Yoga is not a passive practice. It is a practice leading to conscious awareness. Begin to notice, without judging, your thoughts. Begin to notice what you are drawn towards. Your life is a movement toward something. It can be a movement toward greater joy. It can be a movement toward pain and despair. We have choices. And whether or not we choose to exercise those choices is still a choice. Let me give you an example...
Five people are sitting facing each other in the same geographical location. They are in the same place for the same purpose. After a little while they stand up and begin to walk around. Each one is drawn to something different. Perhaps, to an onlooker, it would appear that they are all five doing the same thing: wandering around within a few feet of each other. But all five people are going in different directions. After a few minutes they each return to their original location and sit in exactly the same positions from whence they began. As they relate their experiences it seems that they were (and are) in completely different worlds. One observes a nut on the ground and sunshine reflecting off a pool. Others are distracted by some activity near-by. While sitting, two people watch an object fall from above. One notices the pecan in the grass, the other the squirrel up in a tree. For five minutes, in the same general location, on the same day @ the same time, five people with the same goal - mindful awareness - have five completely different experiences. Why?
Concentration is an effortful holding of the mind to one thought. It is a continuous stream of thought. We need to practice concentration in order to be able to meditate. When we enter a light meditation, we experience brief mental quietude interrupted by intermittent thoughts. In deep meditation, however, we are effortlessly holding an intuitive feeling state. Effortlessly and without interruption. Feeling is the precursor to thought. This is an expansive state. Feeling is an awareness that has no compulsion to it. It really doesn't matter what you meditate on, so long as it produces a pleasant feeling.
Let's look @ this another way. Notice what you feel. Right now, @ this moment, what do you feel? If you feel afraid, you will find yourself producing fearful thoughts. And so it is if you are feeling joyful. Joyful feelings, joyful thoughts. As we think, so too do we act. We can notice, without judging, the contents of our thoughts. You/we/us have the opportunity to change our thoughts.
Meditation has three levels because the mind has three levels. We call these surface mind, inner mind and depth mind. Karma affects the surface mind. It can never affect the depth mind.
Regardless of how scattered the surface mind is, it can not and does not affect the tranquility of the depth mind. This tranquility exists for and within everyone.
Through meditation we are attempting to attune to and become aware of the inner mind, and then the depth mind. As I/you/we draw closer to this depth mind, there is more awareness of cosmic peace and tranquility. As I/we/you begin to bring our lives into greater balance and the meditation practice is established, it becomes easier and easier to be released from the thoughts and emotions of the day. Pulling away from sense objects and the activities of the senses is a major step towards meditation.
There are three distinct phases of meditation:
1) Mindfulness
2) Attentiveness
3) Wisdom
Begin with the practice of mindfulness. The rest will follow. Different paths. Same destination.
Shanti and Namaste,
S.
Five people are sitting facing each other in the same geographical location. They are in the same place for the same purpose. After a little while they stand up and begin to walk around. Each one is drawn to something different. Perhaps, to an onlooker, it would appear that they are all five doing the same thing: wandering around within a few feet of each other. But all five people are going in different directions. After a few minutes they each return to their original location and sit in exactly the same positions from whence they began. As they relate their experiences it seems that they were (and are) in completely different worlds. One observes a nut on the ground and sunshine reflecting off a pool. Others are distracted by some activity near-by. While sitting, two people watch an object fall from above. One notices the pecan in the grass, the other the squirrel up in a tree. For five minutes, in the same general location, on the same day @ the same time, five people with the same goal - mindful awareness - have five completely different experiences. Why?
Concentration is an effortful holding of the mind to one thought. It is a continuous stream of thought. We need to practice concentration in order to be able to meditate. When we enter a light meditation, we experience brief mental quietude interrupted by intermittent thoughts. In deep meditation, however, we are effortlessly holding an intuitive feeling state. Effortlessly and without interruption. Feeling is the precursor to thought. This is an expansive state. Feeling is an awareness that has no compulsion to it. It really doesn't matter what you meditate on, so long as it produces a pleasant feeling.
Let's look @ this another way. Notice what you feel. Right now, @ this moment, what do you feel? If you feel afraid, you will find yourself producing fearful thoughts. And so it is if you are feeling joyful. Joyful feelings, joyful thoughts. As we think, so too do we act. We can notice, without judging, the contents of our thoughts. You/we/us have the opportunity to change our thoughts.
Meditation has three levels because the mind has three levels. We call these surface mind, inner mind and depth mind. Karma affects the surface mind. It can never affect the depth mind.
Regardless of how scattered the surface mind is, it can not and does not affect the tranquility of the depth mind. This tranquility exists for and within everyone.
Through meditation we are attempting to attune to and become aware of the inner mind, and then the depth mind. As I/you/we draw closer to this depth mind, there is more awareness of cosmic peace and tranquility. As I/we/you begin to bring our lives into greater balance and the meditation practice is established, it becomes easier and easier to be released from the thoughts and emotions of the day. Pulling away from sense objects and the activities of the senses is a major step towards meditation.
There are three distinct phases of meditation:
1) Mindfulness
2) Attentiveness
3) Wisdom
Begin with the practice of mindfulness. The rest will follow. Different paths. Same destination.
Shanti and Namaste,
S.
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