After we start a heart-based meditation practice, we soon begin to appreciate the benefits we experience from daily practice. We also start enjoying the condition of stillness and composure we experience after each meditation in the morning.
Progressively, this condition starts to extend throughout the day. We remember the inner state more frequently, and with this undercurrent of stillness we are able to fulfil our world responsibilities effectively, with minimum emotional disturbance. In other words, we start becoming meditatively active – with an inner meditative state, we are outwardly active. This is an important transition, because active meditation leads us to be meditatively active.
It is often short-lived, though, as it is difficult to retain a meditative state in the midst of day-to-day activities. It recedes as the day goes on, we end up losing the state of remembrance, and we find it difficult to retrieve. What if we could extend this meditative state throughout the day?
To reach the stage where it becomes permanent we need a method, and it is explained through the acronym AEIOU. It is a way of deeply absorbing the meditative state within us. This method is practiced after meditation for a few minutes. It can also be done at other times during the day for a few minutes, like switching between activities, so as to retrieve the meditative condition into our consciousness.
How to practice AEIOU?
“A” is Acquiring the condition. To do this, we study our condition closely right after meditation. For example, we may observe our breathing pattern, the quality and intensity of our thoughts and feelings, any activity or movement we experienced in the chakras during meditation, and any inspirations. We can contrast this with what we observed before meditation. Then we can appreciate what we have acquired.
This story is from the November 2023 edition of Heartfulness eMagazine.
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This story is from the November 2023 edition of Heartfulness eMagazine.
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