Yoga Meditation: Through Mantra, Chakras and Kundalini to Spiritual Freedom

By Gregor Maehle

This book will not only give a precise step-by-step description of the meditation technique at the heart of yoga but also put it into context with all other yogic techniques and how they contribute to the breakthrough to spiritual freedom. Yogic meditation derives its power from the fact that it systematically suspends the entire processing capa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kaivalya Publications
• Release date: Dec 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9780977512683

Gregor Maehle

Gregor Maehle has studied yoga since 1982, focusing on Ashtanga yoga since 1990. In 1997 Shri K. Pattabhi Jois authorized him to teach Ashtanga Yoga. He is the cofounder and director of 8 Limbs Ashtanga Yoga studio in Perth, Australia, where he lives.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

This is the most important of my books to date. In it I will not only give a precise step-by-step description of the meditation technique at the heart of yoga but also put it into context with all other yogic techniques and how they contribute to the breakthrough to spiritual freedom.

Asana, pranayama and meditation are the three main categories of yogic technique. They are not to be practised separately but combined and interlinked. Practised individually, their benefits are limited to the sphere they deal with, for example asana with the body. To link them, meditation needs to be practised within asana and by consciously extending (slowing down) and retaining the breath. This means that for the practice of yogic meditation it is not sufficient to just passively watch the breath; the structure of the meditation itself must contain mechanisms that require the slowing down of the breath. This book explains yogic meditation as involving the same elements and principles as yogic posture and yogic breathing, and is thus a method that will achieve powerful results if combined with both.

A MANDELBROT METAPHOR OF YOGIC TECHNIQUE

The Mandelbrot set is a formula named after the late mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. Its geometrical representation is called a fractal, a complex pattern that looks the same, or nearly the same, however distant or close is your view of it. Through the advent of powerful computers we can now watch on the web so-called Mandelbrot-set zooms. If you have never seen one I recommend that you watch some of them to understand this metaphor (and it’s great fun, too). As you zoom deeper and deeper into the fractal, the same or similar patterns are repeated over and over again. The same all-over structure and architecture of the fractal are repeated in every minute detail. Similarly, the same patterns are repeated on all levels of yogic technique as you zoom deeper and deeper into it.

Asana, for example, is only effective if exercised in combination with bandha (energetic lock), yogic breathing, focal point (drishti), concentration (dharana), etc. We find the same pattern repeated once we zoom deeper into pranayama. It is to be executed within asana, while applying bandha, drishti, mantra (soundwave), mudra (energetic seal) and so on. Once our zoom has reached the next deeper layer, called pratyahara (independence from external stimuli), the same pattern holds true. Pratyahara is achieved by applying all yogic ancillaries together. It is performed in asana, during pranayama, by applying bandha, mudra, mantra, visualization … When zooming deeply into pratyahara, the sixth limb of yoga, dharana (concen­tration) is revealed. Dharana, too, is a set of techniques that takes place with asana, pranayama and pratyahara, and includes mantra, concentrating on chakras, bandha, mudra, drishti, etc. The final two limbs of yoga – dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption) – are, again, not separate practices but deeper zooms into the existing lattice of yogic technique, which reveals the same patterns and details over and over again.

While meditation methods such as Buddhist, Vedantic and Vipassana meditation are noble pursuits in their own right, if you want to harvest the fruit of your asana and pranayama practice you need to combine them with yogic meditation, that is meditation that repeats the structural elements and architecture of your posture and breathing techniques. You use the skills you acquired in your asana practice to progress swiftly in meditation. As with the Mandelbrot fractal, all yogic techniques were designed according to the same structural formulae.

In this book I am describing the meditation layer of the physical and respiratory disciplines of yoga that I presented in my earlier books. Yogic meditation has fallen into disuse; hence the many attempts to import unlinked meditation techniques into yoga. My intention with this book is to usher in a renaissance of yogic meditation.

WHY IS THIS METHOD SO POWERFUL?

Yogic meditation is a highly scientific method. It derives its power from the fact that it systematically and step-by-step suspends the entire processing capacity of the subconscious mind and diverts it towards meditation. The processing power of the subconscious mind is a multiple of that of the conscious mind. We don’t know exactly by how much, but it may be 100 or more times as powerful as the conscious mind. Simply watching breath or watching awareness involves only your conscious mind. For quick and effective con­centration the entire power of the subconscious mind has to be harnessed. This is the secret of yogic meditation.

I have watched with some concern that modern yogis, dissatisfied with teachers who only offer asana (posture), go on to incorporate into their yoga practices unrelated meditation techniques. Today often the word yoga is used to mean posture, and meditation is taken as an entirely separate discipline. That was not how it used to be in traditional yoga. According to yoga, meditation has physical, mental and spiritual components and each of those has several sub-components. The most important passage in yogic scripture on yogic meditation is the panchakosha (five sheaths) model described in the Taittiriya Upanishad.1 The Upanishad talks about the five layers or sheaths of which the human being is made up. The fifth and innermost layer, the core (Anandamaya kosha), constitutes the peak experience of ecstasy after one has mastered the outer four layers. The fourth layer (Vijnanamaya kosha) entails the understanding of divine law, sacred knowledge of the order of the universe and the cognising of the master plan according to which all universes unfold and divine creativity expresses itself as the world. This layer leads to mastery of life and enables one to make a significant and lasting contribution to human society and life on Earth.

While these two innermost sheaths deal with a high level of mastery, it is the three outermost layers that yogis have to concern themselves with initially. These three layers are Annamaya kosha (the body), Pranamaya kosha (breath and pranic sheath) and Manomaya kosha (the mind). These three layers are intricately linked, and it is here where the obstacles to yogic practice and spiritual freedom are located.

Did you ever ask yourself why sometimes you are full of enthusi­asm in starting a new way of life, and make the necessary lifestyle changes, only to find after some time that all vigour has gone out the window? This is because most systems other than yoga address only one of the three layers in which obstacles are located. Some systems work mainly with the body by using asana or other types of physical discipline. Other methods focus exclusively on the mind, for example by using meditation. Others again use breathing methods. For this reason it is understandable that modern yogis look for more than just posture. But there is no need to look elsewhere for meditation: yoga itself contains the most powerful meditation system ever conceived. Yoga not only uses all three levels – the physical, pranic and mental – but it uses them in such a way that they are interlinked by the replication in every one of these layers of the same founding principles.

As Patanjali, the ancient author of the Yoga Sutra, has explained, for success in yoga it is important to purify one’s conditioning.2 ‘When memory is purified, the mind appears to be emptied of its own nature and only the object (of meditation) shines forth.’3 In other words, if you want to experience the world as it truly is, you need first to delete your past conditioning, as its sits like a filter on top of your senses and makes everything new look like the past. The notion that in order to experience the world afresh you need to do so without conditioning, and therefore delete it, is confirmed by the Hatha Tatva Kaumudi.4

So imagine that you want to install on the computer of your mind the latest operating system, a yoga operating system, whereas the one you wish to get rid of contains your past, including hurts, humiliations, rejections, guilt, fear, pain and doubt. In order to get rid of this old conditioning you delete the hard drive of your mind–computer, but just as you go to install your brand new yogic/meditative operating system, free of fear of rejection etc., you find that the old one has quickly and unexpectedly reinstalled itself. You then discover that the old operating system has two back-up drives that it uses to reinstall itself whenever it gets deleted.

To make our mind robust our human conditioning is stored in three entirely separate locations, not just in the mind. This is why we encounter so much inertia when we want to change. The three locations are those mentioned in the Taittiriya Upanishad: body (Annamaya kosha), breath (Pranamaya kosha) and mind (Manomaya kosha). If you do want to let go of your past and give birth to the new you, you need to purge conditioning from all three individually. It is exactly this that interlinked yogic asana, pranayama and meditation do. They purify body, breath and mind. After having described the methods to purify body and breath in my earlier books, in this text I cover meditation, the method of choice of the yogi to purify the mind, the third and last of the three outer sheaths (koshas).

ALL YOGA ONE

As the four Vedas were originally one, so all yoga in the beginning constituted one single system, sometimes called Maha Yoga, the great yoga. The separation into Bhakti, Karma, Hatha, Raja Yoga etc. is artificial, as they are only aspects of the one yoga. This book firstly shows how the various aspects of Hatha Yoga constitute nothing but the physical aspects of meditation. They are the groundwork and supports on which the structure of meditation is erected. It then describes the mental discipline of yoga, called meditation or Raja Yoga. After that are discussed the results or fruits of physical and mental yoga – the spiritual aspect or Bhakti Yoga. This process finally merges into the conclusion of yoga, the Jnana Yoga, which should only be attempted after all of one’s duties in life and towards society have been fulfilled.

In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna said that the original yoga was lost due to the lapse of time.5 It is for this reason that today we find the original yoga splintered into many petty techniques and schools that by themselves cover little terrain. If individual yogic techniques are practised out of context, there is a low probability of success. Patanjali says that all eight yogic limbs need to be practised for yoga to succeed.6 It follows that practising asana is not enough. There is absolutely no evidence within the body of yogic scripture that asana alone will get you to your goal. On the other hand, with each limb or ancillary of yoga that you add to your yogic tool box you potentialize the power of the practice and the probability of its success.

Many yogis today are stuck at asana because they think they need to reach an unrealistic level of performance before integrating higher limbs. But life is too short to entertain that thought: in order to have a realistic chance at succeeding with yoga you need to integrate the higher limbs as early as possible. The earlier you start some form of basic pranayama and meditation, the earlier you will experience inner freedom. If you dedicate even 10 minutes per day to each, this will enhance all other aspects of your life and practice. Do not wait until you have achieved some mythic level of achievement in asana that probably will never come. Some people have invested 30 years of daily practice in asana but in the end have found themselves with nothing but a trim body. Believe it or not, this trim body will, des­pite all of your asana practice, fail you and go six feet down (or up the chimney depending on your preference). Do not invest all of this time in nothing but asana: in order to derive any lasting fruit from asana you need to combine it with pranayama and meditation.

Patanjali calls the architecture or structure of yoga ‘Ashtanga Yoga’. This Ashtanga Yoga engulfs and involves all other aspects and schools of yoga. While my previous books have explained Patanjali’s yogic limbs of yama and niyama (ethical precepts), asana (posture) and breath work (pranayama), this volume deals with Patanjali’s limbs five and six. He calls these limbs pratyahara (independence from external stimuli) and dharana (concentration), and this text describes their essential and important techniques.

While success in dharana and pratyahara can be measured in a quantitative way, limbs seven and eight – dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption) – are qualitative limbs that are the result of pratyahara and dharana being practised precisely and to a deepening extent.

Meditation is only yogic meditation if it is built on certain yogic principles. During more than 30 years of research and practice I have identified 18 laws of meditation, which are described in this book. With this number I have, of course, also paid respect to the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, which contain 18 chapters. This is the tradition in which I grew up spiritually. In saying this I do not mean that this tradition has a monopoly on truth. The opposite is the case. I am offering modifications to this method that may enable practitioners of other traditions to practise it without experiencing any conflicts.

There is one underlying truth in all religions and spiritual philosophies, and that is the experience of divine love (whether it be called by these words or not). If that love is experienced we can make a contribution to human evolution and society. We can contribute to a life in unity despite diversity and in harmony with divine law. Spiritual illumination and divine revelation are not something remote that only a few chosen can attain. On the contrary it is our birthright and divine duty. The meditation technique described herein has the power to deliver it. On the face of it this may sound like a bold claim, but if you practise the techniques associated with the 18 laws you will find out for yourself.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The 18 laws of meditation described in this book are arranged in three parts, each part containing six laws. Six of the laws pertain to Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is the physical dimension of meditation and generally identified as yoga consisting of posture (asana), breath work (pranayama) and purification exercises (kriyas). This first part explains how these physical techniques are linked to the practice of meditation and how they support it and bring it about. If you have read my previous books and practised their techniques, and are keen to start meditation as quickly as possible, then you may skim over the exercises in Part 1 – apart from those in Chapters 3 and 6, which are new. Although Part 1 is in some ways a summary of my previous books, it does offer many new angles, particularly aimed at the subject of meditation. These themes are covered:

so that meditators understand that Hatha methods are not weird practices unrelated to meditation techniques but that they do constitute important preparations for meditation and Raja Yoga;

to show Hatha Yoga’s connection to meditation and spiritual yoga (bhakti) so that asana and pranayama practitioners understand them and move on to integrate yogic meditation into their existing practice.

All physical yoga techniques, including asana, are not designed to build or beautify the body or increase self-worth through proficiency in asana: their sole purpose is to prepare for meditation, and meditation is the technique to realize the Divine.

Similarly, health is not the purpose of asana but is a by-product of being in harmony with cosmic forces, and that harmony supports and enables realization of the Divine.

If you have never done Hatha Yoga before, and come to this book merely from the angle of meditation, it will be very helpful for you to understand exactly how all Hatha Yoga techniques support medi­tation. Meditation is much more likely to bring about spiritual revelation if supported by Hatha Yoga. The mind does not exist by itself but is interlinked with body and breath in manifold ways. The Hatha Yoga laws explain how a solid physical and pranic base is created from which the mental process of meditation can succeed.

The second part of this book, dedicated to Raja Yoga, contains the core teaching of Patanjali’s pratyahara (independence from external stimuli) and dharana (concentration). Raja Yoga is the mental dimension of meditation. This part first explains the scientific foundations of yoga meditation and then introduces its technique. You will also find information on the importance of Kundalini as support for meditation and the factors that make it rise, such as chakra and Sushumna visualization, mantra and breath. Chapter 11 presents the complete method of how pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga, is mastered – by harnessing all the processing power of the subconscious mind, thus preventing the reaching out of the senses.

As the mind is a master sense or presenter of sensory data, it has five sensory components. In order to harness the subconscious mind for spiritual evolution, all of these five aspects of mind need to be bound to their respective objects and not just the entire mind to the breath. As previously explained, the three outer layers of the human being (body, breath and mind) contain the obstacles to yoga and need to be purified. Whereas the body is generally purified through asana, the pranic sheath through pranayama and the mind through meditation, the complex catalogue of pratyahara in itself addresses all three layers. Chapter 12 then shows how this mastery of pratyahara is used for dharana, the sixth limb of yoga, explaining by the use of various examples how dharana works and the methods it employs.

The third part of the book finally presents Bhakti Yoga or the spiritual dimension of meditation. Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of divine love, is the fruit and result of the previously described methods and aspects of yoga. The text first explains how the chakras represent evolutionary stages of brain and mind development. Chakra meditation, if done in a sophisticated, high-powered way, will propel the evolution of the brain and mind of the practitioner and the awakening of higher (sattvic) intelligence. Chapter 13 presents an outline of the evolution that we can undergo as individuals and as a collective.*

Development up to this point is only the beginning of the possible future evolution of humanity. The fourteenth chapter then explains visualization of the Divine during spontaneous internal breath retention, whereas the fifteenth introduces the ignition of Kundalini during external breath retention. Chapter 16 offers the technique that ultimately produces lasting success in meditation and the vision (darshana) of the Divine. Chapter 17 then integrates Jnana Yoga as the ultimate goal of yoga, which, however, should not be attempted before each and every individual has fulfilled their svadharma, that is their contribution to the life of others and to society.

As a house is built slowly, with attention at the beginning to more mundane steps such as earthworks, this text attends to the foundations first. As the chapters go on, however, it reaches a crescendo in Part 3. It is therefore good not to judge the text by the initial chapters but to persist to the end. If on the other hand you rush ahead too quickly you may find it inconceivable how you could experience states such as those described in Part 3. But, as putting on the roof is the logical conclusion of building a house, so are spiritual revelation and divine love the logical conclusions to the process of yoga – if it is done with the right elements and in the right order.

HOW TO LEARN YOGIC MEDITATION

You may think at first that the meditation technique described here sounds complicated or difficult, or that it makes your mind busy. But it is or does that only if your mind rushes ahead and tries to achieve stages that it is not yet ready for. In truth it is a meditation technique that naturally grows with you.

In a similar way, the teaching of yogic posture may look complicated. But it is complicated only if you want to rush ahead and practise postures that you are not yet ready for. On the other hand if you do not add new postures when you are ready, your physical practice will be stunted. Similarly your spiritual practice will remain stunted if you do not add new layers to your meditation when you are ready for them. If you only ever watch the breath without making your meditation more demanding, your intellect will remain torpid. But the Divine wants us to awaken our intelligence because we are a manifestation of that divine intelligence and only a fully developed intellect can realize the Divine. In Sanskrit the term intelligence (buddhi) is derived from the verb root budh – to awaken.

Look, then, at this meditation technique as you would at your posture practice. Only ever take on a new, more demanding, layer when you have mastered and integrated the previous one. If you try to jump ahead you will not succeed.

This book is the result of my 35 years of meditation experience, combined with as many years of study of scripture and 15 years of direct instruction from Indian masters. It is essential for a Kali Yuga yogi like me to base any writings not on personal whims but on the teachings of the ancient sages. As Sir Isaac Newton said, ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.’

What I have done here that is new is explain the actual meditation technique in a structured fashion. In yogic scripture this technique is often called Bhutashuddhi (elemental purification). While it is most effectively performed during breath retention (kumbhaka) it is good to learn it during inhalation and exhalation, which is much easier but still very powerful, especially if the breath is slowed down more and more. Those who wish can insert it into kumbhaka once they have mastered that pranayama technique.

In the past, spiritual teachers have often talked in a way that veiled important content from the uninitiated. In Sanskrit this is called sandhya, twilight language. I feel that I do not have the luxury of continuing with this approach. It is apparent that, within the next few generations, humanity will destroy its host planet if no major shift occurs. To manage this shift, the attainment of knowledge by every single person counts.

Some say everything is predetermined, including whether humanity destroys itself or not. Others, like the Rishi Vasishta, say ‘For those of true self-effort there is no predetermined destiny.’7 In other words they do create their own destiny. This is the spirit in which I am presenting this text. May humanity, by means of true self-effort, create a destiny of unimaginable splendour!

Definition of the term meditation

The English term meditation is somewhat ambiguous. It is derived from the Latin meditatio, which means to think, contemplate or meditate. It is closely related to contemplation, which means continuously directing the mind towards a particular object. While meditation does not necessarily imply a spiritual activity, contemplation does. Con-templation implies creating in one’s mind a temple-like sacred space into which the object of contemplation is brought. Contemplation is therefore a spiritual form of con-centration. Con-centration implies that the outgoing, scattering tendency of the mind is brought under control and focused on a particular chosen object.

The teachings of Yoga were compiled and standardized by the Indian sage Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutra. Of the eight limbs that Patanjali mentions, the first four are preparations for the process of meditation, while the last four constitute meditation proper, but with increasing levels of depth. This fifth limb, pratyahara, is the practice of disconnecting the senses from their objects so that the mind can turn inside.

The last three limbs are dharana, dhyana and samadhi. These terms are often translated as concentration, meditation and contemplation. They form successively deeper stages of identity of the observer’s mind with the object of meditation. According to Patanjali, dharana, the sixth limb, is the wilful binding of the mind to a particular object.8 During dhyana, the seventh limb, this stage has been transcended and a permanent awareness of the object is established, which is no longer constantly interrupted through the outgoing mind.9 During samadhi this permanent awareness has been enhanced to such an extent that ‘the object as such’ is revealed to the yogi.10 During this state the object held in the mind has become identical with the object observed outside. Once this basic process is learned, the yogi applies it to more and more difficult objects, the highest one being the sacred self, the pure consciousness. This final object in truth is not an object but the subject. Due to the apparent difficulty in meditating on the ‘subject’, the process described above initially needs to be finely honed.

In modern commentaries on the Yoga Sutra the term meditation is used to translate the Sanskrit dhyana. Patanjali defines dhyana as the constant stream of awareness from meditator to meditation object and a constant stream of information from the object to the medi­tator. In a yogic sense, then, meditation does not imply the complete emptying of one’s mind: this process occurs in some of the various objectless samadhis (asamprajnata samadhis).

In this text I have used the term meditation in such a way as to maintain the ambiguous nature that it has in the English language. I have thus applied it to the collective process of the last four limbs but also more generally to any form of deep, concentrated thought.

PART 1

The Hatha Yoga Laws or the Physical Dimension of Meditation

Hatha Yoga is the physical dimension of yoga, its two main disciplines being posture and breath work. But Hatha Yoga is not – or at least historically was not – a style of yoga that reduced it to the physical aspect. In the beginning there was only the one yoga, sometimes referred to as Maha Yoga, the great yoga. Before the one greater yoga broke apart into small factions, Hatha Yoga was the physical school through which all yogis had to pass. No yogi, however, remained at the level of Hatha Yoga or even reduced yoga to this level. Hatha Yoga was thus the ‘primary school’ of the