I have heard a lot of allegations, that to practice self-development, there is no need for a school. The process of meditation (the cultivation of attention, activation of consciousness, and work on increasing awareness) is supposedly a natural process for a human and therefore it is quite enough just to watch all the actions in the background.
I will not even talk about those who do misunderstands the process of meditation and instead of the act of observation (act Dyan , Chan or Zen), is engaged in all sorts of mental images, cultivating illusions and loosening their psyche, drawing different mental pictures of other worlds, connecting in all sorts of changes in brain chemistry, composition of blood, then saturating it with oxygen and then with carbon dioxide, or some hallucinogens, thereby enhancing the effect of reprogramming and the distortion of its perception, which sooner or later will give up and “show” finally a dreamed “reality”. This is generally a terrible picture. We are interested in the pure work of the development of our perception with the natural and the only fundamental to the spiritual development method – meditation. But there are pitfalls even in this process…
Natural and simple process that does not require any teachers, schools and organizations? In some ways, that is correct. At the very least, the idea is good in spite of those sects, which states the impossibility of “saving“, “enlightenment”, “realization” without any special conditions that exist only there: their mega-powerful teacher and his ancient given, fanned by the sacred penis of Siva himself, or at worst – Buddha’s. Sorry for the occasional pun, I honestly do not diminish the importance of Buddhism in relation to yoga 
Indeed, around a simple and great practice of spiritual development, carried out by meditation, screwed by many mythological beliefs and convictions, even though the practice itself is relatively simple. And at the same time, many people do not understand some difficulties along the way, simply because they do not know the methods for efficient development of meditative qualities and that is why they have not reached these stages, where they await by the difficulties and dangers.
Thousands of people just think they know how to meditate, so they rob themselves.
When someone wants to build his muscles, he goes into a training room and is looks for a competent coach, knowing that good technique can help achieve results faster, and bad technique can cripple.
Dancing or chess, fitness or boxing. In any of those, you should learn from professionals who know the appropriate training methods.
To train your meditative capabilities, you also need correct techniques. Moreover, to learn meditation or self-study course for some home-made system is even more dangerous, because meditation is a mental act that triggers the complex processes not only in your body, but also in your mind. That is why we see around us a lot of disinhibited or inhibited, frayed or slightly “darkened” people.
Meditation allows us to enhance our perception and we become more sensitive. Someone may begin to hear or see the new “signals” that are hidden from his usual, inactive, perception. This can be its own images or any kinaesthetic sensations, “sounds”, euphoria, depression due to metabolic disorders…
Many people begin to think that they had opened their third eye, or they allegedly learned how to hear the “voice of the universe”. But more often it’s just an illusion of the shattered psyche and intensified perception.
Competent technique may allow:
– More efficiently and effectively enhance the perception;
– To achieve some results much faster;
– Be able to calm the mind and emotions, so that “imaginary” signals do not penetrate the active perception, which will result in achieving real and true information .
I have seen many people who “practice” something for several decades, but their meditation remains superficial and the opportunities of vast ocean of awareness is still not available to them.
Competent technique – is effectiveness and safety.
There are special techniques on how to activate your meditation, so that during the “meditation” you don’t remain in a half-asleep mode, run by your thoughts, fly through fictional worlds, see the sight of the “other reality” and do not have an opportunity to free yourself from these enhanced “dreams”, and to be “here and now” to really wake up and raise your awareness.
There are dangerous and safe meditations, and only a competent technique can help you to use the safe one. Now you know a number of these techniques, if you read this blog or if you read our main web-site (http://en.dzendo.org). At the same time in the blog mode, it is impossible to give a full and competent technique.
One meditation can increase your blood pressure and another may decrease it. One meditation activates the central nervous system and it can be harmful to us, and the other can be soft and more useful at this stage. One meditation activates metabolism too strongly and increases sexual desire, from which you want to “climb the walls”. And there is a special meditation that can distribute the excess of sexual energy through the body and use it for development of other functions… and so on!
Let’s think about it… This is not about to run around, for a guru, but to use the technique, the system, to know the comprehensive approach for your self-development. And at beginning, of course, we do need an experienced instructor. You just need to listen to yourself, as well as to your instructor, to be Your Own Master. This doesn’t mean what most people understand by “I can do what I want”
We learn a lot of years at school and university, to gain knowledge about things much less complicated, than the practice of spiritual development. Therefore, the art of meditation was taught to elected people only, in secret and those people had to prove their motivation and a serious attitude to the future learning.
But self-development learning outcome exceeds all expectations and justify the effort.
The whole world is in the human mind and the one who learns to control his mind, learns how to rule the world.
Oleg Nazarov
http://en.dzendo.org
