Vipassana emphasizes breath awareness and Transcendental Meditation concentrates on repetition of the mantra, whereas most Hatha practitioners pay attention mainly to posture. (Location 82)
The Himalayan meditator, however, learns to sit in the correct posture, relax fully, practise correct breathing, and then combine breath-awareness with the mantra. (Location 84)
When one breathes only diaphragmatically at all times, it is considered that the practice has been mastered. (Location 425)
One often sees people sitting in prayer, in kathas and satsangs, with their spines looking sadly like a bent bow. This (a) prevents correct and full breathing, causing short breaths and reducing the life span; (b) generates or worsens many diseases like asthma and heart problems. (c) It also adversely affects the entire neural system whose central flow is in the spine. (Location 431)
Breath Awareness Let your breath flow, smoothly and evenly, with no jerks, no breaks in the middle of the breath, no break between breaths, no sound, no gasping. Tailadharavat, like a smooth stream of oil being poured. Become aware of the flow. No break in the awareness. (Location 493)
Exhaling, mentally remember the word Ham. Inhaling, mentally remember the word So. It means “I am That”. (Location 504)
Let there be no interruptions in breath awareness, nor in the awareness of the flow of the word as a thought. Observe how the breath, the word and the mind are flowing together as a single stream. Slowly, lengthen the time – not how long you sit – but how many seconds you manage to maintain awareness of the flow of that stream without interruption. (Location 508)
The next step is to seek out someone to give you the first initiation, or mantra-diksha, which is often referred to as a personal mantra. (Location 514)
A mantra is a sound, a syllable, or a set of sounds. It is known not by its meaning, but by its vibrations. It provides a focus for the mind and helps one become aware of his or her internal states. It is a way to understand one’s self and to coordinate one’s external and internal words. (Location 642)
In India and in other parts of Asia, a mantra is so central to the culture and so crucial to a person’s life that for a person to be without a mantra, is like dahl (an Indian bean dish) without salt. There is something missing. A human being is incomplete without a mantra. (Location 666)
The theory of mantra is based on the principle that the sounds, the letters, the syllables of the alphabet carry within themselves the focus for certain psychic or mental vibrations. (Location 682)
Each syllable has within it a particular ray of consciousness. (Location 683)
each individuated mind has its own composition. In the mind are stored imprints of many lifetimes. We call these imprints samskaras. (Location 702)
Whatever actions we perform, whatever desires we feel, whatever impulses arise in us, they are all activated from these imprints. The sum total of these imprints from the past constitutes our personalities. (Location 704)
The practice of mantra is the practice of taking one single thought and dwelling on that one thought consistently so that it will have a certain impact on the mind. (Location 756)
The process of progressing spiritually and undergoing a specific regular practice is called sadhana, and generally this is a slow, gentle, gradual process. (Location 773)
Once in awhile, for a period of time, a mantra may be practiced with an internal concentrations, or with fire offerings which makes it ten times more intense,4 so as to obtain a certain spiritual result. (Location 785)
Raja Yoga, the Royal Path, the main path which incorporates all of these systems into the larger scheme. (Location 799)
There are certain personality types. That fact in itself constitutes a science. Each person has some strength and some weaknesses. Those who understand the science of Yoga are trained to look at the personality type because the mantra is matched to a specific personality type. (Location 833)
However, in our Tradition advanced practices of meditation are never given without first imparting the personal mantra. (Location 844)
Japa is mental recitation, or better still, the remembrance, of a mantra, which gradually awakens energy vibrations in the mind field. (Location 978)
Kirtan or chanting is also a form of japa. (Location 983)
Try it. Right now, for one minute, just sit, relax the body, let the breath settle down, and resolve that for the next one minute there will be no other thought but your mantra. Begin now. (After one minute) – Keeping the mantra in the mind, gently open your eyes. In this way, you train the mind one minute at a time. In that one minute you can obtain ten minutes worth of meditation if the concentration is intense and deep. It is not long meditation which is the secret, but the intensive and deep meditation. (Location 1062)
Shuddhi, purification; buddhi, awakening of pure and sattvic awareness; siddhi, fulfillment of the purpose of japa; and, by grace and whenever our acts mature, mukti - freedom. (Location 1171)
the five pillars of sadhana: stillness, celibacy, silence, fasting, or conquest of sleep, in lesser or greater degree. (Location 1207)
Waking Up Wake up in the morning – unless you are really jarred by the cry of a child, which of course you cannot help – wake up by using your mental alarm, meaning that you go to sleep at night with a relaxation; and at the end of the relaxation as you are falling asleep, concentrate inside your head and your heart center and say, "5:30 A.M.", "Arya, wake me up at 5:30", "John, will you wake me up at 5:30?" Tell that to your name. Your subtle body will wake you up. Set your ordinary outside alarm clock for 5:35 so that if you don't wake up at 5:30 then the external aid is present. But set that alarm before you begin your relaxation exercise for the night. So at 5:30 wake up. Immediately sit up in your bed – immediately, (Location 1565)
Swami Rama said that no one sleeps more than three and a half hours. The rest of the time we dream. (Location 2302)
Dreaming is a disease because we dream to deal with suppressed emotions. If we purify our emotions we need less and less time to dream and are enabled to experience more of the sattvic sleep. (Location 2303)
In the process of trying to get rid of the disease of dreaming, you can end up with diseases that arise from deprivation of sleep. So, reduce your sleeping time by 15 minutes at a time. Spend those 15 minutes in shavasana practices or meditation before going to sleep at night. (Location 2306)
from the deep subconscious reservoir of mind). Samskaras lie hidden in us in what others call the unconscious. Something unconscious is that of which our conscious mind, or our neocortex, is not aware. (Location 2459)
pranamaya kosha (prana body), much subtler than the annamaya kosha (physical body), (Location 2694)