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The Journey of Meditation

There are two levels of Consciousness: Sensory perception and Extra sensory perception. We usually live more on the level of sensory perception. To understand sensory perception, a little analysis is necessary. Our five senses are -sense of Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight and Hearing. All our communication with the external world is through the medium of these five senses. Our external world is sensory in that it can be touched/felt, tasted, smelt, heard and seen in all its colour and form. We have five senses and the external world can be characterized in these five ways.

-Acharya Mahapragya

How to train the mind?

“We have drawn a circle around the mind. We do not want to cross this circle. It is not possible to assess the potential of the mind without breaking this cordon. The mind can know the thoughts of other minds also and influence them. It can send and receive mes-sages to and from other minds also.”

Acharya Mahapragya

You Can Be Spiritual In Everything That You Do

Why is it believed that spiritual practice is possible only within traditionally accepted limits and not outside them?
Meditation, observance of silence and physical relaxation are indeed spiritual practices but are speaking, eating, drinking, sitting and standing not spiritual practices?

-Acharya Mahapragya

When Thoughtlessness Is The Only Way

Your thinking is governed by a very small part of your consciousness. The commerce of human life does not need more than a small amount of consciousness. Sometimes you become spectator of your own consciousness and of what is happening therein.

Acharya Mahapragya

The anekanta of meditational practice!

Circumstances are not everything. To put all the blame on it is not fair. Circumstances can be changed and they will change, but what happens to the emotional system within? How can that be changed?
Bhagvan Mahavir was asked, "Noble teacher! Some people say one cannot meditate in the village. It can be done only in the forest, in loneliness. Is the place of meditational practice, binding?"

-Acharya Mahaprajna

Problem of Fear and Solution of Spirituality!

Thinking born of fear is ever negative and destructive. A fearful man is incapable of right thinking; fear dulls his mind and heart; his thinking becomes blunted. It would be idle to expect a fear-ridden brain to function normally. Such a brain cannot think constructively. The first condition for sane thinking’s is total freedom from fear. The mind must be absolutely fearless, and the brain, and indeed the whole environment, must be free from fear. Only in the right atmosphere will sane thinking become possible. A man oppressed by fear cannot think straight.

-Acharya Mahaprajna

Managing Stress!

The modern age has given man many comforts. It has also given a fast life. Almost everything is constantly changing. It has brought peer pressure, traffic jams, riots, violence, gangs, competition, and pressure from society, fear, anger, manipulative nature, greediness and many similar things.

-Acharya Mahaprajna

I Seek Refuge In The Enlightened Ones!

Every man has a right to freedom. In ethics, though, both independence and dependence have relative importance. There can be no absolute independence without dependence of any kind, and complete dependence without any freedom is destructive of life. However independent a man might be, he still seeks someone's patronage, someone in whom he can find refuge. Refuge or retreat means home. A question was posed, In whom should a man seek refuge? After a great deal of thought man arrived at the conclusion that he should seek refuge in the enlightened ones. These can be no greater refuge. Under the patronage of the enlightened ones, all one's problems end, all doubts are resolved and a man becomes fully assured and reliable.

-Acharya Mahaprajna

A new path and a new direction!

The man, who has control over his emotions, can go very far. The man who cannot fully control his emotions, but has limited capacity and controls his passions to some extent, is able to maintain the status quo. But the man, who is a slave to his passions, forces himself into a miserable plight and soon degenerates. Let us realize this truth that without exercising control over emotions, we cannot make any progress in life.

-Acharya Mahaprajna

A holistic view of life essential for survival!

There are two limits to knowledge. One set by the intellect and the other set by experience.
The comprehensive way to meditation and penance is experience, not intellectualisation. Intellectuals might argue against this, for the nature of the intellect is to argue. Those who practice meditation and restraint do not use only logic and intellect as the touchstone. Their path is paved with experience. The one who has tasted the sweetness of experience will know there can be no other viable route.

-Acharya Mahaprajna

What Lies Beyond What We Know Already

Take a lemon in your palm. You know that it is a lemon by seeing its colour and form. In darkness you can recognise it by its smell or by touching or tasting it. All physical objects are recognised by the sense-organs.
But the colour and form of the lemon are not the lemon. These are mere modifications of the lemon. Each sense-organ is capable of recognising only a single modification of an object.

-Acharya Mahapragya

Effective Management Of the Five Senses

The first preparative step to meditation begins with the practice of one-pointedness. Maharishi Patanjali has defined it as Pratyahar. Our senses are attracted to external subjects. We need to redirect them inwards. This process the Jain agamas call Pratisanlinta; its practice helps increase concentration and reduces instability.

-Acharya Mahapragya

Internal Manifests First, Then Comes the External

To take an internal trip and see the goings on there is prekshadyan. We tend to burden our minds. We presume that X is good while Y is bad; one thing is agreeable, another disagreeable: that A is a friend while B is a foe. Who presumes these things?

-Acharya Mahapragya

Meaningful Meditation, Greater Understanding

Equanimous thought is balanced thought. Any kind of superiority or inferiority complex results in perverted thinking. The criterion for wholesome thinking is to determine whether thought is born of equanimity or not.
Two kinds of feelings dominate your life: like and dislike; craving and aversion. Totally unconditioned thinking is rare. Someone dear to us says something and we appreciate it; but the same thing uttered by an adversary and we feel contempt or fear. Why?

-Acharya Mahapragya