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Yoshi
USA
3 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 26 2013 : 11:43:01 PM
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I'm having trouble focusing only on the mantra "I Am". I know you're supposed to lose focus of the mantra eventually and come back to it repeatedly throughout the meditation, but I have a hard time, when I remember to focus on the mantra, to focus only on the mantra separate from my breathing.
In a sense, I'm having a hard time breathing involuntarily. I've always had this problem. Even my wife notes that when I wake up, and start thinking about something, that I stop breathing. It's something about my inability to separate thinking from the feeling of actually saying something. For instance, I obviously wouldn't be breathing if I were in the middle of talking, but my brain, while only thinking, keeps wanting me to focus on my breath.
The problem specifically is this, that I've read that I'm supposed to mentally recite the mantra without any regard to any specific breathing routine. It is quite difficult, however, and what I end up doing is saying the mantra in between breaths, as I would were I speaking the mantra. Is it alright for this to occur? Or is it of paramount importance that I figure out how to be able to think in my head without bringing with it an awareness of my breathing? I've tried, but I've usually given up as when I try not to be conscious of breathing, it fails to carry on involuntarily. |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Jun 27 2013 : 06:29:44 AM
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| Yoshi, do you do pranayama as well? Just curious because pranayama is all about breath control and is good to do before mantra but not during. You could try this breath exercise while doing mantra.Let your breath connect but don't control the duration or speed of your breathing or connect it at all with the mantra. What I mean is to connect the breath with itself as in no breath holding. Connect the inhale to the exhale and the exhale to the inhale without pause but let the rest of the breath go on and correct itself naturally. If you do this you may sigh sometimes. That is fine. You may feel a little lightheaded at first but that should pass. This way you can use your tendency for breath awareness combined with the meditation practice.Essentially this breath awareness is to deliberately not control the breath by not holding the breath during practice. This seems to work for me. With time it becomes automatic and you can let go of it. |
Edited by - Victor on Jun 27 2013 06:32:37 AM |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 27 2013 : 06:35:29 AM
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Welcome to the AYP forums Yoshi!
If it is getting hard to separate the two, don't stress and obsess about it. Go with what is happening naturally. If at any point your mind "thinks" my breath and mantra are somehow in sync... take your mind off the thought and go back to "I am".
The idea is to go back to the mantra any time we realize we are thinking of anything... be it analyzing our breath or mantra or thoughts about the day or not losing the mantra or samadhi or fall asleep or what our body is doing.... whatever it may be that we become "aware" of what we are doing, we go back to the mantra. It is a very easy process. So don't obsess about the breath and mantra right now, over time it may un-sync or not, that is not our concern in meditation... it is recommended for people who start out and think it may be the way it needs to be done, like breath meditation... and also so we are aware that we don't do it on purpose, if it happens it does, but consciously we don't try to control it.
Does this make sense? |
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lalow33
USA
966 Posts |
Posted - Jun 27 2013 : 11:29:06 AM
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Hi Yoshi,
I practiced breath meditations for about a yr. prior to AYP, and I find myself lining the mantra up with my breath, paying more attention to my breath, and trying to change the timing of the mantra. Usually a quick reminder to myself to be gentle is helpful. I'm finding that towards the end of my meditation session all those thoughts, strategies start to fall away by themselves. |
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seek123
India
12 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2013 : 08:25:05 AM
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 . Namastey Yoshi, I know of someone who faced this challenge for a few days. The advise he got was - Pranayam (P) and Dharna/Dhyan (D) are at different stages. D is later/higher and at that stage P happens automatically. One does not have to bother about P during D. He completely ignored breath during meditation. His issue was resolved immediately.
If this suggestion resonates with you, you may want to try this.  |
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WelshYogi
United Kingdom
3 Posts |
Posted - Jul 05 2013 : 09:10:13 AM
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I used to have exactly the same problem as you when I started Yoshi, and email'd yogani about it, unfortunately I've lost his reply. However I know that Shanti's advice above is spot on and similar to the advice Yogani gave me.
Theres also a question and answer part of the short deep mediatation book dealing with this, and lesson 106 deals with a similar topic:
http://www.aypsite.org/106.html
Of course a lot of us get this issue before getting to lesson 106, which comes after all the spinal breathing lessons. The short deep mediatation book is a really good summary of a lot of the issues that can occur in mediatation and really worth reading in addition to the main ayp lessons.
One last peace of advice is that once you start trying hard to ignore the breath, you have deviated from AYP deep meditation practice and are no longer practicing AYP deep meditation. Trying hard to ignore anything is in fact deviating from the practice. The practice itself is a very simple procedure and things like speed of mantra, whether or not the mantra aligns with the breath (it still does this very often with me but I know longer worry about it), whether we recite on in or exhales or between breaths, and how clear or fuzzy the mantra are will all chnage over time, but are not an indication of whether we are meditating correctly or not.
Hope this was some help. |
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Breathing Involuntarily
