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Meditation as a Whole or a Part? The picture below captures one of the most confusing aspects of Meditation methods being promoted in our modern world. Meditation in the ancient most Yoga traditions is very broad and and very deep. Yoga Meditation is complete unto itself. This is sincerely not said to merely promote "this" over "that" method. Regardless of what teacher or institution (if any) with which one aligns, there is a fundamental choice that each seeker faces, and that is whether to practice Meditation as a complete or a partial process. It has become common to take one small part of the whole of Meditation, give it a trademark or brand name, and sell that to an unsuspecting public as a complete Meditation system. The promoters of these fragmented systems often ignore, suppress, or condemn the other practices as being invalid or ineffective methods or parts, further hiding the original whole of Meditation. Some systems deal
with only one (or a couple) of
This segregating of the part from the whole gives the impression that one must choose "this" or "that" so-called "method" of Meditation. This phenomenon has widely happened not only in "spiritual" contexts, but also in medical and psychological professional services. I'll refrain from naming any of the the brand named or trademarked systems, but you are probably familiar with many of them through the advertising of programs, seminars, and materials such as books. If one is seeking only a tiny portion of Meditation for purposes such as the "management" of stress, then practicing only a tiny portion of the whole of the process might be sufficient. However, for those seeking the height or depth of self-awareness, spirituality, or enlightenment, the finer practices of Yoga work together, like the fingers of a hand or the various systems within the human body. This is not a case of pasting together or integrating various parts to make a composite whole, as Yoga Meditation is already complete; it is already a whole. In holding this perspective it is essential to remember that Yoga is far more than the physical postures, which is one of the ways in which the part has become separated from the whole in recent years. The whole of Meditation can be learned and practiced, gradually leading one to know himself or herself at all levels, up to and including the eternal center of consciousness, which is one with the absolute reality, by whatever name you choose to call that. My wish for the sincere seeker of the highest Truth, Reality or Divinity--however you name that--is that you find the whole of Meditation and the preexisting Whole to which it leads.
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