Meditation and its methods

Meditation and its methods is a vast subject. Meditation happens when you let go of doing. Doing takes one away from meditation.  In other words, meditation happens when you let go of doing. Therefore moving out of the mind is the beginning of meditation. It happens when you let go of doing.  So to be in a meditative state means you are in a state of ongoing stillness.

Type of meditations

When you say meditation, it means different things to different people. A lot of people think sitting somewhere quietly contemplating something without stirring a bit- frozen, immobile and still. That is to say, sit quietly and you would soon become a Buddha!

Try it and you will find your mind wavering more, starts thinking about all kinds of ideas, people and generally becoming more restless than before.  Sitting quietly where the grass grows by itself is quite another thing. There the idea of letting go is there, where you remain a spectator or better still a witness, watching the thoughts come and go.

With a mind that is akin to the waves of the sea, you can never be in a meditative state. You have to drop your mind and all its ideas of “control.”  The mind wants to control everything including meditation. It says I am in control, I am the doer, I am in charge! This very idea prevents meditation from happening to you. Dhyan is moving out of mind.

Methodology

We talked about meditations and its definition or description.  There is a practical side to it, that is more important.  The ‘doing’ part! In fact, it is a lot like swimming.  The actual act of swimming is different from describing the pool, the temperature of the water, the costume to wear while swimming and so forth. 

Meditating for 15 to 20 minutes a day is more important than reading lots of books on yoga and dhyan.  The accent is on the practical side. The more time you spend in dhyan, the better.

Active Meditations

There are many meditations like Dynamic, Kundalini and many others like Nataraj Meditation that you could start doing to get a taste of it.  You could also visit many meditation centers across the length and breadth of the country you are living in.

Yoga Dhyan Center is one place where you could join and do these meditations regularly. It is recommended to do these meditations for a period of 21 days at a stretch so that you would get a basic idea of the beautiful journey called life!

Fasten your seat belt and Good luck!

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Fasting

Fasting has been associated with the religious practice for a long time. That is, if you fast, then you are religious! There is nothing religious about fasting actually! It helps to regulate the body to start with. Fasting makes the cells alive by denying them the nutrients first. The cells actually crave nutrients expectantly waiting for it.  Because of this waiting, this openness to receive, this open acceptance of emptiness with anticipation makes the cells more alert… as a result, you become more alert!

Feta cheese appetizer with spices and herbs

Types of fasting

There are different methods of fasting. Some people avoid food altogether for the day, only consuming liquids. Some take only fruits, milk and salads. I prefer to have fruits for breakfast, lunch and dinner with oats milk or buttermilk. No cooked food such as rice, roti or curries and sabzhi.  However,lots of water and fluids need to be taken compulsorily.  One could have a all fruit diet on the days of fasting or salads and vegetables, cereals, cornflakes, porridge and fruit juices. Any of these except the regular intake like rice, roti and cooked food would make the day a fasting day.

Introduction

When you start fasting, initially, you will have to face many issues like, headaches, irritability, a feeling of being lost… for a while. It is because the mind is controlling your body, mind says you are hungry and you need to eat now.  By switching to your body and listening to it totally, the mind will become quiet.

The body is more intelligent, more intuitive whereas the mind is only a tyrant!  It makes your life more miserable, always asking for something which is not with you! If you have money, it will demand fame, if you have fame also, it will demand quite something else! Since I have neither, I don’t want to dwell on the demands of the mind when you have both money and fame!

Okay coming back to mind that wants to control your behavior, thoughts and actions-The mind keeps telling you that you will lose weight, you will get headaches and so many other things, all true to some extent but really not true if you listen to your body on the days of fasting.

But after a while, with experience gained by fasting, you will not face these irritants. You will slowly move out of the grip of the mind and move into the comforts of your body which knows better.

Benefits of fasting

On the days of fasting, all your senses will be fine tuned.  Your sense of hearing and listening improves, taste buds more open but it needs to wait until the next day! Eye sight improves, body is more alive and alert.  Above all, your olfactory nerves-the sense of smell improves by leaps and bounds!  How could you smell the wafting aroma from the bakery and hotels while driving by bike? Even the oil in which it is fried can be smelled!

Unbelievable!

Normally our sensitivity of our five senses especially the sense of smelling takes a back seat.  Your food comes to your plate no matter what! who is bothered about smelling it?  Eat, drink, run, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up…for what?

Once you are seasoned in fasting, you will get to enjoy the benefits of fasting. Your body becomes more light and you will become very energetic.  Actually, the very next day of fasting, when you get up from your sleep, you will feel very light-hearted.  When you taste the first sip of green tea, it will be like being in heaven. Everything that you taste on the day will be different with a new taste!

It is like being born again! You will also become more aware of what you are eating, relishing every morsel of what you are eating! Your five senses become more alive, life will be more beautiful!  The grass is greener, the sky is more blue! What happened? Instead of eating and living mechanically, you will become more aware with alertness. Isn’t that called meditation?

If you know Tamil, there is a beautiful PDF that you could read here.Ekadashi

from Viswa Yoga Kendra, Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu.

Welcome to Yoga Dhyan Center!

Meditation Center

Yoga and meditation

Yoga and meditation go hand in hand just like the computer hardware and software!  Although, one may exist without the other, only together they complement each other better.

The emphasis is on practice

In our center, the emphasis is on practice. Only practice makes it perfect. You may have noticed that a lot of people keep reading about yoga. Apart from asking many questions about meditation.  Besides they keep comparing one style with the other.  The reason is simple.

Procrastination!

Apparently they don’t understand a simple principle. That is, you can not learn swimming just by talking about it, right? You can only postpone learning!

What is sadana?

Sadana means practicing regularly…doing anything regularly such as yoga and meditation daily by diligently setting aside a time for doing the practice is termed as sadana.  Similarly the practice of taichi forms, nei gung breathing and Qi gong regularly is sadana.

What is Dhyan?

The meaning of dhyan (A Hindi word)  is meditation.  It means staying here and now, doing daily chores with love, care and reverence. Dhyan is allowing existence to flow through you, allowing and letting go. In Yoga Dhyan Center, we do these sadana regularly.

What is witnessing?

Hourglass with sand in red color and glass body stuck by metal frame.

When you are watching your breathing, the incoming and the outgoing silently, you are witnessing the movement of moment to moment.  Actually, witnessing is a beautiful phenomenon. First of all it means you are watching yourself!  Compare this as against Talking, which is functioning from the head.  It also means functioning from the mind, using logic.

That is why in Yoga Dhyan Center, you will see many images of Buddha without the head! The headless Buddha means functioning from the heart!

Heart center!

Staying in your Heart Center

By staying in your heart more often you will enjoy and appreciate everything without judging.  Take a look around, stop judging from the head…accept everything there is, but see only the beauty, laughter and joy. By the way, have you seen a new born pup? The more you move into your heart, the more easy it is to watch and witness…

Witnessing

Witnessing is a quality that needs to be developed. As you go on meditating, a subtle witnessing happens in you. In fact awareness and mindfulness will happen with a little bit of nurturing from your side. In addition, we provide a platform in Yoga Dhyan Center for you to practice.

Watch this space for announcements about Events such as One day Meditation Camps or Yoga Intensive Programs.Thanks for taking time off to read this about yoga and meditation. If you have any comments, please post them here and you will get an answer immediately.

Yoga for better living

Yoga means union…union of physical, mental and spiritual …It is not enough to have a sound body alone without a clear mind.  Spiritually healthy implies you are one with the world. Well integrated and ready for any eventuality.

The goal of yoga

The goal of yoga is to have peaceful and crystal clear mind coupled with a healthy and supple body.  As a matter of fact, Hatha yoga addresses this aspect though the physical side of the individual. The body is the temple. Look how much of abuses and lack of attention it has witnessed so far!

Young girl practicing yoga on the beach

The time has come to respect it. Accept your body as it is, accept it totally without any condemnation or criticism. Once you love your body, slowly see how it responds back to you with its strength and robust health to support you in your endeavors!

Hatha yoga maybe practiced by different age groups.  Even person of any physical condition such as obesity and stiffness in joints can start the practice.  As the practice or sadana deepens, all these negativeness drop by themselves!

In Yoga Dhyan Center, yoga for better living is a way of life.  One needs to do dhyan along with yoga, as it is the software and yoga is the hardware, to borrow from the computer terminology.  It is actually a fitting description because, if you have a PC that has no software, how to use it?

Meditation is the software that needs to be installed on the yogic body, so that together, it will take us forward in our journey in a healthy and robust way.

8 step pathway:

1. Yama
2. Niyamma
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

We will see in depth what each step means in our day to day life. This will continue in the next part. Kindly share your  comments here. Thank you.

Introduction: 

What are the 3 P’ s of Tai chi?

• Practice
• Persistence
• Perseverance

Let us look at each of these P’s separately.

The first being, Practice.

It is important to practice doing the forms. There are a few basic requirements that needs to start before practicing forms per se. They are Nei Gung and Qi Gong. Each of these breathing techniques and practices bring about so much strength and vitality to your inner organs, doing forms after that becomes simple.

Meditation in motion

Tai Chi on lake

Meditation in motion means a flowing non hurried way of doing the forms. Relentless practice is the key & the only way to doing the forms gracefully is more and more of practice.

The second P:

Persistence is an offshoot of attitude, shall we say; Reason is, if your attitude becomes a little lukewarm, then the motivation to doing takes a backseat. No matter what, never say die attitude will egg you on to keep going at your practice or sadana.

The third P:

The dictionary defines Perseverance as, “persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success” which is almost the corollary of the second P! Regardless of the situation you find yourself in, constant practice makes you stay committed to the activity.

Summary

Tai Chi is a gift to the world from China…the land of many zen masters and Tao masters. Even the medical fraternity has acknowledged that regular practice of Tai Chi brings in more harmony, balance in one’s gait, especially in the elderly and prevents falls and imbalance in their AOL(activities of daily living).