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yogaguy
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 30 2006 : 8:06:30 PM
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Could it be the breath? I personally used inner gazing and chakra meditation to do the same thing but had never tried a mantra before coming to this web site and reading the instructional pages on how to do so. What I thought would happen did happen, When I earnestly emptied my mind and focused on repeating I am and listening to it in my mind I noticed my breath did the same thing as when I turn my full attention towards some internal object, some people use external objects to fixate their attention upon. In any case the breath in all cases is the key element to take notice of. Notice how the breath changes pace when you fixate your mind and attention upon something. Many of us have had real powerful life expereinces in which case the words coming from our mouth after wards may have been " that took my breath away or I lost my breath". So when the observering part or eye of the mind is put to work focusing on I am or any other object internal or external it needs silence to do so, much like someone studies for an exam in a quite place. The harder you study and the more focused you are upon the subject matter will determine how quiet it needs to be. Movement by the body and observation and guidence by the mind is fanned by the movement of prana. In the case of the physical mind body relation the vayu "path" for this movement between our organs of perception is the breath. Try holding your breath once and take notice of what happens to the random stream of movement via the mind body connection. If you held your breath long enough you would pass out or in other words be unconscious, unconscious of what? The organs of perception? So all of the various techniques for meditating then have one thing in comon they slow or stop the flow of prana between the mind and body via the breath and begin to set the tone and appropriate enviorenment in which spiritual observation and study can occur "enlightenment". This is a natural occuring process that a skilled practicioner can use not only to achieve spiritual realization but in every day life circumstances. Once the mind viscerly realizes this mind body conection via the breath then the stage is set for pranayama "breath control" by which a person can gain control over emotions, moods of the mind, bodily and mental health and this entire physical life as we percieve it. Once you realize this connection you can choose to liberate your self from it entirely "the intentional liberated breath". This takes a lot of courage "trust", faith "belief in another source" ,with effort, to sit quietly and observe your body not breathing for the first time, just watching and waiting to see what will happen with full conscious awareness of the entire play at hand. For me this opened the first door to inner awareness and a new kind of understanding and it was not long after this I could sense chakras, nadis and much more. All of this eventualy allowing me to unite through kundalini the feminine and masculine thus allowing me to see in an entirely new fashion ,without effort, who and what ( I am ). At this point there is no effort required to meditate just the will to do so is needed and the breath will come to a crawl or stop at will allowing you to enter very deep states of meditation effortlessly and to observe not in duality but singularity.
yogaguy |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Jul 30 2006 : 9:16:22 PM
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Yogaguy,
You enter into this state of truth, then fall back into delusion? I don't mean to sound weird...I'm really curious. You seem quite advanced in your practice.
-Scott |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Jul 31 2006 : 10:10:06 AM
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I don't have the intuitive impression that breath is 'under the hood' in mantra meditation -- or part of the main mechanism of mantra yoga. Of course, what I have just said is purely speculative -- it still could be and I may not see it. But my impression is that mantra meditation, to speak roughly, works 'on a different system' in the brain than breath-based meditation -- though at the same time of course, everything is connected. My own experience was that mantra-based meditation was quite a bit more powerful than breath-based meditation, but, hey, that's my particular nervous system. Subjectively, my experiance is as if my breath-consciousness system steps aside temporarily to let mantra yoga do its work. This contrasts with pranayam, in which one is working directly with a breath-consciousness system.
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Edited by - david_obsidian on Jul 31 2006 10:15:21 AM |
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nearoanoke
USA
525 Posts |
Posted - Jul 31 2006 : 10:25:04 AM
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Hi Yogaguy,
As David points out, in the AYP approach, we dont concentrate on breath while doing the I AM mantra. We just concentrate on mantra and just mantra, nothing else under the hood.
And yes as you said restricting prana is an important part in spiritual transformation. We do that BEFORE starting meditation in the form of pranayama, not during meditation
-Near |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Jul 31 2006 : 11:19:40 AM
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| You two haven't noticed that when the mind becomes calm, the breath also becomes calm? Of course you don't pay attention to the breath during the I AM meditation, but it's not as if you stop breathing. It's "under the hood". |
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Aug 05 2006 : 2:32:28 PM
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Hi,
Not only does your breath rate slow down but also your heart rate but this does not mean by stopping your heart beat will give you enlightenment.The process of using mantras is not simple and there are various ways of using mantras , each giving different effects.Listening to mantra,reading,writing,speaking it aloud,silently. All will give different effect on different areas of the brain and therefore consciousness.Using mantra for japa will give purification of the nervous system even if one doesn't meditate.
L&L
Dave |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Aug 05 2006 : 9:59:10 PM
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Scott said:
You two haven't noticed that when the mind becomes calm, the breath also becomes calm? Of course you don't pay attention to the breath during the I AM meditation, but it's not as if you stop breathing. It's "under the hood".
We have noticed. You are misunderstanding us, which is I suppose easy. Ambiguities, context, the usual.
Understand it this way and no more and it may be clearer: I don't believe that the mechanism of mantra is primarily a breath mechanism. I'm not talking about the conscious practice, which we all already know doesn't involve breath manipulation. I'm talking about what happens as the mind-body transcends during mantra yoga. I'm saying that some breath-consciousness mechanism does not seem to be involved much, and even steps aside. This contrasts with other events in yoga, in which the connection between breath and consciousness is important, such as those underlying pranayama, which is actually another cultivation of a spontaneous process. In short: pranayama is deliberate cultivation of some important breath-consciousness mechanism. This mechanism I believe actually steps aside in mantra-yoga; that's what I mean by it is not 'acting under the hood' in mantra yoga.
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mantras, what is under the hood of this technique?
