Meditations for your practice
How to Meditate:
Meditation is an art and like all art forms it must be practiced. To achieve the benefits of meditation it should be practiced at least once a day for 20-30 minutes. The best times to meditate are sunrise and sunset, however as these times are not always suitable begin by meditating each day upon rising.
What do I need to Meditate:
1. Find a quiet place in your home. Maybe set up a corner of your bedroom with a straight backed chair or cushion. A candle, incense and a picture of a Divine Being such as Christ, Mary, Sai Baba, Buddha, Ascended Masters, etc is useful to bring the mind back to a point of centredness to begin meditation. You might like to place your favourite crystal beside the candle as crystals help raise the energy of your meditation space.
2. If you choose to do a creative visualisation meditation, music is a good idea or you may choose to play a specially prepared meditation CD or Tape.
3. POSTURE: Another important thing is your posture. It is essential to meditate with a straight spine. Straight spine but not tense or rigid. Your head must be straight on your shoulders – not tilted or dropped forward.
4. LISTEN: It is very important to connect to all the sounds around you. This will have a quietening effect on your mind. If your thoughts are very persistent, tell them that you will think about them later. Keep practicing listening with BOTH ears. Listen to the furthermost sounds.
5. FEEL: Feel the air on your face, the clothes on your body, the weight of your body on the chair or the floor. Feel your body as a whole entity.
6. BREATHING: After initial 5 deep breaths, allow the breathing to return to normal. Let the body breathe itself. Observe the breath entering and exiting the nostrils.
7. NOTICE: Notice how your mind quietens while you simply watch your breathing. Notice the tension in the body. What part of the body is tense and breathe the tension away on the out breath. Notice if you are still connected to the 5 senses. Notice the energy flowing through the body: whether your hands and feet are tingling. Notice the increased awareness. Focus your attention on this observation for several minutes. Finish with focusing on the breathing.
When you are ready gently bring your consciousness back into the room and open your eyes.
PS: You might like to call in Archangel Michael for his protection while you are meditating
The Jyoti Meditation as taught by Sai Baba: 
Jyothi (flame) Meditation is the foremost spiritual discipline geared towards gaining inner peace.
1. We should have a fixed time and place every day where we sit for meditation either in the morning and/or evening.
2. We should sit on a thin mattress for this exercise. The sitting pose or asana should be comfortable both for our mind and body.
3. We should then chant Omkar, the Universal Mantra glorified as ‘Nada Brahma’ at least 3 times but preferably 21 times. The mind under the influence of this divine sound slowly loses momentum and becomes more and more tranquil and steady.
4. The next step is to put the breath in rhythm. The easiest and the most effortless method is to watch the breath, thereby the process becomes normal, that is, longer and calmer. When we inhale, the breath sounds ‘So’ and when we exhale, it sounds ‘Humm’ which means ‘He’ i.e. “God” and ‘I’ respectively or “God am I”.
5. Accordingly, synchronizing with these two breaths, imagine that the flame ‘Jyot’ is within us. Feel that the light of the flame is in our heart, right in the centre of the Lotus. Gently move the light to other parts of your body — the stomach, the limbs, the eyes, the ears and the tongue. Feel that the entire body is illumined thereby. Rejoice that the light is the light of love; it removes hatred; it dispels darkness and doubt; it reveals that all are Divine.
6. As the light fills the eyes, you must feel that they have been purified. They shall no longer seek to look upon evil sights. When the light lights the tongue with love, decide that there is no more scope for uttering harsh words. Similarly, once the radiance of the divine light bathes the arms, they can no longer delight in performing harmful deeds while the feet can no longer move into polluting areas and places.
7. Now visualize the light as surrounding our physical body and spreading far out to family members, neighbours and even those whom we do not like. Every object is enveloped in that divine effulgence. Isavaasyam Idam Sarvam. All this is illumined by God. This is the stage of bliss.
8. In this manner, the ONE flame on which we concentrate can cleanse our mind and body and spread its light and radiance to include our entire environment.
9. Finally, take the Jyot on to the figure of our Ishta Devta or the Deity of you choice and/or fix our vision on the Jyot, and commence meditation or silent sitting for a few minutes, followed by Japa of our chosen Mantra with the full understanding of its meaning and firm faith in its power and benefits. It should be inter-woven with our breathing process of inhaling and exhaling.
For Children:
“Look Inside You, Meditation on the Light” book is a beautiful new way to help your children access the wealth of their inner world. It is based on the Jyoti Meditation as taught by Sai Baba and published by Sai Towers Publishing Bangalore, and sold by the Academy.
An extract from the book: to come soon!
A One Minute Meditation:
By: Dattatreya Siva Baba.
OM NA MA SHI VA YA (Om Nama Shivaya) is a Divine tool that can not only improve every aspect of your life, but also improve conditions on the entire planet.
Meditating on Om.
At the level of human existence, Ah creates the waking state of human consciousness, Oo, the dream state, and Ma, the sleep state.
Meditate on Ah for 10 seconds at the root chakra located at the base on your spine. (Chakras are energy centers located at various places in the body). Keep repeating this sound mentally. This will attract all worldly things to you.
Meditate on Oo at the heart centre for 10 seconds. This will give you Divine Intelligence and influence your dreaming.
Meditate on Ma at the throat chakra (located at the throat centre) for 5 seconds. Ma will create awareness of Maya (illusion). It will create earthly consciousness and provide rest to the system. We sleep one third of our lives, so that is why Ma is for a shorter duration, so you do not become too sleepy.
Meditate on Om at the third eye chakra (located at the brow) for 10 seconds.
Meditating on Om Nama Shivaya
Nama Shivaya has two units. NA MA is to be chanted at the root chakra and the navel chakra respectively. Nama represents lower worldly realities like earth and water and the karmic egocentric life. Shivaya is the second unit. It represents higher life. SHI VA YA has to be chanted at the heart, throat and two eyes respectively. Shivaya gives the awareness of the Divine existence, which is the right of every human soul.
• NA – root centre, earth energy – 5 seconds
• MA – navel centre, water energy – 5 seconds
• SHI – heart centre, fire energy – 5 seconds
• VA – throat and nostrils, wind/air energy – 5 seconds
• YA – two eyes, two brains, third eye, space energy – 5 seconds
The total time for one round is one minute. This One Minute Meditation can be practiced in a variety of ways. If you desire, you can stay at different points for longer periods of time. Don’t get concerned about being so precise with the number of seconds you spend on each chakra that you get caught up in thought and become distracted from the real goal doing the meditation. Desire and intention are emotional, not mental. Through regular practice you will get a comfortable sense of how long you are at each chakra. The keys are to keep the cycles short so you don’t dwell for minutes at a time at each chakra, and to focus on your pure desires and intention.
By: Dattatreya Siva Baba.
From the Book: The One Minute Guide to Prosperity and Enlightenment.
Website: www.srisiva.com
Change Your Life through the Use of Sound:
By: Dattatreya Siva Baba.
The real way to dramatically change your life is through sound. Consciousness itself is sound. So if you change sounds within the system, you can make lasting changes in your life.
All that you need to do is to change the sounds of your consciousness at a very deep level. When the yogis talk about sounds, they don’t talk about only the spoken sounds. Spoken sounds are only a very gross form of sounds. Spoken sounds emerge from unmanifest levels.
The Theory of Sounds
Sounds, fundamentally, are the building blocks of the whole Universe. Sounds build your body; sounds build your mind; sounds build everything that you see around you.
Without sounds, nothing can exist. The seers of ancient India knew the secret of sounds and they gave them in formulae that can make significant changes in your life. By using these sounds, either in meditation or listening to mantras, you are creating a very powerful environment within your own consciousness. The sounds affect your mind in a profound way, enabling you to acquire a new mind.