Vedanta Meditation — What is Vedanta?

1A Mindfulness Meditation: Designate — Course Video

 

 

The first of 20 lessons on Vedanta, the philosophy of the absolute. Jnana Yoga, the Yoga of knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Vedanta Meditation — abstract Meditations for clear mind, serenity and inner understanding. In this course we want to deal with the most important questions in life:

 

• Who am I?
• What is real?
• What is luck?
• Is there a higher reality — and if so: how can it be experienced?

 

The Course is designed to last around 20 weeks. For each week there is a Course Video with a theoretical part, with Meditation instructions and suggestions for the Vedanta Practice. The relevant Meditation Instructions are also available as a single video or audio.

You can do this course faster or slower. It is often good to spend a whole week on a certain topic, practicing a Meditation technique for a week. If you want, you can also continue with the next video every day.

This Course Vedanta Meditation and Jnana Yoga is available as a video series and also as an audio series. The audios are the sound tracks of the videos. I will mostly speak of video in the presentations. When you hear this Vedanta Course as audio, you know that this audio series is also available as videos.

For whom is this Vedanta Course suitable?
This Course is intended for serious aspirants who want to delve into the deeper questions of life. If you want to know who you really are, if you are not satisfied with an outwardly successful life and if you have developed a certain inner calmness, then you can benefit greatly from this Course.

This course is not primarily intended for health, more life energy, more joy in life, cultivation of skills. Other Yoga paths, for which I also teach courses, serve this purpose.

My name is Sukadev Bretz. I am the founder of Yoga Vidya. My guru, my teacher, is Swami Vishnu-devananda. He is a student of Swami Sivananda. My tradition is a Yoga Vedanta tradition and relates in particular to Shankaracharya.

What is Vedanta?
Vedanta means the end of knowledge. «Veda» means knowledge. «Anta» means end. Vedanta is based on the Upanishads.

What do you learn in this Course? This Course has the following topics:

 

• What is Vedanta?
• Vedanta scriptures
• Who am I?
• The 4 Vivekas
• Shat Darshana — the 6 classical systems of philosophy
• Tantra, Bhakti Traditions and the Sechs Darshanas: The Philosophy of Holistic Yoga
• Characteristics of a student: Sadhana Chatushtaya
• Nitya Anitya Viveka: The distinction between the eternal and the ephemeral
• Main Vedanta terms
• What is luck? Ananda-Sukha-Viveka
• 3 bodies — 5 shells
• The Self as Satchidananda
• Reality and Illusion — Sat-Asat Viveka
• 3 sentences of the Shankaracharya
• Adhyaropa — projection of the world onto Brahman
• Bhagatyaga Lakshana — Discard all identifications
• Panchikarana — quintuplication
• Nyayas — Vedanta analogies

 

This is not just a very in-depth presentations Course. Rather, Sukadev guides you to all important Vedanta Meditations from Jnana Yoga.

Mindfulness Meditation Sakshi Bhav # 1 Designate
A Meditation of Descriptive Designating with the principles: don't judge, don't analyze, don't identify, don't react. Instead, observe, accept, become aware.

Author / Speaker: Sukadev Bretz. Camera / Editing: Nanda.

 

 

1B Mindfulness Meditation: Designating — Meditation Instructions with Explanation

 

 

Through Mindfulness Meditation to more serenity and inner peace. A fundamental Meditation to get out of the mind's automated response patterns. You learn to observe everything, to react to nothing. You learn to accept everything, not to judge. You learn to detach yourself from the inner processes of the mind, not to identify yourself. You learn to stay calm instead of reacting immediately. The principle is the Descriptive Designating. Sukadev explains this form of Mindfulness Meditation and guides you to the Meditation. In Yoga Vidya this Mindfulness Meditation is called «Sakshi Bhav No. 1 — the Mindfulness Meditation of Descriptive Designating». This is not a Meditation for beginners. This is the Long Practice Video of the First Lesson of the Course «Vedanta Meditation and Jnana Yoga in 20 Lessons».

 

 

1C Mindfulness Meditation: Designating — Meditation Instruction without Explanation

 

 

Practical Meditation Guide to a highly effective form of Meditation. Through Mindfulness Meditation to more serenity and inner peace. A fundamental Meditation to get out of the mind's automated response patterns. In this Meditation Sukadev guides you to observe everything, to react to nothing. Accept everything, do not judge anything. Detach yourself from the inner processes of the mind — do not identify yourself. Stay calm instead of reacting immediately. The principle is Descriptive Designating. Sukadev guides you to this particular form of Mindfulness Meditation. In Yoga Vidya this Mindfulness Meditation is called «Sakshi Bhav No. 1 — the Mindfulness Meditation of Descriptive Designating».

 

 

1D Mindfulness Meditation with Mantra: Designating — Meditation Instruction 30 minutes

 

 

Make the Mindfulness Meditation even more effective — by adding a Mantra. Sukadev guides you to the Mindfulness Meditation of Descriptive Designating with Mantra. This Meditation is similar to «1C Mindfulness Meditation Sakshi Bhava No. 1 Designate Meditation Instructions without Explanation». But instead of calling the breath descriptive, you repeat a Mantra. So you can combine the knowledge effect of Insight Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation with the energy effect of the Mantra.