Light & Shadows of Chalandor

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Art of Meditation

Meditation deals with Senses, Body, Breath, and Mind. There is an art in the process of observing, accepting, understanding, and training each of these various aspects of our being.

In observing the senses, one becomes increasingly mindful of the way the mind is drawn here and there by smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. One comes to see the many ways in which the body cleanses and eliminates, the elegant force of our sensual drive on actions and artistic expression, the beautiful varieties of motion and dexterity of holding objects, and the awesome process of speech. To observe, accept, understand, and train these faculties is most definitely an art form.

In doing yoga postures, one learns with heightened awareness and concentration to let the body flow into the postures. This is an art.

With breathing practices, one may spend many minutes seeing how very smooth and slow one can make the breath, while eliminating jerkiness and pauses. This can bring calmness to the physical body and stillness to the mind. This too is an art.

Once one gets past the initial frustration with quieting the conscious mind, the mind is seen to be an awesome instrument, with many currents and cross-currents. Yet, the meditator comes to see that "who we are" is beyond this mind, and that the gentle examination of thoughts and emotions is an intriguing and joyful part of the journey to the center of consciousness. This exploration too is an art.

Science of Meditation

Yoga meditation science is complete in itself. It deals with all levels of ones being, and provides a vast array of detailed explanations and practices to go along with those concepts. Yoga meditation is a science, providing a blueprint for the architecture of consciousness, and a roadmap to the center of consciousness.

Highly useful among the texts on yoga science are the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, and the Upanishads, which are said to be the distillation, the "juice" of the Vedas, among the oldest teachings known to humanity. Seen through the eye of the yogi or the mystic, many of the books of the worlds religions are also guides in the science of yoga, of the wholeness of the inner journey.

The science of yoga meditation is taught in oral tradition by thousands of people around the world, as they have for thousands of years. Among those are a handful of enlightened ones, called by such names as saint, sage, seer, yogi, or master (of themselves). Preeminent among them are the sages of the Himalayas

Music and Meditation

A professional musician will spend years studying the theory of music, and the methods of the past master musicians. However, the professional musician does not stop with only theory, but also spends many years in the practice of playing the instrument.

The professional musician practices the art and the science of music.

The professional musician does both the theory and practice, and therefore knows both of the joys in one, integrated whole of music.

The serious meditation student will also do both, learning the theory and the practices, and applying the theory in practice.

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