Laziness is a terrible enemy. Because of it we ruin so much of our work. If we can stop being lazy, we can really progress.

A lazy man never gets ahead in his work. He is never successful in his occupation, family matters or even spiritual activities. Thus he never feels peace in his heart. If we are to make progress we must remove laziness. Laziness is when we think, Ill do it after an hour. We shouldnt postpone work even for a minute! Whatever work we are given we should complete it immediately. On the spiritual path there is no place for laziness. We need regularity. If we have decided to turn five malas daily then five it must be! We should always attend discourses. If we are supposed to go to the temple then we must go. If we are regular in fulfilling our daily niyams we will get ahead. But if we become lazy - Ill do it tomorrow or the day after, then we wont be able to achieve anything. It is the same in any activity be it labour, farming or studies. If we believe laziness to be our enemy we can then destroy it ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

Meditation: Obstacles in Meditation

By Sri Swami Sivananda

Obstacles in Meditation 1. Laziness (Alasya) and fickleness of mind are two great obstacles in meditation. Light Sattvic diet and the practice of Pranayama will remove laziness. Do not overload the stomach. Walk briskly in your compound hither and thither for half an hour. As soon as you have made a firm resolve, you must carry it out promptly at any cost. You will remove fickleness of mind and develop willpower. 2. Pray. Combat lust and ambition, the two chief obstacles in Yogic practices. Discipline the body, mind and Indriyas. Sit. Abstain from worldly objects. Concentrate. Meditate. Realise. 3. Social nature is good for doing Karma Yoga. But it is extremely bad for practicing Dhyana Yoga. It drags you out. It makes your mind restless. It invites many friends who disturb you in a variety of ways. 4. Rajas and Tamas try to obstruct meditation. The mind that was calm owing to the preponderance of Sattva during the course of meditation begins to tremble and quiver owing to the entry of Rajas in excess. Sankalpas (thoughts) increase in number. Restlessness increases. Thoughts of action manifest. Planning and scheming come in. Take a little rest. Again do Japa. Pray and meditate. Take a little walk. 5. Laya, Vikshepa, Kashaya and Rasasvada are the other four obstacles. Laya is sleepiness. Vikshepa is excessive tossing of mind from one object to another object. This is the excessive monkey-nature of the mind. Kashaya is Goodha Vasana (hidden subtle desires). Rasasvada is the bliss of Savikalpa Samadhi (lower Samadhi). This itself is an obstacle so long as it prevents you from enjoying the Highest Nirvikalpa Bliss. Vichara, discrimination, prayer, Pranayama, further earnestness and struggle in meditation will remove the above four obstacles. 6. Samsaya Bhavana (doubt), Asambhavana (another kind of doubt) and Vipareeta Bhavana (wrong feeling that 'I am the body') are three other obstacles. Sravana (hearing of the scriptures) will remove Samsaya Bhavana. Manana (meditation) will remove Asambhavana. Nididhyasana (meditation) and Sakshatkara (realisation) will remove Vipareeta Bhavana. 7. Disease, indifference in the mind, Bhranti, imaginary fear, tendency of the mind to run outside to enjoy objects, drowsiness, falling from a particular elevated state in spiritual Sadhana are some other obstacles. Carefulness, thoughtlessness, increased Vairagya, rest, intense application of Sadhana will obviate these obstacles.

8. Just as clouds screen and obstruct the sun, the cloud of sickness, the cloud of gloom and despair will stand on your way of practice. Even then you must not leave the practice of Japa, concentration and meditation. These small clouds of sickness and despair will pass off soon. Give the suggestion to the mind: 'Even this will pass away.' Just as you do not leave your food even for a day, so also you should not leave off your spiritual practice even for a day. The mind is ever ready to deceive you and to stop you from the practice. Do not hear the shrill voice of the mind. Hear the sweet, silent voice of the soul. 9. Never wrestle with the mind. Do not use any violent efforts in concentration. Relax all muscles and nerves. Relax the brain. Gently think of the Lord. Slowly repeat your Guru Mantra with Bhava and meaning. Still the bubbling mind. Silence the thoughts. 10. Make no violent efforts to control the mind, but rather allow it to run along for a while and exhaust its efforts. It will take advantage of the opportunity and will jump around like an unchained monkey first, until it gradually slows down and looks to you for orders. It may take some time to tame down at first, but each time you try, it will come around to you in a short time. 11. If evil thoughts enter the mind do not use your will force in driving them. You will lose your energy only. You will tax your will only. You will fatigue yourself. The greater the efforts you make, the more the evil thoughts will return with redoubled force. They will return more quickly also. The thoughts will become more powerful. Be indifferent. Keep quite. They will pass off soon. Or substitute good counter thoughts (Pratipaksha Bhavana method), or think of the picture of God and the Mantra again and again forcibly or pray. 12. Dash cold water in the face to drive off drowsiness. Stand up for 15 minutes. Or lean upon an improvised swing for 10 minutes and move yourself to and fro. Do 10 or 20 mild Kumbhaka Pranayamas. Do Sirshasana or Mayurasana. Take only milk and fruits at night. By these methods you can combat sleep. Stroll about for 10 minutes. Keep light burning if sleep comes. 13. Very often depression comes in meditation in neophytes owing to the effect of previous Samskaras, influence of astral entities, evil spirits, bad company, cloudy days, bad stomach and loaded bowels. It must be removed quickly by cheerful thoughts, a brisk walk, singing, laughing, prayer, Pranayama, purgative and a dose of carminative mixture. 14. When the bee finds itself that its feet are struck in the honey, it slowly licks its feet several times and then flies away with joy. Even so extricate yourself from the mind's sticking and clinging to this body and children - owing to Raga and Moha (attachment and attraction) through Vairagya (dispassion) and meditation, and fly away with joy from this cage of flesh and bone to the source, Brahman or Absolute. 15. No more words. Enough of discussions and heated debates. Retire into a solitary room. Close your eyes. Have deep silent meditation. Feel His Presence. Repeat His Name Om with fervour, joy and love. Fill your heart with Prema (love). Destroy the Sankalpas, thoughts, whims, fancies and desires when they arise from the surface of the mind. Withdraw the wandering mind and fix it on the Lord. Now Nishtha, meditation, will become deep and intense. Do not open your eyes. Do not stir from your seat. Merge in Him. Dive deep into the innermost recess of the heart. Plunge into the shining Atman (Soul) within. Drink the nectar of Immortality. Enjoy the silence now. I shall leave you there alone. Nectar's son! Rejoice. Rejoice. Peace. Peace. Silence. Silence. Glory. Glory!

We are all lazy people. We love to procrastinate, we find comfort in sleeping, we idle away time as though it were a useless commodity, and we have all built our personal utopias where we do everything except work. Its perfectly natural to be lazy. I imagine that if it wasnt for the deadlines and binding commitments that force us to do work, none of us would go back to those dungeons, aka offices.

Thankfully though, we realize that laziness should be overcome in order for us to be successful and be useful to the society. So, what to do to beat laziness and reclaim the lost inspiration?
Take one bite at a time
Does the idea of taking your whole meal in one massive bite sound repulsive? Luckily, you can take it one bite at a time, enjoy it, and still consume the whole meal. Likewise, if you try to do everything together, you lose motivation to do anything at all. Therefore, its best to split a bigger task into smaller ones and concentrate on only one part at a time. The less formidable the work, the more youll enjoy doing it

Remove the distractions

When being lazy, we are often attracted to the distractions. Bloggers are found browsing others blogs when they are supposed to be writing theirs, and students are found watching TV when they should be studying. These are all distractions that serve no good purpose. If you remove the distractions, for example, by disconnecting from the Internet and by locking the TV room, youll notice that it becomes easier to get back to the work

Find motivation
Why are you doing work? It is easy to forget the purpose of work with time. Remind yourself of how important your work is for you, for your personal satisfaction, for your life, family and so on. If you feel you are not clear about the purpose of what you are doing, its time to recap the goals you set down when you started.

I used to feel guilty every night when I go to bed, thinking about the things that I did not do during the day. Guilt is a very bad feeling, it can lead to depression But lately Ive been setting small (achieve-able) tasks for myself daily, and I check things off my list once Im done with them, and it gives me the feeling that Ive really done something during the day, instead of just wasting my time

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Patanjali described Alasya (Laziness) as one of the major stumbling blocks in your progress of Yogic journey. Once you allow laziness to dictate you it leads to a halt in your practice. If this break is too long like couple of weeks, you start coming back to previous patterns and when you suddenly realize it, you have to start all over again. It is said that an ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept. Whatever you may learn through reading or understand through watching or listening, cannot be compared to what is achievable through practice. How much ever you may read and study, unless you practice we are not going to progress even an inch. When we skip the practice, progress is not the only thing to suffer, worse still we start falling back to old habits, and other stuff (may be unimportant like watching TV) start taking priority and fills the time which we use for practice. This means not only are we not making progress, in fact we are sliding backwards. It is very easy to fall that is why most people are leading a very routine existence. Yoga is all about lifting ourselves up. Instead of falling down the stream, we need to climb to the cliff.

We all suffer from streaks of laziness and it has to do with various factors like mental state, body health condition, lack of motivation etc. To remove laziness you need a lot of faith, enthusiasm, stable mind and firm belief in Yoga. The firmness of belief in yogic path should be able to give you a jump start for your practice even though the mind tells you that it is not the right time to practice.
OneThirdApproach In case you are really feeling lousy, you can adopt a one third approach. In this approach you can decide that you will practice only for one third the regular time you devote to practice. For example if you practice for 1 hour on regular days, commit yourself to practice only for 20 minutes. There are two benefits to this approach. You will feel more motivated for the practice and usually I have observed that I end up practicing more than the one third time set initially. Secondly, even if you stop after the time you set, you are at least continuing your practice, which is the most important aspect.
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