Question: When you say the Divine
Path in the collective meditation, it says, "The thoughts, love, and
peace of God will arise in those who perform meditation and/or The Reminder twice a day or more regularly." I know that the way
we do it here, we always do the meditation and
The Reminder twice a day. Does that mean that for some people
who are just beginning, it is OK if they might want to do just The Reminder, that they don't have to do both of them twice a
day?
Maitreya: It would be good if we could reach a
point where everyone would wake up in time to do The Reminder,
do the Kirtan, read
THOTH, meditate, and so wrap themselves up into all
the practices that we have been given.
Not all of the practices that we have been given
appeal to everyone. If they would do them they would see the
benefits. They would like them. They would love them and they would
benefit from them.
But not everyone has the time. Not everyone has the
inclination to do all of these practices. So we made it a little
more flexible for those who don't have time to meditate, whose
inclination is not in such a way that they would like to sit half an
hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon, and meditate.
The least they can do is to do The Reminder.
If it's an emergency, or they are in a place where they can't do the
postures with The Reminder, they can even say it to
themselves while they are driving, or while they are doing something
else.
So it's kind of giving flexibility here, that you
bring your mind back to God without being rigid about it. Of course,
the more you direct your thoughts to God, and the more you direct
your mind away from the world to the higher things, the more you
become like a lotus.
You just float on the top of the world and it
doesn't touch you. It doesn't matter what happens down there in the
world, you are in the boat of God and you are happy. You can even
stay in the boat, now it's a submarine. Then water will go over you.
You can go deep, to the depths of the sea and not even be disturbed
by the turbulent waves at the top of the water.
We give this flexibility with the understanding that
the more you do the techniques that have been given (some people
call them rituals. I didn't want to call them rituals because that
word has a bad connotation. A ritual seems like something you do
very automatically. The techniques given here should be done with a
great feeling of being committed), the more focused your mind will
be toward God.
None of these techniques should be done
automatically. If you don't feel like meditating and you are
struggling with it, probably you could just do
The Reminder. If you don't feel like doing The Reminder,
just dance and do the Kirtan. There are so many different ways of
getting back into the mood of directing your mind to God instead of
being drawn into the world.
That's why it says, "...meditate and/or do
the
Reminder,.." or do both, twice a day or more. So it's giving you
a lot of options. The recommendation is to at least do The
Reminder twice a day, and do it with the accompanying postures.
But if you cannot do that, then do it without the postures while you
are doing other things.
The best way is to do the whole thing, read
THOTH, do the Kirtan, do The Reminder, meditate, sing
Samgacchadvam, and say the Divine Path all together. That is the best
way to do it. But in a sense we are giving them a little flexibility
there.
Comment: Sounds like the objective approach with
subjective adjustment. Then when the Kingdom of Heaven comes they
can always do the meditation and
The Reminder twice a day or more.
Maitreya: That is the idea. Right now, we are a
very small group in a society that is so cluttered with activities
and work, and everyone is running around. They just don't have any
time to direct their minds to God at all. Even for only two hours a
week on Sundays, very few people attend church. The number of people
going to church has even been falling since the 1940's, 1950's and
1960's.
So we can see that the society is very busy. We have
given them an option to just adjust themselves now. When the
communities are created and we reach the point that the earth is
calm, the environment is clean, and the people are loving and
understanding, instead of their minds being cluttered with all the
propaganda and all this Maya which is presented to them, then they
will want and make the time to do more of these techniques.
That Maya is very strong, very powerful. The Maya on
earth right now is keeping people from directing their minds toward
God. But when the Communities of Light
come, and when the Kingdom comes to earth, people will be much
calmer, much more loving.
Then going into meditation will be very easy. We
will just close our eyes and be right there with Him. There will be
no crime or disturbing thoughts around us that keep us from being
there.
In that environment it will be very easy to wake up
early in the morning and read THOTH, read the Koran,
read the Bible, read the Upanishads, read all those
Scriptures and get in a very good meditative mood. Then you can just
dance the dance of joy, meditate, do your Reminder, feel
great, and come out and share whatever you realize with the
community.
