--- title: "A Brief Meditation Guide — Breath, Soham and Reflection" heading: "A Brief Meditation Guide — Breath, Soham and Reflection" subheading: "" updated: "2025-09-22T00:00:00+00:00" words: 885 url: https://ananda.icu/notes/recordings/a-brief-meditation-guide-breath-soham-and-reflection description: "A basic guide into simple meditative practice. We engage three distinct but mutually supporting modes of meditation. 1. Breath and the establishment of peaceful basic presence. 2. Mantra and the harnessing of directed attention and resonance. 3. Self-reflection and the cultivation of wisdom in witnessing awareness." ... [**Recordings**](https://ananda.icu/cat/notes/recordings): #NB.006 ⁘ **Date:** 2025-09-22 ⁘ **Updated:** 2025-09-22 ⁘ **Words:** 885 ⁘ **Length:** 7:30 min ⁘ [**Audio** 🎶](/files/audio/notes/NB.006.a-brief-meditation-guide-breath-soham-and-reflection.ogg) A basic guide into simple meditative practice. We engage three distinct but mutually supporting modes of meditation: 1. Breath and the establishment of peaceful basic presence. 2. Mantra and the harnessing of directed attention and resonance. 3. Self-reflection and the cultivation of wisdom in witnessing awareness. With breath, we cultivate attentive presence. With mantra, we cultivate focal attention. With reflection, we cultivate open awareness and detached self-discovery across the interconnected domains of our being. These methods form a core package that can be practiced at your convenient length, increasing duration in tune with your growing capacity. [ Table of Contents ] - ¶ Attention and Resonance with Mantra ↴ - ¶ Into Domains of Self-Reflection ↴ - ¶ Reflection on the Physical Self ↴ - ¶ Reflection on the Emotional Self ↴ - ¶ Reflection on the Rational Self ↴ - ¶ Reflection on the Cohesive Self ↴ - ¶ Return to the World — Closing Affirmation ↴ First. Sitting down. Zoning in. Wrapping up the world of concerns on the outside. Slow, natural breathing. Let the presence sink in. Immerse yourself in the presence. ## Attention and Resonance with Mantra ¶ Then, with **So'haṁ**. Loudly, into the three energy centers — **Root**, **Heart** and **Head**, the three worlds of your inner realm. One at a time, a couple of times each. _So'haṁ_ — Root, _So'haṁ_ — Root, _So'haṁ_ — Root. _So'haṁ_ — Chest, _So'haṁ_ — Chest, _So'haṁ_ — Chest. _So'haṁ_ — Head, _So'haṁ_ — Head, _So'haṁ_ — Head. And, as an integration: _So'haṁ_ — with simultaneous presence in each of the three. _Haṁ So_ and _So'haṁ_ are the same — but different. If you inhale _So_ and exhale _Haṁ_, or if you inhale _Haṁ_ and exhale _So_ — there is a difference in the effect. Experiment, see how they unfold. Do both if you will. Then, silently, the same _So'haṁ_ — whispering, or in your mind, into each of the three centers, and in unison. When you have a distinct field of presence, resonance, reverberation in your being — you may continue into self-reflection. ## Into Domains of Self-Reflection ¶ ### Reflection on the Physical Self ¶ **1.** Attune to your **corporeal being**, your **body**, the physical self. The weight and mass of your body, your muscles. Your inner experience, the tactile sensations on your skin. Pleasant, unpleasant — all the same, simply observations. If you find yourself drifting, bring back _So'haṁ_, but bring it into this broad field of physical presence. ### Reflection on the Emotional Self ¶ **2.** If you wish to continue self-reflection. Bring your attention to your **feelings**, the **emotional being**. Joys and sorrows, fears and hopes that touch you, the impressions that color your inner field. Do not linger on any of them — simply take notice. These emotions are there, these emotions were there — and allow your feelings to rest in their own nature. Again, if you find yourself drifting, or troubled by a particular emotion, even allured by a particular emotion, bring back _So'haṁ_ and stabilize your field. ### Reflection on the Rational Self ¶ **3.** If you wish to continue further with self-reflection. Bring yourself to your **analytical mind**, the countless **thought-forms** in your head that inform your existence. Your evaluations, your discernments, and the forms they carve into your mind. But do not engage in further examination — simply take note, recognize that these recognitions are present. If you find yourself captivated, even consumed by a particular thought-process, bring back _So'haṁ_, neutralize the field, but stay within the field of your reasoning mind. ### Reflection on the Cohesive Self ¶ **4.** If you wish to continue with self-reflection. Turn your attention toward your **identity**, the **self-image** that you maintain, the persona that you picture yourself as being. - The _physical ego_ that you embody as your presence in the material world. - The _emotional ego_, a cocoon of feelings, another plane of presence and identity. - The _rational ego_, a presence that thinks it can clarify, understand, and respond appropriately to the world. That too is a self-presence, an instrument that is not an ultimate you. - And finally, into your _cohesive identity_, the aggregating field, the system of your meanings and aspirations in life. These are all aspects of your identity and presence in existence. Recognize them — but do not become fixated with them. If at any time you begin dwelling on a particular aspect of your identity and it begins to consume you, draws you inward into a tunnel, bring back _So'haṁ_. _So'haṁ_, remind yourself that you are greater than any one of these aspects — and you are even greater than the sum of your parts. There is witnessing beyond. Seek that. Seek the spring and source, the fountainhead and the ground of being, where you are not captivated into particular fixed states of being. Where attention and intention are but fluid reflections, an abiding, an engagement naturally emergent from actuality itself beyond your fixations. _So'haṁ_, "I am that" — but _there's nobody home_. Stay there. ## Return to the World — Closing Affirmation ¶ And at the end of your reflective abiding, return to the world that is present before you. The same world, but just a little bit more liberated from your grasp, and you from its grasp — from the cycle of reactions that are born from your self-polarization and assertions. May all beings be in peace. May all beings become into clarity. May all beings harmonize internally and among each other. The many beings inside of you, forming the whole of what you are — and the many beings outside of you that you interact with. May all these beings attain resolution. This is our closing affirmation — and we return wiser to our existence.