Guided Meditation: Feeling An Intuitive Presence of Spirit

Nayaswami Premdas leads a 30-minute guided meditation to help you experience the intuitive Spirit within you.

He is a longtime meditator and teacher at Ananda, serving meditation groups and centers all over America.

Transcript

Nayaswami Premdas:

Welcome friends. I'm Nayaswami Premdas. And I'm here to help you in this guided meditation today.

What Is the "Feeling Nature" of Meditation?

If you've had a chance to look at some of our other guided meditations, and I wish that you do, please know that today, I'd like to focus on the feeling nature of the meditation experience. Often, when we learn about meditation, we engage mentally, and we engage the intellect to learn how to do the techniques. Well, rest assured, I'm going to guide you through those today. But more importantly, I want you to feel the aspects of the meditation. These aspects for those of you who may be familiar with the Vedic interpretation, or the Vedic definition of God, as Yogananda called it.

There are eight aspects, and I'm going to mention them quickly now for you because we're going to use them and attune ourselves to their presence throughout the meditation. These eight aspects are wisdom, love, light, joy, sound, calmness, peace, and energy, also known as power. You already know these inside, but maybe not as expansively as the Great Masters of this path have shared with us or that they promise we'll find in our own deep meditation.

So, the purpose today is to use the techniques, use the forms of relaxation, of concentration, and focus. And remember that these aspects of spirit are being us. And by using the techniques and focusing on these individual aspects, we're going to come out of the meditation feeling a sense of expansiveness, feeling what real peace is, feeling what real calmness is, feeling the bliss that's promised, joy, because joy after all, is within and all around us, as the Master say. Yogananda said it's very important not to pray or meditate to God but to feel His or Her presence all around you by meditating and praying in God. So that's what we're going to do right now and for the next few moments.

Invoking the Power of Praying In God

So please pray with me now, as we do here at Ananda.

Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved God, Great Gurus, Jesus Christ, Babaji Krishna, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Guruji Paramhansa Yogananda, saints of all religions, we open our hearts, we open our minds to be channels for your peace, for your joy, for your love. We are blessed. Help us remember.

AUM, Peace. Amen.

At this point, before we even describe how to meditate, we'd like to further enhance the feeling nature, or entering the battle against the busy mind, we're going to chant. Yogananda himself said, chanting is half the battle.

This chant we're going to do today is a more unusual one. It's very simple to follow. It's called “God of Beauty.” And the reason I'm using this chant today is to reinforce those eight aspects of spirit. Now, we won't chant each of those, but we're going to focus on a few of them. And as you do so, don't worry so much about the words but feel in your heart, feel in your nervous system, feel greater attunement to the peace that comes from the singing, the joy that comes from the realization and finally, the love you feel by Divine Mother's presence within and all around you. So, let's begin the chant.

The chant “God of Beauty” is very simple. God of beauty is now reining in the temple of my heart, and that will repeat a few times. And then, as we progress through, will substitute from beauty will substitute one of the aspects. I think will focus on four of them for this moment. So, follow along and join in. We're going to start as Yogananda said, chanting in a normal voice or loud, and then we're going to take it down to a very low volume.

God of beauty is now reining in the Temple of my heart.

God of beauty is now reining in the Temple of my heart, of my heart of my heart, in the Temple of my heart, of my heart, of my heart, in the Temple of my heart.

[Repeat each verse replacing the word "beauty" with love, peace, joy. Then end with "beauty."]

God of beauty is now reining in the Temple of my heart.

God of beauty is now reining in the Temple of my heart, of my heart of my heart, in the Temple of my heart, of my heart, of my heart, in the Temple of my heart.

 AUM, AUM, AUM

Preparing For a "Relaxation to Realization" Meditation

In everything we do in the next few moments, focus on the feeling of love. Focus on the feeling of peace. Focus, especially on the feeling of joy. What we focus on, we become.

First of all, let's sit up straight. With the spine erect, the spine it should be perpendicular to the floor. Whether you're sitting in a chair or on the carpet itself, sit up straight, head and neck over the spine. I like to tell students who are learning from our teachings here to kind of stretch the head, reach the head opposite the top of the head could touch the ceiling, and then definitely relax. Because from relaxation, you get to be realized. So, from relaxation to realization, this is, this is the spectrum of what we're learning. And first, we have to remove those tensions. So, sit comfortably but relaxed.

Take your hands, and if you're sitting in a chair on the floor, either one, bring your hands, palms up near the junction of the thigh and the belly. Pull the shoulders back, and especially for newer meditators, I tell them to actually push the shoulders back and then relax them.

Okay, so no tension; check your body. See if there's any tension. Here's a little technique that we teach: double breath with tension. This is a way to get rid of any sort of residual tension in the body. You're going to tense the whole body at once. And then take a double breath in through the nose. Feel the energy in the nostrils, the air coming in. Keep the eyes uplifted. If you can vibrate and then exhale, out the mouth. Let's do this two more times. Vibrate, vibrate, vibrate, exhale, relax. Yogananda said tense with will relax and feel. One more time. Bring the energy up to the forehead, vibrate, and then exhale and relax. Now, don't you feel more relaxed already?

As we're sitting straight, with the hands now at the junction of the thigh in the belly. I want you just to lift the eyes up. And, of course, you're watching at this point, but as often as you can lift the eyes up to the forehead, the pre-frontal lobes as they're called, or the spiritual eye under many different names. And for most people, it's to their advantage to close the eyes. But again, watch if you're learning, but the eyes are uplifted. I say to park the eyes. So, no stress no, no strain, no squinting, just leave the eyes there and then close the eyelids.

A Special Guided Practice Hong Sau

Now, we'll begin the practice of the formal part of this guided meditation with a process known as Hong Sau. This is a technique that Yogananda gave at the very beginning of his techniques for his students. But one of the things that makes this difference is that it's not controlling the breath, as it is observing it.

In the observation, we want to tune ourselves into the process. And we want to be the watcher. And we want to lose ourselves in the movement and flow of energy. We want to lose ourselves in the mantra of Hong and Sau. And we also want to feel the presence. And from it, you'll actually, in your practice, anote those qualities we've spoken about previously in, in this presentation.

So, let's sit up straight. Bring your hands into position if they're not already there. Head and neck over the spine. Eyes uplifted, obviously, leave your eyes open if you're watching and learning. And now let's do this practice together. And as you inhale through the nostrils, feel the air coming in through the top of the nose. Think the sound, Hong. And as you exhale, think the sound, Sau. So, you're saying this internally, not externally: be the observer, be the feeler, be the acknowledger of the flow of energy.

Watch the breath. Now, as you're doing this, the feeling nature of the process around the center of the body around the spine is going to become more and more evident. You don't need to force it. You don't need to will it you just want to acknowledge it. And as you exhale, you'll feel that same energy. You may feel it in different aspects, but just notice that it's there.

And combining the Hong Sau technique in this meditation, I'm asking you to engage one of those qualities, and let's use Joy.

As you think Hong, and then as you think the sound Sau, and as you do if your mind wanders, bring it back to the spine. Bring it back to the point between the eyebrows. If your mind's wandering, there's another point for you. You can bring it back to the mantra Hong or Sau. These are what I call mind candies. They're good things to give the mind that'll keep you uplifted in the process. You can also, of course, as Yogananda said, Remember God through the feeling of devotion. So finally, as you practice, remember that you're practicing in spirit, that you're meditating in spirit and not to spirit, and now continuing on your own for the next few moments?

If your mind has wandered, bring it back to the center spine, the mantra, or the prefrontal lobe.

At a certain point, as you relax, as you've focused your energy with concentration and willingness, imagine at the point between the eyebrows a light, a bright light. Yogananda described this light and one aspect as a golden light, perhaps even a ring. But whatever you see, focus on the light. Imagine that this energy now that you've engaged that you felt that you've acknowledged is merging into that light.

See if you can penetrate that Light. That Light is the Light of Spirit. It's the Light of joy, of love, of peace. And it welcomes you because you're its own. Because you yourself are that joy or that love. You are that peace. So go into it. Meditate in spirit. Pray in Spirit. Open to the expansiveness of this Higher Self. Yogananda called it Divine Mother. Because love itself has no choice but to return the longing of the devotee. And if we raise our energy and meditation to engage with Divine Mother and any of her eight aspects, She must not only give us the toys and the whims of our hearts' longings, but she has to answer our love with even more love, even more peace, even more joy.

So, at this point, it really helps in meditation to take one of those aspects and forget the technique. Forget the process right now and just feel joy or feel love, or feel peace. One of those and not contemplating it, researching it. Just relax in it. And whatever you think it is, imagine it's even greater. And ask Divine Mother to remove any obstacles that keep you from experiencing that aspect in its fuller qualities.

Yogananda said Divine Mother has everything about our love. And She will wait. Well, now's the time to give Her your love, give Her your peace and your joy, and ask Her to surround you and fill you with even more. Satchitananda, ever new joy.

Sharing What We Have Received With Others

Now, slowly open your eyes and come back, maybe a double breath with tension just to recognize and be present with the body, double breath exhale.

And now, the beautiful thing about meditation is that it's not confined to the cave, and it's not confined to your place of worship. In fact, Yogananda said that this is your temple. The body is your temple. The spine is your altar. And no matter where you go, it's to our benefit to take this presence, of the energy within us, this feeling of divine love, of divine joy, of divine peace, and the other aspects, both into our relationships into our workplaces into our pleasures. And when we do so, we then become active channels for the divine in this world.

Yogananda also said that we have two paths: we have both the inner path and the outer path. But when you do them with God, all his joy, all his love, and all is peace.

So, let's take this energy now and share it with the world. Let's share it with those around us. And it's a very simple process.

Sharing Through Healing Prayers

This is in the form of a healing prayer that Yogananda and others have given us, but Yogananda refined it into a specific prayer. And we'll do this together. But first, I'd like you to close your eyes again, Sit upright, and imagine those who are in your life who are asking for, needing, or are thirsty for a higher reality for peace or joy, for light or love, for calmness, or they need energy. Perhaps they're sick, or perhaps they're confused or depressed. Whatever their situation, right now, we'll just focus on individuals and add them to the vision in your forehead of God's Light. See them in that light, no separation in time or space. Offer them into that light, and see them in the presence of spirit.

And now, enlarge the scope of that vision to include others around you who you may not know as well but who could be throttled by daily events or, social circumstances, or world events. You can take this process as large as you'd like. You can imagine countries of the world, but whatever you do, see it in God's Light and God's Wisdom and God's Calmness and God's Presence of joy. Hold them in that holy space. As we think, we become, so we are, in fact, affecting the world's energy and their energy by seeing them as they truly are, as children of God's great qualities and great aspects. So, in that Light, now please follow me in this prayer.

Divine Mother, Thou art omnipresent. Thou art in all these Thy children. Manifest Thy healing presence in all these bodies, minds, and souls.

Now, bringing the energy from the spine into the hands, rubbing the hands back and forth, feeling the energy in the hands, offering it to the world, and chanting AUM with me.

AUM, AUM, AUM

AUM, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

A Prayer for Becoming a Channel of Divine Love

And now, in our final moments together, let's offer up a prayer.

Divine Mother, Heavenly Father, Friend, Beloved God, Great Masters all. Make us Your channels for peace, for joy, for love. Remove any obstacles that prevent us from feeling Your love and sharing Your joy and expressing Your peace, both within and all around us. We are Thine. We are blessed.

AUM, Peace, Amen