Meditation is commonly forgotten these days as the pinnacle of Yoga practices. 

Patanjali Maharishi is clear in his 8-limbed path that meditation sits at the top of the ladder on the classical Yoga path. He gives us:

• Yama – restraints
• Niyama – observances
• Asana – posture
• Pranayama – breath
• Pratyahara – Withdrawal of the senses
• Dharana – concentration
• Dhyana – meditation
• Samadhi – Self-Realisation

Samadhi is not a practice but a state of being, a realisation attained after (usually) prolonged and dedicated practice of the 7 steps that Patanjali has laid out towards it. 

Meditation is clearly therefore a significant part of practice on the Yoga path, if not “the” most significant. 

After intensive practice in the Laurentian mountains in Canada with the preceptor of the Sivananda Ashrams of North Americas and the Middle East, Swami Swaroopananda-ji, someone asked how we were to practice when we returned home. 

The question arose as we had been immersing in up to 8 hours of  sadhana (committed practice) daily. The transformational effects were profound, but obviously we could not (and were advised not to) continue like this after the immersion had ended. 

Swami ji therefore replied. Do meditation daily. Then if you have a little more time available, do a little pranayama, and if you have a little extra time available do an asana, and if you have more time available then do more asanas. 

The limbs of our Hatha Yoga practice were to be prioritised in alignment Patanjali’s 8 steps. 

How different our Yoga  classes look these days, The focus is clearly on asanas (posture) – wonderful in their own right – with perhaps a little breathing practice thrown in at the end if you are lucky, and rarely time set aside for meditation. 

Really it would be more accurate to say we go to Yoga asana classes.

When we remember Yoga not primarily as a physical fitness practice, and not even as a wellness practice, but as an ancient spirtual tradition with an alchemical potential to transform our consciouness in ways which supports individual and collective evolution, then meditation begins to take it’s rightful place within our Yoga sadhana (practice). We will begin to naturally prioritise it. Missing it will become like not cleaning your teeth. Your day will be missing something. 

Our Hatha Yoga asana and pranayama practice also then starts to look very different. It will be led by and will be directed towards meditation. 

On World Meditation Day on 21st May this year, we reflected in class on the place of meditation on the Yoga path. What are the spiritual benefits it brings? There has been much research into the benefits upon the health of the body and mind, and this again in some sense reduces meditation, negating it’s capacity to transform the human spirit. 

I am sure that after a good and balancing Yoga class, we have all caught a glimpse of that state of deep meditation. Thoughts no longer move busily through the mind. Instead presence fills the mind, and the mind let’s go into presence. We rest in a state of being beyond the dualistic nature of the mind and it’s notions of good and bad, right and wrong, pleasurable and unpleasurable which bring so much disturbance and cause us to suffer in so many ways. And resting here, we re-member that dimension of being unaffected by the ebb and flow of life, by this changeul nature of existence and by the very changeful nature of our minds. Here is stillness, space, constancy, wholeness. We are empty of the gamut of thoughts that generally plague our days, yet filled with presence. 

Resting in presence, with the polar opposites of our hearts and minds pacified, we experience and witness that which is unchanging and therefore true, that which has no apparent beginning or end and is therefore a part of the whole. 

Resting in presence we can take our seat in the heart of our heart – the seat of our eternal and true consciousness, beyond the dual and therefore whole, one. When we take our seat in the heart of our heart therefore, we take our seat in the heart of this Existence. 

This is Yoga. The word Yoga comes from the root Sanskrit word Yug which means to yoke, to join or bind. In a state of Yoga, we are yoked once more in our hearts and minds to the Truth of our being and of this existence. That the Source of all is one infinite, timeless whole. 

Yoga is therefore something we do, and something which we become. Through regular sustained practice of a Yoga informed by meditation, we begin to glimpse more and more of our essential nature, of the source of our being. Over time, we find ourselves more and more anchored in that changeless centre, less pulled hither and thither by the flux of life, and so less reactive and more evolved in the way in which we meet and respond to life. 

The happiness and health that we seek are natural by-products of this awakening.

In our Hatha Yoga practice, we can intentionally craft our asana and pranayama so that they become the stepping stones to a quiet mind ready for meditation.

Hatha Yoga, as a primarily pranic practice (prana being the vital force of the body and mind), works to harmonise the flow of prana and thereby reduce the waves of disturbance flowing through the body and mind making the ground ripe for meditation. They are wonderful devices to bring us to a meditation state of mind, each technique with both asana and pranayama practice with it’s own health-giving side-benefits.

The exploration of the benefits of various asanas and pranayamas upon body, mind and prana is for another time. For now, here are some of the physical and mental-emotional side-benefits of meditation revealed in modern day research:

PHYSICAL BENEFITS:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces stress
• Improves sleep
• Reduces pain
• Boost immunity
• Reduces risk of coronary problems
• MENTAL-EMOTIONAL BENEFTS:
• Boosts self-esteem
• Reduces anxiety
• Eases depression
• Increases self-awareness
• Lessens negativity
• Enables greater patience
• Support creativity and inspiration
• Builds greater stress resilience

Because of it’s effects on body, mind and spirit, meditation is strongly rooted in the lifestyle recommendations of Ayurveda. 

Click here for our Hatha Yoga classes, which follow Patanjali’s lead and flow from asana to pranayama to meditation. 

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And enjoy regular guided meditations on our YouTube Channel. You can SUBSCRIBE HERE.