Name of Lecture: …Recovery of the True Self

Name of Speaker: …Swami Veda Bharati (SVB)

Program Time: …930-1030am

Location: ...Meditation Hall, SRSG

Name of Reporter: …Klara Gerrits

Main Points of the Lecture: ....

Half of our pain consists of our emotions about it. This means that we have a choice (not) to suffer. In preventing and curing pain we must discover the self-regulating mechanisms inside us. Meditation methods in yoga are great restorers in treatment of pain, as well as sleep and laughter.

In the science of yoga ‘dhrti’ is important. It is the faculty of consciousness and energy within a living being whereby the most enfeebled senses and faculties rise up and reassert their energy. This faculty, to rely on our dhrti rather than the perishable physical body, is applied in dhyana yoga (meditation). The more proficient we become in meditation, the more we’ll understand the art to turn inwards and go from there outwards.

Emotion expresses itself as tension. It blocks the energy flow that is needed for dhrti, to give ourselves an energy-injection from inside.

Treating pain in yoga consists of the following two steps:

1) To dissolve the negative emotion, go through the chain from consciousness to emotion. Identify the emotion and work on it.

2) To unblock the blockages, the tensions: apply relaxation-techniques, methods of breath awareness, yoga nidra and pranamayakosha-energizing practices.

We must choose – in a determined way - to put the mind into the reservoirs of positive energies. This requires training of the mind.

Questions and Answers…
Question: What to do when the right hemisphere of the brain is damaged and there are difficulties in handling emotions?
Answer: When one part of the brain is damaged, other parts often take over its functions. The brain has to be trained as a whole. Meditation and other yoga-practices are a great help in nourishing the brain. Neurology-research shows that different techniques of meditation stimulate different parts of the brain. In the mind of Enlightened beings all parts of the brain work in harmony. That is the natural state of the mind. We, non-enlightened human beings, are all neurotics but we agree that ‘this is a normal state’.

Use every breath to practice meditation in action. Don’t waste time. It’s all a matter of intention.