Please join Mahasweta Mitra (Shanti, at the AYP Forums) and Doug Sandlin (Kirtanman. at the AYP Forums), co-founders of Living Unbound, and AYP asana instructor Rohini Nellore (Rohini, at the AYP Forums), Sept. 27-29, for a weekend retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the beautiful Berkshires region of western Massachusetts.
Mahasweta Mitra
We will be offering a weekend introduction to Advanced Yoga Practices (the practices are advanced; you don’t have to be — no previous experience with yoga or meditation is required), and kirtan (yogic chanting / singing). For more information and/or to register.
Doug Sandlin
AYP Deep Meditation and Spinal Breathing are the foundations of the daily practices that we recommend via Living Unbound, and kirtan is an additional and highly-enjoyable activity and practice that is popular with attendees at our retreats. The asanas (body postures) will be led by Rohini Nellore, a certified yoga instructor who runs regular private and group yoga classes, and who has led our asana sessions at other AYP retreats — which always receive enthusiastic reviews.
Rohini Nellore
While this is an Advanced Yoga Practices retreat, the principles of Living Unbound are inherently part of our retreats — we always spend time both inside and outside of the retreat sessions discussing the teachings, techniques and resources that each of us can make use of in our daily lives outside of sitting practices, in order to enjoy peace, freedom and fulfillment — living unbound — ever more completely.
Participants at our other retreats have found them to be enjoyable, inspiring, fun, and in some cases, life-changing.
One of the main reasons for so many people finding benefit in our retreats is that we address the reality of the benefits of practices and perspective that some call spiritual in ways that are truly independent of any traditions. AYP and Living Unbound work equally well for people of all religion, and of no religion; for people with years of spiritual practice, and with none at all.
As always, this weekend retreat will be both fun and profound — and will provide you with tools you can use beneficially, every day, for the rest of your life. Hope to see you there! If you know anyone else who might be interested, please feel free to forward this info — all are welcome.
If you have any additional questions, please use our contact form, or email info@livingunbound.net
For anyone who may have been wondering if meditation truly creates lasting changes in the brain, a new peer-reviewed study shows that meditators can be identified from brain images alone — with roughly 95% accuracy.
If you’re interested in ongoing peace, via a simple, daily program, please listen to the following interview (link below) with our friend, fellow AYP contributor, and fellow AYP Retreat teacher, Carson Zi.
In this interview, Carson discusses the ongoing benefits in his daily life, from his Advanced Yoga Practices (AYP) routine – and please note: it’s the practices that are advanced – you don’t have to be. He also tells his story, which is one of the more dramatic examples of how effective practices can take any of us from the depths of despair, or from the volatility of life’s daily ups and downs, to the peaceful reality that is actually our inherent nature.
In a few short years, Carson went from immersion in horrific heroin addiction, to a failed suicide attempt, to discovering AYP, to continual improvement in his experience of ongoing peace and fulfillment in daily life. Not long after starting AYP, Carson began to notice some fairly dramatic results, including the ability to stop a high daily dose of methadone (prescribed for treatment of heroin addiction), without experiencing any withdrawal symptoms, something even his doctor couldn’t believe. Even more dramatic, though, has been the ongoing improvement of Carson’s experience and quality of life, which is continuing even now.
As Carson says, “Yoga saved my life.”
Today, Carson enjoys a happy life, and contributes to the world around him by sharing AYP with others, which includes leading AYP retreats that can help any of us realize the power of ongoing inner silence, and to deepen both our practices, and our living experience of ongoing peace.
We very much enjoy working with Carson at our AYP Allentown retreat and at the AYP Support Forums. If you are interested in joining us (Doug, Shweta and Carson), at our annual AYP Retreat in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it is taking place on the weekend of September 16-18 at the Mensch Mill Retreat Center. For a bit about what these retreats are like, here are some retreat experiences and reports from last year’s retreat.
Carson has contributed here at Living Unbound as well, via the following articles:
You can also visit Carson’s main website, Blissed Yoga.
As mentioned in the interview, like physical exercise, the practices of AYP involve brief daily practices which then yield results throughout the day. If you are also interested in ways to enhance your daily experience of ongoing peace via simple teachings, techniques and resources that you can use throughout the day as well, beyond the daily practices of AYP, that is what Living Unbound is for, and we invite you to take a look at the Living Unbound lessons, as well.
Ongoing peace truly is available — and we invite you to join us, and find out for yourself.
Seeing through exterior things, and seeing God in them
Thomas Merton
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A blind feeling of one’s own being, stretching unto God
The Cloud of Unknowing
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The pure, loving gaze that finds God everywhere
Brother Lawrence
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The mind’s loving, unmixed, permanent attention to the things of God
Francis de Sales
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Finding God in all things
Ignatius of Loyola
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The window of the soul cleansed perfectly and made completely transparent by the divine light
John of the Cross
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A continual condition of prayerful sensitivity to what is really going on
Douglas Steere
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Seeing God in everything and everything in God with completely extraordinary clearness and delicacy
Marie of the Incarnation
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The enlightening of the understanding, joined to the joys of God’s love
Walter Hilton
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Continual communion through all things
by quite simply doing everything in the presence of the Holy Trinity
Elizabeth of the Trinity
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Awareness, absorbed and amazed
Teresa of Avila
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The mind, gazing upon the universe of God’s handiwork, rapt by the divine and infinite light
Maximus the Confessor
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The mind stolen from itself by the ineffable sweetness of the Word
Bernard of Clairvaux
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Divine wakefulness with pure and naked intuition
Gregory of Nyssa
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With the flash of one trembling glance, my mind arrived at THAT WHICH IS, but I could not fix my gaze thereon.
Augustine
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The alertness which finds everything plain and grasps it clearly with entire comprehension
Hugh of St.Victor
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Receiving the clarity of God without any means; a single nakedness that embraces all things
Jan Van Ruysbroek
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Right understanding, with true longing, absolute trust, and sweet grace-giving mindfulness
Julian of Norwich
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Awakening to the presence of God in the human heart and in the universe which is around us… knowledge by love
Dom Bede Griffiths
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The world becoming luminous from within as one plunges breathlessly into human activity
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55), Danish philosopher. Either/Or, vol. 2, “Balance between Esthetic and Ethical” (1843; tr. 1987).
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Mysticism has been in the past & probably ever will be one of the great powers of the world & it is bad scholarship to pretend the contrary. You may argue against it but you should no more treat it with disrespect than a perfectly cultivated writer would treat (say) the Catholic Church or the Church of Luther no matter how much he disliked them.
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W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. Letter, 10 Oct. 1893, to author Laurence Housman (published in Collected Letters, vol. 1, ed. by John Kelly, 1986). In an earlier letter (23 July 1892), Yeats had written: “The mystical life is the centre of all that I do & all that I think & all that I write. . . . I have always considered myself a voice of what I
believe to be a greater renaissance- the revolt of the soul against the intellect.”
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Hanging by God’s thread of pure Love
~Catherine of Genoa
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Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), British author. Grey Eminence, ch. 9 (1941).
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The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born U.S. theoretical physicist. Quoted in: Philipp Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, ch. 12, sct. 5 (1947).
West Virginia is a beautiful, mountainous state in the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. To say that West Virginia is not internationally-known as a hotbed of leading Living Unbound-related wisdom would be a bit of an understatement. This may be changing soon.
Samyama is a yogic technique originally introduced in the Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali (the foundational text of yogic practice, originally in Sanskrit, authored by the sage Patanjali in 2nd century India).
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjai talks about 8 limbs, or facets, of Yoga (you may have heard the term “Ashtanga”, with respect to yoga; “Ashtanga” is a Sanskrit term meaning “Eight Limbs”).
Yama – It means “restraint,” and includes ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (preservation of sexual energy and cultivation of it), and aparigraha (non-covetousness).
Niyama – It means “observance,” and includes saucha (purity and cleanliness), samtosa (contentment), tapas (heat/focus/austerity), svadhyaya (study of scriptures and self), and isvara pranidhana (surrender to the divine).
Asana – It means “posture,” and includes all those asanas we have come to know and love. In the lessons, asanas are used as a preparation for pranayama and meditation. Certain asanas stimulate the rise of kundalini. (Ref: Asanas lesson)
Pranayama – It means “restraint of life force/breath,” and includes the pranayama. (lesson: breathing)
Pratyahara – It means “introversion of senses.”
Dharana – It means “concentration or focus of attention,”
Dhyana – It means “meditation,” and is the flow of attention inward.
Samadhi – It means “absorption/transcendence,” and it is what we experience in daily meditation.
The last three limbs combined together (Dharana, Dhyana & Samadhi) make up Samyama. Samyama is the state of resting in deep inner silence (samadhi), along with the ability to pick up a thought (focus/dharana) and let it go inward (meditation/dhyana). Then the results of samyama come out from inner silence automatically, because inner silence/awareness is, in reality, a single field. Understanding some of the deeper tools of subtle consciousness, such as samyama, helps us contribute positive influence within this single field. Samyama is an advanced yogic technique, one that is based on principles which utilize the operative powers of some of the more subtle and universal facets of consciousness; facets which many of us are not aware even exist, but which are available to all of us, with a certain amount of practice.
At first samyama is a very mechanical process wherein we pick up the sutra mentally, and then drop it (mentally) in stillness (please look at the AYP Samyama lesson for instructions; link provided below). As we keep going, though, the practice of samyama becomes more and more refined, as we become more and more converse with subtler aspects of our own consciousness. We will then notice that samyama is very effortless. Samyama practice takes the stillness we cultivated in meditation and moves that stillness outward. The process of picking the word (sutra) and dropping it into the stillness can become very ecstatic. When this beings to happen we can apply samyama to many other things; the ecstasy confirms the connection with the greater field of awareness, and we know we are engaged in living samyama. How can we be sure of this? Very simply: by the effects we experience. Awareness really is a single field, Living Unbound, in reality.
In the Living Unbound: Bliss Technique we talked about “bring up the thought in your mind and just before the thought forms.. STOP.. and stay in that gap. You will feel a lot of bliss and ecstasy“. In the Samyama Lesson (AYP Founder) Yogani says “pick up a sutra in samyama at a very faint and fuzzy level.” This faint and fuzzy level is the point where the word is not formed yet or as Yogani says, “it can be interpreted to mean “the energy before the thought.””
Once the core samyama practice is mastered, it becomes a natural habit of letting go. This is when we can start applying samyama to some of the various other practices that we engage in, with ever-greater ease. Finally, the practice of samyama can become automatic, or nearly so. The power of this technique, however, only increases, the more fully integrated it becomes.
There is a practice described by Yogani in the AYP lessons called Samyama. It is an advanced technique, but Yogani has a wonderful way of separate the wheat from the chaff and simplifying a practice so it can be practiced by anyone. The only prerequisit for this practice is to have some inner silence when we sit for meditation.
The technique as described in the lesson: Lesson 150 – Samyama practice (The technique below is quoted from that lesson, but please do read the entire lesson here) :
Meditation is the process of bringing the attention inward to stillness, inner silence, pure bliss consciousness, the witness state, samadhi.
Once we have some inner silence, even just a little, we have the opportunity to begin to operate from that level of infinite potential in us.
You will recall that in meditation we use the thought of a sound with no meaning, the mantra, to systematically allow the mind to go to stillness. It is in letting go of any meaning, language or intellectual content, and just easily picking up the thought of the mantra, that are able to dive deep into pure bliss consciousness. The nervous system also goes to silence with the mind, and our metabolism slows way down.
With samyama, we begin to go the other way. After our meditation time is up, we rest for a minute or two and we transition into samyama. We begin with an easy state of not thinking, just resting in our silence. If thoughts are coming, we just let them go without entertaining them. In samyama practice we do not entertain the mantra either. We start by not favoring anything but being easy in our silence, however much silence we have from our just completed meditation session, and naturally present in us from our months or years of daily meditation. This is the starting point for samyama — silence.
The only prerequisite for doing samyama practice is having some inner silence. For most people this is after a few months of daily deep meditation, as covered in the early lessons.
Now we are ready to begin samyama practice. Here is how we do it.
With samyama, we are initiating meaning in silence. We do it in a simple, easy, systematic way. First we create an impulse of meaning in silence, and then we let it go in silence.
Let’s begin with “Love.” It is a good place to start with samyama. In samyama it is suggested you use your most intimate language, the language that goes deepest in your heart, whatever it may be.
In your easy silence, pick up, just once, the fuzziest feeling of the word “Love” in your own language. Don’t deliberately make a clear pronunciation, or mental images of this or that scene or situation that represent Love to you. Just have a faint remembrance of Love, and then let go into your silence, the easy silence you are in as you pick up the faint meaning of Love. Don’t contemplate Love or analyze it during samyama. Don’t think about it at all. Just come to it once in a faint, subtle way, and then let go into silence. It is a subtle feeling of Love we are coming to, nothing more, and letting it go. Like that.
Having thought “Love” once, be in silence for about fifteen seconds. If any thoughts come, let them go easily. Don’t look at the clock. With a little practice your inner clock will tell you with good enough accuracy when fifteen seconds is up. Just be easy in silence for about a quarter of a minute. Then pick up the faint, fuzzy meaning of “Love” again, and let it go again into your silence for about fifteen seconds again.
That is two repetitions of samyama – twice picking up Love at its subtlest level of thought, and twice letting it go into inner silence.
As with all advanced yoga practices, the real benefits from samyama are to be found in long term daily practice of a particular routine of sutras. If we keep changing sutras around every day or week, and are irregular in our practice, the results will not accumulate. If we want to strike water, we will do best to keep digging in the same place. In advanced yoga practices we can do samyama after every meditation session before we go into yoni mudra kumbhaka (if doing that then) and our ending rest period. Samyama is a continuation of our meditation practice. First we are going in with meditation, and then we are coming out with samyama.
For this purpose, a balanced series of nine sutras are given here. The suggestion is for each to be done for two cycles of samyama, two times with about fifteen seconds in silence for each sutra, and going straight through the list in order like that. In a few days they will be memorized and easy to navigate through using the method of samyama, going gradually deeper in practice with each session. The sutras are:
Love
Radiance
Unity
Health
Strength
Abundance
Wisdom
Inner Sensuality
Akasha – Lightness of Air
Each sutra is to be taken in its entirety, with the fifteen seconds in silence afterwards. For example, “Inner Sensuality” is a single sutra followed by fifteen seconds of silence. It is for pratyahara, introversion of senses. “Akasha – Lightness of Air” is also a single sutra, followed by fifteen seconds in silence.
The meanings for the sutras can be translated to your deepest or first language, as discussed above. All except “Akasha,” which is a sanskrit word meaning, “subtlest ether, inner space.” We know from physics that we are ether, empty space inside, nothing really solid in here at all. Our body is that, and when we do samyama on “Akasha – Lightness of Air,” we begin to feel very light.
If you do each of these nine sutras twice in your samyama session, it will take about five minutes. If there is a particular one you feel the need to do more of, then add that on to the end and do samyama with it for another five minutes. The cycles remain at fifteen seconds, and we just keep going with that for five minutes, by the clock for that last five minutes. If there is no preference, then you can do the lightness sutra for five minutes at the end. It is very powerful. It is a mental kundalini technique that brings much energy up through the nervous system. It is not uncommon to experience physical symptoms such as panting (automatic bastrika pranayama) and “hopping” during samyama with the lightness sutra. If this happens, make sure you are sitting on a soft surface like a mattress. There can be various symptoms manifested with the other sutras as well. We are moving the infinite inner silence within us, so the manifestations coming out can be very real and noticeable. Patanjali calls these manifestations “supernormal powers,” or “siddhis.”
The following article is written by Andrew Thompson, the founder of Inspirational Works, an organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, providing “Events that Inspire, Motivate and Transform Lives”. Inspirational Works has hosted Byron Katie, and is thrilled to be hosting Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements and other books), April 9th-11th, 2010. Andrew has been a fellow traveler with us at AYP (Advanced Yoga Practices), and is also dedicated to unveiling and sharing new ways of working with mind more effectively. Thank you Andrew for sharing your words of wisdom with us.
We go through our lives with our minds constantly active, day and night whether we are sleeping or awake. While awake, thoughts can come at a tremendous rate, often one on top of another, it happens very automatically and seemingly without control.
So much of our thinking is repetitive and when we listen closely, we can notice that our minds are often expressing our fears, frustrations, judgments and concerns. With each thought there is a corresponding emotional reaction and often a reinforcement of a limiting belief. When a thought comes along about something in our lives that isn’t going the way we want, we can feel a variety of so called “negative” emotions in reaction like anger, fear, sadness etc. So it can be observed that what we think quite clearly impacts our emotional state and hence our enjoyment or lack of it in our daily life experience.
So yes, thinking can be very automatic and can feel like something we can’t really influence, but practice would suggest otherwise. Often we don’t realize it, but we practice thinking particular thoughts all the time. How do we inadvertently practice this? Many have experienced how repetitive our minds can be, there seems to be so much energy caught up in much of our thinking. Sometimes we will become aware of how certain negative thoughts will repeat in our minds over and over again. This in itself is a form of practice even if much of it happening subconsciously and automatically. This constant repetition of negative thinking will eventually impact our emotional state and create a negative life experience of misery and unhappiness. When our thoughts are repeatedly negative or about subject matter that upsets us in some way, we can imagine how we feel at the end of a day.
The good news is that we can also choose our thoughts more consciously as well. If it is our desire, we can intentionally create a life where we live feel positive feelings like love, gratitude and peace or relaxation. Right now in this moment, we can choose to say to ourselves pretty much anything we want. We can choose a thought that describes how we feel about a loved one and when we do, there is a corresponding emotional sensation. How does it feel to think about how we love someone or something in our lives?
We can also choose a thought that describes something we are grateful for and it feels good to be grateful. We can even choose to repeat a thought about how we would like to feel in the near future. For example, we could notice we feel tense and instead repeat “I am physically relaxed and emotionally calm”. The positive emotional reactions from thinking positively like this will eventually have an impact even if it can be hard to notice at times. Thinking positively will help remove the tension from our bodies and we relax and feel better when this happens. With repeated practice, the effects of intentionally choosing positive thoughts or observations about our lives can be seen in a powerful way and we can create a wondrous emotional experience every day of love, gratitude and peace or whatever else we choose.
Of course the mind will not simply give up the old habits of thinking negatively over night. The mind has a lot of practice and repetitions of thinking negatively for many, many years so time and practice of the desired positive thoughts and corresponding emotions needs to be given in order to turn the mental and emotional “ship” around. It is all about repetitions. How many positive thoughts are you willing to intentionally practice in a day? How many times will you feel grateful or love for something in your life? It is up to you how much you want to practice, the more you practice and repeat the desired thoughts, the better you will get at it and the happier you will feel.
In addition, the way we practice will also have an impact. In other words the “technique” used to intentionally repeat the positive thought and create the corresponding emotional reactions we want is important. So use good technique and rather than simply repeating something positive in quick rapid succession without really feeling it, take your time and repeat a positive thought once, feel the emotional results and then release it into silence by being aware of the silence before repeating it again. This can be a very powerful and effective way to practice and will require fewer repetitions over the long term to create a positive thinking habit and a happy emotional body.
So if we want to feel good let’s choose our thoughts carefully and redirect our minds to repeat things that empower us and make us feel good rather than bad. Daily practice of intentional positive thinking with “good technique” will yield results over the long term and can improve our enjoyment of life in powerful and meaningful way. This coupled with other proven practices that help us to create a positive life experience like meditation, self inquiry, yoga etc. will help us to change ourselves even more quickly and live the dream of life that we have always wanted.
“Here is a question: It is suggested in many traditions that if one is experiencing true depression (not just a blue mood, but an actual disorder, where one can’t feel any pleasure), since the meditation will amplify the inward ruminations of the depressed person. I have through personal experience verified this for myself–over a year of meditation did nothing to keep me from spiraling downwards, and in fact made me feel worse. I forced it in an effort to overcome my situation, but it just prolonged the experience.
What has made it to start to lift is a combination–medication, physical exercise, good diet (note: diet and exercise alone were nothing for severe depression!), therapy, and doing the internal work with the help of these external things.
So–any suggestions for one that is truly, clinically depressed, for whom meditation will not help or make things worse? I think meditation is risky in such cases–with a suicidal person, downright dangerous.
Should they focus on just connecting with things that make them feel better, or are there any other spiritual practices they could do (besides meditation)?”
Living Unbound Answers:
Thanks for asking this question; it’s a very good one.
Per your mention of potential danger, yes: when dealing with significant depression, it’s always wise to get input from a trained professional (medical doctor, psychiatrist, etc.) regarding best courses of action, overall. And yes, some people do find that meditation can seem to make depression worse. However, meditation is also one of the most proven practices for opening to Living Unbound.
Most of us who deal with depression have a custom-mix of factors that caused the depression, and a custom-mix of factors that keep the depression in place:
Psychological tendencies, lifestyle induced biochemical issues (i.e. sedentary lifestyle, poor eating or sleep habits, alcohol or drug use, etc.), other medical issues which contribute to depression-related symptoms, and so on. And so, for many of us, a custom-mix of changes, ranging from becoming more active, to becoming more social, to positive adjustments in diet and activity level, to positive adjustments in mind-habits, to starting daily spiritual practices, is usually what it most helpful in stepping free from our sense of depression.
When we go through a depression we have a tendency to pull ourselves inward, to move into a shell, so to speak, and we tend to do a lot of thinking inside this shell; thinking that is usually not pleasant or positive, to say the least. Hence diet, exercise, doing things that involve being more active and outwardly-oriented, such as being with friends, or otherwise connecting with people, maybe taking up a new sport or recreational hobby; doing things that lift us up and get us active. These things are important, and can be as important, or more so, than medication alone, depending upon the exact nature and depth of our depression (if we decide with our doctor that medication may be useful).
This is the cycle we talk about in the first lesson in the Teachings section of Level 1, The Cyclic Nature of Living. Depression pulls us toward inertia, and so its “antidote” is that which take us into activity, away from inertia. Exercise, work, activities with friends, spiritual practices, and so on, all contribute to restoring the natural cycle, with balance between activity and rest.
If we decide with our doctor to start anti-depressant medication, there is often an initial period where the medication may seem to be working very well. Many of us have heard, and or experienced, people who start on anti-depressant medication say: “This medication I am on is really working!”
However soon, with many of us, the medication is not as effective as it was when we started it. There are many reasons for this dynamic, and this is why doctors and patients so often go through multiple trials of anti-depressants. The main reason that anti-depressants tend to have temporary effects, is that our conditioned thinking patterns essentially re-create the depression in ways that medication can’t overcome. We think ourselves back to the place we started and no medication can get us out of that place. Changes in our activity level, and increases in connecting with people may offer relief of the worst of our symptoms, but only permanent changes in attachment to thought patterns, and permanent biological changes brought about by effective practices of various types, can permanently alleviate depression.
This is because these permanent psychological and biological changes eradicate the underlying causes of depression. We can change medication several times, but if we don’t supplement it with identifying and dissolving our conditioned mind-shafts, we will just think ourselves back to where we began, depression-wise. So-called “talk therapy” can help, too, but the quality of this therapy varies widely. And usually, the patient is not taught how to think in ways that facilitate freedom from depression.
This is a key part of what Living Unbound is here to do: to help us all find, utilize and share the tools which help us all in Living Unbound, at every level of body, mind and spirit.
A bit of inner silence goes a long way in helping us to see the mind-stories, mind-labels and mind-shafts, which re-create depression. When we meditate, attention moves inward, and any depressing thinking may be even more noticeable, and therefore may seem worse than ever. This can give us a sense of not only worsening depression, but also a sense that it’s the meditation that is making our depression worse.
However, if we can consciously meditate for a few minutes by focusing on our breathing, or on a mantra, we will notice that we can actually experience a gap in the thinking. Even few seconds of experiencing a gap is a way to touch our inner silence. Our inner silence is past the depressed layer, it is not touched by thoughts or depression.
And so, meditation helps us know the part of ourselves that is free from depression, and it helps us notice the mind patterns that keep us bound to the long shaft of depression, while we’re in it.
Once we see through the illusion of the shaft of depression, then, even when we do feel depressed, it is only that moment of depression we live though. We don’t mentally pull in the previous 20 years of depression into this current moment of depression. This results in the current moment of depression not getting the energy of the memories of the past 20 years of depression; it is not connected. One moment of depression is a lot easier to deal with than 20 years of depression. It then gets easier and easier to handle this single moment, if and when it arises, and it gets easier to release it, and to let the next/current moment just be what it is, without automatically bringing depression-enhancing memories and thinking into it.
However, in order to see any of this, getting in touch with our silence for a few minutes is essential. Without touching our inner silence ever more deeply over time, we can only cycle between activity and inertia, and depression will always return, or have the possibility of returning. However, touching our inner silence helps us to experience the part of ourselves that is ever free from depression. Inner silence is the doorway to Living Unbound, to Freedom Beyond Imagination in our own experience, in reality.
And we don’t have to practice 20 minutes of mantra meditation, especially when just starting or when we feel like we are going through a depressive phase; even 2 to 5 minutes twice a day, of breath or mantra meditation will help us to connect with our inner silence, our true nature.
The few minutes of suggested meditation is to simply touch the stillness, our own inner silence. One moment of experiencing stillness has more power than the mind can think. This stillness helps us see though the workings of the mind, by giving us a vantage point beyond and before it, and most importantly, by allowing us to experience that there is actually a part of ourselves that is actually, ever free from depression or the possibility of depression.
And, over time, meditation literally facilitates changes in the body-mind at every level, which can ultimately eradicate the underlying causes of depression.
A good analogy might be:
Starting daily walks is clearly something that can be helpful toward relieving depression. However, we might find that we tend to think in depressing ways while walking, and decide that walking is making our depression worse, when the walking is actually helping, and only our thinking is worsening our sense of depression.
Mantra-based meditation can be helpful in cases of depression for many, because focus on the mantra helps to prevent the mind from dwelling on depressing thoughts. However, sometimes meditation itself can cause temporary discomfort mentally and/or emotionally. Yet, like dwelling on certain depression-enhancing thoughts while walking, this does not mean that the meditation itself is necessarily counterproductive.
Everyone is different, and so, we each need to evaluate for ourselves what may or may not work. However, it may not be necessary to give up meditation entirely, especially since its long-term benefits cannot be overstated.
Spiritual practices can certainly be a pillar, even the primary pillar in healing from depression. However, whether our specific set of practices is meditation-heavy, meditation-light or meditation-free, is something best determined for ourselves.
There are many activities and practices which can help alleviate depression. In terms of daily spiritual practices, we may want to consider:
Sacred devotional chanting (for instance of mantras, known as kirtan, though sacred chanting and singing is part of every spiritual tradition) especially with a group of like-spirited people, can be a powerfully uplifting and heart-opening practice. Even if alone, chanting along with a kirtan (yogic chant) cd or mp3 can help to open and uplift our hearts, in a variety of ways.
Mindfulness and Presence, allowing ourselves to be truly present, relaxed and aware in our bodies and breathing, can be beneficial as well; this practice helps us to rest in this moment, rather than think about other moments.
Connecting with people in any positive way, especially in a spiritual or otherwise loving context, is always helpful.
Opening in Gratitude is another powerful practice. A few minutes, even two or three minutes, each morning and evening, upon first arising, and as we are falling asleep, focusing only on the things for which we are truly grateful: God, our spiritual path, family, love, health, music, life itself, whatever it may be, can be a wonderful anti-depressant. The key is to really let ourselves feel the depth of our gratitude; to let emotions come up, if they do (as opposed to just quickly reciting a mental list). As with all spiritual practices, it has an aggregate benefit over time.
Spiritual Study, reading sacred, inspiring uplifting texts from any tradition can help uplift our minds and spirits.
Acceptance is one of the most powerful practices of all, and at essence, simply involves acknowledging reality, and letting our minds flow in natural harmony with reality, as it is. All this simple practice involves is noticing that this moment is the only actual moment, and that no memory of the past nor imagination about the future is actually part of this moment. We simply release, and let this moment be as it is. Actual moments are almost always fine. It is almost always our vast amounts of evaluation related to memory and imagination, which exacerbate depression.
Any Joy-Inducing Activity, ranging from uplifting music, books and movies, to making and meeting with new friends, or like-spirited groups of people; engaging in creative activities, or even purely fun activities, is a great way to help alleviate depression, even significant depression.
One of the most wonderful advancements in neuroscience in recent times is the reality of lifelong neuroplasticity in the brain, and the hope that this discovery can offer for any of us who may be dealing with depression on any level. Neuroplasticity simply means: our brains can be changed and reprogrammed, just as our muscles and physiology can be changed with exercise.
Books such as Sparkand The Brain That Changes Itself (both available in the Living Unbound Store) highlight the fact that neuro-plasticity and bio-plasticity are real for us all; changing activities changes brain chemistry and physiology.
Spiritual practices and spiritual awakening are filled with countless examples of those who were deeply depressed, and arose out of their depression to live happy and lives, and serve the world around them in beautiful ways.
Eckhart Tolle (author of the Power of Now, and other books) was essentially suicidal, prior to his spiritual awakening, and is now a world-respected spiritual teacher.
Byron Katie (author of Loving What Is, and other books) awakened spiritually while living in a halfway-house, isolated from the other residents, due to her abrasive behavior at the time.
Greg Baer (author of Real Love, and other books) almost took his own life with a shotgun, prior to awakening spiritually, and contributing the Real Love series of books and teachings to the world.
Krishna Das was deeply depressed and dealt with addiction issues, prior to spiritually awakening and blessing the world with his awesome “Mantra Meets Rock N Roll” kirtans and albums.
… and these are just a few of many examples. Spiritual practices work, and they do lead to Living Unbound for every one of us who practices consistently and doesn’t stop.
And, again, it us up to each of us to decide if we are ready for a given type of practice, or amount of practice. One size does not fit all. However, we can all find a combination of uplifting activities and spiritual practices which can help us to experience ever-greater degrees of freedom from depression, and which can ultimately result in Living Unbound, in reality.
The truth of this has been understood for a very long time; in closing, here is a quote from a well-known yogic text, from 9th Century India:
“Just as a thief carries away the valuables of a home, so depression saps away the vitality of the body. This depression proceeds from ignorance.* If that ignorance disappears by unmesa, how can that depression last, in the absence of its cause?”~Yoga Spandakarika, III.8
*The term “Ignorance” isn’t meant as it is used in modern times; in modern usage, the term “unawareness” might be used, instead. This sutra is simply saying that depression can only stay in place when we don’t experience the part of ourselves which can never be depressed: the inner silence, described above. Also, “Unmesa” is a Sanskrit term meaning “beyond thinking mind”, another way of referring to our inner silence.
Living Unbound, the Freedom Beyond Imagination of our inherently fulfilled consciousness, aka spirituality, is for all of us, regardless of our religion or spiritual tradition, or our lack of one, or even lack of any previous inclination toward spirituality. Spiritual practices (prayer, meditation, devotional chanting and singing, directed breathing, contemplation, etc.) are universal practices, with millenia of proven effectiveness in facilitating Living Unbound. The effectiveness of these practices is now being verified by recent advancements in the ability of science to measure changes that take place in the brain, and therefore in our overall experience. Spiritual practices are to Living Unbound as diet and exercise are to physical health. Anyone who engages in effective, related activities, gets effective, related results.
“Yoga is not about belief; yoga is about practice.”
~Jesus Christ (~Matthew 11:30), with updated translation as noted, below.
Below, please find a Living Unbound video playlist, which showcases the reality that spirituality, and spiritual practices are for us all. The first video features some brief yet profound comments by “Silicon Valley’s resident enlightened guy”, Adyashanti (originally Steve Gray).
Note On Translation Of Matthew 11:30: The English Yoke derives from the Greek Zeugam, which derives from the Sanskrit Yugam, which is a verb meaning “to join”, so the English, Greek and Sanskrit terms are essentially identical. The modification isn’t intended to imply any endorsement by Jesus Christ of anything related to yoga, as that term is used in current times, but rather to highlight the universality of teachings related to spiritual union.
