We exist in three dimensions: body, thoughts and consciousness. The latter is our awareness, without which we wouldn’t realize we were reading this!
Raja Yoga’s conduct, posture, breathing and concentration exercises prepare us to meditate: to still our thoughts so that our consciousness might become self-aware. Meditation progressively settles our entire body and mind – quieting our four, incessant mental functions (thinking, sensing, remembering and ego) from obscuring consciousness.
Why bother?!
Without consciousness, our bodies would still act, and our thoughts would still direct our actions – we just wouldn’t realize it! In essence, our body and mind serve as a vehicle for our consciousness to experience life. Said differently, we experience life thorough our body and mind, or we are our consciousness, not our body/mind.
Consciousness is intangible. Our awareness OF something can’t be manipulated like our bodies and thoughts; thus, it’s not subject to the vagaries of time and space (karma); in that sense, it’s eternal and not unlike the concept of a soul or spirit, but you can readily verify the existence of your consciousness!
Your consciousness, the observation OF your thoughts is no different than the observation OF mine, even though what we’re aware of is unique to each of us.
Raja Yoga – the science of meditation – is a personal sacrifice of body and mind in service of our collective, universal consciousness for which our tangible body and mind are rewarded with a blissful sense of union, belonging, acceptance, and love. Note that the sense of bliss is precipitated by our motivation to serve rather than any expectation of reward.
Meditation tips:
• Hold your body comfortably still in an effort to hold the brain inside your skull perfectly still.
• Breathe rhythmically and subtly to minimize the physical disturbance to your brain; focus for a while on your breath: the inhalations, pauses, and exhalations.
• Settle your conscious mind first; quietly, softly recite a simple mantra.
• Continue concentrating single-pointedly until you’ve progressively quieted or mesmerized the three functions of your subconscious mind: sensing, remembering and ego.
• Practice in tribute to our collective, universal consciousness – without which we’d all be robotic rather than sentient beings.
