The making of a Sarvodaya Sannyasin

Thoughtless awareness – “observe the breath” technique. This can also be called “will suit all” technique because it will suit everyone who knows how to count .

Variation 1.

1. Sit in  Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
2. Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
3. The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
4. Now, focus your awareness gently on breath.
5. Start reverse counting with each incoming breath (and no counting with outgoing breath). One may do reverse counting from 50 to 1, decreasing the count by one with each incoming breath. In case, you forget the count or reach 1, go back to 50 and again repeat the process. <<<Why reverse counting - because it makes the mind one-pointed faster as mind is not habituated to reverse counting>>> <<<Why reverse counting with only each inhalation/”incoming breath” – because with exhalation, our nervous system relaxes and with inhalation, our nervous system gets energized. So, it is easier to experience moments of thoughtless awareness during exhalation. So, we leave the counting during exhalation for the experience of thoughtless awareness to happen>>>
6. Repeat step 5 few more times till the mind becomes free from all thoughts except the thought of counting. When it is attained, go to next step.
7. Now, stop the counting and focus on the incoming and outgoing breath without any counting. If any thought comes to the mind, neglect it as if it is a complete stranger and keep on focusing the awareness on the incoming and outgoing breath. If thoughts are disturbing too much, go to step 5 again.

Note: If someone doesn’t know counting, then he can instead say AUM/AMEN/AMIN with every inhalation (and say nothing with every exhalation for the experience of thoughtless awareness to happen during the moments of exhalation).

Variation 2.

1-3. Steps 1 to 3 are same as above.
4. Now, focus your awareness gently on breath.
5. Keep on focus of awareness on breath. If any thought/fantasy/’mental talk’/desire disturbs the focus, say few times (2-5 times should be enough) “Every/This thought/fantasy/’mental talk’/desire is going out with breath.” while simultaneously imagining that during exhalation, every/this thought/fantasy/’mental talk’/desire get removed with outgoing breath. Continue doing this as many times as required to make the mind free from that thought/fantasy/’mental talk’/desire. When the mind becomes thoughtless, continue the gentle focus of awareness on breath.

Benefits:

1. Both variations 1 and 2 are very simple technique and can be done by even children.
2. Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can’t even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
3. It equalizes the flow of breath in both nostrils, so it lead to calmness of the mind, which in turn induces the state of thoughtless awareness.
4. When his disciples asked the question, “How can one control the ever wandering mind?”, Lord Buddha replied, “Do reverse counting with breath keeping the awareness focused on breathing and keeping the breathing completely natural.”. His advice is used in step 6 of variation 1 to induce one-pointedness of the mind. So, one can use this method to concentrate the mind.
5. Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.