The purpose of yoga as a spiritual practice – awakening “sleeping” consciousness.The consciousness of the average person is enshrined in the surface layer, from which it looks to the outside world. In the same layer, the process of thinking going on and manifest the emotions that are experienced. Awakening begins with the mental awareness, when a person begins to pay attention not only to the outside world, but also at what is going on in his mind, that is to look at yourself, observe. This process can be called “open doors” in the internal structure of consciousness. This “door” is at all. For example, if you ask any man what he was thinking, he can tell you the thought – the ability to self-realization. Unfortunately, this “door” a few go.
Mental awareness – a required element of the practice of yoga, and the development of this skill – a sign of progress in it. Progress should be developed in two directions.
The first area – the duration of the process of mental awareness. The more often and the longer time you watch what is going on in your mind, the better. You have to be very persistent to create a habit to watch. However, at the same time, one must be careful, because you can run into stiff resistance from your mind. He loves when you are accustomed to “sleep” and does not like when “someone” watching him. In fact, when there is no awareness, you are in a “sleep” state of mind, even if you are an active manifests itself in the external world. Sort mode “biorobot” strictly executing the command program and does not understand what is happening. But even if you have enabled observation of the mode of thinking, it is very often overlooked an important point:
The point is not an infinite contemplation of his own thoughts, and to feel that someone looks at them.
You are not a thought or emotion, you are the one who observes it. Yoga you are trying to find an answer to the question “Who am I?” Posed to himself, unless of course you are doing this as a spiritual practice, not limited to “physical education” levels of health and a beautiful figure. To realize such is not easy, as needed mode ‘bifurcated’ attention when the attention fixes a thought or emotion, while the other is trying to feel the “observer”. An ordinary person is often the skill is absent.
