Excerpts Chapter 6
THE MEDITATION BOOK:
MEDITATING ON THE SPIRITUAL HEART
Why meditate on the spiritual heart?
Question: Why should you concentrate on the heart instead of concentrating on the mind?
Sri Chinmoy: Before you concentrate on the heart or anything, just think about the mind for a few minutes instead of allowing the mind to think of something else. Separate yourself from the mind and observe the mind. Observe what it has done for you and see whether you are really satisfied with its capacity. The mind has given you many things, but are these things worth having in the spiritual life or not? In the ordinary human life, the mind is of paramount importance. Without it we would not be able to function properly. But if you enter into the spiritual life you will see that most of what the mind has given you is information and not illumination. There is a great difference between the two. You read books and talk to people and there you get much information. But where is illumination? You can read hundreds of pages or talk to hundreds of people but you will not get illumination. So when you think of what the mind has given you, think at the same time of the thing that you really need most and you will see that the mind has not fulfilled this need. Since your mind has disappointed you, why should you concentrate there?
Once you are totally dissatisfied with the limited capacity of the mind, it will be possible for you to concentrate on the heart. As long as you have tremendous faith in your mind, the mind that complicates and confuses everything, you will be doomed to disappointment in your meditation. Ordinary people think that complication is wisdom. But spiritual people know that complication is dangerous. God is very simple; Light is very simple. It is in our simplicity and sincerity, not in complexity, that the real Truth abides. Complexity cannot give us anything. Complexity itself is destruction.
You know that there is something called the soul. Now where is the soul? The light, the consciousness of the soul permeates the whole body, but there is a specific place where the soul resides most of the time, and that is in the heart. If you want illumination, if your ultimate goal is illumination, you will get that illumination from the soul, which is inside the heart. When you know what you want and where to find it, the sensible thing is to go to that place. Otherwise it will be like going to the hardware store to get groceries. If you concentrate on the mind you will be disappointed and disheartened and you will not get what you want because you have gone to the wrong place. Your inner aspiration does not come from your mind. No! It comes directly from your heart. The heart can give you everything. Aspiration is the harbinger of realisation or illumination. In aspiration is the seed of realisation. Aspiration comes from the heart because the illumination of the soul is always there. Since you want illumination, and since the heart can give it and the mind cannot, you should always concentrate on the heart.
Meditation on the heart
Question: Would you please be a little more specific when you say “meditate on the heart”? Do you mean to meditate on the physical heart or on the spiritual centre?
Sri Chinmoy: If you find it difficult to meditate on the spiritual heart, you can concentrate on the physical heart in the chest. But after you meditate there for a few months or for a year then you will feel that inside the ordinary human heart is the divine heart. And inside the divine heart is the soul.
Inside the divine heart is light, but inside the human heart, we can see the operation of the emotional vital. The emotional vital is located around the navel. But from there it can come into the physical heart and ruin everything by creating attachment. If one can meditate on the spiritual heart, there can be no attachment. It is all detachment. So we start with the human heart, and from the human heart we have to enter into the divine heart. Otherwise, if we remain with the human heart, we will quite often become a victim to attachment and emotional problems.
Attitude when meditating on the heart
Question: What kind of attitude should you have when you meditate on the heart?
Sri Chinmoy: Try to feel that you are helpless. As soon as you feel that you are helpless, somebody will come to help you. If a child is in the street, totally lost, if he begins to cry, some kind-hearted person will show him where his home is. In the inner world, your real home is your heart. Feel that you are lost in the street, and there is a storm raging outside — that means doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, insecurity are pouring down on you. But if you cry sincerely, somebody will come to rescue you. Somebody will show you how to get to your home, which is your heart. Your inner being is that somebody. This is the way to meditate. Cry inwardly. When you feel helpless, immediately your inner cry will take you to the place where you will get shelter, where you will get the things that you want — illumination, salvation, realisation.
Meditation excercises
Concentration, meditation, contemplation
I have offered to each of you a flower. A flower signifies purity. Let us feel that our hearts have become as pure as the flower.
Concentration, meditation and contemplation are of utmost importance in the spiritual life. Therefore, let us try to concentrate, meditate and contemplate. We shall now concentrate. Try to look at the entire flower for a few seconds. While you are concentrating on the entire flower, please feel that you are the flower and also that this flower is growing inside your heart, in the inmost recesses of your heart. You are the flower and, at the same time, you are growing inside your heart. Then, gradually try to concentrate on one particular petal, any petal that you select. At this time feel that that petal is the seed form of your reality-existence. Again, in a few minutes’ time, please concentrate on the entire flower. At that time feel that it is the universal reality. So right now concentrate on the flower itself and then a few minutes later on one petal. In this way you go back and forth. And please do not allow any thought to enter into your mind. Try to make your mind absolutely calm, quiet, tranquil, and kindly keep your eyes half open.
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Now kindly close your eyes and try to see the flower that you have concentrated upon inside your heart. Then, in the same way, kindly concentrate on the flower inside your heart with your eyes closed.
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Now we shall meditate. Kindly keep your eyes half open and imagine the vast sky. Either try to see or feel the vast sky right in front of you. In the beginning try to feel that the sky is in front of you; then later please try to feel that you are as vast as the sky, or that you are the vast sky itself.
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Now kindly close your eyes and try to see and feel the sky inside your heart. That is to say, please feel that you are now the Universal Heart, which you truly are. You are now the Universal Heart, and inside you is the sky that you meditated upon and identified yourself with. Your heart is infinitely, infinitely vaster than the sky, so you can easily house the sky within yourself.
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Concentration we have done. Meditation we have done. Now we shall contemplate.
Kindly try to imagine a golden being or figure. Try to feel that this golden being is infinitely more beautiful than the most beautiful child that you have ever seen on earth. This being is our beloved Lord Supreme. We are divine lovers, supreme lovers, and the golden being is our beloved Lord Supreme.
Now we shall try to imagine the presence of our Beloved on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas or at the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean, whichever is easier for us. Please try to feel your existence and the Presence of your Supreme Beloved Lord at the top of the highest mountain or at the very bottom of the ocean. Once you feel this, then in silence you smile.
Then, after a few seconds, please feel that you are the Beloved Supreme and that the golden being is the Supreme Lover. It is like divine hide-and-seek. When you become the Supreme Beloved, the divine lover seeks you. When you become the divine lover, you seek the Supreme Beloved. When you are the Supreme Beloved, the divine lover searches for you; and when you are the divine lover, you search for the Beloved Supreme. So one moment you are the supreme lover and the next moment you are the Supreme Beloved Lord. Kindly do this with your eyes half open in the beginning.
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Now, kindly close your eyes.