"Everything that happens in your mind is reflected in your body. So, meditate on the good!" T.K.V. Desikachar
Acknowledgement: To Sherry Goldstein, thank you for the gift of So'Ham and for sowing the seeds of possibility within me. Om Namah Shivaya.
med-i-ta-tion [med-i-tey-shuhn]
-noun
- the act of meditation
- continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation
- transcendental meditation
a technique, based on ancient Hindu writings, by which one seeks to achieve a relaxed state through regular periods of meditation during which a mantra is repeated. Abbreviation: TM - devout religious contemplation or spiritual introspection
WHY MEDITATE?
Why do we do anything we do? Hopefully, to learn more about ourselves. Since we, as individual beings, are linked by a common thread, learning about ourselves will benefit the greater good. As the Dalai Lama says: "World peace starts within." So, it would stand to reason that meditation cultivates inner peace, as well as a powerful, directed mind.
On a very practical level, there are many physiological and psychological benefits of meditation such as improved pain management skills, gastrointestinal function, hypertension and blood pressure, stress-related levels of cortisol and lactate, lung capacity, and DHEA levels. Creativity, vitality, and emotional stability increase. Anxiety, depression, irritability and moodiness decrease. When we feel healthier and better about ourselves, the door is opened to increased self awareness and self acceptance, which leads to greater compassion for ourselves and those around us.
Meditation can be practiced by anyone with the desire to gain self-knowledge, known as vidya. The process leads us down roads like no other tool of exploration. By meditating we can explore our internal workings in the physical, spiritual, and mental, while aligning ourselves with the external world. When we hone the mind we open ourselves up to endless possibilities. This can allow us to better cope with life in the material realm and expand our awareness in the spiritual dimension by harnessing the mind and regulating our energies.
The reason we begin meditate is deeply personal. The result of meditation is universal: liberation.
Thoughts for novices:
Don't enter into meditation with grandiose expectations. Go into meditation as a blank canvas. The more expectations you have going into meditation, the more challenging it will be to focus the mind. Shift your focus to creating space for awareness and gaining knowledge.
There are many flavors of meditation adapted to suit a wide realm of faiths, religions, beliefs, mind sciences, etc. The one you choose should feel innate and natural -effortless. You may want to explore a meditation class at a community center or yoga studio, or look for audio Cd's with guided meditations to start out. Taste the different flavors to find the one that sates your needs - be present and you will find the your method.
Just like we make time to exercise our bodies, we should make time to exercise our mindful beings. Starting a meditation practice - like a physical practice - should be started in smaller doses of time and built up as your endurance builds. Using mala beads, a timer, or a set music play list will take the anxiety out of the time factor.
YOGA AND MEDITATION
If we look at the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga, meditation or dhyana is the 7th of the 8 limbs of classical yoga to gain liberation. It comes after dharana (concentration) and before samadhi (enlightenment or liberation). The eight limbs are:
- Yamas (the don'ts): ahimsa (nonharming), satyam (truthfulness), asteya (nonstealing), brahmacharya (moderation in all things), aparigraha (nongreediness)
- Niyamas (the do's): saucha (cleanliness), santosha (contentment), tapas (discipline), swadhyaya (self study), ishwarapranidhana (living a life of honor to the higher power/love)
- Asana: physical postures linked by the breath, meditation in motion
- Pranayama: regulating the breath allowing prana (life force) to flow freely through the body
- Pratyhara: sensory withdrawal from the external world, turning inward - sights, sounds, tastes, feels, and smells do not affect your being
- Dharana: development of concentration
- Dhyana: meditation is the result of practiced pratyhara and dharana to be able to sit in concentration with intent
- Samadhi: divine liberation, union with the universal spirit
Meditation is a method for controlling the stumbling blocks of the mind called the kleshas:
- Avidya (lack of knowledge)
- Asmita (egoism – I am ness)
- Ragas (relying on people, places, animals, events to create happiness rather than creating it internally)
- Dvesa (aversion to people, places, animals, & events that cause pain)
- Abhinivesha (fear of death & closure)
By meditating on "who am I?" we come to know our true essence and release the ego's hold on us.
We can also use meditation as a tool along with karma yoga (the practice of serving others) and bhakti yoga (the practice of love and spiritual devotion) to harness the energy of the manomaya kosha. The manomaya kosha is like the third doll in a set of nested Russian dolls and houses mental body. "Often our minds are as overloaded as a freeway in Los Angeles, constricting the flow of your journey or yoga practice. If your mind is obsessed or is going in different directions, your breath becomes erratic and your sense of physical ease and balance wavers. Your breath can serve as a bridge between your body and mind. Expanded breath = Expanded mind = A sense of openness in the body." (Shiva Rea)
While it is ideal to have a special spot arranged to easily slip into meditation - any spot can quickly become a sanctuary with right intention. Historically, one would meditate for extended periods of time in isolated sanctuaries in mountains, caves, and forests. The area would have to be very clean, level, free from gravel and pebbles, free from noise and distraction, no fire place, protected from the wind, and visually pleasing. The meditator would face East honoring the rising sun or North honoring the power of the North Pole; both directions are said to have favorable magnetic vibrations. The prime times are said to be Brahma-muhurta (hour of Brahma) before sunrise from 4 am to 6 am, sunset, the hour before noon, and midnight. In today's world, a spot that allows you to comfortably sit undisturbed for even 10 to 20 minutes will work.
PREPARING FOR OUR INWARD JOURNEY
Meditation involves all aspects of ourselves: mind, breath, senses, reason, and logic. B.K.S. Iyengar says the practice is "a steady continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region." While it is all encompassing, only the simplest tool is needed to get started: BREATH.
Breath: This is the vehicle that carries our life force: prana. It grounds and expands the physical body and provides a focus that is with us always. Start by following your breath in and out, rising and falling. Take an emotional and physical inventory by tuning into the flow of the breath in and out; by observing the it we can discover the points in our being that are sticky and that are open. For beginners, the act of sitting comfortably, hands in anjali mudra (prayer hands), and observing the breath for even 5 minutes is a good place to start building endurance.
Hands: Find a position for the hands that feels restful, not placed. They may lay on the knees palms down to ground, palms up for receiving, hands on knees in cin-mudra or "consciousness seal" (palms up, tips of the index finger and thumb touching, remaining fingers extended), or resting your hands in your lap right on top of left.
GUIDED PRACTICE
- Asana (preparation postures):
- Come into a seated pose. Adjust your seat so you can feel your sitting bones grounding down.
- Shrug the shoulders up an down and in circles both to the back and front
- Bring the hands together in front of the heart clasping the fingers - exhale sending the palms forwards keeping the fingers intertwined - inhale the palms up over head reaching to the sky - exhale releasing the hands to the sacrum to clasp the hands again - inhale opening the heart, shoulders back and down - exhale releasing the hands reaching forward rounding the upper back - inhale the hands back to the heart. Repeat 2 more times. Let the breath initiate each movement.
- Press your right hand down into the upper right thigh by the hip crease - breathe. Release after 5 to 6 nice long breaths. Repeat on the left side.
- Lean back on the hands and bend the knees so the feet are resting flat on the floor, hip width apart. Bring the right ankle to rest just above the left knee. The shin is parallel to the chest and the right foot is flexed. Gently press the heart center toward the shin. Breathe.
- Straighten the left leg. Reposition the right foot flat on the floor outside of the left knee.
- Inhale fully lengthening the spine and on the exhale, gently twist to the right - hug the right knee with the left arm. The twist starts from the base of the spine, the head follows, and the chin is parallel to the floor. Inhale the spine long, exhale a little further into the twist. Left leg remains active and the foot is flexed. Hold for 5 to 6 breaths. Return to center.
- Lift the the right foot slightly off the floor guiding it toward the left hip placing the side of right foot and ankle on the floor. The right knee lowers toward left knee. Readjust sitting bones to ground them. Leading with the heart, walk the hands forward folding over the legs. Hold for 5 to 6 breaths. Return to upright.
- Straighten both legs in front of you and observe your physical being.
- Repeat to the left side:
- Lean back on the hands and bend the knees so the feet are resting flat on the floor hip width apart. Bring the left ankle to rest just above the right knee. The shin is parallel to the chest and the left foot is flexed. Gently press the heart center toward the shin. Breathe.
- Straighten the right leg. Reposition the left foot flat on the floor outside of the right knee.
- Inhale fully lengthening the spine and on the exhale, gently twist to the right - hug the left knee with the right arm. The twist starts from the base of the spine, the head follows, and the chin is parallel to the floor. Inhale the spine long, exhale a little further into the twist. Right leg remains active and the foot is flexed. Hold for 5 to 6 breaths. Return to center.
- Lift the the left foot slightly off the floor guiding it toward the right hip placing the side of left foot and ankle on the floor. The left knee lowers toward right knee. Readjust sitting bones to ground them. Leading with the heart, walk the hands forward folding over the legs. Hold for 5 to 6 breaths. Return to upright.
- Straighten both legs in front of you and observe your physical being.
- Place the feet flat on the floor in front of you.
- Drop the knees open to the sides and bring the soles of the feet together. Clasp the feet with both hands, round forward dropping the chin toward the chest, and press the elbows into the shins. Breathe into the spaces between the vertebrae. Hold for 5 to 6 breaths.
- Return to upright.
- Come into your comfortable seat with your cushion. Find your hands in their position.
- Settle into your sitting bones.
- Take a physical inventory with your breath - send your breath into any part of the body that needs to still soften.
- Tailbone reaches to the earth, lighten the spine, crown of the head reaches toward the the sky. Feel yourself rooted, lifted, and grounded all at once.
- Breath
- Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Spend some time here getting to know your breath, the vehicle for prana/life force.
- Observe your breath: is it ragged? smooth? shallow? deep? Work to find an easy meter that you can easily maintain.
- Listen to the breath - feel it moving in through the top of the head and down the spine to the base of your being - feel it turn at the base and return up the spine to top of the head in a cyclical fashion.
- Thoughts
- What are your thoughts doing? Observe the thoughts without attachment and let them go. Don't judge thoughts that come up - let them flow through and dissolve without effort.
- If the same thought comes up repeatedly, note it and come back to it once you have finished meditation, perhaps writing in a journal or talking to a trusted person about it. Perhaps an issue has come up that needs to be explored further.
- Once thoughts are stilled awareness can be observed and expanded.
Note: These first 3 steps may all that can be accomplished while first practicing meditation and that's great!
Take your time - enjoy the experience - explore who you are right now.
- Dyhana
- Coordinate your breath with visual or mantra and find unity with it.
- Sit in your practice as long as it pleases you.
- If you find your mind straying, reign it in with your breath and visual or mantra.
While fully engaged in meditation and your concentration is right on, you have that feeling of being in the "zone", the place that feels so natural, everything falls away and you feel your true essence. It's much like an artist completely absorbed in their medium, at one with their creation.
- Finishing
- Slowly deepen the breath expanding your physical being. Drop your chin towards your chest for a few breaths.
- Raise the chin. Make a few small movements to awaken, the eyes remaining closed.
- Close your meditation with a prayer, a thought of personal gratitude for taking time for yourself, and/or chanting Ohm.
- Slowly open your eyes, adjusting to what is before you gazing softly, and just sit a few minutes more.
- Before moving on, pause and evaluate how you feel. Are you refreshed? Are you agitated? Did you gain any new insights? Do you feel the same or different, and is that OK with you? Once you have observed your post meditation state - acknowledge it and let the observation go.
Over time and practice, you will find your mind will want to always remain in the same calm observant state as in meditation. What a wonderful thing!
I would like to say my life is a meditation, but then those days of chaos sneak in and upset the apple cart. Then I stop, close my eyes, listen to my breath, and acknowledge what is occurring; I return to my center observing life and honoring the the common thread that links us all as one.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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