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What meditation is and what it is not
- To find Peace of mind
- When Peace of mind comes, Happiness follows. If we look for happiness but not looking for peace of mind, we might look for it at the wrong place.
- Peace of mind means also a balanced, calm, focused and clear mind which is not deluded, not crazy, not over active and restless, not depressed and lethargic, not fearful. Yoga Lifestyle helps meditation and peace of mind.
- Meditation gives inner strength and detachment , the power to let go and to release ourselves from our attachments. This will free us from the weight of our subconscious and per se bring in new light.
- Meditation is a process of purification. The patterns of attachments and fears of the past, the mistakes and karmas are replaced with new ideas, feelings, perspectives and possibilities. Meditation detaches us from these long standing patterns of wrong thinking and identifications and frees us from fears as the sense of the True Self becomes more real and tangible. We become lighter and wiser. In the same manner, when darkness is being dispelled slowly by light, we start to discern the accumulated old furniture in the dark room in the basement, and also realize that we can be free from them.
- Meditation is a slow training in awareness. If our favorite thoughts come, and we fall in its traps, meditation and awareness fail. Try again.
Therefore concentration is necessary in meditation, to dissolve the distractions and to be strong in the remembrance of the Self. When we succeed in concentration, we can return to our focus quickly and go deeper. When we concentrate on the Self, the name of God, a mantra or sacred pure sound, this will replace all distractions and traps of the mind. What meditation is not?
- It is not closing our eyes and wandering in the thought world, dwelling in our likes and dislikes, attachment and confusions, deluding ourselves in what we already know instead of opening ourselves to what we can not possibly know with our minds.
- Meditation is not putting more thoughts in the mind or solving problems. It is the process of emptying the mind.
by Swami Sitaramananda
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What Is Sivananda Yoga?
Sivananda Yoga follows the teachings of Swami Sivananda, as brought to the west by his disciple Swami Vishnu-devananda. Vishnu-devananda came to the United States in 1957, making Sivananda an important part of yoga’s first wave of popularity outside India. There are now Sivananda yoga centers in major cities in the US and western Europe, as well as nine ashram retreats.
The Sivananda method is based upon five principles:
1. Proper exercise (Asana, focusing on twelve poses in particular)
2. Proper breathing (Pranayama)
3. Proper relaxation (Savasana)
4. Proper diet (Vegetarian)
5. Positive thinking (Vedanta) and meditation (Dhyana)
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Yes! No!?
We say yes often times to things when we should have said
“No”We said No to things when we should have said
“Yes”What is the criteria to decide when to say yes or no?
The criteria is say yes to things that will lift you up to your ultimate Self, and No to things that will pull you down.There is not enough Yes for good things.
It should be Yes! Yes! Yes!There should be No to ignorance, doubts, fears and illusions.
Yes to Knowledge, Yes to Learning, Yes to Inspiration, Yes to Health. Yes to Selfless Love.
No to Negativities which lead to diseases, stress. No to Hatred, No to Abuse. No to Craziness.Yes is not easy to say in this world of confusion, where everyone prefers “maybe”
for fear of commitment and fear of being deceived. But it takes a YES to be FREE from ignorance and pains.We invite you to embark on a Yes to Positive Life at the Yoga Farm. Read our YES Newsletter …which stands for Yoga Events Sadhana.
Sadhana stands for those things we do systematically which will bring us HOME to our True and Healthy Self, and switch the quality of our feeling to a more Calm and Centered one.
by Swami Sitaramananda
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Top 10 Reasons to Try Yoga
1. STRESS RELIEF:
Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.
2. PAIN RELIEF:
Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain, and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.
3. BETTER BREATHING:
Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.
4. FLEXIBILITY:
Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
5. INCREASED STRENGTH:
Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.
6. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:
Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.
7. IMPROVED CIRCULATION:
Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.
8. CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING:
Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.
9. FOCUS ON THE PRESENT:
Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.
10. INNER PEACE:
The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.
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The 5 Points of Yoga
These 5 principles constitute the essence of the teachings of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. To clarify the science of Yoga and make it accessible to the majority of seekers, Swami Vishnu-devananda extracted its essence and presented it in these universal principles for physical and mental health as well as spiritual growth.
1. Proper Exercise (Asanas)
Our physical body is meant to move and exercise. If our lifestyle does not provide natural motion of muscles and joints, then disease and great discomfort will ensue with time. Proper exercise should be pleasant to the practitioner while beneficial to the body, mind and spiritual life.
2. Proper Breathing (Pranayama)
Yoga teaches us how to use the lungs to their maximum capacity and how to control the breath. Proper breathing should be deep, slow and rhythmical. This increases vitality and mental clarity.
3. Proper Relaxation (Savasana)
Long before the invention of cars, planes, telephones, computers, freeways and other modern triggers of stress, the Rishis (sages or seers) and Yogis of yore devised very powerful techniques of deep relaxation. As a matter of fact, many modern stress-management and relaxation methods borrow heavily from this tradition. By relaxing deeply all the muscles the Yogi can thoroughly rejuvenate his nervous system and attain a deep sense of inner peace.
4. Proper Diet (Vegetarian)
Besides being responsible for building our physical body, the foods we eat profoundly affect our mind. For maximum body-mind efficiency and complete spiritual awareness, Yoga advocates a lacto-vegetarian diet. This is an integral part of the Yogic lifestyle.
5. Meditation (Dhyana)
Here is the most important point of all, we become what we think. Thus we should exert to entertain positive and creative thoughts as these will contribute to vibrant health and a peaceful, joyful mind. A positive outlook on life can be developed by learning and practicing the teachings of the philosophy of Vedanta. The mind will be brought under perfect control by regular practice of meditation.
