Sat1176

Useful tips...
 
I’ve Got One (and Only One) Thing on My Mind
The Power of Concentration
Scattering our attention becomes such a deeply ingrained habit that we hardly know we’re doing it. We barrel down the highway with the tape deck playing, munching on an apple, and carrying on a conversation—and think nothing of it. Yet we’re surprised to find we have trouble keeping the mind focused on one object when we sit for meditation.
Concentration is the prelude to meditation. Unless we cultivate the habit of concentration in other areas of our life, progress in meditation will come slowly or not at all. There’s not much point in sitting in a quiet corner for thirty minutes every morning, trying to make our mind stay in place—focused on the mantra—if we let our mind run amok the rest of the day. It’s like expecting a three-year-old, used to singing and tossing food around at mealtimes, to sit quietly and keep his food on his plate when his parents have guests for dinner. Like a well-behaved child, the mind will calm down and focus at the meditation hour if it has been trained to stay calm and focused at other times.
Simple everyday tasks are a good place to begin. Experiment with focusing on brushing your teeth when you’re brushing your teeth, for example. If you find your mind rehashing an argument with a friend, or jumping ahead to fantasies about the party tomorrow night, gently but firmly bring it back to the task at hand. Focus on the bristles moving against your teeth, the way the toothpaste tastes, how the brush handle contacts your hand.
There are plenty of opportunities to train our concentration in routine tasks—washing the dishes, making the bed, walking up the stairs. Choose several, and each time you find yourself engaged in those particular tasks, form the habit of keeping your mind centered there, taking hold of it as it wanders off and bringing it back to rest here in the present. Buddhists call this mindfulness; yogis call it dharana (concentration). Practice it in more and more areas of your life, and notice its effect on your meditation practice.
The Still Point
“Concentration (dharana) is making the mind stay in one place.”
     —Yoga Sutra 3.1
Countdown to Concentration
Caught in a long line? Instead of feeding your frustration by mentally nudging the line forward, train your concentration by counting backward from 1,000 to 1 as quickly and smoothly as possible. Too easy? Try counting backward in multiples of three.
 

Cultivating Concentration (to Support Meditation)
If you think that the goal of meditation is to make the mind blank, you have created an insurmountable obstacle to developing a rich, nourishing meditation practice. As Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood observe in How to Know God, if making the mind blank were desirable, this condition could be “easily achieved by asking a friend to hit you over the head with a hammer.” It is not the mind’s nature to be blank, and trying to force it into that state is both futile and harmful. A meditative mind is a concentrated mind—a mind that is not blank; it is one which has become stilled by holding an unbroken, one-pointed focus on a single object for an extended period of time. In short, meditation is sustained concentration. (i.e. concentration on WaheGuru Gurmantar)
Concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and spiritual absorption (samadhi) are interwoven. At the beginning of the third chapter, the Yoga Sutra explains how one state merges into the next: “Concentration is focusing attention on one object and holding it there. When awareness flows evenly toward the object of concentration, that is meditation. When in meditation the true nature of the object of concentration shines forth, undistorted by the mind of the perceiver, that is samadhi.”
Multiplying Concentration
Experienced practitioners tell us that concentration is 12 seconds of unbroken attention on one thought wave. Sustain this for 144 seconds (12 x 12) and you have reached a state of meditation. If the mind can maintain that state for another multiple of 12 (12 x 144 seconds, or 28 minutes, 48 seconds), it will have entered the first stage of samadhi.
Trying to meditate without training the mind to concentrate is like trying to write a novel before learning to read—it can’t be done. Until the mind is trained to concentrate, it will never flow into a meditative state. Yet we may avoid training the mind to be one-pointed because we’re accustomed to thinking of concentration as a mental effort, like the effort required to analyze a calculus problem. Concentration seems tension-inducing somehow, and not particularly “spiritual.” But the sustained inward focus that is a prelude to meditation is neither stressful nor unpleasant—it is relaxed, focused awareness, a state of mind that is soothing and calming, once you get the knack of it.
Making a Start
If you doubt this, try the simple breathing practice that follows. It fosters relaxed concentration and is a good way to introduce the mind to the pleasures of one-pointed attention.
Sit comfortably, with the head, neck, and trunk aligned and the body relaxed. Close your eyes and focus on the flow of the breath as it passes through the nostrils. Feel the warm touch of the exhalation and the cool touch of the inhalation. Breathe smoothly and evenly. Pay particular attention to the transition between the exhalation and the inhalation because it is here that the mind has the greatest tendency to wander off.
When your attention has come to rest on the breath, begin to count your inhalations and exhalations from 1 to 5 and 5 back to 1 again in the following pattern: Exhale 1, Inhale 2, Exhale 3, Inhale 4, Exhale 5, Inhale 1, Exhale 2, Inhale 3, Exhale 4, Inhale 5.
Work with this practice over a period of days or weeks—as long as it takes—until you can attend to it for five minutes without getting lost or confused. Notice how relaxed and refreshed you feel. This is the beginning of the one-pointed focus that, with time and practice, merges into meditation.
 

If person sincerely reads Gurbani and ponders on its meanings, and make genuine effort in this direction. Then its eventually the battle between Gurbani and vices of the person and Gurbani always wins this battle.
 

Just eat special langar at any rich Gurdwara and if you don't have control you will feel the same.I used to be so lalchi that whenever tasty langar  was distribuited I used to eat 5-6 roti's along with rice kheer etc.From past 4-5 months I changed this habit.Moral is if you don't have control , it doesn't matter whether it is hearty veggie langar or meat curry ,  you will suffer

Really good article worth reading... Enjoy :-) Think we all suffer with this from time to time.
 
Think Meditation Is Boring? 10 Tips for Sticking with It
I was arguing with my spiritual teacher, as usual. He had called me aside to discuss my meditation practice, and he clearly didn’t understand what I was saying. Swami ji was insisting that I focus my awareness at my heart center. Since I had recently graduated from a prestigious college at the top of my class, I was surprised that this yoga master from North India failed to recognize that, due to my towering intellect, obviously I should concentrate at my ajna chakra, the center in the brain behind the eyebrows.
Barely concealing his exasperation, Swamiji pointed to my head. “That,” he said emphatically, “is yours. This,” he pointed to my heart, “is mine.”
I went home and reluctantly sat down on my meditation cushion. The truth was, I didn’t enjoy meditating. It was a tedious chore, one sure way to make 20 minutes drag on for what seemed like hours. I would much rather read about meditation—about its numerous well-documented physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits—than actually do it. It was boring.
Unenthusiastically, I tried to bring my awareness to my heart region. It was amazingly difficult. I was so completely entrenched in my head that redirecting my attention even as far downward as my neck required real effort. And when I did manage to concentrate on my heart, the feeling was extremely uncomfortable. Old angers and resentments continuously bubbled into my awareness. My heart felt like a clogged toilet, filled with all kinds of ugly material I didn't want to smell.
I struggled on for months, trying to follow my meditation schedule faithfully, resisting the temptation to keep glancing at my watch to see if it was finally time to get up. Even when I seemed to reach a space of quiet clarity, in a nanosecond a thought would arise and I’d lose myself in reverie before I even realized what had happened. Then I’d catch myself, force the image out of my mind, and return to the monotonous drone of my mantra.
One day one of my philosophy professors invited me to his home. As he spoke about the Supreme Being, his face began to glow. It surprised me to hear a brilliant intellectual speak of the Divine Mother with such devotion. But that evening as I sat down to meditate, I remembered how in my childhood I would pray every evening with innocent faith similar to his. And for the first time in years I inwardly turned to the Divine Being as if it were a living, caring reality rather than a divine abstraction. It was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life. My heart blew open and wave upon wave of ecstasy swept through my consciousness. I sat in bliss for hours, never wanting to get up.
After this my attitude toward meditation completely changed. Sitting became the highlight of my life. I could hardly wait for the twice-daily meditation sessions scheduled at the ashram where I lived, and would slip off whenever I could find a few free moments to enjoy the rapture of inner communion. I was humbled now to realize how insightful my spiritual teacher’s original analysis had been: that I needed to get out of my head, clear the debris out of my heart, and open myself to the stream of divine love.
At this point I honestly believed I had made it to “Easy Street,” that from here on all I needed to do was coast effortlessly toward enlightenment! Then one morning I sat down to meditate and, to my utter bewilderment, my inner attunement was gone. My heart felt dry as brick and my mind kept getting distracted. I struggled with this for several days, and then I went to a spiritual mentor and complained, “Overnight, for no reason I can tell, I’ve lost the ability to focus. I was having intense experiences of inner joy, and now they’re gone!”
His response surprised me. He explained that ananda (inner bliss) pulsates outward from the Higher Self in waves, and that sincere aspirants must stick with their daily practice during both the peaks and the troughs. He also suggested that perhaps I was becoming too attached to the sensation of bliss, that there are many far higher states, and that I needed to move on in my inner exploration. He advised me to continue cultivating devotion, but not to lose sight of important fundamental techniques, such as breath awareness, to quiet the mind.
Over the ensuing years, and through many more ups and downs of meditative experience, I have sought out advanced practitioners to ask what methods they use to get them through the dry periods. I also asked what techniques yoga masters use to inspire beginning students, who, after the initial burst of enthusiasm for practice wears off, sometimes find their meditation becoming lifeless. Fortunately, the yoga tradition offers many techniques for keeping interest high during that challenging period before our practice begins to bear fruit and we can actually see the concrete results of our inner efforts.
Punctuality
Being regular in your meditation practice is tremendously helpful. At the ashram where I lived, we all meditated together at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. every day without fail. For the first few weeks I would sit down and consciously regulate my breath. But as the rhythm of regular meditation became a deeply ingrained habit, I found that the moment I sat on my cushion, my breath spontaneously became subtle and my mind stilled. I no longer had to work at entering a meditative state—my body automatically entered that state at the appropriate time. It was as if I had two daily appointments with the Divine Mother. I would walk into the meditation room and she would be waiting for me and sweep me into her arms. I didn’t have to make any effort at all.
Asana
For centuries, many yogis and yoginis in India have turned to asana, or hatha yoga postures, to prepare themselves for meditation. This helps keep the body healthy, the muscles supple, and the back strong and steady so that one can sit in meditation for extended periods of time. But asanas also have a powerful effect on our mental state, fostering the clear and relaxed frame of mind so conducive to meditation. While aerobic exercises strongly energize the body and mind, giving you the heart-pumping sense that you’re ready to tackle the world, yoga postures energize in a more subtle way, leaving you feeling calm but alert.
The first time I experienced this was after a particularly excellent hatha class. I felt so wonderful that I was practically unable to leave the yoga center. It seemed to me that if I stepped outdoors I’d float up to heaven before reaching the parking lot; in fact, it felt a lot like being in heaven already. Then I noticed that, as a result of having performed a series of yoga postures and the concluding relaxation exercise with full attention and in a tranquil and balanced fashion, both my nostrils were flowing freely. I was breathing exactly as my spiritual teacher recommended students breathe before meditation: slowly, evenly, diaphragmatically, without any jerks or pauses in the breath. He called the state where both nostrils flow freely, quietly, and smoothly “sushumna awakening,” meaning the subtle energy channels in the region of the spine are activated in a spiritually charged manner, creating a state he called “joyous mind.” When I got home I sat down and meditated for half an hour, taking advantage of the extraordinary sense of clarity and serenity I was experiencing. Meditators who are drawn to physical practices often find that performing a balanced series of yoga postures automatically puts them in a meditative state.
Pranayama
When I was first learning to meditate, my spiritual teacher constantly emphasized the importance of breath control (pranayama), much to my disgust. As he launched into yet another lecture on alternate nostril breathing, I would impatiently wonder when he was finally going to give us the real yoga techniques. It took me years to realize that practices like this, as well as diaphragmatic breathing and breath awareness, are the real techniques. In the beginning I never bothered to practice them conscientiously because they were so simple. I just couldn’t believe they would have much effect. But when I finally sat down and began working with my breath, I was astounded by what a profound impact these exercises had on my awareness. As my spiritual teacher often repeated, “breath is the flywheel of life,” giving us direct access to departments of our nervous system usually beyond our conscious control.
The late Kashmiri Shaivite master Swami Lakshmanjoo strongly emphasized the importance of maintaining sandhi, “the center between two breaths.” He also said that when the breath becomes extremely refined, flowing equally through both nostrils rather than predominantly through one or the other, mental equipoise is attained. And when this is held with “continuously refreshed awareness (anusandhana) . . . which is achieved through devotion to the Lord,” he continued, one attains real spiritual experience. But “this state of concentration can be achieved only after you have freed your mind of all worldly cares, completed your daily routine activities, and have had your full amount of sleep. . . . Your mind must be serene, free from the forced obligation to meditate, determined with devotion to discover God consciousness.”
The Kashmiri master also sternly warned, “If you undergo these practices for one thousand centuries without full awareness and concentration, you will have wasted all one thousand of those centuries. The movement of breath has to be filled with full awareness and concentration.” Smooth, even, diaphragmatic breathing, without jerks or pauses, is the gentle wind that propels the sailboat of our minds into the calm lake of meditation.
Satsang
The one universally acclaimed method of keeping our spiritual practice enlivened is satsang, which means literally “keeping the company of truth.” The easiest and most effective way to do this is to spend as much time as possible in the presence of our spiritual teachers or other saints. But for those of us in America, where saints sometimes seem to be in short supply, this isn’t always practical. Therefore, here in the West satsang has more often come to mean spending time with our fellow aspirants, so that working together or meditating together or even simply socializing, we can support each other spiritually and keep one another inspired.
Even when they’re not physically present, however, there are two ways to keep company with the saints themselves. The first is to keep pictures of our spiritual teacher and the other masters of his or her tradition on our altar or in our hearts. According to the yogis the lineage of teachers is actually a living energy field, and we can contact that transmission of enlightening force when we still our minds and focus on the spiritual teacher within. When we sincerely surrender to the living voice of our yogic lineage, it provides continual guidance and inspiration both in our practice and in the ordinary affairs of our daily lives.
The second way to keep the company of saints is to read about their lives and study their teachings. The example of how they lived and the wisdom they shared with those around them constitute their enduring legacy. Reading about great spiritual masters is no substitute for actually having a living teacher or other spiritual elders in our lives, but it will keep the flames of faith and spiritual determination burning when the spiritual teacher is absent.
Kirtan
An extremely popular way of keeping the level of inspiration high in India is kirtan, singing beautiful bhajans (religious songs) which elevate the spirit. From the haunting Bengali bhajans translated into English by Paramahansa Yogananda and sung at many of his U.S. centers, to the popular recordings of the musicians at Mount Madonna Center near Santa Cruz, to the exquisite chants favored at Siddha Yoga centers, devotional singing has caught on with many Western yoga groups, and is often used as a prelude to meditation.
Singing opens the heart and focuses the mind; the mantras and sacred names of God incorporated in many bhajans prepare the soul for going inward. Singing, playing spiritually charged music, or listening to it can dramatically alter our mood and create a sacred atmosphere highly conducive to spiritual practice. Beautiful melodies and meaningful lyrics transport us almost effortlessly into a meditative state.
Karma Yoga
Too often, beginning yoga students have the sense that when they’re sitting in meditation, they’re doing their spiritual work, but when they get up and resume their external responsibilities, they’re now engaged in “mere” worldly activities. This is not the yogic perspective. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna strongly emphasizes the importance of karma yoga, or yoga in action. “Fix your mind on the Higher Self rather than the lower ego, and dedicate all your actions to God,” he says. “This will free you from the bondage of karma.”
If sitting in meditation represents our inner study, then getting up and dealing with our relatives, our boss, and the entire menagerie of people around us is our practicum. Here is where we are able to see if our practice has “taken,” and to “apply” the sense of serenity and objectivity meditation has given us. Meditation becomes more interesting when we begin recognizing its effects in our daily lives, and using the clarity it brings us in practical situations. Meditation is not something “other” than life, but something that should be carried over into life, helping us maintain a comparatively stress-free state through all the normally stressful events of the day.
Bodhicitta
An aspect of meditation practice strongly emphasized in Buddhist forms of yoga is the cultivation of bodhicitta, loving-kindness, and Hindus, too, often conclude their meditations with chants such as Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu (“May all beings in all worlds be well”). When we meditate, we’re not merely inching toward enlightenment; much more is happening on subtle levels. Every time we create a space of peaceful clarity in ourselves, we are helping to purify the polluted psychic atmosphere of the planet. When a student asked why the great yoga masters in the Himalayas don’t come down out of the mountains to help humanity, my spiritual teacher insisted that the yogis sitting in their cave monasteries were doing more to protect and regenerate the world than hundreds of activists put together.
For students who find it difficult to motivate themselves to sit for meditation consistently, it may be helpful to recognize that their practice not only benefits themselves but is also a form of service to the world. By cultivating stillness and clarity in meditation, and by sending out good wishes to all other creatures in the universe, meditation becomes a selfless gift, our offering for world peace.
Bhakti
In the early 1970s an influx of influential yogis from India inspired an entire generation to explore yoga. Most of these yogis took great pains to emphasize the scientific nature of yoga, teaching that one did not need to adopt the deities of Hinduism in order to practice meditation. In taking care to respect the religious sensibilities of Westerners, however, the deeply devotional aspects of yoga as it is actually practiced in India were de-emphasized. Some of us launched into yoga without appreciating how important bhakti truly is on the spiritual path. Others of us may even have projected onto our spiritual teachers a level of devotion that might more appropriately have been directed toward God. My own spiritual teacher used to get fed up when would-be disciples fawned before him, and often shouted, “Don’t worship me! Worship God!”
According to the tantric tradition, the Divine Being loves us so much that he/she assumes any form we imagine God to be in, and comes to us in that form. Yogis feel that the Divine Being works through the form of Jesus as well as Krishna or Buddha or the Divine Mother, and for this reason they are not interested in converting anyone. In India, however, spiritual teachers often assign an ishta devata, or personal deity, to their disciples, based on the disciple’s history and inclinations. If you are a Westerner, this might be Jesus, Yahweh, Mary, or even Allah. The disciple then cultivates a deep personal relationship with God or the Goddess, in the form of their ishta devata, and regularly engages in prayer and worship. In this way the spiritual path ceases to be an abstract quest for an intangible absolute, and becomes a form of joyous communion with the Higher Self of all beings.
Ammachi, a contemporary saint from South India, says that spiritual practice without devotion is “like eating stones,” and many other saints claim that developing a loving relationship with the Divine is the quickest of all spiritual paths. In meditation those who practice bhakti still their minds so they can feel the living presence of the beloved deity beside and inside them.
Puja
For most of my life there was scarcely anything more deadly dull to me than rituals. As a child, I had sat through too many utterly lifeless (to me, anyway) religious ceremonies to ever want anything to do with this type of worship again. I couldn’t fathom how the swami at our local Kali temple could be so enthusiastic about pujas—rituals in which flowers, incense, grains, and other objects are offered to the Divine Mother. (Yes, there is a real temple to the warrior goddess Kali in my neighborhood. I live in California.)
But one day the swami persuaded me to join in a puja with him, and the experience turned out to be remarkable. This particular puja was quite elaborate, involving chanting a long litany of mantras while making offerings to a sacred fire. I discovered that chanting mantras aloud automatically regulated my breath, while focusing on the unfamiliar Sanskrit words concentrated my mind sharply. There was instant feedback: if my concentration slipped I would mispronounce a mantra, and by the end of the ritual my mind was so one-pointed, I was already in meditation.
Less elaborate pujas, too, are a valuable way to create a powerful meditative atmosphere. Place a photo or statue of the deity you love, of saints you feel attracted to, or of the teachers in your spiritual teacher lineage on your meditation altar. A symbolic picture of the Divine, such as the crucifix, Sri Yantra, or the word “Om,” will do if you feel uncomfortable with anthropomorphic images. Create a sacred space around the altar by inviting your mind to accept that the Divine Being really is present in the image you’ve selected. Then offer flowers, bits of food, or incense to the living presence of the Divine you feel in the image. You may wish to wave a lighted candle in a circle before the picture or statue, as yogis sometimes do in a ceremony called arati. Finally, sincerely offer the reverence in your heart to the Divine. Then, having established a sense of sacred communion, sit quietly and begin your meditation. In India, orthodox families offer a portion of their meals to the images on their meditation altars before eating. This is said to sanctify the food.
Fall in Love with Your Practice
Swami Lakshmanjoo used to remind his students never to think of meditation as a chore. “When you are about to meditate you must feel excitement and be thankful to God that you have received this opportunity. . . . Unless you fall in love with meditation and approach it with total enthusiasm . . . you cannot enter the (deeper realms) of awareness.”
There is one important point every meditator must understand: if you are bored, you are not meditating. Meditation cannot be boring because meditation is, by definition, intense mental absorption, and intense concentration obliterates not only boredom but even the sense of time and space. Meditation is not only helpful in unlocking creativity and overcoming stress, but it is the key to the inner dimensions of our spirit. By persevering in our meditation practice with determination, devotion, and enthusiasm, we unlock the door to the highest and best part of ourselves, and consciously enter the living depths of our immortal being.
 
https://yogainternational.com/article/view/think-meditation-is-boring-10-tips-for-sticking-with-it

Nice simran at 1:34:00 with instructions

Nice simran at 1:34:00 with instructions

Really good article worth reading... Enjoy :-) Think we all suffer with this from time to time.
 
Think Meditation Is Boring? 10 Tips for Sticking with It
I was arguing with my spiritual teacher, as usual. He had called me aside to discuss my meditation practice, and he clearly didn’t understand what I was saying. Swami ji was insisting that I focus my awareness at my heart center. Since I had recently graduated from a prestigious college at the top of my class, I was surprised that this yoga master from North India failed to recognize that, due to my towering intellect, obviously I should concentrate at my ajna chakra, the center in the brain behind the eyebrows.
Barely concealing his exasperation, Swamiji pointed to my head. “That,” he said emphatically, “is yours. This,” he pointed to my heart, “is mine.”
I went home and reluctantly sat down on my meditation cushion. The truth was, I didn’t enjoy meditating. It was a tedious chore, one sure way to make 20 minutes drag on for what seemed like hours. I would much rather read about meditation—about its numerous well-documented physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits—than actually do it. It was boring.
Unenthusiastically, I tried to bring my awareness to my heart region. It was amazingly difficult. I was so completely entrenched in my head that redirecting my attention even as far downward as my neck required real effort. And when I did manage to concentrate on my heart, the feeling was extremely uncomfortable. Old angers and resentments continuously bubbled into my awareness. My heart felt like a clogged toilet, filled with all kinds of ugly material I didn't want to smell.
I struggled on for months, trying to follow my meditation schedule faithfully, resisting the temptation to keep glancing at my watch to see if it was finally time to get up. Even when I seemed to reach a space of quiet clarity, in a nanosecond a thought would arise and I’d lose myself in reverie before I even realized what had happened. Then I’d catch myself, force the image out of my mind, and return to the monotonous drone of my mantra.
One day one of my philosophy professors invited me to his home. As he spoke about the Supreme Being, his face began to glow. It surprised me to hear a brilliant intellectual speak of the Divine Mother with such devotion. But that evening as I sat down to meditate, I remembered how in my childhood I would pray every evening with innocent faith similar to his. And for the first time in years I inwardly turned to the Divine Being as if it were a living, caring reality rather than a divine abstraction. It was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life. My heart blew open and wave upon wave of ecstasy swept through my consciousness. I sat in bliss for hours, never wanting to get up.
After this my attitude toward meditation completely changed. Sitting became the highlight of my life. I could hardly wait for the twice-daily meditation sessions scheduled at the ashram where I lived, and would slip off whenever I could find a few free moments to enjoy the rapture of inner communion. I was humbled now to realize how insightful my spiritual teacher’s original analysis had been: that I needed to get out of my head, clear the debris out of my heart, and open myself to the stream of divine love.
At this point I honestly believed I had made it to “Easy Street,” that from here on all I needed to do was coast effortlessly toward enlightenment! Then one morning I sat down to meditate and, to my utter bewilderment, my inner attunement was gone. My heart felt dry as brick and my mind kept getting distracted. I struggled with this for several days, and then I went to a spiritual mentor and complained, “Overnight, for no reason I can tell, I’ve lost the ability to focus. I was having intense experiences of inner joy, and now they’re gone!”
His response surprised me. He explained that ananda (inner bliss) pulsates outward from the Higher Self in waves, and that sincere aspirants must stick with their daily practice during both the peaks and the troughs. He also suggested that perhaps I was becoming too attached to the sensation of bliss, that there are many far higher states, and that I needed to move on in my inner exploration. He advised me to continue cultivating devotion, but not to lose sight of important fundamental techniques, such as breath awareness, to quiet the mind.
Over the ensuing years, and through many more ups and downs of meditative experience, I have sought out advanced practitioners to ask what methods they use to get them through the dry periods. I also asked what techniques yoga masters use to inspire beginning students, who, after the initial burst of enthusiasm for practice wears off, sometimes find their meditation becoming lifeless. Fortunately, the yoga tradition offers many techniques for keeping interest high during that challenging period before our practice begins to bear fruit and we can actually see the concrete results of our inner efforts.
Punctuality
Being regular in your meditation practice is tremendously helpful. At the ashram where I lived, we all meditated together at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. every day without fail. For the first few weeks I would sit down and consciously regulate my breath. But as the rhythm of regular meditation became a deeply ingrained habit, I found that the moment I sat on my cushion, my breath spontaneously became subtle and my mind stilled. I no longer had to work at entering a meditative state—my body automatically entered that state at the appropriate time. It was as if I had two daily appointments with the Divine Mother. I would walk into the meditation room and she would be waiting for me and sweep me into her arms. I didn’t have to make any effort at all.
Asana
For centuries, many yogis and yoginis in India have turned to asana, or hatha yoga postures, to prepare themselves for meditation. This helps keep the body healthy, the muscles supple, and the back strong and steady so that one can sit in meditation for extended periods of time. But asanas also have a powerful effect on our mental state, fostering the clear and relaxed frame of mind so conducive to meditation. While aerobic exercises strongly energize the body and mind, giving you the heart-pumping sense that you’re ready to tackle the world, yoga postures energize in a more subtle way, leaving you feeling calm but alert.
The first time I experienced this was after a particularly excellent hatha class. I felt so wonderful that I was practically unable to leave the yoga center. It seemed to me that if I stepped outdoors I’d float up to heaven before reaching the parking lot; in fact, it felt a lot like being in heaven already. Then I noticed that, as a result of having performed a series of yoga postures and the concluding relaxation exercise with full attention and in a tranquil and balanced fashion, both my nostrils were flowing freely. I was breathing exactly as my spiritual teacher recommended students breathe before meditation: slowly, evenly, diaphragmatically, without any jerks or pauses in the breath. He called the state where both nostrils flow freely, quietly, and smoothly “sushumna awakening,” meaning the subtle energy channels in the region of the spine are activated in a spiritually charged manner, creating a state he called “joyous mind.” When I got home I sat down and meditated for half an hour, taking advantage of the extraordinary sense of clarity and serenity I was experiencing. Meditators who are drawn to physical practices often find that performing a balanced series of yoga postures automatically puts them in a meditative state.
Pranayama
When I was first learning to meditate, my spiritual teacher constantly emphasized the importance of breath control (pranayama), much to my disgust. As he launched into yet another lecture on alternate nostril breathing, I would impatiently wonder when he was finally going to give us the real yoga techniques. It took me years to realize that practices like this, as well as diaphragmatic breathing and breath awareness, are the real techniques. In the beginning I never bothered to practice them conscientiously because they were so simple. I just couldn’t believe they would have much effect. But when I finally sat down and began working with my breath, I was astounded by what a profound impact these exercises had on my awareness. As my spiritual teacher often repeated, “breath is the flywheel of life,” giving us direct access to departments of our nervous system usually beyond our conscious control.
The late Kashmiri Shaivite master Swami Lakshmanjoo strongly emphasized the importance of maintaining sandhi, “the center between two breaths.” He also said that when the breath becomes extremely refined, flowing equally through both nostrils rather than predominantly through one or the other, mental equipoise is attained. And when this is held with “continuously refreshed awareness (anusandhana) . . . which is achieved through devotion to the Lord,” he continued, one attains real spiritual experience. But “this state of concentration can be achieved only after you have freed your mind of all worldly cares, completed your daily routine activities, and have had your full amount of sleep. . . . Your mind must be serene, free from the forced obligation to meditate, determined with devotion to discover God consciousness.”
The Kashmiri master also sternly warned, “If you undergo these practices for one thousand centuries without full awareness and concentration, you will have wasted all one thousand of those centuries. The movement of breath has to be filled with full awareness and concentration.” Smooth, even, diaphragmatic breathing, without jerks or pauses, is the gentle wind that propels the sailboat of our minds into the calm lake of meditation.
Satsang
The one universally acclaimed method of keeping our spiritual practice enlivened is satsang, which means literally “keeping the company of truth.” The easiest and most effective way to do this is to spend as much time as possible in the presence of our spiritual teachers or other saints. But for those of us in America, where saints sometimes seem to be in short supply, this isn’t always practical. Therefore, here in the West satsang has more often come to mean spending time with our fellow aspirants, so that working together or meditating together or even simply socializing, we can support each other spiritually and keep one another inspired.
Even when they’re not physically present, however, there are two ways to keep company with the saints themselves. The first is to keep pictures of our spiritual teacher and the other masters of his or her tradition on our altar or in our hearts. According to the yogis the lineage of teachers is actually a living energy field, and we can contact that transmission of enlightening force when we still our minds and focus on the spiritual teacher within. When we sincerely surrender to the living voice of our yogic lineage, it provides continual guidance and inspiration both in our practice and in the ordinary affairs of our daily lives.
The second way to keep the company of saints is to read about their lives and study their teachings. The example of how they lived and the wisdom they shared with those around them constitute their enduring legacy. Reading about great spiritual masters is no substitute for actually having a living teacher or other spiritual elders in our lives, but it will keep the flames of faith and spiritual determination burning when the spiritual teacher is absent.
Kirtan
An extremely popular way of keeping the level of inspiration high in India is kirtan, singing beautiful bhajans (religious songs) which elevate the spirit. From the haunting Bengali bhajans translated into English by Paramahansa Yogananda and sung at many of his U.S. centers, to the popular recordings of the musicians at Mount Madonna Center near Santa Cruz, to the exquisite chants favored at Siddha Yoga centers, devotional singing has caught on with many Western yoga groups, and is often used as a prelude to meditation.
Singing opens the heart and focuses the mind; the mantras and sacred names of God incorporated in many bhajans prepare the soul for going inward. Singing, playing spiritually charged music, or listening to it can dramatically alter our mood and create a sacred atmosphere highly conducive to spiritual practice. Beautiful melodies and meaningful lyrics transport us almost effortlessly into a meditative state.
Karma Yoga
Too often, beginning yoga students have the sense that when they’re sitting in meditation, they’re doing their spiritual work, but when they get up and resume their external responsibilities, they’re now engaged in “mere” worldly activities. This is not the yogic perspective. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna strongly emphasizes the importance of karma yoga, or yoga in action. “Fix your mind on the Higher Self rather than the lower ego, and dedicate all your actions to God,” he says. “This will free you from the bondage of karma.”
If sitting in meditation represents our inner study, then getting up and dealing with our relatives, our boss, and the entire menagerie of people around us is our practicum. Here is where we are able to see if our practice has “taken,” and to “apply” the sense of serenity and objectivity meditation has given us. Meditation becomes more interesting when we begin recognizing its effects in our daily lives, and using the clarity it brings us in practical situations. Meditation is not something “other” than life, but something that should be carried over into life, helping us maintain a comparatively stress-free state through all the normally stressful events of the day.
Bodhicitta
An aspect of meditation practice strongly emphasized in Buddhist forms of yoga is the cultivation of bodhicitta, loving-kindness, and Hindus, too, often conclude their meditations with chants such as Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu (“May all beings in all worlds be well”). When we meditate, we’re not merely inching toward enlightenment; much more is happening on subtle levels. Every time we create a space of peaceful clarity in ourselves, we are helping to purify the polluted psychic atmosphere of the planet. When a student asked why the great yoga masters in the Himalayas don’t come down out of the mountains to help humanity, my spiritual teacher insisted that the yogis sitting in their cave monasteries were doing more to protect and regenerate the world than hundreds of activists put together.
For students who find it difficult to motivate themselves to sit for meditation consistently, it may be helpful to recognize that their practice not only benefits themselves but is also a form of service to the world. By cultivating stillness and clarity in meditation, and by sending out good wishes to all other creatures in the universe, meditation becomes a selfless gift, our offering for world peace.
Bhakti
In the early 1970s an influx of influential yogis from India inspired an entire generation to explore yoga. Most of these yogis took great pains to emphasize the scientific nature of yoga, teaching that one did not need to adopt the deities of Hinduism in order to practice meditation. In taking care to respect the religious sensibilities of Westerners, however, the deeply devotional aspects of yoga as it is actually practiced in India were de-emphasized. Some of us launched into yoga without appreciating how important bhakti truly is on the spiritual path. Others of us may even have projected onto our spiritual teachers a level of devotion that might more appropriately have been directed toward God. My own spiritual teacher used to get fed up when would-be disciples fawned before him, and often shouted, “Don’t worship me! Worship God!”
According to the tantric tradition, the Divine Being loves us so much that he/she assumes any form we imagine God to be in, and comes to us in that form. Yogis feel that the Divine Being works through the form of Jesus as well as Krishna or Buddha or the Divine Mother, and for this reason they are not interested in converting anyone. In India, however, spiritual teachers often assign an ishta devata, or personal deity, to their disciples, based on the disciple’s history and inclinations. If you are a Westerner, this might be Jesus, Yahweh, Mary, or even Allah. The disciple then cultivates a deep personal relationship with God or the Goddess, in the form of their ishta devata, and regularly engages in prayer and worship. In this way the spiritual path ceases to be an abstract quest for an intangible absolute, and becomes a form of joyous communion with the Higher Self of all beings.
Ammachi, a contemporary saint from South India, says that spiritual practice without devotion is “like eating stones,” and many other saints claim that developing a loving relationship with the Divine is the quickest of all spiritual paths. In meditation those who practice bhakti still their minds so they can feel the living presence of the beloved deity beside and inside them.
Puja
For most of my life there was scarcely anything more deadly dull to me than rituals. As a child, I had sat through too many utterly lifeless (to me, anyway) religious ceremonies to ever want anything to do with this type of worship again. I couldn’t fathom how the swami at our local Kali temple could be so enthusiastic about pujas—rituals in which flowers, incense, grains, and other objects are offered to the Divine Mother. (Yes, there is a real temple to the warrior goddess Kali in my neighborhood. I live in California.)
But one day the swami persuaded me to join in a puja with him, and the experience turned out to be remarkable. This particular puja was quite elaborate, involving chanting a long litany of mantras while making offerings to a sacred fire. I discovered that chanting mantras aloud automatically regulated my breath, while focusing on the unfamiliar Sanskrit words concentrated my mind sharply. There was instant feedback: if my concentration slipped I would mispronounce a mantra, and by the end of the ritual my mind was so one-pointed, I was already in meditation.
Less elaborate pujas, too, are a valuable way to create a powerful meditative atmosphere. Place a photo or statue of the deity you love, of saints you feel attracted to, or of the teachers in your spiritual teacher lineage on your meditation altar. A symbolic picture of the Divine, such as the crucifix, Sri Yantra, or the word “Om,” will do if you feel uncomfortable with anthropomorphic images. Create a sacred space around the altar by inviting your mind to accept that the Divine Being really is present in the image you’ve selected. Then offer flowers, bits of food, or incense to the living presence of the Divine you feel in the image. You may wish to wave a lighted candle in a circle before the picture or statue, as yogis sometimes do in a ceremony called arati. Finally, sincerely offer the reverence in your heart to the Divine. Then, having established a sense of sacred communion, sit quietly and begin your meditation. In India, orthodox families offer a portion of their meals to the images on their meditation altars before eating. This is said to sanctify the food.
Fall in Love with Your Practice
Swami Lakshmanjoo used to remind his students never to think of meditation as a chore. “When you are about to meditate you must feel excitement and be thankful to God that you have received this opportunity. . . . Unless you fall in love with meditation and approach it with total enthusiasm . . . you cannot enter the (deeper realms) of awareness.”
There is one important point every meditator must understand: if you are bored, you are not meditating. Meditation cannot be boring because meditation is, by definition, intense mental absorption, and intense concentration obliterates not only boredom but even the sense of time and space. Meditation is not only helpful in unlocking creativity and overcoming stress, but it is the key to the inner dimensions of our spirit. By persevering in our meditation practice with determination, devotion, and enthusiasm, we unlock the door to the highest and best part of ourselves, and consciously enter the living depths of our immortal being.
 
https://yogainternational.com/article/view/think-meditation-is-boring-10-tips-for-sticking-with-it

Really good article worth reading... Enjoy :-) Think we all suffer with this from time to time.
 
Think Meditation Is Boring? 10 Tips for Sticking with It
I was arguing with my spiritual teacher, as usual. He had called me aside to discuss my meditation practice, and he clearly didn’t understand what I was saying. Swami ji was insisting that I focus my awareness at my heart center. Since I had recently graduated from a prestigious college at the top of my class, I was surprised that this yoga master from North India failed to recognize that, due to my towering intellect, obviously I should concentrate at my ajna chakra, the center in the brain behind the eyebrows.
Barely concealing his exasperation, Swamiji pointed to my head. “That,” he said emphatically, “is yours. This,” he pointed to my heart, “is mine.”
I went home and reluctantly sat down on my meditation cushion. The truth was, I didn’t enjoy meditating. It was a tedious chore, one sure way to make 20 minutes drag on for what seemed like hours. I would much rather read about meditation—about its numerous well-documented physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits—than actually do it. It was boring.
Unenthusiastically, I tried to bring my awareness to my heart region. It was amazingly difficult. I was so completely entrenched in my head that redirecting my attention even as far downward as my neck required real effort. And when I did manage to concentrate on my heart, the feeling was extremely uncomfortable. Old angers and resentments continuously bubbled into my awareness. My heart felt like a clogged toilet, filled with all kinds of ugly material I didn't want to smell.
I struggled on for months, trying to follow my meditation schedule faithfully, resisting the temptation to keep glancing at my watch to see if it was finally time to get up. Even when I seemed to reach a space of quiet clarity, in a nanosecond a thought would arise and I’d lose myself in reverie before I even realized what had happened. Then I’d catch myself, force the image out of my mind, and return to the monotonous drone of my mantra.
One day one of my philosophy professors invited me to his home. As he spoke about the Supreme Being, his face began to glow. It surprised me to hear a brilliant intellectual speak of the Divine Mother with such devotion. But that evening as I sat down to meditate, I remembered how in my childhood I would pray every evening with innocent faith similar to his. And for the first time in years I inwardly turned to the Divine Being as if it were a living, caring reality rather than a divine abstraction. It was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life. My heart blew open and wave upon wave of ecstasy swept through my consciousness. I sat in bliss for hours, never wanting to get up.
After this my attitude toward meditation completely changed. Sitting became the highlight of my life. I could hardly wait for the twice-daily meditation sessions scheduled at the ashram where I lived, and would slip off whenever I could find a few free moments to enjoy the rapture of inner communion. I was humbled now to realize how insightful my spiritual teacher’s original analysis had been: that I needed to get out of my head, clear the debris out of my heart, and open myself to the stream of divine love.
At this point I honestly believed I had made it to “Easy Street,” that from here on all I needed to do was coast effortlessly toward enlightenment! Then one morning I sat down to meditate and, to my utter bewilderment, my inner attunement was gone. My heart felt dry as brick and my mind kept getting distracted. I struggled with this for several days, and then I went to a spiritual mentor and complained, “Overnight, for no reason I can tell, I’ve lost the ability to focus. I was having intense experiences of inner joy, and now they’re gone!”
His response surprised me. He explained that ananda (inner bliss) pulsates outward from the Higher Self in waves, and that sincere aspirants must stick with their daily practice during both the peaks and the troughs. He also suggested that perhaps I was becoming too attached to the sensation of bliss, that there are many far higher states, and that I needed to move on in my inner exploration. He advised me to continue cultivating devotion, but not to lose sight of important fundamental techniques, such as breath awareness, to quiet the mind.
Over the ensuing years, and through many more ups and downs of meditative experience, I have sought out advanced practitioners to ask what methods they use to get them through the dry periods. I also asked what techniques yoga masters use to inspire beginning students, who, after the initial burst of enthusiasm for practice wears off, sometimes find their meditation becoming lifeless. Fortunately, the yoga tradition offers many techniques for keeping interest high during that challenging period before our practice begins to bear fruit and we can actually see the concrete results of our inner efforts.
Punctuality
Being regular in your meditation practice is tremendously helpful. At the ashram where I lived, we all meditated together at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. every day without fail. For the first few weeks I would sit down and consciously regulate my breath. But as the rhythm of regular meditation became a deeply ingrained habit, I found that the moment I sat on my cushion, my breath spontaneously became subtle and my mind stilled. I no longer had to work at entering a meditative state—my body automatically entered that state at the appropriate time. It was as if I had two daily appointments with the Divine Mother. I would walk into the meditation room and she would be waiting for me and sweep me into her arms. I didn’t have to make any effort at all.
Asana
For centuries, many yogis and yoginis in India have turned to asana, or hatha yoga postures, to prepare themselves for meditation. This helps keep the body healthy, the muscles supple, and the back strong and steady so that one can sit in meditation for extended periods of time. But asanas also have a powerful effect on our mental state, fostering the clear and relaxed frame of mind so conducive to meditation. While aerobic exercises strongly energize the body and mind, giving you the heart-pumping sense that you’re ready to tackle the world, yoga postures energize in a more subtle way, leaving you feeling calm but alert.
The first time I experienced this was after a particularly excellent hatha class. I felt so wonderful that I was practically unable to leave the yoga center. It seemed to me that if I stepped outdoors I’d float up to heaven before reaching the parking lot; in fact, it felt a lot like being in heaven already. Then I noticed that, as a result of having performed a series of yoga postures and the concluding relaxation exercise with full attention and in a tranquil and balanced fashion, both my nostrils were flowing freely. I was breathing exactly as my spiritual teacher recommended students breathe before meditation: slowly, evenly, diaphragmatically, without any jerks or pauses in the breath. He called the state where both nostrils flow freely, quietly, and smoothly “sushumna awakening,” meaning the subtle energy channels in the region of the spine are activated in a spiritually charged manner, creating a state he called “joyous mind.” When I got home I sat down and meditated for half an hour, taking advantage of the extraordinary sense of clarity and serenity I was experiencing. Meditators who are drawn to physical practices often find that performing a balanced series of yoga postures automatically puts them in a meditative state.
Pranayama
When I was first learning to meditate, my spiritual teacher constantly emphasized the importance of breath control (pranayama), much to my disgust. As he launched into yet another lecture on alternate nostril breathing, I would impatiently wonder when he was finally going to give us the real yoga techniques. It took me years to realize that practices like this, as well as diaphragmatic breathing and breath awareness, are the real techniques. In the beginning I never bothered to practice them conscientiously because they were so simple. I just couldn’t believe they would have much effect. But when I finally sat down and began working with my breath, I was astounded by what a profound impact these exercises had on my awareness. As my spiritual teacher often repeated, “breath is the flywheel of life,” giving us direct access to departments of our nervous system usually beyond our conscious control.
The late Kashmiri Shaivite master Swami Lakshmanjoo strongly emphasized the importance of maintaining sandhi, “the center between two breaths.” He also said that when the breath becomes extremely refined, flowing equally through both nostrils rather than predominantly through one or the other, mental equipoise is attained. And when this is held with “continuously refreshed awareness (anusandhana) . . . which is achieved through devotion to the Lord,” he continued, one attains real spiritual experience. But “this state of concentration can be achieved only after you have freed your mind of all worldly cares, completed your daily routine activities, and have had your full amount of sleep. . . . Your mind must be serene, free from the forced obligation to meditate, determined with devotion to discover God consciousness.”
The Kashmiri master also sternly warned, “If you undergo these practices for one thousand centuries without full awareness and concentration, you will have wasted all one thousand of those centuries. The movement of breath has to be filled with full awareness and concentration.” Smooth, even, diaphragmatic breathing, without jerks or pauses, is the gentle wind that propels the sailboat of our minds into the calm lake of meditation.
Satsang
The one universally acclaimed method of keeping our spiritual practice enlivened is satsang, which means literally “keeping the company of truth.” The easiest and most effective way to do this is to spend as much time as possible in the presence of our spiritual teachers or other saints. But for those of us in America, where saints sometimes seem to be in short supply, this isn’t always practical. Therefore, here in the West satsang has more often come to mean spending time with our fellow aspirants, so that working together or meditating together or even simply socializing, we can support each other spiritually and keep one another inspired.
Even when they’re not physically present, however, there are two ways to keep company with the saints themselves. The first is to keep pictures of our spiritual teacher and the other masters of his or her tradition on our altar or in our hearts. According to the yogis the lineage of teachers is actually a living energy field, and we can contact that transmission of enlightening force when we still our minds and focus on the spiritual teacher within. When we sincerely surrender to the living voice of our yogic lineage, it provides continual guidance and inspiration both in our practice and in the ordinary affairs of our daily lives.
The second way to keep the company of saints is to read about their lives and study their teachings. The example of how they lived and the wisdom they shared with those around them constitute their enduring legacy. Reading about great spiritual masters is no substitute for actually having a living teacher or other spiritual elders in our lives, but it will keep the flames of faith and spiritual determination burning when the spiritual teacher is absent.
Kirtan
An extremely popular way of keeping the level of inspiration high in India is kirtan, singing beautiful bhajans (religious songs) which elevate the spirit. From the haunting Bengali bhajans translated into English by Paramahansa Yogananda and sung at many of his U.S. centers, to the popular recordings of the musicians at Mount Madonna Center near Santa Cruz, to the exquisite chants favored at Siddha Yoga centers, devotional singing has caught on with many Western yoga groups, and is often used as a prelude to meditation.
Singing opens the heart and focuses the mind; the mantras and sacred names of God incorporated in many bhajans prepare the soul for going inward. Singing, playing spiritually charged music, or listening to it can dramatically alter our mood and create a sacred atmosphere highly conducive to spiritual practice. Beautiful melodies and meaningful lyrics transport us almost effortlessly into a meditative state.
Karma Yoga
Too often, beginning yoga students have the sense that when they’re sitting in meditation, they’re doing their spiritual work, but when they get up and resume their external responsibilities, they’re now engaged in “mere” worldly activities. This is not the yogic perspective. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna strongly emphasizes the importance of karma yoga, or yoga in action. “Fix your mind on the Higher Self rather than the lower ego, and dedicate all your actions to God,” he says. “This will free you from the bondage of karma.”
If sitting in meditation represents our inner study, then getting up and dealing with our relatives, our boss, and the entire menagerie of people around us is our practicum. Here is where we are able to see if our practice has “taken,” and to “apply” the sense of serenity and objectivity meditation has given us. Meditation becomes more interesting when we begin recognizing its effects in our daily lives, and using the clarity it brings us in practical situations. Meditation is not something “other” than life, but something that should be carried over into life, helping us maintain a comparatively stress-free state through all the normally stressful events of the day.
Bodhicitta
An aspect of meditation practice strongly emphasized in Buddhist forms of yoga is the cultivation of bodhicitta, loving-kindness, and Hindus, too, often conclude their meditations with chants such as Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu (“May all beings in all worlds be well”). When we meditate, we’re not merely inching toward enlightenment; much more is happening on subtle levels. Every time we create a space of peaceful clarity in ourselves, we are helping to purify the polluted psychic atmosphere of the planet. When a student asked why the great yoga masters in the Himalayas don’t come down out of the mountains to help humanity, my spiritual teacher insisted that the yogis sitting in their cave monasteries were doing more to protect and regenerate the world than hundreds of activists put together.
For students who find it difficult to motivate themselves to sit for meditation consistently, it may be helpful to recognize that their practice not only benefits themselves but is also a form of service to the world. By cultivating stillness and clarity in meditation, and by sending out good wishes to all other creatures in the universe, meditation becomes a selfless gift, our offering for world peace.
Bhakti
In the early 1970s an influx of influential yogis from India inspired an entire generation to explore yoga. Most of these yogis took great pains to emphasize the scientific nature of yoga, teaching that one did not need to adopt the deities of Hinduism in order to practice meditation. In taking care to respect the religious sensibilities of Westerners, however, the deeply devotional aspects of yoga as it is actually practiced in India were de-emphasized. Some of us launched into yoga without appreciating how important bhakti truly is on the spiritual path. Others of us may even have projected onto our spiritual teachers a level of devotion that might more appropriately have been directed toward God. My own spiritual teacher used to get fed up when would-be disciples fawned before him, and often shouted, “Don’t worship me! Worship God!”
According to the tantric tradition, the Divine Being loves us so much that he/she assumes any form we imagine God to be in, and comes to us in that form. Yogis feel that the Divine Being works through the form of Jesus as well as Krishna or Buddha or the Divine Mother, and for this reason they are not interested in converting anyone. In India, however, spiritual teachers often assign an ishta devata, or personal deity, to their disciples, based on the disciple’s history and inclinations. If you are a Westerner, this might be Jesus, Yahweh, Mary, or even Allah. The disciple then cultivates a deep personal relationship with God or the Goddess, in the form of their ishta devata, and regularly engages in prayer and worship. In this way the spiritual path ceases to be an abstract quest for an intangible absolute, and becomes a form of joyous communion with the Higher Self of all beings.
Ammachi, a contemporary saint from South India, says that spiritual practice without devotion is “like eating stones,” and many other saints claim that developing a loving relationship with the Divine is the quickest of all spiritual paths. In meditation those who practice bhakti still their minds so they can feel the living presence of the beloved deity beside and inside them.
Puja
For most of my life there was scarcely anything more deadly dull to me than rituals. As a child, I had sat through too many utterly lifeless (to me, anyway) religious ceremonies to ever want anything to do with this type of worship again. I couldn’t fathom how the swami at our local Kali temple could be so enthusiastic about pujas—rituals in which flowers, incense, grains, and other objects are offered to the Divine Mother. (Yes, there is a real temple to the warrior goddess Kali in my neighborhood. I live in California.)
But one day the swami persuaded me to join in a puja with him, and the experience turned out to be remarkable. This particular puja was quite elaborate, involving chanting a long litany of mantras while making offerings to a sacred fire. I discovered that chanting mantras aloud automatically regulated my breath, while focusing on the unfamiliar Sanskrit words concentrated my mind sharply. There was instant feedback: if my concentration slipped I would mispronounce a mantra, and by the end of the ritual my mind was so one-pointed, I was already in meditation.
Less elaborate pujas, too, are a valuable way to create a powerful meditative atmosphere. Place a photo or statue of the deity you love, of saints you feel attracted to, or of the teachers in your spiritual teacher lineage on your meditation altar. A symbolic picture of the Divine, such as the crucifix, Sri Yantra, or the word “Om,” will do if you feel uncomfortable with anthropomorphic images. Create a sacred space around the altar by inviting your mind to accept that the Divine Being really is present in the image you’ve selected. Then offer flowers, bits of food, or incense to the living presence of the Divine you feel in the image. You may wish to wave a lighted candle in a circle before the picture or statue, as yogis sometimes do in a ceremony called arati. Finally, sincerely offer the reverence in your heart to the Divine. Then, having established a sense of sacred communion, sit quietly and begin your meditation. In India, orthodox families offer a portion of their meals to the images on their meditation altars before eating. This is said to sanctify the food.
Fall in Love with Your Practice
Swami Lakshmanjoo used to remind his students never to think of meditation as a chore. “When you are about to meditate you must feel excitement and be thankful to God that you have received this opportunity. . . . Unless you fall in love with meditation and approach it with total enthusiasm . . . you cannot enter the (deeper realms) of awareness.”
There is one important point every meditator must understand: if you are bored, you are not meditating. Meditation cannot be boring because meditation is, by definition, intense mental absorption, and intense concentration obliterates not only boredom but even the sense of time and space. Meditation is not only helpful in unlocking creativity and overcoming stress, but it is the key to the inner dimensions of our spirit. By persevering in our meditation practice with determination, devotion, and enthusiasm, we unlock the door to the highest and best part of ourselves, and consciously enter the living depths of our immortal being.
 
https://yogainternational.com/article/view/think-meditation-is-boring-10-tips-for-sticking-with-it

Ragmaala I agree that common usage is negative. I'm glad you are aware of that since that was the point I was trying to make. So cool... carry on I guess.

Just one thing before you do.
 

I think you are quite learned and I think you are probably aware of this, so this is more of a rant than anything...
when people read - "Veds cannot grasp God" - they think Gurbani rejects Veds completely.
when people read - "Rituals are useless" - they think Gurbani rejects rituals completely.

What is missing here is understanding of the full story.

What is the full story?
"Ved cannot grasp God... because nobody can! God cannot be grasped, He can only be tasted and that too by a consciousness, by your own individual, not by someone else's book or someone else's words."
"Rituals are useless... if God is not on your mind and in your heart, while you are doing the ritual."

So reading the full shabad you mentioned, Guru Arjun Dev ji says "Mantar tantar are like ashes... the real deal is getting God in your mind and heart"  ਅਉਖਧ ਮੰਤ੍ਰ ਤੰਤ ਸਭਿ ਛਾਰੁ ...  ਕਰਣੈਹਾਰੁ ਰਿਦੇ ਮਹਿ ਧਾਰੁ

Recognize the importance of having Parmatma in the ritual, without which the ritual is akin to ashes.

That's the full story.

Hi Neo, this is what I think, we all have a general idea about most of the regular forum members how they think and their personal viewpoints, which is perfectly fine. But problem arises when you start vomiting the same opinion again and again, without trying to understand what the other person is saying, and then replying again and again, and arguing without any second thought. If you don't agree its fine, but why put words in other person mouth and drag the issue unnecessarily. Hell don't reply.
I mostly come here to know learn something new, you know there are few gems here on forum, its privilege to learn from them. Also latest news like from kotkapura incident, which I know only because of the forum, its my medium to get news. I am not ungrateful but the forum just drains your energy with the B.S. going on in recent past. You are the boss, find a way to fix it. I guess some members might agree forum is in loop mode.
Bring topics from which we all can learn and contribute to, about quality, be more strict, people will change their habits if you force your hand, sikhkhoj is an example, that dude.

Cultivating Concentration (to Support Meditation)
If you think that the goal of meditation is to make the mind blank, you have created an insurmountable obstacle to developing a rich, nourishing meditation practice. As Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood observe in How to Know God, if making the mind blank were desirable, this condition could be “easily achieved by asking a friend to hit you over the head with a hammer.” It is not the mind’s nature to be blank, and trying to force it into that state is both futile and harmful. A meditative mind is a concentrated mind—a mind that is not blank; it is one which has become stilled by holding an unbroken, one-pointed focus on a single object for an extended period of time. In short, meditation is sustained concentration. (i.e. concentration on WaheGuru Gurmantar)
Concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and spiritual absorption (samadhi) are interwoven. At the beginning of the third chapter, the Yoga Sutra explains how one state merges into the next: “Concentration is focusing attention on one object and holding it there. When awareness flows evenly toward the object of concentration, that is meditation. When in meditation the true nature of the object of concentration shines forth, undistorted by the mind of the perceiver, that is samadhi.”
Multiplying Concentration
Experienced practitioners tell us that concentration is 12 seconds of unbroken attention on one thought wave. Sustain this for 144 seconds (12 x 12) and you have reached a state of meditation. If the mind can maintain that state for another multiple of 12 (12 x 144 seconds, or 28 minutes, 48 seconds), it will have entered the first stage of samadhi.
Trying to meditate without training the mind to concentrate is like trying to write a novel before learning to read—it can’t be done. Until the mind is trained to concentrate, it will never flow into a meditative state. Yet we may avoid training the mind to be one-pointed because we’re accustomed to thinking of concentration as a mental effort, like the effort required to analyze a calculus problem. Concentration seems tension-inducing somehow, and not particularly “spiritual.” But the sustained inward focus that is a prelude to meditation is neither stressful nor unpleasant—it is relaxed, focused awareness, a state of mind that is soothing and calming, once you get the knack of it.
Making a Start
If you doubt this, try the simple breathing practice that follows. It fosters relaxed concentration and is a good way to introduce the mind to the pleasures of one-pointed attention.
Sit comfortably, with the head, neck, and trunk aligned and the body relaxed. Close your eyes and focus on the flow of the breath as it passes through the nostrils. Feel the warm touch of the exhalation and the cool touch of the inhalation. Breathe smoothly and evenly. Pay particular attention to the transition between the exhalation and the inhalation because it is here that the mind has the greatest tendency to wander off.
When your attention has come to rest on the breath, begin to count your inhalations and exhalations from 1 to 5 and 5 back to 1 again in the following pattern: Exhale 1, Inhale 2, Exhale 3, Inhale 4, Exhale 5, Inhale 1, Exhale 2, Inhale 3, Exhale 4, Inhale 5.
Work with this practice over a period of days or weeks—as long as it takes—until you can attend to it for five minutes without getting lost or confused. Notice how relaxed and refreshed you feel. This is the beginning of the one-pointed focus that, with time and practice, merges into meditation.
 

3 Common Meditation Questions Answered
Q: I’ve heard it said again and again that you should sit with your head, neck, and trunk straight when you meditate. Why is that so important?
There are three main reasons why it’s important to sit with your head, neck, and trunk straight when you practice meditation.
1. This is the healthiest and most comfortable way of sitting. In this pose, the spine is stretched up, the chest is expanded, and the head is held in place effortlessly. Due to the straight spine and expanded chest, the lungs, heart, and muscles of the diaphragm work efficiently and in a relaxed manner. The weight of the whole body is centered on the base of the spine and distributed through the buttocks.
The weight creates pressure on the bottom of the spine and this pressure increases heat. As the heat increases, the pranic force at the base of the spine expands, rising upward. Because the spine is straight, the pranic energy flows freely upward along the spinal column toward the head, burning up sloth and inertia and at the same time providing nourishment to the organs located between the base of the spine and the top of the head. As a result, in this pose the practitioner will be relatively free from sloth, heaviness, and inertia, while still remaining relaxed.
2. At the base of the spine, between the first and second chakras, there is a particular energy channel called the kurma nadi. The kurma nadi originates here and runs all the way to the hollow of the throat. It regulates the stability of the body and mind.
According to yogic mythology, there is an enormous and powerful kurma (tortoise), on whose back sits shesha naga (the cosmic snake). This snake has a thousand heads and it holds the earth on one of them. When it shifts the earth from one head to another, earthquakes occur. The most powerful earthquakes happen when the tortoise—who holds the snake who is holding the earth—moves slightly.
The root of the kurma nadi is the tortoise. The stability of the spine and all that is centered around it depends on the firmness of kurma nadi. By keeping the head, neck, and trunk straight and sitting in a meditative pose, one attains firmness in the energy that is controlled by the kurma nadi.
3. Sitting in the same pose every day is a way of training our bodies and minds to be aware of the truth on which we meditate. The pose and the practice that goes with it have great impact in the formation of a fruitful meditative habit. The following story illustrates the point.
Once upon a time there was a student. He was sincere, hardworking, and quite intelligent. But his teacher was somewhat bewildered because this young man seemed completely incapable of coming up with any answers in the classroom. The teacher spent extra time with him, reviewing each lesson again and again and asking him, “Do you follow?” The student would always say, “Yes sir.” But the next day, his mind again seemed blank. Finally one day the teacher lost his temper and kicked the student so hard that the poor fellow fell down. (Thank God this didn’t happen in the West.)
As he rolled on the ground his memory returned and he recited the entire lesson flawlessly. The experienced teacher immediately understood the problem and admonished him: “Son, study your lessons sitting with your head, neck, and trunk straight, not reclining on your bed.”
Time, space, and causation are basic conditionings of the mind. How we sit and where we sit creates a deep groove in the mind. It is important, therefore, to sit for meditation every day and to sit in the same meditative pose each time. The best pose is the one in which the head, neck, and trunk remains in a straight line.
 
Q: Why is it that some people practice meditation sincerely for a long time and yet still seem to display “unspiritual” qualities—like greed, selfishness, and overbearing egos?
This happens because their meditation is just a mental exercise, not a spiritual practice. In order to make meditation spiritual, the aspirant has to infuse it with a spiritual flavor. Sincere meditators who fail to experience a spiritual unfoldment usually place their emphasis on the process of concentration. Consequently, that’s what they get. Concentration alone cannot help us transform ourselves.
Spirituality is like a bird that can fly only if both its wings are intact and equally strong. These two wings are a one-pointed mind and constant awareness of the higher goal of life. A person gains one-pointedness by practicing concentration, whereas constant awareness comes through contemplation. Meditators who simply concentrate on the object of their meditation may develop a relatively one-pointed mind, but may fail to use their own one-pointed mental energy for inner transformation.
 
Q: Doesn’t an object of meditation, such as a mantra or yantra, automatically pull the mind in a spiritual direction?

In theory, yes. But in practice, it is too much to expect from a mantra alone. It depends on who gave you that mantra, whether the person who initiated you is connected to the source, or whether the mantra you were given is an awakened mantra or is simply a word or phrase taken from a book. The result also depends on how lovingly, faithfully, and one-pointedly you meditate on that mantra. Are you really practicing with full determination or are you just experimenting with one of the techniques you’ve heard leads to enlightenment? All these factors make a big difference in the efficacy of a mantra practice.
An even more significant factor is how you manage your daily life outside your meditation sessions. Even if you behave like a sage during the thirty minutes you meditate every day, if during the remaining twenty-three and a half hours you do not keep an eye on your thoughts, speech, and actions, then it’s like pouring a cup of milk in a barrel of muddy water and expecting to get a barrel of milk.
Greed, selfishness, and overbearing egos are deeply rooted in our unconscious minds. Constant meditation, which is supported by self-observation and self-analysis, can help us identify these subhuman characteristics in ourselves. Once we recognize these characteristics in ourselves and come to know their exact patterns and in which particular areas of life they spring up most frequently, we can begin to work with them. This requires contemplation, which is why the prominent yoga texts, such as the Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita, constantly advise us to make svadhyaya (self-study) an integral part of our practice.

I came across this blog, some good tips which can be applied in our lives.
http://serioussadhana.blogspot.ca/2015/10/sadhana-for-beginners.html#comment-form
 

Very interesting discussion.

An anecdote from the life of Srimaan 108 Sant Baba Nand jee Kaleranwale:
 

 

 
Reference: Life Stories of Great Sikh Saints by Dr.Hakam Singh
 
Bhul chuk maaf

"Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call."
 
Rumi

it's funny how my understanding has changed slightly to my very earlier posts on this same topic...not different...but a little deeper...... I totally agree N30 ji, that Naam is both anhad naad and beyond...
The very first state of naam or experience of naam, as in when the servant says "bless me with naam, or Naam bakhso"  is anhad naad. ...this is when we say that naam has been baksh. or blessed.
That's when the naam journey begins, when you have made contact with that resonating wave of Ek Ongkar....it has began to get pargat.... shabad below can also confirm N30's post...
ang 666
 ਰਾਗੁ  ਧਨਾਸਿਰੀ  ਮਹਲਾ  ੩  ਘਰੁ  ੪
Rāg ḏẖanāsirī mėhlā 3 gẖar 4
Raag Dhanaasaree, Third Mehl, Fourth House:
ੴ  ਸਤਿਗੁਰ  ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ  ॥
Ik▫oaʼnkār saṯgur parsāḏ.
One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:
ਹਮ  ਭੀਖਕ  ਭੇਖਾਰੀ  ਤੇਰੇ  ਤੂ  ਨਿਜ  ਪਤਿ  ਹੈ  ਦਾਤਾ  ॥
Ham bẖīkẖak bẖekẖārī ṯere ṯū nij paṯ hai ḏāṯā.
I am just a poor beggar of Yours; You are Your Own Lord Master, You are the Great Giver.
 ਹੋਹੁ  ਦੈਆਲ  ਨਾਮੁ  ਦੇਹੁ  ਮੰਗਤ  ਜਨ  ਕੰਉ  ਸਦਾ  ਰਹਉ  ਰੰਗਿ  ਰਾਤਾ  ॥੧॥
Hohu ḏai▫āl nām ḏeh mangaṯ jan kaʼn▫u saḏā raha▫o rang rāṯā. ||1||
Be Merciful, and bless me, a humble beggar, with Your Name, so that I may forever remain imbued with Your Love. ||1||
ਹੰਉ  ਬਲਿਹਾਰੈ  ਜਾਉ  ਸਾਚੇ  ਤੇਰੇ  ਨਾਮ  ਵਿਟਹੁ  ॥
Haʼn▫u balihārai jā▫o sācẖe ṯere nām vitahu.
I am a sacrifice to Your Name, O True Lord.
 ਕਰਣ  ਕਾਰਣ  ਸਭਨਾ  ਕਾ  ਏਕੋ  ਅਵਰੁ  ਨ  ਦੂਜਾ  ਕੋਈ  ॥੧॥  ਰਹਾਉ  ॥
Karaṇ kāraṇ sabẖnā kā eko avar na ḏūjā ko▫ī. ||1|| rahā▫o.
The One Lord is the Cause of causes; there is no other at all. ||1||Pause||
ਬਹੁਤੇ  ਫੇਰ  ਪਏ  ਕਿਰਪਨ  ਕਉ  ਅਬ  ਕਿਛੁ  ਕਿਰਪਾ  ਕੀਜੈ  ॥
Bahuṯe fer pa▫e kirpan ka▫o ab kicẖẖ kirpā kījai.
I was wretched; I wandered through so many cycles of reincarnation. Now, Lord, please bless me with Your Grace.
ਹੋਹੁ  ਦਇਆਲ  ਦਰਸਨੁ  ਦੇਹੁ  ਅਪੁਨਾ  ਐਸੀ  ਬਖਸ  ਕਰੀਜੈ  ॥੨॥
Hohu ḏa▫i▫āl ḏarsan ḏeh apunā aisī bakẖas karījai. ||2||
Be merciful, and grant me the Blessed Vision of Your Darshan; please grant me such a gift. ||2||
ਭਨਤਿ  ਨਾਨਕ  ਭਰਮ  ਪਟ  ਖੂਲ੍ਹ੍ਹੇ  ਗੁਰ  ਪਰਸਾਦੀ  ਜਾਨਿਆ  ॥
Bẖanaṯ Nānak bẖaram pat kẖūlĥe gur parsādī jāni▫ā.
Prays Nanak, the shutters of doubt have been opened wide; by Guru's Grace, I have come to know the Lord.
ਸਾਚੀ  ਲਿਵ  ਲਾਗੀ  ਹੈ  ਭੀਤਰਿ  ਸਤਿਗੁਰ  ਸਿਉ  ਮਨੁ  ਮਾਨਿਆ  ॥੩॥੧॥੯॥
Sācẖī liv lāgī hai bẖīṯar saṯgur si▫o man māni▫ā. ||3||1||9||
I am filled to overflowing with true love; my mind is pleased and appeased by the True Guru. ||3||1||9||
 
Sat1176 ji....If we start to think there is something else beyond naam, then we are falling into the trap of dubida and duality.......this can be dangerous in gurmat and we have to be careful...........In the above shabad,  Guru Amardas ji is giving us a multitude of messages, but  you can always vichaar carefully for whatever jewel you look for in the khajana of gurbani, ...so lets look at the jewel of naam and you may see that Guruji is ....
ਹੋਹੁ  ਦੈਆਲ  ਨਾਮੁ  ਦੇਹੁ  ਮੰਗਤ  ਜਨ  ਕੰਉ  ਸਦਾ  ਰਹਉ  ਰੰਗਿ  ਰਾਤਾ  ॥੧॥
Hohu ḏai▫āl nām ḏeh mangaṯ jan kaʼn▫u saḏā raha▫o rang rāṯā. ||1||
Be Merciful, and bless me, a humble beggar, with Your Name, so that I may forever remain imbued with Your Love. ||1||
1) asking for naam, which could be 1st encounter of anhad naad.... or it could even be darshan of waheguru...as in the later darshan line..."Hohu ḏa▫i▫āl ḏarsan ḏeh apunā aisī bakẖas karījai"   .... all depending on stage of sevak. (it doesn't matter because he tells you why later on in the shabad
2) He confirms in the rahao pangti, that the above line doesn't matter if it refers to sevak begging for 1st stage Anhad or Darshan of waheguru at his door, because when it comes to naam..there is no duality, no other, nothing beyond naam ...there is only the One, who is the cause of naam and is the cause itself. 
ਕਰਣ  ਕਾਰਣ  ਸਭਨਾ  ਕਾ  ਏਕੋ  ਅਵਰੁ  ਨ  ਦੂਜਾ  ਕੋਈ  ॥੧॥  ਰਹਾਉ  ॥
Karaṇ kāraṇ sabẖnā kā eko avar na ḏūjā ko▫ī. ||1|| rahā▫o.
The One Lord is the Cause of causes; there is no other at all. ||1||Pause||
 
 
 
 

Sorry maybe I should have been more clear. Beyond naam only waheguru himself exists. You as an individual have merged into him and their is no duality between you and him.

Listen to Sant Hari Singh Ji - Friday 4th Sep 2015 by Sant Ishar Singh Ji #np on #SoundCloud
 

Went down to the London 40th Salana Barsi Samagam of Sant Baba Isher Singh Ji today where they had an exhibition of a few of his items. Darshan karlo ji.
Was surprised to learn that the great artist Sobha Singh only painted one mahapursh in his lifetime. That was Sant Isher Singh ji on the request of Sant Kishan Singh ji. Apparently Sobha Singh went to Rara Sahib on a number of occasions.

They had the original painting at the samagam.

Baba ji's Kes with their Kanga.

Ha ha, Do they(SGPC) think that panj pyaare is a post that can be suspended, I think waheguru Jee wants to clean all the mess at one go.