Full Moon Meditation

with Swami Ritavan Bharati

at The Meditation Center, Minneapolis, MN

Time: 9:00PM  – 10:00PM CST

You are invited to sit in meditation for an hour wherever you are, in your home or with friends. Total beginners and longtime practitioners, non-initiates and initiates are welcome. If you cannot sit for the entire hour, sit as long as you are able; as Swami Veda has said, “Let the quietness of the mind continue even after you rise..”

Swami Veda Bharati has written:

Yoga Philosophy views the mind as Universal field; its waves passing through us and becoming our individual minds. This Universal mind is a radiant force and is also known as a Universal Guru within.

When all sit together at the same time even in different parts of the world, they connect to the Universal Guru mind and generate a strong field, like so many magnets being joined together and forminSg a much stronger magnet; the strength of each then equals the combined strength of all.

Thus it is when we join together in meditation, and together enter the Guru-mind’s Field. On certain days of the year the Wave of Beauty and the Wave of Bliss flows very strong. These are the sacred days.

Before his Mahasamadhi, Swamiji instructed that Full Moon Meditations should continue.

Full Moon Meditation Dates

There are four “1 hour” meditation times within the 24 hour day.

Timings:

7AM  

In India (IST), surrounding countries adjust the time accordingly.
For example Iran is 5 AM.

8PM  

In East Asia, 8 PM Singapore time.
Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand etc.
adjust their times to coincide with Singapore time 8 PM

8PM

In U.K. (Greenwich Mean Time).
Those in all European and all African time zones,
please adjust your sitting time to coincide with
8 PM United Kingdom (GMT)

10PM

In New York, surrounding countries;
regions of South, Central, and North America;
and the Caribbean to match their time to 10 PM New York time.

In ancient civilizations, timings of sacred events were very important. Two kinds of calendars were used, solar and lunar. The same conjunction of stars, planets, and constellations occurred at the same time and became our years and months. Various festivals, influenced by the ancient traditions, are held according to the solar and lunar calendars. That is when the energies flow.

So the dates of the Full Moon Meditations are announced after the SRSG Ashram Pandits have worked out the exact hours and minutes of the full moon each month. The hours of the full moon span two calendar days in western time. By Swami Ritavan’s request, the date with the most full moon hours is chosen for the Full Moon Meditation.

Swami Ritavan and other teachers will sit with you according to these dates. Please join in the shared Full Moon mind-field.

People often ask, “How do we tune into the Indian time?” That is not how it goes. On whichever continent Swami Ritavan is at any given time, he sits at the times announced for your continent. Swami Ritavan meditates four times during the Full Moon 24-hour period to accommodate people at the designated meditation timings. So he actually has a cycle of four sessions for different continents. Please meditate at the time for your continent – Swami Ritavan will be there.

Guidelines for Full Moon Meditation

“We need to convey the following to all those who participate in the full moon meditation and those who guide such groups.

“In our Tradition mantras are not chosen at random. They are conferred by those who have been initiated and authorised to do so.

“Those who have not received a mantra in the Tradition may use:

1. So Ham
2. The name of their favourite form of the deity.
3. If they do not believe in any of these they may use one of the different ways of counting the breath.

“Please do not pick up just any and every recording of Swami Rama or Swami Veda which has reference to a mantra. The non-initiates may use the recording that guides the meditation according to the above 3 options.”
– Swami Veda Bharati

Sample Meditation

Those who have not learned to meditate before, but would like to join Swami Ritavan in the Worldwide Meditations may ask for Swami Veda’s booklet title “Beginning Meditation” (Please see http://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Swami-Veda-Bharati/beginning-meditation.html)  and a CD of Guided Meditation. Until then, and until you have had the opportunity to take some training in correct ways of sitting and breathing, the simple procedure to follow is:

1. Sit as straight as you can on an even, firm, but cushioned surface.

1. Relax your forehead.

3. Relax your facial and physical musculature.

4. Bring awareness to your breathing.

5. Breathe slowly, gently, smoothly, evenly; without jerk or sound in the breathing.

6. Now feel the touch and flow of the breath in the nostrils.

7. Let there be no pause between the breaths; as one breath is completed, begin to feel the next breath flowing and touching the nostrils.

8. After a few breaths, choose:

a. whichever name of God is your favorite according to your tradition or religion;

b. or a sacred but short phrase or prayer word from your scripture or tradition

c. If you do not believe in a form of divinity, or spiritual incarnation and so forth, exhaling, think Oooonnne (One in a long and drawn out way), inhaling think Twwwoooo (Two) without a break in this count with the breath.

9. Exhaling, mentally remember the word or phrase. Inhaling, mentally remember the word or phrase.

10. Let there be no break between the breaths, nor between the incessant flow of the thoughts of the same phrase.

11. As soon as you become aware that you have lost the flow and other thoughts have begun to arise, re-start the same procedure from the beginning with number 1.

12. Sit for as long as you wish.

13. Let the quietness of the mind continue even after you rise.

14. If you practice this even for 2-3 minutes at a time many times a day, you will notice subtle changes in yourself for the better.

15. Whatever you do repeatedly with the mind, that will become the mind’s habit; calming the mind repeatedly will return your mind to its calm nature.

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