If you are focusing on anything other than the Self, you are not focusing on God, you are focusing on "you".
Michael A. Singer
What do we do, as part of our practice, when we are not meditating?
A lot. Meditation is only one limb of Patanjali's Raja Yoga. And though it offers a wonderful way of connecting to body, breath, moment and the higher Self...there is so much other work to be done in order to get to the point where we can maintain the Seat of the Self.
Reading Vivekananda and he taught basically the same thing shared by Singer in the below linked podcast. Both are addressing something called "Mahayoga"...in which the Yogi finds himself and the whole universe as God. This is the highest of all yogas. Vivekananda
Of course, that is not what we may consciously set out to do. We may simply be looking for a better alternative to approaching life than the way we have been living, attempting to manipulate the world outside so "little me" feels okay inside. We may decide to "go deeper" and going deeper will ultimately take us to God.
The eight limbs of yoga derived by Patanjali consist of:
Yama: living a life of non-injury, truthfulness, non-covetousness, chastity, not receiving anything from another
Niyama: Regular habits and observances in austerity, study, contentment, purity, worship (and possibly fasting on occasion, purifying and keeping the body clean, repeating mantras, etc,.
Asana: postures done in Hatha Yoga
Pranayama: control of the vital force in one's own body through controlled breathing exercises
Pratyahara: Bringing the sense organs under the control of the will so we are less distracted and can calmly sit still for a bit( what most of us in the West would consider our meditation practice)
Dharna: focusing our concentration on one thing like the breath, a candle flame or the heart chakra for example...we coach the mind away from distracting thoughts ( we do not try to stop thinking we just encourage our consciousness to be distracted by something else for a period of time) Again, we may consider this meditation in the west when actually it is only a pre-step, like pratyahara, to prepare for meditation. Here there may be many vibratory waves coming up that we can focus on and it may seem like all other waves ( like thoughts) are receding
Dhyana: is the step in Patanjali's Sutras where we actually meditate. This is when everything comes together into a state of non duality. The multiple waves merge into One.
Samadhi: When the whole of the mind has become one wave, one formedness it is called Samadhi.(Vivekananda)
If the mind can be fixed on its center for twelve seconds it will be Dharana, twelve such Dharanas and it will be a Dhyana, and twelve such Dhyanas will be a Samdhi. Vivekananda, page 100
So though we think we believe we are practicing and achieving Dhyana during our own understanding of meditation, most of are not and even if we are, most of these steps take place in those hours when we are not on the cushion or the mat. ,
The most important thing we can do, according to Singer, is purify and relax into life. Instead of basing our approach towards life on preventing a disturbance inside because of samskara triggering...we get rid of the samskaras. We allow them to come up,,,we allow them to go. Relaxing and letting go are the most important actions to take part in in our sadhana. Once the blockages are removed Sat Chit Ananda will flow through freely and we will once again, know who we are.
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( November 24) What to do When You Are Not Meditating. https://tou.org/talks/
The Complete Works of Vivekananda, Kindle edition
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