Yoga and Meditation

Meditation is both the simplest and the most challenging endeavor. What could be simpler than just sitting still and not thinking?

However, when we try to meditate we find that the mind simply refuses to be quiet: no matter how hard you try, how much you just relax, how much you try to focus on one thing exclusively, the mind refuses to co-operate.

The mind has been likened to a monkey that jumps from branch (thought) to branch (thought) or just chatters incessantly. In my interview with Graeme Northfield (in the “Guruji” book of interviews I published), he used the expression "chitter-chatter" of the mind, which made me think of chitta-chatter - chitta being the sanskrit word for mind. He also described the mind as a slippery white eel - something impossible to get a grasp on.

It seems, it is almost impossible to stop thinking, at least intentionally, and this makes meditation seem impossible.

There are, of course, many definitions, methods or degrees of meditation and the idea of meditation exists in many different traditions but for the sake of practitioners of Patanjali Yoga there are some specific definitions.

Patanjali defines dharana, dhyana and samadhi as three stages of meditation. He further subdivides samadhi into seven different stages: six stages of samprajnata - savitarka, nirvitarka, savichara, nirvichara, ananda and asmita and then a final stage - asamprajnata.

When students used to ask Pattabhi Jois about meditation he would just laugh: "What? Mad-attention?" He would then continue: "You are sitting here, but your mind is going to many other places. Your body is here but your mind is somewhere else. How can you meditate if you cannot control the mind?" First you have to purify the body by following the external limbs of yoga - Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama - then you can get some degree of control over the mind.

Mind and body are linked together. The mind is dependent on the brain and nervous system, which are physical organs. While consciousness is non-material in nature, the forms that consciousness takes are determined by the physical properties of the body and its organs, and these physical properties are determined by what has been absorbed from the environment via food and the senses.

This is why diet is so important in yoga. Food not only nourishes the body it also influences the mind. Some food supports meditation, leaving one feeling satisfied and calm, while other foods cause stress or drowsiness. So without putting the body into a healthy and comfortable condition, one cannot make much progress.

Yoga offers many techniques for clearing the path to meditation: there are kriyas, asanas and pranayamas, dietary regimens and fasting, as well as tools to train and transform the mind directly.

Compared to getting the body healthy through asanas, kriyas and good diet, getting the mind into a suitable state is more challenging. If one has stress in life, meditation does not come - it can only be achieved by putting one's house in order.

But beyond, or beneath, our everyday stress simmers a deeper layer of dis-ease: our whole history of unresolved issues lies ready to assault us. All emotionally charged memories and past experiences, however subtle, are the next obstacle to cessation or concentration of thought. Up until this point, these old memories have been suppressed by more pressing worries, but now, as one sits quietly they begin to arise again.

Psycho-analysis or a re-evaluation of all past negative experiences that have not been fully resolved is the next step. These memories need to be confronted and their emotional charge eliminated before meditation proper can take place. They need to become like "burned seeds" - incapable of sprouting new negative thoughts. Only then can meditation proper begin.

Meditation is a hard path, but the only truly rewarding one. To gain success, one also needs to gain total mental and physical health - even though this may not seem to be the purpose, it is the accidental side-effect - or more accurately, pre-condition - and, perhaps also an unexpected blessing.

Our latest podcast with Yogis on the Road explores the “internal limbs” of Ashtanga Yoga - ie the process of meditation.