Taking it to the next level

ASANA TO MEDITATION

To live a peaceful and productive life you need a calm, clear, one-pointed and joyful mind. The practice of asana is an important step toward cultivating a calm and clear mind, in fact it is a prerequisite to meditation. Practicing asana to the exclusivity of meditation however, will not help you create any transformation in your mind, or help you deepen your asana practice. Yoga is not merely an athletic system, it is a scientific and spiritual system as well. The asanas are designed to affect the subtle body and mind for the purpose of spiritual transformation. Students enter the practice of yoga asana for physical fitness or health, or even because they have heard it is good for relaxation, but ultimately the purpose of yoga practice is spiritual development.

Real transformation means that you are healthy not only in body, but also in mind, and in the end what good is any practice if it doesn't have a positive effect on our relationships with ourselves and others? Through meditation we come to know the body, breath, mind, thought patterns and deeper levels of awareness. When you know who you are and what you are made of, you begin to understand the dynamic forces that govern your thought processes. A clear understanding of yourself allows you to see the world as it is, your judgements and preoccupations fall away. Further, this self-understanding frees you from the opinions and judgements of others; inspiring self-reliance and confidence. As this self-understanding crystallizes further, you attain freedom from all doubts and fears. This freedom is the ultimate goal in meditation.

Does meditation mean simply focusing your mind on something?

Meditation is a more methodical and complete mental and spiritual discipline than we normally imagine. Patanjali, the father of yoga science and philosophy, devotes the Yoga Sutras to meditation. When you read the Sutras you realize that the practice of meditation involves more than simply concentrating on an object, it is also a complete science of understanding the mind and its relationship with the body, breath and soul on one hand, and our relationship with the external world on the other. Respiration is a good point to begin this journey. Breath is a tool with which to explore the truth about yourself because the nature of your breath is strongly connected to your mental state. As soon as any distraction moves the mind to the past or future, the breath becomes irregular, one starts breathing a little rapidly, heavily or perhaps the breath is even held. When the distraction passes away and one returns to the present , the breath becomes soft. By keeping the mind on a present reality, the breath, you are guided to remain in the present moment. The mind will always wander away, but if you patiently and without any tension accept the fact that it is an old habit pattern and you realize the mind has wandered, it will naturally and automatically return to respiration, to the present. This is just the beginning of the transformative power of sitting meditation.