As I see it, individuals view fitness in a very general and limiting way. Generally speaking, the goal of fitness is often to become thin, look good aesthetically, and to have strong muscles. Of course, not all people think this way, but I am speaking from my own experience and from what I see in society today. There seems to be more concern with how we look versus how well our body feels and functions. In order for our “total self” to become “fitness ready,” we must engage in all 5 of my elements of fitness.

The 5 Elements of Fitness

1. Breath: Clinical studies prove that oxygen, wellness, and life-span are totally dependent on proper breathing. Lung volume is a primary marker for how long you will live. Breathing supplies over 99% of your entire oxygen and energy supply. Poor breathing causes or worsens chronic maladies such as asthma, allergies, anxiety, fatigue, depression, headaches, heart conditions, high blood pressure, sleep loss, obesity, harmful stress, poor mental clarity plus hundreds of other lesser known but equally harmful conditions. ALL diseases are caused or worsened by poor breathing. The average person reaches peak respiratory function and lung capacity in their mid 20’s. Then they begin to loose respiratory capacity: between 10% and 27% for every decade of life! So, unless you are doing something to maintain or improve your breathing capacity, it will decline, and with it, your general health, your life expectancy, and for that matter, your spirit as well. Optimal breathing gets you more vitality and better quality of life. We also address food, exercise, internal cleansing, attitude, and environment but breathing is for many the most important part of getting and staying healthy. Begin with breathing. Better breathing is possible for anyone. Develop your breathing now.” Breathing is the FIRST place not the LAST place one should investigate when any disordered energy presents itself.” Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD Ph.D. , The Oxygen Breakthrough, Breathing fundamentals are critical. Just because one particular breathing exercise or development technique feels good does not mean it is the best choice. Many feel good at the outset of a certain exercise but that is largely because so many breathe so poorly that any progress feels significant, and it may well be. But each technique or exercise must be based in solid breathing fundamentals otherwise they can work against each other and cause future breathing development problems. Like a rocket ship even slightly off coarse, as the days and weeks pass you will travel further and further away from your goal of a long healthy, vibrant life. Knowing the fundamentals helps you stay on course.

2. Flexibility: Flexibility is the ability to move joints and muscles through their full range of motion. As you become more flexible, you will find it easier to reach things on high shelves, to look under a bed, or perhaps to tie your shoes. You will also have a better sense of balance and coordination. To stay flexible, stretch all your major groups of muscles. These include the muscles of your arms, back, hips, front and back of your thighs, and calves. Try to stretch for 10 to 12 minutes a day, after a brief warm-up. Do some stretches first thing in the morning, take a stretch break instead of a coffee break, or stretch in the office for a few minutes. Or participate in activities that include stretching, such as dance, martial arts (aikido or karate), tai chi, or yoga. Stretching also can be done as part of strength training and aerobic exercise. When you exercise, you repeatedly shorten your muscles. To counter this effect, you need to stretch slowly and regularly, which makes you more flexible. Combining it with other forms of fitness is an ideal way to practice flexibility fitness. When getting started with flexibility and stretching, begin slowly and increase your efforts gradually. You can measure your progress with flexibility by noticing how much farther you can do each stretch. Can you go farther with each stretch than you could when you started? If so, your flexibility is improving.

3. Emotions: Emotions serve as the source of human energy, authenticity and drive, and can offer us a wellspring of intuitive wisdom. Each feeling provides us with valuable feedback throughout the day. This feedback from the heart is what ignites creativity, keeps us honest with ourselves, guides trusting relationships, and provides the compass for our life and career. Emotional intelligence requires that we learn to acknowledge and understand feelings – in ourselves and others – and that we appropriately respond to them, creatively applying the energy of the emotions to our daily life, work and relationships. Emotional intelligence is demonstrated by tolerance, empathy and compassion for others; the ability to verbalize feelings accurately and with integrity; and the resilience to bounce back from emotional upsets. It is the ability to be a deeply feeling, authentic human being, no matter what life brings, no matter what challenges and opportunities we face. Emotional intelligence (EQ) may be even more important than IQ in one’s ability to achieve success and happiness. I may score well on tests and excel academically, but how well do I handle disappointment, anger, jealousy and fear, the problems of communication, and all the ups and downs of relationships? Persons with high EQ – who have developed emotional literacy – will have more confidence and trust in themselves, and more understanding of others and therefore empathy with them. So they will make better relationships and experience more achievement, love and joy in their life. They will be emotionally mature, a state that many adults do not achieve. If these skills were taught widely, in the home as well as at school, and amongst adults too of course, it would provide the basis of a much saner and happier world to live in. At its essence, a meaningful and successful life requires being attuned to what is on the inside, beneath the mental analyzes, the appearances and control, and beneath the rhetoric. It requires being attuned to the heart, the center of our emotions and outgoing reach to the world. Our heart activates our deepest values, transforming them from something we think about to what we actually do in our life. The heart is the place of courage and spirit, integrity and commitment – the source of energy and deep feelings that call us to create, learn, cooperate, lead and serve. When we have painful feelings, the heart is telling us we have unmet needs, or we are interpreting reality through some kind of distorting filter. When we have positive feelings, the heart is telling us we are pointing in the right direction, towards fulfillment of our needs and towards truth. Our Higher Self, the all-knowing part of us connected to all consciousness, communicates to our body-mind through this channel – not through verbal messages but through the heart. We just need to be open to receive this intuitive wisdom.

4. Cardiovascular: To stay healthy, adults should do at least 20 minutes of vigorous cardiovascular exercise three times a week, according to joint research from Exeter and Brunel universities. Not only will good cardiovascular fitness reduce the risk of a stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes, it will improve your performance in most sports. Cardiovascular fitness refers to the ability of your heart, lungs and blood vessels (cardiovascular system) to carry oxygen to, and carbon dioxide away from, working muscles. Your resting heart rate (RHR) is a good indication of your overall cardiovascular fitness level. The lower it is, the more efficiently your heart is pumping blood around your body. Seventy beats per minute (BPM) is average for a healthy heart and to improve cardiovascular fitness you must train at 70-80% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Below, we examine four popular cardio exercises – running, swimming, cycling and rowing – explain how many calories they burn and which muscles they work. To determine your MHR, subtract your age from 220. If you are 40, your MHR would be 180 BPM. A heart rate monitor is useful for cardiovascular training, enabling you to exercise at the required output. Each session should include 5 to 10-minute warm-up and cool-down – both performed at 50-60% of MHR. It’s also vital to stretch all the muscles used in the activity.

5. Muscle Strength: Even if you have no intention of becoming an Olympic weight-lifter, there’s still reason to care about muscular fitness. It influences your ability to do everyday chores, like housework and yard work. It affects how easily you can carry a bag of groceries or lift a young child. It’s also at the core of physical skill and sports performance, affecting how hard you swing a softball bat or how long you last on the tennis court. Muscle-strengthening exercises are likely to improve your stamina and your energy. Equally important, they increase resistance to injury. People with strong muscles are less likely to suffer everyday muscle aches and pains. They also have less strain on their hearts. Resistance training. Building muscular fitness involves resistance training, progressively overloading your muscles so that they get stronger to meet the challenge. This can be done with exercises that use your body to exert force, like push-ups, chin-ups, and sit-ups. Commonly, people use weight training, also called weight lifting, to provide resistance. Strength gains come from resistance€”how much weight you lift. Endurance is achieved through repetition€”how many times you lift a weight in succession. Both are important to develop. Experts advise you to start any weight-training program with light weights and easy repetition. Start with a weight that you can lift comfortably eight to 12 times. Try to do a second set of each exercise after a break of a few minutes. Do at least one exercise for each muscle group, moving from the larger muscles (the legs) down to smaller ones (arms and biceps). Strength gains come when you work with close to the heaviest weight that you can lift comfortably. This is the overload principle. You’ll see the quickest benefits if you lift the maximum amount during fewer repetitions of each exercise. Using a weight that’s too heavy, however, can lead to injury. And if you’re interested in all-around conditioning, it’s best to start with low amounts and progress gradually.

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We talked a bit about the energetic system of the Chakras last week and discovered the importance of opening up internally so that the energy of this unseen system can flow free of obstruction. The difficulty of learning to find a relationship with the Chakra System is that we cannot see it as it has a “non-physical” form. The same holds true with the Mind, which cannot be seen in physical form but is very much a living entity.

The Mind is complex and very very difficult to understand. It has, as I see it, four components that have very distinct functions. The ability to rationalize, perceive, resist and observe.

The Four Components of Mind

The ability to rationalize serves a very important function that allows us to think about the myriad of stimuli that enter our senses. This function allows us to consider the value of the things that happen to us everyday. Are our romantic relationships fulfilling, is my job worth keeping, am I making the best choices for myself, do I like this or that person, what is my opinion of my physical body, etc., etc. Opinions are formed from the things that we rationally think about and it is very difficult to change them once they are formed. Our opinions are hard-wired into the neuro-pathways of our brain and become “cemented” into our brains. In essence, our “rationalizing” creates the physical make-up of our brains and if we think and rationalize too much we stuff the mind with an overflow of matter that results in stress and delusions. Just like if someone eats too much bad food, they will create too many fat cells that will ultimately put stress on the physical body as can be seen in things like obesity, clogged arteries, stressed joints, and the like. It is not necessary to try to figure everything out rationally and when we do this it is because we are running from our feelings. Feelings bring us to the second component of Mind, which is our ability to perceive.

Perception takes information that is “up” in our heads and allows it to flow down “into” us for a deeper understanding. When I say a deeper understanding, I mean what we feel about that information for one thing. There is also a deeper “knowing” that occurs from our ability to perceive the information and opinions that we make. Some information makes us feel positive feelings and others makes us feel negative feelings. If we have formed a negative or overly critical opinion of something, it results in negative feelings. The deeper we allow ourselves to connect to those negative feelings, the deeper our “knowing” or understanding of that feeling becomes. This is important because the more we know and perceive about our negative feelings the more likely we will choose the more comfortable positive opinions. When we create more positive opinions, the result is more positive feelings. The only way to wake up to our negative opinions is to connect to how we feel about those opinions. The catch and difficulty in this process is that we do not always want to FEEL our negative feelings. And when we don’t feel our negative feelings we remain asleep and allow our negative opinions to drive us in negative directions in an endless cycle of darkness. We now come to our third component of Mind, which is the ability to resist.

Ah, the infamous resistance, which is the part of us that prevents us from becoming free, enlightened, ultimately happy and reaching our highest potential. I am not saying that our resistance is not important because it most defiantly is important and valuable. Without our faculty to resist opinions, feelings, and choices we would not have freedom of choice. The glory of this Universe is that we ALWAYS have a choice to do something new or stay the same. Of course, if we always want to stay the same, then we don’t grow and are not able to experience the glory of all that makes up our lives. It would seem like the obvious choice would be to feel as deeply as we could so that we continue to grow and expand the essence of who we are as a “self.” Yet, one does not go without the other. Without our “negative” feelings and thoughts, we could not understand the beauty of our “positive” thoughts and feelings. The bad aspects of a romantic relationship for example allow us to appreciate the positive aspects. It is a huge mistake and the essence of delusional thinking to only want positive and happy things to occur. On the deepest spiritual level, we came to this physical realm to experience the opposite of our divinity so that we could have something to compare it too and so understand that divinity more deeply. That being said, if you ever wonder why something is not working in your favor, just remember the infamous saying, “what we resist persists.” If you resist arguing with your lover, then those arguments will continue. If you accept them as natural and necessary, they will decrease. Oh the irony of it aye. The final component is our ability to observe.

I won’t say much about observance other than that it is what defines being awake. When we observe our opinions without attaching to them, we are able to truly see them. If we want to know what our opinions are, then we need to observe our thoughts without judgment or attachment. We need to be able to read the content of our Mind just as we would read the content of a book. When we do this, we are able to then truly decide if it is something that we wish to continue. Finally, when you do observe your mind correctly you will have a corresponding feeling that is associated with that thought. When observance is done this way, you can move through the fear within your heart. Remember, enlightenment is an open mind and heart. Many will observe the mind without allowing their feelings about those thoughts to surface and so prevent themselves from being impacted by what they see. When this happens then they simply stay out of the realm of humanity and in the realm of escapism and avoidance.

A Second Opinion

The specific aspects of mind are; 1) “unrest” which means going out to receive sense objects coming to sense doors as fish, cast on earth, strive to go into water, 2) “moving” means non-calm, sometimes it may be calm, but when it is attacked by sense objects, it is distracted by those, 3) “hard observation” means it is very hard to keep it calm (purified), 4) “hard protection” means it is very hard to protect it from forming an opinion, especially a bad (or selfish) opinion, 5) “hard compulsion” means it is very hard to force it not to fall under the five hindrances (it is likened to a drug addict, it is very hard for him to stop taking drugs) because it always falls under the five hindrances, it is hard to realize it, it is very smooth, and it arises and vanishes very rapidly.

This shows that the mind of human beings is restless, always falling down into the valley of unwholesome deeds. This leads human beings into big trouble. In the Buddha’s time, there was a monk named Talaputa. After he had become a monk, he practiced meditation in the forest. He spent a long time doing meditation, but he could not attain enlightenment, as he wished. Then he searched for the cause and he found that it was because of his own mind. He complained to his mind, saying, “Citta (mind), you begged me for many years to leave lay life, now I am a monk as you wish, why now are you lazy and want me to abandon meditation? You always say to me, the forest is beautiful and peaceful and it is a proper place for meditation, then I leave lay life and all my relatives and have lived here for some time, I have tried to please you for ages but now you still hurt me, and want me to go back to where you used to tell me off. From now on I am going to train you, taking you into the cave, observing you like an elephant or horse trainer, I’m going to chain you with meditation (mindfulness), I know that if anyone is influenced by you, he or she will suffer.”

All the complaints of the monk above show that the human mind is made distraught by distractions or attachments, all of which we have derived from mind, and the cycle of life, also, is from mind. As a result the Buddha said, “The world is led by mind, all things are controlled by mind.”

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The human body is composed of various physical elements (i.e. heart, lungs, limbs, etc.) that enable it to function properly. If any of these elements or aspect of the human body are injured or broken, it effects the overall functionality of the human body in general. For example, a person with lung disease will have difficulty running effectively. The impaired lungs affects the ability of the legs and heart or cardio-vascular system to function at their maximum ability during running. Each of the physical parts of the human body affects the other and are thus interconnected with each other in profound ways. Let’s call this the physical system of our “total self.”

There is also a non-physical system in the form of energy fields that are connected to the physical body and affects the functionality of the “total self” also. It’s called the Chakra System that is generally viewed as having seven major elements, as well as uncountable minor ones that are of equal value. We will focus on the seven major chakras here.

7 Major Chakra System

The best way to view the chakras is as energy processing centers that enable us to connect to the non-physical elements that surround us. Many would call these non-physical elements our “spiritual essence,” but I prefer to refer to them as our non-physical essences. There are too many associations, in my opinion, that are attached to the word “spiritual” that could cause us to view this “un-seen” essence as somehow separate from us. When in actuality, they are as connected to us as our hand is to our forearm. This energy system flows throughout our body just as our blood flows throughout our circulatory system. This non-physical system enables every aspect of our “total self” (our physical, emotional, mental and intuitional bodies) to function effectively. Each chakra has its own character that relates to a unique aspect of our being. They are patterns of energy whos shape can be described as funnel-like or whirlpool-like, and each one corresponds to parts of the Central Nervous System. Their vortices lie inside the body, along the spinal chord and up into the head.

When there is a blockage or other energetic dysfunction in a chakra, it usually causes disorders in the physical, mental and intuitive bodies. A defect in the energy flow of a chakra will disrupt the necessary amount of energy that flows to its corresponding element in the physical body, just as a blocked artery negatively affects the ability of the heart’s system to function properly. Even though these energy patterns don’t exist as physical elements, there are specific locations in the body where the energy patterns exist; five along the spine, and two on the head. Each chakra also has a certain color associated with it. Because the chakras are non-physical entities, it is impossible to convey a complete explanation of the nature of each chakra in words alone, but the table below will provide an introduction to the nature of each.

NUMBER — LOCATION & NAME — CHARACTER — COLOR
7 — Crown of Head/Totality of Beingness — Non-physical Perfection — Violet
6 — Forehead (3rd Eye) — Visualization/Intuition — Indigo
5 — Pit of Throat — Communication/Creative Expression — Blue
4 — Heart/Universal Love — Compassion and Empathy — Green
3 — Solar Plexus/Creation of Self — Perception and Projection of Self — Yellow
2 — Sacral (Pubic) — Desire & Sexual Energy — Orange
1 — Base of Spine Physical/Vitality — Survival — Red

Chakra Details

“Each chakra has a dominant (usually) front component, and a less dominant (usually) rear component that are intimately related. The seventh and first chakras, though, are usually represented and thought of as having only the one dominant component, as it is far, far more significant than the weaker component in these two chakras. The seventh chakra extends vertically upwards above the head. The first chakra extends forwards from the base of the spine, and downwards, at roughly a 45 degree angle, although its exact position will vary from person to person. The other five chakras, spaced between the first and seventh, have at their appropriate locations a front component extending out the front of the body and a rear component extending out the rear of the body. Aside from the entry of energy into the body through the seven major chakras, there is also an upward flow of energy in the body, from the lower to higher energy centers. The lower chakras are simpler-functioning, but as one ascends upwards there is a greater degree of sophisticated and more spiritual functioning, intimately related to the life experience and state of being of the individual,” (www.chioshealing.com).

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Anyone that is interested in understanding their mind and what meditation is, I have found, usually begins such inquiry with a controlling and aggressive nature without realizing it. Many of those who meditate probably do so with an aggressiveness while thinking that they are coming from love and openness. Let me explain.

We are all riddled with thoughts that can either benefit us or deter us. It is understandable and valuable to strive to not let the mind control us with negativity. In order to retrain the mind in the direction we want (i.e. positivity) we must learn to meditate properly. Proper meditation does not force the mind to be anything, but instead offers or suggests new ways for it to be. This distinction leads the way to deep engagement versus deep avoidance, and a proper understanding of this distinction is the key to happiness, success and greater wisdom.

Observance Is Meditation, With A Twist

I’m sure we have all heard this idea of observance and the idea that learning to just let our thoughts pass by without engaging them is the essence of meditation. Much of this is true, but I would contend that one very important difference is necessary. Yes, we must watch or observe our thoughts, let them pass by WHILE engaging with them. For it is in engaging with them that we can learn how we feel about them. It is how we feel about our thoughts that taps us into knowing the truth about our perception and our ability to love. Without this feeling element, we would simply be engaging or, as I like to say, masturbating with our mind without any connection to the heart. It is the heart (i.e. feelings) that truly allows us to know if we are coming from a place of love or fear.

“Words are creations of the mind. when you move from the conscious mind to superconscious awareness, you will find that there are no words for it. If you move to this level of awareness in meditation, during sacred dance or ritual, or by some other means, you will find in that place that there are only feelings (or vibrations). When most people feel something, they will immediately explore that feeling with their conscious mind and try to “put it into words.” This may or may not be useful. The master does not impulsively do this. The master simply feels the feeling, allows the feeling, and experiences the feeling fully. Then the master decides whether there will be any benefit in trying to put that feeling into words. Feelings are your first thought, your pure thought. A feeling is a wordless thought. It conveys a great deal without “saying” anything. Feelings are the language of the soul. Words are your second thought. They are your attempt to conceptualize your feelings by translating them into audible utterances, ” Home With God, page 209-210.

I so often see individuals, whether it be at my Yoga studio, with my Buddhist group or when I am around those who claim to meditate regularly, who espouse an ability to be present and free from their mind. They actually declare with great passion that what their minds are saying is not important and useless, which is the definition of avoidance and fear. During one of my Yoga classes, the instructor actually uttered the words, “keep working and you’ll reach that ‘Yoga Stoned” state. I ask you, is the goal of Yoga to reach a stoned like state?! I don’t think so, but this did actually happen. On some level the idea that what our minds are saying is useless and unimportant can be a valuable truth, but this notion alone does not fully explain meditation. It is true that when we are faced with a challenge of some kind and we doubt and fear our ability to overcome that challenge, it can be valuable to ignore those thoughts and feelings and go for it; especially when faced with life threatening circumstances. This must not be said to be the essence of meditation.

Meditation is observing your thoughts while feeling your feelings about those thoughts just like you would read a book and be moved by what was read. That is enough, if we can observe our thoughts, while feeling our feelings about those thoughts, we can begin to understand the underworkings of our mind. It is this process that allows us to retrain our minds towards positivity, which ultimately allows us to create whatever circumstances we want. By this I mean that we are able to create physical matter or at the very least draw to us the things (i.e. jobs, romantic partners, mortgages, etc.) that we choose. The idea that we can create or draw to us anything we want might sound like loads of fun, which it ultimately can be, but the process of feeling our deep seeded fears about our ability to get those things is not so fun. Just like exercising, as I said my last bit of writing, is not so much fun at first. Engaging with our fears and the process of healing them takes courage, strength, and true openness. An openness that says whatever I have to face to get from point A (no job) to point B (new job) I’ll do.

This newsletter was not meant to be a scare tactic, but an attempt to set the record straight regarding meditation. True meditation is not for the faint of heart and requires a passion that runs deep! This type of meditation will cause you pain and suffering, hence the saying, “life is suffering.” But the rewards are greater than you can imagine, greater than can even be explained with words. And when you bear the fruits of your labor, you will know it and jump with joy. A joy that has very little to do with feeling good and more to do with “BE-ing with your goodness.”

Meditation Techniques

I have listed a few types of meditation techniques and there are many more to choose from if do your research. Please keep in mind what I discussed above and find out if these techniques are engaging or avoiding. I believe many do advocate avoidance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t practice them, just keep in mind what you learned in this newsletter!

Concentrative Meditation

Concentration meditation focuses the attention on the breath, an image, or a sound (mantra), in order to still the mind and allow a greater awareness and clarity to emerge. This is like a zoom lens in a camera; we narrow our focus to a selected field. The simplest form of concentrative meditation is to sit quietly and focus the attention on the breath. Yoga and meditation practitioners believe that there is a direct correlation between one’s breath and one’s state of the mind. For example, when a person is anxious, frightened, agitated, or distracted, the breath will tend to be shallow, rapid, and uneven. On the other hand, when the mind is calm, focused, and composed, the breath will tend to be slow, deep, and regular. Focusing the mind on the continuous rhythm of inhalation and exhalation provides a natural object of meditation. As you focus your awareness on the breath, your mind becomes absorbed in the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation. As a result, your breathing will become slower and deeper, and the mind becomes more tranquil and aware.

Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness meditation, according to Dr. Borysenko, “involves opening the attention to become aware of the continuously passing parade of sensations and feelings, images, thoughts, sounds, smells, and so forth without becoming involved in thinking about them.” The person sits quietly and simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind, not reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, worries, or images. This helps to gain a more calm, clear, and non-reactive state of mind. Mindfulness meditation can be likened to a wide-angle lens. Instead of narrowing your sight to a selected field as in concentrative meditation, here you will be aware of the entire field.

Mantra Meditation

A Mantra is a grouping of sound vibrations which have an effect on the mental and psychic consciousness. Although traditionally given by a Guru, in the absence of a Guru, the practitioner may choose his mantra. An important criterion for mantra selection is that it must appeal to the mind fully when spoken verbally. Mantra chanting creates powerful vibrations which are said to be directed to the right “chakras” to attract divine forces. This process is said to mysteriously heal the spiritual, physical & psychological body. It is important that when the mantra is chanted, the words and their rhythm must be enjoyed and one must surrender oneself to this experience. Mantras do not have any specific meaning. Their power lies not in the meaning of the word but through the vibratory effects of the sound that they produced when spoken verbally or mentally. In fact, a Mantra should not be confused with religion. Just because a mantra refers to a Hindu God, it does not mean that it cannot be said by a Christian. Also, a Mantra should not be translated as this has the effect of altering the sound vibrations wherein lies the strength of the Mantra. Repetition of a Mantra forms the basis of Mantra Meditation. Mantras for spiritual evolution should be practiced for a fixed amount of time each day. Repeating a mantra too much may not be right for sensitive or psychic people as it may affect them adversely. Generally, if you repeat a mantra for about 10 minutes every day, then, within a few days you will know whether the vibrations feel right for you.

Example: Chanting NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO is to chant the devotion to the mystic law. It literally means: NAM or Devotion, MYOHO or Mystic Law, RENGE Simultaneous Cause & Effect, KYO or vibration or sound. For more information go to www.sgi-usa.org. P.S. this is what I chant and I recommend it highly while participating within the SGI!

Yogic Gaze or Trataka

Trataka means steady gazing. It is a very simple and beautiful Meditation Technique. In this a regular candle is used, however any other object of choice can be used. The candle is set up at an arm’s distance, level with eyes, and steady gazing is first done with the eyes open. After some time, the eyes are closed, and the after image of the flame is ‘gazed at’ with eyes closed at the eye brow center. Try not to move through out the practice. Relax your breath , let it lengthen, deepen. This open gazing of the flame and then with the eyes closed is alternated a couple of times before concluding the practice. If using a candle for Trataka, the gaze should be fixed at the wick tip and not on the flame.

Caution: If practicing Trataka on a Candle flame, do not continue the practice for more than a month or two at a stretch as it may lead to damage of the retina.

Benefits: It improves the optic function, both external and internal, such as poor eyesight and visualization abilities. It helps develop concentration and mental resolve. Develops the ability to maintain one-pointedness in amongst the noise and distractions of daily life. Develops the psychic eye, that is the ability to “see” or understand what is inside and beyond the obvious. It develops the power of Intuition.