The Meditating Cat

I've taught yoga, with an emphasis on meditation and a big love of chanting Sanskrit mantra, for about 20 years.  My house has a yoga room in its centre, and my cats and I live in rooms around it.  I have to be careful with allergies, and any cats I have are used to baths. And students just have to accept the fact that the cats need to greet them before they go off into the bedroom during the class.

My cats also become very used to chanting, and I've noticed how extra-ordinarily they respond to it.

Our chanting group met last weekend, and my new kitten had his first experience of many people doing this practice (as opposed to him looking around the house for the thing making the Aauumm sound when I do my personal practice; I can talk to him and he knows its me, but Aums are a whole new thing - he literally looks into the air, all round the room, searching). 

Our chanting group sits in a circle on cushions. Sundar ran around, being his kitteny self, but once the chanting started he came over to a spare cushion, curled up and just watched us, in a really relaxed state, and finally fell asleep. 

Kitty meditation

My kitties "meditate" all the times, without the [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]  Aums . [/color]

Seriously, maybe the sound sounded like purrs to him and made him comfortable? In any case, it sounds like your new baby is fitting right in.

I tried Yoga years ago and loved it! After a full workout I didn't feel "energized", I just felt like mush and just wanted bed. I felt great the next morning though. I only did it using a tape so no class. I don't even know where a yoga class would be offered here. I will admit, it did help my back feel better and make me more limber but I lost the tape while moving. Any advice on a good starter tape for someone that hasn't done it for.....umm.....10 years?

I'm a really traditional teacher, and not involved with yoga as a physical therapy.  Certainly in the West that is what it has become.  If I have back issues I take myself off to a good physio (there are some good ones that are also yoga practitioners) or osteopath.

The idea of the poses is to take us into a meditative state, so a traditional yoga class involves a relaxation to start, then your postures, (and they seriously do not need to be 'get your leg round the back of your head' stuff.. just moving the energy in the body, and perhaps hold postures to work with specific energy centres.)  Then the breathing practices, which are a huge area of their own, and then meditation, which also is a huge area. There are so many aspects of yoga is would be impossible to describe them all.

 A lot of my students come because they are stressed, have physical issues and don't want to feel pressured into doing extreme asana (postures) or just really want to experience the ancient tradition.  I have two classes for the elderly.. Such amazing women!  You certainly wouldn't call them flexible, but they 'get' the breathing and meditation practices and we have some wonderful discussions before class.

Sorry, that was a bit long and involved! It's just something I always want to explain if asked about yoga as a purely physical practice. 

But in terms of asana, learning a version of Surya Namaskara that works for your body is a really good practice... It has a great flow, works just about everything and is quite meditative.

Sounds like I need to take yoga from you!! I really enjoyed meditation the one and only time I did it with an experienced practitioner... who was a Buddhist monk from Thailand who spoke about 3 words of English. :lol3:

The instructor of the most popular yoga class taught here at the university gym is okay, but he moves much too fast for me. The positions are too advanced too quick, which is why his classes have a high dropout rate. :slant: I feel like he gears his for people that are already IN shape, not people who need to GET in shape. :lol3: And I'm not overweight or anything, just not super flexible and muscular like him and some of the people in there.

If you are interested in yoga for meditation, find yourself a traditional teacher (but I'm afraid we may be a dying breed )  The way it's going it is really all about the body and it even has a competitive feel, which is the antithesis of yoga!  Bikram even wanted yoga to go into the Olympics, which is just plain weird.

Buddhism came from yoga, but yoga is not religious (neither is Buddhism... it is more of a spiritual philosophy)..  Buddhists do limited stretching etc so sitting for long periods can be difficult.  In fact, according to Raja Yoga, which is very old, the idea of the asana (postures) is to make sure that you could create a 'steady comfortable position' for meditation, and not be distracted by body issues.

I think in this day and age, when our minds are just everywhere and we try to fit as much as we can into every second, yoga and the like are more important than they have ever been.