Start a Meditation Practice
Rama says, “Meditation is the short path to happiness. It is the way to become completely happy. It streamlines the process. It takes you beyond the desire-aversion operating system that offers very limited happiness and a great deal of frustration. As you practice meditation—it’s no good just to talk about it but you need to do it—if you can bring an earnestness to your meditation, if you can really try, in other words, you will find that happiness is something that will run through your life constantly.”
By far meditation is the most effective strategy you can use to increase the tranquility of your mind and become a happier person. It is, however, not something you can master in a couple days, but learning it is worth the effort, consistent practice will give you a surprisingly high return on your investment of time and energy.
What is meditation
Essentially meditation is a tool to open the doorway to eternal awareness. When your mind is in an operative, wakeful state, it’s almost always filled with thoughts and images of thoughts. These thoughts and ideas that pass through your mind are like a screen that stands between your conscious self and your deeper self, which is the collection of all the different selves within you. When you stop thought the curtain parts and the knowledge and powers – all the different selves from your past lives, all the different things that you are – gradually emerge and rejoin you. You become one with them.
When you meditate for a specific period of time, you stop thought – and this process occurs automatically, you won’t necessarily be conscious of it, you’ll just be different. When you meditate you will recall what truth is, what life is all about. You can recall death, dying and being reborn; you can see the dreamer in the dream, you can feel that death is not the end, nor is it the beginning, but simply a different dream that we have for a while.
How to do it
There are two kinds of meditation practices. One is formal meditation when you sit each day and meditate. A couple of times a day, stop the body, sit up straight, and practice a meditation and concentration exercise. Clear your mind of all the garbage that runs through it and enter into a higher level of perception. And in that higher level of perception, you will see life as it really is, and when you’re able to do that, you will automatically be happy. You will find that spot within yourself that is happiness. To learn about the steps of meditation, and a detailed guide, see this page. For intermediate meditation practitioners, you can find a detailed description of the exercises here. For advanced practitioners who have been meditating for years, you can find advanced meditation practices here. You can also find Rama’s collection of books, music, and talk on meditation here.
The other is more of a passive meditation, one we call mindfulness.