Daoist vs Raja Yoga

[fiercest tiger]

Hi all,

Has anyone studied Raja Yoga (seated meditation) not the stretching and postures of what we see the westerners doing but the meditation practise of inidan Raja Yoga?

If so what is the differences in Raja or indian meditation to Daoist meditation?

What is the good and bad points if any of these 2 meditation practises?

regards
Garry

[monkeyfoot]

just a quick one because I have to go to work...

In my mind, Indian and Taoist meditations is quite similar to each other. The daoist meditations move energy along the different meridian paths around the body (fire path, wind path, water path etc).

Like daoist meditation, Indian meditations use energy visualizations, but they meditate in relation to the chakra points and move the energy back and forth from these.


ohh **** im late.....sorry i cant go more indepth

craig

[fiercest tiger]

Thanks Craig,

There is many ways to meditate not all Taoist meditate on moving energy some just sit and be queit and let the energy move by itself.

I guess there are different paths in meditation some with visualisation, no intent, intent, sounds etc. What are the different levels through what i mentioned, how does one start?

Garry

[Christopher M]

There are many varieties of both Taoist and Indian meditation, of course. Generally, Indian methods will be much closer to Chinese Buddhist methods than Taoist ones, for reasons which are obvious when we consider the development of the religions in question. Raja is probably most similar to T'ien T'ai Buddhist work.

It tends not to have an "energetic" focus. It is probably close to what most people imagine meditation is like -- work on different states of mental focus and clarity. In this sense, it is not dissimilar to comparable mental work in the Taoist tradition. Raja methods can have a more focussed or active character: there is alot of work on developing different relations of the subject to the object of the thought, whereas Taoist methods, in comparison, seem to emphasize the attitude of the subject specifically.

Vivekananda's book Raja Yoga is a good introduction to the topic.