Welcome to the practice of Ajapa Japa,
The practice of chanting in the mind.
This is a deeper development of realization meditation.
Assume an asana position,
Siddhasana or Padmasana,
Half lotus or lotus position.
Bring your attention to the breath.
Is it short,
Sharp or shallow?
If so adjust it as necessary.
Lengthen the inhalation,
The pause and the exhalation,
The pause.
And repeat the cycle.
Begin to conduct a full body scan,
Commencing at the toes and working upward through the body toward the crown of the head.
Bring your full attention to your toes,
The big toe,
The second toe,
Your third toe,
Fourth toe and fifth toe.
Bring awareness to your ankles,
Calves,
Backs of your legs,
Your hips,
Lower belly,
Upper belly,
Chest,
Shoulders,
Upper arms,
Lower arms and focus now on the tips of your thumbs.
First finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger and smallest finger.
Your wrists,
Your elbows,
Your shoulders and the muscles of your neck.
Bring awareness to your face.
Relax,
Relax the mouth,
The jaw,
The tongue,
Relax the eyes,
The forehead and conclude by just relaxing the top of the head.
Begin to scan for a distant sound as an anchor point.
Focus on that sound.
Breathing in,
Attention on the breath,
Breathing out,
Attention on the sound.
Now gently begin working inward from the sound toward your body,
Releasing the furthest sound,
Selecting a closer sound and bring your attention to the closer sound.
Repeat this process gradually releasing one sound and bringing attention to a sound that is closer to the body,
Closer to the self.
Begin to shift your awareness from the sounds onto awareness of touch.
Bring awareness to the clothing on the skin.
Skin under the clothing and now progressively shift toward awareness of smaller sensations,
Perhaps the ambient temperature,
The skin temperature,
The feeling of the breath entering the body,
The feeling of the breath exiting the body.
Shift your full attention onto this cycle.
Feel the breath entering through the nostrils,
Down the throat,
Into the chest or belly area.
Allow it to pause.
And now feel the breath moving up from the belly,
The chest,
The throat and exiting the nostrils.
Allow it to pause on the full exhalation before you commence the next inhalation.
Continue this cycle of awareness and concentration on your inhalation,
Feeling and following the breath through the cycle to the pause,
The exhalation,
The pause and the new inhalation.
Contract the throat slightly on your exhalations in order to produce a very subtle breath,
A baby's breath.
Breathing in,
Slow,
Smooth,
Full breath,
Pausing,
Breathing out,
Slight contraction of the throat,
Exhalation as a baby's breath,
Puff.
Continue this breath cycle whilst placing the tongue on the upper palate behind the front teeth.
You're connecting the dew and the wren vessels.
You may feel a slight electrical charge when you're connected correctly.
Continue this cycle of awareness and concentration on your inhalation,
Feeling and following the breath through the cycle to the pause,
The exhalation,
The pause and the new inhalation.
Fold in the silent inner mind chart of Soham.
So on the inhalation,
Hum on the exhalation.
The inner mind chanting,
So on the inhalation,
Hum on the exhalation.
Begin to visualize the breath moving from the throat to the navel on the inhalation and the navel to the throat on the exhalation while continuing.
So hum inhalation,
So visualization of the breath moving from the throat to the navel,
Hum on the exhalation,
Visualizing the breath from the navel to the throat.
When the mind is settled and the body is calm,
Practice to reverse the order of the mantra and the visualization.
Visualize the breath moving from the navel to the throat on the inhalation and the throat to the navel on the exhalation whilst also reversing the so and the hum.
Inhalation becomes hum as we visualize the breath moving from the navel to the throat.
Exhalation becomes so as we visualize the breath moving from the throat to the navel.
Inhalation becomes hum as we visualize the breath moving from the navel to the throat.
Exhalation becomes so as we visualize the breath moving from the throat to the navel.
Inhalation becomes hum as we visualize the breath moving from the navel to the throat.
Exhalation becomes so as we visualize the breath moving from the throat to the navel.
Breathing in,
Hum,
Visualizing the breath moving from the navel to the throat.
So,
Exhalation,
Visualizing the breath moving from the throat to the navel.
Conduct one full cycle of intentional breathing with focus on the breath,
Focus on the visualization.
And then gently begin to bring yourself back into your space.
This has been a meditation of Ajapa Japa,
The practice of chanting in the mind.
