An Evolving Practice of Meditation

An interview with Robert Kemter (from www.siddhayoga.org)

Robert is from Melbourne, Australia, and was a lawyer when he began practicing Siddha Yoga meditation in 1974, the year he met Swami Muktananda (Baba). Currently, he serves on staff in the Teachings area and Muktabodha Indological Research Institute in Gurudev Siddha Peeth, India. He was interviewed by one of the writers for our Siddha Yoga website.

Q: You have a long-established meditation practice. How long have you been meditating, and what changes did you observe in yourself when you began meditating?

Robert: I've been meditating now for 25-26 years. From the time I met Baba, I jumped right in, meditating a minimum of one hour a day, every day. When I began to meditate, I noticed that I felt much freer in myself. At that time, I didn't have any dramatic spiritual experiences in meditation. But what I noticed in my life was a subtle feeling of buoyancy in my heart. Even though it was subtle, it was very strong, influencing my mind by making it more positive and optimistic. That optimism, in turn, influenced everything I did during the day. My life changed a lot because of that. I also noticed that my mind became steadier, which significantly influenced my legal practice. My performance at work changed; I was much more effective, particularly in court.

Q: What do you consider to be the main purpose of meditation?

Robert: The main function of meditation, as I understand it, is to nurture the process of spiritual evolution that is awakened through shaktipat. I see it as like nourishing a plant -- you have to water it every day for it to flower into its highest potential. If you're serious about spiritual growth and liberation, you also need the inner strength that the practice of meditation gives. This strength enables you to rise above the challenges that come to you in the course of your life.

Q: I never have visions or dramatic experiences when I meditate, and I feel that my meditations are not successful, so I tend not to do the practice. I'm sure many people feel that way.

Robert: If you sit for an hour, that's tremendous success. Your effort is just as successful as that of someone having visions and other experiences. During meditation significant inner processes can take place below the level of awareness. This happens whether or not we have experiences. So try this: sit for an hour each day for a week. What I suggest you do is look for the results in your life. You're saying you don't see them in your meditation. I accept that. So look for them in your life rather than in meditation. You haven't seen the results before because you haven't looked for them there. So in a week's time look for what's happened in your life, what's different. I know you'll tell me things that will surprise you. Even though they might seem small, they'll be quite significant.

Q: Would you describe your meditation practice and experience?

Robert: My practice, I suspect, has been similar to that of many people. When I began meditation, I would sometimes use the mantra and sometimes just go with the inner energy. Whichever way it happened, thoughts would come up and carry me with them because I would become interested in them. But then I'd think, "Oh, wait -- I'm focusing on the thoughts and not on the energy of the Self." So I'd bring the mind back to the mantra. Then I'd drift away again, then I'd bring myself back again.

What I found is that over the years, the period of drifting away has gotten shorter and the period of staying in touch with the inner Self has gotten longer.

One morning while I was meditating about six years ago, a beautiful sunrise appeared in my meditation. It was accompanied by the understanding that it was the dawning of Self-knowledge. Since that time, particularly in the last few years, I've found that, for the most part, I can go straight to the presence of the inner energy. Because I sit to meditate at a regular time, my whole being knows that this is what is happening right now. So the experience of that energy is very present right, at the outset. When I focus on it, it expands and draws me into it. It's as if I now know the knack of going there, so I spend more of the meditation time immersed in this beautiful experience of my own love.

As I focus on the energy, it opens into a qualitatively different experience. It gets more divine and delicious the more it opens up. I find that if I can focus on the feeling -- it might be love, it might be beauty, it might be expansion -- then it opens into something else. It opens into a deeper place of stillness and absorption. The abiding feeling in all this is oneness. This experience continues to open and draw me into the depths of my own inner being, more and more.