Hi all,
My Deep Meditation journey goes on, and the inner silence seems to deepen day by day.
Lately I’ve noticed that the silence cultivated in practice may be clearing out some old blockages that show up physically, such as jaw clenching during and lingering after practice.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Could this be related to old buried emotions being released?
Cheers
Hi Cosmos,
Yes, rising inner silence from deep meditation, while bringing peace, the witness, and natural creative flow, can also result in energy flow leading to some muscle tension related to deep inner purification, like in the jaw, head, or other parts of the body. It is a temporary condition of purification and opening. If such symptoms persist or become excessive, then the advice is to self-pace practices until things settle down. Also make sure to get good grounding activity during the day.
Other practices like spinal breathing pranayama can be involved in the increased energy flow causing some discomfort, and/or be a remedy for it. So be sure to work toward a balance of practices in your routine based primarily on your experience outside practices during the day.
Sounds like things are going well for you. Continue to practice wisely, and enjoy!
The guru is in you.
Hi all & @yogani
What if, when outside of DM, while working on a computer and being totally present leads our focus on breath and mantra automatically pops up as well.
What should be done in such scenerio? Should the mantra be allowed to run in our consciousness, being aware of it outside of DM, or not?
Hi Raag,
Welcome to the forum!
Best not to intentionally make a habit of mantra or pranayama outside of sitting practices. If it comes, we can just let it go and stay focused on the activity we are doing. No harm if mantra or breath awareness comes now and then. We just easily come back to the activity we are doing. Likewise, it is not best to intentionally engage is spiritual practices outside sitting, as in doing them all day. That could lead to overload. So practice when it is time to practice, and be active when it is time to be active. That is the formula for good progress in cultivating abiding inner silence and stillness in action.
Note: The Forum AI, drawing on the extensive AYP knowledgebase, is a good tool for elaborating on any sort of questions one might have. I have included the AI response to your question below. Answers can also be shortened to any number of words you choose, by including in the question something like “In 100 words or less…” followed by the question. The one below is open on length, and quite detailed as you can see.
All the best on your continuing path!
The guru is in you.
AYP AI: When you are outside of your formal Deep Meditation (DM) sessions and find yourself becoming aware of your breath or the mantra while working, the general AYP instruction is to be fully present in your current activity.
Here is how to handle this scenario based on the sources:
AYP emphasizes keeping meditation and daily activity separate. The instruction is clear: “When you are in the world, be in the world. When you are in meditation, be in meditation”. You should not deliberately allow or encourage the mantra to run in your consciousness during the day.
The sources make a critical distinction between these two:
Deliberately maintaining the mantra while working at a computer divides your thought process and can actually limit the mantra’s effectiveness as a vehicle for deep silence during your formal sittings. People with a “mantra habit” often find it harder to learn the correct, effortless procedure of Deep Meditation because they are used to “mechanically droning on” with it while focusing on other things.
If the mantra or focus on breath “pops up” automatically without your intention, it is considered a sign of spiritual purification and the rise of the “inner silent witness”.
When the mantra or breath awareness arises while you are working:
So, basically, earlier I practised various breath & mantra-related practices. The thing I liked about your approach is that it makes me capable of pursuing worldly stuff as well, while also assuring the result of realising THAT or whatever anyone wants to call.
But due to past spiritual practices, without much effort, I have grown to be mindful (like mindful meditation) of every moment with the presence of my breath. Not that I consider anything wrong with this, as it makes me capable of being a witness to arising thoughts, and sometimes the mantra also gets intertwined with breath. Not a clear pronunciation, but very fuzzy because I don’t consciously do it outside DP.
That’s why I wanted to know that after following your method of meditation, if these things are occuring it shouldn’t be a major problem, right?
Hi Raag,
No, not a problem. If you are in the habit of naturally “witnessing” experiences during the day, external and internal (including mantra), without attaching to them, this is fine. Just keep on with your daily activity.
Not sure if you have gotten to Samyama in the lessons yet, but there you will see how systematically letting go in stillness while practicing samyama during sitting practice will lead to more natural letting go in stillness in daily life. There is great freedom in it, as well as increasing ability to accomplish more in life. Your past practices have given you this habit to a degree already, and that’s good, as long as making it a full time intentional practice is not dominating daily activity and productivity. Natural witnessing in daily activity is a good thing. Forcing it in everything we are doing as a mental exercise is not such a good thing. From an AYP self-inquiry perspective, we would call that “non-relational,” meaning not occurring naturally in stillness.
All the best!
The guru is in you.
Yes, keeping up with life and not attaching to the mantra is a reason I liked your approach.
I’ve already started doing Samyama, I don’t experience thoughts as such during that time, but I do experience, sometimes my mind ruminates on already released sutra, or thinking or arranging next in line sutra (maybe because not experienced in samyama). Though I try to witness these rumination without engaging or judging, and most of the time I feel peace during the process.
But I’ve noticed that due to the habit of being mindful, I often take help of my breath awareness to not get carried away. I do get a window between in & out breath where ‘I AM’ without any object. Good thing, though I’ve not faced a mantra autoplaying issue during samyama
I did read the book on Samyama, but is being aware of breath (which in itself is an ‘object’) during samyama is recommended or not?
Hi Raag,
In whatever AYP practice we are doing, we always favor the procedure of the practice over experiences that come up. In other words, if our attention is going to breath during deep meditation or samyama, we just ease back to the mantra when we notice we are off it, or back to the procedure of samyama if we have wandered off or gotten into something else (like breath).
It is not advised to intentionally add extra elements of practice (like breath awareness) into the basic procedures, as this can water down the effects of practice. It’s not a good idea to be reinventing our practice while doing it. What we decide about our path and practice is best done outside practice. Experiences during practice are related to the process of purification and opening occurring inside, and can be anything. That’s why it is important to stay with the procedure, so that process of purification can continue during our sittings. Anything we intentionally add will reduce the effectiveness. Experiences during practice should not alter the practice itself. Very simple, but easy to miss, because we are accustomed to making adjustments in what we are doing based on experiences in the moment. Not so in sitting practices.
The guru is in you.
Hello Raag
Witnessing is a sign your practices are bringing you along, it sounds as if you are in a good place. For this yogi, falling quiet and open is a gentle invitation for silence to come forward, whether eyes open in exercise, driving, or moving from here to there, or eyes closed in seated practice. “Gentle” is important in the AYP framework, especially with attention and intentions. Gently tracing the spine in SBP, repeating and returning to the mantra when astray in DM, and surrendering sutras in samyama. I often used a strap in asana practice and have learned that gently (almost barely) holding it in a pose often results in deeper expression, go figure.