Dhyanas/Meditations
Podcast Episode 48 Excerpt Video (Yoga Sutra 2.23)
“[E]ven ignorance itself is only the Absolute expressing its absoluteness…”
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Yoga Tip/Challenge # 19 | Your Most Advanced Asana
Flex those concentration muscles!
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Yoga Tip/Challenge # 18: Bending In And Out Of Shapes
Allow your practice of the Eight Limbs of Yoga to bend you into alignment with your True Self by twisting you out of any tense, distorted, or limited shape of body, identity, and/or mind.
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Human Adaptability: Change, Health, And Yoga
The human body, mind, and co-created world are all incredibly complex, changeable, and adaptable.
Evolution has made it so that the human body can perform a wide range of motions and tasks, and acclimate to a number of conditions and environments without succumbing to death very easily. The human mind is one of the most advanced and adaptable processing systems that exist in our entire universe. And the societies and cultures that we create in our own image, therefore, are subject to change based on these two principles as well.
Although the human body will ultimately decay, age, and die at some point throughout a human’s lifetime, and all humans are subject to death due to accidents or intentional harm inflicted on their vessel by others or themselves, there is no evidence that there is even any one specific age at which the human body naturally expires or any one specific age at which the human mind naturally stops growing and expanding when appropriate conditions are set in place.
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Yoga Tip/Challenge # 17: Use The Wall
A wall can be used in a number of different ways in your Yoga practice.
For Asanas, you can use a wall to create leverage, balance, support, and resistance in your poses and to perform strengthening and flexibility exercises.
In addition to Asana assistance, a wall can also be used in other limbs of your practice as well. You can, for example, use a wall for Dharana, Dhyana, and even Pratyahara practice with a bit of creativity.
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Sutra Studies Week 25: Reflections On Meditation As A Means To Create Freedom From The Trauma And Suffering Caused By Separation From The Source And The True Self (Sutras 31-32)
“In Yoga, after you have practiced bringing or directing your attention to a common center or objective, first using gross and then subtle objects, the aim is to eventually make your focal point the essence and meaning of OM.
You metaphorically move from the bottom of the symbol to the top and eventually focus on the dot at the top of the symbol, which represents the pure source of all of creation (as discussed in our previous weeks’ Sutra Studies), and you merge back into the true self through these efforts of concentration.”
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Sutra Studies Week 13: Check-In | Why Yoga Is One Of The Highest Forms Of Service (When All Limbs Are Practiced)
Yoga is both inner and outer work.
Practicing Yamas teach you to see, and honor, your connection with, and to, all of existence. Niyamas teach you how to be responsible for caring for your individual expression in the world. Asanas teach you how to care for, heal, and preserve your physical vessel. Pranayamas teach you how to maximize and channel your precious life force energy. Pratyaharas teach you how to come into greater control of your mind by purifying your senses from attachment to both mental and physical form. Practicing Dharanas teach you how to focus your powers of concentration, thus strengthening your ability to understand and properly apply knowledge. Dhyanas teach you how to deepen your connection to your Highest Truth through meditation and direct experience. And all limbs, mastered one after the other, and simultaneously, are intended to get you to Samadhi, which gifts you with the knowledge of, and connection to, your True Self, nature, and source.
In all eight limbs of Yoga, you learn the true meaning of mind over matter. You see how controlling your senses and desires is only a result of gaining control of your mind, as is controlling your breath, releasing tension from your body, accomplishing your goals, building effective relationships, and truly coming to know your Self.
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