A Simple Meditation Technique
Make yourself comfortable, sitting upright, with a straight spine. With your eyes closed, look at point midway between eyebrows on your forehead.

Inhale slowly, counting to eight. Hold breath for same eight counts while concentrating your attention at point between eyebrows. Now exhale slowly to same count of eight. Repeat three to six times.

After inhaling and exhaling completely, as next breath comes in, mentally say Hong (rhymes with song). Then, as you exhale, mentally say Sau (rhymes with saw). Hong Sau means 'I am He' or 'I am Spirit'. Make no attempt to control your breathing, just let its flow be completely natural. Try to feel that your breath itself is silently making sounds of Hong and Sau. Initially try to feel breath at point where it enters nostrils.

Be as attentive as possible. If you have difficulty feeling breath, you can concentrate, for a while, on breathing process itself, feeling your diaphragm and chest expanding and contracting.

Gradually as you become more calm, try to feel breath higher and higher in nose. Be sure that your gaze is kept steady at point between eyebrows throughout your practice. Don't allow your eyes to follow movement of breath. If you find that your mind has wandered, simply bring it back to an awareness of breath and mantra.

As you become calmer, be more aware of breath itself, higher and higher in nose. Be sure to keep your gaze steady at point between eyebrows throughout your practice. Don't allow your eyes to follow movement of breath. If you find that your mind has wandered, simply bring it back to an awareness of breath and mantra.

By concentration on breath, breath actually diminishes; its gradual refinement leads naturally to an interiorized meditative state.

Practice this technique as long as you feel to. As a boy, Paramhansa Yogananda used to practice it for hours at a time, withdrawing ever more deeply into spine until he found himself without breath altogether. He had ascended into soul-consciousness…and a higher reality took over…