Paramahansa Yogananda
Best Meditation Tips

How to Achieve the Goal of Meditation

1. Practice Relaxation Exercises

2. Assume meditation posture

3. Invoke the presence of God

4. Chant

5. Feel Devotion

6. Practice Breathing Exercises

7. Be Still (Don’t move a muscle.)

8. Practice Concentration Technique

9. Be Still

10. Practice the Presence of God

— Sri Daya Mata (more)

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Deepening Your Meditation

The yogi, while meditating upon God, should not distract his attention by allowing himself to ruminate on material objects, mentally planning and replanting material activities for the fulfillment of desired ends. He should renounce without reserve all such desires born of egoistic mental planning; and he should scoop out from within all desires that are already entrenched in the subconscious. His mind should be withdrawn from those material objects all around him that give rise to sensations of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and their resultant multifarious thoughts and new longings.

When the mind is singularly concentrated in meditation, all distractions are arrested. But until such internalization is mastered, the devotee must persistently practice mind control; and he should also take commonsense measures to eliminate, or at least minimize, invasive external stimuli.

... The yogi whose mind has been freed from external and internal distractions is then advised to guide his intuitive discrimination (Buddhist in its pure or sense-transcendent state) gradually inward to perceive the soul's bliss, not permitting any form of mental wandering. No matter how often the yogi's mind is distracted during meditation, he should exercise great patience; by continuous daily effort, he will succeed in establishing his mind on the joy of the soul.

The new devotee may be discouraged by receiving only occasional blissful perceptions, interrupted constantly by fierce invasions of restless thoughts. The yogi is therefore exhorted to try patiently again and again until he is able firmly to fix his concentration on his inward Goal. ...

No matter how many times restlessness invades the mind, the yogi should guide his thoughts toward Self-realization. Mental restlessness during meditation causes unhappiness. Inner concentration on the soul produces unending joy. (bf) More...

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Keys to Deeper Meditation:

1. Physical and mental relaxation
2. Urgency to find God
3. Patience
4. Detachment
5. Calm and quiet waiting.

— Sir Daya Mata (more)

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The laws are known;

depth in meditation comes from their patient, steadfast application.

It is like learning to play the piano. Success is unlikely through unscientific "hit-and-miss" attempts. Before you can play a Rachmaninoff piano concerto, you need to know where the right keys are, and then gradually become skilled by diligent daily practice.

— Sir Daya Mata (more)

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Through Hong-Sau your mind and breath become perfectly synchronized; it is as if they become forged into one razor-sharp sword that suddenly severs the inner fetters that were binding you.

— Sri Daya Mata (more)

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Always remember, Kriya Yoga plus devotion; it works like mathematics; it cannot fail.SRF AUM

Knowledge, Practice & Effort

If I hadn't spent hours seeking God in meditation I would not have known that religion is a science.

Intensity, ...
devotion, and
constancy
are necessary.

You don't know when death will come. Every minute keep your mind on God. Everything you want and need is right within you; seek long and seek deeply. I meditate for hours; I see no one until I am finished. You must make up your mind that you are not going to be bothered by anyone or anything. Then you won't know time. (me)

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Success in self-realization depends on whole-souled effort. The true devotee knows the value of constant and regular meditation, by which his life becomes an uninterrupted prayer. Yoga should not be practiced mechanically or from an oppressive sense of duty, but with joy and perpetual zeal, thus causing each day's meditation to yield a deeper bliss than that of the previous day. (bg)

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Go to your room and shut the door—make no fuss.
Sit down and talk to God.
Practice meditation.

Let your mind become so intense that the next time you sit to meditate you won't have to make the effort; your mind will be fixed immediately on Him. If you don't make a great effort to conquer physical and mental restlessness in the beginning, you will have difficulty every time you meditate throughout the years. But if you make that supreme effort at the start, you will soon be happy and free. (me)

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The experiences I have told you about are scientifically attainable. If you follow the spiritual laws, the result is certain. If the result doesn't come, find fault with your effort.

Intensity in all your religious practices is the only way.

Those who don't meditate regularly and deeply are restless whenever they do meditate, and give up after a short effort. But if you make a greater effort day by day, the ability to go deep will come. I don't have to make any effort now; the whole world is gone instantly when I close my eyes and gaze into the Christ center. (me)

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The true practice of religion is to

sit still in meditation
and
talk to God.

But you don't get to that point of intensity, you don't concentrate enough, and that is why you remain in delusion. (me)

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Key to Meditation:
Concentrating at the Point Between the Eyebrows

Meditation involves the withdrawal,
through the spine,
of life current from the sensory nerve branches, and
the concentration of that accumulation of life force
within the spherical spiritual eye.

spiritual eyeThe devotee who sits in a good posture and meditates at the point between the eyebrows learns to practice yoga, the uniting of ego and soul; in deep concentration, he finds his mind and heart (chitta, feeling) free from sensory distractions and emotional likes and dislikes.

— Paramahansa Yogananda (more)

More on concentration.

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Importance of Stillness

The first 5 minutes are the most important.

Never think whether to meditate or not, just sit down and meditate.

Practice 2-5 minutes of stillness after each technique.

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1. Prayer — We start our meditations with a prayer (1 minute). You do not have to use the standard prayer. Invoke God's presence.

2. Chanting (or reading a paragraph or two to put the mind in the frame of devotion)

3. Meditation Techniques

4. Practice Stillness

5. Practice Devotion

— Swami Smaranananda (more)

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Concentration

Four Factors of Concentration:

1. Consciousness (keep it at the Spiritual Eye)

2. Breath (observe it with detachment)

3. Heart (slows down)

4. Life Force (by control of Life Force one can attain great concentration)

And — Application of Steady Will

 

Concentrated Attention

Dealing with Three Enemies of Concentration:

1. Sensations

2. Thoughts arising from sensations

3. Memory thoughts, deep-seated desires

— Dr. M.W. Lewis (more)

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Calmness

Identification of the consciousness with the alternating waves of change is known as restlessness; identity with Changelessness is calmness.

1. Free the mind of attachments

2. Persevere and Be Still

3. Silence the internal and external body-sensations

4. Quiet the breath and the heart;

— withdraw attention and the life energy into the spinal centers

5. Experience peace and samadhi

God Talks With Arjuna (more)

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When unwanted thoughts come,
pay no more attention to them
than to the words of an idiot.

— St. Teresa of Avila

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The Right State of Consciousness

1. Sit up straight.

2. Be Intense, but not Tense.

3. BE STILL. Try to withdraw the consciousness away from the senses into the mind where God can be experienced.

4. Get into the right state of consciousness before you begin. If there are things on your mind, leave them outside before you meditate.

5. SIT STILL afterwards and enjoy the peace.

— Brother Vishwananda (more)

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Signs of Progress in Meditation

The true signs of progress in meditation are the following:

— An increasing peacefulness during meditation.

— A conscious inner experience of calmness in meditation metamorphosing into increasing bliss.

— A deepening of one’s understanding, and finding answers to one’s questions through the calm intuitive state of inner perception.

— An increasing mental and physical efficiency in one’s daily life.

— Love for meditation and the desire to hold on to the peace and joy of the meditative state in preference to attraction to anything in the world.

— An expanding consciousness of loving all with the unconditional love that one feels his own dearest loved ones.

— Actual contact with God, and worshipping Him as ever new Bliss felt in meditation and in His omnipresent manifestations within and beyond all creation. (jt)

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Further reading:

Concentration

Basic Meditation Technique

Meditation

 

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