Asana and attention
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@Faus said
"While practicing asana, where should my attention be directed to? Should I actvlly focus on body sensation until it vanishes or focus on something else until I forget about the body?"
No particular rule, especially because you could be in Asano for any of dozens of different reasons.
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Jim,
to be more specific, in this case I am thinking about asana as a single practice with the goal of mastering a posture. Simply siting and holding myself in that position as long as possible.
Since while doing this practice a lot of body sensations will rise, should I try to focus on something else or should I witness those sensations as they rise?
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@Faus said
"to be more specific, in this case I am thinking about asana as a single practice with the goal of mastering a posture. Simply siting and holding myself in that position as long as possible.
Since while doing this practice a lot of body sensations will rise, should I try to focus on something else or should I witness those sensations as they rise?"
Again, no single rule (different people develop different tactics, and these change). Personally, I'm not sure how you can separate it from some sort of concentration exercise, because the essential nature of the practice is one of attention, focus, concentration - it isn't relaxed, it's physically "braced" (to use Crowley's balanced term). I would say concentrated. It seems to me that the mind itself must be concentrated, at least having something you are attentively thinking about.
Sensations that come and go will certainly be noticed. If you abstract yourself from them too much, then you lose concentration ("wander off"). On the other hand, they don't deserve close attention. On the other other hand, one tactic that I've used at times in the "pure drill" phase (and still occasionally) is to temporarily put attention entirely on them, as an act of Dharana, which usually causes them to vanish. That's one example of it being art.
I commonly would give myself something to concentrate on, such as the crown chakra or (most often) my breath, and tend to keep the attention there without cutting myself off from sensation.
