Yogiraj Peter Ferko on Meditation
Peter Ferko will lead the upcoming ISHTA Meditation Training | Dec 14 – 16 along with Alan and Sarah Finger. Below he unpacks how a regular meditation practice helps to move away from limited belief patterns – toward experiencing things as they truly are.
In today’s world, we are programmed to respect the importance of what yogis call manas, the sensory mind. Our programming into the dominance of manas happens in our culture via school, and later, via marketing, where businesses teach you to look outside yourself, to their products, for your answers. But the fact is, we would be best off getting in touch with our inner self, the source of inspiration and unbound intelligence — what we think of as “genius.” Unfortunately, acting and reacting primarily from manas keeps the manas dominant and limits our genius! Some of us get a glimpse of another way of knowing through making art or some chance learning of how to pause our outward approach. But in modern life, our habits of thinking are usually so strong that it takes some structured reprogramming to develop new ways of approaching life. We need to change our mental patterns to allow the activity of the mind, the vritti, to go still.
The good news is that it is possible to learn how to reach this inner self experience by using meditation. It’s so important that we learn to do this. In fact, learning to know yourself in that way could be described as “evolving,” bringing you into alignment with the whole of your true nature. It’s moving from avidya, or limited belief patterns, to experiencing things as they truly are. Because our mental patterns and habits are so strong, it takes the right practice to achieve this new experience. It also requires that your practice be done regularly to keep you experiencing your unbound potential.
A meditation practice is easy to cultivate if you have the energy of a teacher to help and an environment that supports it. So many students have taken advantage of the teachers and supportive environment at ISHTA that we now think of meditation as a unique focus here — one that leads to a holistic, transformative, yoga practice.
ISHTA Meditation Training | Dec 14 – 16 – Led by Peter Ferko, Alan Finger and Sarah Finger.