MEDITATION
Hatha yoga is the union of working with the body and the breath.
It brings about suppleness, strength, control and flexibility of
the body. The question one needs to ponder is why anybody would
want these attributes. However, there are certain yoga postures
that do more than this. If you stand on one leg in a balancing posture
you need to concentrate, or else you will fall over. There is no
way that you can balance and not focus the attention on what your
body is doing. This stops the mind from wandering out of your body
and jumping around; thinking about what you are going to have for
supper or what you have to do in the office tomorrow. Someone can
have their body in an absolutely perfect yoga posture, but if their
mind is wondering off somewhere they are not doing yoga. They are
simply doing exercise. Hatha yoga forces you to concentrate. Yoga
requires intense mindfulness and awareness.
Then, there are certain yoga postures, like the Spider and the Pose
of Tranquillity, that focus the concentration more intensely. These
are postures that bring about sensory deprivation; where one no
longer hears the outside sounds, where the eyes are closed and where
external stimuli are not heeded or perceived. This is called withdrawal
of the senses.
Meditation consists of three steps; concentration, withdrawal of
the senses and then comes meditation. So, the way that I see it
is that Hatha Yoga is like a stepping stone to meditation. Patanjali’s
Yoga Sutras possibly offers the best explanation of what meditation
is - ‘Meditation consists of the intentional stopping of the
spontaneous activity of the mind’ – in other the words
the ability to make your mind quiet at will, or to stop the internal
conversation that is almost continuous in the human mind. This induces
a feeling of immense and intense calm, serenity and liberation,
as meditation brings about numerous changes in the brain, mind and
nervous system.
Meditation is made easier when the person is sitting comfortably
on the ground with the spine erect, in
its natural curves, and perpendicular to the ground. This aids the
flow of natural energy or prana, which is what one is working with
when meditating. There are several recommended sitting yoga postures
for meditation. The Lotus Posture, Padmasana, is the one that everybody
aspires to as it is the most effective pose, sending the energy
up the spine and creating special circuits of prana. However, some
people prefer the Accomplished Posture (Siddhasana). Other postures
are the Half Lotus Posture (Ardapadmasana), The Comfortable Posture
(Sukhasana) and the Auspicious Posture (Swastikasana). If the body
is uncomfortable because your back is getting sore or your leg is
going to sleep because you have to sit still for half an hour then
it is very difficult to meditate. Meditation props are available
as an aid to comfortable sitting. However, the regular practise
of Hatha Yoga, and the flexibility, control, strength and suppleness
that it brings to the body is an enormous aid for training the body
to be comfortable in an upright sitting position for meditation.
Maybe this is the answer to the question 'why would anyone want
the attributes that come from doing hatha yoga?' When one is in
deep meditation they become completely oblivious of the body.
There are many aids to meditation; repetition of a mantra, prayer,
focus on a mandala, concentration on one thought, repetition of
an external sound, visualisation, concentration on the breath. With
meditation there are many roads that lead to the palace.
One has to be patient with meditation. The more you chase it the
further away it seems to get. I went to many meditation sessions
and always walked out wandering what on earth I was doing there.
I sat with my eyes closed
trying
to visualise a light or colour, or gazing at the flame of a candle,
and nothing seemed to be happening. But I still went back. And then
one amazing day I was sitting in the meditation session and I heard
the teacher’s voice ending the class. It felt as though I
had only been there for two minutes. I did not know where the hour
had disappeared to. I had been oblivious to time, to my surrounding,
to my body and to all external stimuli. It was as though I had been
away and the teacher’s voice called me back from some distant
place. It had finally happened! That day I experienced deep meditation
for the first time. What an amazing joy it was. The more you practise
the deeper the meditation becomes. My tool is the intense focus
on a colour situated between my eyebrows, and I now see vivid colours
while doing my yoga postures. I think that the tool one chooses
is highly personal and one has to experiment and see what works
for you. What works for one person may not work as well for another
person.
Meditation does not only still the mind it reduces stress levels
throughout the entire body, from the internal organs and the muscles
to every system of the body.
Meditation falls under the Raja Yoga branch of the Yoga tree. Raja
means king – so we can say that meditation is the king of
yoga. Stilling the mind is the ultimate goal of all the different
forms of
yoga.
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