The Battle of Life: Perspective & A Technique

The Battle of Life — A Perspective & A Technique

Last week Ananda worldwide held its annual SPIRITUAL RENEWAL WEEK at Ananda Village in northern California on the theme and title of Paramhansa Yogananda’s first public talk in English: “The Battle of Life.” The talk was given on the ship, “City of Sparta,” on its voyage from Calcutta to Boston in 1920.

While there are some who don’t consider life a battle at all, they remain a minority among those who strive for success whether in material or spiritual realms. Effort, in other words, is needed for success; so, too, is patience; so, too, is divine grace! (I could add many other virtues such as courage, intuition, common sense, and tremendous will power.)

The perspective I’d like to add can be summarized in a phrase made popular among Ananda teachers by Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda. It goes like this: “awareness precedes control.” Meditation is the premier daily practice that enhances self-awareness: awareness of our thoughts, words, emotions, and actions in the context of their impact on our attitudes and on people and circumstances around us.

Becoming aware of our thoughts and actions is the first step to changing our behavior. More is needed, of course, to affect change but it is the first step. Diet classes might, for example, have the student write down everything they eat day after day to increase awareness of one’s eating habits.

Self-awareness therefore could be said to be the first weapon in the battle of life. Meditation can be greatly enhanced if we take the calm, introspective self-awareness of meditation into our active hours. Ways to do this include:

Taking a mental break every hour: stop what you are doing, close your eyes and take a couple deep slow breaths. Relax and smile while you do this. Let go of whirling thoughts and be calmly present. Recollect this morning’s meditation or the state of meditation before going back to your duties.
STOP/LOOK/LISTEN. Taking #1 a little deeper, on your break add to it surveying your surroundings silently; observe items in your space. Now, close your eyes and simply listen and/or feel without a mental narrative.
Gazing. A variation on STOP/LOOK/LISTEN is to gaze out the window (if you have one) or simply gaze in the near distance of your room. Gazing means to calmly suspend the mental narrative and present wholly present with your surroundings.

Paramhansa Yogananda gives this technique from his early printed (but not out of print) lessons. I have shortened and simplified his instructions as follows:

Add to your sleeping routine and add to your waking routine the following exercise.
Lie on your back. (In general, Yogananda recommends sleeping on your back as the best position, long-term.) With eyes closed, look up and through the point between the eyebrows. In a relaxed manner, hold your gaze there as if peering through this point out about a couple feet (or more) in front of you.
Make a silent prayer to God, guru, or deity. Feel the divine presence as a wave of peace.
Begin 12 long, slow breaths in the following manner. (Keep your eyes upraised):
After each long (slow) exhalation, relax and hold the breath “out” (meaning before inhaling in the next breath cycle) mentally (silently) chant 12 times a 3-word formula such as: Om Guru Om; God Christ Guru; Om Spirit Om; or perhaps simply count 1, 2, 3 (not too fast).
You might not at first reach twelve such 3-word “mantras.” Do what your breath allows. You’ll find you can increase the number over time.
Later in your practice, see if you can increase the cycles to 24 cycles of inhalation, exhalation, hold.
When finished, rest in a prayerful mood or space, letting your breath be natural.

This practice will increase your ability to concentrate if you practice it faithfully each day. It brings relaxation and awareness to every cell of your body.