Soul is pure Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. We discover that we have the Causal body, the Astral body, and Physical body. We discover how to live in harmony and fulfill the desires that come from each body, and each level of consciousness. This includes the seven levels of creation that correspond to the seven chakras. Each chakra seeks fulfillment, and requires a different nutrition to satisfy it. This is not about renouncing life, but rather about fulfilling our desires in a manner that is beneficial and in harmony with our Wholistic Self. We don’t renounce life; we renounce the limitations of our ideas and beliefs.

This journey to our Wholistic nature will be about the Royal Path, which includes how to be in our nature of happiness, how to nurture our Physical body with activity. It will be about how to nurture our Astral body with beauty, art, and music, how to nurture our Causal body with positive affirmations and right understanding in order to be in harmony. It will include how to nurture the Soul with Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram, the Holy Stream, the Christ/Krishna Consciousness, and then finally immersing into the absolute God Consciousness.  This is our nature, and can be experienced.

 

TANTRA

We must understand that in order to move forward on the path, we need to be open.  We don’t reject life, or say “no” to life.  We open our self up to become more inclusive to Sex (Physical), Love (Astral), Prayer (Causal), and Transcendence (pure Consciousness). Tantra is the awareness and surrender to the harmony of the Divine impulse, as it flows from formless to form, and is the dance between form and formless.

Sex: We don’t say ‘no’ to sex, but rather we add love.  Sex is when we are trying to get our own needs met, when we are only concerned about our self.

Love: Love is when our thoughts and feelings are concerned with others.  We aren’t concerned only with our self, but also with other people. When we add love, it doesn’t mean we give up sex, or stop taking care of our body, or stop eating properly, or stop doing the things that are beneficial for the body. It doesn’t mean we stop enjoying the senses.  Adding love simply means we now think of others first.

Prayer: We then add Prayer…we begin to identify with, and appreciate, Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram in both form and essence.  We begin to harmonize with the Divine Will.  We begin to understand how this unique Soul is part of the wholistic wave, or God Consciousness, and how we fulfill our dharma or purpose. Now we have gone beyond just Sex and Love and have included Prayer, or what is beneficial for others in our thoughts and actions, but it doesn’t mean we no longer have sex or love.  It means that we have added a higher or greater awareness that is more inclusive.  Once we realize we are created in the image of God and begin to experience it, we find that the creation, within the Mayac sheath or cosmic play, is delightful, beautiful, and enjoyable, yet there will still be times we want more. We will want more than to be eternally busy, eternally active, so we will also want peace. This is when we will seek transcendence, which is beyond prayer, love, and sex.

Transcendence: Transcendence is the direct experience of God the Absolute that is without form or activity.  This is where freedom or liberation truly begins.  When we realize our nature is Satyam (eternal love), Satyam without the need for any other person or activity or anything, this liberates us.  First, it liberates us from the idea of incompletion and the idea of separation. These ideas of incompleteness and separation always have us seeking someone or something outside of our self to complete us, to help us feel connected.  Ironically, as long as we are seeking fulfillment, connection, or a sense of fitting in externally, we will never attain those things. The realization of our nature as Satyam then also liberates us into the continuous experience of Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. This is the meaning of the poem it is better to call out to Divine Mother in your aloneness than to seek shelter in someone else’s arms. It is better to call out to the God Consciousness to try to experience this Satyam Consciousness.  Once we do this, freedom begins and we are now on the path to ecstasy, and joy, and ultimately liberation.

Now that we have the Satyam, have experienced God that always has been, is now, and forever shall be, we come back, and realize it is also our nature.  This state of pure Satyam is the greatest ecstasy, the greatest joy we can ever have.  As we come back out to our unique Soul or self, we come under the influence of the idea of separateness again.  This idea of separateness, or the Mayac sheath, allows us to see the dualistic nature of the creation. We can call it the cosmic play and delight in it, but there may also be the feeling of two again. We realize that in reality there is only God, but we have accepted the illusion that we are separate again, and the ecstasy is not there. However, we also realize that we can still experience joy and delight in the creation. There is the absolute God Consciousness without form (ecstasy), and then there is the absolute God Consciousness with form (bliss), manifested all the way through the creation (joy and delight).

As we come back out from Transcendence, we come out to Prayer. Now we have appreciation or thankfulness.  We see divinity, the Om Satyam, Om Shivam everywhere.  We see that everything is made up of the Om Satyam, because it is the very nature of creation. Seeing this, we strive to see the harmony and appreciate life.  Then we come back down to the spirit body or Astral, and we add the senses.  Now we have the joy and delight of the five senses, and we can enjoy the pleasure of them. Finally, we come all the way back to the Physical, knowing that it is the most limited form of Satyam Consciousness, but still we can enjoy our life when we identify with our Wholistic nature.

Samadhi is when we experience Satyam, or God Consciousness (without form) in our meditation. Then we come back into the cosmic play and fulfill our interests, desires, or the dharma of the Soul, the expression of God through the creation of the unique Soul.  This is the Royal Path, a complete inhalation and a complete exhalation.  We do all we can to be in harmony, to enjoy, delight, and work to be a pure, healthy, and happy vibration while on earth.

This is also the process of Tantra—Sex, Love, Prayer, Transcendence, and Transcendence, Prayer, Love, Sex. It is incomplete if you only go upward, or only inhale.  To make it complete is to come back outward with bliss-bestowing hands, with joy, delight, selfless service, and compassion. This becomes the goal of living.  The Soul once born, lives forever, on a daily basis of inhalation and exhalation, and on an incarnation basis of inhalation and exhalation, and including a creative day of manifesting out and then back to a creative night of absolute peace, and also beyond, depending on how large our vision is of the inhalation and the exhalation. How much we will enjoy and delight in life depends on how large our vision, our understanding, how much harmony we have, and how much love we feel.

Ancient holy books give the messages of different or former times, cultures, and people. These sacred messages found in the ancient holy books are universal to all times. The secular messages are appropriate during a different age or culture.  For example, our morning routines or practices may be appropriate when we get up in the morning, but are not the same as for when we are preparing to go to bed at night.  Our morning and nighttime routines are both true, but not necessarily appropriate when interchanged.

There is a struggle in the both the East and West to incorporate the old traditions and the new. Many people do not feel that the old religious teachings apply any longer, and so they reject religion, formal theology, or spiritual based education. This leaves them with no hope for a better day.  It leaves them without an ideal or an ideology to strive after. It is a trying time for humanity because the eleven major religions have not yet built a bridge to a new day, the new yuga.  The Realized Souls have come back to build that bridge.  Paramahansa Yogananda talks about the harmony between East and West, between Hinduism and Christianity.  Swami Rama brings the message of the Himalayas, the teachings of the saints and sages.  Swami Satchidananda brings messages of wholisticness, and Sai Baba brings messages of harmony. Gurudev Chitrabhanu brings the message of Jainism–non-violence, non-acquisition, relativity, and the law of karma. Hazrat Inayat Khan brings a message of Sufism for East and West. And this names just a few. They are all building the bridges from the past to the current age. The East has the tradition of teacher and student, and when the teachers from the East come with their messages, they bring their tradition with them.  The West also has as its teachings of teacher and student. The Judaic scriptures mention prophets with students, like Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, also Christ and his students. So the idea of a Realized Soul passing on information directly to students comes from both the East and West.

In both the East and West societies are rejecting traditional religions, and are also beginning to reject anything that uses religious terminology.  Some people are blaming religion for their problems, for the wars, for all the ignorance and suffering. We need to realize that coming into a new day or new age, the bridge that is being built will need to be wholistic. We don’t need to condemn the traditional religions; rather we need to build a vision to a new age, one that helps us live in harmony with our Wholistic nature and with life around us.

We need to realize that the longing everyone has – the longing to feel connected or a part of something, to feel complete – is the longing of the Soul to realize its oneness with God.  Shiva and Shakti are ever in union, but with cosmic ego (mayac sheath) involved, the individual will interpret this longing, including the longing at the physical for connection with another human being, the longing for love and beauty, even the longing for knowledge or truth, as a longing for external conditions. The Soul has the longing for completion within the creation, and also for the absolute peace of the Om Satyam, which is the absolute God Consciousness.

Love, beauty, knowledge, truth, and Om Satyam, are all part of our nature, but under the influence of the mayac sheath, they seem separate from us.  If we are only aware of the physical manifestation, or the material world, then this longing is interpreted as needing a connection with another person, and the need for love, beauty, and joy from others. A part of this is also longing for the truth, or the right practices, to help us live in harmony with our wholistic Self (God), and the Divine will. The degree of our realization or awareness will be reflected in the degree to which we interpret what is natural to the human being or infinite spirit. Until we feel completion with the whole, we will be living an incomplete life, and there will always be a part of us that is calling out for completion.

A physical incarnation is not meant to be forever, rather to be viewed as a temporary visit. The physical body has a pattern and a lifespan. A healthy wholistic incarnation happens during the Satya Yuga when the average lifespan is about 1200 years, yet this is still limited. The average lifespan during the Kali Yuga is approximately 35–45 years, which is even more limited. The degree of harmony or realization of our wholistic Self will determine how much joy we have in living everyday life. This will determine how long we want to live on earth. It is difficult, but not impossible to enjoy everyday life when all those around you are suffering; it will just take discipline.

There is a harmony and balance that the spiritual path helps us to attain. Our journey is about finding that balance. We need to understand what is needed to be open to life, because each Yuga and each generation has a different balance. And this brings us to spirituality as taught by the Realized Souls that incarnate. The Realized Souls take a living incarnation just like the rest of us.  We walk the earth, and they walk the earth.  They find a balance and a harmony for their lifetime and culture.  They vibrate out the message, and they teach the message of what it takes to be in harmony, which becomes the message of the time.

 

The first step of meditation is pranayama or breath control. 

Without regulation of the breath, there can be no regulation of the mind. 

If there is no regulation of the mind, there can be no meditation.

The first step of meditation should be the simple inhalation and exhalation of the 1-12 Pranayama Technique.  This is inhaling to the count of 12 and then exhaling to the count of 12, trying to regulate or make the breath even.  It is a deep, calm even breath.  This should be done until the breath is quite relaxed and rhythmic.

We then go to the alternate breathing of the 1-4-2 Pranayama Technique.  This is actually the first mantra of meditation.  The 1-4-2 Technique will bring focus, alertness and concentration to the mind.  Without this breath regulation, without preparing the mind, your meditations will be slothful, regardless of which mantra you may be using.  They will be filled with subconscious thoughts.  They will be filled with external distractions.  They will be filled with wandering here and there which is more like daydreaming than meditation.  Pranayama is a necessary step in meditation.  Without it, meditations will be shallow and unproductive.

Prana is the life force of the creation.  The word of God is Prana.  It is this life force, coming from the mouth of God, that manifests everything.  It is the life in life.  When we begin to work with regulating the breath, we aren’t just doing a few deep-breathing exercises.  We are beginning to focus on and experience the breath.  We concentrate and pay attention inwardly to the breath or to the feelings of prana.

If you do regulated, even, deep breathing you will begin to feel prana spreading throughout the body starting with the lungs.  You will feel the sensation of prana beginning to spread out and flow through the pranic channels or throughout the limbs and the rest of your body.  This is what we focus on in pranayama.  We don’t just focus on counting from 1 to 12.  We aren’t focusing on a number.  We are actually focusing on the prana itself.

In the yogic tradition, they say that if you know prana, you know God.  One cannot come to Self-realization without an understanding of prana.  One cannot have consistent, deep meditation without doing consistent pranayama.  Whenever someone comes to me saying, “I’m having difficulty with meditation.  It is hard for me to get it in twice daily.  I’m even having trouble getting it in daily.”  I ask if they are doing pranayama—the 1-4-2 technique.  Ninety-nine percent of the time the person will respond with “No.”  That is because without the preparing of the body and mind for meditation, there will be no meditation.  You will have subconscious thoughts, attractions and distractions filling the time you sit there.  Pranayama needs to be done.  It is the “diving into” part of meditation.  It starts with just a few minutes of regulated, deep breathing, then you move into the 1-4-2 technique.  The 1-4-2 technique should be done in sets of twelve.  (Note: It should not be done for more than thirty minutes unless you have permission from a competent meditation teacher.)

Pranayama is the foundation that concentration and Meditation is built upon, without a consistent Pranayama practice our efforts may fall short of us attaining our goal of Self-Realization.

Techniques

1–12 Technique/Diaphragmatic Breath

1)    Inhale through the nostrils to the count of 1–12, steadily but gently

2)    Exhale through nostrils steadily to the same count

3)    Repeat for the desired length of time

 

1-4-2 Pranayama Technique

1)    Close the right nostril with thumb, inhale through left nostril to the count of 4

2)    Retain that breath while mentally counting to 16

3)    Close the left nostril with ring finger, exhale out right nostril to the count of 8

4)    With left nostril still closed, inhale through right nostril to the count of 4

5)    Retain that breath while mentally counting to 16

6)    Close the right nostril with thumb, exhale through left nostril to the count of 8

7)    This is one complete 1-4-2 Breath.  Repeat 6–12 times

Note:     If you feel short of breath, you may reduce the ratio down to 3-12-6 (Inhale to 3, Hold to 12, Exhale to 6).  It is important to keep the ratio of  1-4-2.

 

 

 

 

The Holy Ones of all times and traditions have said that our nature is Om Satyam—the Divine eternal love, Om Shivam—the Divine eternal virtue, Om Sundaram—the Divine eternal beauty and joy, Om Shanti—the Divine eternal peace or God the Absolute, which in its peaceful or still state is Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram.  The message of the Holy Ones is that there is only God and that our nature is the same as God’s nature.

Most people are busy seeking and doing in the external because they believe that love, happiness, beauty, virtue and joy come from external activity.  The Holy Ones have brought the message of meditation, the techniques of how to calm down the mind, breath, and ego (the idea of separateness) and then experience our very nature in its state of Om Satyam, Om Shivam, Om Sundaram, Om Shanti.  Only through experiencing our Self, our absolute nature, do we realize the wealth of love, happiness, and joy within.  We begin to understand that our love, happiness and joy do not come from external activity, persons or events, but are within our nature.

Through diving deeply in meditation, we will experience our Self in the state of Om Shanti.  We will experience that we are alive and aware.  What we will be aware of is Shanti, peace, the absolute stillness.  We will realize what Shanti is; we will realize that what we are experiencing is love, beauty, virtue, bliss, security, fulfillment, completion.  In other words, we will realize we are experiencing our nature.  This is the experience we will have when we come to our nature, our Self as Om Shanti.  We will realize that we are infinite and eternal.  We will realize that we don’t need to chase after love because we are love.  We don’t need to demand freedom because we are freedom.  We don’t need to look for the virtues because we are the virtues.  We don’t need security from relationships because we are one with all life.  We are the relationship.  We don’t need to pursue money, friends, careers, and prestige to be secure because we are infinite and eternal happiness, joy, beauty, and love.  Nothing external can give us love, beauty, joy, or security because we already are those things.  In addition, nothing external can take away our love, beauty, joy or security because our very nature is Om Satyam, Om Shivam, Om Sundaram, Om Shanti.

Once we have this realization in meditation, because only in meditation will we not give credit to some other person or event, we can go about our life harmonizing or as the Sacred texts say, worshipping God.  We begin to worship or experience God everywhere.  We begin to see God, Divinity, behind the veils, costumes, and limitations.  The Holy Ones talk about this responsibility.  Now it is our responsibility to live our life.

The Holy Ones say we have free will to live however we want.  We can live seeing Divinity or we can live seeing limitations.  We can be complete and have life and life more abundantly, God and God more abundantly, or we can have a life of chasing after love, freedom and friendships hoping that someone else will give it to us.  Meditation will bring knowledge of our absolute Self.  No other practice, no other service, no other activity can bring us the awareness of our absolute nature.