The natural outcome of a yoga practice is meditation. Meditation arises after you have learned to relax. Our first thought of what relaxation might be does not compare to the truth of what relaxation can be. It is , in fact , a gradual process of dropping away fear. Fear is the tension behind all of the muscular tensions of the body and that tension permeates body and mind until it is deliberately released.

Yoga teaches us how to use our breathing to move into all of those tight , held areas. With the exhalation we learn how to gradually surrender tension, layer by layer. The postures help us to find those typical sites of tension, through stretching. The breath does the rest. As each area is de-stressed, the inhalation replaces that stressed area with new vitality and a feeling of spaciousness.

It is here that meditation begins, as we enter that new spaciousness within. The relaxed body can sit without stirring, poised like the lily floating on water. The medium that the meditator floats on is the breath.

The process of relaxation continues as we apply our attention in meditation. Continuing to relax, we now can relax the mind gradually. Tension in the mind is called thinking. As we surrender mental tension we surrender thought. We replace this thinking tension with pure space. Now we are beginnning to be here.