Learn How to Meditate with Swami Kriyananda in 25 Minutes
In every part of the world, regardless of diverse cultures, calmness and peace of mind is observed to be a human phenomena. Lacking these, people get restless and unhappy. So what is sorely missing in our cultures, is the gathering of our concentration within ourselves, to remember who we are and to learn to meditate.
What is meditation? Why meditate?
People live in a no man's land with no real joy. Without peace of mind there is no possibility of happiness. So meditation is a practice that can help everybody. Those who meditate can concentrate and thus calm their minds, solving their problems quickly that may have otherwise taken them hours, days, even weeks.
Meditation helps us get back to our center, helping us to quickly adjust to whatever circumstances life may throw at us, without getting angry or upset. We learn to accept and understand people. This is the way of maturity; to relate to others' realities than one's own.
Meditation is not problem solving. That is the way of the conscious mind. There is the other aspect of the mind, called the superconscious, the higher aspect of the mind which you can reach up to through meditation, opening you up to that higher aspect of your own being.
Meditation is different from concentration and prayer. In prayer we talk to God but in meditation we learn to listen for God's answer. How do we do that? By releasing the restless thoughts and listening to the silence underneath our own personality.
So meditation also means to focus on the higher realities such as silence, out of which emerges peace and then calmness, behind which is wisdom, love, and light. And underneath it all a deep sound which Indian scriptures and the Bible speak of: the AUM sound. Meditation therefore is focusing on that and gradually learning to lose your smallness to expand it into a greater reality, the wave merging into the ocean.
Meditation is also something you can do all the time by being mindful of a deeper awareness wherever you are, whatever you may be doing. Listen to the world. Listen to people through not just their words but the meaning behind them. Commune with people before you communicate with them.
Meditation, finally, is listening and transforming your own familiarity into a deeper familiarity. Listen to who you are and your deeper ideals. Be aware of the pause; it's here that meditation begins.
The technique of meditation is thoroughly explained by Swami Kriyananda. Watch the video to hear it in his own words.
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ABOUT SWAMI KRIYANANDA
In 1948 at the age of twenty-two, Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) became a disciple of the Indian yoga master, Paramhansa Yogananda. At Yogananda’s request, Swami Kriyananda devoted his life to lecturing and writing, helping others to experience the living presence of God within. He taught on four continents in seven languages over the course of 65 years. His talks, his music, and his many books have touched the lives of millions. An advocate of simple living and high thinking, his 150 books emphasize the need to live wisely by one’s own experience of life, and not by abstract theories or dogmas. A composer since 1964, Walters has written over 400 musical works. His music is inspiring, soothing, and uplifting. His books and teachings on spiritualizing nearly every field of human endeavor include business life, leadership, education, the arts, community, and science. He wrote extensive commentaries on the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita, both based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.
He is known as the “father of the intentional communities movement,” which began in the United States in the late 1960s, fulfilling Yogananda's dream. He founded the first of what are now 10 Ananda communities worldwide in 1969 near Nevada City, California. Other Ananda communities have developed over the years to include Ananda Palo Alto, Ananda Sacramento, Ananda Portland, Ananda Seattle, Ananda Los Angeles, Ananda Assisi in Italy, and Ananda India near Delhi and Pune. Each community has a spiritual focus (a teaching center and temple) and a community (homes where members live). More than 1,000 people live in these intentional spiritual communities.
Swami Kriyananda’s example of inspired leadership was the reason for Ananda’s success. He uplifted and encouraged people through personal example, spiritual counseling, writing, lecturing, music, and prayer. He trained the current Ananda leaders in much the same way: free from egoic motivation, always placing the spiritual needs of others foremost in all decisions. He was a patient and sensitive teacher, allowing people to learn by experience, and never placing institutional needs ahead of the needs of an individual. “People are more important than things” is one of the foremost guiding principles of Ananda. And “Where there is adherence to dharma [right action], there is victory,” is another.
