Inner Peace

Fellowship
Meditation

For More Inner Peace

Well-Being and Happiness
Learn How to Meditate

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Meditation Instructions
Your First Meditation
Daily Practice of Meditation
Common Mistakes
Expanding Your Mantra
Advanced Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation
Side Effects and Cautions
Frequently Asked Questions
Instructions For Advanced Inner Peace Fellowship
Meditation
Instructions
Expanded Practice Time
Discussion
Side Effects and Cautions

Meditation
Instructions

Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation (IPF

Meditation) comes from the Vedic tradition
of India, which is over 3,000 years old. IPF
Meditation uses the same Sanskit mantras
that yogis in India have been using and
refining for thousands of years. IPF
Meditation is very easy to learn, and you
can get many valuable benefits from
practicing it. Millions of people in 235
countries and jurisdictions have used these
meditation instructions.

You learn to meditate by meditating. The

silence and stillness you experience in
meditation and the increased happiness
and diminished stress you experience
outside meditation are so attractive and
welcomed that you naturally teach yourself
how to go deeper into that silence and
stillness each time you meditate.

Your First Meditation

To begin meditating, find a place where you

can sit comfortably and quietly. Then close
your eyes and do nothing for a minute or
so. Thoughts may come during that time,
and that is okay. Then start the audio below
and play your mantra** at a whisper. Each
time you hear your mantra, say it quietly
inside without moving your tongue or lips.
After one minute the audio will fade to
silence. Then continue saying your mantra
quietly inside for four more minutes. If
thoughts come during that time, gently
return to saying your mantra quietly inside.
The audio will tell you when four minutes is
over. Follow this instruction for your first
meditation only. After your first meditation,
follow the instructions in the Daily Practice
of Meditation section below.

-5:01

Download

(If you created your own mantra on our site

in the past, from now on use the mantra
above and then expand your mantra as
described below.)

Daily Practice of Meditation

Meditate every morning and every evening

for 15-30 minutes. Use your mantra in Your
First Meditation above. It is best to meditate
before you eat. Try to meditate in a quiet
place but if you do not have a quiet place to
meditate that is okay. Noise is not a barrier
to meditating.

Sit quietly, close your eyes, and do nothing

for a minute or so. Thoughts will come and
that is okay. It is natural to have thoughts
during meditation. After a minute or so, in
the same natural way that thoughts come,
and without moving your tongue or lips,
quietly inside start saying your mantra.
Slowly repeat your mantra until you are
done meditating. When thoughts come,
gently return to saying your mantra. When
you finish meditating, lay down and rest for
4-5 minutes.

At times you may be saying your mantra

unclearly, and that is okay. At times you
may not be saying your mantra at all, and
instead your mantra may be a sense or a
feeling of your mantra, and that is okay. At
times all thoughts and your mantra may
disappear and you may simply be aware,
and that is okay.

You may go to sleep during meditation, and

that is okay. When you wake up after being
asleep, meditate for a few more minutes
and then lay down and rest for 4-5 minutes.

Common Mistakes

Do not TRY to meditate. Trying to meditate

is the biggest mistake people make. During
meditation, just do nothing. It is very
important to do absolutely nothing during
meditation.

The benefits of meditation come from

meditating regularly. The benefits come
naturally over time, and there is nothing you
can do to MAKE those benefits come. So
avoid looking for particular experiences or
signs of progress or failure with your
meditation because that will block you from
getting the benefits of meditation.

Meditation can make you happier, it can

make you feel more at ease and calmer,
and it can help you get along better with
others. You may notice those changes
soon, or you may meditate for six months
before you notice any changes. So just get
in the habit of meditating regularly twice
every day, and then be patient. Getting in
the habit of meditating regularly is very
important. And if you stop meditating, just
start back meditating again.

Expanding Your Mantra

(DO NOT expand your

mantra until you have been
meditating regularly for the
times specified below. If
you jump ahead and
expand your mantra before
the times specified below,
or if you have not been
meditating regularly twice a
day, you will not get the
benefits from expanding
your mantra.)

After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for six months, start using this
mantra. Play the mantra at a whisper.

-0:53

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After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for one year, start using this
mantra. Play the mantra at a whisper.

-1:06

Download

After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for one year, start using this
instruction during meditation also:

Until now your mantra has

been coming from your
head, or from nowhere in
particular. From now on
during meditation, gently
shift your attention so that
the mantra comes from
your chest. To help center
your mantra in your chest,
occasionally notice your
breathing there.

After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for eighteen months, start
using this mantra. Play the mantra at a
whisper.

-1:30

Download

After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for two years, start using this
mantra. Play the mantra at a whisper.

-0:19

Download

Advanced Inner Peace Fellowship

Meditation

Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation is

probably the most effective meditation
available today. We also provide Advanced
Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation, which is
even more powerful.

After you have been meditating regularly

twice a day for 2 years, you will then be
eligible to start Advanced Inner
Peace Fellowship Meditation. The
instructions for Advanced Inner Peace
Meditation are at the bottom of this page.

Side Effects and Cautions

There are side effects to meditating.

Immediately after meditating you can be
more vulnerable to suggestions and outside
influences. So avoid making decisions or
taking on things of importance immediately
after meditating.

If you find that sitting quietly is difficult for

you, stop meditating. Instead try walking in
nature, doing yoga, or exercising to relax.

If you find that meditating is disturbing,

upsetting, or disquieting for you, stop
meditating and do not meditate any more.

Finally, meditation is not for solving serious

emotional or psychiatric problems. So if you
think you might have such problems, do not
try to fix them by meditating but instead get
professional help.

* Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation

is nondirective mantra meditation.
Nondirective meditations are based
on effortlessness and acceptance of
mind wandering whereas directive
meditations such as Mindfulness
and Vipassana are based on
exerting effort to resist thoughts and
to resist mind wandering. Other
meditation techniques classified as
nondirective are the Relaxation
Response, Acem meditation and
Transcendental Meditation®
according to the research report
“Nondirective meditation activates
default mode network and areas
associated with memory retrieval
and emotional processing” in
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience;
2014: 8:86.

** Your mantra is Vedic Sanskrit words

and sounds that have been used in
meditation for thousands of years.

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Frequently Asked
Questions

“I have been meditating for a very long time

(I am 75 years old), but have always ended up
trying or trying not to try! Your meditation
instructions have relieved me of this tendency
and I really find this meditation very relaxing
and easy to do.” Julie

Question: “Where does Inner

Peace Fellowship Meditation come
from?”

Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation (IPF

Meditation) comes from the Vedic tradition
of India, which is over 3,000 years old.
Since then meditation has been handed
down freely from generation to generation.
Meditation is taught as a responsibility, and
for the joy of helping others without
expecting anything in return.

The mantras of IPF Meditation are in the

Sanskrit language that was spoken 3,000
years ago. Yogis in India have been using
these same mantras in meditation since
then.

Vedic tradition is about expanding bliss, joy

and happiness in life. It is a tradition that
understands how the intelligence of nature
works, and how to align life with that
intelligence so that you are happy and
healthy. It is a tradition that knows how to
decrease stress in life.

“What are the benefits of

meditating regularly?”

Scientists have studied meditation and

found that meditating regularly can
decrease stress, increase inner peace and
improve relationships. Our experience
confirms those findings. We have enjoyed
those benefits and many others from
meditating. Those benefits arose naturally
and spontaneously in our lives the longer
we meditated on a regular basis.

“What kind of meditation is IPF

Meditation?”

The two main kinds of meditation are

nondirective and directive. Nondirective
meditation is based on effortlessness and
acceptance of mind wandering. Directive
meditation is based on exerting effort to
resist mind wandering.

IPF Meditation is nondirective meditation.

“Which is easier to learn:

nondirective or directive
meditation?”

Nondirective meditation is easier to learn

than directive meditation. Mindfulness
meditation is directive meditation. A top
researcher of mindfulness meditation said
this about learning mindfulness meditation:

“When I was first learning to meditate the

instruction was to simply pay attention to my
breath and when my mind wandered to bring it
back. Sounded simple enough. Yet I would sit
on these silent [meditation] retreats sweating
through T-shirts in the middle of winter. I
would take naps every chance I got because it
was really hard work. Actually, it was
exhausting.”

Judson Brewer MD, PhD

Director of Research and Innovation

Mindfulness Center, Brown University USA

TEDMED Talk: “A Simple Way To Break A Bad Habit”

When meditation is difficult to learn, people

stop meditating. Or they never learn to
meditate well enough to get much benefit
from it.

“Why is nondirective meditation

easier to learn than directive
meditation?”

Nondirective meditation is easier to learn

because it takes your mind to silence and
stillness more quickly and easily than
directive meditation does. The reason is
their techniques for meditating are quite
different:

The instructions for nondirective meditation

are to do nothing, to allow your thoughts to
wander, and when your thoughts wander, to
go back to thinking the mantra. Thoughts
have meanings that engage the mind. The
mantra does not engage the mind because
its sounds are meaningless. Plus, the
sounds of the mantra have been refined by
yogis over thousands of years to quiet the
mind. By repeating the mantra, the mind is
quieted more and more until the mantra
becomes faint and you experience silence
and stillness. Experiencing silence and
stillness more and more in meditation is
what then balances your life, your health
and your thoughts.

The instructions for directive meditation are

when thoughts come, to concentrate on
something else such as your breath,
chanting, or the flame of a candle. You try
to force thoughts from your mind by
concentrating on something else. The
reason directive meditation is difficult to
learn is because concentration requires
effort, and silence and stillness are difficult
to experience when you are exerting effort.

“What meditation technique works

best? What does science say about
this?”

Scientific research of meditation is still in its

early days. Research has been done on
specific meditation techniques. However
research that compares meditation
techniques has not yet been done (2021).
So today science cannot say which
meditation technique works best.

The reason we meditate is to experience

silence and stillness. When we experience
DEEP silence and stillness in meditation,
no thoughts are present. During that
thoughtlessness, our self that lives in
thoughts is missing, and unity, truth and
timelessness are present. Experiencing
deep silence and stillness repeatedly in
meditation seems to have infused
thoughtlessness into our physiology, and
into our everyday life. During everyday life
we have fewer thoughts than we once did.
And we experience silence and stillness
pretty much all the time.

For us the important question here is: Do all

meditation techniques deliver that same
experience of DEEP silence and stillness?
Our answer is: probably not. The reason we
say that is because when we are TRYING
to experience deep silence and stillness in
meditation (trying being the main instruction
of directive meditation), we never
experience deep silence and stillness. The
only time we experience DEEP silence and
stillness in meditation is when we are doing
absolutely nothing, which is the main
instruction of nondirective meditation.

So it appears to us that the best meditation

techniques for experiencing DEEP silence
and stillness are nondirective meditation
techniques.

“Is IPF Meditation really so simple

and easy to learn? Is it really about
doing nothing?”

Yes. IPF Meditation is really simple and

easy to learn. It really is about doing
nothing. IPF Meditation is about letting go
of any outcome and accepting things
exactly as they are, which is excellent
training for how to live your life.

Your mind will wander during IPF

Meditation, and that is okay. You accept
that your mind is wandering, and then you
return to thinking the mantra. Sometimes
you have many thoughts during meditation,
and that is normal. Other times you have
fewer thoughts during meditation and you
experience more silence and stillness,
which we call Being. Sometimes people
experience Being in its most innocent form
during meditation, and also during their day.

Being is simply the experience of Being

alive. For many people however, thoughts
form a “cloud” that obscures Being alive
just like clouds block the light of the Sun.
When you are in that cloud of thoughts, you
are living life more in your thoughts instead
of living life as Being alive. Meditating
regularly can melt those clouds of thoughts
both during meditation and also during your
day. And when those clouds of thoughts
have melted, what remains is silence and
stillness – is Being.

Meditation teaches you how to be. The

experience of Being arises naturally and
spontaneously over time as you meditate
regularly. You should never try to have the
experience of Being, or any experience. If
you TRY to have some experience, IPF
Meditation does not work. IPF Meditation
works when you do absolutely nothing. Just
do absolutely nothing during meditation,
repeat the mantra, and the benefits of
meditating will arise in your life naturally
and spontaneously over time as you
meditate regularly.

“Please describe the experience of

Being in its most innocent form.”

Usually during meditation you notice

something. For example, you notice an itch.
Or you notice a sound, some tiredness or
the mantra. That is normal.

Once in a while during meditation, some

people experience Being in its most
innocent form. During that experience “you”
“notice” and “something” are absent and
only Being is experienced. The word
singular describes that experience well
because the three elements – “you”,
“notice” and “something” – are absent and
the experience contains only Being – only
silence and stillness.

Advanced IPF Meditation is designed to

help you become more familiar with Being
in its most innocent form. The instructions
for Advanced Inner Peace Meditation are
described below.

Instructions For
Advanced Inner
Peace Fellowship
Meditation
(After you have been
meditating regularly twice a
day for 2 years, you are
then, and only then,
eligible to start Advanced
Inner Peace Fellowship
Meditation.)

“You learn to meditate by meditating. The

silence and stillness you experience in
meditation and the increased happiness
and diminished stress you experience
outside meditation are so attractive and
welcomed that you naturally teach yourself
how to go deeper into that silence and
stillness each time you meditate.” That
instruction applies both to Inner Peace
Fellowship Meditation and to Advanced
Inner Peace Fellowship Meditation.

Instructions

After you finish practicing Inner Peace

Fellowship Meditation for 15-30 minutes in
the morning and in the evening, continue to
sit quietly with your eyes closed and do not
lay down. Then, after 10 to 15 seconds
faintly and silently inside without moving
your tongue or lips say the word “kindness”
once. As that word fades let your
awareness be with whatever you are
experiencing in your body, which in these
instructions is also called your being or your
self.

(Whatever you are experiencing in your

body may or may not include the sensation
of your body, a humming in your ears,
feelings on your skin, the sound of your
breathing, your heart beating, your bottom
against the chair-floor-bed, simply being
aware that you are aware, or any
combination of these or any other bodily
sensations. There is nothing in particular
that you are suppose to be experiencing in
your body however. So just relax, do
nothing and let your awareness be on
whatever you are experiencing in your
body.)

Then, after 10 to 15 seconds faintly and

silently inside without moving your tongue
or lips say the word “kindness” again once,
and as that word fades let your awareness
go back onto whatever you are
experiencing in your body – onto your
being, your self.

Then, after 10 to 15 seconds faintly and

silently inside without moving your tongue
or lips say the word “kindness” again once,
and as that word fades let your awareness
go back onto whatever you are
experiencing in your body – onto your
being, your self.

Then, after 10 to 15 seconds faintly and

silently inside without moving your tongue
or lips say the word “kindness” again once,
and as that word fades let your awareness
go back onto whatever you are
experiencing in your body – onto your
being, your self. You have now said the
word “kindness” four times.

(It is okay if the word “kindness” or any of

the other words below becomes so faint
and silent that it is no longer a word but
rather is just the feeling of “kindness” or an
impulse of “kindness”.)

10 to 15 seconds after saying kindness for

the last time, faintly and silently inside
without moving your tongue or lips say the
word “goodness” once and as that word
fades let your awareness go back onto