The first two steps (Hearing and Reflection) help eliminate some of the obstructions to spiritual enlightement, but not all.
Step 3: “Meditation” (nididhyāsana)
The deadly obstruction that survives reflection is known as “contrary experience” (viparīta-bhāvanā). Deep reflection gives us the joy of intellectual conviction but we also see its limitations. Even when I understand how connected I am with God, my daily life continues to contradict my conviction. I still feel that I am mortal, unable to experience my connection with the divine, hopelessly locked up in my body-mind identity. My present human persona feels real even if not entirely satisfactory. In comparison, my relationship with God feels like a mere hope or an intellectual formulation or only a belief. It lacks the force of reality.
The humbling truth is that most of us belong to the mediocre category of students. Our aspirations are high and our intentions are noble, but something subtle and sinister is blocking our path. A distorted self-perception and wrong habits of thinking acquired over many lifetimes cannot be wished away easily. The only way to remove this seemingly impregnable obstacle is to pursue the Four Basic Practices with even greater intensity. At this stage, it is difficult to move ahead without total commitment and self-discipline. Deep faith in the teacher, a refined mind, and study of scriptures are great assets—and yet the deepest core of my being may still be clouded, still vulnerable to the pull of the material world.
What is needed now is to keep reflecting, but to also move beyond reflection and strive to encounter the truth in the deepest core of my being. All the thought forms (vṛtti) in the mind must cease except one—who I am in relation to God. Meditation is a search, a continuous search, a kind of inner wandering (parivrajana) in search of the truth that resides within. The practice of reflection needs the support of ideas and concepts. Meditation is a step beyond, no longer engaging with concepts but with the truth they point to. It is time to move the gaze from the finger pointing to the moon and to look directly at the moon itself.
Leaving ideas behind is far from easy. Encountering reality unfiltered by concepts is no joke. Any headway in meditation can occur only through divine grace and deep faith in oneself and in the truth. The two steps of hearing and reflection are expected to have eliminated many of the distractions on the path. The third step is meant to overcome (what seems like) our perennial clinging to the body-mind-centered “I” and to push us toward being the real self in search of its true home. There is no knowing how long the search will last. There is no knowing how it will end. The thought of “time” is a distraction. The thought of “results” is another distraction. In meditation both have to be left behind. Just holding on to one’s self and allowing grace to guide the search is all that is needed.
What passes for meditation usually has a beginning and an end, and is often practiced more than once a day. But meditation as nididhyāsana is different. It shows us that meditation doesn’t—shouldn’t—end when we get up from the meditation seat. We are expected to maintain the awareness of a specific relationship with God not only when we are praying and meditating but even when we are doing “other things.” No matter what I’m doing at present, I don’t stop being human and never forget that I am human. In precisely the same way, in the practice of nididhyāsana, no matter what I do, I shouldn’t stop being in relationship with God and constantly remain aware of that relationship. Meditation as nididhyāsana is less about doing and more about being. Doing is bound by time, being is timeless.
Living all the time with full awareness of the self in search of God is tough. This requires enormous faith, resilience, courage. It is not a task for the weak. It calls for unusual inner strength, purity and discipline. Patiently practicing nididhyāsana with dogged determination, with a mind that is uncluttered by distractions, it is possible in time to taste success in bits and pieces. There will be many failures along the way, but if I persevere undeterred in the practice, intervals of forgetfulness become progressively shorter, moments of encountering the truth become longer and sharper.
Although the three steps to freedom have a chronological feel, in practice they often occur concurrently. It is neither easy nor necessary to know when one step ends and when it’s time to take the next one. After the initial hearing process and the rise of doubts and questions, reflection naturally follows. As things begin to get sorted out, meditation is the inevitable next step to dive deeper into myself. Over time and with sustained practice, the hearing, the reflection and the meditation keep getting better, removing my initial doubts, edging me toward perfection, and filling my being with increasing clarity.
Like everything in life, the search will end one day. It could be tomorrow, perhaps even today—or it could take years. There is no knowing when grace will switch the light on. But it will happen provided I don’t slacken my efforts or give up the quest. That is when I will stand face to face with truth. Which is really a ridiculous way to express it. For at that point, words fail. How can we express the inexpressible? There is no way to describe the experience except to say that, whatever it is that happens, it ends all suffering for ever (ātyantika-duḥkha-nivṛttiḥ). All that remains is the awareness of supreme bliss (paramānanda-prāptiḥ). I remain immersed in bliss but without the idea of “I,” since there is nothing else and no one else to separate myself from. All that exists is existence (sat) itself. Being that existence, forever free from the constraints of becoming someone—that is freedom in the truest sense of the term.
The Four Basic Practices are the backbone of the steps to freedom. It is the Four Basic Practices that make us fit to begin the spiritual journey. The Four Basic Practices remain with us throughout the way. They become our friends, our protectors, our guides. How long the struggle will be, what ups and downs we’ll encounter, how we’ll face the challenges along the way—all of these things are determined by the quality of our Four Basic Practices.
The more refined our Four Basic Practices become, the closer we get to the goal of supreme freedom.
from Vedanta Blog - Vedanta Society https://ift.tt/goqIP8n
