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The Gap between the thoughts

Meditation Master Babaji talks about how inbetween all the thoughts that crop up in the mind, there is a gap, a space. That is the true nature of the mind – our attention goes to the gap when we simply watch in the meditation and do not analyze or judge what comes up.

“As the thoughts keep arising, millions of thoughts also come, but inbetween every thought, a small gap happens. That gap is the space. That space is the consciousness. When the thought comes, during that time of thought, that consciousness, though it is there behind that thought, it doesn’t appear to be there because your attention is drawn by the thought. But inbetween there is a gap.

So slowly as you go on watching, watching, watching in the meditation your mind gains attention onto the gap, slowly forgets about the thought when it does not analyze, when it does not make a judgement. That is the idea of ‘just watch, watch, watch’ we keep repeatedly telling so to make you watch that space. When your mind watches that space, your mind also becomes that space, means both become consciousness and you realise they are both the one and same. That’s how pure consciousness appears and there is no more thought.”

~Shiva Rudra Balayogi

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Practise peace and establish peace

When we look at this world, why is it that wars and conflicts are always going on? Why is there not peace in the world where human beings live in harmony, loving and respecting one another?

The problem is in the mind. As Babaji says,

‘It’s we human beings who make the world lose peace. We have to practise peace. We need to achieve peace for ourselves so that we can allow others to have their peace. We need to overcome the selfish and narrow-mindedness in us, everybody. Only then there is peace.’

~Shiva Rudra Balayogi

The practice of achieving peace for ourselves is the meditation. By bringing attention to this mind and adopting a proper technique to purify its habits, it comes under our control. It will not make us dance to its tunes anymore – gradually we will be able to restrain ourselves from going into negative emotions and succumbing to anger, selfishness and greed.

With a purified mind we can treat everyone with the same care and respect.
That is what are ‘moral values’, which Babaji simply defines as consideration for others.

‘Everybody gets peace. Everybody has justice. Not that you look after your own children in a different way and you scold others in a different way. So that is not justice. Justice means all are same. So you give peace to everybody. You give your love and care to everybody – that’s necessary.’

~Shiva Rudra Balayogi

Only when everyone practises and not simply talks about peace can there be peace in the world.

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Watch the full video of Babaji talking about Peace in the world here.

First cleanse the mind and gain control

We may think that we can just go on thinking positive thoughts all the time, but it doesn’t happen like that. Due to the mind acquiring habits since time immemorial, unknown to us it will go into negativity also. The Meditation Master Babaji advises that we first cleanse the mind in meditation. Then as we gain control over our mind more and more, we will have the freedom to think in whatever way we want to think.

‘To visualize a positive or a right thing also, you need to have a control over yourself. Cleansing in this meditation means it is not making the mind totally blank or unusable. Mind is always usable, mind would be available to you. It would cleanse everything and you will gain control over your mind. Then after that you can try to visualize more positively. That will be more possible. You can think positively always, a larger cause, happiness of the entire world, all universe, that type of thing. Visualizing such things would be recommended, definitely.

So when you practice meditation, mind is at your disposal. Then you can think the best things. Otherwise if the mind goes out of control – though you want to think the best and good things, unknown to you it will jump into the bad things also. Sometimes if you observe, when you get up in the morning you would be fresh. Mind will be quiet for a while, you are enjoying a peace. Unknown to you, mind starts visualizing or thinking things. Nobody wants to think unpleasant things. They try to imagine the pleasant things, good and positive. But as the day passes by if you have observed, mind jumps into negativity also, positivity also. It gets involved into all sorts of dirty things unknown to you if you don’t have a control over your mind. So this is what will be possible through the practice of meditation.’

~Shiva Rudra Balayogi

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Courage to change and serenity to accept.

Question: When you’re in a situation where you’re challenged more, what would you advise we do? It’s very hard then just to sit in meditation and watch, because there’s so much going on.

Babaji: I understand. Things may not be as easy as we talk. When a person lives in this world many things could be challenging. Constant practice of the spiritual exercises like meditation is though the final remedy. One has to take it as a challenge and regularly practice. That is why it happens. You see for example, if a war is declared suddenly then the army cannot go on practicing with their weapons. When the peace time is there they will always be exercising and practicing. That is why every time the spiritual exercises are very important.

Strongly, if you regularly practice by adopting the right technology, then you would be able to keep calm, you will be updating everyday because sometimes every day is challenging in life and you’ll be able to face things unperturbed, keeping your peace. When such a situation arises around you, simply by worrying, allowing the mind to become a victim you are not going to change the situation. Unnecessarily your mind also is becoming a casualty. If you start thinking positively and then try to keep the mind intact, maybe there is always a hope that you can try to handle the situation as much as possible. When it is beyond your capacity, you have to simply accept. Remember the old saying: “God, give me the courage to change the things that I can change, and give me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference”.

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Think when you want to think. Be quiet when you want to be quiet.

‘This mind itself is made up of Consciousness, meaning where you apply it you become aware. Through practice of meditation, eventually one day, when you are able to achieve the total silence of the mind, when this mind becomes totally quiet, meaning it becomes quiet when it gives up all its imaginations, then automatically it becomes aware of itself because it is made up of that Consciousness. That Consciousness is automatically present, that is not a separate thing that needs to be generated or needs to be brought forth, or needs to be imagined, only the thoughts and visions. And only when we have to work in this world we have to imagine.

So thus when you practice this meditation, when you achieve that silence, that does not mean that you lose the ability to imagine or use this as a mind, it will still be possible, always be possible. You can remain a normal person in this world. When you practice meditation you will be able to imagine, you will be able to think, you will be able to be creative in this world, do anything that you want is no problem. Simply by the practice of this meditation, you are able to think when you want, imagine when you want and be creative when you want. When the job is over or when you don’t want, then you will be able to keep that mind to its quietness, to its silence. You will be able to keep yourself under control, not allowing yourself to become a chatterbox at all times, even when you don’t want.’

~Shiva Rudra Balayogi

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#thinkwhenyouwanttothink

The three mantras for success

Babaji, how can we calm the mind when we live such busy, hectic lives?

Babaji:

Be determined. Dedication, discipline, patience are three important mantras to achieve things. If you are dedicated you will take out time in priority. Twenty four hours are available; but you cannot buy it in a shop. You have to take out the time, you have plenty of time. If you want this, if you think it is worthwhile, be disciplined. Disciplined does not mean it is a bondage. If you discipline yourself you can become healthy and perfect in every way. Youth and vigor will increase. And have patience, after all, the mind has gone out of control since time immemorial, since so many lives perhaps, it will take some time. With all patience and skill just keep watching in-between the eyebrows, then in due course of time the mind will recede and you shall have amazing experiences, secrets of the mind and yourself shall be revealed for you.

If we can adopt these 3 mantras as Babaji says in the answer above, then meditation can become fruitful and very progressive. Practising every day is essential to get the benefits of meditation. We can start with whatever is manageable, ten, fifteen minutes then gradually we can build up the time. The longer we can practice the meditation in a stretch, the more concentrated the mind can get. It normally takes around 30 to 40 minutes for the mind to actually settle down which is why 1 hour is prescribed for a daily meditation. Any time you can do, however, will be beneficial. Eventually through regular practice the mind can recede, become purified and quiet. That is when we can experience the best peace.

Our courses and sessions are designed to give you the daily confidence to establish a practice for yourself at home.


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From cravings to peace

‘The constant cravings of the mind are the basic reason for unhappiness’.

A couple of thousand years after Buddha said these words, still mankind is afflicted with these cravings of the mind that prevent us from achieving peace and happiness.

The mind does not seem to want to accept or stop on one thing. We have to constantly move from one thing to the other, seldom remaining satisfied or contented. Our mind becomes like a restless monkey.

In Meditation we focus the mind into a single-pointed attention. Gradually, instead of being diluted into millions of imaginations, the mind recedes and becomes quiet. Then we experience that real peace, settled in ourselves.

The great masters proved that this is possible to achieve once and for all. Meditation master Babaji says, ‘as the mind abandons all its cravings, going introverted, peacefully, composed, it settles into the Self and remains there totally contented. That’s what a Yogi achieves.’

Through regular practice, we can calm the mind down and become more focused. Babaji says that through the proper practice of meditation ‘the opponent, the bundle of cravings, becomes weak and your consciousness becomes strong’. We gain the upper hand of our own mind.

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Break through the web of imaginations

‘Just like a spider spins a web and gets involved in its own web, it is the mind, called consciousness, which imagines and gets involved into its own resolutions of imagination. A friend appears as a foe and a foe appears as a friend. Bondage appears as an avenue for happiness and a real avenue for happiness appears as meaningless, hard, impossible. These are all the resolution tricks of the mind which create such an illusion.’ ~ Shiva Rudra Balayogi

 Throughout our lives we make analysations and judgements on most things. ‘I like this’, ‘I don’t like this’, ‘This is mine’, ‘This is not mine’. In so doing, we go on acquiring habits in the mind. We start to see the world in a particular way only.

We can thus become narrow-minded, not able to consider others’ points of view and well-being. We may see something that is beneficial for us as a wrong thing, and something that is detrimental and harmful to us as exciting and attractive.

We may also be afflicted by negative imaginations and go into an extreme reaction when we are faced with a particular situation. Because the mind has become habitual, to stop thinking and behaving in this way becomes very difficult. As Babaji says, it is like we have spun a web for ourselves out of imaginations and become trapped in that web.

Meditation is the practice of not making judgements. It purifies the mind of its habits and thus removes the illusory effects of the mind.

We can break free from the web we have created and start thinking clearly. Our thinking and behaviour can be enhanced to consider others more and peace and composure can be restored in the mind.

Moving forwards

‘The past is over and it’s not going to come back under any circumstances so there’s no point in simply brooding and feeling pain. Instead let me look for my future, let me become more positive.’

 ‘A past is meant so that we can learn from any mistakes we had made. Other than that we can let it go’.

These are the simple truths Meditation Master Babaji has said about the past which can be possible to realise when we adopt a regular meditation practice.

A beautiful future could be waiting for us if we can stop any brooding and focus all our mental attention in the present moment. That is what we are training for in meditation. The mind lets go of all its negative habits and imaginations and simply becomes absorbed in the present. That is when we would be able to experience the best peace and understand ourselves much better.

A daily practice of meditation neutralises the mind into the present moment, making it easier to manage the rest of the day. Life becomes very positive – we can deal with the pressures of life without wasting our energies worrying and brooding. We can accept situations better and always keep moving forwards with confidence.

The mind’s attention goes to itself

The mind is our conscious energy. Whatever object we apply the mind on we become aware of that.

When we lose attention, we lose that awareness. For example, when we read a book, our eyes may be following the words, but if our mind is elsewhere, thinking about dinner later or roaming the streets outside then nothing of the meaning of the words will be entering our mind. So the mind’s attention also has to be there – then our awareness is there.

In meditation we practice applying our attention. But we don’t bring the attention to our thoughts. The attention goes within, to our mind itself.

Normally we are so preoccupied with our thoughts. One thought after another comes and we become sucked into a whirlpool of thoughts. These constant imaginations lead to worries and stress and our mind becomes out of our control. Even if we think of a good thought, it can easily slip into a negative thought.

As we keep focusing our attention in meditation by just watching what comes up and not getting involved, our attention goes from the thoughts to our mind itself. We become aware of this mind itself. As Meditation Master Babaji says, ‘If you become aware of yourself, then you will discover you are always at peace, you are that source of peace.’

With a regular practice there are so many benefits we can gain; better concentration, less stress and more peace and contentment in the mind. We would be able to maintain that peace even with the challenges of daily life. The new year is always a great opportunity to start afresh and pick up the practice of meditation to achieve peace for yourself. Our online courses and sessions are every week, all free of charge.