A friend from KL came up for holiday during CNY. We had a meet up and she told me that she's with a Fitness Centre teaching yoga. I asked if her yoga goes together with meditation and she said no because there are Malays attend the class and people's common understanding about meditation is "it has something to do with religion" so they do not include meditation in yoga to avoid misunderstanding.
I remember there is this issue whereby Malaysia National Fatwa's Council has prohibited the practice of yoga by Muslims due to the reason "the practice will erode their faith in the religion (Islam)", said Abdul Shukor Husin (the council's Chairman) (source: Hindu Yoga Banned for Malaysian Muslims).
I recall an article some weeks ago saying some very successful leaders including Panasonic's founder late Mr. Konosuke Matsushita, former Vice President of the United States of American Mr. Al Gore, Apple's CEO Mr. Steve Jobs, well-known actor cum director Mr. Clint Eastwood and LiteOn's Chairman Mr. Raymond Soong have practice meditation as a part of their life. (source: http://www.cw.com.tw/article/print.jsp?id=36402)
So what is meditation?
Meditation is one of the Five Principles of Yoga. It is the practice by which there is constant observation of the mind. It requires you to focus your mind at one point and make your mind still in order to perceive the 'self'. Through the practice of Meditation, you will achieve a greater sense of purpose and strength of will. It also helps you achieve a clearer mind, improve your concentration, and discover the wisdom and tranquility within you. (source: Yoga & Meditation)
Why do we need meditation? Having busy life style and stressful work is very tiring, both physically and also mentally. Our brain have to cope with the pace and workload and so the more job we give it the more active it gets; and the more active it gets the sooner we wear out our energy. With a continuous high exposure to heavy work and hyperactive brain functioning, we can hardly have a peace of mind to allow both the brain and body to rest and that is when diseases and illnesses receive invitation.
How often do you have bad thoughts/feelings than good ones when you meet with uncertanties? How often do you count the cheerful and happy time than finding yourself difficult to forget about disliking someone or running on a short temper?
Training our brain to release itself from busy working activities to let it rest. It will help us to adjust ourselves in terms of perception, thinking and value. We can tell the brain what to do than being directed by it to slowly being dominated and starting demanding more from people and things around us.
Faith and believe system acting like the supporting backbone of us so that we can behave and practice our life in such a manner to do good and to show respect to others. It allows us to feel safe when we are concentrating on living a fullfilling life and it helps us to constantly improving ourselves.
The purpose of doing yoga and meditation is to go back to the very natural true self so that we can have the wisdom to see and do things. Who wants to be enslaved anyway? Do we believe because we choose to or because of fear/desire?
Besides, did I mention too yoga helps also in weight loss because it burns calories, motivates blood circulation and improves our body's aerobic condition (means more oxygen in our blood)? How good is that huh? ^_^
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