Words From The Master: 18 Oct 2007

Science Behind Life Bliss Meditation (Nithya Dhyaan)
The Revelation

Before I explain what Nithya Dhyaan is, I would first like to give a brief background about how this revelation happened to me. Post enlightenment, I was in silence for an extended amount of time (months may be), when I was doing research on meditation techniques, to see how I can reproduce the same experience that happened in me, onto others.

I came up with around hundred different meditation techniques through all my programs and each meditation technique was an attempt to raise the individual consciousness by working on some aspect of the being.

People always asked me whether I have a meditation technique that I would recommend for everybody; which they can practice daily. This question was raised again and again. And I began to ponder deeply to come up with a technique which is a complete representation of my philosophy, teachings and my experience.

I had envisioned a meditation technique, which is holistic and complete by itself and instead of focusing on any particular aspect of the being; it should work on the entire being to transform it and make is ready for the ultimate experience to dawn. And one day, this meditation, Life Bliss Meditation (Nithya Dhyaan) was revealed to me in a flash. In an instant I could clearly see the different components of this technique; how each one relates to the other. I could clearly visualize in my inner space how this would help raise the individual consciousness in its entirety.

Life Bliss Meditation technique consists of five steps.


Step One - The Breath
Feel the lightness at the being level

The breath has the capacity to eliminate deep rooted engraved memories (samskaara) that are the reason for the lack of clarity in decisions and thought processes, irrational emotional reactions, and many such processes which are activated from a subconscious level where engraved memories (samskaara) are located.

You might have observed that the quality of your breathing changes depending on the state of your mind. Your emotions have an impact on the breathing process. When you are anxious your breathing changes. When you are angry you’re breathing changes. So your breathing is directly related to your emotions. It keeps changing as the state of the mind changes. When you are tense the normal advice given is to take a deep breath. And the moment you take a deep breath, you feel light, more relaxed and the less tense. Mind and breath are closely inter-related. You can see that when you stop breathing, it becomes very difficult to think. Breath becomes the fuel for the mind.

Likewise, if we were to control our breathing or bring about some change in our breathing pattern it will directly have an impact on our emotions; our state of mind.

Similarly suppressed emotions in the being are also a cause for an abnormal breathing pattern where the breath becomes shallow. When the breath is shallow, the suppressed emotions are not released and their memories get stored in the being. The breath doesn’t touch every part of the body. This kind of breathing becomes a fixed pattern. This way our past samskaras, our past memories which are suppressed in our being create a particular type of breathing pattern in our system. And as a result we attract similar emotions. The suppressed anger in the system has a tendency to surface and create a breathing pattern for its survival. This becomes a vicious cycle. The breathing pattern is nothing but a cumulative effect of the past Samskaara or the engraved memories of emotions.

The breathing technique in the first step of the Life Bliss Meditation (LBM) expels the engraved memories from its roots deep within. It is like shaking a tree with dead leaves. All the dead leaves fall down when shaken vigorously. This stage of the meditation leaves the body feeling vibrant and fresh due to the increased bio-energy.

Our body is never really alive if it is always under stress and tension. With the expulsion of deep rooted negativities and increase in bio- energy one can feel the lightness at a being level, immense mental clarity and awareness.


Step Two - The Inner Chatter
Experience deep mental rest

The constant inner-chatter in the mind leaves one feeling drained and tired due to lack of mental rest.

There is a constant talk going on within our minds. We may not be talking to anybody external but internally there is always something that is going on. The second stage of the Life Bliss Meditation aims at reducing this inner chatter.

Normally people find it very difficult to sit without thoughts. When you venture into meditation the first thing you encounter is resistance from the mind. The mind tends to revolt as it does not want to be quietened. It has been habituated to maintain a constant stream of thoughts for so many years. In fact people often complain that in an attempt to be thoughtless, they encounter more thoughts. Any initial attempt to make it silent is like swimming opposite to the river current. This is the time when many people tend to stop the practice of meditation since they get discouraged. They think that meditation is not possible at all for them. But let me tell you that this is the experience of all meditators initially.

In the mythological story of Churning of the Ocean (Sagara Manthana) the Gods and the demons are together trying to churn the ocean to extract the divine nectar of immortality. But to their surprise the first thing that emerges from the ocean is the deadly poison. Eventually many other things emerge due to the churning. And finally they are gifted with emergence of the divine nectar.

This is a very metaphorical story which has a deep significance in the process of meditation. When the mind is churned in the process of meditation to extract the experience of enlightenment, the first thing to come out is always the deep rooted negativity suppressed from the past. Do not feel discouraged; this is an indication of progress that the negativity is been thrown out. Continue practicing meditation till you experience the supreme state.

This second stage of the Life Bliss Meditation can be an extremely useful tool to help silence the mind. Mind is nothing but the inner chatter. And when the inner chatter reduces, you start progressing towards a deep restful thoughtless awareness. You start experiencing a different dimension of your being.

Our body and the mind are mostly out of sync. While our body has its own innate intelligence guiding it all the time, it’s the mind that refuses to corroborate with that intelligence. The mind forces the body into certain actions which later on manifests as a disease. Disease here means absence of ease ( in the body ) . If the body is made to run forcibly, then it is going to revolt some time or the other. Many a times we tend to overeat. The body sends out signals that it is full but the mind is not satisfied. It wants more. And we end up eating more creating more and more damage to the body. The repercussions of this action are then felt later. So creating a harmony between the body and the mind is very essential to go beyond both. Else we would be caught in this psycho-physical entity and transcendence would be difficult.

This second stage of the Life Bliss Meditation is one of the best techniques to maintain the synchronicity between the body and the mind.


Step Three - Energy Centers
Radiate positive emotions & well-beingness

We have seven key energy centers in our body that are associated with specific emotions in our being. These emotions in turn are a result of the deep rooted engraved memories or samskaara which have been accumulated from the past. These samskaaras block the particular energy center causing physical and mental disturbances.

When the energy centers get unblocked from negative emotions and then we start emitting positive emotions like love and compassion. Many of our diseases are psychosomatic. They have their roots in the mind. What we see is its effect and so we never really understand this mind-body connection. When a particular energy center gets blocked, the part of the body near that energy center gets affected. You might have seen that when you worry too much there is sense of tightness around the stomach region or the stomach gets upset. So it is important to keep the energy centers cleansed for good physical and mental health.

Emotions like fantasies, imaginations, fear, worry, attention need, jealousy, ego and discontentment have negative existence. If you are asked to take an object out of the room, all you have to do is to pick up the object and take it out. So in this case the object has positive existence. But let us say that there is a dark room and you are asked to take the darkness out of room. You cannot really carry the darkness out of the room. Because here, darkness has a negative existence and cannot be removed physically. You just have to turn-on the light to dispel or remove the darkness. All these negative emotions also have a negative existence just like the darkness in the room. Bringing awareness and understanding about the system of energy centers can help eliminate negative emotions. This naturally allows the positive emotions to flow and radiate.

Once Buddha tied a knot and asked one of his disciples to untie the knot. The disciple tried to pull the knot in different directions which only tightened the knot further. Then Buddha asked another disciple to untie the knot. This disciple first examined the knot carefully and slowly untied the knot. Buddha then explained that if you have to untie the knot of ignorance in your being, you first have to learn to observe and examine it carefully. You have to flood your being with awareness and the negativity will be instantaneously obliterated.

This third stage of the Life Bliss Meditation is one of the best techniques to allow the positive emotions to surface and be expressed.

To know more about the science of Energy Centers, you can attend the Life Bliss Program or the Ananda Spurana Program that elaborately discusses each Energy Center and the emotions related each of them and prescribes a meditation technique for each Energy Center.


Step Four - The Mind
Liberate from the clutches of the mind

The mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts. These thoughts rise up in succession like the bubbles in a fish tank. All these thoughts that rise in the mind also appear to be connected. But just like the bubbles in the fish tank the thoughts in the mind are also independent and unconnected.

You can do a small exercise. For ten minutes sit silently and observe the thoughts that arise in your mind. Don’t try to control or stop thinking. Just be silent and witness the thoughts coming. The moment a thought comes quickly write it down on paper. At the end of ten minutes read out whatever is written. You will see that it’s a mad man’s diary. There is utter chaos. There is no connection between the previous thought and the next one. All the thoughts are un-clutched and unconnected. Only when you write down your thoughts you come to know that the thoughts have no real connection. You may be thinking about having a cup of coffee and the next moment you may think about some office work which is pending. There is no real connection between having a cup of tea and the office work. Both are independent events. Even if there are two consecutive thoughts about the same event the thoughts are unconnected as there is no continuity. There exists a silent gap between these thoughts of which one is not aware.

The thoughts by their very nature are un-clutched. The problem starts when we start connecting these thoughts. When these independent and unconnected thoughts are linked up, we create illusions of pleasure or pain based on the nature of thoughts that we choose to link -up. This is a play of the mind that is constantly happening within us.

For example; you might have eaten ice cream ten years ago, you might have eaten ice cream seven years ago and you might have eaten ice cream two years ago and you might have eaten ice cream yesterday. All these experiences might have been very pleasurable for you. You might have enjoyed the ice cream on each of that occasion. The trouble starts when these experiences are connected and an imaginary shaft or an understanding is created that eating ice cream makes you happy. But sometime in the future eating ice cream may not be as enjoyable as on the earlier occasions. Even if you don’t enjoy the ice cream you will make yourself believe that you like the ice cream. Because you have got into the habit of connecting the thoughts; you unconsciously start accepting that you enjoy ice cream. Here the imaginary joy is one aspect of the illusion while the other is the recording of the false emotion deep within you. Similarly so many such incidents and thoughts are connected and recorded as illusions rather than as independent moments of pain or pleasure.

Similar is the case with painful experiences. The pain which you experienced ten years ago, the pain which you experiences seven years ago, the pain which you experienced three years ago and the pain which you experienced yesterday are independent events. There is no connection between these events. But through connecting events of similar nature you are creating a shaft that gives you the feeling of prolonged agony. This will leave you feeling that your life has been miserable and painful all along. Similarly connecting all the pleasurable experiences in your life gives you the feeling that that your life is pleasure.

But actually neither of it is true. Your life is neither pleasure nor pain because the very process of connecting these events is a mistake. The idea that the thoughts are connected is a misconception. Ironically we don’t connect all the thoughts. We only connect those that we remember and create the shaft. It is similar to how a bouquet is created by picking just a few flowers from a garden.

When we create the shaft we suffer. If you have created a shaft of pleasure we try to extend it because you want to experience the same pleasure again. But if you have created a shaft of pain then you try to break it because you want to avoid the pain. You can neither extend the shaft nor break it because it never existed in the first place. The shaft itself is a myth.

All your experiences are independent experiences. The moment you have connected these experiences you have created suffering too. Now you will understand why suffering is also imaginary. It is based on something imaginary. It is based on something unreal. It’s just an appearance. The shaft is unreal; it does not exist. So the suffering that is created due to the shaft is also unreal. Once you realize this you are liberated. So by our very nature we are un-clutched. We are enlightened and just we have to realize it.

When we perceive every incident is a new incident we see life in a more beautiful way. Everything seems joyful and blissful. You stop taking things for granted. Once you start accepting life from moment to moment, bliss happens to you naturally.

In this step, carry this understanding with you that your thoughts are unconnected, irrational and un-clutched. There is no horizontal connection between your thoughts. Even if you have thoughts neither try to suppress the thoughts nor try to react to them. Just watch them with the understanding that they are un-clutched. Automatically witnessing consciousness will start happening in you. You will go beyond the two identities. You will realize that you are neither the shaft of pleasure nor the shaft of pain but you are the background on which these shafts are drawn.


Step Five - Chanting
Melt into the arms of existence with gratitude

The vibrations from chanting can have a profound impact at the being level. Mantras create energy that can calm and soothe the mind.

The Chanting in Step 5 of the Life Bliss Meditation can help you journey to the deeper levels of peace from where gratitude overflows towards existence for all that we have been bestowed upon for. The attitude of gratitude can provide a jumping board towards experiencing a deep connection with existence and the peace energy that exits around us The chanting of mantras carry vibrations, which can transform your being to make it more pure and blissful.

Practice of Life Bliss Meditation at least once a day can help you experience a new dimension of your being. This technique will help you to prepare your body and the mind to experience the state of pure consciousness and bliss.

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This excerpt is taken from the website http://www.lifeblissmeditation.org
Click here to buy the Nithya Dhyaan Guided Meditation CD.