If in Meditation I Visualize the Spiritual Eye, I Can’t Visualize at the Same Time the Guru

Question

I’m confused about what to focus on during meditation. Breathing calms the mind, but if I try to visualize the spiritual eye I can’t at the same time see the Master or Guru, and receive His light. This confuses me and blocks my practice. How can I solve this situation?

—Nicoletta, Italia

Answer

Dear Nicoletta,

In Yogananda’s Hong-Sau technique, at first you focus on your breath and on the mantra. During the second part of your meditation (the last third or fourth of the time), you look toward the spiritual eye, yes, but without visualizing anything: neither the spiritual eye nor the Master. Instead, this is a moment for pure listening, for being completely receptive to whatever experience may come.

If you want, you can practice the technique placing the Guru mentally at your side, or even inside your body, as if he were practicing it inside you. But this is an act of devotion, not the technique itself, in which you don’t visualize anything.

Much light for your meditation,
jayadev