Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 3 - Samadhi  Day 17  By doing something you cannot experience, you cannot achieve this awareness. You cannot bring up the intelligence and the alertness in you by effort. It can be done only without effort, with relaxation, means the practice of resting - conscious relaxation and rest. Unconscious rest is sleep which we are force to do by the nature. You are not resting voluntarily, you are forced to. When you are tired, it feels as if nature is pulling you down and forcing you to rest. You are not resting voluntarily. It is only in meditation that you really rest because you are consciously resting. You allow rest.  Otherwise, your rest swallows you. Sleep is putting yourself to rest and meditation is resting on your own. This is abhyasa. For some people, this comes through old samskaras, impressions. Some people have to do a lot of practice in order to be calm and equanimous, in order to bring up more awareness in them.  For some people it happe...

Silky Afgekia ( Afgekia sericea) an evergreen, perennial climber, native to Thailand, grows beautifully on trellises and railings.  It is a sun loving tender plant, that has hairy silvery leaves, to help reflect back the sunlight to prevent sunburn.  It's inflorescence is a delight to watch. The pea-like flowers have yellow nectar lines and are pollinated by special leaf- cutter bees that nest on the leaves. Family: Fabaceae Reference  https://www.facebook.com/myplantdiaries?mibextid=ZbWKwL Plants of Singapore

Peristylus constrictus Habit - Ground orchid  Habitat - moist deciduous forest Flowering and fruiting - June- July  (Aromatic ground orchid)  Medicinal uses - They use leaf juice to stop bleeding from fresh cuts on the body; the mashed underground tubers are used to cure the pain from the wasp or bee stings.  Place - Rourkela Forest Division, Odisha, India Sugimani Marndi

Chapter 3 - Samadhi  Day 16 In vichara, there are all the experiences - smell, sight, visions, taste or sounds. When you meditate, all experiences and thoughts - observing the thoughts that come and go. There are two states of mind that surface in you often. One is a thought which disturbs you and the other is a thought that does not disturb you, but that which just hovers around in your consciousness and you are aware of it.  You are in samadhi you are in an equanimous state of mind. At the same time, there are thoughts hovering. It is a part of meditation. Thoughts exist and experiences exist. This is a second type of Samadhi, or awareness. The third is ananda which means a blissful state. Have you noticed that after you do Kriya, you are in a different space?  When you sing bhajans, you are in a different space of Samadhi. This mind is still elevated. The consciousness is still elevated and equanimous but it is in ecstasy. The samadhi is ecstasy. This is al...

Chapter 3 - Samadhi  Day 15  What is the purpose of this sadhna? Vitarka - when your mind has a special logic to pursue in the world and to perceive the truth. Tarka means logic. Kutarka means wrong logic - when then intention is not right and the logic is applied only to find fault, when you know deep inside you that something is not right, but you still logically prove that it is right. Vitarka is special logic. You may be talking about dispassion and logically you are understanding it, and this logical understanding, hearing or talking has a certain effect on your consciousness. It elevates your consciousness. You are in a different space. This is samadhi. Samadhi means equanimity. "Dhi" is the intellect - the faculty that sustains you, faculty of consciousness. Now, we are in a state of Samadhi, because we are talking about the Self with a definite logic, an undeceivable logic. Logic can always change. You can put it on one side or you can put on the other. Th...