Meditation at Dawn and Dusk

The practice of meditating upon first awakening in the morning and as the last thing we do before retiring at the end of the day is quite natural and logical. We feel drawn to Nature’s heart, a consciousness that unites our body, mind and spirit in inspiration. With each dawn, the sun floods all earthly life as it spreads its gaze over the horizon and reawakens all with its smile of pristine purity. With daily morning meditation, we feel that our day has been blessed from its beginning with God’s own Light-Life-Love to sustain and guide us.

Our evening meditation affirms our spirit’s independence from worldliness as a perfect completion to our day: As the sun withdraws over the horizon, we also withdraw our minds from all attentions, trappings and efforts as “sufficient unto the day” and finished, following the sun’s example by letting go of all mundane responsibilities such as job, family and other social concerns.

Swami Kamalananda
The Breath of God and Pranayam

Breath

There are many similarities in Vedic and Biblical stories of creation.

God is Creator in the Book of Genesis and the Supreme Being (“Brahma”) in the Vedas. In both traditions the Creator transcends the entire universe while bringing forth all life and beings, animate and inanimate. Every religious tradition we know describes the human being as the pinnacle of the process of creation, the most advanced of all living beings on earth.

In the Biblical story, God first created heaven and earth, the seas and the air, the fishes, fowls, herbs and plants and all living creatures in six days, and seeing that it was good ended all this work on the (symbolic) seventh day with rest. And then,

...the Lord God formed man (Adam) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  Genesis 2:7

The name “Adam” derives from a combination of “adi,” meaning first, and “aham,” or “ahong,” meaning “I-consciousness.” Adam thus became the first manifested self-consciousness as he drew in God’s imparted breath-of-life. This is similarly stated in the Qur’an:

I breathed into humanity something of my own spirit. Qur’an 38:72

Yet reading “God breathed” only begs the greater persisting philosophical question: How? Exactly what is God’s breath? The profound answer to that question is what strikingly distinguishes the Vedic and Upanishadic thought in several ways, the foremost being that breath existed BEFORE creation itself, i.e., without extraneous breath, as the One Existent, without a second:

In the beginning,

Before there was existence or nonexistence,
Before there was sky or atmosphere above,
Before there was birth, death or immortality,
Day or night, light or darkness. . .
Only the One Existent breathed calmly. . .
self-contained, with nothing beyond. Rig Veda

From that Absolute Being comes the cosmic manifestation of Breath.

Prana

The one consciousness-bearing life force is “Prana.” Prana is the “breath of life,” because there is no life without it; yet prana is not breathing per se. It is what animates all existence and all manifestations of life. All the cosmic space (the Akash) as well as vital forces such as gravity, magnetism and electricity evolve out of Prana. From movements higher and finer than nerve currents, to thoughts and actions, to the lowest and grossest — all are manifestations of Prana.

The Prashna Upanishad identifies Prana as the Supreme Power of Life born of the Atman, the Universal Self. Prana sustains and rules all functions of the various currents of life-force within the body:

Like the spokes on the hub of a chariot wheel, all beings are established on Prana. Revelation, meditation, hymns, sacraments, power and wisdom — all these are possible because of Prana.

Although we summarily call it Prana, we also describe Prana as expressing in five vayus, “winds” or currents working throughout the entire vast body of Nature. The five motions of Prana are associated with the five elements manifesting everywhere.

Swami Kamalananda
The Breath of God and Pranayam

12 Stages of Breathing

Sitting with the purpose of meditation you can follow a tremendously beneficial process of breathing in twelve stages. Just by reading them, you will see right away that they are progressively sublime, calming and expansive. They will be effective and helpful from your very first attempt and every time you follow them! Following them, you will gradually benefit from increasing contentment, gentleness and peace.

Think of drawing water from a well, of extending a bucket (your mind) on a long rope (your probing attention). As the bucket goes ever deeper into the water, it seems to disappear. Otherwise said, your mind reaches deep within formless depths to draw the vital resources of cosmic life and illumination back to nourish your body, mind and spirit.

1. Settle your body, sitting with spine erect, hands placed on the thighs, palms upward. Do nothing but watch your breath in its regular motion of inhalation and exhalation. Your breath is your focus and your teacher.

2. With each inhalation and exhalation feel that you reach into a deeper realm of self-awareness beyond the mere physical motions.

3. A divine process of circulation is itself unfolding within you, connecting your breath with God’s life breath.

4. There is a restorative harmony and greater experience of calmness pervading your body and mind.

5. Entering deeper subjectivity, you inevitably discover many reflections and refractions of the mind. Without distinguishing specific thought-contents, samskaras and patterns of desire, simply enter the current of mindfulness. Your focus on breath alone will nourish and strengthen your non-attachment to those passing contents of “mind-stuff” (“Chittwa”).

6. Elevate and expand your desire to merge your individual mind with the creative Source of the Universal Mind. This union is Raja Yoga, the Royal Path of the Mind.

7. Higher powers draw you to the light that illumines the entire cosmos. Do not look back. Lesser charms, desires and fears have faded in this freedom, this renunciation.

8. Inspired by its attunement to cosmic vibratory joy and peace, your heart enters the “bhav” (state of consciousness) of renewed hope, gratitude and contentment.

9. With every breath, you realize that Peace is dynamic, never static. Your state of mind is serene and infinite, resonant in Silence.

10. In the joyful state of universality, all duality is resolved by Divinely beneficent and pure will.

11. Self-remembrance floods and dissolves all distinctions of “within” or “without.” Here is Freedom (Moksha) in the Ocean of the All,

12. the “I am That I Am.”

Swami Kamalananda
The Breath of God and Pranayam

The Cosmic Vibration of Prana

Prana, drawn through the mind, is the link between consciousness and energy. A very simple illustration shows how we intelligently use this prana: I am “talking” to you. My mind is in a certain state of pranic vibration. I am trying to awaken a response, a sympathetic vibration of consciousness, within you. Whether we attune in sympathy, interest and understanding or not depends on the awakened prana in each of us. All consciousness in the same state of vibration “sees” one another. Attunement, empathy and healing employ prana in this way. This little wave of prana which is uniquely ours in the infinite ocean of prana is what we use in meditation as “pranayama.” Breathing does not produce motion or vibration of prana in the body. On the contrary, it is prana that produces breath and prana that moves the lungs.

“Pranayama” is a compound word, “-ayama” bringing the idea of “harmonization” to the word prana. The motivation and goal of pranayama is entirely spiritual, that of self-realization, although its practice involves respiration, mindful breathing and meditation. We can understand, then, that the benefits are far-reaching: the composite well-being of our body, nervous system and mind. Pranayama enhances self-discipline, equanimity, subjective coordination, concentration and purity, all essential for meditation and spiritual progress.

Beneficent and powerful wills throughout time have brought prana to states of vibration within themselves whereby they have been able to “sway the world” and draw others unto them. Suppose one understood prana completely? What power would not be his?

The mystery is no secret, and the awareness of its marvels is what one should develop more than anything in life. The more we explore it the more we find confirmation that every plane of our existence is related to every other plane. By mastering this knowledge, we can expand and enhance our life. If we neglect it, we lessen our experience of life’s greatest power, beauty and joy.

The universe of cosmic energy, or prana, exists in two tendencies: one is unmanifest, the other manifest. The unmanifest exists as the vast potential of formless being out of which the universe arises. It is self-absorbed—that is, with the power to be, but without change. The second tendency of prana is dynamic and creative: that which manifests and which we see as matter, as living organisms, and all that we behold with our minds. Astronomers bring us to the threshold of pure Yoga philosophy with their assertion that we see only ten percent of our universe. The ninety percent that is imperceptible to our senses exists as potential to be penetrated by our minds. We must bring that light of consciousness within our minds to a similar state of vibration of cosmic light to be aware of the rest of the vast, yet unseen, universe.

Swami Kamalananda
The Breath of God and Pranayam

The Birthright of Every Soul

An excerpt from: The Breath of God and Pranayam
By Swami Kamalananda

Our physical or material life is only one aspect—actually the smallest—of our experience as a human being. Our physical self endures less, extends less and expresses less than who we are to ourselves and to others.

The purpose of Yoga is seeking our largest, most enduring and most powerful identity. In this process we realize a potential consciousness that may seem dormant or undeveloped but is ultimately the most powerful, meaningful and sublime reality of Life. According to Yoga, “salvation” is the birthright of every soul!

Meditation begins with this invaluable recognition: With every breath, as we sit humbly on earth, we are dynamically connected with the entire Cosmic Life Breath and its Perfection.

We can strive to fulfill our humanness (that is Divine) or we will suffer living as less than fully human. Interestingly, Rabindranath Tagore explained our divine potential as a surplus—not as something extra that we do not need, but as a faculty greater than what our senses or our minds can provide. All of us are endowed with this faculty for self-realization. It is our birthright, our “raison d’être” that awaits our exploration. Awakening to the divine purpose of our life is itself a powerful transformation.

Our Legacy and Our Future

O Lord, grant our respected gurus spiritual strength and purity that they may be guided by Thy Light and inspired to dedicate their life to the service of humanity. —Rig Veda

In religion, in the arts, in science, as in many fields of human relations and vocations, representatives as pinnacles of achievement emerge to help us and to teach us. We continually turn to those whose examples we need and respect for their experiences to inspire and nourish our development. In their presence and with their encouragement and guidance, we find ourselves ennobled and enriched.

However great the legacy, its future depends on us, on our pure efforts. Great masters have come as examples, to awaken and to lead us on the path of self-realization. The precepts they lay down are broad principles to be developed and lived by their followers. Great teachers will come again and again. They provide the ground-work with teachings that, like spring rains, will wash over and nourish newly-awakened life. They plant seeds which, when cultivated, will bear fruit later.

It is for each person to step from legacy into a creative future. Truth asks us to be bold and creative, fresh with our own God-given energies and discoveries as the future opens within us. Quantum knowledge in physics did not end with Newton’s law. Was it left for his followers to sit and watch apples falling? No! Along came Einstein to open new thought and new areas, to loyally fulfill the known and then to build. Others have followed him into new frontiers.

The precepts of self-knowledge and self-realization are imparted to us according to a tradition known as “guru-shishya parampara,” ( i.e., personally, “from guru to disciple”). I emphasize the word “personally” to indicate the mutual kinship of responsibility, devotion and respect. Mature masters lay down broad principles, not only specific information or methods. Theirs is the groundwork for experiences by which others may delve into and grasp even greater truths and experiences. Wisdom will always bear fruit in due course when rightly followed.

Good teachers and good students know that higher proficiency in any field does not come immediately or automatically, as if accelerating by a “fast-forward” mode. Focused practice, knowledge and patience must infuse every effort. We can feel comforted with the recognition that we always exist as participants in the ocean’s vastness even as we begin to swim on its shallow shores.

Methodically we take the hand of the guru-ideal at the base of the spiritual tower. There can be no impatience or rushing to reach any higher level or vision. We must learn to enjoy our life’s attainment fully at each level. Not to worry; greater attainments will await us! From wherever we are, we learn to proceed with confidence and patience. Then only will we progress to greater understanding and proficiency.

In my life I have been blessed to learn from, live and work with great masters, the foremost, of course, being my spiritual guru, Swami Premananda. In addition, I have been drawn to respected mentors in other fields. Your interests will draw you to mentors. Be high-minded and focused to find the best, and then put yourself into their chosen realm with trust and faith in them and in yourself to learn from them. There is no gain without trust and practice.

Swami Kamalananda, The Breath of God and Pranayam