Enlightenment is present in you as a seed !!!

What we need to understand is that we should know that we already have what we want in life. You start with this intention, ‘I already have what I want’, then what you want will fructify easily. Thinking, ‘I have it’, is like sowing a seed. Once you sow a seed, then you put water and manure and it will sprout and grow. So you know mentally that the seed is there. Same way, whatever you want to achieve in life, know that you are that and you have it. If you think, you don’t have it then only lack grows.

That is the reason why people who have money keep getting more money and those who do not have; they don’t get because they keep saying. ‘I don’t have, I don’t have’. So the mind goes in the direction of lack.

Do you know, whenever things were not there at home or when we would ask for chocolate, my grandmother used to always say, ‘It is in plenty, in abundance, we will go to the shop.’ For someone who listens to it, it appears completely absurd. We never heard her say that we don’t have.

So that ‘lack’ consciousness should go and you should feel the abundance. So whatever goal you want to achieve, first know that you have it, you have achieved it, and then put your effort to achieve it. Effort should be put, but only effort will not work. Before effort, there should be the seed of the goal as well. So, the goal is already present in the seeker. The goal is not somewhere out there and you have to try to reach it, no! Just relax; the goal is here and now. So, Enlightenment is present in you. If you think you lack it, you are never going to achieve it. You should know that it is present in you as a seed. You should know you are already a yogi and keep doing yoga, you will find perfection in it. If you think you are not a yogi and then try to achieve yoga perfection it is not going to work. So know that the seed is already there.

So, if you want to be a businessman, put the seed, ‘I am a businessman’, and then work towards being a businessman. It may appear very absurd. Usually people think, ‘I don’t have and so I have to achieve’, but seldom are they able to do it. The secret of success is in the understanding that goal is already present in the seeker.

So, today you got a very big secret knowledge. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 

"What is Liberation ?"

Q: Guruji, what is liberation? Why do people seek it, and from what are people seeking liberation? 
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Suppose you are made to sit on a chair for 10 hours, and you are ordered, ‘You should not get up from the chair.’ You say, ‘Please, my legs have gone to sleep. Please can I wake them up?’ Will you say this or not? That is seeking liberation. 
You just ask children the day their exams are over, ‘How do you feel?’ They come home, throw their books on the couch, and they sit on the couch and watch television. You say, ‘How do you feel?’ They say, ’Aah! Liberated! Done!’ 
Liberation means feeling, ‘I am done! I have done what I needed to do. Finished!’ 
Total satisfaction; total freedom; there is nothing more to be done, nothing to be compelled to do. 
‘I have achieved what I want. Inside I feel free.’ 
Liberation is always attached with bondage. When there is bondage, then to get rid of bondage there is liberation. 
We are born by our own mind, our own desires, our own cravings, our aversions. When cravings and aversions are gone then you feel that freedom from inside, that simplicity! 
Everyone has experienced some degree of liberation in life, somewhere or other. But when it becomes a permanent reality in life, your whole energy changes, and nothing whatsoever will bother you. Nobody can take away your smile from you. Nobody can change you by any stimulant. Nobody can push any buttons. Do you see what I am saying? 
There is no button left to be pushed. Otherwise, in life our buttons keep getting pushed by small little things. A little thing goes wrong and that is it!

" Gautam Buddha teaching Art of Meditation to Ananda"

Once Gautam Buddha was going to another village with his disciple Ananda.
On their way, they came across a small water stream. However, they proceeded further.
It was a hot day and the sun was blazing.
After around half an hour, Buddha sat down under a big tree and asked Ananda to bring some water from
the stream they had crossed few minutes ago.
In the meantime, a bullock cart had crossed the stream making the water muddy.
When Ananda reached the water stream, it was muddy and water was not looking clean. So Ananda
came and reported to Buddha that water is not good for drinking. It is better to wait till they reach the next
village.
But Buddha insisted on drinking water from the same stream and asked Ananda to wait till water
becomes clear again.
So, Ananda went back to the stream. To his surprise, water was looking cleaner this time, but was still
little muddy. Nothing else to do, Ananda waited there looking at the water. After some time he was
amazed to find that the mud had settled down to the bottom and water was fit for drinking again.


He came back and reported all this to Buddha.


Buddha smiled and said “This is the case with all of us. When any thought or emotion comes, then we
start identifying ourselves with that thought or emotion. On the contrary, If we just witness these thoughts
and feelings silently, without doing anything with them, than they will not affect us and will leave on their
own.
Our mind is that bullock cart which brings thoughts and emotions to cloud our consciousness. A meditator
just witnesses these thoughts and his consciousness always remains clean and undisturbed.
But if we identify with any emotion then our consciousness becomes disturbed like that of the water
stream.
See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be, and the mud settled down on its own—and
you have clear water. Our mind is like that too. When it is disturbed, just let it be and be a witness to it.
Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will
happen. It is effortless.”

Sri Sri on Karma & Meditation and 100 Benefits of Meditation - Part III

Sri Sri on Karma & Meditation

100 Benefits of Meditation - Part III

Spiritual Benefits

80. Helps keep things in perspective
81. Provides peace of mind, happiness
82. Helps you discover your purpose in life
83. Increased self-actualization
84. Increased compassion
85. Growing wisdom
86. Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87. Brings body, mind, and spirit in harmony
88. Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89. Increased acceptance of one self
90. Helps learn forgiveness
91. Changes attitude toward life
92. Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93. Increases the synchronicity in your life
94. Greater inner-directedness
95. Helps living in the present moment
96. Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97. Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98. Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99. Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100. Leads to enlightenment

To top it off, Meditation has NO negative side effects !!!!

Sri Sri on Sahaj Samadhi Meditation & 100 Benefits of Meditation - Part II

Sri Sri on Sahaj Samadhi Meditation

Psychological benefits of Meditation :

 36. Builds self-confidence.

 37. Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.

38. Resolve phobias & fears

39. Helps control own thoughts

40. Helps with focus & concentration

41. Increase creativity

42. Increased brain wave coherence

43. Improved learning ability and memory.
44. Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.

 45. Increased emotional stability.

46. improved relationships

47. Mind ages at slower rate

48. Easier to remove bad habits

49. Develops intuition
50. Increased Productivity
51. Improved relations at home & at work
52. Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53. Helps ignore petty issues
54. Increased ability to solve complex problems
55. Purifies your character
56. Develop will power
57. Greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58. Respond more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59. increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60. Higher intelligence growth rate
61. Increased job satisfaction
62. Increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63. Decrease in potential mental illness
64. Better, more sociable behaviour
65. Less aggressiveness
66. Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67. Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
 68. Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69. Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70. Increases sense of responsibility
71. Reduces road rage
72. Decrease in restless thinking
73. Decreased tendency to worry
74. Increases listening skills and empathy
75. Helps make more accurate judgments
76. Greater tolerance
77. Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78. Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79. Develops emotional maturity 

To top it off, Meditation has NO negative side effects !!!

100 benefits of Meditation - Part I

     

Physiological benefits: 

1. It lowers oxygen consumption.

2. It decreases respiratory rate.

3. It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.

4. Increases exercise tolerance.

5. Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.

6. Good for people with high blood pressure.

7. Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.

8. Decreases muscle tension

9. Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc. 

10. Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms. 

11. Helps in post-operative healing. 

12. Enhances the immune system. 

13. Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress 

14. Enhances energy, strength and vigour. 

15. Helps with weight loss 

16. Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage 

17. Higher skin resistance 

18. Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease 

19. Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing. 

20. Decreases the aging process. 

21. Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone) 

22. Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases 

23. Makes you sweat less 

24. Cure headaches & migraines 

25. Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning 

26. Reduced Need for Medical Care 

27. Less energy wasted 

28. More inclined to sports, activities 

29. Significant relief from asthma 

30. Improved performance in athletic events 

31. Normalizes to your ideal weight 

32. Harmonizes our endocrine system 

33. Relaxes our nervous system 

34. Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity 

35. Helps cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation). 

          
          To top it off, Meditation has NO negative side effects !!!

Rajas and Meditation

There are three gunas (qualities) of the mind/body. They are Satva (positivity, lightness), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (inertia, sleep).

All the three gunas are part of our system and are required.

Rajas or Rajo Guna puts us to activity. Any activity that we perform, whether it is getting up and going to another room or playing basketball, Rajas is required. But, it is the Rajogun imbalance which can prevent you from going deeper in your meditation. If you are getting lot of connected thoughts in your meditation, it could be due to Rajas imbalance in the system.

Doing some light exercises or Yoga before the meditation can really help balance the Rajo gun. Few rounds of Sun Salutations before you sit for meditation can be very effective.

Below is a link of Sun salutations performed by a senior Art of Living faculty at Art of Living’s international headquarters in Bangalore, India.

Life Meets Meditation

How does meditation connect with real life? 

Why people really do it ? 

How can we tune into "the joy of quiet" despite the daily demands of an often over-stimulated life?

Join us for a enchanting webinar with "Rajshree Patel", senior teacher from the Art of Living, as she leads a fascinating interactive discussion about the intersection points of meditation and real life.

Webinar Details:

"Life Meets Meditation "an exploration with Rajshree Patel, senior teacher from the Art of Living

Tuesday, March 20th at 6pm PT / 9pm ET Click here to register 

This session will be online.Participation is free but you will need to register in order to receive the link to attend.

Q and A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q. Why should people meditate in our modern society? 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  If you look at the benefits that meditation brings in our life, you will find that it is all the more relevant. In ancient times, meditation was used as a way for finding the Self, for enlightenment. Meditation was a way to overcome misery and problems. It's the way to develop one’s abilities.

If you want, keep aside enlightenment. Today’s  stress and tension in society calls for meditation. If you take more responsibility, more meditation is required. Greater responsibilities and ambitions you have, greater is the need for you to meditate. If you have nothing to do, you may not need meditation as much.

The busier you are, the lesser time you have, the more desires and ambitions you have - all the more is the need to meditate. Because meditation not only relieves you of stress and strain, it also enhances your abilities,strengthens your nervous system and mind. Not only does it help eliminate stress and tensions, releasing toxins from the body and soothing the mind, it also makes you more capable, enhances you in every way. What else do you want?

I would say if you want to be happy and healthy, you’ve got to meditate

Q: How does the Art of meditation help the mind, the body, spiritual aspirations and relationships and society as a whole?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation helps to change your perspective. It improves the way you perceive things. It brings clarity in the mind. It improves your interaction with people around –what you say, how you react and act in different situations, you become more aware. In general, from a stress-free society to peace and health in individuals and from a violence-free society to a sorrow-free soul – all are side effects of meditation.

Q: Guruji, to retain the state acquired in meditation, what should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just keep doing what you are doing now. You have to continue doing it, again and again. ‘Baar baar Raghuveer samai’: Again and again meditate.So do meditation,sadhana and satsang and talk about it as well. Anything that is in your speech, the mind and in action gets firmly established. If you do your sadhana and the rest of the time you keep talking about petty things,whatever juice you got after your sadhana will start fading away. That is why in speech also,let that state find expression.Whenever you talk,talk about knowledge,talk about love.Then you will see it gets more firmly established in you.

This is the importance of satsang.In satsang we talk about the good things,we talk about knowledge,meditation and miracles.You talk about miracles happening in someone's life -isn't this what you discuss? How many of you talk like this,only about miracles? What happens when you talk only about miracles?Everyday something new happens in your life and so many new lessons are learnt. So the mind becomes strong with these kinds of discussions.

Seeking Enlightenment?

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Meditation for Body, Mind & Money!

Full time workers who used a traditional 'silent' form of meditation became much less stressed and depressed compared to more conventional approaches to relaxation or even placebo, according to one of the most thoroughly designed studies of meditation ever published in the online journal Evidence Based Complementary Medicine, a leading publication in its field.

A team of researchers led by Dr Ramesh Manocha at Sydney University’s Meditation Research Program, monitored stress levels of full-time workers in Sydney’s CBD to determine the effectiveness of meditation in combating this widespread and expensive problem.

The study was done in three groups for a period of two months, it showed that those who used Sahaja Yoga meditation (silent form of meditation) showed significant reduction in their stress levels compared to those who used other methods of meditation that didn't involve thoughtless awareness.

Dr Manocha states “The eight-week clinical trial provides strong evidence that there are measurable, practical and clinically relevant effects of meditation, and particularly those that are aimed at achieving the experience of mental silence”

Stress can be due to events such as buying a home,marriage, work or anything. Work stress is described by many experts as a modern epidemic and the majority seeks help from General Physicians, who are often at a loss to know what to recommend that is safe, effective and scientifically evaluated.

   

Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses. It costs the Australian economy $15 billion per year & cost to the economy of UK is approximately  £100 billion per year according to study by Mental health charity Mind.

Considering this, stress management may be world’s most important economical challenge of the 21st century.

At present many studies are coming up with scientific facts which strongly prove that meditation is something that can be used to both prevent and reduce stress and hence it has broad implications for health and economics of the Society.

In the Art of Meditation course by Art of living, participant is taught to use a simple sound mentally which then allows the mind to settle down and go within. When the mind and nervous system are allowed to repose a few moments in the profound silence, the blocks that clog the system gradually dissolve.

 “When the mind is calm, alert and totally contended, then it is like a laser beam-it is very powerful and healing can happen”- Sri Sri

 Research Paper on Meditation

Sometimes to Open your eyes, you need to Close them!

With meditation, and with a relationship to your mind, 

You can use the power of the mind to achieve what you aspire !

Meditation Course

Sahaj Samadhi is the Meditation technique taught in the Art of Meditation Course. In this Video Sri Sri Ravishankar ji explains the effectiveness of this Method.

       Join Art of Meditation Course in Indianapolis this March 15 - 18 

Art Of Meditation

“Everybody loves fun. Everybody wants to enjoy. Fun is all about your mental state. 

Meditation increases  joy, keeps the body healthy, intellect sharp and makes one intuitive.”

Watch Dr. Oz explain meditation's impact on stress, heart disease, obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder and other common health scenarios that affect our well-being,here

 For more on  Benefits of meditation 

Art of Meditation Course is a natural and graceful system of effortless meditation taught by the Art of living Foundation. This practice allows the conscious mind to settle deeply in itself. And when the mind settles down it lets go of all tension and stress and centers itself in the present moment.

Meditating is the delicate art of doing nothing-letting go of everything and being who you are .
It provides the mind with a much needed rest.Learning Art of Meditation gives us the ability to recreate this feeling of ease,of calm,alertness, in the midst of our busy life.

Art of Meditation is easy to learn and regular practice just twice a day can totally transform the quality of your life. It can be done in conjunction with Sudarshan Kriya(taught in the Art of Living course), or it can be practiced on its own. The Course is open
to anyone over age 16


Join Art of Meditation course by The Art of Living Foundation.

Founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,it is a not-for-profit, educational and humanitarian NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) engaged in stress-management and service initiatives.The organization operates globally in 151 countries.

Next Course in Indianapolis will be March 15-18 Click here to Register