How Hatha Yoga Can Help Your Mind

Questioner: I have a hard time memorizing. Being receptive to oral transmission is very challenging for me. Could you say something on this?

Sadhguru: Everything that you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch is recorded. There is no recording problem. Let’s say I abuse you badly right now, you will remember it all your life. You have great memory. You just remember bad words, that’s all. The problem is only your inability to bring back certain parts of your memory when you need them. You are not able to pick out what you want. This is just a question of clarity, not of memory. If we say a phone has low memory, it means it has a limited capacity to record. On the other hand, if I press “2” and it shows “5,” the issue is not bad memory but a bad keyboard. Your issue is also a question of “bad keyboard.” There is no need to fix the memory – everything you experience is recorded. You are not able to retrieve the right information – that is the entire problem.

Bringing precision into life

We have to work on clarity. What is it that gives us clarity of mind? A simple thing you can do to improve clarity is to handle everything you do with a certain precision. Hatha Yoga is all about precision – how your feet should be positioned, where your hands should be, how you should hold your head, how you move, how you place the things that you brought with you and so on. If you bring precision into your activity, there will be precision in your mind. You need to practice precision in every aspect of your life. How your room should be, how you go to bed – everything. Bring the meticulousness that you apply when doing an asana, into your life. You will see, slowly, the mind will become very clear. It will become meticulous with everything.

From this moment, a simple practice that you can do is when you stand up, when you sit down, when you walk, whatever you do, do it with precision and attention. Consciously register everything that is around. For example, there are five columns here, one vessel, one big rock, one pond, another four columns, one door. How tall? Looks like twelve feet. Just practice this with everything. How many steps from here to there? Don’t count “one, two…” – start walking and notice “Okay, I think that’s three,” another three, and another three. After a few days, do intervals of four, five, or eleven – without thinking, you must slowly know when you have walked twelve steps. This is yoga. This effect will happen over a period of time by itself.

The precision that you try to bring to your body, bring it to your mind too. Let the mind imitate the body. You will see, clarity will naturally come.

Editor’s Note: Isha Hatha Yoga programs are an extensive exploration of classical hatha yoga, which revive various dimensions of this ancient science that are largely absent in the world today. These programs offer an unparalleled opportunity to explore Upa-yoga, Angamardana, Surya Kriya, Surya Shakti, Yogasanas and Bhuta Shuddhi, among other potent yogic practices.

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This article is based on an excerpt from the February 2015 issue of Forest Flower. Pay what you want and download. (set ‘0’ for free). Print subscriptions are also available.