by Mulan 23 Replies latest jw friends
LOL@Six
I saw Madonna played a yoga instructor in one of her last movies and she was very fit and it looked hard. I'm sure it's a good workout, just different from the running/weightlifting/aerobics type I've tried in the past.
Anne
"Too much of a good thing, is wonderful."
Mae West
Hi Marilyn, I enjoy both yoga and meditation myself. Although I seem to be naturally flexible, I know yoga will also build strength.
As for the meditation, that sounds very much like the Hindu view that there is atman and brahma, that is to say your soul/essense (atman) is the same as that of the universe. (brahma) To look at another perspective, the Buddhists say there is no soul or self but that impermanence is one of the basic facts of life. I think both approaches will allow you to exercise mental concentration, though.
I'm not that familiar with hindu meditation techniques, but as far as seeing things as they are, if you let things pass (which is what atleast one type of Buddhist meditation teaches, specifically Vipassana) then you're not so focused on your personal perception, and in that sense you can see things as they are without any kind of judgement or assumptions. I think the important thing is at the heart of both teachings you have this non-dual idea of ultimate reality, on the one hand it's said we're of the same stuff, on the other hand there's this picture of an ever changing collective so that pieces isn't really meaningful. In both cases there is the message of union with ultimate reality, in the case of yoga it is explicit, (as you may know that's what the word means) in Buddhism it seems to be more implicit. Seems to me it's basically saying the same thing, though. The only thing I have to say about meditation regardless of what type is to have a passive attitude. Even if the technique you're practicing is more of a focused concentration, don't get caught up in how well you're doing. If you become distracted judging your performance is just another distraction. You'll probably find you do better when you're not so concerned about how well you're doing.
Maybe this belongs in it's own thread, but the quote about you being in your body points to the role of consciousness as far as I'm concerned. They say that when you're meditating there's a "witness" in that you're observing sensory inputs and your own thoughts. If such a consciousness does exist, the implication would be that we're not just all about stimulus response, though obviously our external, physical behavior would have a limited range just due to the nature of it being physical. It seems to me free will falls in there somewhere too. I wonder what the intellectuals of the board thinks about this?
"Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing the self is insight. Mastering others requires force. Mastering the self requires true strength." -Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33
I really enjoyed everyone's responses, and experiences with this. When I was going through the "hell" of finding out the truth of the truth, my brother told me I needed to meditate. The only way I had ever even heard of meditating, is "meditating on God's word", which to me was concentrating on a subject and evaluating all the possibilities. (I didn't ever do that either)
Anyway, this kind of meditation was good. I felt both energized and peaceful when the class was over, and slept amazingly well that night.
Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)
Mulan,
Welcome to the world of SPIRIT... oh MY......and next you'll note flesh & blood cant inherit gods kingdom......
its so nice to hear you have found this...... enjoy all of it.....
and if spirit really interest you
check out Caroline Myss
www.myss.com
Let us know how things go with this, Mulan. I've toyed with the idea of going to a Yoga class, but time is at a premium and I haven't done it. I've gotten a couple of books on Yoga exercises, which I've tried to work into my exercise routine. They're pretty difficult, but they do help a lot.
Just be very, very careful of those demons.
Hi Mulan!
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your class. I took up Yoga last April and just LOVE it, even though I'm limited in the poses I can do because of the MS. I have tapes on meditation and have been longing to really get into them, but with my Father being ill and living with us I have only this week been able to get back to it after 2 months without it. I missed it SO much!
The JW attitude/reaction to Yoga is hilarious. Here for your amusement is a re-posting of what happened to me when my JW family found out I'd taken up Yoga.
Love ya!
Essie
Posted: Apr 10, 2001 5:54:43 PMGood Greif. My JW relatives really, really need to get a hobby of some kind to keep them
busy.My sister Claire stopped by today (with a hilarious story of a comedy of errors and how all
my relatives assumed that other relatives were picking up my daughter for the memorial...
but that's another post right there)Anyway, she said to me "You look really good today, better than I've seen you in awhile."
"I've started doing some gentle restorative Yoga. Doing wonders for my muscles" I replied.
A few minutes later, she said "Dad called me up today and said 'what do you think about Yoga?'
"How the heck does Dad know I'm doing yoga? I haven't told anyone until you just now!"
"I asked him why he asked, and he told me that he'd called your house and Leah answered the phone.
Said you couldn't come to the phone because you were 'meditating and doing your yoga'. He was
concerned. I told him that stretching exercises are good for you...and..." then she paused "As long
as you're not doing trascendental meditation or whatever..."I laughed out loud.
Can you believe that! I've been disfellowshipped nearly three years and my family is still
gossiping about something as trivial as the kind of exercise I do.Good grief.
Happy Monday everybody.
Essie
Actually, there is one thing worth noting about demons, and that is we may have psychological demons haunting us from the indoctrination received while we were witnesses. If a part of you believe that there will be demonic possession then it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that the fear is so great it becomes the thing that haunts you.
One thing worth noting about meditation is that it can bring unconscious issues to the surface at a greatly accelerated pace, so on the one hand you might make great progress psychologically but on the other hand it could be quite a shocking experience. (and in fact put you in a worse position if you're not ready to deal with it, or don't have the "tools" for it) Strictly speaking, I don't think meditation is always good for everyone at all times. It may be that other things like therapy and general relaxation techniques are called for before one starts meditating, especially if the person doesn't handle sudden change very well. I wouldn't consider it therapy, especially if it is the only thing you're doing. If a person has issues they need to address it would be best to work with a mental health professional and use meditation as an adjunct, if it's appropriate at that time.
"Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing the self is insight. Mastering others requires force. Mastering the self requires true strength." -Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33
Something related from a while back:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=6343&site=3
"Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing the self is insight. Mastering others requires force. Mastering the self requires true strength." -Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33
Mulan,
I was just drifting back through some of the posts when I came onto this one. I laughed, because I started regular yoga classes several months ago. It has been absolutely the best thing for me.
I'm 49, but in good shape. I've had some back trouble, and decided that among the many changes this year would bring in my life would be to get into the kind of physical condition I want to be in for the remainder of my years. I decided to go back to the weight I was in in my 20's and to do an exercise that would combine strength and stretching work.
Yoga did all of that, and what is even better is that yoga in itself can be a moving form of meditation. I suffer from what a friend and I call "grasshopper mind" - which if you tried to meditate, you probably understand quite well! My mind seems to jump from thing to thing.
Yoga provides a focus for the mind with brain wave results quite similar to what you'd get in seated meditation. And it's lots more fun. I also find that I am now totally pain free in my back for the first time in five years. It just makes your body feel wonderful. Plus it builds some really nice looking muscle - if you saw the Oprah, you saw what I mean. There's this thing called yoga butt - and it beats Buns of Steel! Yoga produces this really toned dancers body.
And I had to laugh at 6's parody. God, what stupidity we expressed as Witnesses! Let me tell you sometime how I was at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago and had my first tarot reading!! Funny stuff. And those demons seem to be about as helpless as God has been, so I wouldn't let them worry any of you much.
Intorspection - Enjoy your posts, but would enjoy them better if you made shorter paragraphs. Just a suggestion.
Enjoy the meditation - and to all those who asked about the yoga, I totally recommend it. It is rigorous, and yet makes your body feel just wonderful. It's purpose is really to just simply keep the spine and the rest of your skeleton healthy - and when your whole body is limber and loose and relaxed, the feeling is just fantastic.
By the way, I'm within five pounds of my goal, my waist is back down to what it was in my 20's, and I have a 33 year old friend who thought for the longest time that I was pretty close to her age. So there's my yoga testimonial!!
Enjoy,
S4
