In class today we talked about the role that hatha yoga and excercise yoga play in the grand scheme of Yoga. At the most basic level it seems that it preperation for the to do seated meditation. I was talking to my roommate about this, becasue he reads a lot of books about Buddhism and practices forms of Buddhist meditation. He was telling me that if one is attempting to meditate and the body "gets in the way" you can use that disturbance as an anchor for meditation. For instance, if you get hungry or feel pain, you should focus on that pain/discomfort while distancing yourself from it. That sensation becomes the object of meditation, rather than the breath.
I am not sure what to think about this, but I would love to hear other people's opinions. Personally, when I am attempting to meditate it is not pain that bothers me, but the straying mind. I am told that the Buddhist practitioner will just use this as another oppurtunity to distance their own self from the mind. Anyways, this might be a modern idea, but let me know what you all think, especially once we start reading the Buddhist meditation texts.
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