A Guide for Perplexed Meditators: Finding a Simpler Way to Go Within
While many meditators can readily alter their state of awareness and gain union of their attention with the attentional principle or the spirit, some find it difficult to go within to unite with these conscious essences. Among the obstacles they encounter are:
(1) They cannot withdraw attention from the externalized orientation of the waking state
(2) They can isolate the attentional sphere at the medulla center in the waking state, but cannot lift above this state.
(3) They can lift up into an altered state of awareness, but cannot lift up beyond a certain point. For example, they get stuck in the awareness of the sensations in their body, their emotions or their thoughts.
(4) They can readily pass through the centers of the Conscious mind, but get blocked at the gate of the Subconscious mind.
(5) They can move into the corridor of memory, but are waylaid by traumatic issues in the personal unconscious zone.
(6) They can penetrate into the chakras of the Subconscious mind, but cannot go beyond the opened path of the spinal tube (sushumna).
(7) They can bring their attention to the pituitary or pineal centers, but cannot locate their attentional principle or spiritual heart behind them.
We will discuss potential remedies to these problems. We will also teach you a technique to simplify the process of inversion.
Overcoming the Obstacles
There are three factors that impede the progress of attention up to the conscious essences. The first is engagement of the mind stuff with external objects or internal issues, which brings about distraction or mind wandering. The second is failure to activate the energetic substrate of awareness, which keeps the attention from rising up. The third is lack of a focal point, which leads the meditator to float in present time awareness, but not progress upward.
The remedy for the first is Pratyahara, or withdrawal of the attention from the objects of the senses. This involves two processes. The first is a withdrawal of the sensory currents themselves. For example, in a technique called Jyoti Laya, the energy animating the visual track in the brain and through the inner vehicles is withdrawn. The second part of this process is the movement of the attention in this inner track of energy. The attention is carried along in the energetic stream the way a ball is carried in a moving river.
Using the breath or awakening the kundalini is the solution to the second obstacle. Those who awaken the kundalini have no problem achieving the inner momentum to go within—indeed, the absorption of the attention in the kundalini energy (Kundalini Laya) is nearly effortless. The drawback with this method is that when the kundalini is aroused, it is the driver of the meditation experience, and the attention is passively carried along in this dynamic current of rising light and fire.
Using the breath, especially the method taught in this article, allows the meditator much greater control over changes in awareness. For those that do not have the force of intention to move the focus of the mind stuff to selected inner foci at will—this method is called Tratakam—the gentle opening force of the breath is an effective method to let the meditator alter awareness readily and with the sense of full control.
Using a map of awareness and contemplating each level in turn can remedy lack of a focal point. With successive meditations, meditators gain more experience of the content at each level, and can begin to differentiate one level from another. For example, meditators reliably experience sensations arising within the body when they contemplate the physical seed atom; or present time feelings when they contemplate the emotional seed atom. This trains them to recognize where they are in the upward climb to the conscious essences.
The Dominant Mode of Meditation Experience
Meditation students typically progress from feeling (kinesthetic/tactile) experience, to hearing, and finally, to sight. Meditation techniques that are matched to each modality are listed below.
Mode of Experience
Techniques
Kinesthetic/Tactile
Breathing meditations, watching the breath, Hansa Breath
Hearing
Auditory Pratyahara (Shabda Laya),
listening to the tones of each vehicle of consciousness, listening to the inner sound of a mantra (Mantra Laya), listening to the sound current of the Audible Life Stream (Nada Yoga).
Sight
Visual Pratyahara (Jyoti Laya), Tratakam, fixing the attention on inner visual cues such as the form, seed atom, or centers in a selected vehicle of consciousness.
Those who have difficulty with visualizing or seeing within could consider using a meditational method matched with their dominant mode of processing. For example, a meditator unable to visualize could go within using a breathing method or listening to the inner sound (Nada) that arises from each vehicle of consciousness.
Beginning meditators do not know how to differentiate the different states of awareness, and are often unable to discern where they are on the Continuum of Consciousness. Meditation training trains the attention to recognize each vehicle of consciousness or state of awareness and to locate it as a landmark on an inner map. Once a vehicle has been located, the meditator can use that landmark as a focal point for concentration.
Landmarks are usually visual markers—a color, an image, an inner center or chakra. But it is possible to also use tactile kinesthetic markers, such as a felt sense of great peace, or a felt sense of inner power cued to an inner vehicle of consciousness; or auditory markers, such as a high frequency tone associated with each state of awareness.
The first step in meditation is the withdrawal of the “cloud of mind stuff” to the focal point of the attention at the medulla center. The next step involves the movement of this focused globe of attention to the next focal point.
We use the following focal points for the Conscious mind:
(1) Waking state of awareness
(2) Awareness of movement/body position in the present time
(3) Awareness of sensations from the environment in the present time as vision, sound, smell, taste, and touch [This center is also called the sensorium.]
(4) Awareness of sensations arising from within the body in the present time such as heartbeat, peristalsis, breathing, or muscle tension [This center is also called the physical seed atom.]
(5) Awareness of emotions arising in the present time [This center is also called the emotional seed atom.]
(6) Awareness of thoughts arising in the present time [This center is also called the mental seed atom.]
(7) Awareness of the identity states of the ego arising in the present time [This center is also called the Egoic seed atom, or more simply, the ego.]
(8) Awareness of impressions and memories entering conscious awareness from the Subconscious mind [This center is called the Preconscious.]
(9) The gate of the Subconscious mind [This center is also called the Etheric Veil.]
The focal points that we use for the Subconscious mind include the following:
(10) The five temporal points
(a) The present time in memory
(b) The first conscious memory
(c) The memory of birth in the personal unconscious
(d) The memory of conception in the personal unconscious
(e) The blissful atom of the Soul, revealing the experience of eternity
(11) The Creative Centers (the chakra system of the Subconscious mind)
(a) Seat of the Kundalini (perineal center)
(b) Chakras in the awakened part of the spinal tube
(c) Chakras in the unawakened part of the spinal tube
(d) Seat of the attentional principle (pituitary center)
(e) Seat of the spirit/entrance to the current that leads to union with the spiritual heart (pineal center)
(f) Reflection of the Soul’s development (brain center)
(12) The astral body of the Subconscious mind
(13) The causal body of the Subconscious mind
(14) The 13 toruses of purpose
(15) The eight petalled lotus center
Similarly, there are focal points for the Metaconscious mind:
(16) The etheric body
(17) The desire body
(18) The persona
(19) The conscience
(20) The concrete mind
(21) The intellect
(22) The personal intuition
(23) Volition
(24) The active form of the Self
(25) The passive form of the Self [This center is also referred to as being, or the voidness of consciousness.]
Meditation, hypnotherapy, and psychotherapy can direct attention to these focal points. Meditation promotes contemplation and understanding of these centers. Hypnotherapy leads attention to selected focal points and introduces suggestion at this level to bring about change in behavior or limiting belief. Psychotherapy guides attention to specific focal points where clients will interact with intrapsychic content to promote insight and bring about resolution of dysfunctional behavior and mood.
Meditations target different focal points. For example, Vipassana or mindfulness meditations typically focus attention on focal points 2 to 8. Kundalini meditation activates focal point 11a. Raja Yoga meditation begins by uniting the attention with the attentional principle at focal point 10d. Nada Yoga meditation enters the Nadamic stream through the focal point 11e. Centering meditations merge attention with focal point 24, to bring about union with the Self. Zen meditations cultivate union of the attention with the voidness of consciousness at focal point 25.
The Hansa Breath
The Hansa Breath[1] is a means to gently shift attention to each focal point, so that you can sense each vehicle of consciousness. Here’s the technique:
The Sanskrit word, hansa, means swan. This is a style of breathing that will help you concentrate and remain alert in meditation. You can use it to bring yourself back to focus when you start to drift off, and progressively deepen your awareness in meditation. Here’s how you do it:
To begin to be aware of this breath, make a sniffing noise with your nostrils. You should be bringing air into your nostrils no further than one fingerbreadth, about 3/4 to one inch.
When you have the urge to breathe, breathe normally, and then go back to this little sniffing breath. (Note: you should not be making a full inhalation as you sniff, as this will induce a state of hyperventilation. If feel dizziness or tingling, stop: you are sniffing too deeply. The sniff breath should not pass into your lungs at all.)
The first phase of the hansa breath is to help you concentrate your attention. Here you sniff into the focus of your concentration to help you sharpen your focus. When your mind has become finely concentrated, you move to the second phase, which is the shift of awareness.
In the shift of awareness phase, you will silently think han as you sniff in, and sa as you sniff out, then watch the shift of awareness. You will simply witness whatever comes into your awareness as you shift this focus. Gradually, you will progressively deepen your awareness, remaining inwardly alert as you move to deeper bands of your mind. Notice you control the degree of your deepening.
In the third phase, you will bring your attention back, doing little sniff breaths with the sound of huh—out only—and watch the change of awareness as you lower your attention back to your grounded state of awareness.
If you start to drift off, do a quick sniff breath. This will bring you back to the state of inner alertness.
As you progress in meditation, you will be able to actively concentrate your attention wherever you chose. You can then use the sniff breath to keep you alert within.
The Augmented Hansa Breath
As you learn to shift your attention easily and readily, you can augment the hansa breath with a method that allows you to more acutely discern the content of a selected vehicle of consciousness. To do this augmented technique, select a focal point you wish to study in greater depth.
Let us say you wish to learn more about the structure of the intellect, focal point 21. You will do the hansa breath as before and notice the shift of your awareness and where your attention is focused.
The first part of this augmented method is to inwardly label each state of altered awareness as your attention shifts into it. For example, you inwardly suggest when you make this shift of awareness as you contemplate focal point one, “this is my movement center,” and as you contemplate focal point two, “this is my sensorium.” You continue to label each focal point until you reach the level you wish to contemplate.
Once you reach the focal point you wish to explore more deeply, you hold your attention at this level, and repeat “OM” with your attention as you do this. You will notice your awareness will move through the sub-centers of this vehicle, and you will glimpse the content and activity of this vehicle.
Awareness of sub-centers within each vehicle of consciousness moves from the feet, through the mid-calf, to the knees, to the mid-thigh, to the hips, to the base of the spine, to behind the navel, to behind the solar plexus, to behind the heart, to the throat where the neck meets the torso, to the medulla where the neck meets the skull, to the forehead where the nose meets the brow, and to the top of the head.
Depending on your inner spiritual development, you may find that you will be able to become aware of only a portion of these sub-centers, while the remaining sub-centers are veiled in the darkness of your unconscious. You can detect with practice, at the border between light and darkness, the “seed atom” of this vehicle of consciousness. The seed atom is the actual focal point upon which you are holding your concentration.
These inner centers or “chakras” appear to reside in each vehicle of consciousness. When you finely adjust the inner dial of your awareness to discern these subtle aspects of each vehicle of consciousness, you will gain clear knowledge about them and your meditations will become much richer and deeper.
[1] The Hansa Breath is excerpted from A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation, pages 349 to 350.
While many meditators can readily alter their state of awareness and gain union of their attention with the attentional principle or the spirit, some find it difficult to go within to unite with these conscious essences. Among the obstacles they encounter are:
(1) They cannot withdraw attention from the externalized orientation of the waking state
(2) They can isolate the attentional sphere at the medulla center in the waking state, but cannot lift above this state.
(3) They can lift up into an altered state of awareness, but cannot lift up beyond a certain point. For example, they get stuck in the awareness of the sensations in their body, their emotions or their thoughts.
(4) They can readily pass through the centers of the Conscious mind, but get blocked at the gate of the Subconscious mind.
(5) They can move into the corridor of memory, but are waylaid by traumatic issues in the personal unconscious zone.
(6) They can penetrate into the chakras of the Subconscious mind, but cannot go beyond the opened path of the spinal tube (sushumna).
(7) They can bring their attention to the pituitary or pineal centers, but cannot locate their attentional principle or spiritual heart behind them.
We will discuss potential remedies to these problems. We will also teach you a technique to simplify the process of inversion.
Overcoming the Obstacles
There are three factors that impede the progress of attention up to the conscious essences. The first is engagement of the mind stuff with external objects or internal issues, which brings about distraction or mind wandering. The second is failure to activate the energetic substrate of awareness, which keeps the attention from rising up. The third is lack of a focal point, which leads the meditator to float in present time awareness, but not progress upward.
The remedy for the first is Pratyahara, or withdrawal of the attention from the objects of the senses. This involves two processes. The first is a withdrawal of the sensory currents themselves. For example, in a technique called Jyoti Laya, the energy animating the visual track in the brain and through the inner vehicles is withdrawn. The second part of this process is the movement of the attention in this inner track of energy. The attention is carried along in the energetic stream the way a ball is carried in a moving river.
Using the breath or awakening the kundalini is the solution to the second obstacle. Those who awaken the kundalini have no problem achieving the inner momentum to go within—indeed, the absorption of the attention in the kundalini energy (Kundalini Laya) is nearly effortless. The drawback with this method is that when the kundalini is aroused, it is the driver of the meditation experience, and the attention is passively carried along in this dynamic current of rising light and fire.
Using the breath, especially the method taught in this article, allows the meditator much greater control over changes in awareness. For those that do not have the force of intention to move the focus of the mind stuff to selected inner foci at will—this method is called Tratakam—the gentle opening force of the breath is an effective method to let the meditator alter awareness readily and with the sense of full control.
Using a map of awareness and contemplating each level in turn can remedy lack of a focal point. With successive meditations, meditators gain more experience of the content at each level, and can begin to differentiate one level from another. For example, meditators reliably experience sensations arising within the body when they contemplate the physical seed atom; or present time feelings when they contemplate the emotional seed atom. This trains them to recognize where they are in the upward climb to the conscious essences.
The Dominant Mode of Meditation Experience
Meditation students typically progress from feeling (kinesthetic/tactile) experience, to hearing, and finally, to sight. Meditation techniques that are matched to each modality are listed below.
Mode of Experience
Techniques
Kinesthetic/Tactile
Breathing meditations, watching the breath, Hansa Breath
Hearing
Auditory Pratyahara (Shabda Laya),
listening to the tones of each vehicle of consciousness, listening to the inner sound of a mantra (Mantra Laya), listening to the sound current of the Audible Life Stream (Nada Yoga).
Sight
Visual Pratyahara (Jyoti Laya), Tratakam, fixing the attention on inner visual cues such as the form, seed atom, or centers in a selected vehicle of consciousness.
Those who have difficulty with visualizing or seeing within could consider using a meditational method matched with their dominant mode of processing. For example, a meditator unable to visualize could go within using a breathing method or listening to the inner sound (Nada) that arises from each vehicle of consciousness.
Beginning meditators do not know how to differentiate the different states of awareness, and are often unable to discern where they are on the Continuum of Consciousness. Meditation training trains the attention to recognize each vehicle of consciousness or state of awareness and to locate it as a landmark on an inner map. Once a vehicle has been located, the meditator can use that landmark as a focal point for concentration.
Landmarks are usually visual markers—a color, an image, an inner center or chakra. But it is possible to also use tactile kinesthetic markers, such as a felt sense of great peace, or a felt sense of inner power cued to an inner vehicle of consciousness; or auditory markers, such as a high frequency tone associated with each state of awareness.
The first step in meditation is the withdrawal of the “cloud of mind stuff” to the focal point of the attention at the medulla center. The next step involves the movement of this focused globe of attention to the next focal point.
We use the following focal points for the Conscious mind:
(1) Waking state of awareness
(2) Awareness of movement/body position in the present time
(3) Awareness of sensations from the environment in the present time as vision, sound, smell, taste, and touch [This center is also called the sensorium.]
(4) Awareness of sensations arising from within the body in the present time such as heartbeat, peristalsis, breathing, or muscle tension [This center is also called the physical seed atom.]
(5) Awareness of emotions arising in the present time [This center is also called the emotional seed atom.]
(6) Awareness of thoughts arising in the present time [This center is also called the mental seed atom.]
(7) Awareness of the identity states of the ego arising in the present time [This center is also called the Egoic seed atom, or more simply, the ego.]
(8) Awareness of impressions and memories entering conscious awareness from the Subconscious mind [This center is called the Preconscious.]
(9) The gate of the Subconscious mind [This center is also called the Etheric Veil.]
The focal points that we use for the Subconscious mind include the following:
(10) The five temporal points
(a) The present time in memory
(b) The first conscious memory
(c) The memory of birth in the personal unconscious
(d) The memory of conception in the personal unconscious
(e) The blissful atom of the Soul, revealing the experience of eternity
(11) The Creative Centers (the chakra system of the Subconscious mind)
(a) Seat of the Kundalini (perineal center)
(b) Chakras in the awakened part of the spinal tube
(c) Chakras in the unawakened part of the spinal tube
(d) Seat of the attentional principle (pituitary center)
(e) Seat of the spirit/entrance to the current that leads to union with the spiritual heart (pineal center)
(f) Reflection of the Soul’s development (brain center)
(12) The astral body of the Subconscious mind
(13) The causal body of the Subconscious mind
(14) The 13 toruses of purpose
(15) The eight petalled lotus center
Similarly, there are focal points for the Metaconscious mind:
(16) The etheric body
(17) The desire body
(18) The persona
(19) The conscience
(20) The concrete mind
(21) The intellect
(22) The personal intuition
(23) Volition
(24) The active form of the Self
(25) The passive form of the Self [This center is also referred to as being, or the voidness of consciousness.]
Meditation, hypnotherapy, and psychotherapy can direct attention to these focal points. Meditation promotes contemplation and understanding of these centers. Hypnotherapy leads attention to selected focal points and introduces suggestion at this level to bring about change in behavior or limiting belief. Psychotherapy guides attention to specific focal points where clients will interact with intrapsychic content to promote insight and bring about resolution of dysfunctional behavior and mood.
Meditations target different focal points. For example, Vipassana or mindfulness meditations typically focus attention on focal points 2 to 8. Kundalini meditation activates focal point 11a. Raja Yoga meditation begins by uniting the attention with the attentional principle at focal point 10d. Nada Yoga meditation enters the Nadamic stream through the focal point 11e. Centering meditations merge attention with focal point 24, to bring about union with the Self. Zen meditations cultivate union of the attention with the voidness of consciousness at focal point 25.
The Hansa Breath
The Hansa Breath[1] is a means to gently shift attention to each focal point, so that you can sense each vehicle of consciousness. Here’s the technique:
The Sanskrit word, hansa, means swan. This is a style of breathing that will help you concentrate and remain alert in meditation. You can use it to bring yourself back to focus when you start to drift off, and progressively deepen your awareness in meditation. Here’s how you do it:
To begin to be aware of this breath, make a sniffing noise with your nostrils. You should be bringing air into your nostrils no further than one fingerbreadth, about 3/4 to one inch.
When you have the urge to breathe, breathe normally, and then go back to this little sniffing breath. (Note: you should not be making a full inhalation as you sniff, as this will induce a state of hyperventilation. If feel dizziness or tingling, stop: you are sniffing too deeply. The sniff breath should not pass into your lungs at all.)
The first phase of the hansa breath is to help you concentrate your attention. Here you sniff into the focus of your concentration to help you sharpen your focus. When your mind has become finely concentrated, you move to the second phase, which is the shift of awareness.
In the shift of awareness phase, you will silently think han as you sniff in, and sa as you sniff out, then watch the shift of awareness. You will simply witness whatever comes into your awareness as you shift this focus. Gradually, you will progressively deepen your awareness, remaining inwardly alert as you move to deeper bands of your mind. Notice you control the degree of your deepening.
In the third phase, you will bring your attention back, doing little sniff breaths with the sound of huh—out only—and watch the change of awareness as you lower your attention back to your grounded state of awareness.
If you start to drift off, do a quick sniff breath. This will bring you back to the state of inner alertness.
As you progress in meditation, you will be able to actively concentrate your attention wherever you chose. You can then use the sniff breath to keep you alert within.
The Augmented Hansa Breath
As you learn to shift your attention easily and readily, you can augment the hansa breath with a method that allows you to more acutely discern the content of a selected vehicle of consciousness. To do this augmented technique, select a focal point you wish to study in greater depth.
Let us say you wish to learn more about the structure of the intellect, focal point 21. You will do the hansa breath as before and notice the shift of your awareness and where your attention is focused.
The first part of this augmented method is to inwardly label each state of altered awareness as your attention shifts into it. For example, you inwardly suggest when you make this shift of awareness as you contemplate focal point one, “this is my movement center,” and as you contemplate focal point two, “this is my sensorium.” You continue to label each focal point until you reach the level you wish to contemplate.
Once you reach the focal point you wish to explore more deeply, you hold your attention at this level, and repeat “OM” with your attention as you do this. You will notice your awareness will move through the sub-centers of this vehicle, and you will glimpse the content and activity of this vehicle.
Awareness of sub-centers within each vehicle of consciousness moves from the feet, through the mid-calf, to the knees, to the mid-thigh, to the hips, to the base of the spine, to behind the navel, to behind the solar plexus, to behind the heart, to the throat where the neck meets the torso, to the medulla where the neck meets the skull, to the forehead where the nose meets the brow, and to the top of the head.
Depending on your inner spiritual development, you may find that you will be able to become aware of only a portion of these sub-centers, while the remaining sub-centers are veiled in the darkness of your unconscious. You can detect with practice, at the border between light and darkness, the “seed atom” of this vehicle of consciousness. The seed atom is the actual focal point upon which you are holding your concentration.
These inner centers or “chakras” appear to reside in each vehicle of consciousness. When you finely adjust the inner dial of your awareness to discern these subtle aspects of each vehicle of consciousness, you will gain clear knowledge about them and your meditations will become much richer and deeper.
[1] The Hansa Breath is excerpted from A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation, pages 349 to 350.
