| There are many different approaches to meditation | | | | meditation difficult and unproductive. |
| but the aim of each meditation is to enable the | | | | 2. By meditating on our heart center we feel our |
| practitioner to develop a calm and quiet mind. One of | | | | sense of awareness is leaving the mind and entering |
| the safest and most effective ways to meditate is | | | | into the heart. When we become fully immersed in |
| through meditation on the spiritual heart. The spiritual | | | | the consciousness of the heart, thoughts lose their |
| heart is an energy centre called the anaharta charka; | | | | power over us; it becomes much easier to meditate |
| it is here where we can experience the qualities of | | | | free of thought. |
| love, sympathy, purity and oneness. Because of | | | | 3. The qualities of the heart embody oneness, |
| these qualities it makes it an ideal place to meditate. | | | | identification and a sense of vastness. Real meditation |
| Many spiritual and religious traditions have also taught | | | | invokes inner freedom; in meditation we feel that |
| that it is in the heart where we can experience our | | | | there are no limits, but a sense of infinity. This |
| own soul. | | | | experience we can get most easily in the heart. |
| Ancient and modern yoga teaching systems describe | | | | 4. By contrast the nature of the mind is limited; the |
| 7 main Chakras or energy centres. These chakras | | | | mind is apt to judge and deal in finite qualities. It is |
| have a particular quality and have a certain location in | | | | much more difficult to experience a sense of |
| the body, when we meditate we can become aware | | | | expansion when meditating in the mind. If we can |
| of these different energy centers. In some forms of | | | | shift our consciousness into our heart then we will |
| meditation people may meditate on the third eye | | | | not confined by the limitations of the intellectual mind. |
| (Ajna charka). When meditating on the path of the | | | | 5. The heart Chakra embodies purity. If we meditate |
| heart we focus all our meditation on the heart center | | | | on other chakras then problems, the heart chakra is |
| or anahata charka. The heart centre can be felt in | | | | said to be the safest place to meditate because it |
| the middle of the chest in close proximity to the | | | | embodies purity. Sri Chinmoy says of the heart |
| physical heart. | | | | center. |
| Benefits to meditating on the heart. | | | | "If you want to grow into something infinite, divine, |
| 1. When we try to meditate in the mind it is difficult | | | | eternal and immortal, then the heart chakra is by far |
| to distance ourselves from our thoughts. It is the | | | | the best. There you are always safe." (1) |
| nature of the mind to welcome thoughts, either good | | | | (1) Sri Chinmoy, Excerpt from Fifty Freedom-Boats |
| or bad thoughts. It is these thoughts that make | | | | To One Golden Shore, Part 2 by Sri Chinmoy. |