Q. What is mind?
Q. What are the divisions of mind?
Q. What are the attributes of mind?
Q. How does food influence mind?
Q. How are breath and mind inter-related?
Q. What is awareness?
Q. What is thoughtless awareness?
Q. What is the meaning of consciousness level? What is the primary advantage of increasing our consciousness level and what is the primary disadvantage of decreasing our consciousness level?
Q. Why should one practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Q. Who can practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Q. How much and when should one practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Q. What are the various techniques of thoughtless awareness meditation?
Q. Which breathing exercises are most helpful for experiencing thoughtless awareness?
Q. Which is the sequence of breathing and thoughtless awareness exercises that your recommend?
Q. How many types of breath-retention are there? What are their importance?
Q. What is auto-suggestion? How is it practised? When should it be practised? What are its benefits?
Q. I want a good technique to remove anger/depression/”negative attitude”/”lustful thoughts” without feeling repressed. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. I want a good technique to remove untimely sleep or unwanted drowsiness effectively so that I may stay awake late at night or work as per my original plan. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. I want a good technique to help me in waking up in early morning. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. Why did you share these knowledge and techniques?
Readers’ Comments
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Ans. Roughly speaking, mind is a bundle of thoughts, feelings and their impressions in the memory.
Q. What are the divisions of mind?
Ans. The division of mind as per modern psychology (and also yoga psychology) is:
- Conscious Mind: that part of mind which is used in the waking state to think, will and receive sense perceptions from various sense organs. Will and will-power are the function of conscious mind.
- Unconscious Mind: that part of mind which is not in the field of our waking consciousness. Ninety per cent of the mental activities take place in the unconscious mind. Mind in its unconscious realm contains our basic urges, instincts, memory impressions and rational aspects. Whatever data our conscious mind receives from sense organs, is analyzed, sorted and retained by unconscious mind. All our habit-patterns are governed by unconscious mind. To change the old, harmful habit patterns and to cultivate new, positive habit patterns, we have to influence our unconscious mind through daily practice of thoughtless awareness meditation, breathing exercises and positive auto-suggestions.
Q. What are the attributes of mind?
Ans. According to science of yoga, the mind (both thoughts and impressions/habits in unconscious mind) has been divided into three modes/states/quality(guna):
- Mode of Goodness (also known as Sattwa Quality/Guna or Sattwic State in yoga): joy, bliss, goodness, compassion, love, selflessness, calmness, equanimity, non-attachment, humility, patience, truthfulness, sweetness, brightness, intuition, intelligence, discrimination, courage, faith, confidence, optimism, cheerfulness, will power, firmness
- Mode of Passion (also known as Rajo Quality/Guna or Rajasic State in yoga): impatience, pride, jealously, attachment, greed, , anger, deceit, lying, harshness, passion, possessiveness, acquisitiveness, fickleness, restlessness, uncontrollable thinking
- Mode of Ignorance (also known as Tamo Quality/Guna or Tamasic State in yoga): laziness, sloth, carelessness, drowsiness, dullness, ignorance, injuring others through thoughts, words and deeds, cowardice, fear, confusion, depression, frustration, diffidence, pessimism, inertia, hatred
100% goodness (pure Sattwa or 100 % Sattwa) is the state of thoughtless awareness (the interval between any two consecutive thoughts). It is the
state of the highest possible relaxation and peace.
Q. How does food influence mind?
Ans. Food has a direct and intimate connection with the mind and plays a vital part in the make-up of the mind. Food has been classified into 3 categories: good (sattwic), passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (tamasic), based on whether it induces good (sattwic), passionate (rajasic) or ignorant (tamasic) states of mind.
- Good diet (also known as sattwic diet in yoga): milk, cream, cheese, butter, curd, ghee, fruits, figs, vegetables, cereals like wheat, rice, barley, etc., peas, sugar-candy, gram, pulse, ginger, myrobalan, lemon, honey.
- Passionate diet (also known as rajasic diet in yoga): fish, eggs, meat, salt, chillies, chutney, asafetida, pickles, tamarind, mustard, sour things, hot, pungent things, tea, coffee, cocoa, ovaltine, white sugar, carrots, turnips, spices.
- Ignorant diet (also known as tamasic diet): garlic, tobacco, rotten things, stale things, unclean things, twice cooked things, all intoxicants, all liquors, all drugs.
Good diet (sattwic diet) calms the mind. Passionate diet (rajasic diet) excites the mind. Ignorant diet (tamasic diet) makes the mind dull and lethargic. Mark the difference in nature between a tiger which lives on flesh and a cow which lives on grass. Food exercises important influence on the mind. One should try one’s best to eat good diet (sattwic diet) only. Also, even good diet (sattwic diet) becomes passionate diet (rajasic diet) if it is eaten too quickly, without chewing it properly. And even good and passionate diets (sattwic and rajasic diets) become ignorant diets (tamasic diet) if they are taken in excess quantity.
Q. How are breath and mind inter-related?
Ans.
- A fast breathing rate is associated with tension, anger, worry, fear and other negative emotions, which leads to bad health, unhappiness, fickleness and a shorter life.
- A person who breathes slowly, is relaxed, calm, concentrated and happy, which is conducive to long lifespan.
- A person who breathes quickly, tends to inhale small volumes of air and exhale the same small volumes; this tends to allow germs to accumulate in the lower areas of the lungs. Conversely, a person who breathes slowly tends to also breathe deeply and thereby fill the lungs to a greater depth. This helps to remove stagnant air from the lower reaches of the lungs and to destroy the breeding ground of germs and the germs themselves.
- Also, deep breathing imparts a good massage to abdominal organs via the diaphragm. The massage of the liver, stomach, etc. keeps them in good working order by expelling old, impure blood and allowing pure, oxygenated blood to replace it. Shallow breathing connected with fast breathing does not give the internal organs the massage they require, leading to their malfunctioning in long run.
- Shallow breathing also leads to insufficient oxygen in the body. This causes functional disturbance and illnesses connected with circulatory, digestive and nervous systems, since the efficiency of these systems is entirely dependent on healthy, well-nourished nerves and organs, which depend completely on oxygen for survival. Thus, slow and deep breathing is the correct pattern of breathing and shallow and fast breathing is the wrong pattern (leading to diseases like asthma, bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis etc.). The deep breathing allows maximum intake for each respiration and slow breathing allows optimum exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide by giving more time to lungs for exchange of gases.
- Modern man has got conditioned to take quick, shallow breath due to fear, competition and hatred. So, few minutes of breathing exercise will help him/her a lot. 1 minute of slow, deep breathing retains its effect on our body and mind for 60 minutes.
- The process of inhalation is linked to gain of energy whereas the process of exhalation is linked to relaxation.
Ans. Awareness is the faculty of conscious attention. This is present only in humans. For example, a cow may eat grass, but her attention to grass is unconscious/mechanical. But, a human can think or do something and can be consciously attentive of the fact that he is thinking or doing it. For example, you are reading this post and you can be simultaneously conscious of this fact that you are reading it. This means, you are reading this post with conscious attention or awareness.
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Q. What is thoughtless awareness meditation?
Ans. When there is no thought in mind, that is the state of thoughtlessness or void (shoonya). One can be in thoughtless state without awareness, for example when one is in a dreamless sleep or in a coma. When the state of thoughtlessness or void (shoonya) is coupled with “conscious attention”/awareness of this state, it is called thoughtless awareness. Thus, thoughtless awareness is the combination of a thoughtless mind and awareness (conscious attention) of this thoughtless state. As per yoga, this is considered to be the highest stage of meditation. Adi Guru Shankaracharya proclaimed, “Achintaiva parama dhyana” – to be in thoughtless awareness is the highest stage of meditation. Jesus says, “Be still and know that I am God.” This state is considered to be 100% or pure sattwa/goodness as per yoga and sankhya philosophy.
Q. What is the meaning of consciousness level? What is the primary advantage of increasing our consciousness level and what is the primary disadvantage of decreasing our consciousness level?
Ans. Consciousness level means the percentage of conscious mind. Normally, 10% of mind is conscious and rest 90% is unconscious. But, the percentage of conscious mind increases when mind is in the state of goodness (sattwa quality/guna) because in the state of goodness(sattwa quality/guna), conscious mind expands cuasing us lots of peace and relaxation. Similarly, the percentage of conscious mind decreases when mind is in the state of passion or ignorance (rajo and tamo quality/guna) because in such state, conscious mind shrinks causing us lots of mental pain and suffocation.
The primary advantage of increasing consciousness level by increasing the degree of goodness(sattwa quality/guna) in mind (both conscious and unconscious minds) is unruffled peace, inner joy and relaxation. Likewise, the primary disadvantage of decreasing consciousness level by increasing the degree of passion or ignorance (rajo and tamo quality/guna) in mind (both conscious and unconscious minds) is mental pain, suffocation and mental self-torture.
Q. Why should one practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Ans. There are multiple reasons to motivate us to practise thoughtless awareness meditation. Let us look at them one-by-one:
- Thoughtless awareness is the mode of 100% goodness (known as “100% sattwa guna” or “shuddha/pure sattwa”). The more one practises thoughtless awareness meditation, the more one acquires all attributes of goodness (sattwa guna/quality).
- Thoughtless awareness meditation removes mode of ignorance and passion (tamo and rajo gunas/qualities) from both conscious and unconscious minds. Thus, though thoughtless awareness meditation, we become more pure, compassionate, peaceful, strong-willed and one-pointed.
- Thoughtless awareness is the state of the highest possible peace and relaxation that our mind can experience. All our stress, frustration, anxiety, restlessness, anger, hatred, mental pain and depression are due to negative thoughts – the lesser the number of thoughts in mind, the more peacefulness and relaxation mind has and when there is no thought in mind just like in thoughtless awareness, mind experiences the highest possible peace and relaxation. Thinking is the activity of mind – so, to give rest to the mind, the process of thinking needs to be stopped. This is what exactly happens in thoughtless awareness meditation.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation completely heals old wounds present in our memory (or unconscious mind). Most of us, unfortunately, have experienced some undesirable/painful events in the past, which have left wounds in our memory (or unconscious mind), which now and then resurfaces to our conscious mind and brings pain and suffering to us. Thus, a few negative events of our past becomes fully successful in poisoning our whole life’s peace and happiness. During the state of thoughtless awareness, our awareness or “conscious mind” expands, which , in turn, brings negative memories hidden in unconscious mind to surface. Due to the peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness, we remain detached towards these memories and that ,in turn, neutralized the pain and negativity of these memories. In this process, we also develop a forgiving and broad outlook towards life, in general, and towards negative events of past, in particular. Thus, through daily practice of thoughtless awareness meditation, a complete healing of old wounds present in memory (unconscious mind) happens.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation helps in physical health also. Modern medical science says that more than 90% of our physical diseases are directly or indirectly caused by tension/stress (negative thoughts) and restlessness in mind. Common examples include heart disease, chronic fatigue, insomnia, high blood pressure, constipation, peptic ulcers, poor immune function, migraines, diarrhea, skin breakouts (hives, eczema), frequent colds. Thus, through thoughtless awareness practice one gains enormous physical health also.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation is the key to concentration or one-pointedness of mind. This is because, by developing capacity to remove thoughts from mind through thoughtless awareness meditation, we can use the same technique to remove all distracting thoughts during our work and develop concentration or one-pointedness of mind, which, in turn, will enhance our productivity and success in our work.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation increases our consciousness level or percentage of conscious mind, because it is the state of pure goodness (100% or pure/shuddha sattwa quality/guna).
- Thoughtless awareness meditation leads to experience of oneness of consciousness in every being. Through thoughtless awareness meditation, one realizes that though thoughts are different in everyone, but the consciousness in everyone is same. This makes one develop a great amount of empathy, broad-mindedness, goodwill and nobility towards one’s fellow humans (and even animals).
- Thoughtless awareness meditation increases the faculty of independent, objective and critical thinking. Through thoughtless awareness meditation, one starts viewing one’s and others’ thoughts from a distance – this enables the practitioners to develop the faculty of independent, objective and critical thinking, which, in turn, helps in intellectual growth of the individual and society and helps in removing irrational and harmful beliefs and dogmas from society, leading to more maturity, broadness, peace and harmony in individuals, families and society.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation increases coordination between left and right brains during thinking process and makes the thinking more powerful and effective. During thoughtless awareness meditation, breath flow in both nostrils becomes balanced/equal. It is a fact accepted by medical science that when breath flows predominantly in left nostril, right hemisphere of our brain, which is responsible for understanding, emotion and intuition, becomes more active and when breath flows predominantly in right nostril, left hemisphere of our brain, which is responsible for analysis, argument and intellectual thinking, becomes more active and when breath flows in both nostrils together, both hemispheres of brains work together. This is the period when our mind is the most relaxed, calm, concentrated and creative.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation enhances the faculty of intuition. All intuitive flashes of scientists, artists, musician, sculptor and leaders come from the realm of unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind has vast reservoir of power and intelligence.Through thoughtless awareness meditation, we expand our awareness or conscious mind, which, in turn, brings portions of unconscious mind into field of consciousness and unleash these creative energies in our brain. Intuition can function only when mind is totally relaxed . Thoughtless awareness meditation, by producing the highest possible relaxation in our mind, enhances the faculty of intuition greatly, which, in turn, helps us in being original and creative in our chosen fields of endeavours.
- Thoughtless awareness meditation enhances the quality of sleep and rest acquired from the sleep. If after going to bed and just before sleep, one practises thoughtless awareness meditation before falling asleep, one will enter the sleep state with a relaxed mind and will have a sound, dreamless sleep.
Q. Who can practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Ans. Thoughtless awareness meditation is devoid of all sectarian connotations. It imposes no restriction or constraints on its practitioner. It is meant for entire humanity, belonging to all nations, religions and cultures. There is no gender or age-restriction at all.
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Q. How much and when should one practise thoughtless awareness meditation?
Ans. How much:
- One should practice thoughtless awareness meditation daily for 30 minutes (more will also do – 30 minutes is minimum recommended time) in sitting position with eyes closed and spine, neck and head all in a straight line. One can choose any sitting position (even use a chair) for this practice. One can also practice in any of traditional sitting asanas (like sukhasana, siddhasana, padmasana and as well as in a new asana, Sidhasana.
- Apart from this, one should practise it in free-time like during travels, meals, bathroom etc. when thinking is not needed. This way, the practitioner will keep his mind peaceful and relaxed in the coolness of thoughtless awareness whole day rather than just during 30 min of sitting practice.
- One should practice it also to remove distracting thoughts during work/studies so that one can work/study with a one-pointed mind and achieve optimum success in professional/academic life.
When:
- For practice in sitting position with close eyes, the best period is in the morning, just after waking up. This helps in keeping mind cool throughout whole day, because the current of peace created by thoughtless awareness meditation in the beginning of day, is carried out whole day in our mind.
- One should practice in different times only if it is simply impossible to manage time for practising it in the morning, just after waking up. But, with a little self-discipline and time-management, all of us can find 30 min. in the morning, just after waking up, for thoughtless awareness meditation.
Q. What are the various techniques of thoughtless awareness meditation?
Ans. All techniques of thoughtless awareness meditation, that are known to me, have been explained in a series of posts on my blog. But, please learn few more crucial points about thoughtless awareness meditation:
- Daily practice (preferably just after waking up) for 30 minutes in sitting position is minimum sitting practice needed for satisfactory level of inner peace and purity.
- Unless one practice present-moment awareness in entire waking hours using thoughtless awareness meditation to remove all thoughts from mind during free-time like bath/meals/travels etc., the thoughtless awareness meditation in sitting position will not have maximum benefits. Many thoughtless awareness techniques can be quite effectively used to curb the mind’s wanderings into past or future, bringing it back to the present moment activity. This will lead not only to very high degree of concentration but also a relaxed and calm mind whole day.
- Many negative thoughts may rush into the mind during thoughtless awareness meditation. These thoughts are impressions of unconscious mind and since the awareness (or conscious mind) expands during the state of thoughtless awareness, these impressions surface in the conscious mind. But, it is a purgatory process of self-purification, in which negative impressions of unconscious mind are eliminated and one becomes more and more sattvic. So, one should not feel emotionally disturbed by the negativity of these thoughts. Rather, one should feel glad that these negative impressions of unconscious mind are getting removed and one is becoming purer (sattwic).
Links to 9 thoughtless awareness techniques are given below:
- “Observe the breath” technique
- “Observe the origin of I-thought” technique
- “Observe the origin of thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound” technique
- “Observe the thought/desire/fantasy/image” technique
- “Surrender every desire” technique
- “Next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound” technique
- “Observe the observer” technique
- “Come to present” technique
- “Listen to this thought/sound” technique: Every thought creates a sound in mind. Just listen to the sound produced by thoughts in the mind without bothering about thoughts. As a result of this, you will experience thoughtless awareness.
- Develop your own technique: Various insights into the nature of thought and thinking process have been given clearly in above 9 techniques. You are most welcome to develop your own thoughtless awareness technique by modifying any of above 9 techniques or by combining some parts of one technique with those of some other technique or developing a new technique by using some of the insights in above 9 techniques.
- A complete compilation with few additional techniques given in this doc here.
Kindly try to experiment with all 9 techniques or develop your own technique and pick the one which suits you the most and practise that daily for 30 minutes in sitting position and in remaining free-time. It may be possible that you will find more than 1 techniques suiting you. In that case, kindly use any of them depending on which leads you to the state of thoughtless awareness quickly and deeply at a given point of time.
If you know any more techniques, kindly share with me at gopalkrishna.mission@gmail.com and I will put that on my blog with due credit given to you on the post.
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Q. Which breathing exercises are most helpful for experiencing thoughtless awareness?
Ans. 3 breathing exercises (also known as pranayama in yoga) are most useful for experiencing thoughtless awareness:
- Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama in yoga): It helps in making breath-flow equal in both nostrils and that in turn, helps in making mind thoughtless during thoughtless awareness meditation.
- Great lock exercise (also known as Maha Bandha in yoga): same reason as above.
- Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): same reason as above.
All of these exercises have strong effects on balancing harmonal system in our body, improve function of nervous, circulatory and digestive systems and help in developing deep and slow breathing pattern, which in turn, frees us from many diseases of body and mind.
Q. Which is the sequence of breathing and thoughtless awareness exercises that your recommend?
Ans. The recommended practice would be:
If one can give only 35 minutes every day, then
- Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): 3-5 minute
- Thoughtless awareness meditation: 30 minute
If one can give only 45 minutes every day, then
- Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama): 5 minute
- Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): 3-5 minute
- Thoughtless awareness meditation: 30 minute
- Nerve-purification breathing exercise: 5 minute
One can spend more time also, but 35 or 45 minutes of daily yoga-practice with 30 min for thoughtless awareness meditation and rest for breathing exercises is what we recommend to everyone.
Q. How many types of breath-retention are there? What are their importance?
Ans. There are 3 types of breath-retention (known as kumbhak in yoga):
- Internal breath-retention (known as “antarik kumbhak” in yoga): Inhale deeply filling lungs completely and hold breath in the lungs.
- External breath-retention (known as “bahya kumbhak” in yoga): Exhale deeply emptying lungs completely and keep the breath stopped after exhalation.
- Spontaneous breath-retention (known as “keval kumbhak” in yoga): When during thoughtless awareness meditation, the breathing process stops by itself, this is called spontaneous breath-retention(keval kumbhak). When this happens, one should remain breathless as long as breathing process does not resume on its own. This state happens because the air-pressure in lungs become equal to atmospheric pressure due to deep states of relaxation and hence, lungs can’t inhale (inhalation is possible only when air-pressure in lungs is less than atmospheric pressure because air moves from high pressure to low pressure region) and breath stops. Thus, this state occurs due to good progress in thoughtless awareness meditation.
Importance of breath-retention exercises:
- Better exchange of gases in lungs due to more time for lungs’ operation, leading to health of entire nervous and circulatory system.
- Purges the body of various toxins and poisons, giving us a vigorous physical health.
- Once we practice breath-retention for few minutes, the breath starts flowing equally in both nostrils, leading to spontaneous occurrence of thoughtless awareness.
- A decrease and even cessation of thoughts. The period of each thought is lengthened, giving more time to fully comprehend and analyze it.
- The physical body becomes very strong and energetic. One may note that while lifting a heavy luggage, one holds the breath; this is in order to gain necessary energy to lift the luggage. During fasting, practice of breath-retention makes one free from hunger and rather makes us more energetic than even a normal day, when we eat food. This energy comes from inhaled air.
- The mind becomes calm, concentrated and energetic. So, it is highly recommended for those, who are engaged in a lot of mental work.
- Thinking becomes very sharp and clear with repeated practice.
- Need for excess sleep is reduced. While feeling drowsiness or lethargy, instead of taking passionate diet (rajasic diet) like coffee, tea etc., one should practice breath-retention for 10-15 minutes. It will be more effective than the former in removing drowsiness and lethargy and will also give us more calmness and concentration which stimulating diet like coffee, tea etc. often reduces even if they can ward off drowsiness and lethargy.
- External breath-retention produces deep relaxation and helps us in removing anger, tension, and other passions from the unconscious as well as conscious mind.
- Breath-retention is the crux of all advanced breathing (pranayama) techniques like great lock exercise (Mahabandha) and nerve-purification breathing exercise (Nadi Shodhana Pranayama).
Q. What is auto-suggestion? How is it practised? When should it be practised? What are its benefits?
Ans. What is auto-suggestion?
Auto-suggestion is a technique to influence one’s mind in order to change negative thoughts, negative thought-patterns and habits and to develop a new thought-pattern, will-power, self-confidence and positive habits. It is an essential part of life which most of us consciously/unconsciously use.
How should one practise auto-suggestion:
- Develop statements in simple present tense rather than in future tense. For example, if one has to wake up at 4 am in the morning daily to do yoga-practice, one should use auto-suggestion in simple present “I daily wake up at 4 am to do yoga-practice.” rather than in future “Tomorrow, I will wake up at 4 am to do yoga-practice.”. This is because it helps in emphasizing to our unconscious mind (unconscious mind is the reservoir of all our habits) that the desirable habit is already part of us rather than far from us.
- Combine picturization process with auto-suggestion to make it more powerful. This is because our unconscious mind (which stores all our habits) understands the language of picture more than words. For example, all our dreams (dream is unconscious mind’s activity) are more like a video/movie full of pictures rather than only words like an audio. This also explains why we are taught using pictures when we are a child. Because, a child’s conscious mind is less developed and hence, his mind (whose major part is unconscious) can understand pictures more than words. All alphabets are taught with pictures and even alphabet are drawn so big as to resemble a picture. For example, A is drawn big in children’s book and is associated with apple with apple’s picture given. For a normal mind also, an event’s impression in memory (memory is also part of unconscious mind) is stronger and more lasting in mind if one sees the pictures rather than by just hearing about that. Hence, there is so much effect of pictures and videos used by print and electronic media on minds of their readers/viewers.
- Combine auto-suggestion with internal or external breath-retention. In state of internal or external breath-retention, mind becomes very powerful and one-pointed, so auto-suggestion makes stronger impact on unconscious mind. Use internal breath-retention when you are in a positive state and use external breath-retention, when you are not in positive state, because external breath-retention helps in relaxing the nervous system and mind and helps in removing negative state of mind.
- Try your best to use positives rather than negatives. For example, instead of saying, “I do not become angry when others criticize me.” use “I remain peaceful even when others criticize me.”. This is because unconscious mind listens longer/”more frequently used” words with more emphasis. So, in above example, unconscious mind will find “angry” word more emphasized rather than “not” word, which will make the auto-suggestion negative rather than positive.
- Give it with full confidence and optimism. The more confidence and optimism we have during auto-suggestion, the more impact it produces on our unconscious mind.
One example: If one has to wake up at 4 am in the morning to do yoga-practice daily, one should use all 4 traits to give auto-suggestion multiple times just before sleep:
- Inhale deeply. Hold the breath in lungs and while holding breath, give auto-suggestion, “I daily wake up at 4 am and continuously chanting/singing mantra/song, will stop the alarm and go to bathroom.” and simultaneously make a movie (a sequence of pictures in mind) imagining that you wake up at 4 am and continuously chanting/singing mantra/song, will stop the alarm and go to bathroom.
The best periods are just before sleep, just after waking up, just before thoughtless awareness meditation in sitting position and just after thoughtless awareness meditation in sitting position. This is because during these periods our mind is one-pointed and relaxed (relatively free from thoughts) to a great extent and hence, our auto-suggestions enters unconscious mind more deeply and strongly.
What are its benefits?
- It can be used to remove negative thoughts from mind. There are times when our mind is in negative mood (mode of passion/ignorance – in rajo/tamo quality) of anxiety, anger, hate, restlessness, pessimism and despair. Since at one time, only one type of thought can remain in mind, so if we give positive auto-suggestions at times when our mind is in negative mood, those negative thoughts will get removed. For example, if we feel hate for someone, we can give auto-suggestions based on universal love to remove thought of hate. If we feel despair, we can give auto-suggestions based on optimism. Thus, auto-suggestion can be used to counter negative thoughts present at a given point of time in our mind.
- It can be used to remove negative thought or habit patterns from mind. If we find that a particular type of negative thoughts occur to us too often, this means our unconscious mind has strong impressions in memory about various events/persons associated with that negative thought-pattern. So, in such case, we will need to give ourselves auto-suggestion daily for a number of days (even months/years) to remove that negative thought-patterns from mind. The same applies also to the case when we become victim to a particular negative habit too often.
- It can be used to develop a new, positive thought and habit.
Q. I want a good technique to remove anger/depression/”negative attitude”/”lustful thoughts” without feeling repressed. Can you tell me any such technique?
Ans.
- First – negativity in mind are due to presence of passionate (rajasic) or ignorant (tamasic) impressions in our unconscious mind and such thoughts in our conscious mind. So, take responsibility for all negativity on your shoulder rather than trying to throw it on others or on events and environment. This is the essential, unavoidable step to remove the negativity from our mind.
- Second – the process of making the mind free from passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (tamasic) tendencies take some time. So, keep patience and practise thoughtless awareness meditation (it is the most effective technique for self-purification because thoughtless awareness is 100% goodness/sattwa) for 30 min daily for fast self-purification and for controlling anger/depression/”negative attitude”/”lustful thoughts” without feeling repressed.
- Great lock exercise is very suited for controlling “lustful thoughts” without feeling repressed. It is a must-do for this purpose – never forget this point.
- Abdominal exhalation and nerve-purification breathing exercise are awesome in long run for removing all kinds of negativity.
- Positive auto-suggestion is another powerful method for removing anger/depression/”negative attitude”/ without feeling repressed.
- Use only good diets (sattwic diets) – food also plays a great role in determining how much goodness/passion/ignorance (sattwa/rajo/tamo quality) one possess.
- For further suggestions for practice of celibacy/brahmacharya, please read this post: http://gopal4mission.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/greatly-inspiring-brahmacharya-quotes/
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Q. I want a good technique to remove untimely sleep or unwanted drowsiness effectively so that I may stay awake late at night or work as per my original plan. Can you tell me any such technique?
Ans. Drowsiness happens when brain lacks sufficient oxygen. For example, after taking meals, our digestive system draws lots of blood from all other parts of the body, because blood is the medium to transmit various nutrients from digestive system to other parts of the body, so blood amount in brain decrease, which in turn, decreases oxygen amount also (because oxygen is trasmitted through blood to brain cells), which , in turn, produce drowsiness after we take meals. So, if any technique can help in increasing the quantity of oxygen in brain, that will help in removing untimely sleep or drowsiness.
- The best possible technique for this purpose is 5-15 minutes continuous practice of advanced stage of nerve-purification exercise, which uses internal breath-retention. It is much better than coffee/tea because it removes drowsiness by inhaling more oxygen in the body using internal breath-retention (lungs are in contact with inhaled air for a longer duration, so more oxygen is absorbed by lung cells from inhaled air), but it does not stimulates our nerves like coffee/tea do, so our relaxation and concentration level of mind are not harmed. But, it can be used only by people who don’t suffer from from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease.
- If one suffers from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease, in that case, I suggest another technique as substitute for above one: For 5-15 minutes continuously repeat either of words Aum (for Hindus)/Amin (for Muslims)/Amen (for Christians)/any of them (for broad-minded people), as fast and vigorously as possible. If no one is around to feel disturbed by the sound, repeat in sound, otherwise repeat mentally, but in both cases repeat continuously and as fast and vigorously as possible for 5-15 minutes continuously. During repetition of the word, feel that the sound-vibration is vibrating in whole body.
These two techniques are the most effective techniques for removing unwanted sleep – the first one is more powerful than the second one, and one should use first one unless one suffers from spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease.
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Q. I want a good technique to help me in waking up in early morning. Can you tell me any such technique?
Ans. Read the entire information about various techniques here. If you fail to understand any of these techniques then tell me about your question in the comment section and I will explain the technique better to you.
Q. Why did you share these knowledge and techniques?
Ans. Spreading physical, breathing, concentration and thoughtless awareness exercises from the system of modern psychology and yoga in completely non-metaphysical and scientific language is an essential part of the core ideology of my organization, Sarvodaya Mission. But, dude – kindly spread information about this knowledge and techniques among your friends and relatives. You should also be a part of this mission to bring thoughtless awareness and related breathing exercises to all humans so that we all can enjoy peace and harmony within and without through purity acquired by daily experience of pure goodness (100% or pure/shuddha sattwa) of thoughtless awareness and related breathing exercises.
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