one-pointedness, Yoga Sutras

[Guest guest]

To "M",

 

There's no way for this to sound non-offensive,

but I'll try my best: bookish knowledge is not

harmful as long as you understand what you've

read.

 

Concentrating on one-point, or one thing is

the very essence of meditation. Amma does

recommend meditating in the heart area versus

the third eye, mostly for newer people whose

bodies won't be able to handle prolonged

meditation between the eyebrows. Then again,

Amma also recommends for householders not

to meditate for more than 15 minutes at a

time unless in the presence of their guru,

but who really follows that? Besides,

there's other times when she's recommended

focusing on the third eye area, but this whole

subject of where to focus is different for

everyone and depends on their practices,

constitution, and other factors.

 

About the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, it's not

concentrating on particular parts of the

body that bring about powers, it's the actual

contemplation (samadhi) on those areas. In

fact the part about reading someone's mind

is to focus on distinguising characteristics

of someone's face, in order to get their mental

impressions. That's what "psychics" do,

they focus on a person. Unfortunately,

many people accidently read other's minds

because they ignore the advice of spiritual

masters: use discrimination (a product of the

intellect), not intuition. Discrimination

focuses your mind into a point or singularity

while intuition spreads out your mind like

a cloud around you, making you sensitive

to everyone around you and accidently

reading others' minds. Sometimes when I

can sense that someone is scanning me,

I'll purposely send mean and nasty thoughts

to wean them of the habit. Discrimination

forces you to concentrate on the facts and

details of two or more different objects

or choices, while intuition is throwing

your decision to the wind. So many people

do this to their downfall, thinking that

being a "spiritual" person means you use

"spiritual" guidance while making a decision.

 

By the way, "meditation" in the West and even

in the modern East, is very different than

what the sanskrit words imply. To simplify

their definitions:

 

Dhaarana: Concentration (prolonged focusing);

similar to the way you pour water over the deity

in a constant flow. Trying to meditate.

 

Dhyaanam: Meditation (prolonged concentration);

you feel both yourself and the object of

concentration, but little else;no distractions.

 

Samaadhi: Contemplation (prolonged meditation);

ex) the object is in the front of your mind

and the back of your mind, always dwelling on

it and nothing else (forgetting yourself).