Yoga is a beautiful thing. If you are thinking of taking up yoga, or you have been practicing the poses, then consider encompassing yoga in all areas of your life. Yoga can be a path to inner-peace, focus, calm and a joyous life. But to be ready for yoga, is truly a mind, body, spirit experience. Beginning with the mind.
The mind has five stages, Patanjali tells us, and Vyasa comments that "these stages of mind are on every plane."
The First Stage - Kshipta
The mind is flung about, it is the butterfly mind, the early stage of humanity. In man, the mind of the child, darting constantly from one object to another. It corresponds to activity on the physical plane.
The Second Stage - Mudha
Equivalent to the stage of the youth, swayed by emotions, bewildered by them, man begins to feel. He is ignorant--a state beyond the fickleness of the child. A characteristic state, corresponding to activity in the astral world.
The Third Stage - Vikshipta
The state of the man possessed by an idea--love or ambition. He is no longer a confused youth. He is a man with a clear aim, and an idea possesses him. That state is said to be approaching Yoga. This stage corresponds to activity on the lower mental plane
The Fourth Stage - Ekagrata
A one-pointed state of the mind where the man possesses the idea, instead of being possessed by it. He is a mature man, ready for the true life. When he possesses that which before possessed him, then he has become fit for Yoga. He begins the training which makes his progress rapid. This stage corresponds to activity on the higher mental plane
The Fifth Stage -Niruddha
When the man not only possesses one idea but, rising above all ideas, chooses as he wills
Takes or does not take according to the illumined Will, then he is Self-controlled and can effectively practice Yoga. This stage corresponds to activity on the buddhic plane.
By a study of your own mind, you can find out how far you are ready to begin the definite practice of Yoga. If you find yourself possessed by a single thought, you are nearly ready for Yoga; it leads to the next stage of one-pointedness.
The step from one-pointedness to complete control is short, having reached that stage, it is comparatively easy to pass into:
Samadhi - a state of trance in which the mind is fully conscious, though the body is insensitive
introduction2yoga.com introduction2yoga.com
No comments:
Post a Comment