When the mind flows downward

You can feel a change in the internal, you start feeling hot and sultry, the muscles tighten.

In these moments if you observe closely you will feel a downward flow of energy. As if your mind starts flowing downward.

In the Atma Pooja Upanishad there is a meditation technique which says: Whenever mind begins to flow downward, become aware as early as possible.

If someone has insulted you, a little time is needed for you to become angry because  the inner mechanism has to be activated.

First you feel insulted, and that feeling will trigger the anger which is already lurking inside. Anger is always there, it only surfaces when there is a trigger.

So after the hurt feeling the second stage will be that of  anger. It means there is a subtle gap between getting hurt and feeling angry.

This meditation addresses this very gap. It says, become aware as soon as you begin to feel that you have been insulted.

And whenever you become aware, just make an effort to stop your reaction. Don't fall into the automatic track of anger and reaction even for a single moment. Even a single moment's stop will help much. Longer stops will help even more.

Osho has told a story about Gurdjieff, the Russian mystic and his father which could be very helpful in this regard. Gurdjieff's father was a wise old man.

When the father was dying he called his son to his death bed. He was just nine, and the father said, “I am so poor, I cannot give you anything, my boy. But one thing which my father gave to me I would like to pass on to you. It has a great wisdom and it has helped me all my life:“Whenever you get angry, never reply before twenty-four hours. You may reply, but let there be a gap of twenty-four hours.”

Gurdjieff followed his father's advice. It became deeply ingrained in his mind as it was given by his dying father.

Later Gurdjieff used to tell his disciples, “I have practised many, many spiritual exercises, but this was the best. I never could be angry in my life, and that changed the whole flow of my energy. I realised how much energy is wasted in negative emotions. I had to keep the promise given to my faher.

Whenever someone would insult me, I would just tell them that I would come back after twenty-four hours and reply. But there was no need for me to reply because it was so stupid to reply the next day.”