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karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
 Posted - Dec 06 2008 : 2:58:04 PM
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I have been reading a book by sankara Saranam called 'God without religion'.
In it there is a passage which reads:
Hatha yogis, misinterpreting the spiritual import of the ancient yoga tradition, focus more on achieving physical immutability and less on the changeless substance of self.Likewise popular methods of meditation , especially those emerging from modern movements of Zen, Shambhala, and Vipassana, "attempt to empty the mind". The coverted void, however, is the opposite of hought free awareness of the expansive self arising from effortless superconscious concentration centred in the spine and brain.
In lieu of this superconscious intensity, meditation methods in the west tend to encourage passivity and quietude. According to the theory of self, however, the cerebrum is like any muscle and benefits from being excersised. Passive meditation, unable to enliven the spine and cerebrum, prohibits the practitioner from intuiting direct knowledge of self. worse, some practitioners confuse pasive meditation with freedom from the mind. Swami Vivekananda, upon observing this phenomenon , remarked, "when persons without training and preperation try to make their minds vacant, they are likely to succeed only in covering themselves with tamas, the material of ignorance which makes the mind dull and stupid, and leads them to think they are making a vacuum of the mind"
Can anyone comment on the Yogani method with respect to this passage ? Obviously we concentrate on the mantra of 'I am' is this proper concentration, or is it something which is frowned upon in this text?? |
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AYPforum
351 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2008 : 3:05:54 PM
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| Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2008 : 3:15:30 PM
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| I think Yogani's method is what this text implies meditation should be, in my opinion. It implies activity and stimulation of the brain and central nervous system by awareness of thoughts that pass through the mind and the introducing and re-introducing of a mantra that resonates in the spinal nerve. As I practice it it seems to me to be a good method of meditation, not the passive kind explained in the text. At the same time it is not trying to create nothing (not even a void, but lettign things be and just being aware of what happens in the mind and how it behaves as thoughts pass. While doing this we become aware of the awareness behind the mind. I think this is what effective meditation wants to cultivate. |
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meditating on something ?
