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Before we go into the various techniques, take note of this: No technique will ever take you to liberation. You have to let go of the technique and merge with the Self at the right time. I usually tell my students that the meditation technique is like a train ride: it takes you to the destination, but you have to get off the train at the destination to remain there, otherwise the train (technique) will remove you from your destination again. I normally suggest doing Kundalinī Kriyā and/or Kriyā Prānāyāma as the main practice, to be done twice daily for 50 minutes. If you don’t have the time for that, do as much as can manage. If Kundalinī Kriyā generates too much pressure in the head, stop doing it and do Kriyā Prānāyāma instead.
Sit comfortably in an upright posture. Go through your body beginning with the feet and ending with the head. Feel your feet, but in such a manner that you don’t do it from your head down, but rather are present in the feet and let the feet feel themselves. Let your whole attention be filled with the sensation of the feet. Then proceed to the ankles, the calves, and so forth. Spend as much time in each place as is needed in order to feel the presence there. When you reach the head, then feel the entirety of the body. Notice the body is breathing by itself. Don’t interfere with the rhythm, simply observe it.
When it’s time to end meditation, don’t just stop and get up. First, let go, and see if you don’t go deeper by letting go. Spend some time like this. Then, when you really want to stop, sit with closed eyes a while and slowly open them while staying in meditation. Or, if you don’t want to open them slowly, you can open and close your eyes a few times while trying to hold the meditative state. Then meditate a few minutes with open eyes. Notice how your state is different now from what it was just before you began meditating. Remember, we don’t go out of meditation since meditation is merging with the Self, and we don’t want to go out of the Self. Rather we take meditation into the waking state.
The practice consists of three methods, which you switch between. When you reach a plateau, you switch to one of the other methods, and when that reaches a plateau, you switch back to the first method or to the next method, and so forth. Back and forth between the three main techniques, but all the while having just one objective. That is to intensify Shakti more and more, then to merge with it.
As you observe the breathing, feel the entire body. It is as if the sense of touch built into the skin senses the skin itself. Now feel on the in-breath that you expand out through the skin. On the out-breath simply let go. Another way of saying it is that on the in-breath you feel the Shakti growing in intensity and size. On the out-breath you let go of any control or duality, and merge with Shakti in and around the body. As this continues, you will feel the body’s limits dissolve, while the feeling of Shakti becomes more tangible than the feeling of the body. Do this for as long as Shakti gets stronger, and you merge more and more. When it reaches a plateau, switch to spine breathing.
On the in-breath feel that you are moving energy up the entire spine at once, from the perineum to the top of the head. You can remember the word “hongg” as you do this. On the out-breath feel that you are radiating energy, or Lovebliss, in all directions from the brain and scull. You can remember the word “sauh” as you breathe out. But these words are really not important. The important thing is to feel Shakti grow and to merge with Shakti. Do this as long as Shakti gets stronger and you merge more and more. When it reaches a plateau, return to full body breathing.If you feel the energy pressure in the head becomes unpleasantly high, replace this practice with Kriya Prānāyāma.
Here you do not follow the breath, but sense Shakti flows into the body and radiates from the body at the same time. This can be a rather paradoxical feeling, but once you get the knack of it, it is a very powerful meditation. Another way to explain it is to say you should sense radiating love to everything around you and receiving love from everything around you at the same time.
When you experience being filled with Shakti or Lovebliss, then let go of your methods and merge with it. This is the goal of all practices and methods. No matter what practice you are doing, if you are on the verge of transcending I-ness and merging, then let go of the method/practice and merge in Lovebliss.
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