Aum Guru
I have been meditating for 2 yrs. Of late, at the start of med after the measured breathing I go totally breathless even if I donot focus on the spiritual eye. I wait for a long time but the breath does not come. So I am not able to do haung sau. What should I do in such cases? 2. Master teaches us that to develop magnetism we have to focus on the job completely. On the other hand he tells us to chant & keep consicousness on the SE.So when we do all 3 aren't we dividing our attention?
—DKS, UAE
Dear DKS,
Master bless you. “Breathlessness is deathlessness,” he used to say. What you experience is a wonderful sign of inwardness, relaxation, concentration.
The breathless state, you say, happens to you after measured breathing, at the start of meditation. It’s one of the purposes of measured breathing. The physical system is oxygenized, and so there is no (or less) need for breathing for some time. If for you that breathless state lasts for a long time, as you say, it is best to look to the spiritual eye towards God, and chant OM there if you like. Or simply enjoy whatever feeling comes to you, probably calmness and inwardness. When it ends you start Hong Sau.
Master teaches to take the measured breathing up to 20-20-20 (without straining). Try and see if the breathless state gets even better.
The goal is to experience the state of breathlessness not only after measured breathing, but also later on, as a result of Hong Sau. So see if you can “invite” that experience there.
Here are two quotes by Master which might inspire you in your exploration of breathlessness:
“The breath is the cord that binds the soul to the body.”
“The breath and the restless mind, I saw, were like storms which lashed the ocean of light into waves of material forms-earth, sky, human beings, animals, birds, trees. No perception of the Infinite as One Light could be had except by calming those storms.” (Autobiography of a Yogi)
Second question:
Yes, Master says to focus fully on our job. You can do that with the spiritual eye involved. Looking at the spiritual eye is not distracting your focus, but strengthens it. The spiritual eye is the seat of concentration in the body. So whatever you do with concentration, look at it as if through the spiritual eye.
Inward chanting, on the other hand, is more for times when we do manual labor, I would say. It is difficult to chant while doing a job that requires a focused mind. However, whatever we do, we can practice the presence of God, even when we are fully concentrated. The better our meditation, the easier it is.
In divine friendship, pronam, jayadev
