Mind ~ Blank/Blissful
In this inSelf Yoga™ the major part is the meditation practice, done under guidance with information from the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras and the Kundalini Hatha Yoga books as the primary reference. Any other books which support these three texts are useful.
Even though meditation is the major part, it requires supports. Therefore we practice breath infusion with yoga postures before doing the meditation. Initially the main drive for meditation is to internalize the mind upon itself. This may be termed as introspection. It is however termed as pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal, which is the fifth (5th) stage of yoga as Patanjali explained.
There is a struggle to internalize the mind. Each student must go through this battle all alone in the mind. Some achieve it in the nick of time, while others even after years of practice, still struggle to complete this stage.
All props used to help in the control of the mind, must be abandoned, so that the observing self can directly control the mind without the help of mantras, deities or any other type support. Only naad sound which occurs naturally in the mind can be used in the advanced practice for this.
What we need is not help from the deity to control the mind but help from the deity to show us how we can control the mind, and only control of the individual mind, not other minds.
Once this stage of internalization is stabilized and becomes the standard start point of the meditation session, the next stage is to clamp down of thinking and visualization which are the natural ongoing states inside the mind. Most students stall here and never advance a step further.
Once the meditation practice stabilized at the stage of being internal with the battle between the observing self and the thought-image display faculty, the student will continue with the fight for a time. After a long time, this battle will cease with the student as the victor and with the mind being subdued. However the mind will resent the fact that the observing self gained control. It will then strengthen its alliance with the kundalini life force in an effort to cause a revolution to overthrow the observing self. This subterfuge will continue for some time, for years, or even lives. Then the student will find that the battle for the mind is terminated with the observing self in primary control. This will turn into a sour situation for the observing self, with it getting very little cooperation from the adjuncts.
This is when mediation becomes very dry, pleasure-less and when the observing self becomes very lonely within the mind. At this stage, some student bolt and return to a more agreeable relationship with the mind, thus ending their quest for spiritual freedom.
An example of this is seen in the case of a single mother and a son, where, as the child gets older, the Mom loses more and more control and has to agree to the demands of the child for peace sake. By nature the Mom is not a Dad and was not equipped with the harshness of a father. Thus she can only bargain with the son as he gets older and older. In the end she loses the bargain and the boy just does as he pleases.
If however the student can survive through the loneliness period, which might last for months or years or even lives, then that will become a stability for the meditation. Then after a time, the student will shift from the lonely state into the blissful energy state of the blank mind.
Even though the mind will be blank of ideas and images, still it will be blissful and will give a nourishment energy to the observing self, along with a superior peace-energy which is quite satisfying.
