!! Shree Swami Samarth Jay Jay Swami Samarth !!
Introspection (Part 1)
Before you read the article, kindly note that I am not an English speaking person. I am not familiar with colloquial language. Hence I request you to pay attention to the content of communication, and not to language proficiency. Purpose of presentation in English, is to approach the maximum number of personnel, around the world.
Background
A set of following three articles, published earlier, cover background of this article.
- Current Mental State;
- Adhyatma Education System;
- Lifetime Master Goal.
Let us recall briefly. Lack of mental peace and turbulent state of mind is a universal problem today. Man is engrossed in background thoughts all throughout the day & night. Only for subsistence or for earning livelihood, man keeps on working. He either serves somewhere or works self-employed. However, job concentration, well defined direction, proper planning, defined work procedures, defined life-style, defined conduct pattern, all are missing. None reflects in his behaviour. Standard for conduct pattern, and lifestyle has not been decided until date. His life is unorganized. Because of disturbed mind, Man keeps on changing his conduct every now and then. His conduct is not influence by knowledge base. Constant variations of conduct pattern, affects mental activity adversely. Man loses direction of thinking. He is confused and lost. Deciding capability of intellect reduces gradually, because of lack of direction and confusion. Confidence about his own decisions reduces day by day. Man is still to define his lifetime achievement target. He has not channelized his efforts, in absence of long-term goal. Man therefore becomes more and more unsatisfied, at every event of life. He is never contented about his gains.
One must find himself his own way to overcome all this mess. One must study activities of his own mind; find out and study various methods adopted earlier; & try each method, one after the other in order to find out a suitable one, which works in one’s case. No other way out. In order to sort out turbulent mess in your mind, one should work upon own mind. You, only, know the activities of your own mind. No one else can understand, activities of your mind, unless you tell. You only know the minute details precisely. Hence you only must work. You cannot outsource. Tranquilizers will slowdown mental activity for some time and put you to sleep. To consume tranquilizers is a temporary escapement. This is not a solution. Moreover, tranquilizers have harming side effects also, which you have to suffer. In order to sort out confusion and to set clarity of thoughts, you must work hard upon your mind, patiently. Only you can do this. No one else.
First, the irrelevant thoughts should be removed, in order to make working space available. Thereafter one can tackle the balance entangled thought chains.
In order to do this, you should learn to observe and study characteristics of current activities, engaging your mind. Introspection is the tool to analyse the thoughts roaming in your mind. One should learn and practice using this tool and to develop capabilities to introspect. This tool is used during the process called Dhyan (ध्यान) or Meditation. Many other tools can be used, to develop many other faculties of mind using process Dhyan (ध्यान). Body posture is same. However, exercises are different.
Mental exercise for Introspection is explained in this article.
Advantages
- Capability to perform introspection (observation as well as verification w.r.t. knowledge concepts) all 24 hours of the day develops. This way, one can keep a close watch on mental activity.
- You forget all irrelevant, useless thoughts, removing them from memory. Thereby cleaning up and purifying Mind.
- As a result, pressure generated by irrelevant thoughts disappears. You feel drastic reduction of mental pressure.
- Thinking capabilities improve. Since more RAM space is available for faster and accurate working.
- Planting positive thoughts in Mind, etc.
The Process
The process has three major segments. Let us know each of them in detail.
- Body Posture
- Preparation
- Mental Exercise
Body Posture
One should be able to sit comfortably in that posture for a long time. This is the conceptual idea of recommended body posture.
Posture of legs
First preference is Lotus posture (पद्मासन). However, it is not easily possible to sit in this posture. One needs to practice independently. Very few can achieve.
Second choice is normal fold of legs. Keep right leg over left one. Right side of body is said to be positive, and left side is said to be negative. It is said that by keeping right leg above, positivity gets preference.
Third choice is fold your legs the way you can. You should be comfortable for a long time.
Fourth alternative is mainly for today’s generation. Sitting with folded legs is not style of the day. Hence, very few can sit in folded legged posture. In old age, this posture becomes practically impossible. Do not worry. Sit on an armless chair or a stool. No problem. Rest your feet fully on floor. Do not keep them hanging, or do not rest only toes, or front portion of foot. If required, adjust height of chair. If feet are kept hanging, blood is accumulated in feet & legs. After some time, your legs will pain.
Place a piece of woollen blanket, at the place of practice, on floor or on chair or stool. If you are sitting on floor, in folded legged posture, let the blanket be sufficiently wide and long. No part of your leg should touch floor. If you sit on stool or chair, place a piece of cotton cloth under your feet. Do not rest your feet on floor. Do not sit on soft pillow or mattress. Your seat neither should be too soft nor should be too hard. Now an important point. Keep your backbone erect, as far as possible. Do not rest your back on chair backrest or wall. With erect back, load of upper portion of body is transferred straight to seat. Muscles around backbone are not stressed. In such posture, you can sit comfortably for a long time.
Posture of hands
Rest both palms on your knee or thigh, inside surface should touch. In relaxed condition, fingers will rest properly, and muscles are not stressed. Specific formation of fingertips is not mandatory. If it can be maintained easily, it is fine.
Head
Keep your head straight. Should lean neither towards front nor towards backside. One has to sit in this posture for a long time. You should be comfortable all the time.
Try to sit in recommended posture. You may not be able to set the posture perfectly. However, try your level best. Do not worry, even if you are not able to. Carry on further performing the exercise. Regular practice will gradually enable you to perfect your posture.
Preparation
Close eyelids gently, to the extent that you cannot see. Do not close forcibly. Otherwise, muscles of eyelids will be stressed. Now relax all body muscles, one by one. No stress on any body-muscle. This way try to set all your body loose, to the extent you can. Your Body will get some rest.
Now you do not see with your eyes. Therefore, generation of sensory inputs from eyes will halt. One by one, try to neglect sensory inputs from all other sensory organs. A fly sitting on your skin and walking will generate tickling sensation. Snot creeping down from nose will generate ticking sensation. Simply neglect. Someone may spray perfume nearby. Nice pleasant fragrance will be sensed. Neglect totally. You hear a lot of noise. Someone talks loudly or utensils fall on kitchen floor and clatter. Neglect completely. It is very difficult to neglect Music. However, try hard. As you try to neglect, sensations become stronger and stronger. Do not give up. Keep on trying. Intense tickling sensation generates pain like a needle prick. No problem. Do not give up. Neglect totally. Gradually awareness of sensations will halt. This way, after you totally stop paying attention towards Physical Body, you will be able to pay attention to Mental Activities.
Mental Exercise
This exercise follows sublimation method. Process of Sublimation can separate dirt from contaminated water, using alum. Same way this exercise uses recitation of name of GOD, for separating dirt of irrelevant thoughts from mind, for removal.
Neglecting sensory inputs is end of mental preparation. Now you choose deity, such that remembering that deity should soothe your nerves. You should feel relaxed. You should feel at ease & comfortable. Thereafter you choose any one of the standard phrases, mentioning name of the selected deity (Namamantra— नाममंत्र). Choice is yours. Now recite mentally, the selected Namamantra (नाममंत्र) repeatedly, without movements of lips or tongue.
As you start recitation, Mind starts working at a much faster speed. You will not be able to recite five times, at a stretch. Before that, you will start thinking about something else and thought chain would pop up. Same thought chain will play repeatedly. Thought chain will occupy your mind fully.
Just observe these thoughts roaming in your mind. Exercise is to observe mental activity, from third party perspective. Thereby you witness the thoughts, but do not get involved. This is Saksheebhav (साक्षीभाव). Do not think about the observed thoughts, further. Do not get involved to develop the thought chain further. Do not try to stop the thoughts, using counter arguments. Let the thoughts flow freely. This is a natural tendency of mind. Nothing odd about it.
Only observe flow of thoughts. Do not try to remember your observations. Very unethical dirty thoughts, which you simply cannot imagine, may pop up. Do not create hindrance. You may feel like abusing someone. A thought chain full of, all sorts of abusive words will flow. Do not try to stop the thought flow. Let thoughts flow freely. When water flow is stopped by building a dam across a river, huge accumulation of backwater generates heavy pressure on ground, as well as on dam. Same way, accumulated stagnant thoughts generate heavy pressure on mind. Moment you open the gate and allow the thoughts to flow, accumulation quantum will reduce, resulting in gradual reduction of pressure.
Your job is to observe mental activities as a third party, and allow the thoughts to flow out freely. Role of third party observer will detach your involvement, and reduce flow restrictions. You only observe. You are then aware of flowing thoughts. However, do not try to remember. Do not get involved and develop thought chain further.
One needs to tame down thought process, taking advantage of characteristics of mind. Pressure tack ticks do not work.
When you notice interruption of recitation, restart again. Recitation will help you to switch over to role of an observer. Again, same story will repeat. Do not restrict thought flow. Thoughts must flow freely. Free flow of thoughts is advantageous.
Your Physical Body has several automatic drainage systems, which throw, dirt and toxins out of your sealed body. However, no such drainage system exists for draining your mind. This free flow of thoughts is used to drain out irrelevant & useless thoughts from your mind.
Thus, you start gaining the advantage of reduction of mental pressure by draining your mind, right from the beginning.
Thought chain, which generates maximum pressure, will pop up first. This replays again & again, every time with reduced strength. Effectively reducing pressure gradually. Thoughts, which flow out, are forgotten, clearing reserved space of RAM.
After pressure from first chain, reduces to the level of second chain in queue, Second chain will start flowing. No. 1 & No.2 will drain gradually and reach the level of No. 3 in queue. Thereafter No.1; No. 2 & No. 3 will drain gradually. Then No.4. & 5 will drain in sequence. Thus, gradually pressure in totality will reduce. This is an ongoing time taking slow process.
As more and more RAM becomes available, Intellect can process thoughts much faster. This will increase thinking efficiency. Flow of thoughts will gradually slow down and will stop when mind becomes clean. This is a common natural characteristic of mind. Everybody’s mind behaves in this fashion. Nothing odd about you.
Please perform this exercise at least for 10 to 15 minutes every day. Consistency is extremely important. If you feel like increasing the duration, do not increase beyond 30 minutes, in one sitting. If you want to increase duration still further, perform for 2 or 3 sittings a day. Please choose a reasonably disturbance free time slot from your hectic schedule, which you can consistently abide. Consistency will tune up your body clock, accordingly. Try to perform strictly within the decided period. However if some day, you miss the set time slot, any other suitable time is acceptable. Performing exercise is more important than time. Some day if you could not perform at all, please do not feel guilty or awkward. Restart next day.
Feeling of guilt will introduce new set of thoughts. Please do not try to recollect the observed thoughts, after the practice exercise is over, and think about it further to expand the chain. In such case, the irrelevant thoughts, which you have discarded and removed, are readmitted. Effect of your efforts & gains from exercise will be nullified.
Exercise is relatively easy to perform and relaxing. Effectively provides opportunity to relax your mind. This is a window to peep inside your inner world. Practice regularly. After about a month long regular practice, you will start feeling something different. You will surely notice some different experience. Some changes of your behaviour. By this time your mind would be more sensitive, to receive minute thoughts & messages. You will notice many new thoughts entering. This is as good as reversal of thought flow, from outside to inside. You will also notice the effects of these foreign thoughts. It is necessary to safeguard yourself from this thought infiltration. These thoughts are mostly negative in nature. Observe the routes of encroachment, and methods of infiltration. Try to avoid such incidences, or your actions, which provide an encroachment opportunity. Amend your habits, if necessary, in order to protect yourself. You only can protect yourself. No one else. This guarding your mind is extremely important. Do not take it lightly.
Please understand that this is a practice exercise. Actually, observation exercise should be performed simultaneously along with your daily routine activities, throughout 24 hours of day. Let your body perform daily routine activities. However, your mind will keep a close watch on the activities within. This state is called Dynamic equilibrium. You develop this important capability through regular prolonged practice.
Normally one expects that he should not be disturbed, when he performs practice exercise. However, it is very difficult to find a disturbance free time slot in your hectic schedule. Do not stop performing, because you do not get disturbance free time. Learn to handle disturbance during practice session, politely, without feeling irritated. Do not take disturbance as a problem. Take it as a practical learning opportunity. Restart after disturbance is over.
We will try to understand the activities at deeper planes and working of process at deeper levels, in next part of article. I sincerely request you to try seriously. I wish you a grand success.