Mind Inside Body
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Apr 24, 2017
MiBeloved 5 years ago
This morning Swami Rama made a very important statement about the time it takes to get success in yoga practice. Hear this:
Previously a yoga guru would tell a disciple that in a certain time say 6 months, or 1 year or 12 years that student would be successful, provided the person stuck to a certain method and lived at the hermitage. Usually these places were isolated, so that the student was cordoned off from other influences.
Thus why is it that we find that in the modern setting this is not happening? In fact students who live at ashram become disillusioned when they do not get success in whatever the yoga guru described.
The main reason for the failures is the social environment even at the modern ashram. The rigidity of the past is no longer present. Without it, the student is not propped-up with the disciplines and restrictions and so there can be no success. But we also have a case where the teachers themselves are affected by the new social trends and cannot deliver what they intend to give.
There is a process mentioned for the life which is conducive to yoga success, this is in the Anu Gita, and at the end, there is a period given for 6 months. But today that period is much longer. In fact students might never become successful even in a whole life time.
There is one key feature when practicing for yoga and when sitting to meditate and that is to keep your attention in your body. There is a statement to that effect in the Anu Gita in the example of a tourist in a city. You should quote that at the end of this message.
Students should keep the mind inside the body during the exercises. By mind in this case, I really mean their attention. The attention likes to wander outside the body and go to various places during the exercises but a student should find an effective method to keep the mind inside the body during the asana postures and pranayama infusion practices.
You can practice yoga for a million years and if you fail to keep the attention inside of the psyche, you will never get the full success. You will always be falling short of the full proficiency and that will affect your confidence in yoga and in the yoga guru.
Train your attention to stay within the body during the exercises. Do not allow it to stray outside of the body. Do not allow it to pursue thoughts which come from others during the exercises. Discipline your attention. Be harsh with it if it tries to disobey this stipulation.
=================================
When thinking of a place which was seen before, one should reside in the city in which the incidence occurred. The mental operations are within the psyche, not outside of it.
Being situated inside the city, he should reside there with his mind absorbed in the exterior and interior features of that place.
Meditating in that place, the self sees the whole reality being situated in the body. The mind should not in any way wander outside the body.
In an uninhabited and noiseless forest, while completely restraining the aggregate sensual energies, he should deeply meditate within the body on the whole reality as one object of focus (Anu Gita English* 4.31-34)
*https://sites.google.com/site/michaelbeloved/Home/anu-gita-explained
