Thought 33. Some interesting aspects of meditation

[Quick links]

 

 

In the past episodes we saw how yoga helps in minimizing the thought-wars that generally give rise to stress. But mere stress reduction is not the ultimate goal of Yoga.

In the previous episode we also saw why it is necessary to minimize the thoughts completely to march towards a completely tranquil mind – an entry point to the final goal.

We talked about focusing the mind on specific targets through a process called Dharana – the 6^th step of Yoga. Dharana is the precursor to meditation or Dhyana that takes us to the ultimate goal of Yoga.

Before we dive deeply into Dhyana, let us look at some interesting aspects of Dhyana or meditation in this episode.

Thought 32. The Yogic way of fooling the thoughts!

[Quick links]

 

 

In the past episodes we saw how yoga helps in minimizing stress. Lesser stress means better health. Most people turn to Yoga with that goal. But Yoga is not really about stress reduction, though that is one of its byproducts. There are far more interesting things that Yoga can achieve. It takes us to an altogether new dimension of our existence far beyond mundane. That is achieved by the advanced steps of Yoga that we are going to discuss in this as well as subsequent episodes.

Thought 31. The most important step of Yoga.

[Quick links]

 

 

Unless you are a novice who is just introduced to Yoga, you probably have noticed that the effectiveness of Yoga practice gradually tapers off over a period of time. It is no longer as effective as it once used to be. Why does that happen?