Restless Mind Meditation
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Sep 29, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
Questions answered on LinkedIn:
Posted by Sanjaya:
Can a restless mind meditate properly?
MiBeloved's Response:
Restless mind cannot meditate because meditation begins after the restlessness of the mind is abolished within the psyche. Patanjali set down the requirement that Yoga begins when the mind ceases its routine mental and emotional operations.
A restless mind can make an attempt to meditate. It might or might not be successful at removing the restlessness and then assuming some peace of mind but meditation is really samyama or the three higher stages of yoga as one sequential practice.
Goofing around with the definition of meditation, making up convenient personal definitions for it, feeling one has the right to define meditation in any which way, arises from a failure to acknowledge that it was defined perfectly before by Patanjali and by others in the Indian traditions where yoga originated.
Crying, meditation, meditation and more meditation and not agreeing on a definition really adds up to much confusion since each of us is actually speaking of something else but using the word meditation to legitimize our process. Why not stick to Patanjali’s definition ad then we would have a common vernacular currency which makes sense.
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Posted by Sanjaya:
How can one forget ones routine problem to meditate ones heart and head too?
MiBeloved's Response:
Patanjali listed eight parts to yoga, beginning with moral restraints and approved behaviors which should govern the lifestyle of the yogi. Should we take a look at these? Is Patanjali obsolete? Can we invent or discover a process which is better than what he described? Can we re-design his thesis to fit into our cultural process?
Routine problems may be forgotten for the moment but they will return with full force if we do not solve them up and upset them effectively by a sincere change in lifestyle along the lines suggested by Patanjali about yama restraint and niyama approved behaviors.
Action to simply the lifestyle, to be honest with ourselves about how we can or cannot honor the yama restraints and niyama approved behaviors would do more to bring on a higher quality of meditation, than sitting to meditate and conning ourselves that we can be in the world and not be off it.
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Posted by Sanjaya:
Third, if we meditate without any control on our thoughts then is it of any use?
MiBeloved's Response:
Meditation without thought shut-down is not meditation. It is an attempt to bring the mind (psyche) into a state of meditation. It does have value and should be practiced. One has to start the process from the level one is on. But one should also get guidance from persons who are somewhat advanced. One should make reference to the Yoga Sutras and books like the Bhagavad Gita which give the schematic for yoga practice.
