5 Points Of Yoga
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
The teachings of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, as explained by the founder and guru Swami Vishnu-devananda, have five points of yoga that are met through various practices. These points are:
1. Proper Exercise (Asanas):
A true yogi realizes that the physical body is a vessel for the divine, and it is meant to be active, exercised regularly and nurtured in order to experience a fully conscious state on the Earth free of illness and disease. If not exercised properly, the body will not be a pleasant place for consciousness to have its experiences. Proper exercise entails practice of at least 12 basic postures, which are:
- Headstand (Sirshasana)
- Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana)
- Plough (Halasana)
- Fish (Matsyasana)
- Forward bend (Paschimothanasana)
- Cobra (Bhujangasana)
- Locust (Shalabhasana)
- Bow (Dhanurasana)
- Spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana)
- Crow pose (Kakasana) or Peacock pose (Mayurasana)
- Standing forward bend (Pada Hasthasana)
- Triangle (Trikonasana).
These asanas are but 12 of approximately (according to ancient scriptures) 8,400,000 postures! However, practicing only a few brings great benefit. The Sun Salutation is often a daily practice and can be done fairly quickly without special arrangements for a long session in yoga. I suggest you look up and print out a copy of the sun salutation sequence from the internet. It is easy to find, and the postures give maximum benefit for a minimum amount of time and practice.
2. Proper Breathing (Pranayama):
Proper breathing increases vitality, mental clarity, and general well-being. The lungs should be used to their maximum capacity and the breath should be controlled and used to achieve certain states of consciousness. There are three types of breathing:
- Clavicular breathing, which is shallow and only the shoulders and collarbone rise and fall. This is the least efficient way to breathe and get oxygen into the blood
- Thoracic breathing uses more of the lungs, but is still an incomplete breathing method. It uses the upper chest as did clavicular breathing, but does go down into the rib cage a little more.
- Abdominal breathing is the most efficient breathing style, and it reaches to the bottom part of the lungs, filling every area of the lungs with air, rather than only parts of the lungs. If you watch a child breathe, this is how youngsters breathe before they learn to be stressed out. Breathing is slow and deep and uses the largest part of the lungs.
To learn proper breathing, put your hand on your belly and make sure that your belly is rising and falling as you breathe. Breathing controls the mind, and thus, control of the breath goes hand in hand with enlightenment.
3. Proper Relaxation (Savasana):
The nervous system can only be rejuvenated during deep relaxation, and an inner sense of peace. Many methods of relaxation have been devised by the teachers of the past and serve as powerful techniques even in the modern era. Your ability to do efficient work is hampered when moments of relaxation are not taken when they are needed. Even while at rest, many modern-day people have tension in their muscles that they do not even know is there. It is important to learn how to economize our energy and use only the energy necessary to accomplish the work we need to do, rather than waste it uselessly in moments when we are not getting work done. Not only physical activity consumes energy, but also emotional and mental activity consume energy, especially if it is negative.
There are three states of relaxation that must be reached in order to completely rejuvenate your energy. The first is physical relaxation. My favorite method of physical relaxation is to relax each muscle starting with the toes and moving up to the top of the head. This creates a deep state of physical relaxation, and you will feel heavy or light, depending on your perspective.
The second form of relaxation is mental relaxation. This is the time to stop thinking altogether, even if a lot of things have to be figured out. Sometimes, stopping the process of thinking creates an open doorway for a true thought to come through, a completed thought that will solve your problem. The mind can act like a cistern, catching completed thoughts from the depths of your own wisdom, much the way a cistern catches rainwater. Having a calm mind conserves energy and creates the open pathways necessary for higher wisdom to come through.
The third stage of relaxation is spiritual relaxation. This is where you take a break from your identity as the human self that you always think of as yourself. Every once in a while you should remove yourself from the body and the mind, the ego consciousness. Reconnect at least once per day, even if only for five minutes, with the One Self that you truly are, and rest in the sanctuary of pure consciousness with no human identification, per se. When you come back to the human identity, you will come back refreshed and ready for all the challenges that it brings.
4. Proper Diet (Vegetarian):
Foods affect our mind, emotions, and our physical body. For maximum well-being and spiritual awareness, a vegetarian diet is absolutely necessary in the yogi’s lifestyle. Harm toward animals is karma-inducing and causes toxins in the physical body. The yogi is aware that all one’s actions affect others, and the act of eating meat causes great unhappiness for another being. The animals are not giving up their lives willingly! A yogi should eat simply, foods should be organic and clean, and reverence should be the attitude one approaches food with in all circumstances. Processed foods should be avoided, and nature’s gifts should be consumed. A yogi also consumes less than a normal person. One should never eat to the point of being over-full. A good rule of thumb is to never eat anything bigger than your fist in one sitting, and definitely not more than two fists. The yogic diet assists spiritual blossoming and awakening. Ayurvedic approaches have often been the basis for a yogic diet.
5. Meditation (Dhyana):
In order to be vibrant, healthy, and peaceful, a joyful mind is of utmost importance. If there is anything but joy, then one must induce self inquiry and find a way to make peace with that which is at war within the self. A quiet mind can only be achieved through regular practice of meditation. A common analogy used to help explain how the mind works is the analogy that entails the still pond or lake. When the lake is calm, the bottom can be easily seen. When there are waves and ripples, even if the water is still clear, the bottom can not be seen. A thought can be likened to a stone being thrown into the clear pond, and therefore the ripples ensue.
Still mind can be achieved by either focusing the mind on something outside of the self, or focusing the mind on the self inwardly. Meditation is something we all do, even if we don’t know it is something that we are doing. If you are focused on an activity, and you are thoroughly enjoying that activity, your mind is most likely not moving at all. Your mind is still. All of us have had this experience at some time or another. We have all noticed at sometime or another when time has passed and we didn’t even feel it go by. When the mind is still, time is irrelevant. You already have the ability to have is still mind. It isn’t something you have to learn. However, you may need to practice it more often. In meditation, you can achieve lasting happiness and absolute peace that cannot be achieved in the human mind, no matter how pleasurable a passing moment might be. Meditation takes one beyond the human mind by turning the mind’s concentration onto consciousness itself. This is the key to future happiness. Meditation is the most powerful medicine of all.
Here are 14 points of meditation offered by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers:
- The regularity of time, place and practice are important. Regularity conditions the mind to slow down its activities with a minimum of delay.
- The most effective times are early dawn and dusk, when the atmosphere is charged with special spiritual force. If it is not feasible to sit for meditation at these times, choose an hour when you are not involved with daily activities, and a time when the mind is apt to be calm.
- Try to have a separate room for meditation. As meditation is repeated, the powerful vibrations set up will be lodged in the area; an atmosphere of peace and purity will be felt.
- When sitting, face North or East in order to take advantage of favorable magnetic vibrations. Sit in a steady, comfortable, cross-legged position with spine and neck erect but not tense.
- Before beginning, command the mind to be quiet for a specific length of time. Forget the past, present and future.
- Consciously regulate the breath. Begin with five minutes of deep abdominal breathing to bring oxygen to the brain. Then slow it down to an imperceptible rate.
- Keep the breathing rhythmic, inhale for three seconds and exhale for three seconds. Regulation of breath also regulates the flow of prana, the vital energy.
- Allow the mind to wander at first. It will jump around, but will eventually become concentrated, along with the concentration of prana.
- Don't force the mind to be still, as this will set in motion additional brain waves, hindering meditation.
- Select a focal point on which the mind may rest. For people who are intellectual by nature, this may be the Ajna Chakra, the point between the eyebrows. For more emotional people, use the Anahata or Heart Chakra. Never change this focal point.
- Focus on a neutral or uplifting object, holding the image in the place of concentration. If using a Mantra, repeat it mentally, and co-ordinate repetition with the breath. If you don’t have a personalized Mantra, use Om. Although mental repetition is stronger, the mantra may be repeated aloud if one becomes drowsy. Never change the Mantra.
- Repetition will lead to pure thought, in which sound vibration merges with thought vibration, without awareness of meaning. Vocal repetition progresses through mental repetition to telepathic language, and from there to pure thought.
- With practice, duality disappears and Samadhi, or the superconscious state, is reached. Do not become impatient, as this takes a long time.
- In Samadhi, one rests in the state of bliss in which the Knower, the Knowledge, and the Known become one. This is the superconscious state reached by mystics of all faiths and persuasions.
As you can see, yoga entails far more than just physical postures and poses. Yoga is an all-around program for health and well-being of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It entails several methods of harnessing one’s energy and bringing together the opposites within oneself.