11am Sunday Talk: What Can You Expect from Meditation? with Br. Shankara

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On Sunday morning, April 17th at 11am, Br. Shankara will give a talk entitled What Can You Expect from Meditation?

April is a month for study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual path often called the yoga of meditation. As a raja yogi, you use ancient, proven spiritual techniques to calm your body, quiet your mind, and gain control of your attention.

Regular daily practice of Raja Yoga increases your ability to concentrate, and may lead to meditation. This can unite you with the Divine Presence, the source of your being, and free you from the cycle of rebirth and death. As spoken of by the raja yogi, the state of complete liberation from the gunas’ influence is called kaivalya — independence.

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When you first start practicing meditation, what you experience is very much determined by what you want from it. To understand this, listen to yourself talking about it with a close friend: “It makes me feel calmer, more relaxed. I kind of get more centered, and I can see that some of the things I worry about all the time are not really that important …”

This is splendid, and auspicious! After you have practiced regularly, with sustained attention, for two or more years:

• You will become more efficient and effective in everything you do, because your ability to concentrate has increased and improved.
• You may experience a Living Presence in your heart. This is the “face” of the Atman, that Witness Awareness which is the core, the source and the essence of your being. It may appear to you as formless, or in a form of the Divine Being that most appeals to you. You may see light or hear sounds, or even speak with your Chosen Ideal.

Beyond this there is the unexpected. In the silence, serenity, clarity and peace of prolonged practice, reflections of who You truly Are — unique aspects of your divinity — may appear. It may become self-evident what Hafiz meant when he wrote that God sang to him, “Each soul, each soul completes Me.”

We will discuss all this more fully on Sunday morning.