Special Topics in Meditation #3
Here we examine some of the overarching aims and ideals of yoga. This set of 8 questions and answers served as the opening segment into our “Special Topics in Meditation” seminar on April 18, 2019.
In that session there were 7 flash cards with questions and 7 more with answers. When a question was read then the corresponding answer was offered, and then there was a short period for follow-up discussion and queries. Then we proceeded to the next question and answer.
Below are all 7 questions and answers, and in some cases, as per my memory, I have tried to capture the essence of the follow-up queries and discussion. If anyone who attended the session recalls more from the evening or has new points to raise, kindly write in with your recollections, thoughts, or queries and I will add them here.
#1: What was the first query of yoga?
Who am I and what is my relation with this universe?
Follow-up: The entire platform and practice of yoga began as an existential query that led to the meditative endeavor. Only much, much later on were the physical postures or asanas formulated.
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#2: How do you make a sad man happy and a happy man sad?
Tell him: This day will not last forever.
Follow-up: The sense is that this material or relative world is fleeting, transitory, and constantly undergoing change. Here today, gone tomorrow. So the way to stay in a perpetual state of deep happiness is to submerge the mind in spirituality, the subterranean flow of consciousness that is beneath the various mundane expressions. That consciousness unites all things and is the oneness that the yogis talk about. The mind suffused in that state is always in anandam or bliss.
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#3: What was Buddha’s response to the person who was verbally accosting him?
What if you give someone a gift and they do not accept it, then who does it belong to? Then it belongs to the giver. Similarly, you are giving me a slew of insults, but I do not accept them so naturally all those remarks belong to you.
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#4: What was Patanjali’s great contribution?
He codified the existing yogic practices and teachings into astaunga yoga, or the eight limbs of yoga.
Follow-up: By codifying the various practices Patanjali preserved those teachings, otherwise they would have certainly gotten lost over the centuries, as was the fate of so many teachings of the vedas etc.
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#5: What was the key quality that enabled the young prince Siddhartha Gautam to achieve realization?
Vishvas or firm determination.
Follow-up: After numerous attempts the young prince Siddhartha sat in meditation with firm determination and achieved supreme realization and thereafter was known as the Buddha, or the enlightened one.
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#6: What is dharma?
Dharma is:
(a) one’s inherent or natural characteristics;
(b) the path or righteousness.
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#7: When Parvati asked the great yogi Shiva what was the minimum quality needed to learn sadhana / meditation then what did Shiva say?
Shiva replied: a human body
Follow-up: In this dialog, the central idea is that no special quality is needed to practice meditation. It is the birthright of every human being.
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Thank You & Namaskar!
Thanks for coming out and participating in this third session of “Special Topics in Meditation.”
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