MEDITATION PRACTICES AWAKEN US TO OUR TRUE NATURE. Through meditation practice you can acquire Spiritual insights and wisdom, and experience your unity and oneness with the universe. With this increased awareness you can compassionately transcend your limitations and help humanity in its evolution. Sadhana Lessons provide a variety of Meditation techniques blending the Eastern and Native American practices.

One of the missions of The Sadhana Society is to transform practices from the East in order to make them useful to practitioners in the West. In terms of Vedic and Buddhist meditation practices, the more advanced the practice, the more ritualistic and culturally specific images and actions are used. The practitioners of The Sadhana Society have traveled around the world learning practices from various masters of these sometimes highly esoteric practices. The following four practices have been distilled from several ancient Sadhanas from the East, and have been transliterated in order that a western practitioner will have a real identification and experience of their intent. These practices have been specifically modified by Swami Shankarananda for this Internet site. The practices in the Lessons have greater explanation and detail.

In our daily lives, we constantly have things to do. Most of us are constantly pushed and pulled by events beyond our control. Sitting in meditation, we experience a release from this constant engagement. During these moments of release, we discover an ability to act which is not a reaction to some other happening. We have Choice!




The first step to living in the Realm of Free Choice, is to develop Focus. When most of us consider focus, we try to direct our thoughts. In the practice of Calm Abiding, you focus on your breath, not your thoughts. Right now as you sit in front of this screen, close your eyes and place your attention at the beginning of your nostrils

1. Observe the feeling as the air passes into your lungs
2. Observe the different feeling as air rushes out.
3. Continue your observation for a while, open your eyes and experience the difference when your eyes are open.
4. If you did not experience a difference, close your eyes and observe the breath once more.
Settling into the observation of in-going and out-going breath, some report experiencing the succession of thoughts like a "babbling" brook. Others describe how certain thoughts "shout out" within their heads - demanding to obscure their focus. Yet as they hold to their Calm Abiding - their focus - the shouting thoughts fade and focus is what remains. Tell me what your experiences are.


Once we develop focus, the question arises, "What do I focus on?" In order to create an object of focus, we need to see what has been our focus - to what purpose have we dedicated our energies in the past. Perhaps it was to get a car, or a college degree, or perhaps it involved engaging a member of the opposite sex. If we look truthfully at ourselves, we will see how many times we have focused upon a goal, and then dedicated all of our energies in achieving that goal. In the truest sense, we took refuge in that goal. What happened once we got that car - we got insurance, gas bills, cleaning bills, and parking tickets. What was once a joyous desire became a crushing responsibility from which it seemed we would never be released.

Now, through our practice of Calm Abiding, we have focus, we have free choice. We don't want to focus on just getting another thing with all of its maintenance and responsibilities. We can now focus on an Ideal, a direction for our actions. One of the best ways of focusing our attention is to associate our Ideal with an image. In Christianity, the images used for focus are the cross, the form of Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, or perhaps one of the saints. In the Hebrew faith, the popular image is the Star of David or perhaps the Torah. In Buddhism, the initial images used are the three precious jewels; the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. In all three religions, the purpose of the image is to provide a focus on or connection with the Ideal. Thus, one gazes upon the form of Jesus Christ, cultivates a feeling of infinite love within themselves, and then through prayer, makes a connection between themselves and the infinite love manifested by Jesus Christ. This is the Christian form of taking refuge:

Communion with God.

In Buddhism, one takes refuge in the three precious jewels, not as material fact, but in what is represented by them. The image of Buddha used is not the historical Shakyamuni, it is the Ideal of enlightenment that each of us can awaken within ourselves. The Dharma is not just a group of writings, it is the path by which enlightenment is Awakened. The Sangha is not just a group of practitioners, it is the cumulative intent of those from past, present and future, who dedicated all of their actions to Total Awakening. When a Buddhist prostrates to the three jewels, they are forging a communion with the ideal of Enlightenment, the path of Enlightenment, and the effort to achieve Enlightenment as manifested by those in the past, present and future.

In order to begin to cultivate this communion, you need to find what is really important to you. It is easy to just say Love is important and then hurt those around you. Perhaps you only have an idea of what is really important to you.

1. Begin with this vague idea, search through your possessions, your books and pictures, see if you can find an image that inspires this Ideal in you.
2. When you find the image, set it in a quiet place where you can be with it and not be disturbed.
3. Some like to just sit with the image, some like to recite some prayer from their memory.
4. Others prefer to create a prayer or connecting language that seems to enhance this interior feeling of Communion with the Ideal. Each of us has a unique way of establishing this Communion.
5. Experiment and find the best way to connect.
Let me know how your experiments are coming along.


During our practice of Calm Abiding and Refuge, there are times when errant thoughts and feelings arise within us. These thoughts and feelings obscure our focus, pull us away from our communion with the Ideal. One way of dealing with these obscurations is to attempt to ignore them and focus with greater intensity. However, some of these thoughts and emotions seem so justified, that we are unable to be unaffected by them. This is when the practice of purification can be most effective.

1. Sitting quietly, begin to focus on your in-breath and out-breath; just relax and observe.
2. With the next in-breath, imagine that you are drawing a pure light into your being; then with your exhale, imagine that you are pushing out smoky, cloudy air, which then dissipates into the atmosphere.
3. Breathe this way for ten sets of in-breaths and out-breaths; remember to be relaxed, don't hyperventilate.
4. When you can see and feel the pure light entering and the smoky air being exhaled; begin to imagine that your Ideal is being inhaled with the in-breath and those pesky errant thoughts and emotions are being released into the air when you exhale.
5. Don't worry about them affecting anyone else; when they leave you, they dissipate into unrelated fragments of thoughts and feelings. While they were in you, you held them together and created their relationship and form; when you release them, they have no substance unto themselves and they scatter in all directions.
6. As you do the breath and imagining, tell yourself that you are purifying yourself of these obscurations.
7. Recognize that you have the power to purify yourself and manifest this power. You can contact me and discuss your experiences.

This is a healing practice which can be used on yourself as well as for others. It is a more complex practice, and it is suggested that you become comfortable with the three preceding practices before you attempt this one. This practice requires a sustained focus and visualization; the ability to sustain focus and visualization is cultivated in the three previous practices. Loving Kindness is the basis of the activities of all great spiritual teachers. First, it is discovered and cultivated within, then it can be used in terms of personal relationships; after one has utilized it effectively in their personal relationships, it can be used to help others.

Many writers have spoken about the way to begin to cultivate Loving Kindness, I prefer a modification of a method used by many Tibetan Lamas.

1. In this method, you sit quietly and become very aware the area of in the center of your chest - this is called the spiritual heart center (This is not the exact location of the biological organ named the heart.)
2. As your attention is focused at your heart center, use your memory to experience an incident when someone did something with you that truly made you feel loved. You felt worthy of being Loved, Lovable. This is not an egocentric sense of lovable. It is a heart felt connection with being loved.
3. Don't try to analyze the circumstance too closely, just allow your heart center to feel the experience of being lovable.
4. Reside in that feeling for a while. If there is a glow or a special feeling, allow it to expand and incorporate your entire being. Get to really know and feel this experience of being Lovable. Don't focus on the incident, focus on the feeling.


While residing in this experience, we begin the practice.

A. Imagine yourself standing in front of you. Using four statements, fill this image with your experience of being Lovable. The four statements I use are:
1. May you be free from fear;
2. May you have physical happiness;
3. May you have mental happiness;
4. May you have ease of being.
You can change these four statements to what ever works to convey the feeling, but try to cover the intention of each statement. Repeat the statements over again until you sense that the experience has been communicated.

B. Then imagine someone you love in front of you, and fill them with this experience of being Lovable. Again, make these four statements until you feel that the person in front of you has experienced what you are conveying.

C. During the third portion of the practice, imagine someone with whom you are basically indifferent; communicate Loving Kindness to their image.

D. The fourth portion of the practice is quite hard for many people; you imagine that the person in front of you is someone with whom you are angry, someone you do not like. Establish the image of this person in front of you and communicate Loving Kindness to them. In this practice, you are experiencing an existing anger from within yourself. If you have no one with whom you are angry or frustrated, do not create an object of anger, simply go the next portion of the practice.

As you can see, the Loving Kindness practice can take on many variations. I am sure that you discovered some interesting things about yourself while you were doing the practice. This type of practice is effective only if you do it and not just when you read about it. Take a moment and reflect on your experiences doing the Loving Kindness practice, tell me what your experiences are.

In fact, the Loving Kindness practice can be expanded into quite effective methods of healing; this is discussed further in the Sadhana Lessons. If you would like to know and experience more, join me at the Sadhana Teachings Page.


HEALING ARTS allow us to discover and explore the true nature of healing and how the mind-body works, as a reflection of our consciousness. Kerani Marie Devi teaches how to come into relationship with the innate healing power within you and how to access the abundant healing energy of nature. Classes include theory and the experiential process utilizing a variety of techniques and practices. Kerani Marie Devi is a Sadhana Practitioner of Divine Healing, a Reiki Jin Kei Do Teacher, and a Registered Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist (RBCT) and meditation teacher. She specializes in helping those in spiritual transformation through spiritual counsel, meditation practices and varied healing modalities.

CREATIVE ARTS: Through Creative arts, we touch a Sacred essential part of ourselves. The artistic experience produces a powerful and creative influence on us and humanity. Kerani Marie Devi has expressed her creativity and realationship with the sacred in her gourd art. Some of her work is shown here. She creates these pieces on consignment, individualizing them for each person.