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WINTER 2004
NAMASTE,
The April 23, 2001 issue of Time magazine featured a cover story on yoga. The August 4, 2003 issue of Time magazine featured a cover story on meditation. Just as yoga has caught the attention of the American public in the past few years, so meditation has recently experienced a significant jump in acceptance by the mainstream culture. And just as the Time story on yoga focused on the empirically verifiable physical and health benefits of yoga, so the piece on meditation went into great detail about the effectiveness of meditation in creating scientifically measurable benefits for mind and body.
Science has been quite effective in providing us with gadgets supposed to make our lives more comfortable and productive. Coupled with its success in producing breakthroughs in fighting disease and prolonging life, science has achieved a very high status in our society. In significant ways, science nowadays often plays the role previously occupied by religion and philosophy in terms of answering some of the big questions humankind has pondered throughout the ages: how we got here, the nature of reality, and why we are the way we are, to name a few. It is no surprise, then, that serious attention from the scientific community has conferred mainstream respectability upon the time honored practices of yoga and meditation.
Of course, attention from the mass media has been even more instrumental. Media attention is, however, a double-edged sword. Over the years, I have learned not to expect too much from the mass media, especially with respect to a subject that I know something about, such as yoga. I used to find the inaccuracies and superficiality irritating, but I have come to understand that with the pressure of deadlines and the intention of selling as much product as possible by being cute or controversial, to expect serious investigation, analysis, and accuracy from the media is unrealistic. Nonetheless, I am sometimes pleasantly surprised by the skill shown in gathering a large amount of information, condensing it to essential points, and presenting it in accurate and cogent fashion.
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In most of the articles about yoga and meditation, a point that I think is often overlooked, as in the Time stories, or misunderstood is the relationship between yoga and meditation. Meditation and yoga are often spoken of as if they were separate things. This is evident in Time’s having given them each separate stories and covers. In many people’s minds, yoga means asana, i.e., performing various postures or positions. The pretzelier the posture, the more it is "real" yoga. Doing these exercises is said to help improve health. And meditation means sitting in some cross-legged posture and either "emptying your mind" or concentrating on something like your belly button or repeating a phrase over and over to yourself. Studies indicate that this helps reduce stress and bring serenity, peace of mind.
I can understand and have no problem with speaking of yoga and meditation in this sort of shorthand manner. It is a functional way of distinguishing between the gross aspects of practice. When people say, "I am going to practice yoga", they usually mean they are going to do postures or, perhaps, breathing exercises. And when people say, "I am going to practice meditation", they usually mean they are going to focus their attention on their breath or a concept or a feeling of some sort. These are techniques, activities. But they are not Yoga or Meditation in the fullest sense of those words, in the capital Y or capital M meaning.
Just what is Yoga as distinguished from yoga, the various practices? Yoga is a state of mind, a state of being. Classically, Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutra, defines yoga as the "cessation of the fluctuations of the mind". Nothing about postures or breathing here - just the end of the waves of thought in the mind. In other words, a quiet mind, a mind that is still. That is Yoga. In yoga circles, there is general agreement on this point.
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Meditation with a capital M is also a state of mind, as distinguished from various practices intended to bring about that state. Here there may not be general agreement. Nevertheless, I’ll proceed.
Joseph Goldstein, a noted meditation teacher and author, writes, "Meditation is not thinking about things...Although meditation is not thinking, nevertheless it can be clear awareness of thinking." B.K.S. Iyengar defines meditation this way: "[Meditation] is a way of discovering the greater self. It is the art of self-study, observation, reflection and sight of the infinite hidden within." Krishnamurti, renowned philosopher and teacher, says this of meditation: "What is important is not controlling thought, but understanding it, understanding the origin, the beginning of thought, which is yourself...when you understand what quietness is, ...then out of that comes an extraordinarily quiet mind....and this is meditation.
From the point of view of Meditation being quietness of the mind, then, Yoga and Meditation are in essence the same thing. In the Buddhist meditation traditions, as in the various yoga lineages, the practitioner is referred to as a yogi.
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So, we can go into our room and practice yoga, stand on our head, breathe in particular ways. And we can go into our room and practice meditation, sit on our cushion, close our eyes, and focus on the object of our choice. The practices, small y yoga and small m meditation, are like a farmer plowing, planting, irrigating, and cultivating his field. By so doing, the farmer helps create the conditions that will most likely result in a field full of wheat. But maybe not. Storms may come; the seed may be weak; clouds may obscure the sun. Ultimately the wheat grows or it doesn’t, depending on a myriad of factors. It’s just that the likelihood of the wheat growing is greatly enhanced by the hard work of the farmer. Our practices, asana, pranayama, sitting, concentrating are like the work the farmer does in the field. We create the conditions that we believe or have been taught will lead to quietness of mind. And like the field full of wheat, maybe the state of quietness that is Yoga/Meditation will come and maybe it won’t. As Mr. Iyengar says Meditation cannot be practiced. It is the fruit of our practice. Like the farmer, we do our work, set things in motion in a way we believe will be helpful and then it’s up to the Great Cosmic Ooze. If and when the quietness of Yoga/Meditation comes, according to Patanjali, Krishnamurti, B.K.S. Iyengar, and all the great spiritual teachers and sages, then something truly grand happens. We come face to face with who we really are, free from all our ideas and fears and wishes about what we are or are not. Krishnamurti puts it this way: “The mind being still, truth comes to it.”
Yoga is so much more than exercises and Meditation is so much more than relaxation. Health and serenity are wonderful; they help life be sweeter and easier. But when awareness of truth and reality are possible, why settle for less?
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At Unity Woods and generally in the Iyengar tradition, we don’t practice formal sitting meditation. For Mr. Iyengar the practise of asana, pranayama, and pratyahara are meditation. In Tree of Yoga he says, "Can I extend my awareness of my self and bring it to each and every part of my body without variation? This is what I mean by fullness of meditation"..Thus, I learn to be at one with my body, my brain, my mind, my intelligence, my consciousness and my soul without any divisions at all. That is how I practice. That is why for me there is no difference between asana and dhyana [meditation]."
As practitioners, we use these methods - asana, pranayama, pratyahara - as vehicles for developing attention, refining awareness, and becoming quiet. This is not easy. Recently, I have also begun to provide some time for formal sitting at the end of my class. After the relaxation and involution of attention of Savasana, this allows the students to more deeply penetrate and savor the meditative quality of the preceding practice. This is not easy either. The real art of meditation, though, is to maintain quiet awareness in every moment of life. Each moment is an opportunity for practice. This definitely is not easy. Yet, whatever methods you use, bear in my mind that the quiet mind arising from deep awareness is the real point of practice, because when that happens, you are free.
On Sunday, March 14, we will discuss these ideas and any others you may wish to bring at the winter discussion group. See the Workshops section for details. I hope you’ll join us and share your thoughts and experiences.
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