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Meditation is one of the most important features of yoga and you can actually say that the two are inseparable. Meditation is like a higher level of awareness with sustained and deeper concentration with a clear focus on the spiritual. It requires complete clarity of thought and mind, while at the same time your mind should be free of all thought and worry. The only focus should be on achieving a higher level of awareness and consciousness, improving your self perception. Practicing meditation successfully will give you tremendous clarity of thought, improve your powers of concentration and rationalization, and help you find peace and tranquility within yourself, even when in the midst of turmoil.
With it history and practice spanning five millennia Yoga has a wide variety of meditation techniques that its practitioners can avail of to achieve that higher level. Some meditation techniques employ the power of sound, while others employ visual stimuli and breathing techniques. Irrespective of the technique, all of them have the common goal of focusing all the scattered thoughts of your mind on a single object so as to achieve a state of self realization.
A seated posture is always better suited for meditation as opposed to lying down, because lying down being the normal position of sleep could easily induce sleep. In the East where the practice of Yoga and meditation is so deeply rooted meditation is generally practiced with the practitioner seated in cross legged postures, with a perfect vertical alignment of the head and back. The most commonly used posture and possibly one of the most famous and recognizable of all yoga poses is the Lotus posture. In this posture too the legs are crossed, and the feet come to rest on the opposite thighs.
Here are the poses for meditation:
- Padmasana or Full Lotus Posture: This is the best posture for meditation if you can stay perfectly still and erect, while being simultaneously relaxed, comfortable and alert.
- The Half Lotus Pose or Ardha Padmasana: In this pose you only need to place one leg under the opposing thigh. This posture is usually regarded as a warm up or preparatory pose for the Full Lotus Pose.
- The Burmese Pose: This is a relatively simple pose. The legs do not need to overlap as in a cross legged pose, but are spread out, with the knees bent and legs folded, to pull the feet back toward the pelvis. A rug or cushioning may be need to prevent discomfort.
- The Egyptian Pose: If you find sitting on the floor extremely uncomfortable or for some reason are unable to do so, then this is the perfect pose. Sit in a chair that allows you to sit completely upright, while providing support for your head. Whatever the chair you sit in, you need to be in a poised posture.
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