Spiritual Practice and Self-Ralisation: Application of Vedanta

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Vedanta is a philosophy that was first described by seers in ancient India, and it has been re-expressed in each generation until the present day for aspirants seeking the truth of our existence. Vedanta reveals the nature of the eternal, unchanging Self, and how to attain liberation from the limitations of the mind, and achieve Self-realisation or enlightenment. The realisations of Vedanta lead to deep and permanent feelings of universal oneness, bliss and unconditional love, as well as the ability to apply them in daily life.

This book systematically explains how to perform various meditative techniques effectively, which techniques to use and when. It also discusses how to overcome obstructions, as well as the signs of progress and early realisations that may be encountered along the way.

Kojima Halliday is a disciple of Sri Bhagavan, the founder of the International Vedanta Society (IVS). Bhagavan achieved Self- realisation in 1984, giving Kojima his first realisation through samadhi in 2006 at the age of 26. Kojima, born in Great Britain, had previously spent a varied life around the world until the calling to spirituality arose in him. Since his realisation, he has been working to help IVS spread Vedanta in the IVS ashrams in India, in the UK, and on tours to various countries around the world.

The idea of writing this book was suggested by my sister disciple of Sri Bhagavan, Paula Esparza Bofill in 2009. In those days we were in the middle of an intensified phase of work in training aspirants of Self-realisation. Out of the highly charged spiritual environments in the International Vedanta Society ashrams, where aspirants could commonly enter meditation without making much effort, it was more of a challenge, especially as most of our work at that time was done over the internet rather than face-to-face. More stress then naturally came onto technique in the practice, aspirants having to work more to penetrate deeper into themselves, and accurate comprehension of Vedantic descriptions of the nature of the Self and non-Self.

We therefore felt that there was a requirement for a book that presented meditation and its techniques in a systematic way, that explained what to do when, and what to do if something did not seem to work, as well as indicating how you would know if you are progressing or not both technically and from the point of view of deepening realisation. We also felt that it would be useful to have a book that explained Vedantic thought and realisation in a systematic way at a beginner's level in the modern style with reference to observations in meditation, rather than only to philosophical thought. Part of the beauty of the Vedanta philosophy is that it begins to be observed in processes in meditation, hence it can and should become something live that is described in a simple way, rather than some convoluted intellectual system. We hope that such a book may make a useful contribution.

The International Vedanta Society had also started expanding out of India, and the dispersion of foreign disciples over the globe rendered communication and therefore also hands-on training more complicated. xiv Spiritual Practice and Self-realisation: Application of Vedanta Again, we felt that superior meditation technique to support the practice and become more self-reliant would yield results as they had already had a lot of spiritual power infused by Bhagavan, and absorbed more by being in the IVS ashrams for a considerable time.

It is also hoped that this book may inspire people new to Vedanta, and encourage them to seek out realised souls for infusions of power, as no one can achieve spirituality just by reading a book and becoming a technician. Without having absorbed any power, many of the techniques described in this book could not be used effectively anyway, in some cases because you could not have penetrated deep enough for the new vistas in the mind where certain techniques may be appropriate to have opened up.

The material concerning processes in meditation described in the book was observed, researched and realised in meditation itself. The sources were the observations from my own practice and realisations, backed up by those of aspirants that | have supervised over the years.

A lot of material has been removed from the first draft of the book. Firstly, extensive discussion on samadhi and very advanced stages of meditation have been cut out, as we feel that such knowledge should be worked for through sincerity in practice over time that has resulted in realisations. We feel that this knowledge is the most precious that exists, and should be valued. Moreover, there is no real benefit to the practice if you read about technical details of a far nigher level.

A lot of extensive description of metaphysics has also been removed. We feel that when it is presented in a book of this format, it becomes dry and intellectual, whereas real spirituality is live and intuitive. Such discussion may assist realisation if the words are carried on a flow of power when spoken by a realised soul, but may be counter-productive here. Also, a certain realisation is required to feel that a description of a higher realisation is true. If the second realisation is out of sight, reading about it generally results in becoming more enmeshed in the intellect, when what is required for Self- realisation is to become more liberated from it.

More could have been put into the book, but has been left out to avoid clutter that would have made the book too difficult to follow. Apart from a few common terms, Sanskrit words have generally been avoided in spite of the difficulty in accurately rendering meaning into a language in which such concepts do not have ready-made translations, in order to keep the book readable for a wide readership outside India.

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