


Most traditions require a regular practice in order to progress, to get ahead. On the other hand, there are traditions in which no regular practice is required and people do fine, so I cant say it is necessary. But I certainly find it useful, and I encourage other people to do it.

Regularly practicing meditation, even when you dont feel like it, will help you see how your thoughts impose limits and color your existence. Resistances to meditation are your mental prisons in miniature.

Its delicate, because you have to practice from the place of really remembering why youre doing it, with some joy and appreciation. If you go into it with, Oh, I gotta do my practice, the practice will eventually clean that resistance out of you, but I dont necessarily feel thats a good thing. Thats what happens to people when they have to go to church every Sunday. I would rather push you away from spiritual practices until youre so hungry for them that you really want to do a practice, rather than give you a sense that you ought to do the practice or that youre a bad person if you dont do it, because you will end up hating the whole business. In the long run I dont think it will be good for you. Spiritual practice is wonderful if you want to do it. And if you dont, dont.

There are many different forms of meditation from a host of spiritual traditions. I will share with you some of the methods that have been most effective for me over the years. They include Vip?ssana (or insight) meditation from the Southern Buddhist tradition, mantra from Hindu bhakti devotional practice (including how to practice mantra with a mala, or rosary), and guru kripa (grace of the guru) meditation.

Remember the story of a Westerner arriving at the ashram in India and asking Maharaj-ji how to meditate? Maharaj-ji became quiet and closed his eyes. After a few moments, a tear trickled down his cheek, and he said, Meditate the way Christ meditated. He lost himself in Love. Christ lives in the hearts of all beings. He never died. He never died. 
Lose yourself in love.

When you are with someone you love very much,
you can talk and it is pleasant, but the reality 176
is not in the conversation.
It is simply in being together.
Meditation is the highest form of prayer.
In it you are so close to God that you dont need to say a thing
Its just great to be together.

Swami Chetananda

Vip?ssana Meditation



    By focusing on the muscle in the solar plexus, which every time you breathe in, moves in one direction, and every time you breathe out, moves in another directionrising, falling, rising, falling.
    By focusing on the inside of your nostrils at the tip of your noseas the air goes by, you will feel a slight whisper of air on the in breath, and as the air goes out, you will feel a slight whisper of air on the out breath.


You are like a gatekeeper at the gate. Cars go in and cars go out. You dont need to see where they go. You just notice the breath going in, breathing in, and the breath going out, breathing out. Your job is solely to focus your awareness on your primary object of the breath in the gentlest way possible.

Your awareness is going to wander; it is going to be grabbed by many stray thoughts. Youll sit down and youll say, Breathing in, breathing out or Rising, falling. Then the thought will come, This will never work. Now you can either take that thought This will never work and immediately go off on another train of thought, and even though you have instructions to follow, you just ignore them and then the meditation time is over. Thats okay. Or at some point when you get tired of that, you can say, Gee, all I was going to do for these fifteen minutes was watch my breath. This is just another thought. Maybe Ill just let it go, and Ill go back to watching my breath. See, thats a strategy for gently bringing your mind back to the breath, for coming back to your awareness.

The art is to not get violent with your other thoughts. Dont try to push them away. Dont feel guilty because you are thinking them. Theyre just thoughts. Very gently, again and again, simply bring your awareness back to the primary object of meditation: breathing in, breathing out. Just keep coming back to the focus of your meditation, back to the breath, back to awareness of the breath.

Whether your breathing gets fast or slow doesnt matter; just notice it. Dont try to change it, but just notice it. You are merely remaining aware, the gatekeeper watching the gate open and close. Any sounds, smells, or sensations, just let them come and let them go and bring your awareness back to either rising and falling or breathing in and breathing out.

If your mind wanders, just notice it, then very gently bring it back to breathing in and breathing out or rising and falling. Wherever your mind is now, just notice where it is and very gently bring it back to rising and falling or breathing in and breathing out. If it helps to think to yourself breathing in, breathing out with each breath, that is perfectly okay. If it helps to count breaths, try counting to ten, counting each in and out breath cycle as one, and then start over. If your mind wanders off in the middle, start over. Sometimes it can be really hard to get to ten! But dont judge yourself, dont get frustrated, theres no success or failureonly your awareness of the breath.


Notice the shape and form as the breath goes bythe beginning, middle, and end of the in breath; the space in between; the beginning, middle, and end of the out breath; and again the space.


If you begin to doze, take a few deep intentional breaths. Rising and falling or breathing in and breathing out. All the feelings in your bodythe sounds, the sensations, the tastes, the smells, the sightsjust notice them coming and going and bring your awareness back to the primary object of meditation.





Meditation on the Guru

Imagine a realized being standing before you, someone to whom you feel particularly attuned, such as Christ, Mary, Mohammad, R?m, Hanuman, Anandamayi Ma, or your guru. This being is radiant, luminous, with eyes that are filled with compassion. You feel this being radiating the wisdom that comes from an intimate harmony with the universe.


See yourself reflected in those compassionate, nonjudging eyes, and allow yourself to open more and more. This is your Beloved. Sit before this being, or imagine such a being sitting in your heart. Just be with that being and return the love. Despite all of the impurities to which you cling, despite all your feelings of unworthiness, such a being loves you unconditionally. Its OK to carry on imaginary conversations with this being; the exchange opens you to compassion, tranquility, warmth, patienceto all the qualities of a free being.


Ultimately you become that kind of love. Youre living in that space and dont need anybody to turn you on to love because you are  it, and everybody that comes near you drinks of it. And as you become more and more the statement of love, you fall into love with everyone.


A mantra is a repeated prayer, words, a holy name, or a sacred sound or sounds. Its like a tape loop going on inside that reminds me of who I am. Its like a niche in the wall where the candle flame never flickers. It always brings me right back into to my heart, into the eternal present.

A mantra can be a name or names of God, in Sanskrit or English or Spanish or whatever language you know. It is usually recited silently in the mind, though at times you may want to say it aloud or subvocally, still keeping it internalized and without intruding on other peoples psychic space. Sanskrit is interesting because it is based on seed syllables, or bij mantras, that set up vibrational fields through sound. They work even when recited silently, reverberating within.

Some mantras are more conceptual. All mantra works by repetition. Practiced consistently, mantra has the ability to steady the mind and transform consciousness. Mantra should be repeated frequently. It can be repeated any time, any placewhen youre walking, taking a shower, washing the dishes, waiting in line for the movies.

In Buddhism, the word mantra means mind protecting. A mantra protects the mind by preventing it from going into its usual mechanical habits, which often are not our optimal conscious perspective. Mantra is a powerful spiritual practice for centering and for letting go of strong emotions, such as fear, anxiety, and anger. The more you practice mantra, the more it becomes a part of you. When you need it on the psychological levelfor example, when you feel afraidusing your witness, you notice the fear and replace the fear with your mantra. This will occur naturally once mantra becomes an established practice. Mantra is a daily reminder of the presence of the Divine within ourselves and in the universe.

Mahatma Gandhi said, The mantra becomes ones staff of life and carries one through every ordeal. It is no empty repetition. For each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer to God.

Keep repeating your mantra consciously until it becomes a strong habit. Go for a walk and say the mantra all the time you are walking. Notice everything but keep the mantra going. Keep realizing that being with God is your focusand therefore everything you see is part of God.

Maharaj-ji said, The best form in which to worship God is in all forms. Everyone you meet is R?m, who has come to teach you something. Mantra is remembering that place in the heart. R?m, R?m, R?m. Say it, mouth it, think it, feel it in your heart. You are continually meeting the Beloved and merging into perfection.



My guru, Neem Karoli Baba, used R?m, and he often could be seen mouthing, R?m, R?m, R?m, R?m, R?m . . . R?m (or R?ma) in the R?mayana is a being of great light, love, compassion, wisdom, and power, who lives in perfect harmony with the dharma, the One. R?m is the essence of who you are when you realize your true Self, the Atm?n.

Sri R?m, Jai R?m, Jai, Jai, R?m (Beloved R?m, I honor you)

If you use R?m when you meditate, say/think/feel R?m on the out breath. The out breath is the breath you will experience at the end of your life. Associate it with love, mercy, compassion, bliss, letting go. Train yourself into this R?m mind.

Another option is the maha-mantra (great mantra) to both Krishna and R?m:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare.
Hare R?ma, Hare R?ma,
R?ma, R?ma, Hare, Hare


Om is a sacred sound mantra, one of the bij (seed) syllables mentioned earlier, sometimes called the sound of the universe. Its very primordialthink, In the beginning was the word, and the word was God.

Om Namah Shivaya
(I bow to Shiva.)

Other mantras from Buddhism are:

Om mani padme hum
(I bow to the jewel in the lotus of the heart.)

Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Swaha (to the Mother in the form of Tara.)

A mantra from the Greek Christian tradition, in the Philokalia:


Mantra can be practiced with a mala, a string of prayer beads. In the West, a mala is commonly called a rosary. A mala has 108 beads, plus a larger guru bead. A wrist mala has 27, 36, or 54 beads, plus a guru bead. All of these numbers108, 54, 36, and 27are sacred numbers in numerology, with digits that add up to nine. The mala is an external aid to doing mantra. You recite the mantra as you pass the beads through your fingers. The feeling of the beads moving through your fingers is a wonderful centering device.


Swami Ramdas, a devout Indian saint of the last century whose life revolved around listening to the will of R?m to guide his every activity, tells us, referring to mantra and kirtan (devotional chanting), People do not know what the Name of God can do. Those who repeat it constantly alone know its power. It can purify our mind completely. . . . The Name can take us to the summit of spiritual experience.


Ram Dass means Servant of God. Born Richard Alpert, Ram Dass is the founder of the Love Serve Remember Project and co-founder of the Seva Foundation and the Prison Ashram Project. He is the author of the worldwide spiritual classic Be Here Now (Crown, 1971), and his new book, Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart (Sounds True, August 2013), among many others. For more information, visit ramdass.org.