Naturally human-beings learn through opposites. One needs to experience the opposites in order to see what want really wants and decide accordingly. That’s our innate freedom that we receive as a gift. A gift implies freedom and with freedom comes responsability. As at the end of our lives there is no finger pointing …
For some this decision comes in an instant of spontaneous rememberance which reorganizes all one’s life energies toward health and wholeness. This is how it happened to Jesus when he was a boy in Jerusalem when he went in one of the three prescribed pilgrimages for the jews during Pascha. When he saw the blood of lambs on the slats of the porches he realized in an instant that that’s not what God wants from the jews, to slain lambs and he understood his destiny which was actualized as the Tamid the perpetual offering of two lambs at the Temple in Jerusalem which happened at the exact hours (halachic hours, which is the time of the day divided into 12 equal parts, 9 and 3) with the crucifixion and transition of Jesus (OSHO says he didn’t died on the cross but that he was taken and then went to the jews in Kashmir where he lived in Pahalgam to old age). It is recorded in the Gospels that he uttered the first line of Psalm 22 (the numbering after Masoretic text) Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabachthani and people nearby who were speaking the southern dialect of Aramaic thought he was calling Prophet Elijah when in fact Jesus was speaking the northern dialect of Aramaic which was spoken in Galilea and which would have translated into Listen, listen to my heart, this is my destiny!
The orthodox jews do not go to Jerusalem on the Pesach and Pesach Scheni because they can’t bring the Tamid offerings due to the fact that the Temple is no more.
What happened with Jesus that day in Jerusalem is explained in a book called the Homiliary from Prislop by Saint Father Arsenie Boca. Jesus after he understood his purpose he went into the Temple and stood near the Masorets where the kids were and begun asking the Rabbis from Isaiah’s prophecies about his coming. The Rabbis were amazed by his wisdom but they didn’t realized that they were talking with a human-being who understood his destiny. God knewing that the rabbis wouldn’t accept anyone to teach them made it so a kid would enligthen them. But they didn’t understood even to this day, I’ve talked with a Hasid Rabbi and finally he accepted Jesus as a jew.
Destiny as Saint Father Arsenie writes is “God’s intention which becomes Creation through the work of the human-being.”
Intention in Sanskrit in called Saṅkalpa. There is a saying in the Upanishads: “As is your desire so is your will, as is your will so is your deed, as is your deed so is your destiny and You are what your deep driving desire is.”
In the west where consumerism of goods and content took over the desires of many, people are less familiar with Saṅkalpa and the freedom and power to create their own destiny. Once such a human-being is met which is unflinching a decision is prompted that many cannot bear. When the ex-Pope Razinger met with Mawlana Sheikh Nazim, said Mawlana Sheik Mehmed Adil, he saw the Living Truth and he realized he was living a lie and he resigned.
Our consciousness according to an answer that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Shneour Zalman of Liadl gave to a high ranking russian official while he was emprisoned is asking us (Adam) “Where are you ?” that is what have you done with the gift of life ?
Saṅkalpa has not to come from belief which is imposed from outside and it supresses doubt which can resurface any moment but by a deep reflection which can come from practices such as Ngondro (preliminary practices) which invites one to contemplate on the four thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma. Atiśa’s 1st Lojong slogan is the preliminary practice.
Once Saṅkalpa than one’s life’s energies align with your life purpose, that’s the first limb of Yoga: Yama or Sīla
Then one needs to bring regularity to the practice, discipline, that’s the second limb of Yoga: Niyama.
Then the body can sit in the posture that is required to meditating for 48 minutes (or two Ghaṭikas which is the time prana circulates the body one complete time) which is what is needed for Nirvāṇa or Mokṣa or Mukti or Kaivalya. For many consumerism have spoiled the desires, have turned them into passions and cravings that are controling one’s life. This is the third limb of Yoga: Asana
Then there comes rhythm what is called Ṛtam. That’s the rhythm of breath. What Eckhart says take one conscious breath, he is referring to align your Prana, your life force with the rhytm of the Universe, with Dharma, the cosmic order Ṛtam. Phùng Xuân (Thich Nhat Hanh) clicked with Anapanasati (https://plumvillage.org/library/sutras/discourse-on-the-full-awareness-of-breathing) but it may be also to align with a lunar or solar calendar, meditate within the Sandhya Kalas or Abhijit Muhurta or Amṛt Kala. That’s the third limb of Yoga: Pranayama. (OSHO says that it cannot be taught, one has to discover it).
Than coming back home, what christians call repentance and jews call Teshuva. That’s the fourth limb of Yoga: Pratyahara (interoception).
Than concentration, Śamatha. Here japa can help, meditating with a mantra. If one looks for an oral transmission of a mantra, one needs to prepare and contemplate the practice before hand, to be prepared when the transmission comes. Nowadays many transmissions are online but there are masters who do initiations only in person. Once one has received the initiation that is one is able to respond to the call of the master during transmission and repeat the mantra (with the exact Sanskrit pronuniciation) one need to water the seed. Keeping the practice without skeeping a day. Some mantra transmissions such as White Tara require one to be vegetarian which is more conducive to meditation. Some mantras like Green Tara and Avalokiteśvara I have heard it to be said that they don’t require a transmission as such. Completion of a mantra is repeating the mantra until a day comes and the mantra drops by itself that is subject and object merge in pure awareness. The mantras need to be counted and for that is helpful to have a Rudrakṣa mala. Rudra is one of the names for Śiva and if one takes one from seeds of Rudrakṣa that is usually blessed. Sadhguru says that taking a Rudrakṣa mala moves ones toward Mukti. That is a Saṅkalpa. That would be the 5th limb of Yoga: Dharana.
Then there is meditation. What is called Dhyan or Chan or Zen. What Buddha teaches. That is the 6th limb of Yoga: Dhyan. One needs to be aware not to fall from Dhyan, that’s why the previous limbs are necessary.
For Sahasrar one can meditate with the mantra I know from Deepak which is
Sahasrara Īṁ
while holding the Maṇḍala offering mudra.
