Aqui escolhi alguns trechos dos escritos de Sri Aurobindo relacionados à meditação, todos em inglês, disponíveis em PDF no site Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Sri Chinmoy cresceu no Ashram de Sri Aurobindo.
Meditation
What exactly is meant by meditation in Yoga? And what
should be its objects?
The difficulty our correspondent finds is in an apparent conflict
of authorities, as sometimes meditation is recommended in the
form of a concentrated succession of thoughts on a single subject, sometimes in the exclusive concentration of the mind on a
single image, word or idea, a fixed contemplation rather than
meditation. The choice between these two methods and others,
for there are others, depends on the object we have in view in
Yoga.
The thinking mind is the one instrument we possess at
present by which we can arrive at a conscious self-organisation
of our internal existence. But in most men thought is a confused drift of ideas, sensations and impressions which arrange
themselves as best they can under the stress of a succession of
immediate interests and utilities. In accordance with the general
method of Nature much is used as waste material and only a
small portion selected for definite and abiding formations. And
as in physical Nature, so here the whole process is governed by
laws which we rather suffer than use or control.
The concentration of thought is used by the Rajayogins to
gain freedom and control over the workings of mind, just as the
processes of governed respiration and fixed posture are used by
the Hathayogins to gain freedom and control over the workings
of the body and the vital functions.
By meditation we correct the restless wandering of the mind
and train it like an athlete to economise all its energies and fix
them on the attainment of some desirable knowledge or selfdiscipline. This is done normally by men in ordinary life, but
Yoga takes this higher working of Nature and carries it to its
full possibilities. It takes note of the fact that by fixing the mind
luminously on a single object of thought, we awaken a response
in general Consciousness which proceeds to satisfy the mind by
pouring into it knowledge about that object or even reveals to
us its central or its essential truth. We awaken also a response
of Power which gives us in various ways an increasing mastery
over the workings of that on which we meditate or enables us to
create it and make it active in ourselves. Thus by fixing the mind
on the idea of Divine Love, we can come to the knowledge of
that principle and its workings, put ourselves into communion
with it, create it in ourselves and impose its law on the heart and
the senses.
In Yoga concentration is used also for another object, —
to retire from the waking state, which is a limited and superficial condition of our consciousness, into the depths of our
being measured by various states of Samadhi. For this process
contemplation of the single object, idea or name is more powerful than the succession of concentrated thoughts. The latter,
however, is capable, by bringing us into indirect but waking
communion with the deeper states of being, of preparing an
integral Samadhi. Its characteristic utility, however, is the luminous activity of formative thought brought under the control
of the Purusha by which the rest of the consciousness is governed, filled with higher and wider ideas, changed rapidly into
the mould of those ideas and so perfected. Other and greater
utilities lie beyond, but they belong to a later stage of selfdevelopment.
In the Yoga of Devotion, both processes are equally used
to concentrate the whole being or to saturate the whole nature with thoughts of the object of devotion, its forms, its
essence, its attributes and the joys of adoration and union.
Thought is then made the servant of Love, a preparer of
Beatitude. In the Yoga of Knowledge meditation is similarly
used for discrimination of the True from the apparent, the
Self from its forms, and concentrated contemplation for communion and entry of the individual consciousness into the
Brahman.
An integral Yoga would harmonise all these aims. It would
have also at its disposal other processes for the utilisation of
thought and the mastery of the mind
Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The other source of my philosophy was the knowledge that flowed from above when I sat in
meditation, especially from the level of the Higher Mind when
I reached that level. . . . This source was exceedingly catholic
and many-sided and all sorts of ideas came in which might
have belonged to conflicting philosophies but they were here
reconciled in a large synthetic whole.
The Life Divine
No doubt the true and strong aspiration is needed, but it is not
a fact that the true thing is not there in you. If it had not been,
the Force could not have worked in you. But this true thing
was seated in the psychic and in the heart and whenever these
were active in the meditation it showed itself. But for the sake of
completeness the working had to come down into the physical
consciousness and establish the quietude and the openness there.
The physical consciousness is always in everybody in its own
nature a little inert and in it a constant strong aspiration is not
natural, it has to be created. But first there must be the opening,
a purification, a fixed quietude, otherwise the physical vital will
turn the strong aspiration into over-eagerness and impatience
or rather it will try to give it that turn. Do not therefore be
troubled if the state of the nature seems to you to be too neutral
and quiet, not enough aspiration and movement in it. This is a
passage necessary for the progress and the rest will come.
Especially in the beginning the one great necessity is to get the
mind quiet, reject at the time of meditation all thoughts and
movements that are foreign to the sadhana. In the quiet mind
there will be a progressive preparation for the experience. But
you must not become impatient if all is not done at once; it takes
time to bring entire quiet into the mind; you have to go on till
the consciousness is ready.
Letters On Yoga
In the Gita we have a process which is not the process of
Raja-Yoga. It seeks a short cut to the common aim and goes
straight to the stillness of the mind. After putting away desire
and fear the Yogin sits down and performs upon his thoughts
a process of reining in by which they get accustomed to an
inward motion. Instead of allowing the mind to flow outward,
he compels it to rise and fall within, and if he sees, hears, feels
or smells outward objects he pays no attention to them and
draws the mind always inward. This process he pursues until
the mind ceases to send up thoughts connected with outward
things. The result is that fresh thoughts do not accumulate in
the chitta at the time of meditation, but only the old ones rise.
If the process be farther pursued by rejecting these thoughts as
they rise in the mind, in other words by dissociating the thinker
from the mind, the operator from the machine and refusing to
sanction the continuance of the machine’s activity, the result is
perfect stillness. This can be done if the thinker whose interest
is necessary to the mind, refuses to be interested and becomes
passive. The mind goes on for a while by its own impetus just
as a locomotive does when the steam is shut off, but a time
must come when it will slow down and stop altogether. This
is the moment towards which the process moves. Na kinchid
api chintayet: — the Yogin should not think of anything at all.
Blank cessation of mental activity is aimed at leaving only the
sakshi, the witness watching for results. If at this moment the
Yogin entrusts himself to the guidance of the universal Teacher
within himself, Yoga will fulfil itself without any farther effort
on his part. The passivity will be confirmed, the higher faculties
will awake and the cosmic Force passing down from the vijnana
through the supermind will take charge of the whole machine
and direct its workings as the Infinite Lord of All may choose.
Essays Divine and Human
The awakening of illumination was actively effected by the triple method of
repetition, meditation and discussion. Avr¯ . tti or repetition was
meant to fill the recording part of the mind with the sabda´
or word, so that the artha or meaning might of itself rise from
within. Needless to say, a mechanical repetition was not likely to
produce this effect. There must be that clear still receptivity and
that waiting upon the word or thing with the contemplative part
of the mind which is what the ancient Indians meant by dhyana¯
or meditation. All of us have felt, when studying a language,
difficulties which seemed insoluble while grappling with a text,
suddenly melt away and a clear understanding arise without assistance from book or teacher after putting away the book from
our mind for a brief period. Many of us have experienced also,
the strangeness of taking up a language or subject, after a brief
discontinuance, to find that we understand it much better than
when we took it up, know the meanings of words we had never
met with before and can explain sentences which, before we
discontinued the study, would have baffled our understanding.
This is because the jn˜at¯ a¯ or knower within has had his attention
called to the subject and has been busy in the interval drawing
upon the source of knowledge within in connection with it. This
experience is only possible to those whose sattwic or illuminative element has been powerfully aroused or consciously or
unconsciously trained to action by the habit of intellectual clarity
and deep study. The highest reach of the sattwic development is
when one can dispense often or habitually with outside aids, the
teacher or the text book, grammar and dictionary and learn a
subject largely or wholly from within. But this is only possible to
the Yogin by a successful prosecution of the discipline of Yoga.
– Sri Aurobindo, On Education, the Brain of India