The word yoga in Sanskrit means union and it describes a state of mind to be achieved, or more accurately, a state of no-mind. The sage Patanjali wrote the yoga sutras, a book of verses that describes the entire eightfold path of yoga philosophy, between 1,700 and 2,200 years ago. Patanjali described Yoga as the thought-free state. And it is in that thought-free state where the union of our human consciousness and the consciousness of the universal magnetic field takes place.
The road to the thought-free state begins and ends with the art and science of meditation. Meditation is the culmination of several steps which include pranayama, introduced earlier in the section on respiration and craving control. Pranayama or life force control is the key to controlling the mind—more specifically, the thoughts that arise in the mind.
Next is pratyahara, a yoga term for an inward turning of focus. In our normal waking consciousness, we continually address the external world by means of smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing. We concentrate on what is going on outside of us. Pratyahara is the process of switching off the five senses so we can focus our attention instead on the world within.
Once our focus is no longer disturbed by what is going on around us, we can begin the process of trying to concentrate, called dharana in yoga. When the object being concentrated on and the subject or the one who is concentrating becomes one, then you are meditating. The term dhayana refers to this state. It is a truly wonderful condition, and you just need a taste of it to keep coming back for more.
Practicing even a little meditation each day has tremendous health and material benefits. including:
Meditation
In recent years, the asanas (postures and stretches) of hatha yoga have become extremely popular in the West as a form of physical exercise. There are tremendous benefits to adding this aspect of yoga into your lifestyle. However, many practitioners don’t realize that the ancient yogis developed the asanas to help condition the body, so it could sit perfectly still for long hours of meditation.
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