Meditation Training-Yoga Postures

The previous blog briefly discussed meditation training by breaking into two parts.  The first being yoga postures, and the second being breath discipline.

Yoga postures can have a beneficial influence on one's ability to relax and calm down.  When I was in Afghanistan on deployment, one of the other medics I worked with began to teach herself yoga.  I always wanted to try, but lacked the discipline to focus myself in such a calm quiet physical manner.  Well, a form of battle stress I was experiencing forced me to begin a personal yoga practice and teach myself what I could.  I was already physically fit, I ran 3-4 miles 3 times a week and lifted weights 2 times a week, and walked everywhere with a rifle on my back.  Adding yoga was the best thing I did for my physical fitness routine, and it wasn't weird or awkward like I thought it would appear to military personnel.  I gave it sort of a strong self-confident appearance, like neuromuscular strength training.  That is one thing I've learned to love about yoga, there is no one view on how it should be perceived, like being mystical or prayer like.  It can fit into the most unusual environments and work for different groups of people.

The way yoga postures assist in meditation can vary from person to person, one way it can be explained is not far from the meaning of the word yoga which is union.  Union simply describes the Sanskrit word yoga, it's also described in various other words, but the most simple is - union.  I like to think of it as forming a union of mind, body, and emotions or spirit.  It's like imagining that there are three bodies and they are all connected but moving in different directions, like you might imagine seeing the body move in tracers, not being in one place.  Throughout the practice, the three bodies start to align, and they become one, so there is a centering or alignment and the body reaches harmony.

Following this process, one is ready to end their yoga practice in Savasana (Corpse Pose).  Most times in Savasana, the instructors lead the class through breathing, recovering, and allowing the nervous system to accept and save the changes the body has been through.  This is a necessary step in yoga, but not preferred to practice deep mediation.  Mostly because, you may be in a class, so you are under time constraints.   I have also noticed many people fall asleep in this posture, so after Savasana, one should move into to easy pose (seated cross-legged pose) when ready to start meditating.  When sitting in easy pose, it allows for more awareness and responsiveness to the physical changes that start appearing.  When I go into deep meditation, I notice sensations in my nervous system (mostly my spine) become, how I would describe as, an increasing more prominent feeling, or activating feeling.  My transition to meditation is gradual, it happens over several minutes, I wish I was one of those people who could just move into it immediately, but it takes time for me.  Leading up to easy pose, the process of practicing yoga postures has proven to be imperative in reaching my higher self.

Meditation Training Overview

For years I recall several nights where I was sitting in easy pose, on the floor, palms placed gently on my knees, and...nothing.  For years I practiced meditation, before I reached a breakthrough.  Finally in 2010, I was practicing yoga, trying to understand all the variations of sun salutations, when I went into my silent meditation.  Easy pose, palms facing down, lights dimmed, eyes closed, and practicing breath discipline, I began to notice my first glimpses of deep meditation.

The system I found that works best for me to enter deep meditation consists of two parts.

1. Yoga postures.
Usually beginning with sun salutations, I move into various yoga postures ranging in time between 25-60 minutes.  In Vinyasa yoga, there is a process to include all the sections of the body, that way the body is balanced with energy.  However, when I focus on meditation, my yoga practice changes, and I shut off my mind and just work on parts of the body that feel stiff, sometimes I focus mostly on my neck.  There are other times where I feel like my hips need more work, and sometimes it's my chest.  I try to let my body lead, not my mind.

2. Breath discipline.
Unusual breathing, or breath discipline has proven to be the most important part of reaching deep meditation.  This could also be considered practicing mindfulness, reaching a state of consciousness where you are totally in the present moment.  There are several systems of breathing, I usually start out by doing the ocean breath.  Keeping the mouth closed, breathing only through the nose, the breath slows down and makes an audible sound on the exhale.  It's like fogging a mirror, but keeping the mouth closed, the exhale can't help but sound like an ocean.

I stopped eating meat that same year, this may have had something to do my progress in meditation.  I recently started eating some fish, and little bits of meat that might just happen to be an ingredient in some meals, as long as it's very minimal, i.e., like 2 tablespoons or so.  Some types of meat however, I still have a 100% aversion to.

Intro to "freedom from attachment"

While on vacation in Greece about 10 years ago, I first discovered the idea of freedom from attachment.  There was a little used bookstore I wandered into and saw a book about Zen, so I bought it and started reading as I travelled throughout the country for 28 days.  There are so many philosophies on Zen, but the one that keeps working for me is about freedom from attachment.  It seems like we spend the first years of our life struggling to attach to someone for survival.  Our well-being depends on how well we are nurtured as children and our relationships to our parents and caregivers.  Now as an adult, the more I separate myself from attachment to beliefs, emotionally tumultuous relationships, and situations that just don't feel right - the more centered I become, and actually feel a sort of spiritual alignment within.

There doesn't seem to be a need to identify with being a particular religion or philosophical alignment.  I practiced meditation for almost 10 years before I finally reached what I call my higher self.  I started practicing yoga about 6 years ago, and this increased my ability to heal my body, mind and emotions.  I started practicing yoga in Afghanistan while on a 15 month deployment, I didn't have a teacher, but started to self teach, and a few years later studied under a teacher.  Recently I have been learning a bit more on physics, and using physics to understand my complex self in the universe.  Synchronous events keep me on a path to finding greater satisfaction in life, where I have finally surpassed the idea of suffering, and now feel a greater sense of purpose in creation, happiness and oneness.