In the Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible it says, "Be still and know I am God."
In the Bhagavad Gita it says, "If one can see stillness in action, and action in stillness, one is the wise one among men."
For a long time, wise people around the globe have been agreeing on this one point -- Inner stillness is the essence of enlightenment.
How do we cultivate this in ourselves? -- Deep Meditation!
This is why in the AYP lessons, deep meditation is the first practice covered, as soon we establish some clarity about our desire to undertake practices. Once we are established in a twice-daily meditation routine, all the rest of the practices tend to fall into place quite naturally. A little bit of inner stillness goes a very long way toward putting us on an even keel in yoga, and in everything else we undertake in life.
Meditation is the primary means for cultivating the inner peace and happiness that we all have been longing for. The longing is natural, for inner peace and happiness are found to be resident aspects of our inner nature when the obstructions in our nervous system begin to dissolve from the purifying influences of yoga practices.
In the AYP lessons, instructions on deep meditation begin at Lesson #13, and continue in many more lessons. See
www.aypsite.com/plus/13.htmlSamyama is a practice that takes advantage of resident inner stillness (silence) we have cultivated in our nervous system through our daily meditation sessions over a period of time. Once we are able to introduce a faint intention in silence, then we can "move in stillness." This is samyama. The practice of samyama develops in us that sense of "seeing stillness in action and action in stillness." In that state, our desires become expressions of our inner silence and find fulfillment in ways we could not have anticipated before. For instructions on samyama, see
www.aypsite.com/plus/150.htmlSamyama expands our daily life from the ordinary to become a constant stream of small miracles -- and sometimes big miracles. Such occurrences moving from within stillness are called "siddhis."
That is the beauty of yoga. We can begin to find some immediate practical benefits with deep meditation today, and, later on, we can find our experience still expanding. The possibilities in all of us are truly profound.
In this forum we hope the discussion will center on the thing that deep meditation and samyama have in common, stillness -- what it is and how to cultivate it in and around us. Keep in mind that we should be meditating for some time before we undertake samyama. That is covered in detail in the lessons. There is a logical progression in all of this. Rome was not built in a day...
In the many cultures and religions, the inherent ability in human beings to experience inner stillness has been called many things: inner silence, pure bliss consciousness, sat-chit-ananda, the void, tao, god the father, the silent seed, and so on. All these names mean the same thing.
As they say, "A rose is still a rose by any other name."
Begin deep meditation and find out for yourself what the rose is. You will find many here doing the same thing, and there will be much you can share.
The guru is in you.
