Inconspicuous Essentials
Basic regulations of spiritual practices are often apparently simple and easy but their import only reveals gradually and through consistent practice over a long time. That’s the tricky thing: You tend to forget the import and the practice becomes a routine. Normally you won’t notice – unobtrusively, the transforming power diminishes or even gets lost – until there is again a “wake-up call”. It might be quite a silent call to reset your schedule.
A month ago I experienced such a “wake-up”:
Since years, I’m following the meditation proposed by Master CVV. It is simple but very profound. One of the basic regulations says, “To choose a fixed time for the daily meditation, best at an interval of 12 hours – 6 o’clock in the morning and evening.”
It is recommended to select an appropriate time for meditation and to adhere to it strictly. And 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. are recommended as the appropriate points of time. They form one of the two central axes dividing the day into 4 quarters, between morning and evening, between noon and midnight.
I know this rule since years and I followed such a meditation structure already during my years of study. I experienced the subtle dynamic strength of the rhythm: “Honour time, then time honours you.” This I knew, at least with my mind.
However, logic finds many excuses why not to be regular. There are lots of seemingly strong necessities for exceptions, and slowly exceptions become the rule, “because of office work”, “family”, “not finding time”, and you certainly know other good reasons.
Reason is not rhythm. Of course, you should not become rigid by sticking to self-imposed rules, and there is the recommendation that “any time between 4:00 and 8:00 in the morning and in the evening may be chosen to start with.”
Being an “early bird”, I have no problems starting the meditation at 06 a.m. but in the evening I used to come back tired from the office and could not do the meditation in time – I just fell asleep. I asked Sri Kumar about it and he said, “Think of the Master at 6 and do the meditation whenever it is possible for you.”
I’m no longer working at an office but I kept on arranging the meditation. I said to myself, “For me, it is more important to do the meditation together with my wife” (she is not following the 6/6 regulation)… And I found it a reasonable explanation – until recently.
Some months ago, a friend gave me a book on the yoga of Master CVV, a collection of his notes about his “courses, adjustments, principles and regulations”. I have read several of these books but most things I don’t understand. I once asked Sri Kumar and he said that they weren’t meant for the public, they were just Master CVV’s notes and we won’t understand. But I read them in bits and pieces, because somehow I felt an inspiring energy.
So one month ago, I read about how much Master CVV insisted that his disciples (“mediums”) strictly follow the given rules and regulations once they have firmly decided to practice. The disciples in town “must invariably attend daily once in the evening prayers. If they fail to attend every day evening, they will be permanently banished from this society.”
I was a bit shocked. He repeatedly emphasized the preciseness of time: those being not regular with the time “will derive only that share of development as is due to such practice”. “Some delay will occur”… He expected that the members come at a quarter to 6, rest for 15 minutes to be ready “to do practice at 6:00 o’clock precisely” and not with an empty stomach: “Yoga must be the prominent idea in your life. Everything else should be subordinate.” “You are having a false idea that the instructions and rules relating to the Yoga may be used according to your physical body’s convenience. The lenience given by me to follow the practice was taken as fun.”
This was my wake-up call. I didn’t want to reason it away but took it as a hint to integrate the rhythmic precision into my schedule without being rigid. Soon I felt an increase of energy through the magic of rhythmic order. “Axis arranged hours”, as Master CVV puts it in a mystic mantram, followed by “Higher Bridge Beginning”. Yes, this key of time is opening the entry to the higher bridge, to sublime dimensions of experiencing.
Master CVV surrounded by a group of his disciples in the early years of the 20th century.
August 16th, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Namaskarams Master!
Very appropriate….”When you honor Time…”.
Great insightful post!
Warm Regards