Yoga_Journal_USA_Your_6Week_2017

in your awareness. As Patanjali’s Yoga

Sutra (2:46–48) says about asana: It

is stable and easeful, accompanied by

the relaxation of effort and the arising

of coalescence, revealing the body

and the infinite universe as indivisible.

Then one is no longer disturbed by

the play of opposites.

But that is easier said than done.

Not for nothing is the mind likened to

a drunken monkey! Even when you’re

trying to focus on one object, a thought

can arise, which leads to another, until

15 minutes later, you wake up from

some four-star daydream or sexual fan-

tasy or worry-fest.

There is a distinct but subtle differ-

ence between being aware of a thought

and thinking a thought. It’s primarily

a difference of “feeling tone,” the felt

sense (physically and energetically) of

experience. A thought you are aware

of with bare attention—with neither

grasping nor aversion—feels light. With

no reactivity to feed it, it arises like a

bubble and eventually “pops” or “self-

liberates,” rather than pulling you in

with heaviness. This choiceless aware-

ness requires mindfulness, a mode that

is accepting and nonreactive.

MOUNTAIN MEDITATION

Create a comfortable, stable, supported

seated posture; support yourself with

cushions or blocks if need be. Sit upright

and close your eyes. Let your breath

flow naturally, without manipulating it.

Rest your attention on the rising and

falling of your belly or chest.

Imagine a majestically tall moun-

tain. Contemplate how solid and stable

the mountain is throughout the chang-

ing seasons. At times, the mountain

may be clouded over, its peak covered

in fog. Sometimes, the mountain is

assaulted with thunder, lightning, and

heavy rains. Sometimes, it rises into

a clear blue sky or a few white puffy

clouds. At times, it is covered in snow

or with lush foliage, and at other times

it is barren. Throughout, it remains

stable and unaffected by the changing

weather or seasons. Let this stable

quality of “mountainness” nourish your

concentration and your ability to sit

through all the varying experiences

that arise while practicing this medita-

tion. Your mind can be clouded over

or clear and bright, but through it all,

you can sit solid like the mountain.

LAKE MEDITATION

Crystal-clear turquoise-hued lakes

toward the peak of some mountains

in the Himalayas are called “sky lakes”

because they so perfectly reflect the

sky above. Protected by the higher

peaks and trees, the surface of such a

lake is smooth and calm. You don’t need

to visualize yourself as a lake. Rather,

contemplate the lake and its quality of

reflectivity. Notice how it is as reflec-

tive as a mirror, so you can see your

face and the sky above on its surface.

As you imagine yourself looking into

the surface of the water, notice how the

water reflects only what is there, nei-

ther editing out nor adding in anything.

The water reflects the dark, ominous

storm clouds and the fluffy white clouds

equally. As birds fly overhead, the water

reflects them; yet once they are gone,

it shows no trace of them.

When the waves of thought are

calmed, the mind has this dual ability

of the lake to be both translucent and

reflective. Once your mind is stabi-

lized, you can turn your attention to it.

Imagining your mind to be as translu-

cent and reflective as the sky lake may

bring forth thoughts, feelings, and

emotions, but you can simply reflect

what arises without judging or compar-

ing and without editing out anything

through aversion or denial.

SKY MEDITATION

After a while, turn your attention from

the surface of the lake toward the sky

itself. Then, imagine shifting your

gaze from the reflections, the passing

phenomena, to the sky within which

they all arise and pass away. The sky is

boundless, limitless. It contains every-

thing that arises. The horizon is only

a perceptual or conceptual boundary

that can never actually be reached.

Even on the cloudiest day, the sky is

luminous above the clouds, pervasive,

limitless, and free.

Awareness has the qualities of lumi-

nosity and limitlessness. It is always

present behind, between, and beyond

all the ever-changing phenomena.

Whenever you catch yourself identify-

ing with the mental “clouds,” simply

shift your identification from the

clouds to the sky itself. Realize that

what you’ve been seeking is what you

already are and what you have always

been! Big Sky Mind opens us to seeing

that our true nature is this awareness

within which all experience arises and

passes away.

Frank Jude Boccio is a yoga and meditation

teacher and author of Mindfulness Yoga.

The great Buddhist Tantric mas-

ter Tilopa (988–1069 CE) wrote

in his “Song of Maha Mudra”:

The clouds that wander through

the sky

Have no roots, no home; nor do

the distinctive

Thoughts floating through

the mind.

Once this is seen,

Discrimination stops.

...
Rest at ease your body.

Giving not, nor taking,

Put your mind at rest.

Maha Mudra is like a mind that

clings to nothing.

sit with this

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