Herein you will find a beautiful rose garden bristling with thorns. The reality of this garden is within yourself, therefore learn to cultivate the most unique aspect of your being, so you may reap the great benefits and remove your obstacles.
There are no more saviours, don't wait for swami's help or guruji to remove your sorrows. It ain't happening like this anymore. It's really up to you to be more serious about the next steps you need to undergo. Understand that if you are a muslim, like myself, salaah is the key to your existance, there's too much to be said about this topic, and will leave that to Islamic scholars to profess to you. My intentions here are to provide you with a guideline on how to practice meditation to propel you further in your station, based on your own aptitudes.
Mind you, this is only a crash course, and also not intended for dummies. You will want to follow your own trajectory, regardless of your creed, religion, or spirtual aspiritations.
Let me be brief here, as I am not providing you an analysis of a current crisis or the like. I'd like to inform you of some useful exercises and what to avoid, in order to achieve some tranquility and a sharp focus. This article is going to be to the point, and contains a table of content for your perusal. There is nothing tricky, or bewildering about the contents, it's simply a matter of practice for your attention to shift towards your Self.
I am simple in these matters, so i'll provide this to you as a free book, use it as you please, but don't hurt anyone with this knowledge or it will repay you tenfold. Don't collude with the devil by pretending you're something you are not. As they say in Québecois, we don't work for the devil, but only his brothers, meaning we're not that damned if they think we ain't, but it's only a lousy lie. This is a free journey, the price is mostly sheer exhaustion.
Table of Contents
- Your warning
- What are mantras?
- What is sadhana?
- What is pranayama?
- So-hum meditation <– you were looking for this, maybe?
- Best practices
- What is a guru?
- What is religion?
I've often wondered as well growing up with a mixed lot of people in my surroundings. as part of my youth was spent in India, and revisiting it has always left me feeling overwelmed with a sense of anguish for the people living in this dense jungle of spiritual hocus-pocus. I've had a romantic past with the cultures and ways of the people living in the Indus valley. My love for them hasn't dwindled, but I find offence nowadays in what has become cultural appropriation, commercialisation, and desecration of a very ancient and dear tradition to my brethren and I. A guru is a righteous teachers, a swami aspires to unity, and a yogi as a master of his senses. These titles are all relative to how a person interacts with others, their relation to the world, however they are one and the same, and may take on different actions for different peoples. The problem is, there aren't many of substance these days, as they are mostly fairytale gothic superhero pretenders. All jokes aside, this is a serious issue nowadays, as we live in a spiritual vaccum.
What I mean by cultural appriation isn't so much the yoga you see here in the west, where practioners go into a studio, and start breathing heavily whilst performing given postures or activities. I really couldn't mind it any more than a fly buzzing three feet over me. My concern is primarily with seekers of knowledge being misled by wannabe gurus, who are not all too uncommon these days in India and abroad. This is including the charismatically charming, yet deliriously awful sadguru that people love to admire from far, and pay thousands of dollars for a word of knowledge already available to you at a local Barnes and Nobles. Don't get me wrong however, there's nothing to replace an authentic guruji, but there are none available at your disposal.
I will not dive in too deeply into these misleading charmers, despite their depravities. My aim is mostly to provide a sense of understanding as to what is available to you, what to avoid, and perhaps how it all fits together so that you may proceed with a practice that will be of benefit to your wellbeing. All free of charge, like opensource, as they wanted it thousands of years ago. In this blog of entertaining tidbits and poetry, this post will mostly mention a universal yoga namely refered to as "so-hum" mantra, or "hong-sau", in some other books. I will go over why it is best practiced alone, without a need for a guruji (although you could go look for one if you're into misadventuring with your time and monies), as well as some ill concepts to avoid from self-proclaimed gurus of the East and West alike.
What is a Guru?
Honestly, I don't want to begin my writings with a vulgar rant about some self-proclaimed genius or the like, but truth be told there's a lot of nonsense to this person that people seeem to proclaim as truthful. I should thereby, address it as usual. The trouble with these bosos is that they might actually provide you some sort knowledge that you can gather for yourself had you the initiave to do so. They have a limited scope of understanding, and end up mixing some proven concepts with falsehoods, dieties, etc... and then tell you that they're the answer to all your woes. Literally, they have been known to say things the life of: "you will not enter budahood or englightment without us." The majority of them will utter this nonsense, because they would otherwise become obsolete, and see their profits dwindle. There's usually a disolutionment with this or that guru at one point in their limited careers, it's not real buddhahood, in otherwords, it's their poor karma allowing them this unfortunate mistake. Make what you will of this stuff, there's plenty of sadgurus online, watch some of their videos, and you'll soon enough grasp their falsehoods for yourself. It should be enough to understand that from the Brahmanic tradition, "sadguru" refers to an inner guidance, essentially the concept refers to a higher form of understanding. A person calling themselves one of these things is clearly blaspheming, calling themselves your lord and saviour. If you haven't understood, this is a false prophet as well.
There are a few decent teachers around, not many of them, who teach you the basics at no cost to you (that means zero rupees/dollars). They often have a normal vocation, and don't care about your religion. They want to know if you're decent enough of a person to begin your journey, and offer you their condolences if they believe you ain't cappable. They might encourage you to feed the poor with some of your money, and tell you not to travel, lest you need to for work.
What are Mantras?
You may have heard of the epiteth or mantra "so-hum" in a previous incarnation, if that's possible, but that's precily what a mantra implies. It is telling you something about the characteristics of yourself or another through simple phonemes referred to as "bija" or seed sounds. I am using the word "epiteth" for your understanding that a mantra is just that, it is a characteristic expressed in sounds, not often words, however they can be complete statements. I will leave aside the full implication of what a mantra does, and why it is so powerful if used correctly, for another date. I just want you to understand that "so-hum" represents the statement "I be", or "I exist".