A good exercise is to focus on breathing with your diaphragm. Feel your whole stomach gently moving. This breathing will also be very good for the health of your body. “Proper breathing” can help reset the natural strength of the body. When we breathe with the muscles around our heart – we are using those muscles which are supposed to be recruited for emergency situations – ‘fight or flight.’ If we are always breathing in this way it is a sign, we are stressed. Breathing from the diaphragm is more conscious, relaxed and peaceful method of breathing.

If we consciously breathe, it will help to quieten the mind.

One more thing we can do is that when we breathe in feel, that we are breathing in peace and divine energy. If you breathe in properly you can feel like you are breathing through every pore of your body. Also, at the start of the exercise, try once or twice to exhale all the breath. As you do this feel like you are emptying your mind of all thoughts allowing a new clarity to enter.

This conscious breathing we can do throughout the day. See it as an opportunity to look after the body, quieten the mind and detach from the stresses created by our mind.

If we do stretches or yoga exercises, then their efficacy will be improved by good quality breathing.

A tip to help breath through the diaphragm is to put your tongue on the top of your mouth.

Question: Would you speak a little about proper breathing in meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: If you are a beginner and want to breathe correctly, you should sit with your spinal cord erect. Now, while breathing, you have to think of purity first. When you breathe in, if you feel consciously or unconsciously that the breath is coming directly from God, from Purity itself, then the breath can be purified. When you breathe in, try to breathe in as slowly and quietly as possible, so that if somebody placed a tiny thread in front of your nose it would not move at all. And when you breathe out, try to breathe out even more slowly than when you breathed in. If possible, leave a short pause between the end of your first exhalation and the beginning of your second inhalation. If you can, hold your breath for a few seconds. But if it is difficult, do not do it. Never do anything that will harm your organs or respiratory system.

– Sri Chinmoy, [1]

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Bahir was a very old disciple, but in the evening of his life, he was getting a lot of inspiration from visiting disciples and ashrams around the world.

On one occasion, Bahir visited an Ashram in a beautiful town. They had invited disciples from many other countries to come and participate in a weekend of spiritual activities. During the weekend retreat, the disciples had organised meditations, soulful singing, readings of the Master’s writings and a few meetings to talk about how they could spread their Master’s light.

After the final meditation, the main organiser announced.

“Now we are very lucky to have Bahir today. Bahir has been following the spiritual life for 60 years [cheers from the audience!] and he spent considerable time with the Master in the physical. Now Bahir is kindly going to come up and share a few stories.”

Bahir felt a knot in his stomach; nobody had told him this was on the programme. He didn’t mind speaking to groups of five or six people. But, telling stories to 600+ people was something he definitely had not prepared for. But, before he had time to think and run for cover, his old friend Malin was leading him up to the microphone.

Bahir looked out at the 600 expectant faces, and thought ‘O dear.’

Not knowing what to say Bahir began by sincerely appreciating the energy and enthusiasm of the disciples.

“It has really been a marvellous weekend, and I feel re-energised in my own spiritual life to feel such aspiration and feeling of oneness with the Master’s path.”

“I have truly enjoyed this weekend of spiritual activities but – if there is one thing which would add even more to the weekend – it would be to have a few fun games. As you know, I’m a very old man, but I like games because – at least for a short-time – I can pretend to be a seven-year-old boy again! As you know, our Master definitely appreciated when we had these weekend retreats because he saw how much they helped our spiritual life. But also, he often mentioned the value of having games because they are an opportunity to bring to the fore our childlike qualities. No matter how old we are, if we can participate and enter into the spirit of the games – our anxieties and worries disappear. The Master would often say when the disciples had this kind of innocent joy, it was such a weight off his shoulders.”

“It reminded me of a story many years ago. We were with our Master in a foreign country, and after a soulful morning meditation, there was free time in the afternoon. One group of boys began to play football and had an epic two-hour game. Nearby, another group of boys had a meeting on the grass where they talked about future projects to spread the Master’s light. Now it happened that those in the meeting were disturbed by the football game and so one of those disciples complained to the Master that their meeting had been disrupted.”

“However, the Master didn’t react as they expected. The Master said ‘The boys playing football are doing absolutely the right thing. By playing football, so many wrong forces and negative thoughts they are leaving behind on the pitch. I appreciate the intent of those disciples trying to spread my light. But, everything has its time and place. It’s such a beautiful afternoon; we should take the opportunity for sport and relaxation. Also, forgive me for saying, but when I hear the word ‘meeting’ – in no way does it inspire me! Did the great Swami Vivekananda shake up the world by having meetings and talking about his plans? No. Vivekananda simply did. So please don’t worry about planning and discussing – instead throw yourself into a vortex of self-giving service.’”

Bahir was now in full flow, so he felt confident to tell another story.

“It reminds me of another time when I was seeing the Master for the first or second time. Disciples from our country were honouring, in a light-hearted fashion, some achievement of the Master from when he had been visiting New Zealand. I can’t remember why – but someone had the idea to put white socks on our ears so we would look like sheep while performing.

“In all sincerity, I thought this was absolutely the worst idea. I was seeing my Master for the first time, and here I was putting socks on my ears. One or two of the older disciples refused, and I would have joined them but I was a new disciple, so I went along with it. Well, after the performance, the Master smiled, and he gently teased those older disciples who were standing at the end of the line – ‘eh Taruk and Gopal, do you not have any ears, like everyone else!?’ Ironically, they then looked a bit sheepish! Whether the Master genuinely appreciated our costume or not, we will never know. He wouldn’t always say what he really felt about performances! But I felt I did the right thing by joining in with the spirit of the performance – even if my mind didn’t fully agree.”

“On that first trip to meet my Master, I learnt that everything has its time and place. A few days later we were performing some soulful songs at an evening meditation. We dressed in immaculate white clothes and, before going on stage, we meditated in silence for a minute. The short five-minute performance was a most soulful and memorable experience. The Master was in a sublime trance, and I was deeply moved by the atmosphere and ineffable peace emanating from the Master’s presence. After the performance concluded, there was an indescribable hush as we absorbed the Master’s final moments of silence. I felt I had climbed up at least half a step to Heaven and, as I went back to my seat, I sat in silence trying to absorb the experience.”

“So when we play games, we should be in an innocent, childlike frame of mind and simply have joy. When we meditate – that is the time for silence and soulfulness.”

“My good friend Jahangir once told me an illumining story. He was with the Master and a few disciples seated on the curb of a pavement. The Master suddenly said. ‘Please try go into your highest meditation.’ So the boys tried to meditate to their best of their ability. Then after a few minutes, the Master said. ‘Jahangir, please tell us a funny joke.’ Which he did, and then the Master said, ‘now please try go back to your highest meditation.’ Then after a few minutes, he asked for a joke. Like this it went on – high meditation, then humour.

What was the Master trying to achieve with this unique and unusual experience? The way I understand it, the Master wanted to show us that we shouldn’t limit the spiritual life and try put into a neat box. Spirituality is not just sitting at our shrine and meditating for a set number of minutes. We always have to be ready to do what our Master wants. If the Master wants us to meditate, we should put our heart and soul into meditation. If the Master wants us to put on plays or tell jokes, we should put our heart and soul into that. Above all, the Master’s path is not about following our own preconceptions of what we think spirituality should be. The final thing is that everything has its time and place. Serious and soulful meditation is an absolute necessity in the spiritual life, but humour and innocent fun also have their role. If we are always serious, we can become dry and inflexible. If we are always joking – there is no soulfulness or devotion. We shouldn’t neglect either. The spiritual life needs balance.”

“If there is one thing I miss about the Master leaving the body – it is that spontaneity and the variety of divine moods the Master could display. Somedays the Master would come to our meeting place and it would be real seriousness – soulful meditation, lofty, illumining talks and you felt the presence of divine light, divine transformation and your own eager promise to make a renewed commitment to the spiritual life. But, on other days, the Master would come and it would be all sweetness – ‘juicy stories’, humorous skits and innocent fun. Then the Master became like a grandfather figure – all compassion, love and forgiveness.

Sometimes we would get these different aspects all within the same day. You never knew what was coming next – it was impossible to predict. You just entered into the flow of the Master’s divine Lila – his divine play on earth.”

Bahir paused. It could be his imagination but he felt the living presence of his Master in the room, as if the clock had wound back 60 years to one of those functions he was describing. The feeling, light and consciousness of those precious days was coming rushing back. He inwardly offered gratitude to his Master and slipped away from the stage.

Joy
Is indispensable
In our spirituality-life.

– Sri Chinmoy [1]

Related

• The balanced spiritual life

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Arjun and Cahit were good friends, but living together presented its own unique challenges. Arjun soon realised that in terms of tidiness and cleanliness they had different perspectives. It was a little ironic for Arjun because his mother used to frequently berate him for being messy when he was growing up. Now, rather belatedly, he understood his mother’s perspective and felt a little guilty for his past uncaring attitude. But, with the evangelism of a recent convert, he wasn’t happy if things were a mess in his own house. As a result, he often found himself cleaning up after his friend, but at the same, he resented having to do it. In many ways, Cahit was an excellent friend – kind, dynamic and cheerful. Yet Cahit’s cheerfulness wasn’t always sufficient compensation for Arjun’s frustration at living with this underlying tension.

Arjun was also annoyed with himself for how much it affected his consciousness – he felt he should have greater equanimity in dealing with the situation; he didn’t always deal with it like he would have liked.

Once he mentioned it in passing to a good friend, Sachin.

“Sachin, I really love visiting your house. It has such a good vibration, you can feel the Master’s presence here.”

“Well that’s very kind Arjun. How’s it working out living with Cahit?”

“Fine. Cahit’s a good chap. Only we do seem to have different approaches to cleaning the house.”

Sachin laughed – as if reading between the lines.

“So, who does the cleaning in your house?” asked Sachin.

“Well, we share the cleaning 50-50. Cahit makes a mess. And I clean it up.”

Sachin laughed heartily, though Arjun was a little surprised by his own strength of feeling. It was like something inside had forced its way out and found expression.

Sachin smiled compassionately and said.

“Yes, Cahit’s a very good boy. But we all have our personal foibles.”

“Firstly. Although it may be a bit frustrating to do the lion’s share of the cleaning – it is worthing bearing in mind that – it’s infinitely easier to clean up a house than it is to make someone who is miserable, cheerful. What I mean is Cahit definitely has a weakness in this area, but you could be living with someone else who is clean and tidy, but has some much more serious problems. Everybody gets fed up with their living companions at some point, so we have to be careful what we wish for!”

“It is also worth mentioning that, as a general rule, the Master would say try and make it work with the people who you are living with. If you move around hoping your problems will be solved, they won’t. You will just meet them in another form and in other people.”

“However, having said that – if someone else’s lack of cleanliness is affecting your living space, then we should endeavour to improve the situation. Our Master really demanded and expected the very highest standards of cleanliness. Let me tell you a story. Once the Master told us in advance he would be coming to expect our workplace – five days notice we had. As you can imagine, we worked so hard in making the place immaculate. We thought there was literally nothing more we could do. The Master came and carefully examined every room – the kitchen, bathroom, our offices – with meticulous attention. After his blessingful inspection, he gave us the grade “All right.” I don’t know if it would have been possible for us boys to get ‘good’, to say nothing of excellent!”

“In your situation, maybe the best thing to do is to speak to Cahit and work out some minimum standards of cleanliness and tidiness – especially for shared living areas. Also, you have to be very careful – if you carry around this inner resentment, it is very bad for your state of mind and it is not good for Cahit either. It would be better to outwardly talk to Cahit and express these important issues, rather than nurse an inner grievance.”

“It reminds me of a story about our Master many years ago. After a deep meditation, the Master asked people to come up and share what annoyed them about their friends. Can you imagine? The Master asking disciples to speak about the failings of their friends!”

“Well as you can well imagine, we were a little surprised and quite reluctant to say anything! But, out of obedience, some boys did go down and they spoke about what irritated them about their friends. I have to say – it was a bit different to the usual afternoon function!”

“Now this is my understanding of the Master’s intention – so you can take it with a pinch of salt. But, if we nurse unspoken grievances. If we inwardly attack our brother and sister disciples then it is very damaging to our inner life. But, if we clear the air, it can help create a much more harmonious relationship. Of course, everything has its time and place. The Master didn’t mean we should always be telling people what they are doing wrong! but if something is deep inside, that is different.”

“Another anecdote I remember. Once the Master was watching a boxing match on tv, because he really admired one of the boxers. But, still some disciples were surprised and they asked the Master why he was watching such a violent sport. The Master replied. ‘It is true boxing is violent – and it goes without saying I am against any kind of violence – but in the inner worlds our vital and emotional beings can be just as aggressive – if not more so than a boxer!’ The Master finished by saying how he wished his disciples would cultivate more harmony in both their inner and outer worlds.”

Sachin continued:

“Going back to the Master encouraging disciples to speak about their frustrations, I have to say it was quite a rare occurrence, and if one had such an intention – you could misinterpret it. But, if you read the Master’s writings, he explains so vividly the importance of being kind and offering goodwill to other people. But sometimes the real kindness is to speak directly to people and make them aware of why they are causing a disharmony.”

“Well, Arjun you’re very kind for listening to my mammoth talk, I don’t know if it makes any sense.”

“Yes, very much so.” said Arjun

“Well, if you don’t mind. One other story I should share with you Arjun. When I came to the path, I was worse than useless in the world of cleaning. I thought so long as I was meditating and busy serving the Master, I could leave my room like a beer garden. But once the Master scolded me in a very significant and illumining way. The Master told me directly ‘Sachin, Can you not please clean your room? Every night, in my subtle body, I try to visit and bless your soul whilst you are sleeping. But, even in my subtle body, so painful it is to visit when your room is so messy. I appreciate your dedication, and inner aspiration, but we have to give due importance to the physical. If we don’t keep our body, house and room clean, we block the descent of the divine forces. The Supreme and your Master will forgive you, but your own soul will not. Your soul is so embarrassed that my inner beings have to suffer so much because of your untidiness. All that sincere aspiration you are cultivating is diminished because you have left your room in such an undivine state. My dear Sachin, always you have to be ready to welcome your Master.’”

“Well as you can imagine, I felt both suitably embarrassed but also moved by the Master’s love and concern. When the Master says he meditates early in the morning for our own benefit, we have to believe this is not just an idle promise.”

The post The importance of cleanliness and tidiness appeared first on Write Spirit.

Many years ago there was a spiritual Master who had quite a few disciples. As a general rule, this Master did not believe in showing occult power as he felt the only force which could help transform human nature was divine love, divine concern and divine compassion. However, sometimes the Master would use his intuitive capacities to tell interesting stories and, on occasion, give his disciples hints about their previous incarnation.

However, after a few years, the Master felt even this practice was not helping his disciples, but could cause problems of jealousy and pride. On one occasion, the spiritual Master asked for spiritual questions but to the Master’s disappointment, quite a few disciples were wanting to ask about their past or future incarnation. The Master responded to one of these questions by saying:

“The spiritual life is all about the present moment. It doesn’t matter what we achieved last week, last year – to say nothing of what you might have done in your last incarnation. The important thing is to aspire to be more sincere and soulful in your present spiritual life. Knowing about past incarnations mainly feeds our curiosity. So from now on let us not worry about the past or future but concentrate on the golden opportunity we have in this present moment.”

***

Arjun came to the spiritual path a few years later, and he heard these stories second-hand from other disciples. Yet, he was also intrigued by the subject and inwardly held a desire to know about his past incarnation.

A few months later, Arjun was at a meditation function with his Master.

It was a most soulful atmosphere; time seemed to pass effortlessly as if the thin veil between heaven and earth had momentarily lifted. Arjun felt transformed to another state of consciousness where the usual attractions and anxieties of the world lost their lustre, leaving him feeling perfectly calm and inwardly still. It was a rare feeling to be so at peace with the world.

At this point, the Master spontaneously asked for any spiritual questions. Arjun vaguely remembered his old desire to ask about his previous incarnation, but in this state of mind it seemed unimportant – even churlish. Arjun just continued to sit in a meditative frame of mind and was amazed at the Master’s capacity to answer questions in his own inimitable way.

Alas, even by the next day, the sublime beauty of his previous meditation had faded from Arjun’s mind, and his old thought patterns had risen back to the forefront of his awareness.

In his mind, he felt he had missed a golden opportunity, and he inwardly said to himself, he would definitely ask next time.

A week later, Arjun was again at the meditation with just a handful of other disciples, and despite feeling a good sense of peace, he was ready to ask. However, the Master never subject himself to any particular routine and this time did not invite any spiritual questions. Arjun thought – fine, the Master is bound to ask next week. However, the next week, again the Master ended the meditation without inviting any questions. It seemed the Master had lost interest in inviting questions from his disciples.

Arjun told himself “I should really stop bothering with such a silly thing like knowing my past incarnation.” But, at the same time, the thought still lingered. So the next week, he started to pray for illumination – thinking perhaps the Master would give him a sign in a dream. After a while, he stopped praying and was just concentrating on his meditation. Then to his wide surprise, he had an image in his mind of an old farmer tending a field of rice. Although he didn’t really recognise the person, he had the strong feeling that this was one of his past incarnations.

Then the image faded and it was replaced by the image of an old farmer digging up potatoes against a backdrop of a bleak, windswept landscape. Then this image faded to be replaced by that of a fisherman riding over the waves of the sea. Then he saw a soldier in a uniform marching off to war. With this, he got the point – his past incarnations were neither interesting nor illumining. The desire to ask his Master about his past incarnations faded never to return.

**

However, the story didn’t quite end there. A good ten years later, Arjun was travelling with his Master in Myanmar on a spiritual retreat. Arjun was moved by the serenity and calm of the country; with this different pace of life and the inherent spirituality of the people, meditation felt much more natural and effortless. He was also fascinated by the Buddhist monks who, every morning, went begging for food.

Rather unexpectedly, the Master initiated a conversation and suggested to Arjun he should go and invite the head monk of a local monastery to come to one of his functions. Arjun followed the Master’s wishes, and he really enjoyed visiting the monks and speaking about his Master’s Path and its similarity with Buddhism. The monks gladly came to visit his Master, and Arjun received much joy from this soulful oneness between different spiritual paths.

The next day, with a feint smile, the Master said to Arjun “Perhaps in a previous incarnation you meditated with those monks.” The Master’s smile widened, and then he walked away.

Arjun was very happy, though, at the same time, he felt grateful to be on his Master’s Path with its great variety and scope for transcendence in so many different aspects of life. He felt in a monastery, he would not be able to make anything like the progress he was making on his Master’s Path – even if at the same time – escaping to a Himalayan Cave did have a certain appeal!

The post Reincarnation appeared first on Write Spirit.

On one occasion, their Guru gave a short, informal talk on how the Supreme often put people together who had differing personalities. The Guru explained that when we live and work with people of contrasting personalities, it can force us to face up to our own weaknesses. Even if we find it difficult living and working with certain people, it can help us to transform a part of our nature, we would otherwise ignore.

Their Guru also taught that real spirituality is not just seeking peace in meditation, but trying to slowly and steadily transform our human nature. Finally he warned that – rather than trying to avoid difficult people – we should see the potential the situation gives for our own personal growth.

Hiran inwardly smiled; he knew intuitively the Guru’s philosophy was absolutely true – even if, in the heat of daily life, it was a challenge to actually practice. He also wryly smiled as he thought of the different attitude his housemates had to keeping the house tidy!

***

One day, Advik sent Hiran a text message about a new idea which he thought could be a more efficient method to organise the Ashram.

Hiran didn’t know how to respond to this text message because he didn’t think it was a method their Master would have wanted. Their Master was no longer in the body so it wasn’t absolutely clear cut. But, unable to articulate the nuances of the issue and feeling a bit put out, Hiran left it and didn’t reply – though it stayed in his mind and he ruminated on the issue for several weeks.

After a while, the issue came up again, but it was a little awkward. Due to a lack of communication, each had projected thoughts and ideas about their friend’s opinions and it was now more difficult as they inwardly felt divided over the issue.

Finally, Hiran made an effort to speak; and, with a stumbling start, expressed his reservations about why he didn’t think it was such a good idea. Advik was sympathetic to his friend’s sincerity and point of view. In oneness with his friend’s concern, he was happy to shelve the idea as he could now see the idea from a different perspective.

The conversation was mutually very helpful and helped to fix an inner tension which had been around for the past few weeks.

Hiran also felt a little humbled because his mind had rather run away with itself imagining negative scenarios of disagreeing with others in the ashram. It wasn’t the first time his mind exaggerated potential negative outcomes – and he was really glad to get out of this negative pattern of thoughts.

It also reminded both Hiran and Advik the value of taking time to speak in person and avoid brooding on potentially awkward issues – and why their Guru placed real importance on speaking with your friends.

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