– Today, I’d like to express some doubts I have, Theophile the Younger said. When I am with you, everything seems so easy; I readily plunge into the heart and I don’t find it hard to meditate. But when I am by myself, it is completely different. Thoughts won’t keep out; sometimes, even starting meditation is difficult; I find it hard to go within myself and forget about my everyday life and my other preoccupations. It feels as if I have to enforce things and use all my will, whereas it all goes so naturally when we are together!
– As I told you, the Elder answers, after your initiation, you had a glimpse of the path you were going to follow, but your own spiritual work will help you realize it. It will take time and involve on your part significant efforts, as well as discipline and willingness. There will be ups and downs, high ups and low downs, on your way to progress. That’s quite normal. It is one part of the road everyone will travel at his or her own pace, depending on the person’s skills and determination.
We practice raja-yoga, a system with a very precise practice. It is guided both from outside and from inside. It is always supported by transmission, cleaning and, most particularly, by a benevolent and competent spiritual guide.
– You said that it would take seven years for me to start being less dependent on all these little person-oriented selves and be better connected to what I really am, to reach my Self and give my soul the freedom to express itself. That seems a long time. Couldn’t it be made shorter? Can’t we progress more rapidly?
– Each person is free to listen to the Divine within and follow what it says. At the moment, we are unconsciously resisting it. Seven years is the minimum required. During so many incarnations, we have been walking our path in quest of the Ultimate, Some of these lives we led as rebels and some others as leaders. It may even take much more than a poor seven years’ time dedicated to spiritual work and wonder. But as you now know it, there is also a more direct path: the path of Love. Then, Realisation can be immediate. Lalaji said, “Just turn the head from one side to the other. That is all.”
– Why not take the Path of Love straight away? asked Theophile the Younger.
– That path is beautiful, but very demanding.
– But to love is so easy, isn’t it?
– It is not that easy. You must surrender to Love, depend on Love, forget yourself, breathe it in and out and live through it. The beauty, the miracle, is when the ordinary becomes Love. It can happen at any stage of your spiritual evolution. It is a real blessing.
– What do you think, then? Is it easy or difficult?
– It is both, because Love is simple, but we are not.
Love is purely divine. Generally, the human beings accept with difficulty to let it pass through them and go where it must go, because their egos want to grasp it, to possess it, to keep it in check. But that is just impossible.
– What is to be done then? How to avoid falling into the illusionary trap loving is and really love? Is a spiritual practice of any help there?
– Quite so. By practicing we prepare our hearts, because we purify them, we feed them with transmission. Then such hearts will host the divine Love and let it free to act. As we progress, our beings reach higher levels of love, and they finally realize a Universal Love.
– I like that a lot. But let’s come back to the difficulties, the young man suggests. When I am alone, I cannot easily concentrate and create a vacuum within me. My mind keeps a-moving, and it may take about twenty minutes before I calm it down and manage to be immersed within my heart.
– That is the reason why I had you go through every stage of the heart region. At times, you will have to conquer them by force and fight your rebellious tendencies. The most difficult part is in crossing the first point, the point where formatting operates, where dwell the habits that belong to the sphere of your desires. Our spiritual guide helps us cross that point as fast as we can so that we may enter the sphere of the soul, the sphere of peace.
– Does it mean that then you can master your desires?
– No. It means you have crossed the frontier kept by your guardian of the threshold, your ego. It also means that your soul will fully support you and help you step back from your own tendencies and desires. Peace will be your terra firma, and primary love will be your weapon.
– And that’s it?
– No. Not yet, for you must acquire a sense of discrimination (Point 3).
Regularly our tendencies catch up with us. So you will have to curb them all along the path. The only way is for your soul to subdue your ego. When the soul is associated with the ego and the ego is totally at the service of the soul they become one, so much so that the ego seems to have completely disappeared. Then, nothing is there anymore to bar your spiritual evolution.
– I thought our ego was the enemy to be destroyed?
– Not at all. It is a fabulous engine, but it must not be in the driving seat. That is reserved to the heart. The ego is a perfect worker.
Sahaj Marg is a heroic and beautiful path. Meditation is a discipline. It helps you regulate your mind. We don’t try to create a vacuum; we only want our mind to be oriented towards the divine light.
– And what if disturbing thoughts arise?
– Then you have to focus back onto the heart and the divine light in it. Just ignore the coming thoughts; don’t chase them; don’t feed them. If you refuse a thought or whatever it is, you only give it strength. You must not make it important and just ‘ignore’ it.
– So, whether I think or not about something does not make any difference?
– Yes, that’s right. In both cases, you are feeding the same concept. That is why, before we start meditating, we are advised to make the suggestion that our heart is being filled with love. We mentally prepare ourselves, and the suggestion makes all the difference. It fills up all the space available in the mind and there is no room left for the unwanted thoughts. When you are in a loving dimension, there is no more need for concentration. You are being carried. The technique, the points and the regions don’t seem to matter any more. Only “That” is meditating within you.
– Whenever I have difficulties, the heartfulness relaxation helps me a lot. Then I can enter meditation more easily. Can it be done systematically?
– Everything that can help is good, up to the moment when you won’t need it any longer. Same thing for breathing: a restful attention to our own breath will help regulate the mind, but once the mind is balanced, all these techniques are no longer useful. Meditation itself, in due time, won’t be necessary, as your life will have become just “a ceaseless meditation.”
– That’s not for now I guess! I have only started my journey, and I need all the help I can get. What else would you recommend?
– Babuji would recommend meditating right before dawn, that very moment when the forces of Nature are in a balanced state. Dawn and its greyish non-luminosity are propitious to reaching a balanced meditative state.
Another good thing would be to dedicate a special space to meditation and make sure the vibratory atmosphere there is of a high level.
The posture consists in assuming a straight pose, not rigid but easy. The head naturally bends gently down to the heart. Legs and hands are crossed, which momentarily will slow down your vital flow and favour spiritual energy. Just like a tortoise, every part of us seems to be willing to go back within and be absorbed by the heart.
Then you observe your heart: you are the observer. You listen to the divine silence within.
As for prayer, it connects us to the Source. It pours down into our heart. Then meditation can start, being at once real and intense.
If it is still not enough, then we focus our mind onto the ultimate goal, with the strong will to reach it, and then the way is shown to us, and the Source absorbs us.
– Do you mean that mind and body have to be put in a condition favourable to meditation, as a sort of preparation, in fact?
– Call it whatever you want, but if you really want to reach the Infinite in you, your mind must be focused on the goal. When you concentrate on a fascinating topic, you forget about time and even about you, as you are being completely absorbed by your topic. That is the state of mind you need.
– But so many topics absorb us in our daily lives that if I sit in meditation they immediately pick on me.
– Hence the necessity to rigourously train, which demands patience and time, several years most often.
After that, you will have the capacity to meditate wherever you want. Better still, your life will become a constant meditation, your quiescent mind will be immerged into the Ocean.
– Why is it so easy when I am with you or in a group meditation?
– It is the effect of transmission and of the power of the egregore, which make everything so much easier.
– I am tired of asking questions. How about just meditating?
– All right. Then please, start meditation…
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation