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Traditional
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for spiritual seekers
guided by
Swami Santhiprasad
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Swami's talk 2 about Meditation: Swami Santhiprasad, Spiritual Yoga Master & Yoga Guru
Learn more about Traditional Yoga and Indian wisdom
from Swami Santhiprasad, Spiritual Yoga Master at
School of Santhi
Yoga School in India,
Traditional Yoga Teacher Training in Kerala, South India
August 2006
Dear Yoga friends,
Take care of yourself!
Give
yourself time
for a daily meditation! Please give yourself a peaceful
moment every day to see the silence within you. This daily moment
will surely nourish you!
TO HELP YOU IN YOUR MEDITATION PRACTICES
I will answer the questions from
some of
you about postures that are suitable for meditation. I
will also explain how to still a bubbling mind.
Some days ago
I got this question you all might be interested in:
"Swami,
can you please give some helpful instructions how to handle a bubbling
mind and how to find the silence within?"
THE VERY NATURE OF THE MIND is dynamic. It is in movement and hence
in a state of flux. The quality of the mind constantly changes
between Satva, Rajas
or Tamas.
THOUGHTS ORIGINATES FROM
memory
that is stored in the mind. This
part of stagnating information and knowledge in the memory is due
to the Tamasic quality of the mind.
THE THOUGHTS COMING OUT
of the memory are constantly exposed to
analysis. This is the active quality of the mind which is called
Rajasic. After analysis right and wrong, good and bad are discriminated
and determined. The outcome of it is called knowledge. Synthesizing
of knowledge is due to the Satwic quality of the mind. This knowledge
is again stored rather stagnated in the mind. This storing function
is due to the Tamasic quality as you have seen before. Mind constantly
moves between these qualities and hence always in a state of flux.
WHILE THE MIND IS DOING
its natural dharma of moving from one quality
to another we feel that a lot of things enter the mind. Usually
people tries either to avoid or suppress these pop-ups.
ATTEMPTS TO AVOID OR SUPPRESS
the pop-ups will in the long run
end up in psychological problems. The only possible way to deal
with the pop-ups is to simply look at them. When you start to look
at them, you unknowingly become an Observer and not the Doer. As
you shift your position from the Doer to the Seer, your perception
also changes and you will start to see the process.
IN THIS PROCESS THERE ARISES
naturally a gap between you and the
pop-ups. In the gap you may be able to see the silence. When once
you feel the silence between thoughts you have touched the Observer
within you.
WHEN YOU ARE WITH THE OBSERVER rather than with the Doer, you are
not any more involved in the way you were involved and will start
to experience deeper silence. You start to relax with the Seer
beyond the qualities of Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. In course of time
you without effort or strain relax with the Seer within. There,
you are beyond dualities. You are the Seer itself. This state is
considered as yoga by the masters. Yoga is the cessation of the
fluctuation of the consciousness!
I also got this question from another student:
"Swami, what about sitting in the Lotus
position when meditating? Can you please give some guidance how
to sit while meditating?
IT SEEMS FROM THE QUESTION that you keep a firm idea that one should
sit in meditation in Lotus posture. Lotus posture is a beautiful
posture as the name itself denotes. That doesn't mean that one
should sit in Lotus posture for meditation though it is a meditative
asana.
CERTAINLY IT IS DIFFICULT FOR everyone, especially if you are a
beginner,
to sit in Lotus posture as the body is stiff and tired
due to the fatigue that had gone into your cells, muscles and tendons
by your style of living.
LOTUS POSTURE IS AN ASANA. According to Master Patanjali "stiram sugham asanam" means
long steady and comfortable posture is Asana. When the body is steady,
the Prana that is moving in the body naturally will be steady.
WHEN THE PRANA IS STEADY the mind that has been in motion due to
the Pranic flow also will be steady and you will naturally starts
to withdraw your senses. When the senses are withdrawn, the mind
is withdrawn and when the mind is withdrawn you start to become
one with the inner witness, the Seer. This is the highest state
of meditation which is known as Samadhi.
SO ANY POSTURE THAT IS COMFORTABLE for you is Asana for you. Lotus
posture is designed with a view to arrest the downward flowing
energy so that the energy starts to move between Ajna Chakra and
Manipura Chakra. As a result there will be the tendency for the
mind to dwell in the aspects of higher Chakras such as acceptance
and vision, compassion and love and integration and that in turn
enable the practitioner to understand the higher and subtle principles
of existence. As the legs are crossed and tight and the foot is
blocking the flow of energy downward there is a greater chance
for the energy to flow upward.
AS THE SPINE IS ERRECT IN THIS posture and the downward flow of
energy is arrested at the groin, the chances for the energy to
stay in the spine are higher. Spine, being the most sensitive region
of the nervous system, the practitioner gets into the experience.
There will come sharpness of intelligence when his awareness is
drawn in Manipura Chakra in lotus posture. When awareness is drawn
in Anahata Chakra in lotus posture, compassion and love are experienced
easily. When the awareness is focused to Visuddha Chakra integration
comes to the practitioner. When the awareness is drawn in Ajna
Chakra in lotus posture it is easy to enter into a state of stabilized
intellect.
THE CHANCES FOR THE ENERGY to flow through the right and left channel
is very limited in this posture that the person naturally gets
into a state of balance. When a person is entering the state of
balance the mind starts to relax. The relaxation that comes to
his body and mind will lead to clarity and intergration.
MORE OVER YOU ARE STAYING with Chin Mudra in this posture and in
your awareness you have crossed the Satwa, Rajas and Tamas and
established the union with the absolute consciousness.
THIS IS A GREAT POSTURE for meditation! That doesn't mean everyone
should sit in this posture for meditation.
THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT you have to keep in mind is that the body
should be relaxed while you sit for meditation. It is important
to find your own comfortable posture allowing you to sit for a
long time.
WHEN YOU SIT A LONG TIME in meditation there will be a natural
settlement of the mind. So try to find your own comfortable posture
for meditation. You can even sit in a chair if you can't sit on
the floor.
The importance is
that
the one who sits for meditation should be relaxed otherwise meditation will
never happen!
Swami Santhiprasad Swami Santhiprasad, Spiritual Yoga Master & Yoga Guru
I
have committed myself
to be available always for all
of you and share whatever I have understood during
the course of
journey of my life, both in the Indian spiritual Yoga traditions and
beyond, as a seeker. What we need in this
world is few individuals who could commit themselves to explore
their own inner world! It is really difficult to find few
of them.
However, I commit myself to be available always!
Love
Swami Santhiprasad
Spiritual leader • Yoga Master • Yoga Guru
School of Santhi Yoga School, Kerala, South India
