Training the Mind
We must try to understand this problem. It's the habits we have formed with our mind. If those are the thoughts that you think all the time, what is the poor mind going to do? From your very childhood you have said to your mind, "Okay mind. You are free; think what you want to think. See what you want to see. Cultivate whatever emotions, negative or positive, that you feel like cultivating." Now if you have a dog, and you never train that dog, and suddenly when the dog is eight years old, can you train that dog? If I ever own a dog, I'm going to give that dog a name. I'm going to call that dog, Mind. And I'll train my dog well, so that when I say," Mind, sit," Mind sits; "Mind, stay," Mind stays. That's my dog that I have to train. Do you get the point? So meditation is training the dog you own called the mind, giving it a new direction. Where you have been tense, learning to relax; where you have been negative, learning to be positive. And in this way the mind gradually changes; but it takes time.by Swami Veda Bharati
Self- Realization, The Final Healing
Recently I have been thinking over something that I have spoken of a little elsewhere, especially in my teaching of the Yoga-sutras. That as we progress spiritually, one of the marks of our spiritual progress is that our usage of language changes. The way we used certain words, we no longer use them in that sense. The rest of society with whom we communicate think we are using the same word, but we are actually expressing a completely different meaning.by Swami Veda Bharati
Summary of Lectures on Yoga by Shri Swami Rama of the Himalayas
"There are seven schools of Indian philosophy, ranging from extreme materialism, where nothing but matter fills the universe, to extreme spiritualism, where matter is a mere shadow of spirit. The Samkhya and Yoga schools are midway between these. Interestingly, these two are complementary: the Yoga school deals with the practical steps of achieving liberation from all human imperfections and suffering, while the Samkhya school provides the philosophical doctrines within which the existence of these imperfections and suffering are to be understood.by Dr. Paul Rybski
First Step to Meditation
This article presents the first level instruction in the method of meditation that anyone can start and practice any time and anywhere. It is seldom found in books, and when suggested in the books, it is less frequently understood. Yet it is so simple that even a three-year-old child can take to it.by Swami Veda Bharati
Yoga For Health and Serenity
I began practicing hatha yoga in 1965. The reason was merely physical. I had a severe back problem with constant pain in varying degrees and nobody seemed to be able to help. There are doctors in my family and one suggested I try yoga. I had bought a yoga book titled "Yoga and Women" and played with the postures and had fun doing them, but of course didn't know how to breath, much less concentrate on anything while doing them. So, I began looking everywhere and anywhere for classes, and found a recently formed class at the YMCA. I signed up, took only one class and was absolutely hooked. I had never really ever felt such relaxation before; never.by Nina Johnsen