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As a blogger I work the social network as a matter of ritual. Writing and keeping a blog has the social component embebbed and that is one of the ways in which I share and learn.
But it was in a different light that Sharath was presenting it, or so I think. "Socializing is important but is not life". Agreed.
It all comes down to balance, if we make Facebook and "drinking coconut with friends" a priority then we have no time to find the silence, to go within, to let yoga work through us.
MEDITATION IN ASANA?
Then a student posed a question... "Do you teach sitted meditation"? To which the answer came in the form of another question "What is meditation"?. The student said "it is concentration on a object and then becoming unified with the object". That is the classic yoga sutra response.
Sharath continued "You have to be able to control the senses" he said. And he is right, for this [meditation] to happen we have to be able to bring the fiery sight that wants to own everything by placing its retine over things, the curious smell, the pleasure seeking touch, the lustrous taste, the eager hearing, under full control. Not an easy feast.
"When does dhyana [focusing (pre-meditation)] happen? -Sharath went on- In asana practice when drawing the senses in, when thoughts are only on the asana - that is meditation. When you are struggling in an asana you forget many other things, when you don't have to struggle you think many other things. So dhyana is very difficult"
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| Shoes left at the shala's entrance before practice |
I see how in finding balance in each and every asana, going as far as I can then a little more, noticing that if my mind is wondering then I am not practicing asana as hard as I could and hence adjusting then it does become a meditation in motion, a total absortion and concentration into what is happening in the body. I am fully present and this helps me be more present during the day.
Ramana Maharshi came to a state of silence all on his own after all, he did not even need asanas! But then again, maybe there was something genetic in him, karmic, something that pre-destined him.
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| He didn't even do asanas! |
I don't know if I have a full blown conclusion, what I do know is that for me, the practice of asana is key to getting my mind calm, in place. After I come out of kurmasana for example, my mind is in a different place, that is so hard that a switch does detonate and suddenly I am more poised calm.
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| After working Kurmasana my mind definitelly gets into a different state |
Meditation practice, the ritual of it has come and gone during the years. Totally disappeared while I got very sick this year for example, and then life comes in the way many, many times.
I find that it is easier for me to find a few minutes to calm the mind as I go, to observe my mind constantly, to drop out the leaves of old thinking in the moment rather than making time every day.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, and I actually miss the ritual, but it happens when it happens. Life as a house-holder is pretty intense.
We do our practice until we find the way in which we can get into the silence and drop the pre-conceptions, until the asana and purification of the body works on us so that we find our own way into the silence all the time, not just at sitted time.
And, we need remember that different energies, karmas, genetic dispositions may need different practices, and for some it might happen to be that asana is enough...
Wonder how Sharath would feel about Twitter/Linked In/Klout/Google +/ FourSquare etc?
Dear Claudia
ReplyDeleteI think linkedin is for business only. funny how the chart places google +. i have more readers there, but they don't engage me in conversation, something James observed in an early post as well. Good you could rationalize Sharath's statement.
Cheers,
Arturo
I read this too, sometimes I think conference isn't a million miles away from blogging.
ReplyDelete"You have to be able to control the senses", so pratyahara is part of asana practice but not pranayama? More confusion.
I've always found Ashtanga meditative, primary especially and yet different from when I sit. At times the practice is flowing along nicely and I'm just focussed on the breath but then you become involved in an asana your tweaking and supposedly, according to the previous conference, being challenged by an asana and working on it is good (asana madness not so bad after all perhaps). However, when your working on an asana, your kapo say or mari D, your not really concentrating on just one thing at the exclusion of all else as with the breath or a mantra or an icon but, engaging this, engaging that, balancing here, twisting there, lifting out, pushing through, working with the breath engaging mula a little more uddiyana a little less....
So I don't know, the practice IS meditative...often, you get to work on your concentration but it's not the same as as just sitting. Also, it seemed a little absurd to suggest that retreats don't have their place.
What do you think of the whole Conference thing Claudia, it's a strange idea, perhaps if your a Jois, Iyengar, Mohan, Ramaswami... if you've spent your life studying and teaching all aspects of yoga but Sharath is still a young man taking over the family firm, seems a little unfair on him to be put in such a position and have his every word misquoted ( coming from notes ) and then reported or blogged out of context (although Suzy writes the fullest conference report I've seen). Perhaps it does more harm than good.
Sorry, two comments in one.
A lot of yogis I know have trouble with meditation. I don't think it should be forced upon people (how do you force people to stop their thoughts anyways? you can make force them to sit, that's about it :) Personally I find sitting meditation very useful.. when not moving I can notice more subtle things going on in the body. Asana practice does get the wigglies out of the body though :D More proficiency in primary series may improve the meditative aspect, but I'm not quite there yet.
ReplyDeleteHi Arturo, yes James noticed that... then I saw the picture... funny
ReplyDeleteGrimmly you have a point, I hope I am not coming accross as criticizing but rather trying to understand where he is coming from.
I suppose the excesive socializing is an issue that can get on the way. As per the practice I am just wondering, I might have to ask myself when I go....
Yyogini, for me too the seated practice is very helpful when I can manage it, I can see why the Ramaswami talks about the three stages of life... and you are right I dont think anyone can be forced into other than just sitting...
I didn't think you were being critical just questioning and exploring , that's healthy no. I wasn't singling your blog for taking him out of context either, I meant that more in the sense of anything quoted out of the context of conference seems problematic, the whole thing strikes me as a very strange scenario.
ReplyDeleteAsana can be a good practice, so too pranayama, mantra, meditation.
ReplyDeleteYou can make anything a practice by watching the mind as you do it, watching the reactions and emotions as they arise in the moment, even if that happens while you are on facebook or replying to a blog post.
And watching how these two types of practice interact is most interesting and beneficial. For me I find asana, mantra, and meditation to greatly enhance my ability to watch the fluctuations of the mind in daily life.
And then my ability to watch the fluctuations of the mind in daily life greatly increases my ability to see the places where I am stuck, the deep samskaric patterns and attachments that result in these fluctuations of mind.
And then the more I see these patterns emerge in my daily life the easier it is to release them, and they emerge less in less in my practice on the mat or cushion, allowing me to go deeper and deeper, withdraw the external sense, etc.
Socializing may not be life, but neither is practice. What is life beyond the bliss of pure being? It's all dualistic non-sense of sense objects, but that's the world we live in as incarnated beings and I think it should be seen as a blessing, whether it is socializing, meditation retreats, asana practice, or whatever else.
Grimmly I see, thanks for clarifying, guess that is how it is these days, in the times of Facebook and instant Youtube uploads... must be a strange scenario for him I suppose, like for all teachers in these times of high visibility. Then again, could be a blessing, attract more student, who knows in the end?
ReplyDeleteTom, I like how you put it, especially where you say:
And then my ability to watch the fluctuations of the mind in daily life greatly increases my ability to see the places where I am stuck, the deep samskaric patterns and attachments that result in these fluctuations of mind.
I could have not said it better, I feel that way.
There are always many roads to get to a destination. For many, the state of meditation can only be found on a seat cushion in lotus. Other people can find it while washing the dishes.It definitely can be found while practicing an asana as well. To each his own.
ReplyDeleteShanna, very much agree.
ReplyDelete"After working Kurmasana my mind definitelly
ReplyDeletegets into a different state"same here:)
You know it yogamama! :-)
ReplyDelete