Different Paths to Meditation

by Bridget 

Meditation by Camille Corot

I remind my students often that the yoga practice I'm teaching isn't about moving our bodies into a particular shape or following instructions well, but instead it's an internal exploration, a knowing of the body as well as the mind from the inside. I've written before in Is Meditation Really for Everyone? about not being much of a meditator, and yet I think this internal practice of yoga has become my form of meditation. But writing the blog post got me looking around for more information about meditating well. 

One of the first posts I read through when I started as copy editor of the blog in 2013 was Ram Rao's Achieving Stillness in Turbulent Situations. I've quoted parts of it over the years, but this is the first time I actually looked back and reread it. I remember that what caught my attention was the idea that we could find stillness and calm inside, even in uncomfortable situations. Here's the part I particularly noted:

No doubt, it is peaceful and invigorating to meditate in a salubrious environment, but is it always possible to expect such serene surroundings? My grandfather insisted that we practice meditation in the railway station (how much tougher could it get?). That’s because meditation can be done in a challenging environment. If it is a noisy environment, you can plug your ears, or if the room is freezing, you can put on several layers of clothes to ward off the cold. But remember physical comforts have no boundaries. How far would you go to get comfortable physically in order to achieve that stillness in mind?

Rereading this reminded me of a podcast I recently listened to on Nick Wignall's Minds and Mics podcast. The podcast What Is Mindfulness, Really? with Daron Larso‪n‬ was a conversation between Nick and Daron about Daron's decades-long practice of Mindfulness Meditation. They discussed why meditation is so challenging for many of us, and why we should keep trying anyway. Daron said that mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, changing how you relate to ordinary moments. People are motivated to exercise their bodies because they're frustrated by some aspect of their health or the way they look in the mirror. Similarly, people get frustrated with how they're relating with themselves and their lives, and are looking for something to change that. A meditation practice teaches you to pause—more often than never. I particularly liked Daron's observation that someone wanting to get in shape will sometimes get on a treadmill for a run. They're not running on the treadmill to get better at running on the treadmill. Similarly, practicing formal meditation isn't to get better at sitting in meditation, it's practice for being more mindful in the future. It's a no-lose game that sometimes feels like a no-win game. It's actually hard work. Meditation is not relaxation; it's becoming intimately aware of what it's like to be alive. 

That's a message that I can take into my asana practice. In fact, I have a quote pasted to my yoga binder that says, "Don't practice yoga to get better at yoga; practice yoga to get better at living." For me, asana practice is a form of moving meditation that encourages mindfulness. And that mindfulness is the same kind of mindfulness Daron talks about in the podcast, I'm just coming at it from a different angle. In Nina's post Coming to Your Senses in Yoga Poses, she explains how interoception, our ability to feel what's happening inside our bodies, can be used to explore the mind as well. She even quotes our teacher Donald Moyer, who said "Feeling an adjustment is concentration. Feeling the adjustment ripple through your body is meditation."

Find information on Bridget's current classes here. 

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