Gregor Maehle – Meditation Level 2 Course

This is our Meditation Level 2 course, consisting of 10 lessons with each lesson approximately 60 minutes long. Prerequisite for this course is participation in our Level 1 Meditation course (you can access this course on-demand here), either online or as part of one of our in-person trainings.

Yogic Meditation

Different to Vedantic or Buddhist meditation, yogic meditation contains the same structural elements as yogic postures and breathing and was designed to form together with those an integrated whole. Meditation is the method of bringing your mind into a receptive state
 so that you can receive higher knowledge that is already there. Yogic meditation is a collection of scientific methods to bring about such awareness. To accelerate spiritual evolution yogic meditation employs many means amongst which the prime ones are mantra, mudra, bandha, chakra-visualization and Kundalini-raising techniques. The yogic chakras are representations of evolutionary brain circuitry with the lower three chakras representing our reptilian, mammalian and primate ancestry respectively. By understanding the chakras and skillfully meditating on them yoga offers the opportunity to activate higher brain centres and propel the evolution not only of the individual but of society as a whole. Kundalini-raising techniques consist of a combination of all other yogic means to raise the life force (prana) to a level where meditation is easy and spiritual insight becomes spontaneous.

This course builds onto the Meditation Level 1 course and adds the Raja Yoga Level. All these new exercises are integrated into the type of practice achieved in the last class of the Level 1 course.

The first step in this course is to add pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga. Pratyahara is defined as independence from external stimuli. In Raja Yoga it is attained by integrating mudras into the existing Meditation Level 1 practice. We are learning to use Mula Bandha, Jihva Bandha, Shambhavi Mudra, and hasta mudras for the simultaneous binding of the visual, kinaesthetic/tactile, olfactory and gustatory senses to their respective places.

Once profiency of pratyahara is attained, it will power dharana (concentration), the sixth limb of yoga. Dharana is the simultaneous awareness of the various constituents of meditation. It is attained by gradually extending the breath and with it the mantra count, while adding chakra colours, number of petals, yantra shape and yantra colour. The aim of this practice is to gradually attain mystical states by raising Kundalini through mental concentration.

The Level 2 course will form the foundation of the Level 3 course, without which Level 3 cannot be practised.