Sivananda Yoga Farm Blog
Raja yogaRaja Yoga is the science of controlling body and mind. The asanas (body postures) and pranayamas (breathing exercises) from Hatha Yoga are an integral part of this yoga path. The main practice of Raja Yoga is silent meditation, where bodily and mental energies are gradually transformed into spiritual energy. Read more in Our Teachings section on Raja Yoga.
HOW TO MEDITATE IN DAILY LIFE
There are different definitions of meditation. One of the definitions, the classical way, is the definition according to Patanjali. According to Patanjali, meditation is at the seventh rung. That means seventh step of the eight steps ladder of yoga, a Raja Yoga system. That means you have to prepare yourself, in order for you to be able to be still. Yamas and niyamas are the two first rungs in Taja Yoga, guiding you to have proper behavior that will not bring about any kind of reaction, that will bring about peace.
Why Meditate? Seeking beyond the Pattern of the Mind
You need to understand why we meditate, then you can practice meditation for a long time and more seriously. The reason why we meditate, or we do yoga, is because in classical yoga, and yoga means meditation – meditation means yoga, there’s no separate thing. People think yoga means we’re doing some exercise and going to meditation is Zen meditation, or vipassana meditation or something separate. However, In the ashram, everything we do is included in the word meditation, and everything is preparation for meditation. Everything is meditation, everything is preparing you for meditation.
Fear, Anxiety, and Stress
Some countries are experiencing the COVID situation, they are in lockdown. In some other countries, like in the US, it’s not currently locked down, but still the increase of COVID cases is very big and there is a different situation that creates anxiety and fear.
How to prevent future suffering?
The topic of today is how to prevent future suffering. It is a very important topic because nobody wants to suffer. This teaching comes from the teaching in the Raja Yoga Sutras of Patanjali from 2,000 years ago, where Patanjali Maharishi explains the nature of the mind and how the mind works. He said: “Future suffering needs to be avoided”.
Yoga Guidelines for conscious self healing and healing of the Earth
The talk today is about Self Healing and Healing of the environment using Yogic principles. The word Yoga here implies classical Yoga taught holistically in a philosophical traditional background and not just modern urban commercial exercise Yoga taught in a hectic stressful environment.
Prana, Thoughts, Emotions and Immunity
Happiness, Health and knowledge requires energy. Lack of prana brings depression, stress and darkness. In this time of pandemic , it is critical to know how to increase prana, how to not loose prana and to prevent infection and diseases and how to heal.
What is the Mind and How to Control it
When the mind is still our internal vision becomes strong and we can experience peace. There is a direct relationship between our state of mind and our connection with self.
Yoga and the Koshas for Spiritual, Mental and Physical Health
What are the Koshas and how does Yoga heal the Spiritual, Mental and Physical levels? For the healing aspect of yoga, we have to go into the deep root cause…
Yoga and Permaculture Ethics
Living in positive relationship with everything and everyone around us is the foundation of yoga life and permaculture practice. In this article, we will examine the links between the ethics of both permaculture and yoga.
What is Yoga Meditation?
This page describes in a detailed protocol what Yoga meditation is and also shares a short video of Swami Sitaramananda explaining further.
Learn to Focus with Yoga Psychology
Yoga psychology analyzes different mental states to find ways to overcome the distracted mind and learn to focus. If we can do this it will lead to peace, bliss, and true freedom.
Transforming Fear into Faith and Courage
Transforming Fear into Faith and Courage by Swami Sitaramananda 3 AUGUST, 2018 In Yoga philosophy, the teachers or wise people (the rishis) discuss about the relationship between the individual Self and the Absolute Reality. They help us to understand the mysteries...
Suffering Can Be Our Greatest Teacher
Yoga is a scientific method to alleviate suffering and help people find the Truth and Essence in the teachings of all religions.
Your Mind is Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy
You are the observer of the mind. You are the witness of the mind. The mind is not you. It is your instrument. It is your tool. It is like when you drive a car. You don’t say the car is me. The car is a tool. You can stop it, you can start it , you can park it, and you can leave it alone. Observe the mind. How to do it: you realize that the mind functions in a certain way. So you have to learn about the mechanics of the mind, how the mind works. Here is an article on 5 Practices to Keep the Mind Elevated.
The Path to Spiritual Success through Yama and Niyama
Success is when we are able to break through the chain of karma. In other words, success is being able to retrain ourselves not to repeat the same pattern of conditioned behavior which makes us unhappy. The reason we are not happy comes from the fluctuations of the...
How to Avoid Unhealthy Habits
To keep our minds from falling into repetitive negative patterns, we make our minds so focused on positive thoughts that there is no space for a negative thought or habit to enter. Events happen so that we can be molded into a better person. When we are faced with a...
How to Progress Towards Peace of Mind
Peace of mind is difficult to attain because our mind is changing and we fail to remember our true nature, which is already Perfect.
Understanding Why We need to Meditate and the Benefits
"Meditation is the 'cessation of mental activities.' When your thoughs reduce by just 20 percent, you will experience relief and a self of self-control." - Swami Sivananda Meditation lies at the heart of any yoga practice. Once you feel comfortable practicing...
Mantras and Meditation: Fancy, Fiction and Fact – reprinted from 1970s
This article has been taken from the new Yoga Life book, published late last year. This is a collection of articles that come from the YOGALife magazine published by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers from 1970 to 2012. Most of these articles are written by...
What is the best method of meditation?
What is the best method of meditation, e.g. best timing, duration, breathing, concentration, etc.? Swami Vishnu-devananda would say that it is not possible to teach someone how to meditate, any more than it is possible to teach them how to sleep. Sleep overtakes us...
5 Practices to Keep the Mind Elevated
Yoga Psychology is different then normal psychology. It is the understanding of the mind in order to see through the mind and realize the Self. Yoga Psychology and philosophy is based on the idea that the restless mind is an obstacle to happiness, and we need to...
Concentration and Commitment Leads to Freedom
Yoga Psychology analyzes the different mental states in order to find ways to overcome the mind by the mind itself to find Peace, Bliss and True Freedom.
Overcoming Distraction And Restlessness
Q. What do I do when my mind is distracted? A. When the mind is distracted, it will bounce randomly from thought to thought and object to object. You will feel restless. Most of the time our minds are like this. The yogic advice in order to bring back focus and peace...
Yogic Guidelines For Good Conduct
In this article on Yogic Guidelines we learn about the yamas and niyamas and how they are helping us to progress on the path to peace.
Follow us
[et_social_follow icon_style=”slide” icon_shape=”rounded” icons_location=”top” col_number=”2″ counts=”true” counts_num=”0″ outer_color=”dark”]
Subscribe to the Yoga Farm Newsletter for regular updates, articles, and upcoming events.
