This is a shout out to the young lady I met at Starbucks this morning! I hope you had an awesome birthday! It’s always a pleasure to meet kindred spirits – especially those who meditate!
I wish we’d had longer to chat. As you know, meditation is a deeply personal, unique experience every time we do it!
The easy part is sitting as still! The effectiveness of doing so depends on our intention, preparation and experience level – which is part of the reason we’re encouraged to meditate daily!
Here’s how Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (the prehistoric poem I mentioned: the bible of Raja Yoga) breaks down the practice in terms of emphasis and priority:
80% – to be practiced all day, every day: think and act with serenity, courage, wisdom and devotion, treating others and ourselves lovingly.
20% – to be practiced routinely: (15%) three types of physical and mental exercises to still the body and mind to facilitate meditation; (5%) actual meditation.
In other words, 95% of what’s required to find eternal bliss takes place before we even sit down to meditate!
That makes intuitive sense: if we’re constantly scheming or otherwise playing mental ping pong over what we could or should have done, we’re going to have a much harder time settling our emotional energy and the thoughts it triggers.
And if we haven’t stretched our legs, practiced rhythmic breathing and concentration exercises, we’re not as likely to have a fruitful quest to witness our True Self – which requires prolonged physical and mental virtual stillness!
Patanjali’s Mind Control
While we’re sitting there simply witnessing our thoughts, the aim is to become intuitively (NOT cerebrally) aware of the source of the emotions > that trigger our thoughts > which precipitate our actions > which account for 80% of what’s preventing us from experiencing eternal bliss: effectively, union or “yoga” with the Divine! Yes – Amma says consciousness is essentially divine – and I believe her!!
To do that we first need to distinguish between our mind and consciousness; specifically, between our a) conscious and b) sub-conscious mind – characterized by words/thoughts, and images/sensations, respectively, and c) our awareness OF the voice, sensations and images reflected in our conscious mind. Our mind obscures our underlying essence: our consciousness.
- Conscious mind’s words and mental chatter obstruct awareness of what our body is sub-consciously sensing and doing, and keeps our memories at bay.
- Sub-conscious mind’s images and sensations – including manifest affects of our fears and desires – obstruct awareness of our essence: the immutable awareness OF what we’re thinking and doing!!
- That awareness – our consciousness – is the aspect of each of us that’s not affected by time and space; in that sense, it’s eternal – at least for as long as it’s associated with our body/mind.
Consciousness is evidenced first and foremost by our awareness, but also by curiosity, compassion, intuition and true bliss. Exposing fears and desires to the eternal compassion of consciousness lessens their energy!
New Age Stuff
I haven’t read Tolle or any of the other – what did you call them? “Modern Transcendentalists”(?) because I’m a devotee of Patanjali.
While I certainly applaud and admire the help they’ve provided millions of people, it ALL seems to trace back to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the original treasure map to eternal life: Truth and nothing less than union or “yoga” with God.
Our [My] True Self
The Truth is that we ARE intangible, eternal beings living a tangible, temporary experience.
At our essence we are the awareness OF what we are thinking and doing.
That awareness – our consciousness – is NOT of-this-earth. It’s literally the only “thing” known to exist (remember, without it you don’t know you’re reading this) that’s NOT affected by time and space.
That immutability becomes abundantly clear once we understand the distinction between our own thoughts and consciousness. Without the latter we wouldn’t know we were alive – let alone reading another of these paradigm-shifting, life-altering posts!
Once we accept that part of us is immutable (“bulletproof” according to the adolescent in me), life becomes MUCH less stressful and our time and experiences – on and off the mat – become turbo-charged!
Wishing you many more happy birthdays, and wonder-filled journeys on and off your mat!
Allan
