21-Day Dhyana Sadhana - Day 18 - Appreciation of the Inner Instrument

Day 18 for the 21-Day Dhyana Sadhana, 21-Day Meditation Practice daily online retreat as we approach Divali 2024. 

Today I share the basics of the Antah Karana given by Vedanta philosophy. It describes 4 parts to the mind - manas, buddhi, ahamkar, and citta. What are their functions? 

In meditation you are guided in your energy process into the deeper space of observing the "I," or sense of identity, ego. 

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Meditation Transcript

So let me invite you into meditation. Thank you very much.

Let's turn our attention inwards, taking slow, deep breaths and opening up our awareness, opening up the consciousness to observe. Observe the many levels of your experience.

The body, vitality, the heart, the mind, the energy, the breath. Become skillful. You have been practicing with me for a few days. Become skillful.

Use your awareness to observe where needs to be energized. Where do I need to strengthen myself?

A good place to start is always strengthening the body, the vessel, by strengthening the root chakra, using the breath at the root, opening up the awareness of the energy there.

And if you feel the body has been depleted, the body still has some tiredness, then you need to revitalize in the gut using the navel chakra.

Deep abdominal breathing.

If you need to open up to the power of the heart creating that loving supportive vibration, then you know what to do. Go into the heart, strengthen that nerve plexus which you're breathing. Breathe through the point of the heart and open up to the loving vibration.

Let's take a moment to open up to the power of listening, the power of the throat chakra. By focusing either at the back of your neck or the front. Wherever you feel the power there, use Ujjayi breathing. That's where you gently constrict the throat so that when you breathe you can listen to the sound of the air flowing.

This has a powerful cleansing effect on your mind.

Remember, if you observe the flowing of thoughts, that's okay. Don't fight with the thoughts. Don't react at all.

Stand back. Don't be in the middle of the river of thoughts, in the middle of the stream of thoughts being washed away by them. Stand back from it. Come onto the banks.

The thinking is there, but you can just gently observe and you're more focused on the energy, feeling the breadth and the bigger experience that's surfacing.

Stay with the throat for now. Breathe through that space and begin listening to the stillness, the silence within you.

You're doing very well. I can sense from our group energy, that growing stillness.

Now refocus at that point between the eyebrows and breathe through there.

And now we're working to purify the manas. Clear that mental field. As you breathe out, release the thoughts. As you breathe in, relax the space. Open up to the spaciousness of your mind.

Suspend the mind from associating with anything and observe how that clears to space.

If you need to, you breathe out all the way down the central channel, Squeeze the root and on the inhale, keep the root locked and draw the energy up to the brow, feeding the brow chakra from the root.

Observe what happens when you do that.

As you feel the power building up in the manas, become more relaxed.

Don't try to do so much. Don't try to will so much.

Be carried. The energy is flowing on its own. Be carried. And in that clearer inner space, come into deeper self observation, turning your attention onto the sense of I, your own sense of self.

I am experienced, I am breathing.

And refocus on the sense of I letting go of the experiencing.

What is the nature of that sense of I? Who am I?

That's very good. Let's take a deep breath. All the way in, all the way out.

Using the power of the lungs and the diaphragm, breathing in and out, let's come strongly towards the gut. Using abdominal breathing in and out, feel the body in and out. Notice the senses.

As we come to the end of our meditation, let's strongly affirm in the mind,

I stay centered in the source of my being, staying open and curious of my deep spiritual identity.

May I experience that. May I be guided there.

Pull yourself all the way back to the body. Please ensure to ground the excess energies into the body, into the cells, into the muscles and bones.

Thank you very much. When you feel ready, with a few gentle blinks, you can open the eyes.

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Reflection

1. What did you observe in the energy process today ? 
2. Were you able to focus on the sense of self? Explore that.