Meditation
Starting up a meditation practice can be more daunting than beginning a
physical yoga practice. If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while you might
know that yoga has eight limbs. Asana is one of them, Dhyana (Sanskrit
for meditation) is another. Asana, or what we in the Western world call
yoga, is created specifically for our busy minds and bodies. By moving
together with the breath, by sweating and focusing and working hard to
move into different poses, we are forced to stay in the present moment.
While practicing an advanced arm balance, for instance, you won’t find
it that difficult to stay present in the here and now; you have to, or you’ll
fall on your face! Meditation—sitting down in stillness, closing your eyes,
and spending a few minutes with no company other than yourself—can
sound absolutely terrifying because it’s so different from the way we live.
Our lives are full of sounds and noise and business. We rarely get
moments of absolute silence.
In this chapter I’d like to focus on something that’s very important in
my own yoga practice: meditation. Actually, the physical practice of Asana
was invented thousands of years ago as a way to prepare the body for
meditation. Have you ever tried sitting in stillness for an entire hour? It’s
more physically demanding than you might think! If your body is stiff,
your hips and lower back will start bothering you fairly quickly. e
physical practice will keep your body soft and spacious enough to sit in
stillness without discomfort or distraction.
e yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal.
Standing on your hands is not the goal. e goal is serenity. Balance.
Truly finding peace in your own skin.
e meditation exercise on the next page is anything but daunting. It’s
simple and requires only five minutes of your time. For meditation, as for
yoga, you need to practice. Do you remember how difficult your very first