Rod Stryker: Meditations to Live By

CA: Did you develop an interest in meditation at the same time that you began doing yoga?

RS: I practiced yoga for approximately three years before being introduced to meditation. It was in the latter stages of my practice that I was introduced to meditation. Mani Finger, who was a South African yoga master, along with his teachers, brought me to understand that meditation was as much a part of yoga as were the exercises.

CA: Are most yoga teachers knowledgeable about meditation?

RS: Ironically, yoga today is synonymous with exercise, while Buddhism might be synonymous with meditation. The explosion of yoga has done little to develop the meditation side of the tradition, which is really the culmination of yoga and also the most rewarding and transformative part of the yoga tradition.

My teachers have been masters of the essentials of the teachings of the Vedas. My first teachers were disciples of Yogananda, Shivananda, and the Tantric master Bharati. In the last years, my mentors have been from the Tantric tradition of Sri Vidya. All transmitted to me the depth and power of meditation as well as the science of yoga.

CA: Why has the meditative aspect of yoga been lost in the West?

RS: Convenience. One of the reasons yoga has grown in popularity is because we have modified and adapted it to suit the personality of our culture. We are highly stressed, restless, and impatient. The task of sitting still can be overwhelming. What popularized yoga was hybridizing it to be an extremely physically-organized approach. When Madonna says, on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, that she has her body from yoga — that excites people.

The yoga tradition looks more deeply than into the body as to how we can optimize our potential. In order to do that, we have to do things that might not be that comfortable. For most of us, doing the exercise is easy, but the notion of sitting still and looking inward is very challenging to a lot of people. In the yoga tradition, the inner challenge of conquering the mind is more productive in the end than only doing the external challenge of exercise. For a really meaningful breakthrough to happen, we need to do more than maintain our old and long-standing momentum.

CA: Are Westerners typically drawn to a vigorous form of yoga, since they are used to moving at a fast pace?

RS: Typically, the people that are ambitious and driven, who are now doing yoga, are doing extremely aggressive yoga. Those who are calm and laid back, are doing the easy yoga classes, which are less aggressive. This suggests that we seek out that which reinforces what we already are. The breakthrough is to begin to explore a different rhythm. When you become familiar with the more profound teachings of the yoga tradition, you see that the experience that arises out of silence is the most exalted of all experience. Ultimately, conveying this idea of the value of slowing down to most Americans is counter-cultural. The good news is that the word is out, and more and more people are spreading the word, and are talking about the benefits of meditation, even though the demand for yoga is as intense as it has been these last few years. I believe that teaching the exercise aspect of it requires less skill than teaching the subtleties of the meditations.

CA: What are the benefits of meditation?

RS: The benefits of meditation are so diverse and varied, and touch such a broad spectrum of human experience, it's difficult to give a complete list of them. The physiological benefits of daily meditation include lowered cholesterol, improved digestion, development of the parasympathetic nervous system, and transformation of the endocrine system which is the foundation of physical health.

In the mental domain, meditation reduces stress, increases insight, is a powerful tool of problem solving, increases intuition and sensitivity, and heightens our level of clarity. It can help us begin to see our reactive nature and also our patterned ways of behaving. It helps us become more open. Because of the way meditation requires us to slow down the rational mind, people who meditate often find that it helps them develop certain creative capacities. It helps us tap into unlearned intelligence.

There are also spiritual benefits. Meditation helps us become aware of a level of existence which sense and the mind cannot perceive. It allows us to feel more at home in the world and our bodies. Meditation provides us with inspiration, it enriches our life, and gives us a greater sense of peace. You could even say that it increases our capacity to have a more fulfilled and meaningful life.

CA: Is meditation similar to the state of flow that we enter when we are enthralled with the work that we're doing — whether it's painting a picture, writing a book, or solving a mathematical equation?

RS: Clearly, whenever we are absorbed in something we love to do, we move into something like meditation; time stands still. Whenever we're fully absorbed, feelings of limitation disappear. We feel whole, or One. When that happens, in the scenario I've described, it happens involuntarily. We experience joy in those moments because when we are undistracted, our true nature is revealed to us. You can call it our soul, our essence, or Source. Whenever we experience an elevated state, it is our true nature that is being revealed.

CA: Do you think it's important to learn meditation from a teacher?

RS: People don't necessarily need to be instructed. A simple, systematic approach should be enough to guide you through a meditation practice and ideally towards a depth of experience. However, a lot of us need more than just a sketch of what meditation is, and it's very useful to have either a teacher or a guided practice. It's particularly meaningful in the beginning to have a guide, and once you become familiar with the terrain and a technique, then it's best to do it on your own.

CA: Why did you make the CD ''Three Meditations to Live By''?

RS: I have found that people have a more profound experience when they are led through the practice, rather than when they are alone. When you are doing it yourself, you are both the leader and the led. If someone else is leading you, then you get to be completely receptive. Plus, if you are being led by a qualified guide, then the guide is able to impart, through words, presence, and experience, some of the depth of meditation. I created the meditation CD so that people could have a piece of what I teach in a direct way. The beauty of a digital CD is that when there is silence, there is really silence, and that is when meditation reaches the goal of practice.

CA: Will you make other meditation CDs?

RS: I'm in the process of doing more guided-meditation work. There are many guided practices that suit the needs of people in our culture today. For the most part, we are stressed out, with a serious shortage of time. People need to rest and repair. Rest and repair are incredibly pertinent and important elements of life.

CA: What traditions do you utilize in your practice?

The tradition I teach from — Tantra — is so varied, so comprehensive, that it includes visualization, mantras, and a vast array of practices.

CA: What is the most important thing meditation has done for you?

RS: Simply, it changed my life. It awakened me to the person I was supposed to be. One of the things American culture is preoccupied with is our psychological self. But our psychological self is just a tiny part of who we are. Yet it's real enough to shape us and shape our destiny. What is psychology? It relates to the substrata of caring and condition that pattern our perception and drive. Meditation allowed me to outgrow some of the negative parts of my conditioning, and to find the voice and the view of who I was supposed to be.

CA: How can a person who is always moving around, always busy doing things and obsessed with achieving goals, begin the practice of meditation?

RS: They just have to do it. Yoga is a great place to begin. They should find good teachers and the works of good teachers, and apply themselves. The benefits start to unfold fairly soon. One doesn't have to wait all that long to find the benefits. That's not to say that it's easy, and I don't want to say that it's hard. All one has to do is begin.

CA: Have any of your students spoken to you about the beneficial effects that meditation has had in their lives?

RS: Recently, a woman approached me in Chicago, and it was a stunning experience. She had a congenital heart problem and she also was pregnant. They were worried she would pass the problem on to her son. She felt that she had to make a change, so she got my meditation CD and listened to it during her pregnancy. As it turned out, the child was born without any complications or heart problems, but they were very concerned about her heart defect. They began a medical procedure after the child was born, to test the condition of her heart, but the doctors found nothing wrong with her heart. The irregular rhythms were gone! She told the doctors that the only thing she had been doing was meditating. They could hardly believe it since this was a disease that was thought to be incurable.

CA: When you teach one-on-one, do you recommend particular styles of meditation that suit the individual needs of your students?

RS: Although I work with large groups of people, I also work with individuals, and I continue to particularize meditation. There are generic values to all forms of meditation in the yoga tradition, but there can be no greater way of practicing than to have a teacher give you practice that suits your particular needs. One individual may have strong emotional challenges, and another person may have difficulty focusing; others might be challenged by ambition, or creativity. It is best to find the most effective technique for your specific needs. A good gardener will tell you what a rose needs — more sunlight, or more water. The rarest meditation teachers can do the same for their students.

CA: Do you think that if more people meditated there would be peace in the world?

RS: The world would be a different place. I'm tempted to leave it at that. As human beings, it's natural to want peace in the world, but what's much more critical and possible is inner peace.

If you're going to address what creates more peace in the world, you're really dealing with deep principles concerning the law of life and existence. In this age, there's going to be conflict and violence for a long time — even if people are meditating. I will say that anyone can reach inner peace through meditation, and if everyone did that, their experience of the world would change. That's where I suggest people begin.

Rod Stryker is a preeminent yoga and meditation teacher, and the creator of Pure Yoga, which has been distilled from his study of a number of traditions, including Hatha, Raja, and Yogananda's Kriya Yoga. He has been teaching for more than 20 years, and lectures on the benefits of yoga.

Along with creating three best-selling yoga videos, he has recently created a meditation CD, ''Three Meditations to Live By,'' which is a wonderful introduction to guided meditation. Rod also teaches yoga and meditation alongside Deepak Chopra, and has been featured in a variety of magazines, including Yoga Journal. He is currently writing a book on Tantra, about mastering yoga and meditation.

For more information about Rod Stryker, you can visit his website at pureyoga.com.

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