In this series of articles, we have covered connections between the many different approaches to meditation, and higher states of consciousness. As previously described, most traditions do *not* teach their followers how to attain transcendence. Instead, they target interim destinations that can lead to transcendence.
One tradition that highlights this spectrum is yoga. Historically, yoga has included physical, mental, and spiritual practices. Today in the west, we often find yoga that primarily focuses on poses and postures (asanas). Some of the more meditative versions include a focus on breathing and/or balance. What’s missing, however, is a comprehensive approach to the state known as “samadhi” (aka The Harmony Point)
What follows is a simple yoga meditation that highlights these differences. From poses and posture, to balance, and beyond …
A Yoga Meditation
- Enter a seated meditative position (like siddhasana).
- Close your eyes, and focus on attaining your targeted posture.
- Reset your breathing using the breathing meditation.
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—-> This is pose-focused yoga
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- Imagine a string is attached to the very top of your head, and is pulling your head upward.
- Remembering the string’s pull on your head, rock forward and backward, then side to side.
- Focusing on your targeted posture, find that place of balance.
- Repeat steps 5 & 6 until your targeted posture stabilizes.
- Anchor your state using expanded breathing.
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—-> This is balance-focused yoga
== - Focus where your skull meets your first vertebrae, and wobble your head.
Wobbling entails movement through all Six Degrees of Body Movement - Stop wobbling, and allow your head to find its new place of balance.
- Remembering the string’s pull on your head, move your focus to the next vertebrae.
- Wobble this vertebrae, moving other parts of your body as required to target the correct location.
If your attention is drawn to other sensations, for today’s meditation, fully observe and acknowledge the sensation, then return to the vertebrae last visited and continue.
- Stop wobbling, and allow the vertebrae to find balance with its immediate neighbors.
- Continue steps 11 through 13, until you’ve reached the base of your spine.
- Remembering the string’s pull on your head, wobble your entire spine.
- Allow each vertebrae to find balance with its immediate neighbors.
- Focusing on your targeted posture, find that place of balance.
- Repeat steps 15-17 until your targeted posture stabilizes.
- Anchor your state using expanded breathing.
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—-> This is a Harmony Point
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At this point, you have just used Single Point Awareness and sequential scanning to reset your spine, and become more aware of your physical attention seekers. In future meditations, you can use different yoga poses, transitions, and/or scanning sequences to become more aware of hidden attention seekers (see HarmonyPointYoga.com).
Then, just like in traditional yoga, once the Physical Harmony Point is attained, you’ll be ready to move into the mental and spiritual realms. Until next time …