Quiet.

Inner Quiet.

The quieter you are,

The more aware you are of yourself.

The more aware you are of yourself,

The more meditative you are.

How to arrive at this quietness,

The quietness of the being,

Actively quiet,

Powerfully quiet,

Wakefully quiet?

You need help.

 

So we come to the breath.

Your breath can help you.

It brings you close to your self,

And modifying and working the breath,

Keeps you wakeful,

Active,

While you reach to inner quietness.

 

Meditation is about quietness,

And to be stopped in oneself.

The quietness and the stop is connected to your breath,

And therefore we use the breath –

We modify the breath,

To arrive at this quietness,

To arrive at this stop.

Through modifying the breath,

You can modify the state of your mind.

Your mind carries you away,

Thoughts here and there, hither, thither,

Everywhere but where you want it,

Especially when you sit in meditation!

 

To be centered in yourself,

If only your mind would allow it,

And to be centered in a very special way –

There is a flavour to it.

You feel a sense of power,

A sense of being,

A sense of peace.

You are intoxicated.

All this follows when you are centered.

It is all connected with your breathing.

Your breath becomes special.

It moves in a special way,

Then you feel special.

You live in a special way.

 

Meditation is to awaken to being special.

It is all there waiting for you.

Through the practice you have to awaken to it.

When your breath stops,

Your mind stops –

You are stopped in yourself.

That is when the awakening happens,

That is when there is this sense of being special,

The sense of the special.

It is all around you,

It is in you.

 

So I say:

The first priority is to be centered.

Again and again to remind oneself,

To arrive at being centered.

In all situations,

In all circumstances to be conscious,

To be consciously centered and present,

To remind oneself to remember to do so.

Use the breath,

It will keep you wakeful,

It will keep you sharp,

It will keep you alert.

 

There is a tendency,

When one sits for a period of time,

To fall away so to speak,

To lose the alertness,

The wakefulness, the sharpness.

Therefore the breathing is helpful,

If you apply it in those moments.

It brings you back to being sharp,

Alert and wakeful.

The breathing is helpful to keep you watchful,

To keep you alert.

 

 

There is silence,

Special silence –

It is your Self.

Then you have a feel of tremendous power.

With each breath you increasingly feel more powerful,

And yet this power is benevolent, benign –

Never malicious.

 

So through the breath,

Feel for this quietness in yourself,

Arrive at a quiet stop,

Stay with the quiet stop.

Reach to meditation.

 

 

Panchmadhi

10 February 2002