Only you can still your mind - 3 mental practices of yoga
But my mind is too busy to learn to meditate and do yoga...
Many people come to yoga and meditation because they find their minds are too scattered, they have high stress loads, they are looking for a practice to calm them. Contrary to what we may think, our minds can only have one primary focus at any given moment. They also have habitual patterns and cycles which are shaped by experience, practice and intentions. Because of the lightening speed of the mind, we can get frustrated by trying to get our own mind to concentrate while it is used to skipping through scores of topics. If you just sit still and watch, you'll be amazed at how the untrained mind can keep itself occupied without any value or repose.
Like an athlete or a hunter - a trained mind is held in a state of quiet and alertness, steady but ready to spring into action. We refer to the mind as being 'empty', but this means not a sleepy or dull mind, but a very sensitive and focussed mind. In this state we remove the business of the habits and get to the either the focussed intentions or we allow the intuitive mind the opportunity to surface.
Three important concepts in yoga relate to our mental states and mental practices: dharana, dyhana (jhana) and pratyahara.
Many people come to yoga and meditation because they find their minds are too scattered, they have high stress loads, they are looking for a practice to calm them. Contrary to what we may think, our minds can only have one primary focus at any given moment. They also have habitual patterns and cycles which are shaped by experience, practice and intentions. Because of the lightening speed of the mind, we can get frustrated by trying to get our own mind to concentrate while it is used to skipping through scores of topics. If you just sit still and watch, you'll be amazed at how the untrained mind can keep itself occupied without any value or repose.
Like an athlete or a hunter - a trained mind is held in a state of quiet and alertness, steady but ready to spring into action. We refer to the mind as being 'empty', but this means not a sleepy or dull mind, but a very sensitive and focussed mind. In this state we remove the business of the habits and get to the either the focussed intentions or we allow the intuitive mind the opportunity to surface.
Three important concepts in yoga relate to our mental states and mental practices: dharana, dyhana (jhana) and pratyahara.
- Dharana - concentrating the mind on a single object;
- Dyhana - a state of calm, absorption of the mind into its topic of focus, meditative serenity with alertness;
- Pratyahara - withdrawal of attention from the outer world into the inner world and personal truth.
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