YOGIC MEDITATION: PURIFYING THE MIND OF THOUGHTS

YOGIC MEDITATION:

PURIFYING THE MIND 

March 2nd, 2013 

Saturday

5:30pm-7:30pm

Excited to work together as our meditation group grows...It is profound to me that so many are finding themselves drawn to developing a practice that allows one to counter the ceaseless chatter of the mind with stillness and quiet.  For in this stillness and quiet, much like the pond whose ripples have smoothed out, there is the clear vision down into the depths of that pool of water.  So it is with our inner being, when the ripples of thought waves cease their movement and activity, clarity, depth, wisdom, and profound self-realization can occur.  The benefits of which are incredibly impactful on body systems, mental health, and our overall sense of well-being: physically, emotionally, spiritually.  

This next meditation, we will be focusing on purifying the mind of thoughts by talking about YAMAS AND NIYAMAS in YOGA: values, morals, and ethics.  When practiced moment to moment, these values empower us to sort through toxic thoughts and mindsets, preconditioning and behavioral patterns that fuel unhealthy thoughts or chains of thoughts.  The moment to moment practicing of yogic values or code of ethics IS what purifies the conscious layer of the mind.  BY PURIFYING THE CONSCIOUS LAYER OF THE MIND, IT BECOMES EASIER TO CONTROL THE THOUGHT WAVES OF THE MIND IN GENERAL...WE ARE MORE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE DEEPER, MORE RELAXING, HEALING MEDITATIONS!!!
Here's a review for those who didn't get this from last meditation:

YAMAS

Ahim’sa: (no harm)

Acting and thinking in ways that inflict NO harm, hurt, pain

Aparigraha: (no unnecessary accumulation)

Living  in accord w/ basic needs so that ones life may be simplified, clear, and at ease

Brahmacarya:  (all as divine/one)

Perceiving all beings and things as the divine manifest in myriad forms

Satya: (kind words)

Using words and thoughts only for the benefit or well-being of others

Asteya: (no taking/stealing)

Respecting in thought and in action what is of anothers

NIYAMAS

Santos’a: (balance and contentment)

Maintain equanimity/balance through contentment

Shaoca: (pure mind)

Maintain purity and quality of mind

Sva’dhya’ya: (self-study)

Maintain a healthy pursuit/searching for truth/knowledge of the nature of the universe

Tapah: (service to others)

Maintain a sense of selfless service to others

Iishvara Pran’idhan’na: (ideate on the source)

Maintain reverence and remembrance of the supreme consciousness

By putting this code of ethics into practice, we are disarming ourselves, disarming our mind of harmful thoughts, ammunition if you like.  Steadily weeding out mindless habits or knee jerk reactions and planting seeds of love, care, meaning, and respect for ourselves, others, and the world of life around us...We are taking our minds out of its own enslavement and mindless trickery of thoughts that perpetuates separation and self-centeredness. 

Practicing the above YAMAS AND NIYAMAS, our thoughts hold intentions for goodness, well-being, and healthy connections.  We become vehicles through which truth, love, light, and reverence flow and in this flow, we awaken to the power of our thoughts such that we learn to take responsibility for what we manifest through those thoughts.  
We become better aligned with what and who we say we are, with what we believe to be of value, and therefore this alignment begins to play out in our lives...improving the way we think, talk, walk, and feel.  Our life changes before our eyes as we are truly replenished, restored, and bathed in the luminous light of the divine self!

I hope you each have been able to put these yogic values into practice or at least been able to think about them for our next discussion. 

The itinerary is as follows:

5:30pm 

review of yamas and niyamas

and yogic steps in meditation

6:00-6:15pm

*1st meditation

6:15

 what are the affects of practicing yamas and niyamas

 and how they can change how the conscious mind operates

6:30pm

yogic breathing/ujjayi breath & stretching

6:45- 7:05pm 

Tibetan Singing Bowl to still the mind

mantra to prepare the mind

*2nd meditation 

7:15-7:30pm

soup & closing w/ reflections and sharing

No Cost

(donations accepted however for candles, soup, flowers)

Please Call to Register 

808-269-2638

Prema Devii "Trish"

YOGA: CULTIVATING DIVINE LOVE "From love of thy self comes pure love for others!"

YOGA:

CULTIVATING DIVINE LOVE

"From love of thy self comes pure love for others!"

Please come join me for an evening of tapping into the endless reservoir of love that blossoms from within, that comes through the sacredness that our yoga practice  offers.  When we enter our practice with our heart, we are present and therefore ready to listen, we are surrendering in our opening and therefore ready to receive, we are attending to our self and therefore ready with compassion to empathize and understand, we are nurtured by a source within and therefore ABLE  to give... From presence, surrender, and nurturance, divine love enters every cell of our being.  From our practice we continue to cultivate it in our lives.  Our practice always holds this power to serve our higher selves; it holds this power to bring us home within where our deepest yearning for pure love is quenched!   As it is only from the experience of pure love within that we can manifest it in our relationships and in the world.  Yes we need more love in the world but, it must come from falling in love with ourselves and the 
"great love" (dustin saylor) first,then and only then can genuine love for each other germinate and truly blossom!  

WHEN:  

(MONDAY)  FEBRUARY 11 TH

WHERE:  

HILTON HOTEL (ROUNDBARN)

SANTA ROSA, CA

(BANQUET ROOM)

COST: 

$20

BRING: 

YOGA MAT, FRIEND OR LOVED ONE (if possible), 

EMPTY STOMACH

LEAVE:

RADIATING PURE, DIVINE LOVE

OUR TIME:

1-guided heart clearing and intention setting 

=PRESENCE in love

2-yoga instruction to cultivate self-love and love for the beloved 

=NURTURE & RECEIVE in love

3-thai Yoga Massage (self or w/ a partner)

=GIVE in love

4-meditation 

=SUSTAIN & DEEPEN in love

5-reflections/sharing

*reading/s & quotes from the beloved mystics and poets:

HAFIZ, RUMI....

=COMMUNING in love

may sublime beauty, fortitude, and mystical love flow...

Prema Devii (Trish)

(500 RYT, Thai Yoga certified, M.A. Education)
808-269-2638


Supporting local artists and musicians:
 Check out Dustin Saylor's music @ 
dustinsaylor.com 
(lyrics & music inspired by union with the "Great Love1"

Summary from our GROUP MEDITATION: FEB. 2ND, 2013

Yogic Meditation:

Purifying & Transcending Layers of the Mind: 

Thank you for honoring the space, the teachings, and the stories shared by all the beautiful souls who have taken part.  The gathering, the communing, the sharing ...has been nothing less then a profound blessing in my life.  Believing in the connections, in the meaningful relationships, and the ritualizing of those aspects of ourselves that reveal the pure spirit within us all!  

Reaching deeper levels of meditation increases exponentially, the profound benefits both in depth and in range.  Benefits such as simple relaxation, to clarity of mind, to maintaining equilibrium and peace, to expansion of consciousness and ultimate union with the supreme source behind the manifest universe we live in.

We illustrated the layers of the mind this evening so that signposts are made available on the journey of meditative practice.  These layers will be made more clear as we develop our practice and achieve greater and greater attraction to sit in the laboratory of meditation, and really observe the mind, quiet it down, detach from it, and establish ourselves in the more subtle, introverted flow that brings self -knowledge, self-awareness, and self-realization.  There is no evading the fact that as we sit in meditation, we are in fact saying to ourselves, "I am wanting to know myself better.  I am wanting to understand how my mind has been functioning. I am wanting to improve how my mind functions...".  Therefore it is indeed a brave act to choose to do something so intrinsic as sitting with ourselves.  

With no expectations, again each "sitting" is unique and holds a gem of understanding crucial to our progress.  Perhaps you may feel disappointed that time, space, and person remained a concrete reality in your experience, the physical layer having its' dominance in your meditation however, an overwhelming realization in the conscious layer may have occurred.  For example, one person during meditation realized how their diet & digestion makes their minds restless, anxious, and unsteady.  In essence makes it impossible to control the mind, its' thoughts.  In this person's journey toward deeper, more fulfilling meditation, they must purify the physical layer more by cleaning up the diet.  Another person couldn't keep still because the body was restless or stiff and therefore the level they sat in and couldn't transcend was the physical.  

Every tool, technique, and method of yoga as an ancient science has to do with purifying and transcending layers of the mind.  In order to go from the physical layer to the conscious layer, meditators would need to really focus on the physical...purifying the physical with a more "SATTVIC" diet and increasing their "YOGA ASANA PRACTICE OR POSTURES."  

Yogic "SATTVIC" diet:

1-Diet is centered on fresh, nutrient dense foods that are high in "PRANA" or life force: (Vegetables for example, picked fresh from the garden have high life force value!  Foods that still have vibrant, alive color, smell, and taste!)

2-Diet is centered on natural, organic, whole foods free of toxic, artificial, 

unnatural contaminants:

  (Elimination of caffeine, refined sugars, drugs, alcohol, and even garlic and onion (yes garlic and onion have medicinal value to the body, however for meditation, cause agitation in nerve impulses in the brain which can make it harder to still thoughts) 

3-Diet that is more vegetarian or vegan based:

(Excessive intake of animal products especially meat, makes the mind weighted down in the physical layer as digestion, anything that requires a lot of energy to digest and sits long in our stomachs makes it very difficult to experience subtler, more sentient aspects/layers of the mind.  It makes the body and mind more "crude" in this sense.)

Yoga "ASANAS":

*In order to truly benefit from your yoga practice of postures, one must develop a personal practice after learning how to do them properly with correct breath, transition, alignment, and focus which is why they were always taught in a more intimate setting wherein ones teacher could provide personal, individualized attention!

*Each person should have specific postures done in a certain sequence so as to more effectually address issues within their individual body and experience.  They should also be done according to each persons personality.  A yoga therapist is specifically trained to assess this.  For example, one person might need a strong, faster pace practice with deep holds while another might need a flowing, slow pace with holds for relaxation or restoration.  Two very different practices to bring balance and healing here, but again, it is personalized!

So these are two things to bring into greater alignment in order for ones meditation to go to the layer beyond the physical.  Now for those getting caught in the conscious mind of too much thinking, this is another layer and of course, going from one layer to the next and back again is what may occur at any time during ones meditation.  Someone caught up in this layer simply can't let thoughts go.  There may be too much attachment to the thought/s, too much emotion being triggered by the thought/s, or may become physically uncomfortable because of thoughts making the experience very agitated.  Nonetheless, if the thoughts are the issue, purification of this layer, of the conscious mind is needed.  In yoga, it is crucial to practice a code of ethics and values to purify the conscious mind and transcend it.  This is done with avoidances and observances, the "YAMAS AND NIYAMAS."

We talked briefly about them but, I will list them here so that you may begin to practice them for the next meditation (February 16th )

YAMAS (avoidances)

1-AHIMSA  (avoid harming others and thy self in words, thoughts, or actions)

2-APARIGRAHA (avoid accumulating beyond ones means, avoid clutter in ones physical and mental space)

3-BRAHMACHARYA (avoid feelings of separation, judgement, criticism that breeds disconnection and lack of understanding)

4-SATYA (avoid using words & thoughts in ways that don't benefit either yourself or others)

5-ASTEYA (avoid desiring, taking, or coveting what is of anothers)

NIYAMAS (observances to maintain)

6-SANTOSA (maintain balance and equilibrium in all aspects of life)

7-SHAOCA (maintain purity of mind, of thoughts)

8-SVA'DHYA'YA (maintain continuous learning of the nature and intelligence behind life, of the supreme reality)

9-TAPAH (maintain acts of service to others no matter how small)

10-ISHVARA PRAN'IDHAN'NA (maintain ideation or reverence for the supreme source or intelligence behind all existence)

Perhaps take one a day and practice it with presence and awareness, jotting down your thoughts and reflections on the trials and tribulations.  What you are doing is changing and even undoing the unhealthy thought patterns in the mind, thereby slowly transforming how you experience your life and life around you, how you interact and act with yourself and others...The conscious layer of thoughts becomes more in line with your higher self and mental stillness therefore becomes easier to attain as you are making yourself less prone to distractions that do not serve you, that do not serve your highest self, the "ATMAN!!!"

Let's work together on these two layers, the physical and the conscious layer so that we can begin work on the subconscious layer 2-3 meditation sessions later.  At the subconscious layer of the mind we will be using a lot of breath work so it is extremely important to purify and align the physical and conscious layer through the above yogic practices first!

Please call if you would like to work with me personally to develop a better, more appropriate yoga practice.  As a yoga therapist I utilize poses, breath work, meditation, yogic counseling, diet & nutrition, and Thai Posturing or body work for a full approach to transforming ones life and improving ones quality of living...

YOUR THOUGHTS MAKE THE HOUSE THAT YOU LIVE IN
CLEAR THE HOUSE THAT YOU MAY LIVE IN A HOUSE THAT AFFIRMS THE DIVINITY WITHIN YOU!!!

To health, healing, fitness, and conscious development!

Namaste,

Prema Devii "Trish"

(RYT 500, M.A. Education, Thai Posturer) 

premayoga7@gmail.com

trishteaches@gmail.com

808-269-2638