Meditation is to be quiet with yourself, and yet – how to be quiet? You need to arrive at this quietness – this is where one has to reach, this is the objective, the beginnings of meditation.

To be quiet is to be with yourself, the quiet Self – to enter into oneself. It requires you to work for a while with yourself. You have to practice: the practice will bring you to this quietness. It may be a moment at first, but that moment will increase.

Through the breath you get close to yourself. To be in the state of quietness is to enter into your being – you are totally at ease. This is the beginning of meditation. Meditation is your very being, and therefore your life, and your breathing can lead you to it; the way of the breathing. Remember constantly that you have to reach to a quietness; remember to be with yourself in every moment;  remember to keep working towards it.

Of course when the awakening happens it is all very spontaneous – and yet you can help it along. It is a conscious participation that is required. That is why in the Bhagwat Gita it is said that it is by the Self that the Self is won – conscious participation. Time is unimportant; it is commitment, and to be be convinced about it which is important.

For you will find that when you have reached to meditation, you live in Eternity.

So you have to keep with it – it all pays off in the end. If you are convinced about it there are no frustrations, for you have gone beyond time. It is in time, it is from being aware of time that frustrations follow, disappointments follow. In your being convinced there is a conviction that you will reach. Of course to reach you continue to work towards it – by being present,  remembering to be present at all times, remembering to be committed in all works, in all your actions, every time you speak, every time you laugh.

Be joyful as you travel. The Reality is happy with you when you go through life in joy, in playfulness – when you are bigger than your frustrations, when you are bigger than your dissappointments. Verily the Reality loves such a soul.

Be a seeker therefore. Here we differentiate between a ‘seeker’ and a ‘tourist’.  A seeker is committed for the whole of his life and all lives that are yet to come, while the tourist is a temporary visitor. Your commitment is your strength – your stamina, for you to keep going. Therefore travel joyfully, playfully and yet consciously, remembering all the time.

Like Kabir used to say, ‘While I work outside, I will continue to work within, I will continue to search and seek within’. Kabir is a seeker. So be a seeker and travel the journey of life, the journey of self-discovery, the journey that uncovers the Reality for you.

Always aspire to be greater, larger than what you are presently while you yet work patiently with all things around you. You have both the heaven and the earth in you – you are no small being!  All you have to do is discover it.  But for that you have to travel, and to travel you need to grow in your commitment, you need to be convinced. You need to long for it in your soul. In the very depth of your being there must be a cry for it – you have to long for it deeply.

If you are sincere in your commitment, in your approach, and in the way you travel, nothing will stop you from arriving. Make it so that every moment you are arriving – be conscious of yourself, be conscious to be present, use the breathing. It will bring you close to yourself; it will bring you to yourself. Initially there might not be much fun in it and yet it can be from the very first moment if you decide on it and stand committed.

When you are truly convinced, commited, the very thought that you are travelling and you are seeking, has a sense of  fulfillment in itself. You find pride in being a seeker. You have faith, and nothing can shake that kind of faith. And that faith will carry you and bring you to its destination – and that destination has no end! That destination is an unfolding one: that destination is the Whole Reality, complete.

Therefore be joyful that you are travelling, but do not leave it at that: work with yourself, keep remembering to be present, be sincere in your soul, work from your conscience. Your conscience will always guide you to the true, your conscience will always lift you –  your conscience is your soul. It is from the conscience that the seeker works and not from a conceit or egoism.

There are many levels to your being and you can work from any level. To work from your conscience is to work from a deeper level, is to work from the very core of your soul. Be a deep soul, live in the depths, live from the depths. To live from the surface is to be superficial; to live from the depth is authentic. To be authentic is to be profound -and to be profound is to be close to God, nay, one with God.

So remember to remember to be present – and to be present, remember the way of the breathing.  Remember the breathing and that will remind you to be present. Let it become a habit, a conscious habit – through that habit you will find your freedom. When you have found your freedom, you will have found the beginning to a life that can no more die but forever live. You will have found the Truth about existence.

First you have to learn to walk the way, and when you have learnt to walk the way you will be able to run and even fly  the way. Therefore you have to be patient with yourself, but to be patient does not mean to be laid-back. To be patient means to be sure that you will arrive, time being no criteria – for you are convinced about Eternity. You are convinced that you are travelling and that  you will arrive. So let the breathing help you, the way of the breath. It will bring you to an awakening of the Force, the special energy that will bring you to the realization of What Is, the whole Truth, if you allow it.

To arrive at being present is to begin with meditation. Use the breathing, the longer the breath the better it is. Of course, if you need to energize first, lighten up, use the vigorous breathing, the quick breathing, the ‘energizer’; then follow it up with the ‘harmonizer’: breathe long, the longer the better and yet strong enough to be heard. That will bring you close to yourself.

A moment will come, a time will come when the breath will enter your spine, as it were. You will have arrived at a new dimension: a whole new dimension opens out for you – that is when your faith has been rewarded. There is a great upsurge of joy and well-being when this moment arrives. It is the moment of wonder. You are full of wonder: then one’s life is wonderful, full of wonder, enraptured within and without.

Seek it with maturity. A  seeker who is sincere, a seeker who has faith is mature. A seeker who is patient is mature, a seeker who is greater than his frustrations, her dissappointments, doubts, is mature. This journey is for the mature. This journey is for seekers, not for tourists. Of course a tourist can become a seeker. Once a tourist becomes  a seeker, there is maturity.

A tourist can give up the journey; a seeker never does.

When you are out there working, when you are out there moving, remember to come back to yourself, through the way of the breath. That is why the breath is so useful; it is your life! It will lead you to yourself, it will lead you to meditation. It will bring you to your awakening – to the whole Reality. So breathe that you may be free and remember to be present.

Let the remembering be deeper  rather than just on the surface.

Be present through your breathing. The longer the breathing, the better it is. It will settle you, center you, bring you to a stop in yourself. That stop will carry you into the next dimension.

Arya Vihar

19 October 2000