Читать книгу Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series - Gregor Maehle - Страница 37

Dhyana, or meditation, can flourish only once concentration is mastered. Whereas concentration relies on willpower, meditation occurs effortlessly. The difference between the two is like the difference between a dial-up Internet connection and a high-speed broadband connection. In meditation, there is a continuous flow of awareness from the meditator toward the chosen meditation object and a constant stream of information or data from the object to the meditator — very much like what occurs on an Internet connection with fast upload and download speeds.

Let’s assume that you have sufficiently practiced concentration and are therefore ready to embark on the exciting practice of meditation proper. I use the word exciting because once you have properly concentrated and thus “seen” the underlying truth of the various aspects of the chakra (that is, form, location, Sanskrit letters, root syllables, color, gross element, mandala, subtle essence), you can put them all together. At this depth of concentration, effort suddenly falls away and you get a direct line to the underlying reality of the chakra.

The fascinating opening that happens when you get to this stage is that you can “download” or “log on” to the deva, or divine form, that resides in or presides over each respective chakra (Lord Brahma for the muladhara chakra, for example).¹⁴ The view of the divine form instills you with confidence in your progress and devotion. The deva is a manifestation of its mantra, the root syllable. In fact, the chakra, the associated element, and the presiding divine form are all manifested by the mantra, which in itself was a part of the creation of the universe by means of sound or vibration.

In dhyana, due to the permanent “logging on” to the object of contemplation, you no longer switch your attention from one aspect of the chakra to another (location to color to number of petals to root syllable to gross element, and so on); instead, you become able to see them all together as an interconnected, reciprocal whole. For the base chakra, for example, the divine form (Lord Brahma) is understood as a psychological representation of the root mantra, and the root mantra as an acoustic representation of the Lord Brahma; at the same time, the Earth element is seen as a material representation of the Lord Brahma and the Lord Brahma as a divine or celestial representation of the Earth element; in addition, the sense of smell appears as a subtle representation of the Earth element, and the Earth element as the subtle equivalent of the sense of smell. The Earth element is also represented in the yantra (geometrical representation of the sacred) of the Muladhara, which is a square, and in the number of petals, which is four. All of these represent themselves in the microcosm of the human being on a subtle level as the muladhara chakra. This underlying reality at the foundation of dhyana needs to be deeply contemplated or spontaneously understood, whichever suits your temperament.

Unlike with asana and pranayama, it is difficult for an outside observer (that is, a teacher) to ascertain whether pratyahara, dharana, or dhyana have been attained. It is possible to quantify asana and pranayama — you can say that you practiced for two and a half hours and during that time you held eighty postures and forty breath retentions — but the practice of the inner limbs is not so easily measured.