Meditation on the Spiritual Heart: Experiences and Practical Advice

By Kaj Björk

The book describes the role and importance of the spiritual heart in meditation and spirituality. The spiritual heart is not an abstract concept but something real that can and should be experienced. The author describes his personal experiences and gives practical advice to fellow travellers on the path less travelled. The book describes how to practice effective meditation and breathing techniques, some of which have never before been described in books. This book is for serious seekers of truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504373753

Kaj Björk

The author has practised meditation and yoga all of his adult life. He has traveled widely and received initiation and training from several masters. He also has a Ph.D. in psychology.

Book preview

Meditation on the Spiritual Heart

Experiences and Practical Advice

KAJ BJÖRK

26586.png

Copyright © 2017 Kaj Björk.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The cover image is by Miro Kovacevic.

The drawings are made by the author.

The photo of Ramana Maharshi is printed with permission from the copyright proprietor Sri Ramanasramam.

The photo of Anandamayi Ma is printed with permission from the copyright proprietor anandamayi.org.

The quotes from D. Godman (1985), Be as you are. The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. London, UK: Arkana & Penguin Books, and from Ramana, M. (2004), The spiritual teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, are published with permission from Sri Ramanasramam, the copyright proprietor of both books.

All scriptures are from the KING JAMES VERSION (KJV): KING JAMES VERSION, public domain.

Other quotes are within the limits of fair use as defined by 17 U.S. Code § 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7374-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7375-3 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/23/2017

Contents

1 The Awakening

2 The Unspeakable Mantra

3 Energy Transfer from Teacher to Student

4 Spiritual Awakening without Energy Transfer

5 The End of Thinking

6 Samadhi

7 The Doors of Perception

8 The Fourth State of Consciousness

9 The Spiritual Heart

10 Types of Yoga

11 Raja Yoga

12 The Third Eye

13 The Breath

14 Jñana Yoga

15 Be Here and Now

16 Surrender

17 We Are All One

18 Helping Others

19 Sex

20 Kundalini

21 Renunciation

22 Drugs and Food

23 Making Progress

24 Dark Nights of the Soul

25 Near-death Experiences

26 Reincarnation

27 Organized Religion

28 The Case of Jesus

29 Enlightenment and Miracles

30 False and True Teachers

31 Anandamayi Ma

32 A Moment When time Stood Still

33 Recommended Meditation and Breathing Practices

34 Brief Notes

Notes

References

This book is

dedicated to everyone who opens it

1

The Awakening

Let me begin with saying that the entity writing these words, in the following referred to as I, is not an enlightened person. I am not even a spiritual teacher, just a very ordinary human being. However, I consider myself to be a spiritual adept; I am on the path.

I had a spiritual awakening which changed the course of my life. This awakening occurred a long time ago, when I was a young man, only twenty-one years old. This body is now sixty-six years old.

After some hesitation and much inner debate, I have come to the conclusion that I would like to share some of what I have learnt with others. Soon, this body will wither, and then it will be too late for me to tell anyone about my journey and my experiences. Perhaps somebody can benefit from knowing about them. Therefore, I decided to write this book.

My awakening happened like this. A yoga master, Swami N., came to the town where I was living at that time. I went to listen to him a few times. I decided to ask for a private talk with him. It was granted.

When I entered his room to see him, something very strange and unexpected happened. I don’t know what I had expected, but definitely not this. Suddenly I was filled with an incredible bliss. I could only see bright light all around me. The blissful feeling was completely overwhelming.

We talked for a short while. He gave me some personal advice. He told me to meditate on the Spiritual Heart, which he said is located in the middle of my chest, a little more on the right side. To find out exactly where in the chest the Spiritual Heart is, he told me to point at myself with a finger. Then I would point at exactly the right spot, since everyone knows by instinct where it is. The Spiritual Heart is the center point of our body, and it is the place where the atman, our True Self, resides. It is the connection point between atman and the physical body.

He also gave me a mantra. Then the meeting was over.

That meeting gave my life a completely new course. The experience was beyond anything I had ever experienced before. Until that moment, I had been truly blind to the spiritual realm of existence. It was like if I until that moment had been living on a planet where the sky was always covered with clouds, and its inhabitants had no idea that such a thing as a sun exists. Then, suddenly, I had been allowed on board of an airplane and taken above the clouds, and I could see the sun with my own eyes. It was impossible to deny the experience.

I had read some books on yoga, and also practiced some hatha yoga, but I had never heard about the existence of a Spiritual Heart before. I started focusing on it in accordance with the instructions I had been given. After some practicing, I started feeling it. It felt like having a warm, glowing stone in the middle of the chest, and how it was glowing! The feeling spread to every cell of my body. Every cell started to glow, too.

The world also began to look differently. It was like my senses had been incredibly sharpened. First, the world looked like a painting by van Gogh or Monet. Then, it felt like I could see into the center of every atom. Everything was in fact made of light, of vibrating light. The light was also conscious: I realized that the true nature of the whole universe was Consciousness. Time and space ceased to matter, all fear of death disappeared.

The blissful feeling stayed for a couple of months, after which it gradually subsided. But part of it stayed; it never disappeared completely. A warm feeling stayed, emanating from this center point, the Spiritual Heart. It regained in strength every now and then, often enough for me to trust and know that it was still there and would not go away. I embarked on an inner journey to explore this experience deeper. There was no turning back.

After that followed some years of travelling, meeting with spiritual masters, visiting ‘holy’ places of all religions, studying old yoga scriptures, trying to learn as much as possible. I’ve met with masters and yogis in the Himalayan region, I have seen zen archers in Japan, and whirling dervishes in Turkey; but very few of these masters knew or talked about the Spiritual Heart.

It took many years before I came to understand that meditation on the Spiritual Heart, the specific path I had chosen (or, rather, the path that had chosen me) had some characteristics that made it different from other paths leading towards the ultimate goal. There may certainly be several paths leading to the top of a hill. Some might be more direct than others. This Path turned out to be mine. I