Hello!
Here you can see an overview of the video course on meditation from Igor Budnikov - Mind Detox 21: Source of Transformation. I completed this course and am ready to share my impressions about him. I will continue the tradition of my reviews of literature on self-development and will make this post interesting not only for those who are thinking of acquiring Igor’s course, but also for those who have already completed it, complementing its position with their ideas. In no case do I consider myself a more competent person in matters of meditation than Igor. I think each of us can complement the other with something: Igor me and vice versa, and this is very good! Indeed, the course itself greatly expanded my ideas about meditation. But I would like to comment on some of the issues covered there.
Moreover, I will assume a bold task to interest even those who have not passed the program of Igor Budnikov and are not going to go through it! It will be more than just a review, and in order for everyone to be interested, in this article I also promise to answer the following questions:
- What is the difference between esoteric and shizoteriki?
- How does a wise egoist differ from a stupid egoist?
- Why there are no bad people, and there are only good and unhappy?
- How can you meditate over a cup of tea?
- Chakras, energy centers. Is this such nonsense?
- Why is meditation both simple and difficult?
- When doubts give rise to faith?
- What should be a meditation teacher?
- How I stopped meditating in style from “ship to ball”
- Why I do not like the film "The Secret"?
- Buddhism and Christianity: what is common?
Meditation is more that “just sitting”
First of all, what is this course about? This course is about meditation entirely. And it affects not only the technical aspects of the practice, how to sit and breathe properly, but also how to apply the skills and experience gained through practice. I have long realized that learning meditation is far from just learning technology. Therefore, in the "meditation" section I have so many different articles. If I thought differently, I would leave only one article devoted to technology.
But meditation is not just sitting still 40 minutes a day.
The principle of meditation covers not only the practice itself, but also behavior, thinking, creativity, attitude towards people, attitude towards life. This is a special way of thinking and life, a whole set of mental skills and habits that are revealed in the love of life and people, in accepting reality as it is, in harmony and happiness, in the ability to see things in their original form, not distorted by judgments and interpretations. Meditation is rather a fundamental life principle, applicable perfectly in any area of life, rather than some kind of individual practice or, especially, an idea. And this principle is supported not only by the practice of sitting, but also, for example, by yoga, breathing, and the right actions.
Meditation is both simple and difficult. Just because the technique is uncomplicated. It can fit in one paragraph. But what a paragraph, you can even in the sentence! And many masters managed to express the principle of practice in one phrase: "just sit!"
But what is the difficulty?
The main difficulty lies in the fact that meditation, its fundamental principles are very different from what a person does in life. Moreover, in many aspects they are the exact opposite of our habits, principles of thinking and cognition, ways of evaluating and interpreting reality. Meditation and yoga are so badly knocked out of the rut of everyday life that they remain completely incomprehensible to people, as long as they do not thoroughly work out (think that you understand something and understand, sometimes, different things). I will try to talk more about this in my future articles.
How to teach people meditation?
As I was convinced from my own experience, it is not difficult to teach a person exactly the technique of meditation. The following is much more difficult:
- Show him what he gets from practice. (This is an almost impossible task. And Igor explained the reasons for this quite well in one of the course lectures)
- Explain how to integrate the experience of meditation in life. As I wrote earlier, the practice, isolated from life, will not bear much fruit.
- Indicate possible errors and pitfalls.
- Explain how to make the practice deeper. How to increase its effectiveness?
- To stimulate him to practice independently, to ensure that he himself finds in it the answers to his questions, he understands that he needs to be a teacher to himself.
- After all, instill the habit of meditating regularly.
I believe that Igor’s course copes quite well with all the tasks. Igor himself calls his work "the development of the habit of meditating." And in order to develop this habit, Igor in every working day of the course conducts meditation, "energy practice" and a lecture on theory. That it, I will tell further.
Esoteric or shizoterika?
Different classes of the course relate to the development of various chakras, of which there are seven. It is believed that the chakras are such energy centers, the projection of which is in the human body. Different chakras are responsible for different abilities. For example, the projection of these centers in the abdomen refers to the feeling of fear, and the projection to the head is associated with higher manifestations of a person: love, creativity, interaction with God.
Igor throughout the course shows how to develop and influence different chakras, from lower to higher, respectively, developing the abilities associated with these centers.
I’ll stop right here. If you read my blog, you notice that I avoid these terms and try to write about meditation without going into esoteric. This is true. I believe that meditation can be described and explained (of course, as far as the principles of practice can be put into words) without bringing energy centers, God, karma, reincarnation into this description. I do not deny the existence of these things, just try not to talk about what I do not know for sure.
But I have nothing against the method of explaining meditation by Igor. The following reasons:
- I understand that because of the large number of not very adequate people talking about chakras and enlightenment, the image of Indian philosophy has been greatly discredited in Russia. I do not deny that in the domestic information space there is a phenomenon called “shizoterika”: a set of orientally learned and unrelated conclusions of Eastern wisdom, supported by a fair amount of personal fanaticism and amateur activities (even with the involvement of a superficial understanding of Orthodoxy or a distorted concept of ancestral traditions ") But what Igor says is not relevant to this. He appeals to the traditional, classical yogic tradition. This is not “esoteric” in modern negative connotations, but the basis of a whole practical philosophical school that originated on the Indian subcontinent several thousand years ago! I, as a person living in India, confirm this! This may be somewhat alien to Western man, but here it exists almost at the official level. In Indian universities even teach certain branches of medicine that are rooted in the yogic tradition!
- Yoga and meditation can be explained in different ways, based on scientific data or based on ancient ideas. But, no matter how we explain it, the fact remains that yoga and meditation have a positive effect on the psyche and physical health of a person, contribute to personal development and the achievement of happiness. We can deny the ideological component, but the practical result is difficult to deny.
- It is likely that different ways of teaching meditation describe the same things in different words. Someone calls the development of the chakras what the other person calls the development of abilities.
- In fact, it cannot be said that the conclusions of Indian philosophy are not tested at all in practice and are completely speculative. For example, when you are worried, you most likely feel tension in your stomach. It may even adversely affect the work of the intestines and stomach. And the Indians believe that the projection of the chakra, located in the stomach is just responsible for fear. The feeling of love you are likely to feel somewhere in the chest. But after all, our heart is just an organ that pumps blood throughout the body. But where did the expression come from to love with all your heart? Why even people of Western tradition associate love with the heart area? Probably for the same reason that the ancient Indians "arranged" in the chest the projection of the chakra responsible for love. (Only the Indians found a way to influence these chakras with the help of special techniques, causing special feelings and states.) Igor says that the chakra, which is responsible for the creative process and intuition, is launched during meditation. No matter how I call it, I cannot deny that my most "breakthrough" ideas were born during meditation. I do not want to conclude that the chakras certainly exist. Rather, my conclusions can be attributed to the fact that different people describe the same phenomena in different ways. By the way, during meditation I feel pressure in the bridge of the nose, close to in the area of the projection of the "third eye." I think many of you also have time to feel it.
- Practice first! You don't have to believe anything for nothing! Check everything out by your own experience. Try meditating, as well as the practices suggested by Igor, and see if they work or not! The explanation is the tenth thing. I myself am sure that they work, as I use the exercises taught by Igor every day.
As for the latter principle, it was very useful to me in life. I have always been guided only by the experience that I can observe. Therefore, I did not feel any special faith in the "magic mantra." I did not consider it necessary to fold my hands in certain gestures while practicing meditation and yoga. Why do you need to do this? What does this give?
But, as strange as it may sound, it was my skepticism and unwillingness to take for granted any explanation that allowed me to independently find the meaning in all this. And since I relied only on visible experience, this meaning could not always correspond to the value of the practices that were laid down in them by tradition. What do I want to say? Only that I discovered the practical, functional role of using special gestures (mudras) and even mantras and prayers before and during meditation. And this role has nothing to do with magic or religion, but serves practical reasons. I will write soon about this article.
What should be a meditation teacher?
A meditation teacher is not a philosophy or programming teacher. In order to teach meditation, it is not enough to simply "know the subject." It is necessary in yourself to organically embody all the principles that you preach. A meditation teacher cannot be vicious, self-serving, selfish, envious. He must embody serenity, love and sincere compassion.
Igor is a good teacher in this sense.
It is pleasant to listen to him, it is pleasant to look at him. He speaks and explains very well. Only his appearance, which is a projection of his inner peace, already instills confidence and desire to practice.
Course filling
Having moved to India, I gave up the habit of sitting down to meditate in style "from ship to ball." Before, before sitting down to meditate, I could go about my business, read news on the Internet, respond to comments on the site. Therefore, half of the time of meditation, I mentally continued this activity: in my head I responded to comments or digested the impressions of what I read on the net.
But with experience, I realized that meditation should be approached as a prayer or as a responsible work. Prepare, bring the body and mind in order, tune in to the practice, remove all unnecessary from the head. You can’t just hurry to come home from work, quickly throw off the jacket and immediately begin to meditate. Need to prepare.
Therefore, before practicing, I began to practice a series of breathing exercises designed to calm the mind, as well as yoga. I was convinced that our body is our ladder leading to work with the mind. Especially clearly, I realized this, having recently got into an accident and spent a month in bed. Not having the opportunity to exercise and yoga, I watched how much worse my state of mind was, as if the core was blurring inside. Yoga and any work with the body are very important additions to the sitting meditation technique!
Therefore, Igor in his studies also gives yoga, which is strong enough for beginners. And this is an excellent opportunity to learn the basics of this discipline, even if you have never done it!
I liked the "yogic" part of the course because Igor explains why some exercises are needed. Not every yoga teacher will tell you this.
Igor believes that energy is needed for meditation. And all the yogic asanas (poses) and pranayama (breathing exercises) increase this energy, making the meditation itself much deeper and cleaner. In this I fully agree with him.
In addition to theory and practical exercises, audio meditations are also given in the course. These are very good meditation sessions aimed at developing various personality traits and skills. They also help to better understand the basic principles of practice. But Igor, and after him, I tell you that this only creates the necessary support, and in the future you should rely on independent practice.
Igor has several meditation techniques. One of them he calls Vipassana. This is similar to the technique that I practice the past few months. He also teaches other techniques as part of the course, such as meditating loving kindness and gratitude. All these techniques I use.
Each session, including meditation, theory and practice takes about an hour. Only 21 hours of classes, which, in my opinion, creates an essential foundation for the formation of the habit of meditation and the correct understanding of the practice.
Comments to the course
Now, after reviewing the course, as I promised, I would like to comment on some points.
Wise and stupid selfish
Here I just want to add a few and bring to the logical end the important position on which Igor is based.
In one of the lectures he talks about a wise and stupid egoist. Tibetans believe that people are divided only into these two types. A foolish egoist always thinks only of personal gain: to have more money, property for himself. And the wise egoist is focused on doing something for others and less for himself. Strange, isn't it? But personally, I really like this position.
It goes back to the Buddhist understanding of virtue. And the meaning of virtue for some Buddhists lies in the plane of purely practical and egoistic purposes. We are doing well not to go to heaven after death, not just to be talked about as a good person, but to achieve personal happiness and harmony. Because happiness is achieved through the achievement of freedom from one's own desires, through the development of love and compassion, which in turn are the results of caring for others. Compassion, the manifestation of pure love, helping people, charity - it is simply a set of spiritual practices that are aimed at personal happiness, as well as, for example, meditation.
But some "stupid" (according to Buddhist ideas) people mistakenly believe that in order to be happy, you need to satisfy your egoistic goals as much as possible. Therefore, they do not find happiness!
In my personal opinion, such an understanding of virtue is characteristic not only of Buddhism, but almost all religions. It seems to me that Christ, preaching compassion and love, taught not only how to reach heaven after death, but how to find it in life! But not many people understand this. It seems to them that in order to go to heaven you have to give up a lot in this life: choose between happiness here and happiness there. But such a choice is not really worth it. We can simultaneously choose happiness here and there!
Igor understands this position well. When he gives a visualization technique, designed to bring to life what you imagine, he stops at the fact that you cannot "ask" this technique to satisfy selfish desires, because it will not bring you happiness! (If I correctly understood the plot of the film “The Secret,” then a similar technique is offered there. But I don’t like the idea of this film, not because I don’t believe in this technique, but because it’s focused on meeting selfish goals. For example, visualize a car or a luxury big house).
True, when Igor talks about the meaning of virtue in other occupations, he introduces the concept of karma, a universal law that will provide you with a fair reward for all your good and evil in future lives. И здесь я бы просто хотел бы дополнить это утверждение, напомнив вам, что во что бы вы ни верили: в рай и ад, в карму и реинкарнацию, вы стараетесь быть добродетельным не только ради посмертного счастья, но и ради счастья здесь и сейчас в этой жизни! Даже если изъять из лекций Игоря понятие кармы, то все равно останется большой смысл развивать доброту и любовь!
Даже если добрые пожелания другим людям во время медитации любящей доброты не реализуются.
Даже если визуализация объекта ваших желаний не сделает возможным его появление в реальной жизни.
Все равно даже в таком случае эти практики имеют большой смысл. Вы их выполняете просто для себя! Ради своего счастья и развития!
Применение медитации в жизни
В одной из последних лекций Игорь говорит о том, как можно применять его практики в жизни, если у вас мало времени. Например, что можно делать во время душа, а какое упражнение выполнять, пока закипает вода для чая.
К этому я хотел бы добавить то, что вы можете заниматься медитацией и когда пьете чай, и когда принимаете пищу, когда водите машину! Просто нужно быть здесь и сейчас, не думать о постороннем, чувствовать вкус каждого кусочка, ощущать температуру каждого маленького глотка! Этот принцип нашел свое выражение в китайской мудрости: "когда я ем, я ем!" Сохраняйте осознанность, умение быть здесь и сейчас во время вашей будничной жизни, а не только во время практики! И тогда, я уверяю вас, жизнь станет намного полнее. Вы будете ее именно проживать, она не будет проходить где-то в стороне. В этом и состоит смысл медитации и любых других практик, направленных на развитие осознанности.
Я получил много пользы от курса!
Я почувствовал, что какие-то мои мысли и идеи на счет медитации намного лучше оформились благодаря курсу Игоря. Мне очень понравилось, как он говорил про то, что медитация расширяет наш диапазон ощущений, того, что мы можем почувствовать. А многие люди, не знакомые с медитацией, считают, что практика, наоборот, убивает эмоции. Но вы убедитесь, что это не так, если попробуете.
Программа Mind Detox не только «укомплектовала» мои мысли, но и привнесла в мою практику массу нового. Это не только какие-то идеи, но и конкретные упражнения, которые теперь я делаю перед каждой практикой. До этого я пытался наращивать время практики, но теперь я также при помощи упражнений, которые показал Игорь, увеличиваю ее качество! Я понял, что это подчас важнее количества.
Также мне, как человеку, который преподает медитацию и планирует этим более активно заниматься в будущем, было очень интересно и поучительно послушать Игоря именно с ракурса методики подачи материала, того, как он преподает. Думаю, это будет весьма полезным мне и тем, кого я буду учить!
Если вам интересно, вот ссылка на курс! (Для тех, кто пришел на страницу курса с моего сайта ожидаются скидки.)
Mind Detox 21 - Источник трансформации от Игоря Будников
Если у вас есть какие-то вопросы ко мне по курсу, можете задать их в комментариях. Там же вы можете поделиться своими впечатлениями.
