Yoga Psychology (A Practical Guide to Meditation)

“This book is a clear and easy to understand guide which teaches the fundamentals of meditation. Questions which inevitably arise in the mind of a beginning yoga student are dealt with in a straightforward manner. Common misconceptions about yoga are discussed. The author explains how to meditate and includes instructions o correct posture and proper breathing and relaxation techniques.”

A clear, concise, and accessible guide to the principal philosophy, requirement and techniques of meditation.”

Most readable and lucid… it is as much a how-to-do-it book as it is a primer on the philosophy and psychology of meditation… swami Ajaya covers all the important points which a mediator is likely to ask or needs to take into account, such as relaxation, posture, breathing, diet, the cultivation of conscious silence, the translation of meditative experience into action, and so on.”

Swami Ajaya, Ph.D., received his education at Wesleyan University and at the university of California, Berkeley. He taught at the University of Wisconsin Medical school in Madison and has served as a consultative psychologist to a number of mental health centers. In addition to his Western training, Swami Ajaya has studied with various yogis in India. He is the Author of Psychotherapy east and west. A unifying Paradigm and co-author of Yoga and Psychotherapy: the evolution of consciousness and creative use of emotion.

In the west we tend to view yoga in one of two ways as a form of spiritual philosophy or as a technique of physical development. Only in recent years have we come to realize that yoga is also a psychological system and method for the expansion of consciousness enabling an individual to reach new levels of understanding and self-actualization. Yoga Psychology is thus a very refreshing and appropriate title for this book by swami Ajaya.

Since the essential method of yoga psychology is meditation, Swami Ajaya dis cusses the process of meditation in considerable detail. Those who wish to practice meditation will find in this book a wealth of information not easily available in a s single volume elsewhere. The book includes excellent in-depth discussions of the psychological effects of mantra upon human consciousness and the subjective changes that occur with continued practice of meditation. The author also includes a discussion of other substantive ideas, intrinsic not so much to the actual techniques of meditation, but which have a strong bearing on the process of expanding consciousness and reaching the highest levels of consciousness through meditation. These ideas, which are often a source of controversy in the west, such as the need to renounce worldly desires or to change one’s well-ingrained dietary habits, are dicussed in the context of individual psychological needs. Both the beginning and the advanced student of meditation will find that many of their questions have been anticipated and discussed by Swami Ajaya.