Don’t just sit there

Meditation includes all the anga-s, over time and every day

Meditation is a process, every day, and over time. What’s the engine that drives progress? Understanding that all of our faculties must be well-regulated before we can be steady, still and channeling our focus to a supportive place. Just sitting there and breathing or setting a timer has never been proposed as a viable method in the lineage of Krishnamacharya. Small doses at the right moment, preceeded by asana, pranayama and pratyahara, prescribed according to the parameters of the practitioner, work.

You may need a plot twist to finally, effectively make dhyanam part of your daily routine. The preferred methods you may have been exposed to may not even be defined as meditation, as Patanjali defines it. They most likely fall into the categories of pranayama and pratyahara, breathing and sensory withdrawal. Legitimate tools of meditation these are, illigitimate when taken as meditation itself.

Pranayama means working with the breath itself, in a subtle sense, including focusing on where you feel it, the duration of the breath, the number of breaths you are breathing. We do this in meditation practice, but on its own it’s not meditation. Pratyahara, like listening to sounds of birds or cars passing by, feeling sensations in the body, is a step in the process of meditation, but it alone is not meditation. We generally don’t use those techniques in Yogic meditation. Our pratyahara practices are called mudra-s, and they exist elaborately and plentifully as steps in the meditation practice, though they are not meditation.

We are at that moment where nature is basking in its most expanded, summer glory, absorbing sun’s rays to nourish itself for the upcoming season. In our August Meditation, we will do that too, taking pause to settle into receiving what we need to charge up for the seasonal changes that will soon be upon us. We will take you through Ashtanga Yoga, the elegant system that it is, anga by anga. Resultantly, you’ll welcome quiet time, stillness and being with yourself. You’ll surprise yourself with your developing ability to self-induce a calm, focused you. You’ll gain the precious opportunity to revel in the sun’s powerful impact, receiving and welcoming its healing, transformative rays into your mind, body and spirit.