Meditation HomeStudy

A course created by students of meditation Master Sri Chinmoy.

The techniques you will learn here in this course are the same as those used to teach tens of thousands of people in our free meditation classes around the world.

From our own experience, we can assure you that if you practice these techniques daily, meditation will enhance and enrich your life far beyond your imagination.

Requirements

• A notebook to use as a daily meditation journal
• Time: about ten minutes meditating, and 5-10 minutes reading per day
• Our easy-to-print Meditation Q&A handout (PDF) - we will be reading 2-3 chapters from this as part of each of the 4 steps.

Beginning Meditation: HomeStudy

From time immemorial, humanity has looked up to the heavens or looked within and asked the questions “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”

HomeStudy is designed to teach you the skills you’ll need to find answers to these all-important questions. Through a series of simple exercises which take just a few minutes a day, you’ll discover the key to unlock the hidden mysteries of life, and the potential that lies deep within you.

Some of the many gifts of meditation you will benefit from include:

• Improved physical health – Stress, tension and negative emotions silently erode your life-force. As you decrease these negative influences through your meditation, you will experience profound positive effects on your physical health, from increased vitality to a greater sense of general well-being.
• Deeper sleep – Meditation will have a positive effect on the quality and the quantity of your sleep. As your mind becomes calmer through your practice of meditation, you will fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly.
• You will be happier. We tend to seek happiness outside ourselves—where we are, what we possess, who we are with—but meditation helps us to realize that real, lasting happiness is an experience which flows from within and exists independently of our outer circumstances.
• Better life decisions. In the whole history of the world, you are unique, and you have a uniquely special path to follow in life. In the silence and stillness of meditation, you will perceive more clearly the still, small voice within that can guide you safely along your life’s path. By bringing you closer to your life’s purpose, meditation sets you free to become more truly and uniquely yourself.
• Spiritual growth. At the very core of your existence lives a being of great beauty, wisdom and delight. This being is none other than your own highest self. Through meditation you will grow into your highest self, and all of its inner wealth will be yours to use in your day-to-day life.
• Inner peace brings outer peace. Everything starts from within! As you develop more inner peace through your practice of meditation, your outer life will become more peaceful as well. Little things start to happen as your outer life is touched by the expanding fragrance of your inner life: problems fall away or are resolved more easily; your dealings with people become deeper and more fulfilling; and you develop new and greater outer capacities.

So get ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery towards the happy, healthy, and fulfilling life you want and deserve!

How HomeStudy works

This Home-Study course consists of four steps. You can move on to the next step whenever you feel ready - a week is a good time to spend practising the exercises in each step.

Expect to spend about ten minutes meditating and fifteen or twenty minutes reading per day. Each weekly session consists of several sections, including:

• Goals – At the beginning of each step we’ll summarize the key concepts and skills you’ll be learning.
• Readings – Download our Meditation Q&A handout. We recommend you print it out and have it right beside your meditation area. The recommended readings will clarify your understanding of meditation, and make the mind more conducive to sitting down and doing the practise. These readings are one of the most important aspects of HomeStudy, so go over them carefully before doing the exercises. You may want to go over them afterwards as well, to help assimilate your meditation experience.
• Exercises – For each step, there will be a set of recommended meditation exercises to try, as well as optional exercises if you are inspired to explore further.
  If you try an exercise and it doesn’t do much for you, no harm. Different exercises work better for different people; that’s why we give lots of exercises. It’s up to you to find the ones that work for you and then practice, practice, practice!

• Daily Meditation Journal – For this homestudy course, we ask you to keep a notebook for use as a daily meditation journal, with space for logging what techniques you did, how long you did them, and comments about any experiences you had during the meditation. As you go through the exercises during the week, jot down what you did in your Daily Meditation Journal.
  Why a journal? Well, like the story of the tortoise and the hare, with meditation it’s slow and steady that wins the race. This means that on a day-to-day basis you may not notice the changes meditation is making in your life. But you can easily look back through your journal and see how much progress you’ve made since you started HomeStudy.
• Summary – At the end of the week we’ll summarize the main points covered during the week. If anything isn’t clear, this is your chance to go back and re-read key sections of Meditation or try an exercise again.

Where to go for assistance

Although we try to answer many common questions, it’s inevitable that you will have questions about your own unique experiences.

You can use this map to find and contact meditation class instructors from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in your area. Even if you can't make it to a class, youre more than welcome to call us with any question about meditation. Whether you need advice, encouragement, or a little inspiration, we’ll be there, always free of charge.

Inner peace is our birthright, and finding this inner peace is the key to establishing lasting peace in the world. That’s why we’re grateful that you’ve taken the time to make meditation part of your life through HomeStudy.

The Journey of Self-Discovery

Each of us begins meditation with a goal of our own—a desire to know ourselves better, a longing to become more peaceful, or perhaps a yearning for more control of our life. No matter what the goal, and no matter where you are right now, it’s important to keep in mind that meditation is a continual journey. As a flower opens to the sun, even so through meditation will you watch your own infinite potential blossom, your life flower into greater happiness, and your being radiate abiding peace and satisfaction. This is the journey of self-discovery.

Many other seekers have passed this way before us, some journeying to the farthest frontiers of self-awareness. These inner travellers are the spiritual masters, the mystics and pathfinders who appear in every age to guide and inspire humanity. Like expert climbers who have reached the highest peaks, they come back down to guide us quickly and safely to our own highest heights.

Our own meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, is such a guide, a spiritual master who has explored the furthest realms of consciousness. Through literature, art, music, and the profound silence of meditation, he shares his experiences of higher worlds of beauty and delight—worlds that exist within each of us. Sri Chinmoy’s inner experience, and his teachings about that experience, form the basis of HomeStudy.