Meditation is a mental technique, but it involves more than just your mind. For instance, during meditation you will feel your body relax and your breathing become fainter. This shows that your body is intimately involved in the meditation. Not only is your physical body involved, but a subtler level of your body is as well. It is a common experience during meditation to feel filled with energy and/or light; sometimes people report feeling energy flow along the spine or into the head. Such experiences take place at a finer level of your body — at the level of the “energetic body.”
As we saw in chapter 1, there are subtle and gross layers to everything, and this includes your body as well. Even Western science tells us there is a great deal of electrochemical activity in the body, and modern physicists say that all matter is energy. Because we have the gift of this highly sophisticated human nervous system, we are capable of directly experiencing an energetic level of our own being.
Over the centuries, this energetic body has been thoroughly explored by the great researchers of the East: India’s yogis, meditating long hours in remote huts and caves. As they describe it, energy flows through a network of innumerable subtle channels throughout the body. They refer to this energy as prana (usually translated as “life force”) and to the innumerable channels through which the prana flows as nadis. The chakras (major centers of energy and consciousness in the body), which we will discuss in the next chapter, are another key feature of the energetic body.
In most people, the energetic body operates at a diminished capacity, the flow of subtle energies restricted by impurities. From the yogic perspective, this diminished flow of prana weakens a person’s mind and body, restricts consciousness and spiritual experience, and ultimately may result in illness. This concept is hardly unique to India. In China the energetic body has been recognized in terms of chi flowing through subtle channels called meridians, and the balanced and harmonious flow of chi is considered to result in optimal health, while restricted or imbalanced chi is a cause of illness.
What does all this have to do with preparing for meditation? The point is that these three aspects of your being — the physical body, energetic body, and mind — are interrelated. If you do something to one of these, the other two will be affected. This offers a great key to preparing for meditation. By working on either the energetic body or the physical body in ways conducive to meditation, you can deepen your meditation and accelerate your progress. It will also make meditating much easier. By properly preparing, you will fall into deep meditation without effort.
Practicing yoga postures is one way to work on the physical body to prepare for deeper meditations. People practicing yoga often find that in certain poses they spontaneously experience a meditative state. When properly performed, yoga postures tone the functioning of the nervous system in a way that aids meditation. Working on the energetic body, however, can even more quickly and profoundly prepare you for deep meditation. The energetic body is subtler than the physical body, and as we saw in the previous chapter, the subtle levels of existence are always more powerful than the gross ones. The energetic body is also the connecting point between the physical body and the mind. When you tone the energetic body — by awakening the subtle energies in the body (prana) and getting them to flow in a balanced, harmonious way through the nadis — the physical body’s functioning is calmed and revitalized, and the mind is empowered, cleared, and focused.
Here are a few more benefits of toning the energetic body:
• As prana is enlivened and directed to flow through the nadis, obstructions to that flow are dissolved and the chakras, or centers of spiritual energy, become clear and open. This strengthens and normalizes the functioning of the body and mind, releases blocks to creative and healthy expression of the personality, and awakens higher, spiritual consciousness.
• As the obstructions to the flow of prana are dissolved, the prana begins to flow in a more balanced, harmonious way throughout the body. Not only does this improve physical health, but it also improves psychological and emotional health and vitality. When the energetic body is in balance, the physical, mental, and emotional bodies become balanced as well.
• The radiance of the energetic body is the aura that surrounds a person. When the energetic body is constricted by obstructions to the flow of prana, the omnipresent grace of the Divine that is always available to everyone cannot be received. It goes unfelt and unnoticed. When the energetic body is purified — when the obstructions are dissolved — the aura expands and shines brightly and divine grace is experienced and enjoyed. One begins to live a higher expression of life in all ways, spiritually and materially. One walks the earth in the presence of the Divine.
There are many ways to tone the energetic body. Certain breathing practices (pranayama) are highly effective in this respect, but these are difficult to teach properly in a book (see the Resources section toward the end of this book). Yet there is one simple exercise that is easily learned and is outstanding for toning the energetic body: mulabandha.
In the early 1920s an American physician developed a technique called progressive muscle relaxation, which involves contracting and then relaxing muscle groups. This commonly practiced technique generates a state of relaxation and reduces anxiety. Countless centuries ago, India’s yogis discovered a similar practice, but one that in my opinion is more profound. It involves one particular muscle group that when contracted and then relaxed awakens the spiritual energies in the body and directs them upward to stimulate the experience of higher consciousness. While progressive muscle relaxation creates a positive effect primarily in the body and mind, this yogic technique creates a positive effect in the body, in the mind, and most especially in the energetic body. It awakens the prana from the root chakra, located at the perineum, and directs it upward, clearing and opening the primary nadis (those in and around the spine) and the chakras.
The Sanskrit name for this exercise is mulabandha. Mula means root, and bandha means lock. Mulabandha consists of “locking” and then relaxing the muscles at the location of the root chakra, awakening the spiritual energy in that area and directing it upward. Accomplished yogis consider mulabandha to be a master key that unlocks the spiritual energy that is the basis of living in higher consciousness.
For many years, I taught this practice only to advanced students. Then I discovered that when I taught it to those just learning meditation, they began to quickly have the experiences of advanced students. For that reason I made it the foundation of the chakra meditation in Effortless Mind, which you will learn in the next few chapters. Even by practicing it in isolation, you will feel deeply calmed and revitalized.
To begin the practice, sit comfortably on a cushion or mat with your legs crossed, or sit in a chair with your feet on the floor. The two most important considerations when it comes to position (for this exercise and for all the meditation practices taught in this book) are that you sit comfortably and that you have good posture, with your back and neck comfortably straight.
Some people have the misconception that to meditate really well, you need to sit in a pretzel position. Not true! There are advantages, on an energetic level, to sitting in lotus position or another advanced posture, but these advantages quickly become disadvantages if you are uncomfortable or in pain. Discomfort will only distract you and spoil your meditation.
If you are not used to sitting in the lotus, half-lotus, or other advanced postures, feel free to sit in an ordinary crosslegged position. If your knees don’t touch the floor, support them with pillows. Put a pillow under your sacrum to help you sit erect. Or if you prefer, simply sit in a chair with your feet planted on the ground and your spine straight (not slouched). In other words, sit erect but comfortably. In the words of Adi Shankara, renowned Indian philosopher-yogi-saint of the eighth and ninth centuries, the best posture is one “in which the meditation of Brahman flows spontaneously and unceasingly, and not any other [posture] that destroys one’s happiness.”
It is, however, better to sit than to lie down when meditating, for two reasons:
• If you meditate while lying down, you may fall asleep simply because you are relaxed and in a position ready for sleep.
• When you are seated with good posture, the energies are drawn upward to awaken the higher energy centers. When you’re lying down, the energies are not so naturally drawn upward.
That said, if you have a physical disability or are in pain while sitting and need to lie down while meditating, by all means do lie down. You will still receive great benefit from meditation.
As for placement of your hands, comfort is, again, the important thing. At this point, you needn’t be overly concerned with any particular position of the hands. You can simply rest your hands easily on your lap or on your knees. There are many traditional positions for hand placement during meditation, called mudras, which I discuss in chapter 8.
Begin by closing your eyes and breathing just a little deeper than normal through your nose, inhaling and exhaling at a steady, relaxed pace. Notice the flow of breath in and out of your nostrils. Let your breaths become long and quiet. Feel your whole body relaxing. After a minute or so of this, as you breathe in, firmly but without strain contract the perineum (the muscles between the anus and genitals, where the root chakra is located).
At the end of your in-breath, hold the breath and the contraction of the muscles of the perineum momentarily. As you breathe out, relax the perineum completely. As you practice, see if you can isolate the muscles of the perineum without any strain, so that only this area contracts. Continue for a couple of minutes in this way. When you have finished, continue to sit with your eyes closed and just be. Enjoy any sense of inner silence or peace. Note how you feel in body and mind. Very likely even two minutes of this practice will result in an increased sense of peace and alertness.
When you’re ready, try it again. This time, as you breathe in, squeeze your perineum and gently feel your attention flow up the spine from your perineum to the crown of your head. As you breathe out and relax your perineum, gently feel your attention descend from the crown of your head back down the spine to your perineum. Do not make any effort to visualize or try to have any particular experience. Just allow a gentle, easy, abstract flow of attention with no expectations — up the spine with the in-breath as you squeeze the perineum, and down the spine with the out-breath as you relax the perineum.
Perhaps your attention does not seem restricted to your spine, or perhaps the flow of attention seems unclear. This is okay. Just be easy with it. Ease allows your awareness to move to subtler levels of experience; and again, the subtle is more powerful. Adding this faint flow of attention up and down the spine will significantly deepen your sense of inner silence and peace. After a couple of minutes, stop and simply be. Enjoy whatever peace and stillness you feel.
This gentle yogic practice is one of many similar exercises practiced by India’s yogis for centuries. Practice it easily and gently until you feel comfortable and familiar with it. This does not mean that you need to feel the flow of attention clearly; it is likely to remain a faint, abstract flow. When you do feel at ease with the practice, then you’re ready to combine mulabandha with chakra meditation to bring far greater results.