Yoga Practice and the Bride
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Jul 21, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
Breath infusion practice was good this morning, where I was able to complete first the trunk of the subtle body, then the thighs and legs, then the neck and then the head of it, and then finalize by checking through the system to be sure everything was completed.
It could be said that for a yogi a good daily bath is a thorough breath infusion session where all old stale subtle energy is extracted from the subtle body before meditation begins.
Meditation is like a Wedding Ceremony. The bride is full of expectations and dreads that anything would go wrong. For instance will the groom show up? He could be killed in a car accident on his way to the wedding. Will another woman call him and promise him a better life and better pleasure?
Will the super-tight wedding dress rip as the bride walks down the aisle? Will the high heels of the shoes cause her to slip and fall and break a hip? Anything could happen, so the bride is at her wits end with expectation, hoping that everything will go just right. This is the big day.
Before the ceremony, so many things must be done. Before meditation there should be a thorough pranayama session, which is just like the bride getting dressed. Is the perfume appropriate to steal away the smelling sense of the groom? Is the dress fitting right? Is it low enough on the bosom? Is the waist as narrow as possible to accentuate the hips? Is the lipstick the right tone?
The pranayama practice is the prep stage for the meditation. If it is not done to perfection, then the meditation will not be the very best.
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When I sat to meditate, that began with the core-self slightly forward of its default position which is at the spherical center of the subtle head. This is good for me but for most students doing meditation, this is not the way to begin.
If one begins slightly forward or just in the frontal part of the subtle head then it is likely that one will be assaulted with thoughts, ideas and images. That would ruin the meditation, as one might spend the whole session either evading thoughts, entertaining them, making oneself to be detached from them or observing them with this or that attitude. And that is not meditation even though it is an in-the-mind activity.
For me it is okay to be slightly forward of center because of years of practice to do this without any thought formation occurring. And why is there no thought formation? Because of doing the thorough pranayama session before meditation. If there is a full pranayama session then the subtle body will shift to a plane of consciousness where it is not natural for it to produce thoughts, ideas and images as it does on the ordinary level.
Said in a mathematical way:
Thorough pranayama = pranayama + pratyahar
In other words, a thorough pranayama session which causes the stale and used subtle energy to be extracted from the subtle body causes the yogi to accomplish pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal as a side benefit.
This means that the meditation can begin at the 6th stage of yoga for the least which is dharana and then it could progress to dhyana and if the yogi is lucky progress further into samadhi.
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When I sat to meditate and found that I was slightly forward of center, I checked to be sure that naad sound was by my side. If naad is nowhere to be seen or heard, then that is a sign of failure. Naad has to be there as a shelter. A relative being needs a shelter. No kidding about that and no mental fantasies either. Naad was present and noticing that, I moved into the position where the buddhi intellect orb was and then I again checked to be sure that naad was there by my side.
The presence of naad at each stage is the sure sign that nothing is amiss and that I am actually beyond the stage of pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal.
I then move to the third eye brow chakra location, which in my psyche is between the eyebrows at the skin level. There I hung out during the meditation making sure that naad stayed by my right side as it usually is in my case, and that there were no thoughts, ideas or images being produced.
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A question arises as to what I would have done if thoughts did arise.
The answer is that I would then take note that something went terribly wrong in the breath infusion session and that it was not done proficiently. I would then back up and move back to the default location of the core self and then move the core self into a node or concentration point of the naad sound. I would then remain with that node of naad for the rest of the meditation session.
However on the next session of breath infusion, I would do it more aggressively and with more attentiveness to be sure that every last bit of used stale subtle energy in the subtle body was extracted.
