CHICAGO MEDITATION | Classes and Support from Science of Spirituality

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj used an interesting expression in his last Saturday evening question and answer session, and he repeated it again during his Sunday discourse. He said that at the time of initiation into the Sant Mat teachings, the spiritual Master “imparts some of his own consciousness” into those he initiates.

Some may view initiation as a purely outer event, through which the theory and technique of Shabd Meditation are conveyed. That is certainly part of what occurs. But initiation has a deeper, more esoteric dimension, and this statement hints at it.

To understand the incredible blessing that initiation represents, we need to try to understand who a spiritual Master really is. At the outer level we will first likely view the Master as a teacher. But the true significance of a spiritual Master and the remarkable benefits he bestows, becomes apparent only with inner progress, as through meditation we penetrate the thick curtains of matter and mind, realize our nature as soul,  and experience the divine nature of the Master.

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj writes:

After we take initiation, and have a firsthand experience of the Light and Sound of God, we realize we have received something from the Master that we did not get anywhere else. As we continue to meditate and follow the spiritual path, we realize that we are receiving more and more gifts from the Master. We are having meditation experiences within.

As the Master continues to pour out love and grace to us, we start developing love for the Master. This love grows with each passing year. As we become more seasoned on the path, we realize how much sacrifice the Master is making for us. We continue to grow deeper love for the Master.

When we go within and meet the Master’s radiant, spiritual form and he travels with us as our guide on the journey back to God, we start to recognize who he is and develop more and more love for him.

It is when we attain the ultimate goal of union of our soul with God that we finally recognize who the Master is. At that stage we experience oneness and the ultimate consummation of spiritual love.

The consciousness the Master imparts during initiation is the great catalyst to our spiritual evolution. The uplift we receive is not coming from the physical person of a Master. Rather, it is born of the power of God with which a spiritual Master is fully in tune. That is the singular divine energy through which enlightened beings throughout history have awakened humanity to the eternal truths of inner revelation.

Mystic literature tells us that a spiritual Master does not add anything that we don’t already possess. As soul, as drops of the ocean that is God, we have all the attributes of divinity within us, but those attributes are yet unrevealed. We are like a winter garden. All the color and fragrance of Spring exists as potential in the seeds in the frozen soil. All that is required is the Sun’s warmth, through which the garden blossoms and flourishes. The consciousness the Master imparts at initiation is that Sun.

Again, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj:

When there is a sincere cry of the heart to know truth, God puts the seeker in touch with a spiritual Master who can awaken the buds of the heart to lasting happiness. The seeker is led to a Master, who grants initiation into the Light and Sound of God.

Through the spiritual radiation and attention of the Master, the disciple’s inner eye and inner ear are opened to see the divine Light already within him or her and to hear the divine Sound reverberating ceaselessly within us.

That experience is like the blossoming of Spring when all the flowers bloom where there were once thorns. The heightened ecstasy of Spring with its magnificent colors and fragrant scents arouses our passions. Life takes on a new depth of joy and we feel intoxicated. This is the symbolism that gives us a taste of what ecstasy we experience when the Master opens our floral buds at the time of initiation and transports us into a world of spiritual delights and divine ecstasies.

Those who are initiated take great comfort in the closeness and certainty of that inner reservoir of divine consciousness. In all our activities, but especially in meditation, we can turn to, repose in, and rely on that uplifting power.

For seekers interested in the next step in their spiritual growth, this benefit of a self-realized Master deserves deep reflection. The history of esoteric literature emphasizes again and again that nothing speeds our spiritual development like the sublime influence of a competent Master.

As the great mystic poet Rumi wrote:

The only truth I know in this word is my spiritual Master:
The light of his Sun has never shone upon anything passing without making it eternal.

—Translation by Jonathan Starr

by John Wolf

I just finished Atul Gawande’s bestselling book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. As a cardiac surgeon, Gawande became alarmed at the rate of deaths following surgery. Apparently, despite rising surgical training and ever-finer specialization, over 150,000 post-surgery Americans die each year. That’s triple the number of traffic fatalities. Experts say that simple mistakes cause half of those deaths.

Gawande’s book investigates how checklists can help. He cites an early experiment at Johns Hopkins, for example, that targeted one of the most insidious hospital problems—central line infections. An analysis showed that most infections result from experienced staff skipping a necessary step, such as washing hands or wearing a mask. Borrowing from the aviation industry, the hospital implemented the simplest of tools—a mandatory, written, five-step, no-brainer checklist. The rate of infection fell immediately to zero.

Most of the book explores the power of checklists in the medical world, with harrowing accounts of death and near-death and back-from-death surgeries that resulted from failure to perform a routine step. But the book also examines checklists in other industries. The author visits pilots, builders of skyscrapers, Homeland Security, venture capitalists and investment managers. All swear by checklists. Remember the US Airways pilot who safely landed a passenger plane in the Hudson River, despite having lost both engines? He was celebrated as a national hero. The pilot, however, credits those saved lives to a routine emergency checklist.

What does all this have to do with spirituality? Think of it this way: when the meditation instructions are read out at a Science of Spirituality program, what you are hearing is a checklist. Meditation is not like transplanting a heart, but it is a process. All the steps must be done, and done right. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj says:

The meditation technique is a science. It is a defined instruction that one must do. Each part must be accurately carried out in order to achieve results. If any one part is not done correctly, it will affect the entire process. Let us take a look at each part of the meditation process in detail. When you see there is a blockage, it means there is some aspect of the process that is not being performed correctly. Because this is a science, the proper performance of the task will yield results. It is like math in which two plus two equal four. The science is perfect. It is we who do not perform it accurately.

Gawande interviews revered mutual fund manager Mohnish Pabrai, who makes a particularly insightful comment about his use of checklists. Pabrai tests every investment decision with a few-step checklist because, he says, a good checklist makes us more successful without being any more skillful. That’s a powerful notion. In other words, we can improve our meditation practice simply by rigorously doing what we should do and already know how to do.

What would a meditation checklist look like? As soon as I started the book and realized its applicability to meditation, I wrote the checklist below for myself. You can make your own by going through your Jyoti Meditation handbook or meditation instructions and identifying the vital steps. The key, Gawande’s research says, is to keep it simple: five to nine steps written out in concise, precise, active language.

Meditation Checklist

1. Before you sit, do whatever it takes to be fully awake and alert.
2. Assume a relaxed pose and review your body. If there is tension anywhere, readjust now. For the duration of the sitting, don’t move.
3. Invoke God’s blessing in a spirit of devotion, humility, and self-surrender, knowing the results of your practice are in God’s hands.
4. Close your eyes and direct a relaxed, loving inner gaze into the center of the darkness, about eight to ten inches in front of you.
5. Repeat the names of God slowly, continuously, in an unbroken pattern.
6. Always remain conscious of what you see. If the gaze breaks or thoughts intervene, bring the attention back, re-center the gaze, and resume the repetition.
7. Whatever visions or vistas appear, keep a relaxed gaze focused in the middle.
8. After the sitting, give thanks for what you received.
9. Review this sitting with your checklist. Identify how to make your next sitting better.

Of course, we all know that meditation is more than technique. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj writes: “Meditation is not a dry set of physical steps, such as sit down, close your eyes, and look within; meditation is an act of love. It is the dance of love between the soul and godly love within us.”

Still, we need to master the steps, especially in the beginning. A meditation checklist just might slow you down, get you focused, and ease you into the rhythm of that dance.