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Title: SRF techniques vs Patanjalis eightfold path Post by: kashiraja on Sep 16, 2009 10:30 pm We as SRF students have our Hong Sau, Om-Meditation and the techniques of Kriya proper. In the first two Kriya Lessons Yogananda gives an overview of the eight fold path of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and he states, that the Kriya techniques are a high form of Pranayama (energy control) that will lead to Pratyahara which in turn will enable the Yogi to practice Dharana (Concentration) and step 7 Dhyana (Meditation). Now we practice Hong Sau (the technique for concentration) and the Om Meditation (a form of Meditation) before the technique for Pranayama. So what we call concentration through Hong Sau does not seem to be what Yogananda and Patanjali mean by Dharana (Concentration) and our Om Meditation does not seem to be the Dhyana (the meditation that comes before Samadhi) And since with Dharana and Dhyana begins Yoga proper (See Kriya-Lesson 2, GtwA 77”The first five steps are the preliminaries of yoga”) the real Concentration (on the sound Aum) and the real Meditation (on the sound Aum) should begin after doing the Kriya Exercises. That’s probably the reason why Yogananda recommends to sit preferably a long time after the having done Kriya proper. Am I right with my ideas or what do you think about this matter? Title: Re: SRF techniques vs Patanjalis eightfold path Post by: Jitendra Hydonus on Sep 17, 2009 01:15 am My initial thought on this would be that Dharana (Concentration) and Dhayana (in these techniques) are the goal of practicing the Hong Sau and Om techniques while making an effort to meditate. But true meditation is one pointed concentration on God alone this is what is meant by Dharana. When this state has been achieved we then can enter Dhayana. All of the meditation techiniques that we have been given helps us to realize the state of Dhayana. We don't say we must practice one technique to get to one state of consciousness and another technique to get to another state of consciousness. Yogananda is merely decribing the 8 fold path so that we know where we are in our spiritual evolution and practice and where we are headed by practicing all the techniques given. We are practicing concentration in the Hong Sau technique so that we can achieve the state of Dharana which is true concentration. By the way; there is no gaurantee that we are going to be in these higher states just by practicing Kriya. Kriya is just one more method to help us get there. Any one of these techniques can also help us get there or be there. So we are talking about techniques that help us towards different stages of the 8 fold path-states of consciouness that we achieve by practicing all these techniques every session. i think the important thing with all this practice is to realize we are not talking about hair splitting mental gymnastics. i mean just about the time you think you got it figured out intellectually someone will come along and practice devotion and will already be where we are trying to get. But it does help to focus on the concepts that the great ones have left us. So Kashiraja in that sense i thank you for bringing these teachings to the forum. Steve Hydonus |