Inside Yoga 40 (9/7/11)
How do we know if we are meditating? In our yoga classes, we sit in meditation, but are we really meditating? There are some useful tips for meditation. One states that you cannot do meditation. The word, “do” being the key to this. Another guidelines states, “If you think you are meditating, you are not”.
Meditation is something we create the conditions for. In yoga there are 8 limbs as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, one of which is meditation, but importantly, the others help create the conditions for meditation to arise.
Meditation is a state of awareness. If we see it in terms of a garden, we cannot expect a flower to grow unless we prepare the conditions for growth, from tending the soil, watering, and so forth.
Likewise, to be able to meditate we learn how to meditate by employing various techniques – our tools for meditation.
In yoga these include the exercises (asanas) that we perform, which brings the body and the mind to a quieter, lighter state of being, where we can feel a greater sense of self-awareness.
We focus on the breathing (pranayamas) which help to get not only the air flowing, but the energy in our bodies and mind moving at ease. This way we can then feel clearer and more focused.
And this leads to one of the important limbs of yoga – concentration. We employ various techniques to improve our levels of concentration. From the physical exercises that bring our awareness to our bodies, we become more connected to our bodies and awareness of it.
This combined with focus on our breathing, from straightforward breathing to various techniques (different types of pranayama) that help not only to increase our energy levels but also our concentration.
Once the body and mind are brought into a balanced focus, or union, the conditions are ripe for meditational awareness to grow.
And once this develops we can then experience Samadhi – a state of absorption – where there is union between subject and object, no sense of separation, complete focus and stillness. It’s when time stands still.
We might have experienced this sense of absorption without knowing it. For example, making a model or performing a difficult task when we are so focused all other thoughts are not present, because we are so present, we are totally immersed in our actions. Similarly, we might experience Samadhi, when we are struck by something of beauty, perhaps somewhere in nature, where time stops as we become absorbed by the wonder what we are watching or looking at.
That is why meditation is a subtle state: it can slip away so easily. A thought is all it takes to lose the state of meditation. Even the thought, “I am meditating”, because at the moment the thought arises, “I am not meditating”.
That is why we practice meditation. By practising we learn to know what meditation is, we also learn how to access it, and we also learn how to spend longer periods in a meditative state. It requires patience as we might spend more time trying to meditate than actually meditating, but then like most things we do need to work at it.
Practice does make perfect, and while en route we can still enjoy the benefits of meditational practice, because while training ourselves to meditate we do derive benefits: improved levels of concentration, an improved sense of well being, and something useful that helps us deal with life’s ups and downs.
