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Anyone wishing to meditate has to find the right method for them, and for me it was Raja Yoga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think about myself as a spiritual being, a soul, as opposed to being my body, or my name, or my job/role

Sheila Eiloart has been attending the Raja Yoga meditation centre in Cambridge for the past 22 years. For a number of years she has been teaching the Raja Yoga meditation course and since retirement from working life Sheila has co-ordinated activites at Inner Space meditation centre in the centre of Cambridge. In her working life before retirement, Sheila worked as Senior Orthoptist at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and various other hospitals in the UK and abroad. Later, she taught piano privately for 5 years, and then spent a number of years working in administration and computing for various Cambridge University departments.

Q: Sheila, how did you discover meditation and the BK’s?

I discovered Raja Yoga meditation when I was personally going through a period in my life when I felt aimless, purposeless and then became depressed as a result of this. By 'chance' I happened to meet the person who had been asked to move from London to Cambridge to start a meditation centre, and I met him after he had been in Cambridge for just 3 weeks. I had been sampling various forms of meditation, all at the same time, and simply added Raja Yoga to my increasing list.

Anyone wishing to meditate has to find the right method for them, and for me it was Raja Yoga and it was not long before I focused on this and let go of the various other methods of meditation. I didn't for quite a while realize that Prashant, the co-ordinator of the emerging centre, was in fact part of a now well-established spiritual organisation. It was only when I accompanied him to London one time that I met numerous other BK's and realized just what I had come across – a sizeable spiritual family.

Q: Why meditate?

I chose meditation, not because I had a deep desire to meditate, but rather that I had run out of all other options of living a happy life. Throughout my life I had been a happy and generally optimistic person, but after my family had left home, I really questioned what my purpose was in life, and didn't come up with a clear answer.

As I gradually became depressed at not resolving this question, I thought to do something new, so embarked on a degree in music, and although I thoroughly (externally) enjoyed this, I knew internally that I was merely patching over the unhappiness. I knew I didn't want to accept medical help in the way of happiness drugs, and I knew I didn't want religion. This is when I came to the conclusion that meditation might be the answer.

Then came the big decision of which type of meditation out of the myriad of choices. I chose Raja Yoga initially because of the enormous support I personally received which uplifted my depleted spirits where nothing else had. My second reason was that I came to implicitly believe in every aspect of this philosophy, which was not the case with the other practices that I came across.

Q: How often do you meditate? Could you describe what you are actually doing?

I start my day with meditation. I get up early each day at around 3.30am.  I have a shower and then meditation for ¾ hr.  Later I join others at  our meditation centre for a  6am start and meditate with others for ½ hr before we have a session where we listen to and discuss aspects of the philosophy upon which Raja Yoga is based.

The ideas or philosophy of Raja Yoga has had such an impact on my life that these ideas are at the forefront of my mind, or not far behind. Our training is to be 'aware' in a practical way throughout the day whilst we go about our business, whatever that may be. So that I try to do.

The meditation that I do is linked with the vast spiritual knowledge that we gain daily at this early morning class having initially completed a course on the basic ideas of Raja Yoga.When I meditate I draw on one aspect of this knowledge to contemplate on, it isn't necessarily the same aspect each time.

The main ideas I think about are myself as a spiritual being, a soul, as opposed to being my body, or my name, or my job/role. I think of my spiritual home where I come from and where I feel I truly belong. I think of my spiritual Father, whose child I am. I practice being an observer of my role as if distancing myself from my own role. These are examples, there are others. These aspects are introduced on the course I took and now give. In teaching the course, I find that it all the time reminds me,  which is necessary, as these are subtle matters and can easily fall out of ones grasp.

Q: What do you get from meditating?

The benefits of meditation I have found to be – enormous. When I first embarked on this meditation I had really lost my self esteem, I could not make decisions easily, I was aimless and depressed because of this, as I have mentioned. I could easily be affected by circumstances and hurt by people.

Now I have largely regained my self esteem, I can make decisions without difficulty, I have an aim and I am not at all depressed, nor do I feel that I could easily become depressed by anything. So I feel a big difference.

Q: How does meditation bring relaxation that, say, television
can’t?

My experience of meditation is that it quietens the mind at the same time as 'sharpening' the mind. In quietening the mind, I feel I learn to think less, and that these fewer thoughts are of my choice and are more powerful. Otherwise the mind can race. I find TV has a dulling effect on the mind as opposed to relaxing.  I grew up without TV, which was probably fortunate, and do not have a TV set.

Q: I know that after taking up meditation you made slight changes to your lifestyle. What changes did you make?

Yes, I have changed my lifestyle, radically I would say rather that slightly. The first change I made was to become a vegetarian. This is not a big thing as there are many vegetarians. My son was a vegetarian and although I was not, I felt he was right. I felt it was not right to kill animals and that there is enough food, and variety of food, without the need to kill animals. However, I liked meat, so I carried on eating it, maybe a little less!  However, when I had completed the Raja Yoga course, I felt it was definitely the time to change this habit, and apart from missing meat for about a fortnight, it was easy. I was told that it would help to focus the mind.

Next, I gave up alcohol. This was even easier. It made no sense to have alcohol at the same time as trying to get ones mind straight. In any case I thought it's a costly drink that actually makes you thirsty, and that doesn't make sense. Over the years I had supplemented a small income whilst bringing up a family single handed by renting rooms in my house to university students. They were mainly male students as at that time, the majority of students were men. Two things were suggested to me, one was that I should no longer earn money by letting rooms, so that the house would not be used as a place of business, and secondly as a single female I should not in any case have men living in the house. I complied with this and my small income halved overnight!  I later saw the benefit of both these guidelines. The fourth change was in regard to living a celibate life. I was celibate but not necessarily for life – there is a big difference. The benefits of this are hard to imagine because it is opposite thinking to that of the way of the world.  For me this is the most freeing aspect of my life now and I would never want to change it.

Q: If you weren’t meditating what would you be doing?

If I had not taken up meditation in my life, I cannot imagine what I would be doing by now, as my life had just about ground to a halt. So for me there is no alternative.

Q: Last question. I know that a few years ago you and your family went through a major crisis after your daughter went missing at sea. Could you tell us how meditation helped you cope with that?

I have been a meditator for 21 years now and it was after 10 years of practicing meditation that I received the news one day that my daughter's boat was long overdue at a port off the north-west coast of Madagascar in the Mozambique Channel, Africa.

There is a famous saying 'to make a mountain into a molehill' and this is the best way I can describe how, not only on receiving the news but all the events in the following few months, I was automatically able to keep a cool head , but not just that, I was able to maintain my natural personality. All this came naturally. I didn't have to try. It was as if everything that I had learned spiritually over the years was lodged in a compartment in my mind and was automatically brought to the forefront of my mind to be made use of.

In fact I felt very fortunate, that I knew what I knew, and felt that the efforts of getting out of bed in winter and summer, cycling 3 miles to the 6am class at our meditation centre and never missing a day or rarely late – that I was now reaping the benefit of that effort, and it was as if all of that was preparing me for hearing such news, and I felt fortunate for that.

This may seem selfish, but not at all. I felt that because I had a clear head I was in a position to help my daughter in whatever way I could, and help the rest of my family. In other words I was in a position to help because I didn't need help myself.

My daughter and her boat were never found despite a large-scale search mounted. However I have always been able to think of her and speak of her happily with no feelings of regret or remorse – no sorrow of any kind.

This is the benefit of meditation. It may seem to others impossible, but meditation truly can make the impossible possible – this is my experience...

©Copyright 2005 BKWSU