What is meditation? Meditation is the power which enables us to resist all this[slavery to nature]... [One] should be able to say to his mind, "You are mine; I order you, do not see or hear anything", and the mind will not see or hear anything -- no form or sound will react on the mind... Next, the mind must be made to quiet down. It is rushing about. Just as I sit down to meditate, all the vilest subjects in the world come up... Why should the mind think thoughts I do not want it to think? I am, as it were a slave to the mind... Meditation is the power which enables us to resist all this.

Mind

How is it (meditation) to be attained? In a dozen different ways. Each temperament has its own way. But this is the general principle: get hold of the mind. The mind is like a lake, and every stone that drops into it raises waves. These waves do not let us see what we are... Let it be calm. Do not let nature raise the wave. Keep quiet, and then after a little while she will give you up. Then we know what we are.

Lake

Meditation is the focusing of the mind on some object. If the mind acquires concentration on one object, it can be so concentrated on any object whatsoever... the practice of meditation even with some trifling external object leads to mental concentration. But it is true that the mind very easily attains calmness when one practice meditation with anything on which one's mind is most apt to settle down.

object

Imagination is the door to inspiration and the basis of all thought. All prophets, poets, and discoverers have had great imaginative power... The three great requisites are:First. Purity, physical and mental; all uncleanness, all that would draw the mind down, must be abandoned.Second. Patience: ... the gain is sure if you have patience.Third. Perseverance: Persevere through think and thin, through health and sickness, never miss a day in practice... (continued next)

Imagine

(continued from last idea)After bathing, sit down and hold the seat firm as a rock, that nothing can move you. Hold the head and shoulders and the hips in a straight line, keeping the spinal column free; all action is along it, and it must not be impaired... then think of the whole as perfect, an instrument given to you by god to enable you to attain Truth... take a long breath through both nostrils, throw it out again, and then hold it out as long as you comfortably can. Take four such breaths, then breathe naturally and pray for illumination.

Think of a space in your heart, and in the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think of that flame as your own soul and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon that in the heart.

Flame and heart

*Fun fact*My name Anirban means the eternal flame, a flame that cannot be extinguished.

We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done.

Again

Take some holy person, some great person whom you revere, some saint whom you know to be perfectly non-attached, and think of his heart, that heart has become non-attached, and meditate on that heart; it will calm the mind.

The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, 'I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I.' Then see it, think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself.

Meditation is still an ideal to me, which I strive for every day. I have learnt a little, I hope to continue learning from the practice.

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