Loving-Kindness Meditation

by Ram

Love & Love by Melina Meza

Ashtanga Yoga (Ashta=eight; Anga= limbs) refers to the eight fold path/ rungs/limbs/steps of Yoga as described in the Raja Yoga section of the yoga philosophy. Its practice helps us to discriminate between ignorance and awareness and truth from illusion, which is the means for liberation or enlightenment. The first five limbs help us develop our power of focus and concentration. Dharana or focus is the preparatory step towards attaining a deeper meditative stance. Dharana helps to reduce the chattering of the mind and filters out all irrelevant thought processes. The practice of dharana is not concentrating on the object rather it is the awareness with which you redirect the mind, again and again. This very practice—the mind running or getting distracted, you bringing it back—in essence is dharana (see Samyama: The Trinity of Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi). You can practice dharana at any time and at any place. Dharana gets easier as you practice it. 

Patanjali takes this concept to the highest level when he describes the process of focus coupled with intake of harmonious impressions. In the samadhi pada of the Yoga Sutras, verse 1.33 describes this relationship:

“maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha duhka punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatah chitta prasadanam

Focusing with perfect discipline, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil .” —Swami Jnaneshvara 

I was struck with the phrase “maitri karuna” as it is loaded with a powerful message. In Sanskrit and in Pali, the term indicates loving-kindness, although in Pali the term used is Metta. Maitri Karuna/Metta (Loving-Kindness) can also mean tender, soft, good-natured, pleasant, cheerful, kind hearted among others. Basically the term connotes a deep sense of respect, appreciation, and regard.

Maitri Karuna/Metta is an act of compassion, an intention to mitigate suffering and lighten the sorrow. When our minds are clear, we are able to open our hearts and fill ourselves with loving-kindness. In the process we cultivate compassion, are able to truly see suffering, and are moved to take steps to relieve or alleviate the suffering. Loving-kindness is just not about extending selfless service to someone or something you are drawn to, it is also about bringing in the same quality to your own self. We need to love and accept ourselves just as we are; it then becomes easy to truly love anyone in an unlimited and unconditional way. Putting it simply: I am happy and peaceful, so let me extend that peace and happiness to others. As loving-kindness blooms, gone are greed, selfishness, indulgence, insatiability, wanting, and needing. At the core is the desire to be happy, peaceful, and selfless. 

Thus, loving-kindness is non-violence in all forms and practicing this virtue is committing to both yamas and niyamas. What would be your reaction if you found out that someone was not only providing unconditional love to you but also sending positive energies your way for your peace and prosperity? Unless you have fully accepted yourself, you would not be open to receiving this loving-kindness and you will only be doubting the individual’s motive. 

According to Swami Satchidananda yoga master and founder of Integral Yoga:

“Whether our mercy will help the other individual or not, by our own feeling of mercy, at least we are helped.” 

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is about drawing attention to the mind and heart center, and acknowledging one self’s peace, friendliness and compassion. Expressing and meditating on self’s loving-kindness sets the foundation for being able to offer selfless love to others.

The next step would be to meditate on and direct the loving-kindness to other benefactors, such as parents, siblings, friends, teachers, pets, or anyone that you know who has helped you in some way.

The third step would now involve directing your LKM energy towards any individual outside of your family or friend circle and who could be a stranger. I myself am thinking of this elderly gentleman who lives a block away from my home. We have not been introduced to each other. I see him walking at least three times daily around our neighborhood. This individual not only limps while walking, but his gait is also very unsteady, so whenever I encounter him, I immediately direct a LKM prayer towards him for his peace, physical stability, and good health.

Finally, LKM ends by directing the meditative energy towards a problematic/challenging individual. This is someone whose presence or just thinking of the individual evokes anger, rage, fear, resentment antagonism or other disharmonious emotions in one’s self. While practicing LKM on such individuals, if your emotions arise, honor and appreciate your limits of loving-kindness and return to directing the meditation toward yourself. Switch alternately between yourself and the problematic person, and reflect on the emotional turbulence pervading your psyche just from this one individual. Keep repeating the loving-kindness meditation, and you will overcome these mental turbulences such that you are no longer affected by this individual. 

Some or most of us actually do a slight variation of LKM in our asana class even though we may be unaware of its true intentions. The Om mantra or the Shanti Mantra (Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti) that several teachers practice before, during or at the end of the asana class is actually a form of LKM where we invoke peace to the entire world. 

As a neuroscientist, I was naturally curious to know the benefits that LKM offered. The first and foremost benefit of LKM is that loving-kindness reduces the stress response. People practicing an eight-week course of LKM experienced less distress than non-practitioners. Additional benefits of LKM were reported in a study Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress. that looked at the body's inflammatory and stress response system. Initially, the results did not reveal any significant physiological differences between LKM practitioners and non-practitioners. However, when the practitioners were divided into a high-practice group and low-practice group, the results were not only striking but significant as well. The high-practice LKM group saw a significant decrease in inflammation and stress response compared to the low-practice or no-practice groups. The study highlights two significant findings: 1) LKM significantly impacts the stress and inflammatory systems in the body and 2) beneficial changes are seen only in those individuals who actively engage in the practice of LKM. Practicing LKM once a week was not sufficient; it required for the individuals to practice a little of it daily. 

What about its impact on the brain structure? In Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin recruited two groups of subjects: a) those who had at least 10,000 hours of LKM practice and b) those who were new to meditation. Using fMRI measurements, Dr Davidson noticed that LKM impacted several important brain regions including the insula and the temporal parietal junction that are mostly involved in empathy and our ability to attune to the emotional states of others. The group with 10,000 hours of LKM experience showed significantly more activation and experienced higher levels of compassion compared to newly practicing group. What is striking about these studies is that the beneficial changes happen in a short period of time with a constant, sustained practice of LKM. 

Take home message: Maitri Karuna (LKM) paves the way for a peaceful and harmonious living! 

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Samyama: The Trinity of Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi

by Ram

Misty Morning on the Seine, Sunrise by Claude Monet

In earlier posts I discussed the first five of the eight-fold path or eight rungs/limbs/steps of Yoga as described in the Raja Yoga section of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. Each step or limb prepares us for the next higher step. Thus, the first three limbs (yama, niyama, and asana help to prepare the body and enable practitioners to become more flexible, stable, and grounded. The fourth limb, pranayama, consists of breath practice and is designed to allow you to gain mastery over the respiratory process while building a connection between the breath, the mind, and the intellect. The fifth limb, pratyahara, helps us to discriminate between the harmonious and disharmonious impressions that we draw in through the five senses.

Pratyahara serves as a fulcrum regulating external practices like asana and pranayama to internal observances like dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (deep absorption). The three internal observances that also constitute the last three limbs in the Yoga philosophy have been described as “trayam ekatra samyama” and translates as “the three processes of dharana, dhyana, and samadhi, when taken together on the same object, place or point is called samyama”. While the first five limbs help us develop our power of focus and concentration, we continue to get distracted by our actions and our attention travels as well. Our focus constantly shifts as we try to become more adept at a particular posture or breathing technique. With a balanced breath, it becomes easy for the mind to focus on a single object or thought process while avoiding other mental dramas.

Dharana

Think about dharana or focus as the preparatory step towards attaining a deeper meditative stance. Dharana helps to reduce the chattering of the mind and filters out all irrelevant thought processes. To attain mastery over dharana, start out by focusing on any sound or a mantra (the silent repetition of a sound), or practice with an image or an object in mind. The most important thing to remember is that the goal is in the practice. If your mind wanders, just gently bring it back to focus without any judgment. Bringing the mind back to the object or the mantra—as many times as it takes—is what dharana is all about. The practice of dharana is not concentrating on the object rather it is the awareness with which you redirect the mind, again and again. This very practice—the mind running or getting distracted, you bringing it back—in essence is dharana.

Dharana does not have to happen only when we sit down to meditate. You can practice dharana when you are on your mat as well. Notice how your senses are acting during a pose: are you inundated with lot of thoughts, action, and dramas about the specific pose or are you intimidated by your neighbor’s perfect pose? Notice if your mind is very busy, constantly judging yourself or your neighbors. Can you gently practice pratyahara, let go of your sensory impressions, and start focusing on the pose itself? To “be in the pose” requires practice of dharana, letting go of the ego and focusing just on the pose so as to find your true self. Dharana gets easier as you practice it. When you get familiar with dharana, the mind becomes a much less restless place to be. Notice the joy, the pleasure, and bliss when you are able to successfully focus on something.

Dhyana

Since Dhyana (meditation) is a progression of dharana, the same techniques of dharana can lead you to dhyana. An extended period of focus prepares the path for dhyana. When the mind stops wandering and maintains a continuous period of stillness, at that point you are in dhyana. Dhyana or meditation is a state of being in which you are keenly aware without a need for focus and with the mind at its quietest. In that state of mind you no longer possess bodily awareness, the sense organs are not distracted, and the stillness produces few or no thoughts at all. In this state there is nothing else you can think about.

We can experience this state on the yoga mat as well. As you come back to a pose again and again, you are now able to do it smoothly and hold the pose without any distress or chattering mind, and you then become so overwhelmed by the pose that it becomes everything that you can think about. You are not distracted and you don’t want anything else as you feel transformed in that pose—you have achieved a complete state of satisfaction—this is dhyana. It comes when a process turns into something totally natural and there is nothing else you want to think about. It is not easy to reach the state of dhyana; one has to work towards it by means of dharana. It is for this reason that in the Yoga Sutras, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi are described as a three-staged process called samyama.

Samadhi

 As you start to focus on an object or a mantra or some task, and as you naturally gravitate towards it and become one with it, you experience samadhi, “the insight.” Patanjali describes this eighth and final stage or limb as insight, rapture, or a state of ecstasy—a state in which the individual merges with his or her point of focus and transcends the self altogether.

Having a continuous practice of meditation helps the individual to achieve the state of samadhi. As you sit to meditate, both mind and body relax into a state of deep and profound restfulness. Any dramas in the mind or emotional upheavals get dissolved without effort, and a personal experience of complete peace, joy, and creativity unfolds. Anyone can learn this, and it does not require concentration or mental effort. The benefits are immediate, tangible, and cumulative, and the practice itself is relaxing and enjoyable. Seasoned meditators can naturally and effortlessly go into this state of insight. In this meditative state there is no separation between self and the world around; the individual experiences complete oneness and in that state there is only peace. One can get a similar experience on the mat as well.

After an hour of asana practice on the mat, your experience of samadhi is heavily dependent on the status of your mind. You experience oneness and complete peace when you are totally unaware of “I” or “mine” with the body, mind and intellect working in complete unison. This experience may be momentary, maybe even a fleeting second, but it is an experience of truth, uncontrollable joy, and peace.

Thus, the ultimate objective of yoga is reigning in the fluctuations of the mind to achieve complete liberation from mental turbulence—seeing things as they truly are and experiencing only peace. This would be the state of samyama, the ultimate step—peace or enlightenment—which can only be experienced individually. As BKS Iyengar aptly put it, “You must do the asana with your soul.” This would mean being in samyama, which requires cultivating the quality of focus, concentration, and letting go of the ego, including your body image, to feel open, grounded, and calm and experience oneness with your true self. In this state, you experience contentment and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. It’s a great positive spiral and it results in improved health and happiness.

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Friday Q&A: What is Meditation?

I am finally back from my retreat in Mexico, where we practiced meditation at the beginning and end of each of our two asana classes daily. Via my iPhone (don’t you just love technology, sometimes!), I was able to share some simple meditation practices with you last week (Short but Sweet and More Short Meditations from Mexico). These posts spurred one reader to ask the following:

Q: I have a question on meditation. You have been running articles lately on meditation but have never precisely defined what meditation is. Savasana doesn't seem to count as meditation, but why not? If someone is in a restorative pose like legs-up-the-wall or supported bridge and is focusing on the breath, is that considered meditation? If not, why not? I hope you can clarify this for me.

In addition to the posts I did last week, Timothy and Ram have addressed certain aspects of meditation in earlier posts (see Starting a Meditation Practice and Achieving Stillness in Turbulent Situations). But, our reader is right on some level that we have not precisely defined what meditation is. And this is partially because there are many kinds of meditation, depending on what tradition you look at. Different yogic traditions have different focuses, techniques and goals for meditation. So, in some ways, one definition will not satisfy all meditators!

That said, we can look at classical yoga as defined by the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali (which we have quoted on numerous occasions here at YFHA) to get at least one perspective on what meditation is. One of the most obvious goals of yoga practice, and of meditation (since it is one of the tools or techniques of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga), is the “quieting of the fluctuations of the mind” as sutra 1.2 “yoga citta vrtti nirodhah” is often translated. TKV Desikachar’s translation of this same sutra is as follows:

Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without distraction.

The underlying idea here is that the normal busy, erratic and worry-prone mind—to mention a few of the qualities of average mind—is the source of much of our daily suffering, and the result of the focused practice is a quieting and stilling of the mind that results in greater peacefulness. There are also other loftier results that arise with continued yoga and meditation practices, which we can leave for another time.

There are several stages in the process in classical yoga, which include:

1. Pranayama practices that intensify concentration and focus.
2. Dharana or “concentration.” In dharana, you choose an object for your mind to focus on, even though it wanders off and has to be brought back to the chosen object frequently. Anyone who has tried to sit for 10 minutes and focus on one thing, like the mantras I suggested last week, has had this on again, off again experience of trying to focus exclusively on one chosen thing.
3. Dhayana or “meditation.” As the practice of concentration improves, at a certain point the mind establishes a continuous link with the object of the practice and you are said to be at the stage of “Dhayana” or meditation. Sutra 3.2 marks this shift in the quality of the experience, which Desikachar translates as: “Then the mental activities form an uninterrupted flow only in relation to this object.” Even though this is not the end stage of things in the classical yoga perspective, I’ll stop things here and say that in modern circles we often call even the earliest stages of concentration practice “meditation,” and this is really OK for our purposes.

I’ll now turn to which postures you can “meditate” in. The truth is that as long as you are able to mentally focus on your chosen “object” of the day, just about any pose that allows the body to remain quiet and less likely to distract your mind could be a good one. Even though I asked my students to sit in one of several typical yoga asana sitting positions, a few students last week had body pain that made it very difficult for them to keep their meditation focus. So those students were invited to lay in supported Savasana, for example, as an alternative. Legs Up the Wall could be an acceptable alternative for some students, especially for shorter meditations less than 10 minutes long. For anything longer, many students will begin to experience tingling in the feet and legs, which may be too distracting to the mind for a good meditation. Supported Bridge pose, for many, would likely be to physically stimulating to be a good meditation position, but there could be exceptions in some cases. And you need to be able to stay awake and present while meditating, so if the posture you chose is leading to drowsiness, this means the mind is no longer staying focused and you need to find a different position for your practice.

And the “focus” of the mind can be varied, from something as simple and consistent as the sensation of inhaling and exhaling, to a single word or phrase repeated with each breath that I called “mantra” in our practices last week, to the gazing at a mandala or a flame (meditation techniques in which the eyes are open and used to direct the attention of the mind). As the topic of meditation is larger and more complex than these introductory thoughts I am sharing with you today, I know we will return to it again and again in future posts to tease out subtly, nuance and purpose. In the meantime, if anyone has a favorite yoga posture that they find effect for their meditation practice, please share that with the rest of us.

—Baxter

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Yoga for Healthy Eating, Part 2

by Baxter

Today, as I was driving to the Farmers Market in Berkeley to enjoy my weekly ritual of buying local grown and produced fruits, veggies and animal protein, I happened to catch a bit of the show “Your Health and Fitness” on KPFA. The host posited the assertion that “health” bestows on each of us the opportunity to live a full life. I gotta say, I loved the simplicity of this notion, and all that it really implies. Then I got home to read the following comment on my recent post regarding yoga for healthy eating, full of more wisdom born out of personal experience. It came from an old friend and colleague of mine, and with her permission, I share it with you now:

“Hey Baxter,

Kudos on taking on such a complicated subject! I have a few ideas I think are worth adding to the discussion on mindfulness and healthy eating, and when I say "ideas", I really mean personal opinions I've formed along the journey of nurturing my personal health.

The first idea that really drives my weight management is focusing on eating more good food rather less bad food. "Eat less" is very common advice, but when we set out attempting to do this, what happens is, we end up eating meals that are less than we need to feel satisfied, and then, when we are inevitably hungry in an hour or two, we reach for a convenient snack. This snack is rarely nutritious, and does two things; it keeps us from our goal of losing weight and gives us a sense that we are inept in managing our food. This second part is often the killer. When people ask me for advice about weight loss, I always say the same thing; "EAT MORE VEGGIES". If you add a large serving of vegetables to lunch and dinner, you will not be hungry in between meals. And these vegetables are of tremendous value to your long term health. Your body will shift naturally a healthier size. Eat more, not less.

Also, I believe that living in the modern world means being absolutely inundated with information about dieting, and most of this information is not helpful. Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it. I've used the same food plan through two terms of weight loss (one in my early thirties & one after my daughter was born), and I generally use the same plan for maintenance today. Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it.

Lastly, I think exercise is vital to weight maintenance, not because it assists in weight loss (I've actually found it to hinder my weight loss), but because it helps with stress reduction and confidence in the long run. Stress is perhaps the most important factor in why we eat and why we fail at weight loss. When we find exercise that we enjoy and we can integrate into our lifestyle, we have a useful tool in managing our long-term health through stress reduction. Secondarily, we gain in the process an enjoyment of our bodies that is necessary to continue on a path of nurturing self -care. Exercise we enjoy makes us feel good. Feeling good helps us to want to continue on the journey.

Hope this is helpful to the greater discussion.

Amelia”

Yes, Amelia, I think this is very helpful to the greater discussion around healthy eating. Implied in Amelia’s approach is, as I see it, the idea that a longer vision goal is being set by each of us as we decide to make healthy changes in our eating habits. It seems prudent, as an example, that if my goal is weight loss for me to sit and consider what my expectations are when my goal is reached: do I expect to feel better physically, emotionally or mentally? Do I expect a present health problem to resolve itself secondary to my weight loss goal being met? Is there an expectation of an underlying happiness that will arise? In all likelihood, quiet contemplation around this goal of “weight loss” will reveal these sorts of underlying hopes and expectations that could ultimately be more important than any number on the scale.

The practices of yoga, starting with pranayama as a beginning method to quiet the normal mental chatter and give the busy portion of the mind a rest, can be quiet helpful in this process of introspection.  From there, dharana and dhyana, one-pointed concentration practice and continual meditation practice, will refine and sharpen the ability to be receptive to these deeper goals. One of the qualities that is always mentioned in either succeeding or failing at these sorts of attempted changes is the presence of “will power.”  And according to Stanford psychologist, author and yoga teacher Kelly McGonigal, scientists now consider will power to be like a muscle, versus something you either have or don’t have. We all have the muscle, and you can strengthen it with practice. And yoga is a discipline that teaches us about practice, or abhyasa, as one of the main tools for succeeding in meeting our highest goals. 

So to recap Amelia’s wisdom:

• Eat enough good food (VEGGIES!) to satisfy your energy needs and satisfy you hunger.
• Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it, ie practice it everyday!
• Don’t underestimate the value of exercise as a stress reducing and confidence-inspiring tool (a strong asana practice could be part of that I’d think!), as stress is a huge trigger for unhealthy eating.  And exercise makes us feel good, which has a positive feedback on motivation.

Keep those comments coming! We love ‘em!

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Thoughts on Dhyana: Meditation over the Holidays

by Baxter

As I pass through yet another solstice and the modern winter holiday celebrations, I appreciate my own meditation practice, however sporadic it is at times. So I thought today would be a good day to begin introducing the topic of meditation on this blog.

Even trying to introduce the topic of meditation is a bit daunting, however, because there are many eastern traditions that have varied and unique approaches and emphases when they define meditation. So let’s narrow the scope and look at hatha yoga or even classical yoga, where we first find Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras placing dhyana or meditation within the context of the eight limbs of yoga, or the Ashtanga Yoga. 

In this model, meditation is considered the second of two stages, beginning with dharana, or one-pointed concentration, and then moving onto dhyana, or continuous concentration or focus on an object. An analogy that Mr. Iyengar and others have used to explain this goes like this: If the mind were a water faucet and the object of my meditation was the bucket below it, when I first begin to focus, the water comes out in drops and moves towards the bucket, but with breaks in between, which represent distraction of the mind from the object. If my practice gets stronger and steadier, a time arrives when my focus is unbroken, represented as a continuous stream of water flowing toward the bucket. This is the stage of “meditation” or dhyana.  I am still aware of “me” as the faucet, and the thing I am observing, the bucket, as separate from me, but I am really starting to understand what “bucket” is on a deep level.

Mushroom at Silver Beach by Brad Gibson

There still exists a subject-object relationship. However, in the process of developing this strong, unbroken focus, the normal everyday mental activity almost completely subsides, leading to a more peaceful yet fully present mind state that yogis felt truly beneficial. Modern PET scan studies of the minds of experienced meditators show dramatic quieting of certain areas of the brain and other brain wave patterns emerging that are often related to the state of consciousness seen just before sleep, as well as patterns seen in creative states of mind observed in artists and musicians.

For us, the process begins on a more practical note, when in our first yoga asana practices we are encouraged to simply follow the flow of the breath with our minds to the exclusion of other possible things to focus on. This is essentially the first stage described above: dharana. Anyone who has tried this, if they are really honest, will admit how hard it is to stay on track. One of my teachers used to say that if you could follow the breath for three full cycles of in and out without another distracting thought breaking your concentration, you would reach enlightenment immediately—his way of saying that this is really hard to do, even though it sounds easy. However, despite this difficulty, I’ve found it to be well worth the effort. On a very basic level, it is one direct way to elicit the relaxation response we’ve talked about in past posts (see here). And if it could eventually lead to some bliss state the yogis also talk about, bring it on!

In future posts we will discuss other meditation techniques, but for the holidays ahead, stick to the basics of simple breath awareness, done seated or in Savasana, and I’ll talk to you in the new year.

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