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reidmantra
United Arab Emirates
57 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 01 2015 : 3:24:26 PM
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Hello All. Reidmantra here. I read Dennis questions about Samyama and the groups answers. Based on what I read, I am no longer confident that I am doing the technique correctly and need affirmation, correction, or clarification from the group. Let me begin by explaining how I do Samyama: After 20 minutes of meditation I sit in silence for about 30 sec. to a minute and then quietly and gently pick up the word love. Then I let it go into silence for 15 sec. and then pick it up again and let it go. I do all nine sutras that way except for the lightness sutra which I do for five minutes. In the several months that I have done Samyama I have NEVER created a personal interpretation of what each of the sutras means to me or what they would feel like to me. The only thing I have ever done is to softly think each sutra-word, and release it into silence. One of the reasons I can't be hypnotized is because I have a very, very hard time conjuring the feelings of things. I am very cerebral by nature and have a hard time getting in touch with my emotions. So the first question I have is: Will samyama still be effective if I can't `feel' what each sutra may mean to me while I am practicing the technique? 2. Do I need to create a personal meaning for each sutra before I practice and if so, how do I go deeper within if I have to think the sutra and the personal meaning of it,
plus what I think I am supposed to feel from each one? I am sorry for splitting hairs but I want to get the most from my samyama practice. Thank you in advance for any advice or clarification you may provide for me. - Reidmantra |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Oct 01 2015 : 3:34:09 PM
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Hi Reidmantra:
Your practice as you describe it is perfect. The less you think about it the better. 
All of the discussion about meanings of sutras, etc. is counterproductive and a detriment to practice and results. For best results, best to use the sutras as instructed and leave the rest alone. Seeds that we keep digging up will not go deep in the soil of stillness and grow strong. Samyama is not about defining meanings. It is about cultivating stillness in action. For that, letting go is essential.
So carry on, and enjoy!
The guru is in you. 
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reidmantra
United Arab Emirates
57 Posts |
Posted - Oct 01 2015 : 7:22:42 PM
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| Hi Yogani. Thank you for your reassuring response! The only thing I am still curious about is where the idea of `feeling' comes in as part of how to practice the sutras like many people talked about in their responses to Dennis. Is the idea of feeling the sutra a diversion from the simplicity of practice or is it something to look forward to? I would be open to feedback from anyone who wishes to respond. Thank you in advance! - Reidmantra |
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Dogboy
USA
2242 Posts |
Posted - Oct 01 2015 : 9:39:51 PM
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I am guilty of feeling, in my advice to Dennis, for he was having trouble relating to the sutras, questioned their meaning, and why they should be included. Each sutra touches me in a certain way, I shared that with Dennis. When I whisper the sutra from my solar center, it hesitates, then leaves, just as Yogani designed the practice. Feelings may or may not be present; the important part is release into stillness.
I agree, your practice is perfect
Edit: "whisper" is not meant literally! |
Edited by - Dogboy on Oct 01 2015 9:42:27 PM |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 02:26:39 AM
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I think emotion and meaning are deeply tied to simplicity. All of these sutras have an emotional/meaningful component. How can "Love" not have emotional substance at its core?  Without emotion, there is no meaning, and vice versa. They are so integral to the fabric of our life.
As Yogani wrote verbatim: "All emotion is the power of love."
A further exploration of the meaning of love is not detrimental; it's liberating. What's detrimental is repression, verbal laziness, and over-simplification, which leads to a dulling of the senses (the opposite direction of pratyahara and "inner sensuality").
Of course, verbal obsession and excess analysis are equally problematic. We just have to keep balancing on the beam of Truth and threading the needle in between the extremes. That's not too difficult. I would dare say it's even enjoyable. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4429 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 05:10:24 AM
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Hi everyone,
Here is the relevant section from the main lessons:
"Let's begin with "Love." It is a good place to start with samyama. In samyama it is suggested you use your most intimate language, the language that goes deepest in your heart, whatever it may be.
In your easy silence, pick up, just once, the fuzziest feeling of the word "Love" in your own language. Don't deliberately make a clear pronunciation, or mental images of this or that scene or situation that represent Love to you. Just have a faint remembrance of Love, and then let go into your silence, the easy silence you are in as you pick up the faint meaning of Love. Don't contemplate Love or analyze it during samyama. Don't think about it at all. Just come to it once in a faint, subtle way, and then let go into silence. It is a subtle feeling of Love we are coming to, nothing more, and letting it go. Like that.
Having thought "Love" once, be in silence for about fifteen seconds. If any thoughts come, let them go easily. Don't look at the clock. With a little practice your inner clock will tell you with good enough accuracy when fifteen seconds is up. Just be easy in silence for about a quarter of a minute. Then pick up the faint, fuzzy meaning of "Love" again, and let it go again into your silence for about fifteen seconds again."
[Yogani] (underlining added).
From here:
http://www.aypsite.com/plus/150.html
So it is picking up in a very faint and fuzzy way the subtle feeling/meaning/remembrance that comes with each sutra and releasing it into silence. No analysis is involved as to what the meaning of each sutra should be, as it will come automatically as we touch upon each sutra and release it into stillness. The meanings of words are built into the words themselves.
Christi |
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jonesboy
USA
594 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 09:12:01 AM
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I think a lot of people get confused on what you feel while doing samyama.
Take the word "love" like you described.
At first we think the word and let it go.
Then as you are able to let it go even more you start to notice the word love repeating over and over.
Next one notices the energetic quality of the vibration of the word.
Here you are noticing the waves of energy of the sutra. Not so much the word but the waves of energy the thought creates.
Next you get to the point of raising the energy of the thought and letting it go without a ripple.
This is the feeling of the sutra. It is energy and learning to let go into silence at the very beginning of its creation as one can imagine can be freeing.
It is a lot like I Am with the letting go and how the thought becomes more energy, more intent as one gets deeper.
Just my experience.
All the best,
Tom |
Edited by - jonesboy on Oct 02 2015 09:17:05 AM |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 10:52:36 AM
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Nice job of underlining and highlighting those points, Christi.
While it is not part of the technique to focus on the meaning of a sutra during the actual practice session (since the meaning is inherently built into the word, as Christi says), I still find it advantageous and beneficial to use these forums as a vehicle for elaborating on the meaning of words and concepts.
If we don't provide specific details from our life as to how these practices are producing results, then AYP will be incomplete. "An outpouring of divine love" will be just a cotton-candy phrase that gets regurgitated without the grit and grime of a personal narrative behind it.
So, for instance, when I'm working last night at my office, and we're passing around a sympathy card for a co-worker whose father just died--that reveals the essence of the sutra "unity". We are unifying behind an effort to console her.
I have been practicing samyama for several years now, and these thought-essences have become more discernible in my daily activity as a result. That's why I write the AYP for Recovery blog--to demonstrate the REALNESS of the effect of these yogic causes.
It's disconcerting to be discouraged from elaborating on the depth of our practices ("All of the discussion about meanings of sutras, etc. is counterproductive and a detriment to practice and results.")
If AYP is going to flourish, it will require a palpable visibility of leading practitoners who are tangibly exuding and expressing the abstract qualities that are constantly preached on this website (stillness in action, active surrender, outpouring of divine love, self-pacing, purification and opening, etc.).
We can't all be anonymous. Some of us have to be a little more transparent and descriptive with our language and presentation to the world. |
Edited by - Bodhi Tree on Oct 02 2015 10:54:15 AM |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 11:57:54 AM
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Hi Bodhi:
Discussing the results of practice is one thing and can be beneficial as you point out.
However, endless analysis of the procedure of practice is something else and can be detrimental, particularly while doing the practice, which endless analysis prior to practice tends to turn into. So the less excess analysis of the procedure of practice the better. Endless parsing of the meanings of sutras is in that category, and I am not for it. It runs the risk of turning structured samyama practice into a contemplation of meanings in the mind, rather than touch and release in stillness. The result of this will be a less effective practice and less natural release in stillness during daily activity. Samyama is about operating beyond the mind, and the more "mindy" we make our practice by bringing contemplation into it, the less effective it will be. It is about letting go in stillness before, during and, ultimately, after practice.
So the suggestion is, just faintly touch and release the sutras, without analyzing them before or during practice, and the rest will take care of itself. Then enjoy the rising flow of stillness in action and the unifying results in daily living.
The guru is in you.
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 12:11:17 PM
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| I just started a new thread that is devoted to discussing the results of samyama in daily life, so hopefully that is acceptable. |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 1:53:29 PM
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Hi Bodhi:
Discuss particular sutra results if you wish. But I should point out that samyama is not primarily about cultivating individual results (siddhis) from individual sutras. It is about cultivating in a balanced way our ability to release all intentions, perceptions and actions in stillness, and thus gradually live every aspect of life as "stillness in action" without even thinking about it. That has unlimited dimensions, going far beyond the result of any particular sutra. It is what we are after.
So it is kind of like the forest and the trees, you know. Sutras are like individual trees, whereas structured samyama practice with a balanced list of sutras produces a vast forest of divine flow in stillness, all happening beyond the analytical mind. When you see your experience in that light, then you will be seeing the more far-reaching results of structured samyama practice. In time, the pieces will merge into the whole, and any particular outcome will be seen as part of the divine flow of stillness, like a wave coming and going on the ocean of our awareness. Nothing wrong with noticing the waves and their improving quality (imbued with stillness), but with deep meditation and samyama we come to know by direct experience that we are far more than the waves of life, even as we are fully engaged in them. That is freedom...
The guru is in you.
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Dogboy
USA
2242 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2015 : 1:59:59 PM
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reidmantra
United Arab Emirates
57 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2015 : 6:37:45 PM
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Hello All. Reidmantra here. I want to thank all the people that responded to my questions, including Yogani. Thank you Yogani for confirming that I am doing samyama correctly. I also wish to thank all the people that provided a bit of `analysis' about Samyama. This forum is a Godsend for people like my self and I am sure many others. You can't find support and advice like this from a book. Its great to know that all of you are here for me, as I hope and want to be there for you as well! My admiration and love to all of you!
Reidmantra
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lalow33
USA
966 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2015 : 9:38:04 PM
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Hi reidmantra,
It's absolutely worth it to attempt samyama even if it's not technically awesome. It will refine. I promise. Even if it is "unrefined", you will still see a difference in your life. Who cares if it is perfect? Maybe, it's perfect for you.
If you feel drawn to it, keep going. Samyama can be anything. You pass out after one word, who cares? It's just energy before a word, who cares? You release a thought and start thinking about what's for dinner, who cares? You can't remember the sutras, who cares? You release akasha and feel like you can float, who cares? All the same to me. Just do it.
I feel like it's a game changer. Really actual life differences. Nothing out there or mystical. I haven't been awesome in my spiritual practices and definitely not with samyama. I just did it without caring what the perfect technique was. I just did it. You can actually see results in your daily life. In just a few months! It's not all peaches and roses.( You can see when you are being an ***hole.). Definitely worth it, though! |
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Suddenly confused about Samyama again
