Hi Mark,

Thank you for your thoughtful questions. We don’t have a specific meditation discussion forum on the blog, though you are always welcome to contribute your questions and thoughts as you have done here. As meditation is one of the core tools taught at the Chopra Center, we will consider having a specific meditation forum or area of the blog in the future where people.

To address your first question, it will help to distinguish between the practice of Primordial Sound meditation and the use of guided meditations. As you write, Primordial Sound meditation is done in silence, without music or any kind of guided imagery or process. The purpose is to go within, beyond the noisy thoughts, emotions, and memories that usually fill our mind, into a state of deep restful awareness. We have found that the most powerful benefits of meditation come from having a regular daily practice. There are also times, however, when engaging in a guided meditation focused on a specific topic can be extremely valuable. For this reason, each month in our Agni Light newsletter, davidji offers a special guided meditation podcast on a particular topic, such as emotional release, physical healing, tapping into your creativity, etc. You can find the archive of guided meditation podcasts here. Though both are referred to as meditation, the two practices are completely different and not meant to be done simultaneously (though it could be beneficial to try a guided meditation immediately after you have completed your 30-minuted Primordial Sound meditation and your mind calm and receptive).

Deepak doesn’t write about an ideal tempo of the mantra or how to integrate the breath with the mantra because neither of these concepts are useful in the practice of Primordial Sound meditation. There isn’t an ideal tempo to use and it’s not helpful to try to coordinate your breath and the repetition of the mantra; the important thing is to gently repeat your mantra without worrying about a specific pace and without trying too hard to concentrate. Sometimes the pace will naturally increase, and at other times it will slow down, even to the point of completely disappearing from your consciousness. When your mind is focused neither on thought nor on the mantra, you are resting comfortably in the space of pure consciousness, commonly referred to as “the gap.” In the gap, all sense of time and space disappears. This is a very healing place for the mind to rest, though again, it’s not something to strive after. It will happen naturally and increasingly as you continue with a regular, daily meditation practice. To learn more about meditation and find answers to frequently asked questions, please visit the Chopra Center’s meditation page here.

with love,
The Chopra Center staff