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Have you ever experienced getting lost in a moment? Lost in the beauty of a sunset? In a piece of music that touches you from within? In the innocence of a baby asleep? In the eyes of your beloved? How many times have we tried to recreate that moment? It does not happen when we try, does it? It happens when we are least expecting it.
Know why?
It is because... well... we are not expecting it.
Even if you don't realize it, that experience was experienced because at that moment, you were caught off guard, the mind was not expecting the beauty and did not know how to comment on that moment. Do you know why you snapped out of the moment? You snapped out of that moment when your mind stepped in to tell you: "Wow!! that sunset/sleeping child/music/your beloved is so beautiful".
The chances of you enjoying any of those moments again in exactly the same way is very unlikely. This is because the mind has already interpreted the experience and tucked it away in memory for the future … and so, it is almost impossible to joyously enjoy those things in the same way you did when the experience was spontaneous without the mind telling you what to expect and how to enjoy.
So are we to live at the mercy of the mind and hope to randomly get lucky with enjoying those moments of silence? What if I tell you, you can access this silence anytime? If you can quiet the mind down, you will actually be able to experience these moments of utter joy, peace and connectedness very often in your life, even when the mind can’t find a reason to really feel this.
All you need is a few minutes every day to get in touch with your silence.
Cultivating silence: Sit on a chair or bed or any place comfortable with a back rest. Close your eyes and watch your thoughts for a few seconds. Then in your mind say the words "I am" ... don't utter them aloud... in your mind, repeat the words "I am". Thoughts will come up and very soon you will realize you are off the words "I am"… this is fine, when you realize you are off, go back to the words "I am". At the end of the 10-20 min, rest with your eyes closed for a few more minutes.
It is recommended to do this for 20 min twice a day. If that sounds like a lot, start off with 10 min, twice a day, but make sure you do it every day. To experience the benefits of this practice, we need to make it a part our everyday life ... like brushing our teeth.
We don't put too much thought into brushing our teeth, we just do it, and most of us wouldn’t let ourselves miss it, for even a full day. Similarly, we sit in silence for 10 - 20 min twice a day cultivating silence using the above procedure … as part of our daily routine, every single day.
The most common problem most of us have is to find time to do this. Well, first thing in the morning, even before you get out of bed, prop yourself up against some pillows and spend 10-20 min sitting silently, repeating the words “I Am”. Just remember, we have 1440 minutes in a day …all we need to do is sit in silence for 40 of those minutes to be able to enjoy silence during the rest of the 1400 minutes.
Sitting silently twice each day will helps us get in touch with the same silence that let us experience those moments I mentioned above. As we keep cultivating silence, there will be many moments when the silence will just show up in our everyday life. Don't expect to experience silence during the 20 minutes or so that you’re doing the practice. The 20 minutes is really the process for “cooking” silence: you get to enjoy the food (silence) after the cooking.
There's a reason to sit in silence every day, twice being ideal; there's a cumulative effect, just as with exercise. When you get into a regular exercise routine ... you don’t experience the benefits of exercising while you're exercising, but during the rest of your day. Similarly, you'll experience the benefits of silence in your daily life during the remainder of your day, rather than during the short time you're sitting in silence.
The word spirituality means different things to different people. People use many different avenues and activities as spiritual paths … ranging from religion to practicing various techniques, such as yoga or alternative healing or martial arts. Some people have spiritual experiences while using psychedelic drugs, or when they listen to certain music or when they are admiring a piece of art.
Do you know what the common factor is, that people experience using all these various techniques? Silence. Yes. All effective spiritual practices finally are designed to quiet the mind so you can experience silence. It may sound like I am oversimplifying things, and I am … because no matter what else people may achieve when following different paths … the key thing that a successful path will teach you is: to experience silence.
You can get a lot more information on the above technique here.
For some more ideas on how to fit this practice into your everyday life look here.
There is a wonderful Support Forum for anyone who may have questions on the technique and/or any other spiritual question.
Helpful Website:
Advanced Yoga Practices : http://www.aypsite.org/
Helpful Books:
Awesome Shweta :)
ReplyDeleteYonatan