Yog and Letting Go
The Friday meditation sessions started as Seva during the Pandemic in 2020 and I find that my discipline with breath and the exploratory journey to my inner self has gotten more refined during the teaching process. In the overall process of becoming aware one has to let go of so many habits and attitudes that have got deeply embedded in our minds.
The attention to detachment is integral to the Bhagavad Gita teaching and in the Arthashaastra the development of a good leader or Swami is fully based on this premise.The reflective practice called Swadhaay on detachment in the Advanced Module of the Leadership course with Chiranjeev Gurukul got me thinking.
Detachment here is not what we think it is ,its not about letting go of our goals and not having any connection with the fundamentals of life such as relationships and livelihoods. Its not about being indifferent also and not having the motivation to run your start up or drive your teams to perform better.
Its about discovering it slowly step by step as we progress in our journeys and meditation is a process that allows this understanding to become little more clear, at least for me it did. The discipline of becoming present and in heightened awareness during meditation practice can be slowly expanded to our external lives and all that we do on a daily basis as we act in a more inspired way, focus on the doing and let go of what’s to come.
In Yog its proposed that the brain produces thoughts and this creates waves in the mind leaving it feeling unsettled and over the years we cultivate an attachment to this mental restlessness. The mind continuously finds its way back to the past and future or its nature is to seek answers to problems, to react to situations. However during meditation we make an effort to let go of the past and future or attachment to thoughts firstly by becoming present to breath or sound and then slowly releasing all the stuff that we hold on to, such as tension in our muscles and mind.
It’s not about letting yourself drift into a pleasant dreamy place rather it’s a state of intense awareness and this comes from applying effort in a relaxed way where you come in touch with that acutely intuitive state. When we get to this space, a different sort of energy comes alive, there is awareness but there is also a sense of having let go.
