Sit in awareness?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi, I have a question about “to sit in awareness”. What is it? I’ve seen it written a couple of times on the forums.

I recently injured both my knee and my shoulder quite badly. They will both heal up fine in some time, but for the last week, I have been unable to do any yoga. I tried to modify the poses and do as much as possible, but my entire body just said no. I was also on some rather heavy painkillers, and did not feel comfortable with any kind of meditation.

Now, I’m off the painkillers, and I want to pick up a daily routine again. I really miss the sun salutations and the rest of the poses, but neither my shoulder or knee is ready for that. So, what can I do? I figured I could try and just sit and do that that thing when you try to let go of thoughts and feelings. Is that what is referred to as “sit in awareness”? Is it “safe” to do without doing some poses before? And, as I cant sit, is it OK to do it laying down, or does this misalign the body and mess up the energy flow?

I am rather new to all this, and I want to get it right.

#2

“Sitting in awareness” means closing your eyes and daydreaming.

In any case you should adopt any posture that you can comfortably maintain for about 30 min.

“Sitting in awareness” will not do you much good and its boring. Instead I would encourage you to do pranayama instead for 30 min. You can either do one type constantly or you can do several types. Start your practice by breathing into your lungs(full yogic breath) and do this slowly for about 2 min. This alone would do more good than 30 min of sitting practice. Then begin your main pranayama technique. The best one I would recommend is alternative nostril breathing(anulom and vilom) as it is brilliant in balancing your left and right channels(ida and pingla) The other one is the breath of fire(kapalbhati) which is great to stabalize the mind.

If you do a short meditation after these exercises that is ok. Most of the work has already been done with your 30 min of pranayama. The sit down practice after is a more of a relaxation and doing nothing thing. You will be able to go into deeper state now than you would have without the pranayama.

#3

Wow.

Is this forum moderated?

What your doing S.D. makes me want to cry. I feel sorry for you.

enemyz please click on the [I]yoga for osteoarthritis and hypertension[/I] thread on the first forum page. There may be something of interest to you in there . . .

#4

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33218]“Sitting in awareness” will not do you much good and its boring
[/QUOTE]
Are you sure about that, if so
how do you know?
BTW, I guess someone should have told that to Buddha before he sat by the tree

#5

[QUOTE=Brother Neil;33275]Are you sure about that, if so
how do you know?
BTW, I guess someone should have told that to Buddha before he sat by the tree[/QUOTE]

Buddha had already undergone a lot of Yogic training before he commenced his meditation.

Moreover the Buddhist technique of vipassna/satipattana meditation is basically a form of
pranayama where you focus your concentration on your natural breath. After a while the
breath begins to become rhythmic and harmonious leading to meditative states. Even the
Upanishads extoll this technique and mention that it alone can lead to the highest goal.
It is not completely effective on its own though, as it needs proper pranayama to cultivate
your pranic system.

#6

Awareness is what Yoga is all about! Meditating on mindfulness is so important. As well as meditation and Yoga, just practicing being in the moment is what your trying to achieve. You want to do regular daily activities with mindfulness. Make yourself a Tea, and be aware of the present moment of making the tea, without internal chatter. If your mind starts to say “wow I’m really being mindful now, this is easy being mindful”, this means you are no longer mindful. Your mind needs to be still and present. This is why Zen Buddhists do thing like sweeping, tea making ceremonies etc. To practice mindfulness. So why is it so important?.. because what you are doing in the present moment is the only thing that actually exists. A lot of the time we are thinking about the past and events that have occurred, or anticipating the future, making plan etc, but we are rarely in the present moment. We are missing out on our life because we are not living in the present reality. Nothing exists but the present moment.

#7

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33301]Buddha had already undergone a lot of Yogic training before he commenced his meditation.

Moreover the Buddhist technique of vipassna/satipattana meditation is basically a form of
pranayama where you focus your concentration on your natural breath. After a while the
breath begins to become rhythmic and harmonious leading to meditative states. Even the
Upanishads extoll this technique and mention that it alone can lead to the highest goal.
It is not completely effective on its own though, as it needs proper pranayama to cultivate
your pranic system.[/QUOTE]
well what works for one may not work for another, yes practices such as pranayam and meditation may be great, I do practices myself. But to speak as the authoritarion on all things with statements such as the one I referred to and to tell people what will or will not work for them is a bit much in my opinion. Maybe enemy Z is at the same stage buhhda was and is ready for just awareness but I cannot be the judge of that.

#8

Thank you all for the help.

#9

In the original question help is sought about “sitting in awareness”. What would help EnemyZ is to ask the right question to get his/her own right answer.

Awareness of what? It is not obviously body-awareness in which we always are! So, it is to sit in some other awareness. First thing we can think of is mind and hence, mindfullness. It is a good first step, but not a durable one. Mind’s natural state is to flit from one thing to another. But mind-watching will initially help to abort runaway thoughts.

When mind is quieter, one can try to be aware of breath. Along with its relative warmth and feel, one can be aware of its lightness. This is a good introduction to subtle astral body, awareness of which can be the next step.

Suffice it to say, that in “sitting in awareness” the key-word is awareness (and not sitting, which may lead you to a wierd conclusion that it won’t do any good and is boring!) and depending on one’s spiritual progress, awareness can be anchored in a spectrum of gross to subtle entities. It is a wonderful journey and as YogiAdam very rightly said, “awareness is what Yoga is all about”.

#10

Sitting in awareness does not mean actually sitting. As said by Suhas, awareness is more important than your position. you can be aware sitting on chair, lying down , walking and almost doing any other activities.
please dont follow things blindly, first understand the concept behind anything and you will not end up doing something wrong.
One more thing, never do such practices expecting some miracle to happen. keep on doing it sincerely and result will come as a by product.