Meditation

 

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, specifically the eight limbs of yoga as proscribed by him, four of those eight limbs are devoted to meditation and concentration techniques.  The culminating point of meditation is samadhi, a state of absolute bliss.  MEDITATION is a significant part of our yoga practice and indeed the ancient yogis recognized that asana, bhandas, and pranayama were all ways of purifying  the body so that the mind had a clean 'work space' ; an open and detoxified body can sit longer and better handle the impact of the mind opening to samadhi.  In our modern world, this often translates into a physical practice that takes precedent over the mental one.  But the truth is, we need meditation just as much, if not more, than our asana.  Stress, anxiety, heart disease, breathing ailments, diseases of the mind, addiction - these run rampant through our Western world.  Meditation, in it's simplest form, is about relaxing mind and body together in order to heal.  Andréa's meditation and Hatha Yoga teacher Yogi Charu says, meditation is like a "flossing of the mind." You want to do it every day.

 

You can't speak if you don't listen.

 

~Yogi Charu