IT'S FALL! And I Get to Read :)

{Via}

Too bad the leaves around here don't quite turn this quickly. I would love to see trees and leaves look like this down here in Mississippi. Our trees pretty much stay green for quite a while.

How far north do I need to go to experience this gorgeous phenomenon?

Anyways, today (even though it is Saturday) makes day three of no practice :(. I DID finish Chapter 1 of Pranayama: The Breath of Yoga and I can definitely say that I'll need to end up re-reading this book once I'm finished.

I've found that, after reading this first chapter, I need to be well grounded in my practice before beginning pranayama, but I'm not sure exactly how grounded I have to be in order to begin practicing pranayama. Is there a time limit? Or is it merely a feeling that one has when practicing?

What makes me cautious about moving on to anything before I'm ready was what I read on page 28 of this book. Maehle tells about three brothers who meditated with different mindsets and the outcomes that happened to them.

"Famously, the Ramayana  shows the dangers of meditation when not done with a sattvic mind. Of the three demon brothers, the demon kin Ravana practiced meditation with a rajasic mind and wrath became his undoing. His brother Kumbhakarna meditated with a tamasic mind and fell into a deep slumber from which he only rarely woke up. Only the third brother, Vibhishana, meditated with a sattvic mind, and it was only his intellect that gravitated towards the Divine."

Yikes! One devoured by wrath and the other by sleep for not practicing with a sattvic mind. Obtaining a sattvic mind requires asana and pranayama competency. Makes me curious. I've seen people meditate without ever practicing asana, or pranayama for that matter.

I'm not sure how to examine and tell whether I have a tamasic, rajasic, or sattvic mind. I know, I need to do research. I'll get to it. Today, I'm going to try to tackle chapter two of this book. I'm curious to read on and continue the journey through this book.