A Time-Honored Method
Meditation with Mantra is a time-honored method of cleansing the mind. Our minds are masters of holding on to the past and also projecting into the future. We all carry memories of past experiences. When we experience painful or difficult emotions and feelings, our minds remember.
Memory is useful and is needed to learn and function in our world. The problem with these memories are that they create scars on our unconscious. These scars cause repetitive thoughts and emotions to occur, such as anger, resentment, jealousy, greed, inferiority, superiority, etc. These built up thoughts so deeply into our unconscious and begin to affect us in negative behaviors. They disrupt our peace and well-being. Worry, irritability and judgments arise from the ruts of these mindsets.
The practice of meditation with mantra will iron out these habitual ruts and free us of the emotional traps and disharmony resulting in repeating self-defeating thought forms. Chanting Sanskrit mantras repeatedly begins to permeate our consciousness, restoring peace and intelligence to our entire being. Chanting mantras can be done in any language and yet the Sanskrit chants are ancient and resonate with the very cells of our being in a natural and steady rhythm. Mantra chanting prepares the mind for meditation.
Mantra prepared meditation helps us enter our practice with a stillness and presence already well-established. Chanting mantra is also preparation for pranayam,
\as the cadence and pronunciation creates energy of breathing which assists in purifying and oxygenating the mind and body. Open your mind, and practice for at least a month and then feel the results.
What is meditation? Meditation happens when we simply allow ourselves to rest, and enjoy being who we are. Unconditionally being who we are right here and now! The mind is a creative and busy “doer”. When the mind is leading our meditation it directs us to achieve.
The mind says succeed…
The mind says you need…
The mind says you must become…
When we sit in meditation with an attitude of will power, our practice is another act of doing, another action.
Meditation is a release of doing. It is a resting, being in the space of our natural selves. Resting in who and what we already are is meditation.
When our mind is given free reign, it will take over. It will easily enslave us, with the powerful assistance of our senses. Sitting still in the practice of meditation allows the mind to become free of its need to control.
When the mind becomes in harmony and union with the body and the expansion of our spirit, we are at rest. Our minds are strong and powerful and overworked. Meditation happens and we sit in the theater of our mind, and suddenly all the movies, whether a drama, a scary movie or even a love story lose interest.
In the stillness we become aware of the small spaces, the cracks of sounds that pull us into a balance and a blissful awareness of natural beingness. The peace of allowing everything to be just as it is truly is right now and right here… free from the stimulation of the senses… free from the needs of survival. It may only be for a moment, but it is an eternal moment. We practice meditation when we realize the need for this true rest and awakening of connection.
The practice of yoga assists in removing obstacles to meditation. The pure body and disciplined mind, free of toxins enable us to slip into the Bliss of Meditation more readily and also to enjoy our authentic power and our “doings”… our activities.
Your Simple Yoga Practice
When one begins a yoga practice with dedication and discipline, it becomes evident that the asanas and pranayam are a mirror from which we can view ourselves more clearly… reflecting back to us our illusions and enabling us to view the truth of our choices, in the way we live our life.
Over time, there becomes a balance between our discipline and our surrender. Disciplined and dedicated practice of the asanas, leads us to the teachings of pranayam. The body becomes finely tuned and aligned through the evolution of asanas and pranayam. As our yoga practice deepens, we learn to regulate, discipline, and surrender to the breathing… the pranayams. The breath breathes the body, and the body breathes the breath! Witnessing this process through concentrated practice allows the balance of the body and the breath and the mind. This balance equals consciousness.
When the Yogi becomes conscious of pranayam, he or she is enabled to free themselves of reactions which will often cause suffering. If the Yogi feels the emotion in the body, and the reaction emerging, the Yogi is able to choose whether or not to allow the emotion to take expression and then to be responsible for the outcome.
Or…
To decide that the emotion has arisen from a pattern that will have no creative reward and the reaction will only feed self defeat. Pranayam immediately and effectively holds the key to unlock the power of the emotion and set the energy which fuelled the emotion, back into a state of equilibrium and conscious response.
After reaching a state of tapas, or burning desire to yoga (the union of body mind and soul) the Yogi has gradually learned authentically to remain pure through daily rhythms speech and study. Living for the Yogi becomes a form of meditation.
From an early stage of asana practice, it becomes evident that meditation is a natural and desirable necessity to our peace and progress. Every reward that comes from our disciplines will fuel us on our life’s journey to the unconditional serenity of the union of bodies, minds and spirits.
This is liberation! One Love… One Light… One Truth.
My Bliss is Yoga
Yoga has been a well-traveled path for centuries. The path of yoga begins at the very first steps from where ever a person decides to embark. Each individual will find their own personal markers on the yogic path, according to their own karma, their own life experiences, choices and responsibilities. Each and every human has the potential through the path of yoga, to become liberated. Liberated from whatever separates us from the perfect balance of body, mind and spirit… in other words, yoga.
The markers along this path are crystal clear, yet require discipline and dedication to find and follow. One cannot find the crystal clear pathway with knowledge alone, or through rigorous asana practice alone, or even through spiritual devotion alone. As humans there must be an integration and balance of the three…
Body, mind and soul to reach the destination of “freedom”. Freedom is found in the bliss when we realized there’s no other place, person, or thing that we need other than what is here now.
Freedom is found when we have realized that whatever is in our life in this moment is the ultimate perfection we have been traveling so long and with so much dedication toward. We have all felt glimpses of this bliss in a rare moment when all our desires have been met. This is Grace.
Grace fuels our trust and helps motivate our disciplines. Eventually through our asana, pranayam and meditation, we become refined, purified and aligned with the spirit. We begin to sense the infinite great mystery.
The oneness in which the small flow or ripple we call our own life is an infinitesimal yet significant part of the whole. Since we live in an impure environment full of the ignorance of the one radiant potential, one must remain dedicated throughout our entire lives to maintain our authentic selves.
Our minds are powerful and will trick us into beliefs of separateness. Love… Unconditional love, is the one truth I rely on to lead my next steps. Love is often fierce and very often rejected… Yet if all of my actions are fuelled in this love, love beyond the emotions and desires, I am free and safe and my path is well lit and full of beauty. I humbly practice yoga, which guides and lights my path.
Every endeavor in life is most successful with a strong and healthy body. The body is a most wonderful and powerful instrument
which should be cared for continuously. An unhealthy body dissipates and pollutes the mind. Maintaining the body in a healthy state of being takes less energy than suffering weakness and confusion from an unwell and needy body.
Even if you are already experiencing health difficulties it is not too late to begin practicing healthy living. Simplicity is most often the key. Drinkwater, eat less, eat simply. Exercise more. Refrain from sugar, caffeine and alcohol.
Believe in your own life. Be disciplined. Break destructive habits, replacing them with sensible health-proven habits. Give yourself the gift of a healthy body and you will get so much more in return… clarity, mental acuity and a better life overall!
Yoga is a path to radiant well-being. The path of yoga is one step at a time, at your own pace, with no pressure and unconditional acceptance of the moment. The healthier body becomes, the more desirable and potent our yoga practices and our own health choices will become… the less resistance we will feel to our changes.
When we sit in lotus and remain in one yoga posture for an extended time, the mind becomes still, the breath serene, and the body tranquil and fit for life.
Savasana…Letting Go
It is wise to complete each formal asana session with savasana… the “Corpse pose”. The asanas are powerful even at the beginner’s level. They are designed very specifically to bring about purification of our bodies and strengthen our minds.
The asanas open and correct our structural alignment, our muscular alignment, glandular movements, digestive stimulation and the energy pathway referred to as “nadis”. The vascular system is also affected. In other words, our entire being is flowing into well-being.
When we submit to savasana at the end of practice, the entire body has the uninterrupted opportunity to purify and balance… and maintain that which has been stimulated during asana practice.
The practice of savasana is a form of meditation… as in seated meditation, the benefits result in complete union of body, mind and spirit. Savasana is not about dozing off into sleep… although this often happens and is both perfectly fine and deserved.
Remaining awake, without internal dialog or fantasies, or any number of habitual thought patterns brings us the crystal clear consciousness and blissful rest that savasana offers. Practicing the surrender of the corpse brings us true peace and lessens our fear of death, dying and loss.
This level of surrender cannot be willed into happening. One must submit to, and accept the dissolving of all control. No resistance on all levels brings us to the transformative state of savasana. It is a very enjoyable process. The more one experiences the practice, the more conscious we become in all aspects of our life.
Savasana is about letting go, trusting the moment and flowing. The freer we become in our yoga practice, the freer we become n our world. The body and the mind unite with our spirit and we are free to consciously follow the Love, Light and Truth of our Dharma… our life’s journey.
Practicing the art of dying… Savasana… enables us to live freely in the moment!
