Meditation Techniques of Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara, one of the great sages of India wrote in a simple and profound manner. After all, he wrote the commentary on Vedanta in his book, Aparokshanubhuti at a tender age of sixteen — an age when most boys are busy playing silly games and chasing girls.
The only purpose of meditation (a method of enquiry) he says is to realize one’s true self (called Brahman in the Vedas). In his seminal work he puts forward 15 profound mediative techniques, which he expects an aspirant (a person who intensely desires enlightenment or realization) to go through in a step by step fashion.
Technique — 1 — Verse 101
“Without constant attentive practice the knowledge of the present existence of the Self, may not arise from that Brahman. Therefore, the aspirant should meditate profoundly and repeatedly over a long period of time for the welfare, bliss and happiness (of all).”
This is a continual practice that involves “vairagya”, which translates to detachment. Interestingly, Adi Shankara placed the practice of Vairagya on the top of the list, without which it is impossible to adopt the path of meditation for the ultimate realization.
He explains “Vairagya” in a very humourous way. He says, in Verse 4 of his book:
“Just as one is indifferent to something (as insignificant as) crow-droppings so such detachment (applied) to everything from the world of Brahmā in the beginning to inanimate objects in the end is pure vairāgya.”
What he means is:
Detachment needs to be complete to be effective. As bird excrement may be perceived but cause no movement in the mind so the mind of the aspirant needs to settle.
Hence the goal of Meditative Technique — 1 must be to explore, discuss and hone the virtue of Vairagya to its fulness and purity. It is to be practiced diligently and perfected to a great extent before one attempts to take up the next technique.
What is to be done?
The question that one must ask when perceiving anything (it can be a physical object, a mental formation, a hypothesis, a feeling, an inanimate object) is — “Is this temporary or permanent?”
The idea is to detach from anything that is so temporary in the manner one mentally detaches from a crow’s dropping.
Though continuous practice, one suddenly realizes that all that we perceive in the physical world and the world that we create in our minds are really impermanent and devoid of essence, which doesn’t merit our slightest attention. Buddha called this nature of impermanence “Empty and Meaningless”. Hence the best strategy would be to detach ourselves from such impermanence since such things or phenomena can never have the potential to provide a continuous source of happiness or bliss. This is simply because our feelings towards things and phenomena are devoid of any essence.
If we fail to realize this, we would continually jump from one impermanent thing to the next to derive happiness (our birthright) and always crave and run after our feelings which would only drain our energy and leave us high and dry with great disappointment, frustration, irritation, anxiety and anger.
Interestingly, irritation, anxiety and anger are the causes of many modern diseases we suffer from — like diabetes, blood pressure, arthritis, dementia, insanity, cancer etc.
How would we know that we have achieved considerable degree of detachment?
- When we feel every part of our body to be relaxed and
- Mind is settled, steady and attentive and
- The actions that we do in our daily lives are not only good for us but also good for others — (actions that bring a quality of joy and happiness in our lives.)
Note: This technique, if practiced diligently not only prepares us for the ultimate realization but also helps us realize our true nature in a flash.
By
Dibyendu De
