Meditation and Concentration

There is no harm in concentrating sometimes in the heart and sometimes above the head. But concentration in either place does not mean keeping the attention fixed on a particular spot; you have to take your station of consciousness in either place and concentrate there not on the place, but on the Divine. This can be done with eyes shut or with eyes open, according as best suits you.

 

In this Yoga the whole principle is to open oneself to the Divine Influence. It is there above you and, if you can once become conscious of it, you have then to call it down into you. It descends into the mind and into the body as Peace, as a Light, as a Force that works, as the Presence of the Divine with or without form, as Ananda. Before one has this consciousness, one has to have faith and aspire for the opening. Aspiration, call, prayer are forms of one and the same thing and are all effective; you can take the form that comes to you or is easiest to you. The other way is concentration; you concentrate your consciousness in the heart and meditate on the Mother in the heart and call her in there. One can do either and both at different times — whatever comes naturally to you or you are. moved to do at the moment. Especially in the beginning the one great necessity is to get the mind quiet, reject at the time of meditation all thoughts and movements that are foreign to the sadhana. In the quiet mind there will be a progressive preparation for the experience. But you must not become impatient, if all is not done at once; it takes time to bring entire quiet into the mind; you have to go on till the consciousness is ready.

 

As a rule the only mantra used in this sadhana is that of the Mother or of my name and the Mother’s. The concentration in the heart and the concentration in the head can both be used — each has its own result.

 

There is no method in this Yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be.

 

When one tries to meditate, there is pressure to go inside, lose the waking consciousness and wake inside, in a deep inner consciousness. But at first the mind takes it for a pressure to go to sleep, since sleep is the only kind of inner consciousness to which it has been accustomed. In yoga by meditation sleep is therefore often the first difficulty — but if one perseveres, then gradually the sleep changes to an inner conscious state.

 

There is no necessity of losing consciousness when you meditate. It is the widening and change of the consciousness that is essential.

 

In order to have Dhyana, the restlessness of the mind must be utterly settled, the intellect must become like a calm and wave less sea, not a ripple on its surface. The distinguishing feature of Dhyana is that it puts out a steady force of knowledge on the object of knowledge.

 

Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e. g., the Divine; there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it —

 

Concentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition. Meditation can be diffusive, e. g., thinking about the Divine, receiving impressions and discriminating, watching what goes on in the nature and acting upon it etc.

 

The best help for concentration is to receive the Mother’s calm and peace into your mind. It is there above you — only the mind and its centres have to open to it...

 

It is to remain quiet at the time of meditation, not fighting with the mind or making mental efforts to pull down the Power or the Silence but keeping only a silent will and aspiration for them. If the mind is active, one has to learn to look at it, draw back and not giving any sanction from within, until its habitual or mechanical activities begin to fall quiet for want of support from within. If it is too persistent, a steady rejection without strain or struggle is the one thing to be done.

 

The two main places where one can centre the consciousness for Yoga are in the head and in the heart. The sitting motionless posture is the natural posture for concentrated meditation — walking and standing are active conditions. One can accustom oneself to meditate walking, standing, lying but sitting is the first natural position.

 

It is better to make the deeper concentration when you are alone or quiet. Outward sounds ought not to disturb you. The concentration is in its nature quiet and steady. If there is restlessness or over-eagerness, then that is not concentration.

 

There are always two things that can rise up and assail the silence,— vital suggestions, the physical mind’s mechanical recurrences. Calm rejection for both is the cure. One can remain separate and see the thoughts and imaginations pass without being affected, but that is not being plunged or engrossed in meditation.

 

You have asked what is the discipline to be followed in order to convert the mental seeking into a living spiritual experience. The first necessity is the practice of concentration of your consciousness within yourself.

 

The ordinary human mind has an activity on the surface which veils the real self. But there is another, a hidden consciousness within behind the surface one in which we can become aware of the real self and of a larger deeper truth of nature, can realise the self and liberate and transform the nature. To quiet the surface mind and begin to live within is the object of this concentration. Of this true consciousness other than the superficial there are two main centres, one in the heart (not the physical heart but the cardiac centre in the middle of the chest,) one in the head. The concentration in the heart opens within and by following this inward opening and going deep one becomes aware of the soul or psychic being, the divine element in the individual. This being unveiled begins to come forward, to govern the nature, to turn it and all its movements towards the Truth, towards the Divine, and to call down into it all that is above. It brings the consciousness of the Presence, the dedication of the being to the Highest and invites the descent into our nature of a greater Force and Consciousness which is waiting above us. To concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way —

 

Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.

 

Concentration is necessary, first, to turn the whole will and mind from the discursive divagation natural to them, following a dispersed movement of the thoughts, running after many-branching desires, led away in the track of the senses and the outward mental response to phenomena: we have to fix the will and the thought on the eternal and real behind all, and this demands an immense effort, a one-pointed concentration. Secondly, it is necessary in order to break down the veil which is erected by our ordinary mentality between ourselves and the truth; for our knowledge can be picked up by the way, by ordinary attention and reception, but the inner, hidden and higher truth can only be seized by an absolute concentration of the mind on its object, an absolute concentration of the will to attain it and, once attained, to hold it habitually and securely unite oneself with it.

 

The Mother:

The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditation: it becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness. Then you are sure of your progress, then you have made real progress when concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night, whatever you may be engaged in doing. What is required of you is consciousness; to be constantly conscious of the Divine. If you need to make an effort to go into meditation, you are still very far from being able to live the spiritual fife. The final aim is to be in constant union with the Divine, not only in meditation but in all circumstances and in all the active life.

 

Collective meditation is not desirable. I do not approve of it. It brings more troubles. It is not safe, so it is better that it is dropped.......

 

Yes, if one has to say something or tell or talk or to read something from the Mother or Sri Aurobindo or somebody explains the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, it is all right that you meet together and remain together, but not to meditate.

 

The meditation can be collective and it is very good and it energies a great force, but it is only when the members who collect together for the meditation are single-minded, in full harmony and co-operation, they are together for one single ideal, one and not divided — all as one block or one single unit. That too not many but a selected few. It is most important to have an inner vision and discrimination in choosing people for meditation.

 

It is a meditation which has the power to transform your being, a meditation which is progressive. Usually people do not have a dynamic meditation. When they enter into what they call meditation, it is a kind of immobility in which nothing changes; they come out of it just as they entered into it, without any progress either in their being or in their consciousness. They could meditate in this way for eternities and it would bring no change either in themselves or in the universe. That is why Sri Aurobindo speaks of dynamic meditation, for it is just the contrary: it is transforming meditation.