The yoga sutra and deep meditation

While yoga isgenerally understood in America to be a diverse array of bending and stretchingexercises that originated in India, the word yoga has a much wider connotation,and includes sitting with the eyes closed in silent, deep meditation. In India,yoga is a state of mind, not just an exercise for the body.

@font-face font-family: "Times New Roman";p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: bold; h1 margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 16pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; h2 margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; div.Section1 page: Section1; by Thomas Egenes, Ph.D.

While yoga isgenerally understood in America to be a diverse array of bending and stretchingexercises that originated in India, the word yoga has a much wider connotation,and includes sitting with the eyes closed in silent, deep meditation. In India,yoga is a state of mind, not just an exercise for the body.

The primary text on yoga is called the Yoga Sutras ofMaharishi Patanjali. This text includes 195 short aphorisms, called sutras.

The second sutra of the Yoga Sutras defines yoga. InSanskrit, it reads like this: yogash chitta-vritti-nirodhah. In English, Yogais the complete settling of the activity of the mind. (Yoga is the completesettling (nirodha) of the activity (vritti) of the mind (chitta).) This is consideredto be the classical definition of yoga.

Patanjalis Yoga Sutra defines the depth of this experienceas samadhi. Samadhi is a state of mind where there are no thoughts and there isno object of meditation, where the mind is fully expanded and in a state ofpure unbounded awareness. Although for centuries scholars in the East andWest had thought of this experience as extremely difficult to achieve, ourgeneration has witnessed a remarkable new appreciation for the naturalness ofdeep meditation as a result of the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, theVedic scholar and sage who brought to light the technique of TranscendentalMeditation.

I think of attempting to meditate as something like learninghow to swim. A beginner might be inclined to use too much effort, and thrasharound in the water. But with proper instruction, you learn to relax in thewater, take smooth strokes, and glide without effort. With proper instructionmeditation is just as effortless.

Those familiar with the Yoga Sutra know that samadhi issomething that is not achieved in isolation. It is the last of the eight limbsof yoga, called ashtanga yoga (ashta means eight and anga means limb). Thelast three limbs (dharana, dhyana, and samadhi) have to do with meditation. I believethat most systems of meditation are good at dharana, but very few understanddhyana.

Lets go into this a bit. Dharana is usually translated asconcentration or steadiness. It is taking an object of meditation, such as amantra, and focusing on it, usually by mentally repeating it over and over.Its like focusing on individual drops of water, because the object ofmeditation is discrete. Dharana is a surface state of mind, and it is unlikelythat a person could slip into samadhi from the state of dharana.

Dhyana is much different. It involves a lack of focus, alack of effort, a lack of concentration. In dhyana the object of meditation isnon-discrete. While dharana is like individual drops of water, Dhyana is acontinuous flow, like oil on glass. This is where Transcendental Meditationcomes in as a method of proper understanding and practice of meditation. TMallows a student, right from the beginning, to achieve dhyana and thenexperience samadhi on a regular basis. Sometimes even on the first day of TMpractice a person will say, It was so easy and silent and simple my mind wasin a perfect state of peace without anyeffort on my part.

For the past twenty-five years I have been teaching atMaharishi University of Management, an institution of higher education whereall students, faculty and staff practice yoga and Transcendental Meditation aspart of a traditional university curriculum. Its been incredibly fulfilling tosee my students begin their study of yoga and meditation with the effortless,natural achievement of the state of Samadhi. It provides an ideal foundationfor the study of yoga in all its facets.

Of course, all aspects of the limbs of yoga arefascinatingthe five yamas, the five niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara,dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. None are difficult to understand and practice,and the rewards are significant. Pretty much everything a person can think ofcan be achieved by the practice of yoga. Settling the mind, establishing peace,and then desiring and acting from that deepest level of intelligence and theexperience of vibrant, holistic health and happiness are all the natural resultof successful practice of this ancient science of life. I look forward towriting more about the different dimensions of yoga in the weeks ahead.

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