Be this One. Mere study is not sufficient. Study gives us information.
Scriptures and śāstras only give us a road map. However much you may study the
road map, you will never reach the pilgrim centre. Study the map, roll it up and
keep it handy by your side, as it may be useful en route during the journey. Now
get up from your chair, get into your vehicle and move on along the 'way' the
map indicates so clearly.
Chinnamayananda, Practice of Vedanta
I am reaching the end of the start of my Sadhana, having now practiced for 6
months. This does not in any way mean I am close to any sort of mastery, but I
define it as the end because I do think I have a framework and a set of teachers
that I can follow instead of just jumping from one to another. I think this is
the hardest part as there are just so many different teachers and paths to
follow. I have read some shastras, the shastras to be read are endless.
At some point, a person has to pick their path and make that path the core
focus of their life. Mine is Raja Yoga as it is the path I am passionate about
and because it incorporates the other paths within its fold.
The Raja Yoga path, in a sense, is measurable which gets the engineer in me
excited. The gist of it is: How many hours of meditation have I done? If I
am are keeping accurate count this also tracks the rest of my life. You need a
sattvic life to have good meditation. You need a simple life to have good
meditation. To be able to sit for a long time without getting distracted is
needed for good meditation. Bad meditation has your mind reeling, you just don’t
want to be there. You feel dull and everything within you feels far away.
In that regard good meditation requires a purity of the rest of one’s life. This
purity work is a lifetime of work.
- Health and Hatha
- Cleanliness: Home, Body, Mind
- Being a good parent
- Being a good businessman
- Volunteering
- Removing tamas and rajas from the mind
All of the above are the prime focuses that I have with the goal of making my
sitting meditation better. But the real goal is that sitting meditation and
everyday life should not have a difference. All Yoga is meditation.
In that regard the next steps of my progress are plain and simple. It is to
setup a process. This process is to go on forever, continuously finding error in
myself and fixing those errors using Patanjali’s eight limbs as the framework. I
don’t think a massive change all at once will work as it will lead to burnout.
Small incremental improvements is the goal.
The primary means to coordinate all of this improvement is through Japa as the
bridge. The mind needs to dwell on something at all times so that it isn’t idle
or preoccupied with the past or the future. It needs to focus on the present.