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Time-management skill

2008-11-07T16:04:00.073+05:30

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Thanks,
Gopal

For printing/download: A pdf file (as well as an equivalent .doc file) has been created containing everything written in this post in the form of a book. If you want them, please visit time-management post on my new blog given above.

Table of contents

1. Importance of time-management
2. Core principles and practices of time-management

2.1. Core principles of time-management
2.2. Core practices of time-management

3. Today’s planning: 1st core practice of time-management

3.1. Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals

3.1.1. Understanding sleep
3.1.2. Factors which contribute to good sleep
3.1.3. When and how much to sleep?
3.1.4. “How can I wake up till late at night?”/”How can I remove untimely drowsiness?”
3.1.5. Whether to use an alarm-clock or not?
3.1.6. How to wake up rather than sleep back after putting off alarm?
3.1.7. How to shift my sleep-period by a few hours?
3.1.8. Is there a way to train the body-mind mechanism to reduce need for sleep?
3.1.9. A fixed schedule for bathroom and meals
3.1.10. A sample example of daily routine

3.2. Daily create a prioritized task-list for today

3.2.1. What are the benefits of a prioritized task-list?
3.2.2. Priority scheme
3.2.3. When to create the prioritized task-list for today?
3.2.4. Dealing with unexpected tasks
3.2.5. A sample example of prioritized task-list

3.3. Do self-analysis on daily basis

3.3.1. When?
3.3.2. How?
3.3.3. A sample example of self-analysis table

3.4. Other useful aids

3.4.1. Session table
3.4.2. Task details

4. Long-term planning: 2nd core practice of time-management
5. Planning notebooks: using all ingredients together

1. Importance of time-management

Time management is life-management. The truth of this statement is discernible to anyone who studies his/her own life and others' lives intently.

A whole book can be written on this topic - in fact, many have already been written. The difference between a good article and a good book is only in number of examples, analogies and statistical facts used, otherwise a good article explains the essential principles with same clarity and comprehensiveness as a whole book. In this world, when people always find lack of much time, the skill to produce good articles is indeed a very useful and well-appreciated skill. I tried to write an article, but this ended up as being a mini-booklet :) - hope, you find it useful.

I am just trying to sum up some basic principles of time-management which I learnt (and still learning - learning is a never-ending process, isn't it?) by observing success as well as failures of myself and others. The reader is most welcome to suggest proper modifications.

Whenever I found myself facing unsatisfactory result in my life, one of the major reasons was always lack of good time-management. Likewise, whenever I found myself feeling true satisfaction in my life, one of the major reasons was always good time-management. And this is the case with all of us.

Success in any endeavour depends on self-discipline. Self-discipline can be sustained either through self-motivation or through a firm habit of good time-management or through both. Often it happens that when we are driven by aspiration for goals, which really excite and interest us, we show enormous self-discipline and eventually produce satisfactory results. But, once we lose such inspiring goals, we lose our self-discipline also and end up producing highly dissatisfactory results. These ups-and-downs happen with most of us because our self-discipline is driven primary by self-motivation, which, in turn, depends largely on how strong our aspiration and interest are in the goal pursued by us. Our entire education-system also supports this kind of psychology to some extent because lack of formal training in time-management skill.

These ups and downs drain lots of our time, energy and motivation. Every down becomes a drag on us - the recovery from down to up is always more demanding and often frustrating. This regular pattern of ups-and-downs never allows us to achieve our true potential in life. Thus, total self-satisfaction always remains a distant dream for us.

To avoid huge ups and huge downs in life, we have only once choice: combine goal-driven self-discipline with self-discipline driven by firm habit of good time-management. Once we do so, we will find that when the goals that we pursue are interesting and inspiring enough for us, we will produce excellent or exceptional results and when the goals are not that interesting and inspiring enough, even then we will be able to produce good or excellent results by sheer power of firm habit of good time-management. Thus, we will be able to realize our true potential to a satisfactory extent.

Apart from helping us in cultivating a permanent state of self-discipline (and hence, a satisfying level of success in our field of activity), other notable advantages of good time-management include the following:

One who spends his/her time wisely will be able to counter negativity from the past and day-to-day life much better because his/her attention will be in creative activity, which will burn up all negative energy stored in mind. The more we give attention to negativity, the more they drag us. It is good to reflect and draw lessons from negativity from the past and day-to-day life, but in absence of good time-management, we end up getting overwhelmed by such negativity instead of learning from it and moving on in life. So, developing and maintaining the firm habit of good time-management is good for maintaining a healthy and peaceful mind.
One will tend to avoid worries about future more, because one will recognize that one is wasting time & energy by worrying about future rather than focusing on present task. “An empty mind is devil’s workshop.” - thus, through proper use of time, our mind will avoid unnecessary anxiety and pessimistic thoughts about future & remain focused on task at hand.
By developing and maintaining a firm habit of good time-management, one will have an inner clarity, will-power and strength, which will always guide one through all desirable as well as undesirable circumstances.
Such a person is able to help his/her family members and other people much more because he/she has a strong mind, inner clarity and a good personal example. So, those who want to help others in leading a happy life, should make a point to develop & maintain the habit of good time-management.

Due to aforesaid advantages, this article will explain core principles and core practices of good time-management.

2. Core principles and practices of time-management

2.1. Core principles of time-management

Take life (and time-management) on today basis. This is a true fact in life that every yesterday came as today and every tomorrow will also come as today. Those who miss todays, will miss living life. They will live either in memories of past or in about unknown/uncertain future. But, the future never comes as future. Future always comes as present. And past also came as present only. Also, we should keep in mind that future does not get created out of nowhere – future gets created out of present. Thus, the foundation of a good future is laid down only by doing the present task at hand with full devotion. So, practice time-management on today basis. Make the resolution every day that today my practice of time-management would be excellent or exceptional and live that resolution with full devotion.
Combine today's planning with long-term planning. Living in present most of time is quite necessary, but long-term planning at appropriate time (which stands in clear contrast with day-dreaming and worrying about future) is equally needed so that we can define and accomplish our long-term goals and thus, achieve long-lasting self-satisfaction.

2.2. Core practices of time-management

1. Today’s planning (to put first core principle into practice).
2. Long-term planning (to put second core principle into practice.)

3. Today’s planning: 1st core practice of time-management

Properly planning for today is a must if we aim to develop a firm habit of good time-management.

A good degree of today’s planning should include below traits:

Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals.
Daily create a prioritized task-list for today.
Do self-analysis on daily basis.
Other useful aids.

We will discuss all these things in good details in next few sections.

3.1. Develop a daily routine with a fixed schedule for sleep, exercises, bathroom and meals

Before we discuss this further, let us understand some fundamentals. Our body-mind mechanism is rhythmic/cyclical in nature. Due to this reason, we have self-induced regularity in our daily activities. So, to use our body and mind with optimum efficiency, we all need to attune ourselves to this natural cycle of body-mind mechanism by developing proper schedule for daily activities like sleep, exercises, bathroom & meals and maintain that schedule every day, including weekends/holidays. Any break in name of weekend/holiday drags our self-discipline and spoils our habit of daily routine. So, no exception should be allowed in this respect.

Sleep is a very important function for giving rest to body-mind mechanism and for giving enough energy to subconscious mind to organize information properly. Exercises include physical exercises and breathing as well as thoughtless awareness techniques: they also should be done at fixed hours in order to make gain maximum benefits from them.

3.1.1. Understanding sleep

Dreamless sleep is the state of thoughtless unawareness. It is not more than 3-4 hours. Rest time during sleep, we dream. This is a fact accepted by medical science. But, most of us don't remember our dreams when we wake up: so, we feel that we do not dream at all during entire sleep. Dream is a crucial psychological function in which we let out our repressed/subconscious stress caused by negative events and unfulfilled desires from past and day-to-day life. An advanced yoga-practitioner is able to free his/her mind from all kind of subconscious stress due to peace and purity acquired by thoughtless awareness, breathing exercises and positive thinking, hence, he/she doesn't need the phase of dreams and is quite fine with 3-4 hours sleep a day. That’s why Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda (Ramakrishna Mission), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (The art of living), Swami Niranjananda (Bihar School of Yoga) and almost all advanced yogis sleep/slept 3-4 hours a day only, not because it gives/gave them any pride or saves/saved time, but simply because they do/did not need the phase of dreams during their sleep.
All automatic functions of body like inhalation, exhalation, circulation, digestion and so on are performed by our subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind keeps on working even during dreamless sleep. That's why these automatic functions never stop even during dreamless sleep. One function of sleep, both dreamless as well as dream phase, is to give rest to our involuntary muscles and involuntary nervous system, involved in these automatic functions of body.
One major function performed by our subconscious mind is: organizing information and analyzing problems. This is done during both waking state as well as sleep state. Our subconscious mind is, thus, at work whole 24-hours a day. But, during day, major part of our energy is used by conscious mind in perceiving sense-impressions and doing thinking. So, during day-time less energy is available to subconscious mind. But, during sleep, our conscious mind doesn't have any work, so all energy is available to subconscious mind. Hence, information gathered during day-time is organized and retained properly during sleep - thus, a good sleep is crucial to a good memory. Apart from that, subconscious mind also thinks about solutions of the problems which we try to tackle on conscious level with good level of attention. Since 90% of mind is subconscious and 10% is conscious, subconscious mind is more powerful. Many times, deeper problems are solved through thinking done by subconscious mind rather than by conscious mind. Thus, this phenomenon of a solution striking to us after few days or during sleep happens with all of us. This whole phenomenon of intuition happens due to this reason. A good sleep helps in functioning of intuition due to this reason and makes us more creative and smart.

3.1.2. Factors which contribute to good sleep

There are many factors which contribute to good sleep. They include the following:

Be a good-hearted person. Only a good-hearted person is blessed with sound sleep. Those, who lead a morally loose and dishonest life, gets the first, quick punishment in the form of lack of inner peace and lack of sound sleep.
Always maintain a positive attitude. The more positive our attitude is, the better the quality of our life becomes and also, the more sound our sleep becomes. A negative attitude reduces not only our inner peace, energy and motivation level, but it also reduces the quality of our sleep.
Work hard. Work hard during waking time so that your body and mind are fully exhausted when you go to sleep. The harder you work, the deeper and more relaxing sleep you get. This is one of many sweet rewards of labor - playing hard during play time is included in the notion of labor.
Sleep only when you can fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed. This is indispensable for a good quality sleep. Going to bed before we feel real sleepiness (5-minutes at max on bed before one falls asleep is the real test for knowing the time when one feels real sleepiness), is a direct route to unsound and shallow sleep. If one can’t fall asleep even after 5 minutes of sleep, know well that you have gone to bed before you should go: in such case, make sure, you go to bed later next-day.
Don’t over-sleep for even a single day. Over-sleeping on one night reduces the quality of freshness and energy-level of body-mind on next day: apart from that, it also reduces the quality of sleep next night. So, ensure to neither over-sleep nor under-sleep. How to find out your optimum amount of daily sleep need is given in next section titled “When and how much to sleep?”. Not even in the worst possible attack of laziness, over-sleep by more than 30-45 minutes extra over your optimum amount of daily sleep need, otherwise your day (and next night’s sleep) will get ruined due to lack of freshness and high-energy in body and mind.
Avoid watching movies & other videos within few hours before sleep. lots of dream will occur to you due to effect of movies & other videos, which will make your sleep shallow and disturbed. Otherwise
Avoid watching images & reading anything on emotionally sensitive issues: likewise, avoid emotionally sensitive debates within few hours before sleep. Otherwise lots of subconscious thinking on these matters will happen throughout that night’s sleep and will make your sleep shallow and disturbed.
Avoid having nerve-exciting foods & drinks within few hours before sleep. Such foods & drinks include coffee, tea, etc. They make it harder to fall asleep and even if you fall asleep, the nervous and mental excitation produced by these foods makes it hard for our nervous system and mind to repose in full rest during sleep.
Doing thoughtless awareness exercises, reading emotionally soothing and inspiring literature and listening to soothing instrumental and other soft-music before going to sleep are always helpful in inducing sound sleep. Due to this reason, if you are not able to fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed, just get out of the bed and get involved in these activities for few minutes to induce drowsiness – and of course, remember to go to bed next night later than when you went tonight
Sleep after putting off light or using a very dim light, because bright light stimulates our body-mind system and makes our sleep shallow.
Sleep on left side preferably. The main reason behind this is: when we sleep on left side, breath-flow becomes nt in right nostril, which, in turn, helps in digestion process. The other reason is: for entire body and particularly for organs like heart and digestive system, sleeping on left-side is more comfortable and more suitable for proper functioning.
Sleep with head in East or South direction. Since in general, our bed is aligned either along East-West or North-South direction, this rule is very simple to follow. Sleeping with head in East is better than sleeping with head in West due to 2 factors: (a) the earth rotates on its axis from West to East. This induces subtle advantage by giving more rest and vitality to inner energy-field of body. (b) Since the earth rotates on its axis from West to East, the sun (source of vital energy for all life-forms) rises in the East – so, there is more vitality in East direction at night, with which our entire inner energy-field gets recharged. Sleeping with head in South is better than sleeping with head in North. This is because there is a magnetic field along our spine whose North Pole is in head and South Pole is in the lowermost part of spine. So, if we sleep with head in South, the North Pole of our spine’s magnetic field is attracted towards the South Pole of Earth and South Pole of our spine’s magnetic field is attracted towards the North Pole of Earth, thus increasing the vital energy in our body-mind. But, if we sleep with head in North, the repulsion between magnetic field in our spine and Earth’s magnetic field will make our sleep shallow and disturbed. These things are part of yoga-literature: modern science is yet to verify them. So, please forget this rule if you find these reasoning scientifically not convincing enough. I am including this because yoga has known many secrets about body and mind thousands of years before modern science could grasp them: but, feel free to accept or reject this rule.

3.1.3. When and how much to sleep?

Need for sleep varies from person to person, depending on factors like age and occupation. But, as Edison said, "Given a chance, most of us will tend to over-sleep than to under-sleep, thus, wasting our precious time and energy due to our laziness." Thus, it is better to be more disciplined and honest with respect to sleep that our body-mind mechanism really needs. In general, for an , a sleep of 6-7 hours is said to be optimum. Some people say, a sleep of 6-8 hours is the requirement for an . Keeping in mind the suggestion of Edison, we all can find our optimum need for sleep through following means:

Sleep only when you are so exhausted that once you lie in bed, within at most 5 minutes, you will fall deeply asleep: this is the foremost principle to determine when to sleep.
Start with 6 hours (because of the truth in what Edison said :-)): so, try to wake up after 6 hours and don't sleep during day-time. If you feel drowsiness during day-time, remove that through 5-10 minutes practice of NSA (Nadi Shodhan Advanced) breathing exercise explained here: http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2008/01/nerve-purification-breathing-exercise.html#Advanced - believe me, it is much more powerful than any technique you have ever come to know about removing untimely drowsiness - better than believing me, experiment with this and find the truth yourself. Do so for few days (1 week is enough). If you feel, drowsiness problem is over and your feel good level of freshness and clarity of mind throughout the day, then you need only 6 hours sleep. Just maintain this habit. Otherwise, experiment with 6.5 hours now - if that doesn't work, then experiment with 7, 7.5 & 8 hours. Eventually, you will be able to find the optimum sleep-need for yourself and believe me, it would never be more than 8 hours for an as well as teenager: a pre-teenage (less than 13 years old) child have genuine need for even more than 8 hours sleep.

Some people want to maintain a range of sleep. It is good to do that if that suits you the most but do try to keep the range of not more than 1 hours, otherwise all benefits of regularity will be lost. And try your best to maintain fixed time for waking up so that your day can be started with good level of regularity. For example, one may keep a range in sleeping time, yet should maintain a fixed waking up time: like, sleep during 10 pm - 11 pm and wake up at 5 am. Because, if even waking up time is not fixed, the beginning of day ends up becoming too haphazard. If due to some reason (at least, I can't conceive if there can be any such genuine reason), keeping waking up time fixed is not feasible, then also, keep a range of not more than 1 hours for waking up period.

Last thing: some people find that by taking a nap of, say, 20-30 minutes during day-time, they feel more energy. If that is the case with you and you find a real advantage, go ahead. But, this is not a general principle at all. In fact, need for a day-time nap may mean that you have not slept for sufficiently long-time or deeply enough at night or that, you are eating more during lunch :) than you should (gluttony is not good, my friend!). So, it is better to increase the quantity and deepen the quality of sleep at night than to indulge in naps during day-time: this is what this article clearly recommends.

3.1.4. “How can I wake up till late at night?”/”How can I remove untimely drowsiness?”

“All roads lead to Rome.”: likewise, all questions on removing untimely drowsiness lead to advice on practice of internal breath-retention.

This is because drowsiness happens when there is not enough oxygen in our brain due to natural mechanism of tiredness, consumption of meals and so on, so forth. For example, when we consume food, lots of is needed in digestive tract to absorb nutrients from food and circulate them to various cells in the body. To perform this function, rushes from brain and other parts of body to digestive tract and lungs also circulate more to digestive tract. This reduces amount of (and hence, amount of oxygen – because, oxygen is circulated to cells through ) in brain, which, in turn, often produces drowsiness after meals. But, in internal breath-retention, we inhale deeply and hold the breath in lungs as long as comfortable, so we get more oxygen due to below 2 factors:

Larger amount of inhaled air, because we inhale air deeply during internal breath-retention.
And, more time for lung cells to absorb oxygen from inhaled air due to longer period of contact between inhaled air and lung cells as a result of breath-retention period.

Internal breath-retention is most useful when combined with ‘Nadi Shodhan’/Alternate-breathing’: detailed technique is called NSA (Nadi Shodhan Advanced) breathing exercise and is explained here: http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2008/01/nerve-purification-breathing-exercise.html#Advanced

The only precaution is: breath-retention can be practiced only by people who have healthy lungs, healthy heart and normal pressure. For people, who don’t have healthy lungs, healthy heart or normal pressure, non-stop and rigorous (and if it will not disturb anyone, verbal also) chanting of mantra ‘Om/Amen/Amin” for 5-10 minutes is recommended for generating high level of mental energy to remove drowsiness. Drinking tea/coffee should be used as last resort only because they are addictive, produce many problems for digestive system like constipation, gastric problems, etc. and also reduces our peace and concentration level through excitation of our nervous system & mind.

3.1.5. Whether to use an alarm-clock or not?

Many people say, using an alarm-clock wakes us before we are naturally ready to get woken up. Partly, it is true. But, many times, our faculty of conscious will is so subdued by drowsiness that we tend to over-sleep, which produces dullness and lethargy in body and mind whole day. So, if one finds oneself able to wake up automatically after sleeping optimally, without any alarm clock, great! If not, then use of an alarm-clock is quite proper - if one finds oneself feeling continuous drowsiness during day-time, one should simply increase sleep-duration by either sleeping earlier or increasing waking up time through setting alarm-time later till one comes to the optimum sleep, which means - a sleep which overcomes us within 5 minutes of going to bed and leaves us completely fresh, clear-headed and energetic throughout whole day.

3.1.6. How to wake up rather than sleep back after putting off alarm?

Many statistical data says that more than 80% people have tendency to sleep back after putting off alarm unless they are forced by an urgency produced by time-critical task like going to office/school. Due to this reason, most people tend to over-sleep during weekends and holidays when no such urgency is present. But, this is a very unfortunate break in time-management. The question is: how to avoid this?

Let us first understand this whole phenomenon: One makes a plan with firm resolution that I have to wake up at this time, say 5 am, everyday. One sets up alarm and gives few times auto-suggestion before sleep that wake up when alarm rings instead of sleeping back. Then, one falls asleep. When alarm rings what happens in the mind:

Phase 1: The only thought in mind after waking up and before putting off alarm is: go and put off the alarm. Why? Because, alarm wakes us up all of a sudden and sleepy mind wants to shut off this disturbance as soon as possible. In general, no other thought come to mind during this phase.

Phase 2: After putting off alarm, we are still in the state of semi-alertness/semi-consciousness in which one part of mind reminds us about waking up and other part motivates us to go back to bed and sleep again. Depending on our habit-pattern and level of determination, the former part may win or lose. If the former part wins, we wake up, generally go to bathroom to wash eyes and face and then, come back to start our day as per our daily routine. But, if the former part wins, we go back to bed and sleep again, eventually waking up after few hours extra sleep and end up cursing our laziness and lack of firmness.

Thus, the solution lies in solving the problem of second phase: to go back to sleep or to wake up. What we think just before sleep, is often the first thought just after waking up. People often use auto-suggestions just before sleep in the hope that the auto-suggestion will come up in mind when alarm rings and will make us wake up. If this works, then great! No need to read further in this section. If this doesn’t work, then go ahead.

The insight that can solve this problem is: why not shut off all thinking from mind during second phase: neither the question of waking up nor the question of sleeping back will arise and the body would behave like a machine and automatically go to bathroom to wash eyes & face with water.

But how to shut off all thinking from mind during second phase?

Just after waking up and even before putting feet on ground, start non-stop chanting of a mantra/”inspiring quote” or singing a song (pick whatever suits you the most) and doing this non-stop chanting/singing, go to put off alarm and doing this continuous chanting/singing, go to bathroom. Once you wash face and eyes with water, it will wake you up to a great extent (and if that is not enough, come back and do 5-10 minutes internal breath-retention explained here: http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2008/01/nerve-purification-breathing-exercise.html#Advanced to remove the last trace of drowsiness.).

And of course, to remember doing so after waking up, give yourself following auto-suggestion 10-20 times just before sleep:

When alarm rings, just after opening eyes, I start non-stop chanting/singing of ‘this’ (replace ‘this’ by actual name of mantra/song) mantra/song and doing so, put off alarm and go to bathroom.

To make this auto-suggestion firmly implanted in subconscious mind, give the auto-suggestion in below manner

Give the auto-suggestion during the state of external breath-retention: exhale completely and hold the breath out (i.e. stop inhalation as long as comfortably possible) and give the auto-suggestion while simultaneously creating mental picture of whole process of alarm ringing off, you starting non-stop chanting/singing of mantra/song just after opening eyes, then doing so putting off alarm and then doing non-stop chanting/singing going to bathroom.

Why to give auto-suggestion in above manner?

Why breath-retention: During the period of breath-retention (both internal as well as external), the thinking process becomes much less speedy and even stops completely. So, the mind is more concentrated/one-pointed during the period of breath-retention, which makes the auto-suggestion reach our subconscious mind more deeply, because the more concentrated/one-pointed is thinking at conscious level, the more is the chance for it to reach subconscious mind.
Why external breath-retention rather than internal breath-retention: Internal breath-retention means inhalation followed by breath-retention/”holding breath in” whereas external breath-retention means exhalation followed by breath-retention/”holding breath out”. Inhalation is associated with the process of energization of our body-mind complex, whereas exhalation is associated with the process of relaxation of body-mind complex. Internal breath-retention intensifies the energization effect of inhalation process; likewise external breath-retention intensifies the relaxation effect of exhalation process. That’s why internal breath-retention is useful when we need more energy in body-mind mechanism, for example, when untimely drowsiness happens. And external breath-retention is useful when we need more relaxation of body-mind mechanism, for example, for removing stress-producing negative thoughts from mind and before sleep. Hence, we use external breath-retention rather than internal breath-retention during the period of auto-suggestion before sleep.
Why to make mental picture of whole process during auto-suggestion: Subconscious mind understands the language of picture more. This is one of the reasons why most of our dreams are like videos (i.e., combined with lots of pictures) rather than like audios (i.e., without any picture). This is also the reason why we remember a picture more vividly, but forget words easily: if one views one picture of a natural calamity, the mind remembers that calamity more vividly and for a long-time than by reading a full paragraph of news on that calamity. And due to this reason only, a child whose conscious mind is not that developed, is often taught in language of pictures: when we learnt alphabets, all of them are associated with pictures (like A with Apple, etc.) and all of them are drawn so big to seem more like a picture. Hence, an auto-suggestion combined with visualization/”mental picture” always produces more powerful influence on subconscious mind than an auto-suggestion without visualization/”mental picture”.

3.1.7. How to shift my sleep-period by a few hours?

Two approaches can be suggested for doing this:

1. Direct change

2. Gradual change

Let us understand both approaches through an example. Suppose, a person has 6-hours sleep routine of 1 am to 7 am and he/she wants to shift it to 10 pm to 4 am (a shift of 3 hours). The two approaches can be used in below manner for doing so.

1.Direct change. From first-day itself, one will try to sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 4 am. On first-day of switch, do activities like eating more than normal during dinner, more physical/mental exertion during day-time and giving yourself a heavy dose of either of these sleep-inducing activities: thoughtless awareness exercises, reading emotionally soothing and inspiring literature and listening to soothing instrumental and other soft-music before going to sleep. And then, go to sleep at 10 pm. The sleep may not come yet, but, don’t get up: the rule of falling asleep within at most 5 minutes of lying on bed is not applicable when trying this approach. Keep on lying on the bed till sleep comes, even if it takes 1-2 hours: during this time, keep on doing thoughtless awareness practice or chanting something to create boredom like chanting your own name or any mantra (please don’t misunderstand me - your name is really interesting, in fact, it is ;o one of the most interesting names ever used by a human, but such is our mind that repeated chanting of even the most interesting word produces boredom.). And then, wake up at 4 am even if your sleep is not deep and is not for 6 hours and start your day as per your new daily routine at 4 am. During the day-time, you will feel drowsiness because your night sleep was not deep and long enough: but, remember, you have to persist during entire waking up time by not allowing any day-time nap/sleep. It will be difficult, but you have to use all possible determination and resources like internal breath-retention as many times as required. If you are able to do so, second day, you will be able to sleep more quickly and more deeply. And once you keep on implementing this every day, after a period of 2-3 weeks’ continuous success, you will find: you are able to fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying on bed around 10 am, able to wake up at 4 am and feel no drowsiness or lack of freshness during day-time. This is a fast but unsure approach. This approach may fail due to lack of sufficient determination or due to a very rigid habit of old sleep-routine. In this case, you should try the second approach of gradual change.

2. Gradual change. Direct change approach should be used for 3-4 weeks (never more than 4 weeks) and if it fails to produce the desired shift in sleep routine, only then this gradual change approach should be tried, because it is slow and sure approach. Shift the sleep-routine by 5-10 minutes every week and keep on doing so till shift of 3 hours happen. For example, 1st week sleep at 12:50 am and wake up at 6:50 am; 2nd week sleep at 12:40 am and wake up at 6:40 am; 3rd week sleep at 12:30 am and wake up at 6:30 am and so on, so forth, till you reach ‘sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 4 am’ week: after that persist with that new routine. Since the change is gradual, the body-mind mechanism gets attuned to the change easily and steadily.

3.1.8. Is there a way to train the body-mind mechanism to reduce need for sleep?

Optimum sleep-need is not fixed for anyone. It may get reduced automatically with age or with growth in peace and purity level. One can make a conscious effort also to make this happen through gradual change. Since, the sleep hour is a much deeper need and habit of body than sleep-schedule, so direct change is almost completely impossible to achieve for any of us.

Gradual approach – the only realistic approach: To explain this approach, let me present an example of Swami Niranjananada (current President of Bihar School of Yoga). In the beginning of teenage, he used to sleep at 9 pm and wake up during 6-6:30 am. One day, he felt that he should wake up at 4 am so that he can do yoga and other activities in calm atmosphere of early morning hours. So, he took the resolution of sleeping from 9 pm till 4 am from next day onward. So, next day, he set up the alarm at 4 am and was able to wake up also. But, during day-time he felt some amount of drowsiness and lethargy in body and mind due to abrupt change in quantity of sleep hours, but somehow using his determination, he did not sleep during day-time. Second day, he again set up the alarm at 4 am. But, he was not able to wake up at 4 am, largely because of unmet sleep-need of previous day and partly because of a slackening of determination: he instead woke up few minutes later. During day-time, he again did not sleep by using determination. Third day, he again slept at 9 pm but was not able to wake up at 4 am. He woke up much later on third day than even second day. And in a matter of few days, he was doing this as a daily, albeit most undesirable, routine: waking up at 4 am to put off alarm and then feeling such strong drowsiness that, going back to sleep and waking up much later around 6 am. Then, he realized his body and mind are not able to adjust so fast to reduction of sleep from 9 hours to 7 hours. So, he applied gradual approach, which he felt, is the only realistic approach.

First he determined his natural need for sleep. So, he slept at 9 pm without setting any alarm and with this auto-suggestion that when his sleep will break on its own, he will wake up without showing any laziness. That day, he woke up at 6 am. Thus, he determined that he needs 9 hours of sleep currently.
For next 1 week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 6 am.
2nd week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 5:55 am.
3rd week, he slept at 9 pm, set up alarm and woke up at 5:50 am. Continuing this process of setting alarm 5 minutes earlier than previous week and thus, reducing sleep hours by 5 minutes every week, he was able to reduce his sleep hours from 9 to 7 in a matter of 24 weeks (i.e., approximately 6 months). Thus, he fulfilled his aspiration of developing a fixed routine of sleeping 7 hours a day during 9 pm to 4 am.

Thus, similar approach can be used to reduce the amount of sleep-need of our body and mind. But, in no case, total sleep hours can be reduced below 3-4 hours because the phase of dreamless sleep is an absolute must for giving proper rest to our involuntary muscles and nervous system which are involved in automatic processes of -circulation, heart-beating, inhalation, exhalation, digestion, etc.

6-7 hours sleep a day is very much optimum. Perhaps, it would be motivating to know what Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) said about his sleep hours during one interview:

I have tried to sleep less, but eventually I realized that I need 7 hours sleep a day for most efficient use of my mind during waking hours. But, I do envy those who are able to manage full efficiency of mind during waking hours even after sleeping 3-4 hours a day: they have so much time for work and play.

No need to feel envy :o with those who are able to manage full efficiency of mind during waking hours even after sleeping 3-4 hours a day: such people are almost 1 among lakhs of people and often are advanced yoga-practitioners who don’t need the phase of dreams because of a completely peaceful and relaxed mind.

But, yes, this approach is recommended by us for reducing sleep-need from, say, 8 hours a day to 6 hours a day. 6 hours a day is minimum sleep quantity recommended by this article because almost all of us do need phase of dreams to let out subconscious stress caused by negativity and unfulfilled desires from our past and day-to-day life.

3.1.9. A fixed schedule for exercises, bathroom and meals

A broad or precise schedule for exercises (by exercises, we mean physical exercises, breathing exercises or thoughtless awareness practice), bathroom and meals should be kept depending on what suits one the most. Some people will find it better to have a broad schedule, say, finish lunch sometime between 1 pm to 2 pm and some people will find it better to have a precise schedule, say, have lunch exactly during 1 pm to 1:30 pm. One should experiment and finds which suits him/her the most. But, some central principles should be followed by everyone in this regard:

Don't make it too broad, otherwise it will dilute the notion and advantage of regularity - if a daily activity takes, say 30 min., give it a broad range of not more than twice, say 60 min.
Schedule meal only during that time-period when there is real hunger - hunger is the best spice as well as a natural catalyst for activating digestive juices in our digestive system. Thus, meal taken during hunger tastes the best and also gets digested the best.
Eat meal slowly and with awareness - the primary reason why people over-eat and end up having many diseases caused by over-eating or obesity is because during taking their meals, their attention wanders too much in either past or future, so they are able to enjoy sufficient taste of food only through over-eating. One sure way to bring attention to present while taking meals is: to take meal when there is real hunger and then too, eat slowly and with conscious attention about taste, movement of hands and mouth for taking and eating food.

3.1.10. A sample example of daily routine

Daily routine
(Read this routine after breakfast and just before sleep)

9:50 pm - 10 pm: update self-analysis table for today and set alarm for 5 am
10 pm - 5 am: sleep
5 am - 6 am: wake up -> go to bathroom and wash face & eyes with water -> 5 min Nadi-Shodhana Advanced technique -> 5 min Kapalbhati -> 30 min thoughtless awareness practice -> 5 min Nadi-Shodhana Advanced technique
6 am - 7 am: bathroom -> breakfast
7 am - 7:10 am: create prioritized task-list for today.
Lunch hours: 1 pm - 2 pm
Dinner hours: 6 pm - 7 pm

During day-time, if untimely drowsiness happens, at once do 10 min NSA technique.

Right attitude towards the past: Remaining stuck to past is like living permanently in graveyard/'cremation ground'. 'Learn and move on' is the best approach to deal with past, both negative past as well as positive past, because by getting stuck with our negative past, we become negative, demoralized and pessimistic, thus, crippling our lives both mentally as well as emotionally. Likewise, by getting stuck with our positive past, we become complacent and end up losing our inner drive for further self-improvement and success.

Right attitude towards the future: Future is always unknown - but, if you maintain a positive outlook about it, future will have more chance to be positive and if you maintain a negative outlook about it, future will have more chance to be negative. So, always maintain a positive outlook about future.

The highest inspiration: Society comes first; individual and family come later: if for the sake of society, an individual needs to sacrifice him/herself or his/her family, he/she should gladly do so without any hesitation.

Time-management is life-management.

Ego and laziness are two greatest enemies of peace, happiness and wisdom.

Note: In daily routine, writing instructions or some inspiring quotes is highly recommended because it helps a lot in developing more clarity, self-discipline and motivation.

3.2. Daily create a prioritized task-list for today

3.2.1. What are the benefits of a prioritized task-list?

Daily creating a prioritized task-list for today is very important for today’s time-management. Let us first understand what we mean by “Daily create a prioritized task-list for today”.

A prioritized task-list means a list of all tasks that one needs or aims to finish today with suitable priority assigned to each task. The priority-assignment can be done in many ways – you can develop your own way. One way that we can suggest is explained in next section.

Daily creating a prioritized task-list for today has numerous benefits:

By knowing about all tasks that we aim to do today, we gain a clear picture and inspiration about today’s time-management.
This helps us in not forgetting very urgent or very important tasks in the hustle and bustle of many activities.
When we realize we can do only some of all tasks in remaining hours of today, we are able to choose tasks which are more important.
By scheduling tasks appropriately, we will be able to finish more important tasks on daily basis to a great extent, which will be quite helpful in producing good amount of self-satisfaction on daily basis and good long-term result.

Note: One should not write down routine tasks which one does on daily basis and during fixed hours, for example, sleep, bathroom, meals, etc. simply because doing that will unnecessarily increase the size of task-list. But, sometimes they may be written if one feels they are part of a tight day-time schedule: use your discretion to determine which and when to write/avoid about such routine tasks in prioritized task-list.

3.2.2. Priority scheme

Give each task one of these priorities:

1) 4/4-priority. It means exceptional priority. This is for a task which must be finished today at all costs because of its importance or urgency or both.

2) 3/4-priority. It means excellent priority. This is for a task which must be finished today at all costs, but is less important or urgent than 4/4-priority task. So, in case, one is forced to choose between finishing a 4/4-priority-task and a 3/4-priority task, one will choose the former.

3) 2/4-priority. It means good priority. This is for a task which one aims to finish today, but it is alright even if one is not able to finish.

4) 1/4-priority. It means average priority. This is for a task which one aims to start working upon today if one is able to find time for doing that.

3.2.3. When to create the prioritized task-list for today?

One can create the prioritized task-list for today either in the beginning hours of today or just before previous day’s sleep, depending upon which suits one the most.

3.2.4. Dealing with unexpected tasks

A good prioritized task-list should be able to handle unexpected tasks also. For this, we can simply keep the task-list with ourselves either in planning notebooks (notebooks used only for today’s planning and long-term planning) or a note and keep updating it whenever we remember or get any new important or urgent task.

3.2.5. A sample example of prioritized task-list

A suggested task-list may be in the form of below table:

Sequence number	Status	Task	Priority level	Deadline

Before we go ahead, let us understand the meaning of each column.

Sequence number: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it so that it suits you the most.

Use 1,2,3,.... for tasks which you aim to do today: this is very useful for referring to the task mentally.
Use ‘->’ in this column if the task referred to has line of some other day. This is useful for noting down all tasks which get assigned today. Just before you sleep, you should move all these tasks to long-term planning notebook under appropriate topic: detailed explained about long-term planning notebook will be given later.
Use decimal point sequence number when you have cancelled an existing task at sequence number, say, 9 and added, say 2 new tasks, during same time: so, sequence number for these new tasks will be 9.1 and 9.2. This is just to help us in keeping a clear perspective of sequence of task-schedule in an easy manner in face of cancellation or modification of existing tasks.

Status: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it so that it suits you the most.

Leave it blank for task not started yet.
Mark it with F once the corresponding task is finished.
Mark it with C it if the task is cancelled: if the task is scheduled at some day, note that also in status column. For example, suppose today is 1 January 3047 ;o and one of tasks that a kid, called Gopal, has, is to give a 2-hours lecture in a seminar on time-management to the group of CEOs of top 100 (by revenue-size) companies on planet Mars during 12 pm to 2 pm. But, unfortunately, while at Mars, Gopal gets an unexpected call at 11:30 am from his mother planet Earth which requires him to go back to Earth to remove a very bug in universal internet-system, which has disrupted internet services between our solar system and rest parts of the universe. So, Gopal marks the task of “Time-management lecture to CEOs of Mars” as C and shift the seminar with agreement of CEOs to 10 January 3047. So, he updates status column in his task-list row for that task as: “C: Shift to 10 Jan, 12 pm – 2 pm“ and adds a new task “Find and remove the universal internet-system bug” in today’s task-list.

Task: In this column, describe the task broadly but clearly.
Priority level: Write down the priority level of the corresponding task in this column. You may use the priority scheme suggested by us in “Priority scheme” section or develop & use your own priority scheme.
Deadline: One suggested scheme is described below: feel free to modify it.

Tasks which may reduce our concentration and energy level, but are too important to avoid, must be scheduled in the late hours of the day (like in the evening or after the evening) but before few hours of sleep (so that they do not end up disturbing our sleep), as far as practically possible. For example, reading newspaper, reading personal emails, watching news or videos and discussion on sensitive matters are some of the tasks, which often have potential to reduce our concentration and energy level. So, they should be done in the late hours of the day (like in the evening or after the evening) but before few hours of sleep. Generally, such tasks are related to receiving some external information or sense-stimuli which often start a chain of unwanted, uncontrollable thoughts and thus, reduce our concentration level or worse still, which have a demoralizing effect on us and end up reducing our peace and energy level also apart from reducing our concentration level.
Tasks which reduce over-all time and energy spent when they are done together, should be scheduled together. This will save precious time and energy. For example, one may need to do some marking someday – if one schedules it during the same time when one comes back from the office/school, one will not need to go to market again after coming home from office/school and thus, will save one’s precious time and energy.
Taking above 2 factors into account and leaving aside all tasks, whose schedule cannot be changed by us, out of all remaining tasks, we should schedule more important tasks earlier than less important tasks. This helps us in focusing our time and energy on more important tasks first, which ensure that more important tasks get finished on daily basis even if some less important tasks might not get finished someday.
If exact timing is known (for example, for task like attending some class during say, 10 am to 11 am), write both starting as well as finishing time, like ‘10 am – 11 am’ in line column.
If you aim to start a task at certain time, at say, 10 am but are not sure when you will be able to finish, then write just starting time, like ‘10 am – ‘ in line column.
If you aim to finish a task by a certain time, at say, 6 pm but are not sure when you will be able to start, then write just finishing time, like ‘ – 6 pm’ in line column.
If you are not sure about either starting time or finishing time, but are aware about approximate amount of time needed to finish that task, like say 2 hours 30 min, write ‘2 hrs 30 min’ in line column.
Leave this column blank for tasks which may not be put in any of above categories.
Use date also when it is used to store lines for tasks assigned today but to be finished later.

Let us consider a hypothetical example to understand how this prioritized task-list can be used.

Background: Rajneesh is a very sincere student who is studying in class ten in Madhya Pradesh. Today is Monday, November 10, 2008. Rajneesh daily sleeps at 10 pm and wakes up at 4 am. He then does 2-hours practice of thoughtless awareness and breathing exercises during 4 am to 6 am. Thereafter, he goes to bathroom and takes breakfast all by 7 am. Just after taking breakfast, he creates his prioritized task-list for today. Today, his school is (unfortunately :-)) open: his school schedule for today is fixed and being a sincere student, Rajneesh always attends all his classes. Apart from attending school, Rajneesh has other tasks to do today like playing Football in evening hours, watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV and then, doing self-studies.

Rajneesh creates the prioritized task-list for today after taking morning meals at 7 am.

Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 7 am: creation.

Sequence number	Status	Task	Priority level	Deadline
1		Social studies class	4/4	8 am – 8:55 am
2		Science class	4/4	9 am – 9:55 am
3		English class	4/4	10 am – 10:55 am
4		Music class	4/4	11 am – 11:55 am
5		Lunch	4/4	12:00 pm – 12:45 pm
6		Revising previous day’s mathematics notes	3/4	12:45 pm – 1:30 pm
7		Mathematics class	4/4	1:30 pm – 2:25 pm
8		Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV	4/4	3 pm – 5 pm
9		Playing football	1/4	5 pm – 6:30 pm
10		Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday	3/4	7 pm - 9:50 pm

Background: Rajneesh gets a home-work in social studies which he needs to submit on Nov 13 and another home-work in English, which he needs to submit on Nov 15. He introduces 1 entry for each of these 2 long-term tasks in today’s task-list at the same time when he first learns about these tasks.

Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 12 pm: 2 long-term tasks added, one during social studies class and one during English class.

Sequence number	Status	Task	Priority level	Deadline
1	F	Social studies class	4/4	8 am – 8:55 am
2	F	Science class	4/4	9 am – 9:55 am
3	F	English class	4/4	10 am – 10:55 am
4	F	Music class	4/4	11 am – 11:55 am
5		Lunch	4/4	12:00 pm – 12:45 pm
6		Revising previous day’s mathematics notes	3/4	12:45 pm – 1:30 pm
7		Mathematics class	4/4	1:30 pm – 2:25 pm
8		Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV	4/4	3 pm – 5 pm
9		Playing football	1/4	5 pm – 6:30 pm
10		Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday	3/4	7 pm - 9:50 pm
->		Assignment on non-cooperation movement in social studies	4/4	Nov 13: - 8 am
->		Assignment on Chapter 5 of English text-book	4/4	Nov 15: - 10 am

Background: After coming to home at 3 pm, Rajneesh remembered suddenly that his toothpaste and notebooks got finished today morning, so, he needs to buy his favorite ‘monkey-brand’ toothpaste (Bandar-chhap Dant-manjan – an absolute must for healthy teeth and gums) and notebooks from market. He has no choice but to cancel Football games and add these tasks at end of table. He will not need more than 45 minutes for buying these things: remaining 45 minutes, he aims to spend in doing social studies assignment.

Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 5 pm: first modification for today’s tasks.

Sequence number	Status	Task	Priority level	Deadline
1	F	Social studies class	4/4	8 am – 8:55 am
2	F	Science class	4/4	9 am – 9:55 am
3	F	English class	4/4	10 am – 10:55 am
4	F	Music class	4/4	11 am – 11:55 am
5	F	Lunch	4/4	12:00 pm – 12:45 pm
6	F	Revising previous day’s mathematics notes	3/4	12:45 pm – 1:30 pm
7	F	Mathematics class	4/4	1:30 pm – 2:25 pm
8	F	Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV	4/4	3 pm – 5 pm
9	C	Playing football	1/4	5 pm – 6:30 pm
10		Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday	3/4	7 pm - 9:50 pm
->		Assignment on non-cooperation movement	4/4	Nov 13: - 8 am
->		Assignment on Chapter 5	4/4	Nov 15: - 10 am
9.1		Buying toothpaste and notebooks	4/4	5 pm – 5:45 pm
9.2		Working on assignment on non-cooperation movement	2/4	5:45 pm – 6:30 pm

Note: We use 9.1 and 9.2 sequence numbers for new entries because they were created due to cancellation of task 9. This technique helps us in remembering the sequential timing of tasks easily even in face of cancellation of existing tasks and addition of new tasks.

Background: Rajneesh daily takes dinner during 6:30 pm to 7 pm. At 9:50 pm, Rajneesh writes today’s self-analysis in self-analysis table and shifts all lines got today (marked by ‘->’ in sequence number column) to long-term planning notebook under appropriate topic.

Prioritized task-list for Nov 10, 08 at 9:50 pm.

Sequence number	Status	Task	Priority level	Deadline
1	F	Social studies class	4/4	8 am – 8:55 am
2	F	Science class	4/4	9 am – 9:55 am
3	F	English class	4/4	10 am – 10:55 am
4	F	Music class	4/4	11 am – 11:55 am
5	F	Lunch	4/4	12:00 pm – 12:45 pm
6	F	Revising previous day’s mathematics notes	¾	12:45 pm – 1:30 pm
7	F	Mathematics class	4/4	1:30 pm – 2:25 pm
8	F	Watching pranayama session by Baba Ramdev on TV	4/4	3 pm – 5 pm
9	C	Playing football	1/4	5 pm – 6:30 pm
10	F	Preparing for Mathematics unit-test next Monday	3/4	7 pm - 9:50 pm
->		Assignment on non-cooperation movement	4/4	Nov 13: - 8 am
->		Assignment on Chapter 5	4/4	Nov 15: - 10 am
9.1	F	Buying toothpaste and notebooks	4/4	5 pm – 5:45 pm
9.2	F	Working on assignment on non-cooperation movement	2/4	5:45 pm – 6:30 pm

Note: This is just a sample example: feel free to modify it suitably so that it works best for you.

3.3. Do self-analysis on daily basis

3.3.1. When?

The best time is just before sleep.

3.3.2. How?

Develop clear and precise benchmarks to do self-analysis for today.
Use a self-analysis table in today’s planning notebook. This will help in analyzing the patterns and performance of many days also whenever you feel the need to do so.

3.3.3. A sample example of self-analysis table

Let us continue using the example of Rajneesh. Rajneesh does his self-analysis daily based on below factors:

a) Sleep hrs: SH

b) Sleep timing: ST

c) Positive thinking: PT

d) Good behaviour: GB

e) Time-management: TM

f) Over-all concentration level: OCL, and

g) Total self-study hrs: TSH

Acronym can be used instead of whole name due to limited width of page in notebook or one may use both left and right pages for writing all columns of self-analysis table. Do whatever you feel most convenient.

Rajneesh uses a comprehensive grading scheme to grade today’s performance whenever it suits any factor. It is given below.

a) -2/4 grade: exceptionally bad

b) -1/4 grade: very bad

c) 0/4 grade: bad

d) 1/4 grade: average

e) 2/4 grade: good

f) 3/4 grade: excellent

g) 4/4 grade: exceptional

He uses below self-analysis table (written in his today’s planning notebook). Let us view it carefully to understand how Rajneesh does daily self-analysis just before sleep during 9:50 pm to 10 pm.

Date	Sleep hrs	Sleep timing	Positive thinking	Good behaviour	Time-management	Over-all concentration level	Total self-study hrs
Nov 1	6 hrs	10 pm – 4 am	3/4	3/4	3/4	2/4	5.5 hrs
Nov 1	Suggestion for self-improvement: concentration level should be increased by studying in isolated atmosphere of library rather than in crowded class-room during free school-time.
Nov 2	6 hrs	10 pm – 4 am	3/4	3/4	1/4	3/4	4 hrs
Nov 2	Suggestion for self-improvement: don’t indulge in long debate with friends, so that precious time doesn’t get wasted.

3.4. Other useful aids

3.4.1. Session table

Session-table is very useful for anyone who is engaged in doing many tasks related to a focused field. Students definitely fall in this category.

Each session means at-a-stretch studies/work during that time-period. One should try to maintain every session of at least 90 minutes duration, because

a) keeping session-duration too short reduces the concentration level and wastes time because every time we start a new session, we need initial few minutes just to get our mind attuned to the work.

b) keeping session-duration too long also reduce the concentration level because our mind may get exhausted or bored. The definition of too long will depend on many factors which include our work habit and energy-level during a particular time-period.

A good planning for developing minimum session-length for students may be as follows:

a) During nursey & kinder-garden: 20-25 minutes – often, this is the time-period for each class in school for this age-group.

b) During class 1 to class 2: increase from 20-25 minutes to 40-45 minutes.

c) During class 3 to class 4: increase from 40-45 minutes to 60-65 minutes.

d) During class 5 to class 6: increase from 60-65 minutes to 90 minutes or more.

e) After class 6: maintain 90 minutes minimum session-length. This is good enough length for whole life also.

Increasing minimum session-length can be done by increasing minimum session-length by 5 minutes every few weeks. For example, as per above scheme, during class 5 and 6, a student has to increase his/her minimum session-length from 60 to 90 minutes: this increase of 30 minutes over a period of around 24 months can be easily achieved by increasing minimum session-length by 5 minutes every 3 months.

A sample session-table.

Sequence Number	Task	Starting time	Finishing time	Duration	Concentration level	Total hrs

All columns except last 2 are easy to understand. Let us understand last 2 columns:

a) Concentration level: one can use same grading system as used in self-analysis table to judge one’s concentration during this session.

b) Total hrs: This means total hrs of studies/work done at the end of this session. Maintaining this column is very helpful in sustaining self-motivation and drive for more labor.

Columns like sequence number, task, starting time and duration will be written just at the beginning of the session, whereas columns like finishing time, concentration level and total hrs will be written at the end of session.

Let us consider again the example of Rajneesh. Rajneesh is totally free on (Sunday) Nov 9, 08: is he? He decides (is it his decision or his compulsion or a bit of both ;) ) to spend all his time on preparing for Mathematics test to be taken next day in school: it will include first 6 chapters of Mathematics text-book. After finishing his meals at 7 am, he starts his first-session with an aim to finish chapter 1 of text-book during a session-period of 90 minutes: he sets up an alarm clock for 8:30 am so that he can focus fully on studies without bothering about whether the session’s finishing time has arrived. Just at the beginning of the first-session, he writes below details in session-table.

Rajneesh’s session-table at the beginning of 1st session.

Sequence Number	Task	Starting time	Finishing time	Duration	Concentration level	Total hrs
1	Revise chapter 1 of Math text-book	7 am		1.5 hrs

Rajneesh is able to finish revision of chapter 1 during the session. The alarm rings at 8:30 am. Rajneesh’s attention goes to alarm: he puts it off and ends the session after updating his session-table.

Rajneesh’s session-table at the end of 1st session.

Sequence Number	Task	Starting time	Finishing time	Duration	Concentration level	Total hrs
1	Revise chapter 1 of Math text-book	7 am	8:30 am	1.5 hrs	3/4	1.5 hrs

At 8:30 am, after updating session table, Rajneesh takes a break for 10 minutes, during which he drinks 1 glass of water and goes to bathroom. Throughout this break-period, Rajneesh maintains a relaxed attitude through practice of present-moment awareness so that his mind gets recharged for next session.

At 8:40 am, he starts his second-session with aim to finish chapter 2 of text-book during a session-period of 90 minutes: he sets up an alarm clock for 10:10 am so that he can focus fully on studies without bothering about whether the session’s finishing time has arrived.

Just at the beginning of the first-session, he writes below details in session-table.

Rajneesh’s session-table at the beginning of 2nd session.

Sequence Number	Task	Starting time	Finishing time	Duration	Concentration level	Total hrs
1	Revise chapter 1 of Math text-book	7 am	8:30 am	1.5 hrs	3/4	1.5 hrs
2	Revise chapter 2 of Math text-book	8:40 am		1.5 hrs

Rajneesh is able to finish revision of chapter 2 during the session. The alarm rings at 10:10 am. Rajneesh’s attention goes to alarm: he puts it off and ends the session after updating his session-table.

Rajneesh’s session-table at the end of 2nd session

Sequence Number	Task	Starting time	Finishing time	Duration	Concentration level	Total hrs
1	Revise chapter 1 of Math text-book	7 am	8:30 am	1.5 hrs	3/4	1.5 hrs
2	Revise chapter 2 of Math text-book	8:40 am	10:10 am	1.5 hrs	3/4	3 hrs

Rajneesh continues maintaining session-table for studies done during entire day.

3.4.2. Task details

This can be used for explaining detailed description and steps of a task. For example, one may write down all goods that one need to buy before one goes to market. This will help in not forgetting anything unintentionally.

Depending upon the need, one may develop a priority-scheme for all sub-tasks of a particular task also, so that more important sub-tasks are given attention first over less important sub-tasks.

It can be done in a small note made on a page torn from a notebook or better still, we can put this is today’s planning notebook itself.

4. Long-term planning: 2nd core practice of time-management

Long-term planning may involve any or all of following information:

1. Task-list/plans for next few weeks

2. Task-list/plans for next few months,

3. Task-list/plans for next few years.

4. Important information like phone and contact addresses.

5. Important reflection done on any issue.

Before we end this section, let us understand what long-term planning is.

1. It is neither day-dreaming nor worrying about future: it is about setting goals and plans for future at proper time and with conscious use of thinking process. We would do well to note that both day-dreaming as well as worrying about future happen at wrong time and with uncontrollable/unconscious use of thinking process.

2. It does not contradict the philosophy of ‘live in the moment’. Rather it complements this philosophy by giving a sense of direction and depth to our present.

5. Planning notebooks: using all ingredients together

We have discussed many aids for time-management. Use of planning notebook is indispensable to make proper use of so many aids like daily routine, prioritized task-list for today, self-analysis table, session table, task details and all items in long-term planning.

One sample scheme is described below: feel free to modify or develop a new scheme which suits you the most.

Use 2 planning notebooks: one for today’s planning and other for long-term planning. This is suggested because long-term planning involves so many crucial details that they need to be retained for many months and even years, whereas today’s planning itself will occupy many pages on daily basis if we use many of aids like daily routine, prioritized task-list, self-analysis table, session table and task details.
Today’s planning (TP) notebook. In TP notebook, use beginning part of notebook on daily basis for aids like prioritized task-list, session table and task details for today. Use end part of notebook for aids like daily routine and self-analysis table. This helps in systematic and clean writing pattern in TP notebook.
Long-term planning (LP) notebook. In LP notebook, keep on including all these details: task-list/plans for next few weeks/months/years, important information like phone and contact addresses & important reflection done on any issue. Task-list can use same format as one used in prioritized task-list for today in TP notebook. Plans and other information can be written using suitable format.
Do page-numbering and use an index table in LP notebook. Since we will need to refer to information stored in LP notebook very frequently, we need to maintain page number for every page in LP notebook and use an index table which stores following details for each and every topic in LP notebook: sequence/topic number (for easily mental referral), name of topic and range of pages where topic is written. Whenever we write any new topic (for example, say, “major goals for year 2008”), we should write the corresponding index in index table for an easy and fast retrieval of information.
Keep TP notebook with yourself most of the times. The reason behind this is obvious: we need to use TP notebook throughout whole day for using aids like prioritized task-list, session table and task details.
Keep LP notebook also with yourself most of the times if that is genuinely needed. This is quite useful for people like managers/leaders, poets and writers, so that they can refer to existing long-term plans as well as write down new long-term plans and inspiring poems/writings as and when they come up in mind.
Always put your detailed address - name, address , phone & email - with a request to return the LP notebook to you in case it gets lost and someone finds it. In general, one should write these information in every notebook, but it becomes a must for LP notebook, because this contains all your long-term plans and important writings.

Hope, you enjoyed reading this article (??? perhaps, booklet) and learnt many things. Do experiment with various insights and aids shared in this article and enhance your time-management skill.

And share these insights and aids with others also in a noble spirit of selfless service.

Thanks,

Gopal

The vision of a hero

2008-11-02T06:37:00.003+05:30

Dear friends,

Ref: http://www.oshoworld.com/biography/index.asp - please do read the biography of Osho (Acharya Rajneesh).

Since beginning, I have been a worshipper of heroism, a lover of valor, the worshipper of courage, the worshipper of a love, which can meet any challenge head-on without hesitation or fear, the worshipper of that martial spirit which knows not how to bow to cowardice and fear, to tyranny and injustice, whatever price it has to pay.

In this journey of heroism, I got inspired by many heroes starting from Bhagat Singh, Azad, Bismil, Khudiram, Subhas Chandra Bose to Vivekananda, Gandhi & Osho. Every hero taught me something which was unique and uplifting. A synthesis of their collective influences is present in me to an exceptionally deep extent.

Of late, Rajneesh's teachings guided much of my thinking and insights, much of my own values & principles. My first interaction with Rajneesh's teachings was in class 11, when I read one of his books 'Bharat - Kucch Jalte Prasna" (India - Some burning questions), in which he talked with exceptional clarity about the shortcomings of Indian culture, like deeply ingrained political unconsciousness and selfishness in Indians - a stupid conditioning that politics is something which is not for good people and a stupid conditioning of each one for him/herself, either for his/her salvation or his/her materialistic desires - an utter lack of collective consciousness, unity and organization among Indians for millenium. A culture of cowardice and fatalism.

These words may not be relished by many people, who might think otherwise about Indian culture. But, I do agree with him on these points.

By reading his first book itself, I realized his words were fire, which will alter the thinking of many people permanently. In 10 pages of that book, he described that political unconsciousness is part of India's heritage. India was never a nation in true sense, but a crowd of people living just for themselves and their families. Of course, eventually, in other books, he talked about a world without any nation and described the barbarous insanity of humanity, using sometimes the mask of nationalism, sometimes the mask of religion, sometimes the mask of communism and all kind of ideologies, to hide the blood-thirsty wolves present in them, to find ideological rationalizations to mask their bloody, barbaric behaviour.

He consistently asked people to cultivate awareness (pragya) and compassion (karuna), to become a light unto yourself. He has tremendous insights into the human psychology and prescribed that meditation (thoughtless awareness) only can save the humanity from misery and agonies created by its own habitual barbarism and madness.

He talked about respecting and promoting individual's freedom by recognizing that every individual is unique (nature never does produce exactly same two individuals) and needs sufficient freedom and space to flower in a way which suits him/her the most and allows him/her to contribute to existence in his/her own unique way.

He talked about bringing a revolution which will promote political consciousness across the globe so that people with high consciousness feel encouraged to join the political stream, in order to use the vast powers of politics for upliftment of humanity.

He talked about destroying caste-system from India - to undo the foolishness of old generations who practised & perpetuated caste-system as if it is something which is divine, instead of being ugly - the blood-sucking parasites and barbarians of India, the priests and kings who were most cunning, mean and crooked, became so-called high caste and common man was deprived of all avenues for religious and secular education, reduced to the status of animals and eventually India lost all her shine and vitality, becoming a slave of all and sundry for thousands of years.

The women have always been treated as second-class citizens not only in other parts of the world, but in this country of Sitas and Madalasa also, in this country of Buddhas and Mahaviras also. The religious of women through sati and religious prostitution through dev-dasi, have been promoted in India by these parasite priests for thousands of years: what a barbarism! And yet, these parasites, who were worse than animals on plane of consciousness, dared to call themselves brahmins, which means, one who is established in the highest level of consciousness. A day will come when caste will get totally uprooted from India - that will be the most proper justice to those who were suppressed under the tyranny of caste-system and the most proper respect to true brahmins (enlightened sages) of India.

Rajneesh's vision is a world where one is first and foremost a human being, where humanity is our first and foremost identity and no other identity, which degrades our humanity and stands as walls between us, will be allowed to exist in this world. He gave a clarion call to reject all labels, which divides us.

He called upon us to undo the injustices of past meted to women. His first sannyasin was a woman and he did it deliberately, as a redressal of huge injustices meted to womankind. To undo the dark heritage of humanity, where women were mere property of husband rather an individual being, deserving all respect and freedom that every individual being deserves. To undo the dark culture of this country, where females were burnt alive on funeral pyres after their husbands' and husbands were allowed to marry again after their wives' . To redress the wrongs of this country, where a widow's life was a curse for even their so-called own family members, their own brothers and sister-in-laws and widowers used to merrily marry again with gleeful consent of families. To remove the dark, barbarism of female foeticide. To remove that barbarism, which makes people dance, sing and beat drums when a male child is born and make them depressed and frustrated when a female child is born. To destroy the cultural and religious disease among mentally retarded people which make them feel that their progeny can be sustained only through a male child and not through a female child, which make them think, that only by begetting a male child, they are going to get salvation and happiness in the hereafter. To create a world where there is such a gender equality that no sister feels it a curse to be born as a female. To create a world, where everyone, whether male or female, develops both positive masculine qualities of firmness, decisiveness, determination, courage and assertiveness as well as develop positive feminine qualities of softness, patience, compassion and lovingness and thus become a complete human being.

His vision is to unite East and West, Male and Female qualities in both individuals and institutions. His vision is to unite Science and Spirituality, to unite Sannyasin with the world.

Many parts of his vision will be carried out by Sarvodaya Mission and Sarvodaya Sannyasa.

Let us read his thoughts and learn from them. We may reject whatever our own intelligence and moral principles, born out of our own awareness, commands us to reject in his/her teachings and accept whatever own intelligence and moral principles, born out of our own awareness, commands us to accept. He himself believed and practised this with respect to all thinkers and sages of the past and he himself promoted this spirit of independent thinking. And this is what everyone must do - follow one's own intelligence and awareness, wherever it leads ourselves to, with full readiness to learn from one's own and others' experiences as well as readiness to gladly accept the challenges and sacrifices that this courageous way of living would entail upon us.

I am glad that in the long and arduous journey of this movement, many of us will be able to find highly uplifting and accurate guidance and inspiration from Rajneesh.

Warm regards,

Team-building skill

2008-10-19T10:19:00.003+05:30

This post is about team-building skill. Right now, the proper ideas are not in mind. Will write this post in good details when the mind is sufficiently clear and inspired about all ideas on team-building skill.

As usual, you, the reader, is indispensable part of improving this post through intelligent feedback.

Reflection done so far:

What is a team?

When the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, it is a team. When the whole is equal to the sum of its parts, it is a crowd. And when the whole is less than the sum of its parts, it is a mob.

Communication skill

2008-10-19T10:04:00.012+05:30

Communication skill makes or mars our relationships, family and organization. Thus, developing good communication skill is indispensable for everyone so that we can enjoy emotionally happy and satisfying relationships, family and an effective organization.

Good communication skill has below 12 attributes:

remaining conscious about and practising these: a) on which matter to communicate to a particular person, in a particular situation - have a pre-defined agenda and clear purpose, b) when to communicate - communicate when both are in a positive frame of mind., c) how long to communicate - don't over-stretch the conversation, otherwise it starts becoming wastage of time and energy - stop when either of the two starts loosing his/her motivation level and interest in continuing the conversation. Keeping conversation to 30-45 minutes at maximum is a good rule of thumb in most situations. Communicate as long as required without keeping any time-limit when you are providing emotional support to a person who is feeling totally helpless, hopeless and depressed at that moment, and d) what kind of logic, examples, facts and analogies to give to a particular person on a particular matter and in what sequence to give them. Our views becomes very clear and convincing to other person if we use appropriate logic, examples, facts and analogies to explain them: so, always use logic, examples, facts and analogies during conversation. Since the beginning part of a conversation projects the motive behind the conversation and makes the first impression to the other person, always begin with positive logic (i.e. what should be done and why it should be done.), examples, facts and analogies. Similarly do the same in the end part of conversation because the end part projects conclusion and motive to the other person. But, in the middle part of conversation, do give negative logic (what should not be done and why it should not be done), examples, facts and analogies so that a complete understanding of pros and cons may be shared and discussed during the communication for sake of the greatest benefit to both sides.e) whether to communicate through 'face-to-face talk'/phone or letter/email (the former is much preferable if you are communicating on sensitive issues or for resolving differences of opinions). (f) Simplicity and clarity in the contents and purpose of the conversation. (g) Using polite manners throughout the communication, like beginning with informal and personal talk "How are you?", "How is job going on?", ending the communication with polite manners like "It was very nice talking to you. It helped me a lot.", using 'Thank you for sharing this useful/important information." whenever the other person points a new information, using 'Thanks for your support/'admiring words'" when the other person give words of praise or emotional support, allowing other person to finish expressing his/her views before trying to put forth one's own views, etc.
remaining calm, confident, positive, trusting and respectful during communication both in tone as well as in contents of communication. For example, instead of saying, "You don't have good communication skills.", say "I think, there is scope of improvement in your communication skills."
being emotionally supportive to other person through sympathetic listening and positive affirmation.
asking questions which encourage people to express their opinions freely and make them feel that they are an equally important part of the on-going conversation. For example, ask "What is your opinion on this?" , "How would you deal with this situation?", "Why do you feel so strongly for/against this idea?", "Why do you see this experience/situation in this way?", "How can this problem be solved most effectively, according to you?" etc.
continuously increasing our knowledge and understanding through analyzing, reading and learning so that we may become capable of giving right type of logic, examples, facts and analogies to a particular person on a particular matter.
building a character which inspires faith (faith that this person's primary motive is to sincerely help me rather than demean me - and the listener always know the difference between two. No confusion arises in this regard in listener's mind because our tone and manners of conversation gives clear indication to the listener on this issue.) and respect (respect that this person follows all that he/she says to me and has sufficient knowledge and integrity to give me proper advice). Only if our primary purpose is to sincerely help others and we do follow what we talk, others will show faith and respect for our words. Great words coming from a person, who doesn't follow them him/herself, does not create any impact on the mind of listeners - it rather reduces others' respect for such a person and his/her words.

maintaining silence of speech (and silence in other modes of communication) regularly as a matter of habit so that when we talk, our talk is guided by peaceful awareness and maturity rather than excitation, confusion and negative emotions. This is applicable in specific situations also to deal effectively with potential negative fall-out of excitation, confusion and negative emotions. For example, when you are excited in negative sense, don't communicate with the concerned person for next few hours/days/weeks (depending upon situation) on the subject matter - neither through face-to-face talk/phone nor through email/letter. It will calm down your negative emotions and you will be able to develop a more positive tone and contents when you communicate again. This is very important as negative tone and contents of communication in moments of negative excitation are primary reason behind disharmony and tension in our relationships. During this phase, you can write down your feelings in notebook or talk to some other person (not concerned with the subject matter) to have a more constructive outlet for your negative feelings and thinking of the moment.

always remaining open-minded about our views and opinions, but also always remaining clear and absolutely firm about our core values and moral principles.
using the language of 'we' and other impersonal language more prominently and using the language of "I" as little as possible (the language of "I" is useful only when we want to provide emotional support and personal example for motivating others. e.g. "I am always here to help you.", "I also faced academic failure in life and thought, I will not be able to recover. But, then I worked hard, maintained a positive attitude and finally recovered from my academic failure. If I can do this, you can also do this provided you maintain a positive attitude and work hard." ). This is very, very necessary because ego's negative manifestation in communication mostly happens through the language of "I" and also, because too much use of "I" makes even positive communication less positive to other side as it is seen as talk of an egoistic and boastful person. Whereas the language of "we" produces bonding and feeling of togetherness between both and other type of impersonal language allows the other person to take the critical feedback without feeling offended or demoralized. For example: (a) Instead of saying, "I will never accept your rude behaviour.", say "No one can accept such rude behaviour."/"Such rude behaviour is unacceptable and indefensible." , (b) Instead of saying, "I will never allow you to smoke.", say "One who really cares and feels for you, cannot allow you to fall in such bad habits and eventually suffer in life.", etc.
When giving critical feedback, start with positive appreciation of the person and talk about your mistakes, done in similar situations, first, only then start giving your critical feedback in a respectful tone and soft-worded, impersonal language. The language should be impersonal in the sense that criticism should be idea-based rather than event/personaility-based. Also, thoroughly mix the critical feedback with suggestions for improvement and emotionally supportive and positive tone and language. This helps in generating necessary goodwill so that critical feedback can be received by other person without feeling insulted/humiliated.
When your mistakes are pointed out, if you feel you were right, give your clarification in polite, firm and respectful tone and language and if you feel you were wrong, admit your mistake humbly and show grateful appreciation to other person. For example, you can say, "I really admire the way you pointed out this shortcoming in me. Thank you very much for this. I will surely work on removing this."
Withdrawing back from conversation when there is high level of disagreement with 2 types of polite response a) polite response , "It was a very nice discussion. We should think over this issue and discuss again some other time.", in case having full/high agreement is a must (both can fix the time for next conversation that time itself or leave that to future, depending upon the situation) and b) polite response , "It was a very nice discussion. I learnt a lot new things. Let us agree to disagree on some of our views and keep on working together on our areas of agreement.", in case having full agreement is not a must.

Do remember, theoretical knowledge is absolutely worthless unless it is put into actual implementation. Best wishes for your endeavour to improve and build good communication skill.

Feel free to give feedback in Comments Section below this post.

Thanks,

Leadership Skill

2008-10-15T08:34:00.028+05:30

We will develop our core ideas on leadership, team-building and intelligent communication skills - as usual, please feel free to share your insights, anecdotes as well books on this, because this is something which require too many qualities in too much intensity.

This post is about leadership skill, in general, and organizational leadership skill, in particular. Organizational leadership means leadership at both individual as well as organizational levels and not just at individual level. It is the leadership, which can inspire others as an individual as well as create and sustain an organization around a cause to do public service effectively.

I will start with talk about one test which was mandatory for new employee in my company, which defined 16 types of personality. it is the most popular personality map used in Western world -
ref:http://www.e-mbti.com/

it is said to be fairly consistent test, in the sense, it gives almost same result despite taking many tests.
They don't mean, one is better than another in absolute sense, but that one is often better than other in performing some kind of actions. One can manage to develop any quality one needs to do a task provided he/she is fully devoted to it.

I got ENTJ - The Executives/"Field Marshall" grade in test, meaning that ENTJs are 'natural corporate leader", a good inducement for staying in corporate world :) .
Among all the 16 categories, ENTJ is more or less about being an effective organizational leader. That's the reason, why this blog will mention the details on ENTJ here. This doesn't means, other types can't be great leaders, but only that they will also need to develop those qualities which are put in category of ENTJ. After all, anyone can develop any quality, including the quality of being an effective leader, through steadfast devotion.

Having said so, if we want to build a great organization, we will need to develop qualities of an Executive/"Field Marshall" - this country needs real leaders , not those whose words portray strength, but deeds portray weakness, but those who words and deeds both portray strength .

let me enlist pros and cons of ENTJ with explanation of how they suit our Mission, so that we all can develop these pros and eliminate cons -
ref: http://www.e-mbti.com/entj.php
pros:

This "big picture" type rises naturally to conspicuous positions of power and responsiblity in all organizational settings (business, military, educational, governmental.) - in SM's mission of socio-political reforms, we must not just talk of 'if everyone does his/her duty, rest will take care of itself', but also focus on finding out how much these collective efforts are leading to our larger, over-arching goals of the cause.
Disorganization, confusion, emotion, inefficiency and illogic drive ENTJs to take charge of situations and institutions. - this means, a leader is one who is most brave in situations when an average man behaves like a coward. When an average man makes plan to flee, a leader makes plan to fight and win. This is how we should be.
They deal with the world boldly, in an assertive, analytical, objective and organized way which inspires others to salute them and do whatever the ENTJ needs done--including all the detail work! - we must be bold when dealing with world, be organized, assertive, well-planned and highly analytical. These qualities inspire confidence and loyalty in others and bring a big team of supporters.
ENTJs are natural born leaders. They live in a world of possibilities where they see all sorts challenges to be surmounted, and they want to be the ones responsible for surmounting them. - natural born does not been 'by birth' or genetically-wired, it simply means, one whose leadership is driven by the calling of one's inner voice, an innate drive to change the things and lead the cause of noble change at all perils.
They generally see things from a long-range perspective, and are usually successful at identifying plans to turn problems around - especially problems of a corporate nature. They're tireless in their efforts on the job, and driven to visualize where an organization is headed. - having both a long-term perspective as well as a detailed and steadily evolving road-map constitute the foundation of effective organizational leadership.
There is not much room for error in the world of the ENTJ. They dislike to see mistakes repeated, and have no patience with inefficiency. - having a thirst for perfection is very important for excellent execution, because one can catch excellence only by chasing perfection.
ENTJs are decisive. They see what needs to be done, and frequently assign roles to their fellows. Few other types can equal their ability to remain resolute in conflict, sending the valiant (and often leading the charge) into the mouth of hell. - in our cause, we must have tremendous force of self-discipline and moral firmness, only then we can become the agents of socio-political transformation. Remaining resolute both within and without, even when the outside world seems to crumble into pieces, is indispensable for leaders.
ENTJs love to interact with people. - this is very important. Most of our sages avoided interaction with the world, both before and after achieving spiritual greatness. They could not do much for society due to this reason. Only by interacting with people, we will be able to develop our communication skill and ability to maintain a peaceful and positive mind even when there is every possible external reason to loose our peace of mind and positive outlook.
Conclusion: They are assertive, innovative, long-range thinkers with an excellent ability to translate theories and possibilities into solid plans of action. They are usually tremendously forceful personalities, and have the tools to accomplish whatever goals they set out for.

Cons:

There is not much room for error in the world of the ENTJ. They dislike to see mistakes repeated, and have no patience with inefficiency. They may become quite harsh when their patience is tried in these respects, because they are not naturally tuned in to people's feelings, and more than likely don't believe that they should tailor their judgments in consideration for people's feelings. ENTJs, like many types, have difficulty seeing things from outside their own perspective. Unlike other types, ENTJs naturally have little patience with people who do not see things the same way as the ENTJ. The ENTJ needs to consciously work on recognizing the value of other people's opinions, as well as the value of being sensitive towards people's feelings. In the absence of this awareness, the ENTJ will be a forceful, intimidating and overbearing individual. This may be a real problem for the ENTJ, who may be deprived of important information and collaboration from others. - The combination of humility and devotion is most needed for public work. Humility without devotion becomes our moral and mental weakness, likewise devotion without humility becomes egoism and drives away people from us and our cause. This is a very, very crucial lesson for us.
The ENTJ has a tremendous amount of personal power and presence which will work for them as a force towards achieving their goals. However, this personal power is also an agent of alienation and self-aggrandizement, which the ENTJ would do well to avoid. - through resolute practice of self-discipline, one develops a very strong and powerful mind and thus, possess a great level of personal power to influence others. But, unless this mental power is combined with selflessness, one will abuse it for ego-gratification and alienate many supporters eventually failing as a leader. Thus, a combination of selflessness as well as self-discipline is needed for being a leader of a public movement.

Some more indispensable qualities of an effective organizational leadership are:

practising the 4 habits of (a) positive thinking, (b) good behaviour, (c) intelligent planning and (d) persistence, continuously.
developing a clear-cut and unchangeable core ideology with well-defined aims and ideals. Without this, the movement fails miserably. If there are no aims and ideals in a movement, which is beyond possibility of change, then it is not worth calling a movement and it will definitely fail to gather concrete support and loyalty from others
a core group of people, who are absolutely devoted to the cause whatever hardships and challenges one may face, and making proper rules to ensure that core group always occupies the most powerful decision-making body in the organization. In absence of such a core group or in absence of core group's nce in the most powerful decision-making body of an organization, the organization lacks solid foundation and gets destroyed sooner or later. This is too important task - to build a core group requires lots of time, efforts, psychological understanding and keen observation of people's behaviour and character, but this is a task whose success makes the organization and whose failure destroys the organization. Never fail even a bit in this task, however much time ,efforts and intelligence you need to put into doing it. And yeah be fully careful in choosing people for core group - it is infinitely better to err on side of being safe rather than sorry.
grooming successors so that there is no leadership vacuum and disintegration of organization after present leaders give up leadership roles.
having the inclination and ability to create both leaders and supporters in the organization rather than only supporters, because leadership is required in all types of roles in an organization - also, creating competent successors is an indispensable quality of effective organizational leadership.
developing one-to-one good relationships with all members in core group and trying to do the same with as many other members in the organization as possible.
remembering names and other personal information about as many members of organization as possible so that one can maintain a personal connection with them through more informal relationship and communication.
following all rules and policies of the organization in both letter and spirit without even a tiny amount of actual or perceived violation. Only by doing so, other members will have faith in him/her and devotion towards rules and policies of the organization.
sincerely praising every good work done by members in the organization both in private as well as in public. Also sincerely avoiding, even mild, public criticism of any member in organization and avoiding harsh criticism of member's personality/character behind back.
taking individual and private feedback on any major (and potentially disagreement-producing) proposal first from each of team-members and finetuning the proposal based on feedback through back-and-forth communication with each of team-members and once the proposal becomes more or less acceptable to all team-members, only then putting it formally and publicly before the team. This is important because if this is not done, more serious differences of opinions may arise during public debate and may create ego-problem in reaching any final agreement, which, in turn, will harm unity, mutual trust and goodwill among team-members.
acting as a mature and calm-headed peace-maker in times of conflicts and finally rallying the differing parties to convergence, trust and harmony through persuasive communication, so that organizational unity and cohesion remain absolutely unscathed despite occasional tough times. With the help of other members, the leader should also develop proper decision-making and conflict-resolution in the organization, so that decision-making and conflict-resolution processes are streamlined properly in the organization.
developing excellent (and sincerely aiming at exceptional) writing, verbal communication and oratory skills through regular practice and by learning from writings and speeches of famous writers/reformers/leaders so that the leader can effectively communicate organization's vision and his/her ideas both in his/her writings and talks in a convincing, clear and inspiring manner to build up concrete support for the cause.
being quite flexible and open-minded about views and opinions, but fully clear and absolutely firm about core values and moral principles.
having an immensely great helping nature and equally great learning spirit. Thus, not only the leader should constantly improve his/her skills and learn new things, he/she should help his/her team-mates in doing the same by sharing his/her knowledge and motivating them for this. The leader should be so knowledgeable and have such a hunger for knowledge and self-improvement that his/her team-mates naturally look towards him/her as a source of guidance and inspiration.
with the help of other team members, setting detailed and precise performance benchmarks and accountability for team goals as a whole as well as individual tasks.
never expressing 'potentially harmful' views/opinions on sensitive matters before public or before anyone outside core group, so that controversies do not hurt the credibility and support for the organization. Core ideology should so clearly explain the core values and moral principles of the organization that every member should be able to realize well the difference between views and core values, between opinions and moral principles. The leaders and other members have to explain the core values and moral principles to the public, even if they are not in tune with currents of time or mass psychology, because the core ideology of organization is all about reform and progress in society and that do require dauntless, persuasive efforts in spite of odds and obstacles.
A leader should share his/her disappointment and fear of failure or uncertainty only with core-group members. This is because such phases of disappointment and fear of failure or uncertainty, when conveyed in the public, reduce others' faith and trust in the organization's cause and produce a demoralizing effect on them. A leader can always convey the challenges lying ahead honestly in the public to mentally prepare the supporters for future challenges, but that must be done in a fully positive and optimistic tone as well as words. The other reason behind this suggestion is - a leader, though being extremely self-motivated and energetic, is still a human. In face of huge challenges and hardships, he/she may also feel sometimes demoralized or pessimistic about the future of the cause: in such a situation, he/she also needs emotional support temporarily, but he/she can get this support only from those who have similar level of devotion towards the cause, i.e., only by the members of the core-group.
fostering a culture of team spirit, trust, harmony, creativity, innovation, open-mindedness, learning spirit, helping nature, aspiration for excellence, recognizing and rewarding good performance of members in the organization through appropriate formal as well as informal mechanisms.
taking blame for failure and giving credit to team for success. One example: Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people
worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready.

As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed.
Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.
Being a team-player rather than only individually great (remember, a task which is too important for society, is always too huge for one individual to accomplish all alone.) and having the team-building skill, the skill to build and sustain a team quite effectively around a cause. - We will discuss team-building skill in other post, as this is a huge topic in itself - please read about it here: http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2008/10/team-building-skill.html
Good communication skills - please read about this in this post - http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2008/10/intelligent-communication-skills.html

Please feel free to give feedback in Comments Section below.
Thanks,

Gopal

Basic principles of right living

2008-04-06T23:35:00.013+05:30

Since a very long time, I have been wondering how should a person, inclined deeply towards spirituality, think,
behave and act in life and whether those qualities are present in me or not and if they are not present in me, what is the reason behind it and how can it be rectified.

All this should be understood in the background of Sarvodaya Mission ( http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dftvb2vq_22f37c2pfq&hl=en ) and Sarvodaya Sannyasa ( http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2007/12/sarvodaya-sannyas.html ) because this is a basic truth that my first conscious thought of life has been the desire to sacrifice all, if that is needed, for the sake of society (at age of 8-9) and that under-current of social consciousness remained ever-present as eternal and sublime music of universal love whereas all else (even spiritual aspirations) has to bow down to that under-current (so strong it has been).

Now, the big question arises - what are those defilements of mind which harm the purity of life (both personal and public life). As per spiritual sages, they can be classified as tamo and rajo gunas (explained here - http://gopalkrishna-mission.blogspot.com/2007/12/thoughtless-awareness-faq-on-basic.html#What%20are%20the%20attributes%20of%20mind ).

Of course, both gunas are present in all of us. Accepting the fact that only a fully sattwic mind (having no trace of tamo and rajo gunas) can lead a life(both personal and public life) of total purity, the big question arises, what do we mean by a fully sattwic mind, how to achieve it and how to restrain inner impurity till the mind is rendered totally sattwic.

I am sharing my understanding on these vital questions mainly because this is how a person aiming at universal love plus universal consciousness (even if he/she is not totally in the state of universal love plus universal consciousness at this moment) should behave - he/she should egolessly share with others whatever may help others in becoming more peaceful and pure... (this is one of main teachings of Buddha, which unfortunately most spiritual people don't practice due to fear that it will develop attachment and ego in them, but which anyone inspired by Buddha or Sarvodaya Mission/Sannyasa is bound to practice along with tackling the danger of lurking attachment and ego by evolving awareness rather than by escapism.)

1. What do we mean by a fully sattwic mind?

Ans. A very simple answer - a fully sattwic (same as "a totally pure") mind is same as the awareness being so high that one is fully aware even in the state of dreamless sleep. This is the state which happens when 5th center (Vishuddhi Chakra) is fully awakened and is a pre-cursor to full enlightenment.

2. How to achieve it?

Ans. One has to go on expanding his/her awareness so that it starts penetrating first dream state (during dream, one will suddenly become aware that it is a dream and then sleep will vanish and one will be in thoughtless awareness) and eventually dreamless state. The way to do that involve multiple dimensions:

Just before sleep, if one practices thoughtless awareness (at least for 30 min. - less than that is too little, isn't it?), the practice continues at subconscious level even when one falls asleep. This can be easily understood by a simple fact that whatever thought predominates in our mind just before falling asleep, that remains an under-current at subconscious level even when we fall asleep and manifests even in dreams and is often the first thought just after waking up. Now, during thoughtless awareness practice, whenever any thought happens, we use some other thought (like "Who is thinking? or "I am not this thought, I am only its witness."), so that pattern of thoughts (whenever some thought comes, use some other thought to bring back awareness and eventually become thoughtless) continues even at subconscious level. Its effect happens after sometime (many months/years/lifetimes depending on how fast our awareness evolves) when during dreams, one raises question "Who is seeing this thought? or "I am not this thought", which results in dream (and sleep) getting broken then and there. One wakes up, but there is no need to open eyes - one should just continue thoughtless practice with close eyes till sleep happens again or actual time to wake up (may be alarm is used for that) occurs. I know only till this how awareness penetrates dream state, because this is recent personal experience and corroborated by Osho, Ramana Maharshi and Upanishads. "How does the awareness penetrates dreamless state?" - the only thing that I know about this is (again from teachings of Osho, Ramana Maharshi and Upanishads), this stage happens spontaneously and gradually (may take few months/years and even lifetimes depending on sincerity of spiritual practice) as a result of evolution from the stage of awareness penetrating dream state. This is the reason, why Buddha, Raman Maharshi, Osho and other sages advised repeatedly to practice thoughtless awareness just before sleep.
If one practices thoughtless awareness technique of "observe the incoming and outgoing breath", then the awareness penetrates dream state in a different way - during dreams, one suddenly becomes aware of incoming and outgoing breath and that breaks dream (and sleep). But, there is no need to open eyes - one should just continue "observe the breath" practice with close eyes till sleep happens again or actual time to wake up (may be alarm is used for that) occurs. On other spiritual paths also, the same mechanism of awareness penetrating first dream and eventually dreamless sleep happens, but the exact explanatory details are not known to me. If you know it, please let me know and I will put that here.
One should practice thoughtless awareness with closed eyes and in sitting position at least for 30 min daily.
One should always live in present most of the times. Present-moment awareness (which, in its entire purity, is same as thoughtless awareness , because every thought pulls mind into past or future) is the most important key to expansion of awareness.
One should, of course, trying to use body-mind mechanism only for sattwic thoughts, words and deeds, to help the process of expansion of awareness.

3. How to restrain inner impurity till the mind is rendered totally sattwic
Ans. Everyone has to design his /her own way to deal with impurity of mind till it becomes totally sattwic through expansion of awareness. My way is sincerely following below principles titled as "Basic principles of right living" in thoughts, words and deeds (they are given here - http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dftvb2vq_31g5qc67cx ) and listed below:

Basic principles of right living (read with a peaceful and one-pointed mind during meals)

Maximum possible level of continuous, well-planned and whole-hearted labor is the only key to maximum possible success and self-satisfaction, whatever may be the field of endeavor.
Unless one's awareness level is so high that one is fully aware even in the state of dreamless sleep, one is always within the danger-zone of break of physical celibacy and delusion of , anger, greed, pride, attachment and jealousy. Always keep this fact in mind in order to save yourself from spiritual downfall.
Total (whole-hearted) effort built upon the foundation of total "let go"/non-doership (I am not the doer, I am only a non-judgemental witness of all thoughts, words and deeds of this body-mind mechanism.) is the key to Nishkama Karma Yoga (non-attached action).
Life is always here, and never there. Life is always now, and never then. Indeed, life is always here and now - by not being here and now, we completely miss life. So, enjoy every present moment (always 'be here and now'/'live in the present moment') in order to enjoy life.
For gaining peace and purity, thoughtless awareness is the best means. For gaining energy and removing untimely sleep, internal breath-retention is the best means.
In this world, love is a greater truth than truth itself. Always maintain a loving, positive and optimistic attitude towards yourself, others and society at large.
Always learn from others' views and reactions - they provide vital clues for improving your thinking, behaviour and communication skills. But, never get influenced by any view conceived on the plane of moral weakness or crowd mentality.
Self-unconscious virtue/goodness is beautiful/real, self-conscious virtue/goodness is ugly/false - forget all virtues/goodness you have, all good that you do to others (and society) and forget all ills that others do to you.
We" is beautiful/spiritual, "I" is ugly/unspiritual - always use the language of "we" and always avoid the language of "I" as much as practically possible in every form of communication.
"What is respected and rewarded, gets repeated and promoted." - this is an absolute law of human psychology. So, always praise and reward good thoughts, words and deeds of other individuals and organizations whole-heartedly whenever occasion for that arises.
Always remember and practice the following with respect to criticism:

Criticism is similar to a poisonous substance - it can easily poison our relationships and create long-lasting, negative image/perception about us and our organization.
Just like some poisonous substance becomes life-saving when administered in a trace amount, in right manner and under right circumstances, similarly criticism, when given in a trace amount, in right manner and under right circumstances, is helpful for the growth and evolution of individuals and organizations.
Criticism should always be given in the form of suggestion rather than condemnation.
Criticism should precede with sincere praise and end with encouraging words and suggestions.
Never criticize harshly or in more than a trace amount, otherwise it hurts the self-esteem of other person, making him/her react, become defensive or demoralized, thus totally defeating the purpose of criticism.
Criticism should always be impersonal (never criticize any person or organization directly) and based on ideas or events rather than persons.
Use the sweetest possible words and the strongest possible arguments for making criticism.
Be open to re-evaluate and even change your own views during the process of criticism - after all, we may be wrong and the other person may be right. Thus, criticism should be considered as a dialogue for mutual benefits rather than one-sided communication for only others' benefits.

The secret of health for both body and mind is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
Mind has a harmful tendency to magnify one's virtues and others' shortcomings and to diminish one's shortcomings and others' virtues due to influence of ego. Always remain aware of this fact in order to develop a balanced and wholesome understanding of yourself and others.
Egolessness is the source of all other virtues.
The most important thing is not to get born into a good society (and family), but to give a good society (and family) before we die.

Feel free to give your comment/feedback in comment section just at bottom of this post.

Love and regards,

Gopal Krishna

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!

2008-01-12T07:01:00.005+05:30

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!
Forgive Me, for I lack infinite strength to remove your sufferings.

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!
Forgive Me, for I am not so mighty to wipe all your tears.

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!
Forgive Me, for I was not there when you needed me.

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!
Forgive Me, for I did not sacrifice my all for you in the past.

Forgive, Mother! Forgive Me!
Forgive Me, for I could not protect your honour in the past.

This birth, Mother! I will repent for all my past mistakes and give my all for you.
This birth, Mother! I will build a team of true patriots for the sake of your glorious rise.
This birth, Mother! You will always find me as the foremost of your self-sacrificing children.
This birth, Mother! You will get both my sweat and blood.
This birth, Mother! You will get both my life and death.
This birth, Mother! I will be your true son, both in my life and my death.

Amen!

Thoughtless awareness - "come to present" technique

2008-01-07T18:17:00.001+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "come to present" technique

Theory - all past moments came as present moment and all future moments will also come as present moment. Every yesterday came as today and every tomorrow will also come as today. Present is the more solid reality of life, because past is memory and future is uncertain dreams and in reality, past was also experienced as present and future will also be experienced as present only. So, living in present is the real essence of life. Every thought/desire/fantasy/image belongs to either past or future. When one is fully in present, one is in thoughtless awareness and likewise, when one is in thoughtless awareness, one is fully in present.

Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Watch the present thought/desire/fantasy/image in mind. Observe if it belongs to past or future. If it belongs to past, say to yourself, "This thought/desire/fantasy/image belongs to past. Come to present now." few times (2-5 times should be enough) and focus the mind on dark space before yourself (when one closes one's eyes, there is a dark space before the mind.). Similarly, if present thought/desire/fantasy/image belongs to future, say to yourself, "This thought/desire/fantasy/image belongs to future. Come to present now." few times (2-5 times should be enough) and bring the attention to dark space before yourself (when one closes one's eyes, there is a dark space before the us.). If it is done correctly, one will experience thoughtless awareness.
Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/desire/fantasy/image, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

This technique may suit some people. Find out if it suits you or not. I am including it because it suited my elder sister very much, so I thought, who knows some more people may find it suitable to them. And second reason is, it has a good philosophy of "live in present". So, even if one practises other thoughtless awareness techniques, just reading this technique will give them a positive approach of life.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

Please participate in below poll to help us improve this post.

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the observer" technique

2008-01-05T09:11:00.011+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the observer" technique.

Theory: When one sees a dream, one finds one's body and mind acting in dreams. Body may act through various movements of body and mind may act through various thoughts in the dream. But, who sees the dream? The ONE who sees the dream, is not those dream-images, those dream-thoughts and dream-movements of the dream-body. The ONE who sees the dream cannot be mind also because it sees the mind and mind's activities in dream.

Thus, the ONE who sees the dream can be called "witnessing awareness"/witness/observer/seer and it is separate from our mind. This ONE is our real individual self, which is a state of silent awareness.

If one tries to "watch this witness"/"observe this observer"/"see this seer", the thought/desire/fantasy/image dissolve into this witness/observer/seer and the state of thoughtless awareness will happen. One can legitimately raise question here, "Who is the one who tries to 'watch this witness'/'observe this observer'/'see this seer'", then the reply would be, the ONE who tries to 'watch this witness'/'observe this observer'/'see this seer' is none but the witness/observer/seer itself. How surprising! But, this is so. "The seer can see itself"/"The witness can watch itself"/ "The observer can observe itself" because the awareness can be aware of itself (awareness, seer, observer and witness all mean same here.). If this phenomenon of "The seer seeing itself"/"The witness watching itself"/"The observer observing"/"The awareness being aware of itself" happens to 100% extent, it results into something more than thoughtless awareness, which can be called the state of pure awareness (awareness being aware only of itself). But, in almost all of us this phenomenon will happen only to some extent, and hence, will lead us only upto the state of thoughtless awareness.

It is very difficult to understand all this intellectually, but it is hoped that a few will be able to understand and gain from this technique. In fact, I was thinking not to give this technique, but then I thought, who knows some people can really understand this technique. Hence, I am including this technique for sake of completeness.

Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Now, observe the thought/image/desire/fantasy of the mind with full attention and complete neutrality (neither judge them as good or as bad, neither feel attachment nor aversion to them). Imagine that the mind is a screen and thoughts/desires/fantasies/images are pictures on this screen and you are an observer of these pictures. Observe each and every thought/desire/fantasy/image with full awareness and say to yourself, “I am not this thought/desire/fantasy/image. I am only its observer/witness.”. Do it 2-5 times.
Now, be aware that the one who is observing the thought/image/desire/fantasy, must be different from that thought/image/desire/fantasy. Ask yourself now few times (2-5 times are enough), "Who is observing/seeing/watching this thought/image/desire/fantasy." and then, turn the attention on the one who is observing this thought/image/desire/fantasy. If it is done correctly, it results into the state of thoughtless awareness. Repeat this step till thoughtless awareness is experienced.
Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/image/desire/fantasy, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

This technique may suit some people. Find out if it suits you or not.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

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Thoughtless awareness - "next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique

2008-01-05T08:53:00.002+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique.

Theory: The thinking process stops when it encounters an unknown state which our conscious mind cannot comprehend. It results into the state of thoughtless awareness.

When we have a thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in mind, our conscious mind cannot be sure about the next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in mind. Hence, if we ask the question to ourselves, "What will be the next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in my mind?", the thinking process will stop and we will experience thoughtless awareness.

Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Now, observe the thought/image/desire/sound of the mind keenly, say to yourself few times (2-5 times are enough), "This thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound is fully acceptable to me." and then, ask yourself the question: "What will be next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in my mind?" as many times as needed to experience thoughtless awareness.
Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

This technique may suit some people. Find out if it suits you or not.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

Please participate in below poll to help us improve this post.

Thoughtless awareness - "surrender every desire" technique

2008-01-05T08:34:00.001+05:30

Thoughtless awareness -"surrender every desire" technique: this will suit those who have genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc.

Theory: Every thought is born out of some gross or subtle desire. If we keenly observe our thought, we can verify this fact. For example, when someone sits for thoughtless awareness practice, a thought may come, "I have to do this work." - now, this is clearly a desire to do some work. Similarly, a thought may come in which one talks with a beloved friend in imagination - this again, is a desire to talk to some beloved friend.

Thus, one can say that thoughtless awareness is same as desireless awareness and desireless awareness is same as thoughtless awareness.

If one has genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc., one can surrender the desire manifested in form of present thought/fantasy/image/sound and that desire will vanish and corresponding thought/fantasy/image/sound will also vanish, leading to experience of thoughtless awareness.

Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Now, observe the thought/fantasy/image/sound of the mind keenly and ask yourself the question, "Which desire is giving birth to this thought/fantasy/image/sound?" few times (2-5 times are enough). If one questions so and then observes keenly, one will find that the present thought/fantasy/image/sound is manifestation of some gross or subtle desire. Pay attention to that desire and say to yourself, "I surrender this desire fully to God/Allah/Guru/Rama/Jesus etc. (depending on who is the object of your genuine devotion)" as many times as needed for that thought/fantasy/image/sound to vanish from the mind. If one's devotion and spirit of self-surrender is genuine, the desire and its corresponding thought/fantasy/image/sound will vanish and thoughtless awareness will be experienced.
Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/fantasy/image/sound, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

This technique will suit those who have genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc. One should use only one object of devotion during the practice.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

Please participate in below poll to help us improve this post.

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the thought/desire/fantasy/image" technique

2008-01-05T08:15:00.001+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the thought/desire/fantasy/image" technique.

Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Now, watch the thoughts/desires/fantasies/images of the mind with complete neutrality (neither judge them as good or as bad, neither feel attachment nor aversion to them). Imagine that the mind is a screen and thoughts/desires/fantasies/images are pictures on this screen and you are an observer of these pictures. Observe each and every thought/desire/fantasy/image with full awareness and say to yourself, “I am not this thought/desire/fantasy/image. I am only its observer/witness.”
After practice of step 5, a time comes when the mind becomes thoughtless (this is the state of thoughtless awareness). Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/desire/fantasy/image, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

This is a technique which is very effective if one's mind is already relaxed to a good extent. But, if one's mind is not relaxed to a good extent, this technique may not work. In such a case also, "observe the breath", "observe the origin of I-thought" and "observe the origin of thought/image/sound" techniques will work with a high probability. Hence, those who are able to successfully practise latter 3 techniques need not bother about this technique. But, if one is not able to experience good state of thoughtless awareness in latter 3 techniques, there is no harm in experimenting with "observe the thought/image" technique.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

Please participate in below poll to help us improve this post.

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the origin of thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique

2008-01-05T07:05:00.002+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the origin of thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique.

Theory: There is a gap between any two consecutive thoughts/images/desires/fantasy/sound ("mental talk" or imagination of conversation creates a sound in mind. Sound can be present due to other kind of thoughts also.). This gap is thoughtless awareness. When the mind is relaxed and calm, the gap is of order of few seconds and when the mind is tense or excited, the gap is of order of a fraction of second. This means, one thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound is present in mind and then there is gap of few seconds or a fraction of second and after that gap of thoughtless awareness, another thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound comes to the mind.

This implies that all thoughts/images/desires/fantasy/sound in mind arise from the state of thoughtless awareness. Thus, if we focus our attention on origin of present thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in mind, we will experience thoughtless awareness

Note: All questions and answers must be done in one's mother tongue, although for the sake of communication, they are given here in English.
Technique:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Pay attention to the thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound in the mind keenly and say to yourself few times (2-5 times are enough), "This thought/fantasy/'mental talk'/desire is fully acceptable to me."
Then, ask either of the questions: i) What is the origin of this thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound or, ii) From where is this thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound originating, and focus all your attention in seeking the origin of “present thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" in the mind. If it is done correctly, it results into the state of thoughtless awareness. Repeat this step till the present thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound gets removed from the mind and thoughtless awareness is experienced.
Be in this state of thoughtless awareness as long as no thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound disturbs this state. If any thoughts disturb this state, repeat step 4 again.

Note 1. In step 5, one can focus attention in seeking the origin of “present thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" in the mind directly and wordlessly also without using any question. Do step 5 using questions or without questions depending upon what suits you more.

Benefits:

This is one of the most powerful and fastest technique for experience of thoughtless awareness.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

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Thoughtless awareness - "observe the origin of I-thought" technique

2008-01-05T06:49:00.004+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the origin of I-thought" technique.

Theory:

We can easily notice that all thoughts originate from “I” thought. Only after the rise of first person (I, my), second and third persons (He, they, my brother, my school, etc) rise. e.g. "When I pass my exam, I will throw a party to my friends.", "My parents came tomorrow to my school.", "My brother wants to be a doctor.", etc.

So, “I” thought is the root thought. “I” thought is the origin of all other thoughts and the origin of “I” is thought is the state of thoughtless awareness. So, if we focus our attention on the origin or source of I thought, we naturally become thoughtless.

Note: All questions and answers must be done in one's mother tongue, although for the sake of communication, they are given here in English.

Variation 1.

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Pay attention to the present thought/image/desire/"mental talk" in the mind. Now, ask either of the following questions: i) Who is thinking/desiring? or, ii) Who is imagining or fantasizing? or, iii) Who is talking? (if the thought is a type of mental talk – imagination of conversation with anyone). Answer “I”. Repeat the process of asking the question and then, answering "I" as many times as needed for removal of present thought/image/desire/"mental talk" in mind. Now, go to next step.
Now, ask either of the following questions (all questions have same meaning): i) From where does this ‘I’ originate or, ii) Who am I or, iii) What is the source of this “I”, few times (2-5 times are enough), and focus all your attention in seeking the origin of “I” thought. If it is done correctly, it results into the state of thoughtless awareness (meditation). If thoughtless awareness doesn't happen, again repeat step 5.
Be in this state of thoughtless awareness as long as no thought disturbs this state. If any thought disturbs this state, repeat steps 4 and 5.

Note 1. In step 5, one can focus attention in seeking the origin of “I” thought directly and wordlessly also without using any question. Do step 5 using questions or without questions depending upon what suits you more.

Variation 2.

1-4. Steps 1 to 4 are same as in variation 1.
5. Chant (Repeat) 'I'-'I' as long as required to make mind free from all thoughts except the chant of 'I'-'I'. When mind becomes thoughtless, drop the chanting of 'I'-'I'. Then, the mind becomes completely thoughtless.
6. Be in this state of thoughtless awareness as long as no thought disturbs this state. If any thought disturbs this state, repeat steps 4 and 5.

Variation 3.
1-4. Steps 1 to 4 are same as in variation 1.
5. Now, say , 'Observe/Look at this "I"' and make an effort to observer/'look at' the "I". When one tries to observe/'look at' "I", the mind becomes completely thoughtless.
6. Be in this state of thoughtless awareness as long as no thought disturbs this state. If any thought disturbs this state, repeat steps 4 and 5.

Note 2. Variation 2 will suit even children or illiterates. But, variations 1 & 2 should be considered the main technique and variation 2 should be used only if variations 1 & 2 are not grasped by an individual or are not proving effective at a given point of time.

Benefits:

This is one of the most powerful and fastest technique for experience of thoughtless awareness.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

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Thoughtless awareness - "observe the breath" technique

2008-01-05T05:58:00.006+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - "observe the breath" technique. This can also be called "will suit all" technique because it will suit everyone who knows how to count :).

Variation 1.

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
Now, focus your awareness gently on breath.
Start counting with each incoming breath and each outgoing breath. One may count from 1 to 50 or do reverse counting from 50 to 1, increasing/decreasing the count by one with each incoming and outgoing breath.
Repeat step 5 few more times till the mind becomes free from all thoughts except the thought of counting. When it is attained, go to next step.
Now, stop the counting and focus on the incoming and outgoing breath without any counting. If any thought comes to the mind, neglect it as if it is a complete stranger and keep on focusing the awareness on the incoming and outgoing breath. If thoughts are disturbing too much, go to step 5 again.

Note: If someone doesn't know counting, then he can instead say AU with every inhalation and M with every exhalation (AUM word), or say Aa with every inhalation and Min/Men with every exhalation (Amin or Amen word.

Variation 2.

1-3. Steps 1 to 3 are same as above.
4. Now, focus your awareness gently on breath.
5. Keep on focus of awareness on breath. If any thought/fantasy/'mental talk'/desire disturbs the focus, say few times (2-5 times should be enough) "Every/This thought/fantasy/'mental talk'/desire is going out with breath." while simultaneously imagining that during exhalation, every/this thought/fantasy/'mental talk'/desire get removed with outgoing breath. Continue doing this as many times as required to make the mind free from that thought/fantasy/'mental talk'/desire. When the mind becomes thoughtless, continue the gentle focus of awareness on breath.

Benefits:

Both variations 1 and 2 are very simple technique and can be done by even children.
Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can't even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
It equalizes the flow of breath in both nostrils, so it lead to calmness of the mind, which in turn induces the state of thoughtless awareness.
When his disciples asked the question, “How can one control the ever wandering mind?”, Lord Buddha replied, “Do counting or reverse counting with each incoming and outgoing breath keeping the awareness focused on breathing and keeping the breathing completely natural.”. His advice is used in step 6 of variation 1 to induce one-pointedness of the mind. So, one can use this method to concentrate the mind.
Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.

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Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga)

2008-01-05T05:15:00.001+05:30

Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga)

Please read and follow all rules for breathing exercise practice here.

Method:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
Breathe rapidly from the abdomen.
Exhale with forceful contraction of the abdominal muscles.
Inhale by passively allowing the abdominal muscles to expand; there should be no effort.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 continuously as long as you can do without feeling want of breath.
Now, keep both inhalation and exhalation natural till the breathing system becomes relaxed.
Steps 4 to 7 constitute 1 round of abdominal exhalation exercise.
Practice multiple rounds continuously for a duration of 3-5 minutes.

Benefits:

1. Benefits for body:

Digestive: it massages and improves the functioning of the digestive organs.
Brain: it clears the frontal lobe of the brain by speeding up the blood flow.
Respiration: It cleans out the lungs. It improves their elasticity and makes oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange more efficient.
Diseases: Due to its good effects on health of respiratory system, it helps in removing respiratory ailments like bronchitis, tuberculosis, asthma and emphysema. In case of asthma and emphysema, during attacks, it should not be practised, but its practice at normal times helps in removing asthma and emphysema.

2. Benefits for mind:

It is one of best breathing exercises to be done just before thoughtless awareness practice because it empties the mind of thoughts, emotional feelings and excessive images and thus, introduces a tranquil state of mind.
It wakes up the mind. So, it can be used to remove mental tiredness.

Note: If you don't grasp the technique of this technique, watch its demonstration by Swami Ramdev here.

Limitations:

It should not be done by people who suffer from high blood pressure, vertigo and hernia.

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Great lock exercise (also known as Maha Bandha in yoga)

2008-01-05T04:49:00.001+05:30

Great lock exercise (also known as Maha Bandha in yoga - Maha for Great and Bandha for Lock):

Please read and follow all rules for breathing exercise practice here.

Picture of a person performing Great lock exercise.

Method:

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
Exhale completely.
Hold the breath out after exhalation (i.e., don't inhale after exhalation and keep the breathing process stopped.).
Keeping the breathing process stopped, bend the head forward and press the chin tightly against the chest.
Keeping the breathing process stopped, now, contract the abdominal muscles as far as possible inward and upward. This is a kind of sucking action of the abdominal muscles.
Keeping the breathing process stopped, now, pull the lower abdominal muscle (muscles just above urinary organ) upward.
Maintain this position as long as breathing process can be kept stopped with comfort.
Keeping the breathing process stopped, first release the lower abdominal muscles, then release abdominal muscles and then remove the chin from chest and straighten the neck and head.
Now, inhale deeply and completely.
Steps 3 to 10 constitute one round of "Great Lock" exercise . Practice 6-10 rounds continuously.

Benefits:

1. Benefits for body:

It is the panacea for many abdominal and stomach ailments, including constipation, colitis, indigestion, worms and diabetes, provided they are not chronic.
The digestive fire is stimulated and the abdominal organs are all massaged and toned.
It improves blood circulation to the whole trunk area and strengthens all the internal organs.
It stimulates the pelvic nerves and tones the uro-genital and excretory systems.
Intestinal peristalsis is also stimulated, relieving constipation and piles.
It is also beneficial for anal fissures, ulcers, prostatitis, some cases of prostatic hypertrophy and chronic pelvic infections.
It releases energy, which spread throughout the body via the brain and endocrine system making it very beneficial in cases of asthma, bronchitis and arthrisis.
The stimulus on the throat helps to balance thyroid function and regulate the metabolism.

2. Benefits for mind:

The adrenal glands are balanced, removing lethargy and soothing anxiety and tension.
It balances breath flow in two nostrils, which helps to expand the awareness (conscious mind) and induce thoughtless awareness practice.
It relieves depression, stress, anxiety and anger and gives us mental relaxation.
It is one of the most effective means to attain control over sexual impulses in a scientific and non-repressive manner.

Precautions:

People suffering from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease should not practice it.
Persons suffering from colitis, stomach or intestinal ulcer, diaphragmatic hernia, glaucoma and raised intracranial pressure should not perform it.
Don’t inhale or exhale until the chin has been released and the head is fully upright.
It should also be avoided by pregnant women.

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Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama in yoga)

2008-01-05T03:02:00.003+05:30

Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama in yoga):

Please read and follow all rules for breathing exercise practice here.

There are two techniques of nerve-purification breathing exercise:

Basic method: It does not involve breath-retention. It should be done during the age of 8-12 years.
Advanced method: It involves breath-retention. It should be done during the age of 13 or more years.

1. Basic method

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand.
Inhale slowly and deeply through left nostril.
Close the left nostril with ring and little fingers of right hand and remove the thumb from right nostril.
Exhale completely through right nostril.
Inhale slowly and deeply from right nostril.
Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand and remove ring and little fingers from left nostril.
Exhale completely through left nostril.
Steps 3 to 9 constitute one round. One should practice many rounds continuously for at least 3-5 minutes.

Basic stage has many benefits:

It equalizes the flow of breath in both nostrils, leading to calmness of mind, which induces thoughtless awareness.
The whole body is nourished with an extra supply of oxygen and the carbon dioxide is more efficiently eliminated. This purifies the whole system and increases the overall health of the body, including its power to resist the disease.
The deep, slow breathing encourages the removal of stagnant air from the lungs.
It purifies the nervous system and makes our nerves relaxed and healthy, which in turn, saves us from various mental tensions and diseases.

2. Advanced method

Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair, with spine, neck and head held in a straight line.
Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand. Index and middle fingers rest on forehead near the region of centre of two eyebrows throughout the entire practice or alternatively, they can rest tucked inside the palm.
Inhale slowly and deeply through left nostril.
Close the left nostril with ring and little fingers of right hand.
Hold the breath and while holding the breath, bend the head forward and press the chin tightly against the chest. Stay in this position as long as breath can be held comfortably. Concentrate the mind in the mid-center of two eyebrows.
Remove the chin from chest and straighten the neck and head.
Remove the thumb from right nostril.
Exhale completely through right nostril.
Inhale slowly and deeply from right nostril.
Close the right nostril with thumb of right hand.
Hold the breath and while holding the breath, bend the head forward and press the chin tightly against the chest. Stay in this position as long as breath can be held comfortably. Concentrate the mind in the mid-center of two eyebrows.
Remove the chin from chest and straighten the neck and head.
Remove ring and little fingers from left nostril.
Exhale completely through left nostril.
Steps 3 to 15 constitute one round. One should practice many rounds continuously for at least 3-5 minutes.

Advanced stage has many benefits:

It has all the benefits of basic stage.
Chin lock presses the carotid sinuses, which are located on the carotid arteries, the main arteries in the neck. These sinuses help to regulate the circulatory and respiratory systems. Normally, a decrease of oxygen and increase of carbon dioxide in the body leads to an increased heart rate and heavier breathing. This process is initiated by the carotid sinuses. By artificially exerting pressure on these sinuses, this tendency is prevented, allowing for decreased heart rate and increased breath retention.
It produces mental relaxation, relieving stress, anxiety and anger.
It develops introversion of mind and one-pointedness, which, in turn, helps in thoughtless awareness practice.
The stimulus on the throat helps to balance thyroid function and regulate the metabolism.
It gives all the benefits of breath-retention described here.

Precautions for advanced stage:

All precautions for breath-retention given here applies to advanced stage.
People suffering from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high pressure or heart disease should not practice it.
Don’t inhale or exhale until the chin has been released and the head is fully upright.

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General Rules for breathing exercise (pranayama) practice

2008-01-05T02:41:00.006+05:30

General Rules for breathing exercise (pranayama) practice:

There should be no violent respirations, no extended breath-retention beyond a comfortable measure, no forcing of breath, body or mind.
Practise in a clean environment with fresh air. Never perform it in a foul-smelling, smoky or dusty room.
Try to practice at the same time each day and in the same place. This builds up a positive vibration and the regularity creates inner strength and willpower.
It should be practiced on an empty stomach.
One should practice at least 1 hour before meals and at least 3 hours after taking meals.
Follow all precautions for breath-retention given below in case you want to practice breath-retention (breath-retention is used in all Locks or Bandhas).
It should be commenced after 8 years age (not before that).

Precautions for breath-retention:

One should not hold breath to the point of pain or suffocation otherwise it may harm lungs. One should hold breath only till one feels comfortable.
One should practice at least 30 min before meals and at least 1 hours after taking meals.
One should take a bath after at least 1/2 hour of practice (because lots of heat is generated in the body during breath-retention, so body should be allowed time to get normalized before taking bath).
Only after the age of 12, it should be practiced. This is because the chest, heart and lungs are not strong enough before 12 for the practice of breath-retention.
One should have healthy lungs, heart and normal pressure.
Our mind becomes very concentrated during internal breath-retention. So,whatever thoughts one has in mind while holding breath that becomes very strong and has very powerful influence over the mind. It implies that one must have only positive thoughts during breath-retention (if negative thoughts come, quickly replace that with positive thoughts). Due to the same reason, one should give auto-suggestion while holding breath.

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Thoughtless awareness - FAQ on basic concepts

2007-12-30T04:38:00.013+05:30

Thoughtless awareness - FAQ on basic concepts

Q. What is mind?
Q. What are the divisions of mind?
Q. What are the attributes of mind?
Q. How does food influence mind?
Q. How are breath and mind inter-related?
Q. What is awareness?
Q. What is thoughtless awareness?
Q. What is the meaning of consciousness level? What is the primary advantage of increasing our consciousness level and what is the primary disadvantage of decreasing our consciousness level?
Q. Why should one practise thoughtless awareness?
Q. Who can practise thoughtless awareness?
Q. How much and when should one practise thoughtless awareness?
Q. What are the various techniques of thoughtless awareness practice?
Q. Which breathing exercises are most helpful for experiencing thoughtless awareness?
Q. Which is the sequence of breathing and thoughtless awareness exercises that your recommend?
Q. How many types of breath-retention are there? What are their importance?
Q. What is auto-suggestion? How is it practised? When should it be practised? What are its benefits?
Q. I want a good technique to remove anger/depression/"negative attitude"/"lustful thoughts" without feeling repressed. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. I want a good technique to remove untimely sleep or unwanted drowsiness effectively so that I may stay awake late at night or work as per my original plan. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. I want a good technique to help me in waking up in early morning. Can you tell me any such technique?
Q. Why did you share these knowledge and techniques?

******* Answer begins: ********

Q. What is mind?

Ans. Roughly speaking, mind is a bundle of thoughts, feelings and their impressions in the memory.

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Q. What are the divisions of mind?

Ans. The division of mind as per modern psychology (and also yoga psychology) is:

Conscious Mind: that part of mind which is used in the waking state to think, will and receive sense perceptions from various sense organs. Will and will-power are the function of conscious mind.
Unconscious Mind: that part of mind which is not in the field of our waking consciousness. Ninety per cent of the mental activities take place in the unconscious mind. Mind in its unconscious realm contains our basic urges, instincts, memory impressions and rational aspects. Whatever data our conscious mind receives from sense organs, is analyzed, sorted and retained by unconscious mind. All our habit-patterns are governed by unconscious mind. To change the old, harmful habit patterns and to cultivate new, positive habit patterns, we have to influence our unconscious mind through daily practice of thoughtless awareness, breathing exercises and positive auto-suggestions.

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Q. What are the attributes of mind?

Ans. According to science of yoga, the mind (both thoughts and impressions/habits in unconscious mind) has been divided into three modes/states/quality(guna):

Mode of Goodness (also known as Sattwa Quality/Guna or Sattwic State in yoga): joy, bliss, goodness, compassion, love, selflessness, calmness, equanimity, non-attachment, humility, patience, truthfulness, sweetness, brightness, intuition, intelligence, discrimination, courage, faith, confidence, optimism, cheerfulness, will power, firmness
Mode of Passion (also known as Rajo Quality/Guna or Rajasic State in yoga): impatience, pride, jealously, attachment, greed, , anger, deceit, lying, harshness, passion, possessiveness, acquisitiveness, fickleness, restlessness, uncontrollable thinking
Mode of Ignorance (also known as Tamo Quality/Guna or Tamasic State in yoga): laziness, sloth, carelessness, drowsiness, dullness, ignorance, injuring others through thoughts, words and deeds, cowardice, fear, confusion, depression, frustration, diffidence, pessimism, inertia, hatred

100% goodness (pure Sattwa or 100 % Sattwa) is the state of thoughtless awareness (the interval between any two consecutive thoughts). It is the
state of the highest possible relaxation and peace.

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Q. How does food influence mind?

Ans. Food has a direct and intimate connection with the mind and plays a vital part in the make-up of the mind. Food has been classified into 3 categories: good (sattwic), passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (tamasic), based on whether it induces good (sattwic), passionate (rajasic) or ignorant (tamasic) states of mind.

Good diet (also known as sattwic diet in yoga): milk, cream, cheese, butter, curd, ghee, fruits, figs, vegetables, cereals like wheat, rice, barley, etc., peas, sugar-candy, gram, pulse, ginger, myrobalan, lemon, honey.
Passionate diet (also known as rajasic diet in yoga): fish, eggs, meat, salt, chillies, chutney, asafetida, pickles, tamarind, mustard, sour things, hot, pungent things, tea, coffee, cocoa, ovaltine, white sugar, carrots, turnips, spices.
Ignorant diet (also known as tamasic diet): garlic, tobacco, rotten things, stale things, unclean things, twice cooked things, all intoxicants, all liquors, all .

Good diet (sattwic diet) calms the mind. Passionate diet (rajasic diet) excites the mind. Ignorant diet (tamasic diet) makes the mind dull and lethargic. Mark the difference in nature between a tiger which lives on flesh and a cow which lives on grass. Food exercises important influence on the mind. One should try one's best to eat good diet (sattwic diet) only. Also, even good diet (sattwic diet) becomes passionate diet (rajasic diet) if it is eaten too quickly, without chewing it properly. And even good and passionate diets (sattwic and rajasic diets) become ignorant diets (tamasic diet) if they are taken in excess quantity.

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Q. How are breath and mind inter-related?

Ans.

A fast breathing rate is associated with tension, anger, worry, fear and other negative emotions, which leads to bad health, unhappiness, fickleness and a shorter life.
A person who breathes slowly, is relaxed, calm, concentrated and happy, which is conducive to long lifespan.
A person who breathes quickly, tends to inhale small volumes of air and exhale the same small volumes; this tends to allow germs to accumulate in the lower areas of the lungs. Conversely, a person who breathes slowly tends to also breathe deeply and thereby fill the lungs to a greater depth. This helps to remove stagnant air from the lower reaches of the lungs and to destroy the breeding ground of germs and the germs themselves.
Also, deep breathing imparts a good massage to abdominal organs via the diaphragm. The massage of the liver, stomach, etc. keeps them in good working order by expelling old, impure blood and allowing pure, oxygenated blood to replace it. Shallow breathing connected with fast breathing does not give the internal organs the massage they require, leading to their malfunctioning in long run.
Shallow breathing also leads to insufficient oxygen in the body. This causes functional disturbance and illnesses connected with circulatory, digestive and nervous systems, since the efficiency of these systems is entirely dependent on healthy, well-nourished nerves and organs, which depend completely on oxygen for survival. Thus, slow and deep breathing is the correct pattern of breathing and shallow and fast breathing is the wrong pattern (leading to diseases like asthma, bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis etc.). The deep breathing allows maximum intake for each respiration and slow breathing allows optimum exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide by giving more time to lungs for exchange of gases.
Modern man has got conditioned to take quick, shallow breath due to fear, competition and hatred. So, few minutes of breathing exercise will help him/her a lot. 1 minute of slow, deep breathing retains its effect on our body and mind for 60 minutes.
The process of inhalation is linked to gain of energy whereas the process of exhalation is linked to relaxation.

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Q. What is awareness?

Ans. Awareness is the faculty of conscious attention. This is present only in humans. For example, a cow may eat grass, but her attention to grass is unconscious/mechanical. But, a human can think or do something and can be consciously attentive of the fact that he is thinking or doing it. For example, you are reading this post and you can be simultaneously conscious of this fact that you are reading it. This means, you are reading this post with conscious attention or awareness.

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Q. What is thoughtless awareness?

Ans. When there is no thought in mind, that is the state of thoughtlessness or void (shoonya). One can be in thoughtless state without awareness, for example when one is in a dreamless sleep or in a coma. When the state of thoughtlessness or void (shoonya) is coupled with "conscious attention"/awareness of this state, it is called thoughtless awareness. Thus, thoughtless awareness is the combination of a thoughtless mind and awareness (conscious attention) of this thoughtless state.

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Q. What is the meaning of consciousness level? What is the primary advantage of increasing our consciousness level and what is the primary disadvantage of decreasing our consciousness level?

Ans. Consciousness level means the percentage of conscious mind. Normally, 10% of mind is conscious and rest 90% is unconscious. But, the percentage of conscious mind increases when mind is in the state of goodness (sattwa quality/guna) because in the state of goodness(sattwa quality/guna), conscious mind expands cuasing us lots of peace and relaxation. Similarly, the percentage of conscious mind decreases when mind is in the state of passion or ignorance (rajo and tamo quality/guna) because in such state, conscious mind shrinks causing us lots of mental pain and suffocation.

The primary advantage of increasing consciousness level by increasing the degree of goodness(sattwa quality/guna) in mind (both conscious and unconscious minds) is unruffled peace, inner joy and relaxation. Likewise, the primary disadvantage of decreasing consciousness level by increasing the degree of passion or ignorance (rajo and tamo quality/guna) in mind (both conscious and unconscious minds) is mental pain, suffocation and mental self-torture.

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Q. Why should one practise thoughtless awareness?

Ans. There are multiple reasons to motivate us to practise thoughtless awareness. Let us look at them one-by-one:

Thoughtless awareness is the mode of 100% goodness (known as "100% sattwa guna" or "shuddha/pure sattwa"). The more one practises thoughtless awareness, the more one acquires all attributes of goodness (sattwa guna/quality).
Thoughtless awareness practice removes mode of ignorance and passion (tamo and rajo gunas/qualities) from both conscious and unconscious minds. Thus, though thoughtless awareness practice, we become more pure, compassionate, peaceful, strong-willed and one-pointed.
Thoughtless awareness is the state of the highest possible peace and relaxation that our mind can experience. All our stress, frustration, anxiety, restlessness, anger, hatred, mental pain and depression are due to negative thoughts - the lesser the number of thoughts in mind, the more peacefulness and relaxation mind has and when there is no thought in mind just like in thoughtless awareness, mind experiences the highest possible peace and relaxation. Thinking is the activity of mind - so, to give rest to the mind, the process of thinking needs to be stopped. This is what exactly happens in thoughtless awareness practice.
Thoughtless awareness practice completely heals old wounds present in our memory (or unconscious mind). Most of us, unfortunately, have experienced some undesirable/painful events in the past, which have left wounds in our memory (or unconscious mind), which now and then resurfaces to our conscious mind and brings pain and suffering to us. Thus, a few negative events of our past becomes fully successful in poisoning our whole life's peace and happiness. During the state of thoughtless awareness, our awareness or "conscious mind" expands, which , in turn, brings negative memories hidden in unconscious mind to surface. Due to the peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness, we remain detached towards these memories and that ,in turn, neutralized the pain and negativity of these memories. In this process, we also develop a forgiving and broad outlook towards life, in general, and towards negative events of past, in particular. Thus, through daily practice of thoughtless awareness, a complete healing of old wounds present in memory (unconscious mind) happens.
Thoughtless awareness practice helps in physical health also. Modern medical science says that more than 90% of our physical diseases are directly or indirectly caused by tension/stress (negative thoughts) and restlessness in mind. Common examples include heart disease, chronic fatigue, insomnia, high blood pressure, constipation, peptic ulcers, poor immune function, migraines, diarrhea, skin breakouts (hives, eczema), frequent colds. Thus, through thoughtless awareness one gains enormous physical health also.
Thoughtless awareness practice is the key to concentration or one-pointedness of mind. This is because, by developing capacity to remove thoughts from mind through thoughtless awareness practice, we can use the same technique to remove all distracting thoughts during our work and develop concentration or one-pointedness of mind, which, in turn, will enhance our productivity and success in our work.
Thoughtless awareness practice increases our consciousness level or percentage of conscious mind, because it is the state of pure goodness (100% or pure/shuddha sattwa quality/guna).
Thoughtless awareness practice leads to experience of oneness of consciousness in every being. Through thoughtless awareness practice, one realizes that though thoughts are different in everyone, but the consciousness in everyone is same. This makes one develop a great amount of empathy, broad-mindedness, goodwill and nobility towards one's fellow humans (and even animals).
Thoughtless awareness practice increases the faculty of independent, objective and critical thinking. Through thoughtless awareness practice, one starts viewing one's and others' thoughts from a distance - this enables the practitioners to develop the faculty of independent, objective and critical thinking, which, in turn, helps in intellectual growth of the individual and society and helps in removing irrational and harmful beliefs and dogmas from society, leading to more maturity, broadness, peace and harmony in individuals, families and society.
Thoughtless awareness practice increases coordination between left and right brains during thinking process and makes the thinking more powerful and effective. During thoughtless awareness practice, breath flow in both nostrils becomes balanced/equal. It is a fact accepted by medical science that when breath flows predominantly in left nostril, right hemisphere of our brain, which is responsible for understanding, emotion and intuition, becomes more active and when breath flows predominantly in right nostril, left hemisphere of our brain, which is responsible for analysis, argument and intellectual thinking, becomes more active and when breath flows in both nostrils together, both hemispheres of brains work together. This is the period when our mind is the most relaxed, calm, concentrated and creative.
Thoughtless awareness practice enhances the faculty of intuition. All intuitive flashes of scientists, artists, musician, sculptor and leaders come from the realm of unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind has vast reservoir of power and intelligence.Through thoughtless awareness, we expand our awareness or conscious mind, which, in turn, brings portions of unconscious mind into field of consciousness and unleash these creative energies in our brain. Intuition can function only when mind is totally relaxed . Thoughtless awareness practices, by producing the highest possible relaxation in our mind, enhances the faculty of intuition greatly, which, in turn, helps us in being original and creative in our chosen fields of endeavours.
Thoughtless awareness practice enhances the quality of sleep and rest acquired from the sleep. If after going to bed and just before sleep, one practises thoughtless awareness exercises before falling asleep, one will enter the sleep state with a relaxed mind and will have a sound, dreamless sleep.

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Q. Who can practise thoughtless awareness?

Ans. Thoughtless practice is devoid of all sectarian connotations. It imposes no restriction or constraints on its practitioner. It is meant for entire humanity, belonging to all nations, religions and cultures. There is no gender or age-restriction at all.

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Q. How much and when should one practise thoughtless awareness?

Ans. How much:

One should practice thoughtless awareness daily for 30 minutes (more will also do - 30 minutes is minimum recommended time) in sitting position with eyes closed and spine, neck and head all in a straight line. One can choose any sitting position (even use a chair) for this practice. One can also practice in any of traditional sitting asanas (like sukhasana, siddhasana, padmasana and as well as in a new asana, sidhasana .
Apart from this, one should practise it in free-time like during travels, meals, bathroom etc. when thinking is not needed. This way, the practitioner will keep his mind cool in the coolness of thoughtless awareness whole day rather than just during 30 min of sitting practice.
One should practice it also to remove distracting thoughts during work/studies so that one can work/study with a one-pointed mind and achieve optimum success in professional/academic life.

When:

For practice in sitting position with close eyes, the best period is in the morning, just after waking up. This helps in keeping mind cool throughout whole day, because the current of peace created by thoughtless awareness practice in the beginning of day, is carried out whole day in our mind.
One should practice in different times only if it is simply impossible to manage time for practising it in the morning, just after waking up. But, with a little self-discipline and time-management, all of us can find 30 min. in the morning, just after waking up, for thoughtless awareness practice.

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Q. What are the various techniques of thoughtless awareness practice?

Ans. All techniques of thoughtless awareness practice, that are known to me, have been explained in a series of posts on my blog. But, please learn few more crucial points about thoughtless awareness practice:

Daily practice (preferably just after waking up for 30 minutes) in sitting position is minimum sitting practice needed for satisfactory level of inner peace and purity.
Unless one practice present-moment awareness in entire waking hours using thoughtless awareness exercises to remove all thoughts from mind during free-time like bath/meals/travels etc., the thoughtless practices in sitting position will not have maximum benefits. Many thoughtless awareness techniques can be quite effectively used to curb the mind’s wanderings into past or future, bringing it back to the present moment activity. This will lead not only to very high degree of concentration but also a relaxed and calm mind whole day.
Many negative thoughts may rush into the mind during thoughtless awareness practice. These thoughts are impressions of unconscious mind and since the awareness (or conscious mind) expands during the state of thoughtless awareness, these impressions surface in the conscious mind. But, it is a purgatory process of self-purification, in which negative impressions of unconscious mind are eliminated and one becomes more and more sattvic. So, one should not feel emotionally disturbed by the negativity of these thoughts. Rather, one should feel glad that these negative impressions of unconscious mind are getting removed and one is becoming purer (sattwic).

Links to 9 thoughtless awareness techniques are given below:

"Observe the breath" technique
"Observe the origin of I-thought" technique
"Observe the origin of thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique
"Observe the thought/desire/fantasy/image" technique
"Surrender every desire" technique
"Next thought/image/desire/fantasy/sound" technique
"Observe the observer" technique
"Come to present" technique
"Listen to this thought/sound" technique: Every thought creates a sound in mind. Just listen to the sound produced by thoughts in the mind without bothering about thoughts. As a result of this, you will experience thoughtless awareness.
Develop your own technique: Various insights into the nature of thought and thinking process have been given clearly in above 9 techniques. You are most welcome to develop your own thoughtless awareness technique by modifying any of above 9 techniques or by combining some parts of one technique with those of some other technique or developing a new technique by using some of the insights in above 9 techniques.

Kindly try to experiment with all 9 techniques or develop your own technique and pick the one which suits you the most and practise that daily for 30 minutes in sitting position and in remaining free-time. It may be possible that you will find more than 1 techniques suiting you. In that case, kindly use any of them depending on which leads you to the state of thoughtless awareness quickly and deeply at a given point of time.

If you know any more techniques, kindly share with me at gopalkrishna.mission@gmail.com and I will put that on my blog with due credit given to you on the post.

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Q. Which breathing exercises are most helpful for experiencing thoughtless awareness?

Ans. 3 breathing exercises (also known as pranayama in yoga) are most useful for experiencing thoughtless awareness:

Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama in yoga): It helps in making breath-flow equal in both nostrils and that in turn, helps in making mind thoughtless during thoughtless awareness practice.
Great lock exercise (also known as Maha Bandha in yoga): same reason as above.
Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): same reason as above.

All of these exercises have strong effects on balancing harmonal system in our body, improve function of nervous, circulatory and digestive systems and help in developing deep and slow breathing pattern, which in turn, frees us from many diseases of body and mind.

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Q. Which is the sequence of breathing and thoughtless awareness exercises that your recommend?

Ans. The recommended practice would be:

If one can give only 35 minutes every day, then

Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): 3-5 minute
Thoughtless awareness: 30 minute

If one can give only 45 minutes every day, then

Nerve-purification breathing exercise (also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama): 5 minute
Great lock exercise (also known as Mahabandha in yoga): 6 rounds
Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati in yoga): 3-5 minute
Thoughtless awareness: 30 minute
Nerve-purification breathing exercise: 5 minute

One can spend more time also, but 35 or 45 minutes of daily yoga-practice with 30 min for thoughtless awareness and rest for breathing exercises is what we recommend to everyone.

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Q. How many types of breath-retention are there? What are their importance?

Ans. There are 3 types of breath-retention (known as kumbhak in yoga):

Internal breath-retention (known as "antarik kumbhak" in yoga): Inhale deeply filling lungs completely and hold breath in the lungs.
External breath-retention (known as "bahya kumbhak" in yoga): Exhale deeply emptying lungs completely and keep the breath stopped after exhalation.
Spontaneous breath-retention (known as "keval kumbhak" in yoga): When during thoughtless awareness practice, the breathing process stops by itself, this is called spontaneous breath-retention(keval kumbhak). When this happens, one should remain breathless as long as breathing process does not resume on its own. This state happens because the air-pressure in lungs become equal to atmospheric pressure due to deep states of relaxation and hence, lungs can't inhale (inhalation is possible only when air-pressure in lungs is less than atmospheric pressure because air moves from high pressure to low pressure region) and breath stops. Thus, this state occurs due to good progress in thoughtless awareness practice.

Importance of breath-retention exercises:

Better exchange of gases in lungs due to more time for lungs’ operation, leading to health of entire nervous and circulatory system.
Purges the body of various toxins and poisons, giving us a vigorous physical health.
Once we practice breath-retention for few minutes, the breath starts flowing equally in both nostrils, leading to spontaneous occurrence of thoughtless awareness or meditation.
A decrease and even cessation of thoughts. The period of each thought is lengthened, giving more time to fully comprehend and analyze it.
The physical body becomes very strong and energetic. One may note that while lifting a heavy luggage, one holds the breath; this is in order to gain necessary energy to lift the luggage. During fasting, practice of breath-retention makes one free from hunger and rather makes us more energetic than even a normal day, when we eat food. This energy comes from inhaled air.
The mind becomes calm, concentrated and energetic. So, it is highly recommended for those, who are engaged in a lot of mental work.
Thinking becomes very sharp and clear with repeated practice.
Need for excess sleep is reduced. While feeling drowsiness or lethargy, instead of taking passionate diet (rajasic diet) like coffee, tea etc., one should practice breath-retention for 10-15 minutes. It will be more effective than the former in removing drowsiness and lethargy and will also give us more calmness and concentration which stimulating diet like coffee, tea etc. often reduces even if they can ward off drowsiness and lethargy.
External breath-retention produces deep relaxation and helps us in removing anger, tension, and other passions from the unconscious as well as conscious mind.
Breath-retention is the crux of all advanced breathing (pranayama) techniques like great lock exercise (Mahabandha) and nerve-purification exercise (Nadi Shodhana Pranayama).

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Q. What is auto-suggestion? How is it practised? When should it be practised? What are its benefits?

Ans. What is auto-suggestion?
Auto-suggestion is a technique to influence one's mind in order to change negative thoughts, negative thought-patterns and habits and to develop a new thought-pattern, will-power, self-confidence and positive habits. It is an essential part of life which most of us consciously/unconsciously use.

How should one practise auto-suggestion:

Develop statements in simple present tense rather than in future tense. For example, if one has to wake up at 4 am in the morning daily to do yoga-practice, one should use auto-suggestion in simple present "I daily wake up at 4 am to do yoga-practice." rather than in future "Tomorrow, I will wake up at 4 am to do yoga-practice.". This is because it helps in emphasizing to our unconscious mind (unconscious mind is the reservoir of all our habits) that the desirable habit is already part of us rather than far from us.
Combine picturization process with auto-suggestion to make it more powerful. This is because our unconscious mind (which stores all our habits) understands the language of picture more than words. For example, all our dreams (dream is unconscious mind's activity) are more like a video/movie full of pictures rather than only words like an audio. This also explains why we are taught using pictures when we are a child. Because, a child's conscious mind is less developed and hence, his mind (whose major part is unconscious) can understand pictures more than words. All alphabets are taught with pictures and even alphabet are drawn so big as to resemble a picture. For example, A is drawn big in children's book and is associated with apple with apple's picture given. For a normal mind also, an event's impression in memory (memory is also part of unconscious mind) is stronger and more lasting in mind if one sees the pictures rather than by just hearing about that. Hence, there is so much effect of pictures and videos used by print and electronic media on minds of their readers/viewers.
Combine auto-suggestion with internal or external breath-retention. In state of internal or external breath-retention, mind becomes very powerful and one-pointed, so auto-suggestion makes stronger impact on unconscious mind. Use internal breath-retention when you are in a positive state and use external breath-retention, when you are not in positive state, because external breath-retention helps in relaxing the nervous system and mind and helps in removing negative state of mind.
Try your best to use positives rather than negatives. For example, instead of saying, "I do not become angry when others criticize me." use "I remain peaceful even when others criticize me.". This is because unconscious mind listens longer/"more frequently used" words with more emphasis. So, in above example, unconscious mind will find "angry" word more emphasized rather than "not" word, which will make the auto-suggestion negative rather than positive.
Give it with full confidence and optimism. The more confidence and optimism we have during auto-suggestion, the more impact it produces on our unconscious mind.

One example: If one has to wake up at 4 am in the morning to do yoga-practice daily, one should use all 4 traits to give auto-suggestion multiple times just before sleep:

Inhale deeply. Hold the breath in lungs and while holding breath, give auto-suggestion, "I daily wake up at 4 am and continuously chanting/singing mantra/song, will stop the alarm and go to bathroom." and simultaneously make a movie (a sequence of pictures in mind) imagining that you wake up at 4 am and continuously chanting/singing mantra/song, will stop the alarm and go to bathroom.

When should it be practised - the best periods are just before sleep, just after waking up, just before thoughtless awareness practice and just after thoughtless awareness practice. This is because during these periods our mind is one-pointed and relaxed (relatively free from thoughts) to a great extent and hence, our auto-suggestions enters unconscious mind more deeply and strongly.

What are its benefits?

It can be used to remove negative thoughts from mind. There are times when our mind is in negative mood (mode of passion/ignorance - in rajo/tamo quality) of anxiety, anger, hate, restlessness, pessimism and despair. Since at one time, only one type of thought can remain in mind, so if we give positive auto-suggestions at times when our mind is in negative mood, those negative thoughts will get removed. For example, if we feel hate for someone, we can give auto-suggestions based on universal love to remove thought of hate. If we feel despair, we can give auto-suggestions based on optimism. Thus, auto-suggestion can be used to counter negative thoughts present at a given point of time in our mind.
It can be used to remove negative thought or habit patterns from mind. If we find that a particular type of negative thoughts occur to us too often, this means our unconscious mind has strong impressions in memory about various events/persons associated with that negative thought-pattern. So, in such case, we will need to give ourselves auto-suggestion daily for a number of days (even months/years) to remove that negative thought-patterns from mind. The same applies also to the case when we become victim to a particular negative habit too often.
It can be used to develop a new, positive thought and habit.

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Q. I want a good technique to remove anger/depression/"negative attitude"/"lustful thoughts" without feeling repressed. Can you tell me any such technique?
Ans.

First - negativity in mind are due to presence of passionate (rajasic) or ignorant (tamasic) impressions in our unconscious mind and such thoughts in our conscious mind. So, take responsibility for all negativity on your shoulder rather than trying to throw it on others or on events and environment. This is the essential, unavoidable step to remove the negativity from our mind.
Second - the process of making the mind free from passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (tamasic) tendencies take some time. So, keep patience and practise thoughtless awareness (it is the most effective technique for self-purification because thoughtless awareness is 100% goodness/sattwa) for 30 min daily for fast self-purification and for controlling anger/depression/"negative attitude"/"lustful thoughts" without feeling repressed.
Great lock exercise is very suited for controlling "lustful thoughts" without feeling repressed. It is a must-do for this purpose - never forget this point.
Abdominal exhalation and nerve-purification exercises are awesome in long run for removing all kinds of negativity.
Positive auto-suggestion is another powerful method for removing anger/depression/"negative attitude"/ without feeling repressed.
Use only good diets (sattwic diets) - food also plays a great role in determining how much goodness/passion/ignorance (sattwa/rajo/tamo quality) one possess.

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Q. I want a good technique to remove untimely sleep or unwanted drowsiness effectively so that I may wake up late at night or work as per my original plan . Can you tell me any such technique?

Ans. Drowsiness happens when brain lacks sufficient oxygen. For example, after taking meals, our digestive system draws lots of blood from all other parts of the body, because blood is the medium to transmit various nutrients from digestive system to other parts of the body, so blood amount in brain decrease, which in turn, decreases oxygen amount also (because oxygen is trasmitted through blood to brain cells), which , in turn, produce drowsiness after we take meals. So, if any technique can help in increasing the quantity of oxygen in brain, that will help in removing untimely sleep or drowsiness.

The best possible technique for this purpose is 5-15 minutes continuous practice of advanced stage of nerve-purification exercise, which uses internal breath-retention. It is much better than coffee/tea because it removes drowsiness by inhaling more oxygen in the body using internal breath-retention (lungs are in contact with inhaled air for a longer duration, so more oxygen is absorbed by lung cells from inhaled air), but it does not stimulates our nerves like coffee/tea do, so our relaxation and concentration level of mind is not harmed. But, it can be used only by people who don't suffer from from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease.
If one suffers from cervical spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease, in that case, I suggest another technique as substitute for above one: For 5-15 minutes continuously repeat either of words Aum (for Hindus)/Amin (for Muslims)/Amen (for Christians)/any of them (for broad-minded people), as fast and vigorously as possible. If no one is around to feel disturbed by the sound, repeat in sound, otherwise repeat mentally, but in both cases repeat continuously and as fast and vigorously as possible for 5-15 minutes continuously. During repetition of the word, feel that the sound-vibration is vibrating in whole body.

These two techniques are the most effective techniques for removing unwanted sleep - the first one is more powerful than the second one, and one should use first one unless one suffers from spondylosis, high intracranial pressure, vertigo, high blood pressure or heart disease.

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Q. I want a good technique to help me in waking up in early morning. Can you tell me any such technique?

Ans. Read the entire information about auto-suggestion here. In example section, you will find the technique which you need.

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Q. Why did you share these knowledge and techniques?

Ans. Spreading physical, breathing, concentration and thoughtless awareness exercises from the system of modern psychology and yoga in completely non-metaphysical and scientific language is an essential part of the core ideology of my organization, Sarvodaya Mission. But, dude - kindly spread information about this knowledge and techniques among your friends and relatives. You should also be a part of this mission to bring thoughtless awareness and related breathing exercises to all humans so that we all can enjoy peace and harmony within and without through purity acquired by daily experience of pure goodness (100% or pure/shuddha sattwa) of thoughtless awareness and related breathing exercises.

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Moving towards Sarvodaya Sannyasa: Sidhasana - a cool asana for sitting for long periods of time continuously

2007-12-24T00:54:00.001+05:30

Sidhasana is a simple sitting asana, which I was forced to discover in 3rd year B. Tech at IIT Kanpur, mainly to escape from leg-pains of Padmasana and Siddhasana. It is a bit complicated to describe Sidhasana without pictures (I don't have camera as of now - when I find one, I will upload pictures to explain Sidhasana well), but still, I am giving a try below:

A little bit explanation first. Just like Siddhasana or Siddha Yoni Asana, in Sidhasana also one uses the heel to press Mooladhara Region.
Mooladhara Chakra/Region - this region is different in males and females. In males, it is in perineum (the region between reproductive organ and excretory organ). In females, it is at the cervix, the lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the reproductive organ. Due to this reason, for males yoga prescribes Siddhasana and for females, Siddha Yoni Asana.

The location of Mooladhar Chakra makes it a bit inconvenient in describing Siddhasana/Siddha Yoni Asana and Moola Bandha in public lecture, where even children might be present or where people or lecturer themselves might feel inconvenient, but there is no problem in describing it in writing.

So, the technique of Sidhasana (Simple Asana) is:

Sit down with both legs outstretched.
Bend the right knee and place the sole of the right foot against the left
thigh so that a) in case of males, the heel of right foot firmly presses against the perineum and b) in case of females, the heel of right foot firmly presses against the reproductive organ. This applies pressure on the Mooladhara Region in both males and females.
Bend the left knee and put the left heel gently on ground near right leg. Push the left heel closer to right-leg without making the left heel touch ankle of right leg. Eventually, the left heel should rest on the upper region of right leg just above right ankle and rest of left leg should lie gently on ground.
Now, make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
Close your eyes and practice yoga.

Note about Sidhasana:

Since the bottom surface-area is very big (just like in Padmasana and Siddhasana), the pressure on lower part of backbone is less , because pressure = Force/Area. Here, force is same (weight of the body), so whichever asana gives more surface area to bottom part (both buttocks and legs) touching the ground during sitting position, brings less pressure on spine and hence enables us to sit for a long-time. Thus, Sidhasana satisfies this criteria just like Padmasana and Siddhasana.
But, unlike Padmasana and Siddhasana, no pressure-point in legs is created in Sidhasana. So, one can sit for much longer time in Sidhasana as compared to Padmasana and Siddhasana.
After one start feeling discomfort in Sidhasana, one should practice Sidhasana with left and right legs' position inter-changed. When again, one feels discomfort after some min/hours, then again practice Sidhasana with left and right legs' position inter-changed again and so on, so forth.
I have already achieved Asana Siddhi in Sidhasana - Asana Siddhi means ability to sit in one asana for 3 hours at a stretch without moving body even a bit. I achieved it yesterday during first 3-hours thoughtless awareness practice - my previous longest practice of Sidhasana was 1.5 hours. Thus, we can see, that Sidhasana is the shortest-cut to the goal of Asana Siddhi and hence, is most suited for yoga-practice, in general, and "secluded fulltime yoga-practice", in particular.
It should not be practiced by people with sciatica or sacral ailments.

When the heel of right leg is used to press Mooladhara Region, it can be called Right Sidhasana and when the heel of left leg is used to press Mooladhara Region, it can be called Left Sidhasana.

Love and regards,

Gopal

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