Sahaja meditation is a long-term commitment. You get much more from it than the average stress relief meditation out there, especially in the area of spirituality and personality improvement. As you begin your journey of meditation with Sahaja, you’re most likely looking for ways to settle down quickly and get to the important first milestone – the deep meditation experience.

But there are ways to accelerate your progress towards deeper experiences. One particular character trait stands out for having the maximum impact on your meditation.

Humility – The Essential Trait for A Meditator

Human beings are incredibly complex creations of nature and some of the aspects that make us so are their heart, mind, and brain amongst many others. This is what differentiates us from other living beings on this planet.

When we humble down and use that as the central trait and attitude towards our energy-boosting meditation, several important things happen to these complexities within us.

First and foremost, humbling down paves the way for reduction of the ego within us, the root cause of the majority of the world’s problems. More specifically, prior to starting our journey of meditation and Self-Realization, the balloons of the ego and superego are literally blocking the pathways for the Kundalini energy to move past the Agnya chakra, the 6^th energy center and for Self-Realization to occur. When we humble down, we pave the way for our Kundalini energy to do its work.

Second, when the Kundalini energy crosses this center and moves further up, it brings in the state of Thoughtless Awareness, which helps us rise beyond the myths and misconceptions of our mind. Our brain gets enlightened and nourished by the all-pervading universal energy.

Third, when we become humble, it automatically incites compassion in our heart because our attention turns a lot more towards others and the world around us, rather than being focused on ourselves.

Fourth, our indulgences reduce drastically when we become humble. We feel that we don’t need so many of the things we’re chasing in our lives and contentment begins to set in.

Fifth, when our indulgences and needs reduce along with our ego, we begin to develop a sense of child-like innocence within us and this begins to strengthen the first energy center. The chakra is the foundational platform for any chakra based meditation practice.

Sixth and most important, when we humble down, we’re able to allow the energy within and the all-pervading power to do their work and help us, rather than struggling to solve everything ourselves.

None of the above is a mere theory, every experienced Sahaja practitioner will tell you that when things start going wrong or getting difficult, the first thing they do is sit and try to develop and increase their humility.

Practical Ways to Increase Humility Inside Us

I once attended a conference and almost fell off my chair laughing when a speaker said: “I am the embodiment of humility”. It’s always hard to change ourselves to become humble, more than we already are, but we can certainly use some simple methods.

Self-Awareness

The realization that we’re a small part of the great force and power of nature and need to be one with it, is the first step. When you approach Sahaja meditation, it’s not another cognitive exercise or stress relief technique, it’s about realizing that you have discovered your deepest inner self that is extremely powerful. This supersedes anything else we have in our lives including all our achievements or priorities. Being aware of this reality is essential for us to become humble.

Using Affirmations

The use of affirmations can be helpful. The Self-Realization process in Sahaja involves a number of affirmations, these can be repeated when needed as a means to reinforce humility within us. When we really feel and mean what we say as affirmations, it can only be when we’re humble. Additional affirmations can include surrendering to our own inner energy within us, explicitly saying this as many times as we need. I recall one very deep Sahaja practitioner telling me how he speaks to his own inner energy and spiritual being by saying “I’m nothing but a particle of dust in this world. Please establish my Self-Realization and state of true meditation”. And it goes a long way.

The Power of Collectivity

One of Buddha’s three principles was surrendering to Collectivity. A lot of people claim to do some form of Buddhist meditation these days without actually imbibing his core principles. Indeed, implementing this doctrine in our lives indicates and improves our humility. When we think we can exist and do things on our own and all by ourselves, we go in the direction of increasing ego. When we realize that we need to seek and draw upon the power of collectivity and especially collective meditation, we go in the right direction of increasing humility.

It’s always a good strategy to seek collectivity as a means to keep our ego in check and improve humility. Surrendering to our Dharma or sense of righteousness, the second principle of Buddha, also has the same effect – staying within our boundaries in life improves humility. To round it up so does adhering to the first principle, which is surrendering to “Buddha” or “the enlightened Self within us”, our awakened consciousness. A lot of people incorrectly understand this as surrendering to Lord Buddha himself. In reality, it is about surrendering to the subtle self within us. This self is realized through our Self-Realization in Sahaja and meditation. When our ego, physical, emotional and mental selves surrender to the spiritual self, it is a great act of humility.

The directive from spiritual masters on humility is overwhelming, not just from Buddha. Though Sahaja is clearly spiritual and not religious, the true understanding of “Blessed are the meek” gives us another strong indication of the need for humility and is a great principle to imbibe.

Actualizing Humility

A strong focus on humility makes us powerful, confident and integrated with the universe. It does not mean giving up anything nor is it a sign of weakness. Aside from the truth that it can do wonders to establishing a deep meditation experience, it can actually make us very happy in our lives.

The times of merely doing meditation and thinking we’re humble or trying to feel humble are over. The great thing about Sahaja meditation is that humility lends a deep meditation experience and that in turn makes us more humble. So one feeds the other to put us into a positive upward spiral in our lives.

Humility in our lives is thus actualized, not merely understood or mentally emphasized. As we progress on our energy boost meditation journey, this trait is a powerful indicator of our progress and directly correlated with it. If we’re meditating a lot but not becoming humbler in the long term, something is definitely wrong.