Yoga Sutras Third Book – Vibhuti Pada

by Sharon Gannon |
August, 2000

Portion on Accomplishments – Meditation

Meditation, as Patanjali described, is a Hatha Yoga practice.

The meditative state is when you can watch your mind think and your body move.

So what keeps us from sitting still as we stop, look and listen? What stops us, for the most part, is unresolved stuff.

Stuff that has to do with sex, your own personal projects, your purpose here – this is all creativity.

Whether or not you are a painter or dancer or musician, that is irrelevant – every one of us has creativity – and we express it in our own individual way. This is a major problem that keeps us from knowing who we really are. Yoga is about freeing us in this second chakra area.

Most of us never stop moving physically.

All day and even in the night we never stay still, so to place the body in one position and to hold it in a state of repose and stillness; to watch the breath move through the body and the thoughts move through the mind is a very rare and precious opportunity for experience.

You will never be able to control your mind from turning an anxious situation to a joyous one unless you can sit still and let the mind think without you becoming involved.