Om
Mantras begin with it, it is called udgitha - the song of the Universe, it contains atman and brahman, everything began with it, and everything is permeated with it - this post is about the sound of Om, the sacred syllable for all yogis.
This syllable is also called pranava, akshara or ekakshara - the letter of the alphabet, as well as omkara. He is mentioned in all Vedas and in almost all Upanishads.
The first sound "a" is clear and sonorous, to pronounce it, the teeth open by about two fingers. Behind him "u" - a little more reserved, the yogi's mouth is covered. At the end - the nasal "ṁ" - the longest - the sound of high vibrations. If you listen carefully, you can understand where they come from in the body.
Chanting the sacred syllable brings peace, stops the spontaneous movement of the mind, increases the vital capacity of the lungs and relieves asthma. The one who has mastered its secrets has mastered the secrets of the universe.
I hope we managed to inspire you, sing "Om" as often as you can and reveal the secrets of the universe!
"Glorified by the Vedas,
Tapas manifested
The one for whom the brahmacari abandon life,
Understand this word in its very essence: Om! This is the word.
This syllable is Brahman,
It is highest.
To someone who knows him
All he wants comes to him. "
- Katha Upanishad, 1.2.15-1.2.16
Gunas.
Guṇa means "string" or "thread" as well as "quality", "peculiarity" and "property". These are three different properties or qualities that, to one degree or another, are inherent in every person, action, deed, thought, and even food. All three are present in everything and everyone, and only their influence differs.
If this or that guna is more developed, the character and actions of a person, as well as the sequence of events in his life change.
Lazy people live in chaos, eat heavy food, from which their bodies become flabby, they want only rest and stay, their whole life passes as in a dream, self-destructing.
People burning with passion burn their whole lives in emotions, unable to stop; their food is spicy or bitter, their minds, in constant search, cannot find rest.
People filled with goodness are kind and open, their thoughts are calm and happy, their food is light, and their days are devoted to helping others.
The three gunas are called: sattva (kindness, constructive, harmony), rajas (passion, excessive strength, activity) and tamas (destructive, chaos). Only Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma are freed from the influence of the gunas, but they themselves represent the actions of their properties: Vishnu is sattva, he controls the Universe, Brahma - rajas, he creates, and Shiva is tamas, he destroys when the time comes .
On a level further, these are all qualities of the mind: controlling your mind, creating thoughts, and, ultimately, destroying the ego.
"That virtuous act, deliberate, free from attachment, and performed without expectation of the result, is called sattvic; the act that we do out of thirst for pleasure, selfishness and through great effort is called rajasic; that act taken in the clouding of the mind, blindly to circumstances, without looking back at loss or injury for oneself and others is called tamasic. "
- Bhagavad Gita, chapter 18: slokas 23-25
Chakras.
In the traditional hatha yoga system, the 7-chakra system is most common. Many people do not think that these names also have their own translation, so this post is devoted to the translation of the names and locations of the 7 main chakras.
1.Sahasrara (IAST: Sahasrāra) - "thousand-petalled". Located above a person's head. After opening this chakra, the practitioner realizes his nature and his consciousness dwells in the saccidānanda - the state of eternity, consciousness and bliss.
2. Ajna (IAST: ājñā) - "order", "unlimited power". It is through him that the practitioner perceives the instructions and advice of the Supreme Teacher. It is localized just above the brow region.
3. Vishuddha (IAST: viśuddha) - "full of purity", "perfectly pure". It is located in the throat, near the thyroid gland. This is the place where an elusive intention turns into a tangible thought-form, and a thought-form is clothed in a word. Depending on the state of this chakra, a word can become a lie, or it can become a source of inspiration and creation.
Any lie, false information will help to close this chakra.
4. Anahata (IAST: anāhata) - “unsurpassed”, “untouched [by worldly sounds, passions].” Located in the center of the body, at the intersection of the spine and the line connecting the nipple (about 4 fingers above the end of the xiphoid process). It connects the lower three chakras with the upper three and, as a result, represents the "heart" of the entire chakra system.
5. Manipura (IAST: maṇipūra) - "precious city". Located in the navel area.
6. Svadhishthana (IAST: svādhiṣṭhāna) - "your place of residence" or "abode of the self" - the place where the ego resides. Located just above the pubic bone.
7.Muladhara (IAST: mūlādhāra) - "root chakra". Located between the genitals and the anus.
About happiness
If you ask, say, Vasilisa, whether she was once happy, Vasilisa will recall the longed-for kiss three years before graduation, or a completely successful party in honor of her twenty-fifth birthday, well, and maybe the whole office gave her the award for the best specialist of the department in 2008 ...
Everything we do since childhood is scouring the outside in search of happiness, only to drop it and start over. Just as prospectors dive to the seabed in search of a golden crown, but in reality, what they hunt for is just the reflection of gold on the cliff above.
Happiness is only a state. Is our. From the inside. As long as we try to tie it to external events, it will never stay with us.
There are 4 levels of happiness in yoga and they are called sukha, saṃtoṣa, mudita and ānanda.
Sukha. Pleasure and comfort, lightness and pleasure. Imagine that you finally got out - sitting on the beach, they brought you a misted glass of mojitos and droplets of mint liquid drip down your tongue. This is sukha. You glance lazily along the bar and see how your loved one is flirting with a pretty bartender with a seventh breast. This is dukha. Pleasure and pain always go together. The pleasure dependent on external objects is fragile and fleeting.
Santosha is translated as contentment. The key to the next level of happiness is simply being content with what you have, without fears, expectations, or unfulfilled desires. This is not yet happiness, but it is no longer suffering. The key is to stop trying to compare yourself to others.
Mudita. The calmed mind in santosh opens the door to another level. Here the words end, happiness comes from nowhere and throws up a whole storm of feelings. Beauty is revealed in ordinary things. The key to this door is meditation, asanas and chanting. New, unprecedented levels of awareness open up here. So in Japan, they watch the flowering of one tree for hours, and the monks cry at dawn from the beauty of the sight they saw.
ānanda. After mudita - ānanda. In Russian, a distantly close word to describe is bliss. It is about a thousand times weaker than what is meant. It is the purity of the power of God, manifested from the center of the universe right into our heart.
Meditation
Shamatha (Skt. Śamatha IAST; Tib. ཞི་ གནས - literally “pacification, [mental] calmness”) is a type of meditation in Buddhism, which aims at achieving mental peace, as well as the actual state of clarity of consciousness.
Shamatha, is achieved only with the help of mental consciousness, and not with the consciousness of the senses. It is not just a state where all obstacles to concentration are quieted and the mind is directed towards an object or desired state. It is more than absorbed concentration. In addition, it is accompanied by another mental factor - a sense of physical and mental readiness (flexibility, plasticity).
When we have attained shamatha and have gained a gross detection of the main characteristic of the object of concentration, vipashyana (an extremely receptive state of mind, special insight) adds the mental factor of subtle insight. In doing so, we maintain the same level of concentration of shamatha. Subtle discernment is an active understanding of the smallest details of the nature of a phenomenon, thanks to previous careful research. It does not imply verbal thinking, although it can be caused by it. Thus, of the two types of meditation, insightful and stabilizing, vipashyana emphasizes the first.
Vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition is a gaze into the true nature of reality, three properties of existence: impermanence, suffering and the realization of not-self. Before the division into directions, Buddhism attached greater importance to dhyana, but after that vipashyana took a firm place in the teachings.
The word is derived from the Pali "vi-" and the verb root paś.
In the Theravada traditions and Tibetan Buddhism, Shamatha (Sanskrit: śamatha; "rest") and Vipashyana are used in practice. Shamatha is used to focus the mind one-pointedly, and it is also widely used in Raja Yoga.
Vipashyana uses mindfulness of breathing, together with awareness of impermanence, to achieve a complete understanding of the nature of reality. All phenomena are investigated and the practitioner comes to the conclusion about their impermanence and reason for suffering, where even the "I" is eternally changing and short-lived.
The stages of practice (jnana):
The practitioner first examines body and mind as one, without duality. Phenomena reveal themselves as appearing and disappearing.
In the second jnana, no effort is needed to practice.
In the third, joy and sorrow disappear, leaving a place of satisfaction with the fact that there is concentration.
The fourth jnana is purity of mind and equanimity. Practice leads to erect posture. Each phenomenon is clearly seen as unstable and transitory. The desire for liberation comes.
Diwali
Divali! This is one of the brightest days of the year, it falls in late October - early November. The name comes from Skt. Dīpāvalī, and here dīpa is the light of the lamp, and āvali is the multitude; the light of many lamps.
Three stories happened on this day:
Born as a prince, Rama was expelled from the kingdom, lived for 14 years in exile in the forests with his wife, Sita, and performed many valiant deeds and exploits. When the exile was coming to an end, beloved Rama was stolen by the greatest of the asuras, Ravana. But Rama found and defeated the asura, freed Sita, and on the day of Diwali returned with honor to his city, became a great king and created a prosperous state.
To illuminate their path, the inhabitants of all the villages along the way began to light lamps, and, just as the rays of light scatter darkness, the light of good will always triumph over evil.
On this day, while churning the ocean of milk, Lakshmi appeared from its waters and chose Vishnu as her husband.
Indra became angry with little Krishna because he persuaded the locals to offer sacrifices and worship himself in his place. Indra summoned the clouds and caused a continuous downpour over the entire Vrindavan region for seven days and nights. To protect people and animals, Krishna raised the huge Govardhana Hill on the little finger of his left hand, and all the inhabitants of Vrindavan were able to take shelter under it from the rain, like under a large umbrella. In the end, Indra admitted his defeat and, after offering prayers to Krishna, retired to his heavenly abode - the planet Indraloka. After that, Govardhana Hill became famous in all three worlds. Every year Vaisnavas all over the world celebrate on this day the Govardhana Puja festival. Govardhan is a small mound in Braja, near Mathura.
Holi.
Holi is a celebration of colors and a celebration of love.
It is celebrated by high fires at dawn and splashes of paint flying into the air - nim, turmeric, dhak, kumkum - and everything that can be washed off with water!
Winter is over, good defeated evil, meet friends, laugh, forget and forgive, start all over again and be grateful for everything!
Three stories are celebrated on this day:
Once the asura Hiranyakashipu imagined himself to be a god, and ordered him to pray to everyone, including his own son. Except for the son, Prahlada, everyone obeyed, but Prahlada remained devoted to Visnu. Prahlada's father went into a frenzy and tried to destroy him in every possible way, but none of them caused Prahlada harm. Hiranyakasipu then ordered his sister to take her son in her arms and climb onto the stack of firewood. The secret was that she was wearing a magic sari that protected from fire. But when the woodpile was set on fire, sister Hiranyakashipu flared up and burned to ashes, but Prahlada was not touched by the flame. Following this, Vishnu appeared in the form of a half-man-half lion and tore the asura apart, freeing Prahlada and destroying the special power of Hiranyakasipu.
In Braja, the festival is celebrated for a whole month, because it was there that Krishna, with his skin the color of a thundercloud, to please Radha, dyed her fair skin the same color on the advice of his mother, and won her heart.
When Parvati conquered her husband, Shiva. At that time he was in deep meditation, from which nothing could get him out. They asked Kama, the god of love, to wake the yogi, and he shot Shiva with his bow. Shiva opened his third eye and burned the god of love to ashes. Seeing this, the whole world was amazed, Kama's wife and Parvati herself. Kama's wife performed a severe austerity, and after 40 days Shiva forgave her husband and brought him back to life.
Mahashivaratri!
A unique day in the life of yogis is Mahashivaratri. There is no other day when all the doors to practice are so open. Everything on this day contributes to the rise of spiritual energy, the fruits from reading mantras, especially mahāmṛtyuñjaya, multiply.
• In Mahashivaratri yogis all over the world celebrate a great event - the wedding of a yogi, an ascetic and a hermit of Shiva! On this day, Himavan's daughter, Parvati, reached her Beloved, and Shiva merged with Shakti in her form.
• The Puranas also tell the story of how during the churning of the ocean devas and asuras a poison appeared that could destroy the universe. Shiva, in order to protect the creation, drank this poison, but, thanks to his yogic powers, he did not swallow it, which would destroy himself, but retained the poison in his throat. Since then, Shiva has been called Nīlkaṇṭha, or Blue-throated, because Shiva's throat turned blue with poison that day. Mahashivaratri also celebrates this day, on which Shiva saved the whole world.
• Mahashivaratri is also famous for the fact that on this night Shiva danced the cosmic dance Tandava.
Three horizontal stripes of sacred ash are applied to the forehead, māla (rosary) from the sacred seeds of the Rudaraksha is worn on the body.
The celebration consists of offering Shiva a yajna (worship ritual), fasting for a day, staying awake at night (jagaran), and reciting the sacred mantra "oṁ namaḥ śivāya", the practice of traditional hatha yoga in order to earn merit in yoga and meditation practice and quickly achieve life.
In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”