Marblehead School of Raja Yoga
Self-awareness and meditation – group, private and online classes
Shorthand:
My Qi Gong teacher has me rethinking something I wrote yesterday:
Raja or Patanjalian Yoga refers to our body/mind as our “self”, and consciousness as our “Self”.
Herein “Self-awareness” is another term for “Enlightenment”, a state in which the distinction between thought and awareness OF thought is apparent.
Thoughts are evidence of our Conscious Mind. The awareness OF our thoughts is evidence of our Consciousness, the aspect of us that’s intangible and immutable.
Patanjali’s discipline is consciousness-centric, purposefully bifurcating the universe between consciousness and everything else to make the point that:
That said, all of my yoga teachers have stressed that while we’re here, we clearly remain human and therefore naturally fallible.
What if say, it happened to someone in the Fall of their life? They can’t just sit around dwelling in bliss (especially if they’re married and want to remain so)!
As the universe (and my Qi Gong teacher) keeps reminding me, it’s about being balanced and grounded while we’re here!
Be the best you can be! Tap into the power within yourself! Meditate!
While I was driving in to visit the old goat, I heard two things on the radio:
Whether my friend has 5 minutes, six months or 46 years left here – think of all we can do in five minutes, let alone six months!
I like the story about the honorable old Samurai walking his last several yards to where – based on the strength of his convictions – he ritualistically committed suicide.
During his final walk, time seemed to slow down. He became more alive: he felt the grass under his feet, the sun and breeze against his skin, the smell of flowers and incense, and the sound of birds overhead.
My buddy’s last request before they knocked him out (to – his words – “Crack me open like a lobster”) was to make sure his family had dinner that night.
OK Samurai – don’t get complacent. Training starts as soon as your fat ass is up and out of that damned hospital bed!!!
Love, Skip
I teach the science of mind control: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
MEDITATION:
as it was originally practiced!
developed by devout EMPIRICAL scientists – without Google!!!!!!
using just their bodies and minds!
MEDITATE – you can’t do it wrong!! But if you want to find TRUE inner peace please read a translation (or two or three!) of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras!
If you want a place to start here are links to personal translations of the first half of Patanjali’s epic poem:
Chapter Two – preparing to meditate
Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
Just because we’re not equipped to literally experience or fully comprehend consciousness – think about this:
A source of courage, wisdom, serenity and faith – Patanjali
Infilling everything, pervading everywhere, impelling all – Amma
Relaxing? Yup.
Here’s how I experience it: [remember, meditating is uniquely personal. It’s something you do for yourself – lovingly(!) – because like physical exercise, ONLY YOU CAN. Ironically, it works better when our intention is to better serve others!]
I find meditation relieving, reassuring and reaffirming in a loving, non-judgmental accepting sense. Sometimes it almost feels as if I’m being holistically embraced. I often reemerge from my sub-conscious journeys feeling subtly holistically energized!
Little picture: How we get our physical body and non-physical mind to relax sufficiently to enable that sense of holistic union or yoga doesn’t matter. That’s where QiGong’s breathing, movement and visualization comes in!
Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
When we meditate, we transcend conscious and ultimately sub-conscious mind, becoming more self-aware en route. Over time, we draw a deepened sense of serenity, courage, wisdom and ultimately faith from having witnessed evidence of our own divine essence: our consciousness, the awareness OF our thoughts.
Raja Yoga is a lifelong, exhaustive study and practice in self-awareness and self-control – ALL of which is intended to prove to yourself beyond all doubt that there’s an aspect of you that’s divine.
Big picture:
When it sinks in that part of you may indeed be immortal [here’s the math: what are the odds that THIS aspect of each of us – our consciousness – which NEVER changes while we’re walking around in this body/mind – that IT “dies” along with the physical/mental parts of us? By definition, it CAN’T! It’s literally “NOT OF THIS EARTH!!”]
The end of your body/mind is undoubtedly coming. Wake up to the most miraculous aspect of YOU before you’re forced to as you pass on from THIS body/mind.
Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
One of Sue’s favorite new TV shows is “Grown-ish”, a spinoff of “Blackish”. Skin color aside, I’ve discovered another reason I may be having trouble enlightening today’s youth: we don’t speak the same language!!
I watched an entire episode, after which I told Sue, “I have NO idea what they were talking about!”
One of my teachers believes that our species has literally evolved: that children born after 1990 have developed a new predisposition. Give a two year old a phone and watch what happens!!
Evolutionary time warp or not, we haven’t changed physiologically in thousands of years.
It’s the oldest (read most time-tested!) form of self-care known to man – of any age!
Once that “clicks”, well……..you and your problems seem somehow lighter, certainly less stressful!
Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
Dear Dan,
Thank you. We need more well-informed, respected public figures advocating and promoting meditation. God bless you.
Please forgive my complete lack of humility, but if you’ll indulge me:
Only 10%? Keep practicing!!😊
The science of mind control or meditation is prehistoric.
Long before the advent of written language and modern religion, the original discipline was memorialized in an epic 200-line poem: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
Patanjalian or Raja Yoga was developed in India at a time in human history when it was becoming apparent that sacrificing THINGS (God forbid live ones) only worked about 50% of the time.
Patanjali and his predecessors turned the practice of trying to influence that which can’t be influenced into a practice of trying to better understand and serve it. These ancient sages effectively reverse-engineered the human experience from our outer gross physical body to the essence of our being: consciousness…
Over the millennia, the practice of meditation (trying to tap into our divine essence) morphed into the modern practice of prayer.
That said, you are absolutely correct that meditation can be practiced in a entirely “secular” fashion….
…(i.e., without a sense of sacrifice and devotion to the Source) but that’s like walking along a beach on a beautiful day with a paper bag over your head!! Sorry – but how did none of those experts make this point?!
Here’s the “non-secular” science in a nutshell:
It’s based on Sankhya, the realization that consciousness (the awareness OF our thoughts) is not a mental function; rather, it’s as distinct from our mind and thoughts as our thoughts are from our bodies!
Consciousness alone in the entire universe is not subject to the vagaries of time and space (i.e., it’s the ONLY thing not subject to karma).
AND IT’S IN EACH OF US! Oooops, you can see how the “non-secular” aspect of the practice creeps in: life changes when we realize our own essentially divine nature.
Back to the “secular” science…
Humans exist in at least three distinguishable spatial dimensions: physical, mental and consciousness – the latter being the awareness OF the former.
Here’s the thing about consciousness that makes it unique in the universe: IT NEVER CHANGES – NEVER.
How do we know that something that’s literally intangible and never changes even exists?! And why should we care?!
Try to imagine the nature of something that’s aware yet NEVER changes.
This aspect of OURSELVES – our intangible, essential awareness – has been described by people a lot smarter than me as eternally and infinitely compassionate and curious.
When we meditate we eventually settle through four energetically distinct states of mind before encountering our essence. The good news is there’s no wrong way to do it and the benefits are almost immediate and cumulative.
However if we practice with the original intent – as scripted by Patanjali to deepen our connection with the Source – THAT Sir, is an entirely different, much deeper, fulfilling, life-affirming and holistically healing experience.
Physiologically
Over time as we lovingly expose otherwise sub-conscious fears and desires to the light of our own self-compassion – those very tangible fears and desires dissipate, providing a physiological sense of lightness, relief and restoration lasting long after our time on the mat!
But to turbo-charge those physical and mental benefits – to experience something that will literally blow your tangible mind away – meditate with love, devotion and heartfelt gratitude as you ponder the nature of the Source of our very essence.
Thank you again for spreading the word – and your indulgence!
Blessings, Allan
Patanjali❤️😊🕉
https://www.rajamarblehead.com/2017/05/21/patanjalis-yoga-sutras-chapter-1-loosely-translated/
https://www.rajamarblehead.com/2017/05/21/patanjalis-yoga-sutras-chapter-2-loosely-translated/
Me
https://www.rajamarblehead.com/2018/01/06/battling-addiction-insights-60-year-old-addict/
According to SIVA REA:
“Many of us have only experienced surrendering to a higher source [Ishvara Pranidhana] as a last resort, when we’ve confronted seemingly insurmountable problems or in some other way hit the edge of our individual will and abilities.
Patanjali repeatedly highlights Ishvara pranidhana as one of the five niyamas, or inner practices, of the ashta-anga (eight-limbed) path and, along with discipline (tapas) and self-study (svadhyaya), as part of kriya yoga, the threefold yoga of action.”
Source: yogajournal.com/yoga-101/the-practice-of-surrender
Patanjali:
Sound familiar?
GOD GRANT ME THE:
Tap into the power within. Meditate.
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
The Dis-ease
Alcoholics Anonymous used to have an expression for mild, inexplicable depression: the “Poor Me’s”, characterized by:
Frustratingly, there’s no obvious rational explanation or cause; from the outside it doesn’t look like we have anything to bitch about!
When we do give up and stop practicing healthy habits (or practice unhealthy ones!) it takes EXTRA effort to get back on our feet again!
The Remedy
Here’s the only true relief I’m found in 60 years of looking:
Consciousness is NOT a mental function! FAR from it! Without it, you wouldn’t realize that you’re alive – let alone reading this effort to enlighten you!!
Once that clicks, it becomes possible to differentiate between “You” and “Your body/mind” (after all, whose body is it? Yours!!).
Raja Yoga is a loving, holistic, personal practice in self-awareness and control – intended to PERMANENTLY relive the emptiness and symptoms of the Poor Me’s without leaving a hangover. Here’s how it works in part:
Mentally – the objective is to take a step back from our body/mind and witness the pain, rather focusing on the parts of our body/mind that are hurt. [Extremely difficult to do without constant practice – especially, when the pain is at its worst.]
Spiritually – the objective is to identify with the eternally-aware “You” (your consciousness – aka your “soul” or “spirit” in religious vernacular! Yeah; it’s real) – rather than your temporary body/mind.
Transcend temporal suffering. Tap into the divine power within.
Meditate.
$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes
Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)
#BringBackPatanjali
