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Forever
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Yoga
Cebu

Icebath
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Nicha
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awakened
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Meditation Basics

Location : Cebu City, Cebu (province), Philippines

Teaching Format
Since I discovered Vipassana, I have become a regular meditator and have seen my progress with the passing years. Meditation has always been a private practice although every now and then, I get to share it with friends. This time however, Pascale Wettstein, a seasoned yoga teacher currently conducting a 200-hour teacher training program in Cebu, asked me to conduct a meditation session to the current batch of soon-to-be yoga teachers.

Question now is, how do I put my practice into a teaching format? Here's my attempt to do just that.

conducting a meditation class in Cebu

What is Meditation?
There are many established answers to this, but I'll keep it simple within my limited experience. Meditation is a technique of calming and creating stillness in the mind. That's it. It's just a technique. It's not about God, religion or any kind of rite or ritual. How do we create that stillness of the mind? First, we keep the body still. Then we calm the mind. However, it's not as simple as it sounds. Calming the mind is like asking a 2 year-old to remain seated on a chair for an hour. What you do once the mind is still, is up to you. You can meditate for just 10 minutes, or spend your life inside a cave and deepen your meditation.

Objectives of Meditation
You always start your meditation with an intention. What do you want to achieve in this session? In a meditative state, the mind is susceptible to suggestion. Is it to simply calm the mind and body? It can be that simple. You can attempt to stop smoking through meditation. You can heal the body through meditation. You can attempt enlightenment. In some advanced type of meditation like Vipassana, you can perform a deep surgery of the mind to exorcise all the negativities at the root level.

Benefits of Meditation
Of course, you meditate with your own intentions - that's a given. But there are other hidden benefits to meditation.

• healing - first, the body activates its parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the body to heal
• non-reactive - second, by having a calm mind, you develop the habit of being non-reactive. You can observe an event without reacting to it. You can assess your exercisable options and make informed decisions instead of going into auto-pilot
• economy - by not being stressed-out, you also economize your energy, saving it for the more essential tasks
• gifts - this serves as a powerful distraction, but meditation can awaken inherent esoteric abilities

Meditation Techniques
There are many techniques - visualization, observation, uttering a mantra, breath regulation (pranayama), counting, etc. The most popular is to start with the breath. The breath serves as the umbilical cord between the physical world and the esoteric world of prana - the life force governing our universe. The breath also primes the body to be in a meditative state.

Start of Practice
Traditionally, the sequence for meditation is preceded by asana and pranayama. Since we've done our asana, let's begin our meditation by doing a few rounds of pranayama.

Getting Seated Properly

• cross your legs either in full lotus, half lotus or just a simple crossing
• keep the sit bones centered and square. It may help to sit on a cushion.
• keep the spine vertical aligned - no slouching
• keep the crown of the head reaching up the sky, creating length and space on the spine
• put your hands by your lap, either on a mudra or just resting on the lap. Best if you can have the thumbs lightly touching each other with right fingers on top of left (for guys) and left over right for females
• light smile on the face - like a Mona Lisa
• we practice Strong Determination (Addithana) on this pose - for the full length of this session, do NOT move or open your legs. Observe the increasing discomfort without any reaction whatsoever. Just observe the sensation with a calm and balanced mind.

Pranayama

• Nadi Shodhan - alternate nostril breathing exercise, regulates vital life force
• Kapalbhati - skull shining forceful exhalation
• Kapalbhati/Nadi Shodhan - forceful exhalation alternating on both nostrils

Meditation Practice

• we are still into Pranayama, as we continue regulating our breath
• imagine your lungs to be a balloon, inflating with every in-breath, and deflating on every out-breath
• inhale completely, making the most of all the nutrition..all the prana we get from the air
• exhale completely, fully emptying the lungs - no residual air left
• always pause between the in-breath and the out-breath
• on the inhale, fill the chest portion of the lungs first, then continue the breath filling-in the belly, allowing it to expand out
• on the exhale, empty the belly first, followed by the chest...like pressing toothpaste out of its tube
• observe the subleties of the breath. Is there more air coming in or out of one nostril compared to the other? Observe.
• keep observing...is the out-breath warmer than the in-breath? Just how much warmer? Observe without any reaction.
• observe the in-breath as it passes through the inner lining of the nostril
• observe the out-breath as it touches the area above the upper lip
• continue breathing, keeping the mind alert and vigilant

...after 10 minutes of focused breathing

• resume normal breath. Don't regulate the breath anymore. No more Pranayama. Don't even pay attention to your breathing
• instead, focus your attention to what you are thinking - observe your own thoughts
• you are not your thoughts. You are observing the mind's thought-process. Begin to see them from a distance.
• imagine yourself to be a mountain - immovable, permanent and massive. Imagine your thoughts to be passing clouds - they arise, drift by and pass away into nothingness
• if you stray and become lost in your own private thoughts...and this will happen, take refuge back into the breath, and resume observing your thoughts

...after 10 minutes of observing the thoughts

• now, we stop observing our mind and begin to focus on the body. We put our attention to individual body parts
• bring focus on the head - from the scalp all the way down to the neck. Observe if there is any sensation. Does it feel heavy? Does it feel itchy? Does it feel throbbing? Don't create any sensation...just observe them if there is any. Let's spend a minute here observing the head and any body sensation that might be there.
• bring your attention lower to the muscles at the base of the neck....and across the entire span of the shoulders. Observe. Do you feel anything? Is one shoulder heavier than the other? Is one shoulder higher than the other. Do you feel any sensation? If you do, what kind of sensation. Whatever it is, don't react to it.
• from the shoulders, bring your attention to the entire length of the arm, all the way down to the finger tips. Is there a tingling sensation on the fingers? Do you feel your pulse? Is the pulse stronger on one hand?
• bring the attention up and into the chest. Do you feel it expand on the in-breath? Do you feel it's contraction on the out-breath?
• focus now on the abdomen. On the in-breath, does it expand as much as the chest? When you exhale, which contracts first? The abdomen? or the chest? Observe without any reaction.
• shift the attention now on the pelvic area. Observe for any sensation that might be there. Does it feel fatigued? Is it completely relaxed?
• let us observe both legs from the upper thigh to the toes. It's a huge muscle group. Do you feel anything when you observe it? Is there any tightness? Are the muscles limp or are they tight? Do you feel any sensation on the tips of the toes?
• having scanned the full body, scan it one more time in one full breath - from the top of the head to the tip of the toes
• on the next breath, scan it again for any sensation from the tip of the toes to the top of the head

OM Mantra

• let's bring our attention back in the breath and do a deep, long inhale. Continue breathing.
• on the next exhale, let's all utter the OM Mantra and let's do it 3x
• inhale everyone....and
• Aaaaa....uuuuuu....mmmmmmmm
• let us put our hands together in front of our chest, open our eyes...and greet each other Namaste
• this ends our meditation practice

Practice Ends Here

--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
YOGA by Gigit | Learn English | Travel like a Nomad | Donation Bank

Reader Comments:

MichaelDouglas Yap

Mechel Zapanta

Yoga-Sequence Series

• Pranayama Sequence Oct 24, 2016
• Tibetan 5 Rites Mar 28, 2016
• Meditation Basics Nov 7, 2015
• Handstand Clinic at Surya Nanda Yoga Studio Aug 23, 2015
• Power Yoga Class - Singapore Mar 21,2015
• Adhitthana Yoga (Yoga of Strong Determination) Sept 4, 2014
• Twist Sequence Jun 28, 2014
• One-Leg Sequence (balancing) Jun 14, 2014
• Core Sequence Jun 7, 2014
• Backbend Sequence May 31, 2014

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More on Cebu City:

Cebu City Google Map

Cebu City, Philippines

tourist attractions

• Tops - hilltop offering panoramic view of the city
• Taoist Temple - temple on a hillslope in Lahug with panoramic view of the city

hotel

• Hostel Seven Cebu - newly opened, resto/bar, central location, solo/group travellers
  Juana Osmeña Street, Cebu City
• S Hotel & Residences - new hotel, luxury rooms, central location
  827 M. Velez corner Andres Abellana St.

resto / cafe / bar

• Fujinoya - new and refreshing twists to Western style desserts using Japanese techniques
  Wilson St., Lahug, Cebu City - tel. 888.6075
• Bad Boys Wingz - Buffalo Wings, unique versions of sauces! Great service, accommodating staff, bad boys vibe
  Kasambagan, Cebu City | (032) 415 4811

yoga

• Love Yoga World - yoga studio
  11/fl, Skyrise 2 Tower, IT Park, Lahug, Cebu City
• Yoga Now - first Yoga and Wellness studio in Mactan offering daily Yoga Classes
  at The Yacht Club Mactan

mountain biking

• Cebu Mountain Bike Adventure - MTB tours, bike sales and repairs. Bed and Breakfast + Resto Cafe + wifi
  1298-b V.Rama Ave, Guadalupe, Cebu City | 0942.959.7451

Cebu City to Bantayan Island

The best and fastest way is by Ceres Bus at the North Bus Terminal, adjacent to SM City. The bus takes 4.5 hours going north until it reaches Hagnaya Port. From there, you pay the ferry company separately. The bus boards the ferry until it reaches Sante Fe Port (1.5 hours) in Bantayan Island. From Santa Fe, the bus goes to Bantayan Poblacion and then to Madridejos.

Ceres Bus - PHP 260 (to Santa Fe), 4.5 hours to Hagnaya Port + 1.5 hours by ferry.

Schedule: according to the dispatcher, trips begin at 6 pm (this arrives Hagnaya around 10:30 pm but the first ferry leaves at 1 am...that's a 2.5-hour wait at the port), leaving every hour until 1 pm the following day (I speculate that 1 pm is the last trip to avoid rush hour traffic along Consolacion). This doesn't match the ferry schedule so the bus simply waits until a ferry departs. e.g. the 6 pm trip arrives 10:30 pm and waits for the 1 am ferry. The last trip, 1 pm, arrives 5:30 pm, in time for the ferry's last trip.

Bus arrives at terminal 30 mins before departure. Luggages are P150/pc if no passenger.

Alternatively, you can get off the bus at Hagnaya Port and take the ferry independently. There are 2 ferry companies:

Super Shuttle Ferry
PHP 359 + 25 Terminal fee, 1.5 hours

Island Shipping
PHP 350 + 25 Terminal fee, 1.5 hours

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Cebu City to Siquijor by Bus, via Liloan (Santander)

(as of Jan 2023)

Sugbo Urban
There is only one bus plying this route - Sugbo Urban. Tourist class coach, a/c, comfortable, Sun-Fri (these dates keep changing). P420 for bus, P275 for ferry to Liloan. Leaves Cebu City (South Bus Terminal) at 8 pm (Sundays 1 am), heads south to Liloan (Santander), takes the ferry to Larena Port, Siquijor, docks around 5 am, makes a clockwise roundtrip around Siquijor Island - Larena, Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi (stops at Lazi market for breakfast and leaves 6:50 am), San Juan, Siquijor (arrives 8am, P50 from Lazi to Siquijor Poblacion) and catches the 1pm ferry at Larena Port for Liloan, Cebu and resumes its land route. Arrives Cebu City 10 pm.

Sugbo Urban is the cheapest and most convenient way because when it reaches Larena Port (Siquijor), it continues its trip around the island (clockwise) along the circumferential road, passing through - Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi, San Juan, Siquijor...and back to Larena. It spares you the cost of hiring a tricycle or habal-habal which charges exhorbitant fares. Besides, it's a long trip to the other side of the island to be taking by tricycle.

This is also the slowest. The bus arrives Liloan Port around 12:30 am but the ferry leaves 2:30 am (2 hours of waiting time). The ferry trip is a slow 4 hours (this should only take 1.5 hours with Montenegro or Alesson), arriving Larena around 6:30 am. This 4 hour voyage offers no comfortable sleeping - you stay upright on your seat or sleep on the floor on a cardboard. The boat waiting/voyage takes 6 hours. Altogether, the entire trip takes 11.5 hours until the bus reaches Lazi.

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More on Cebu Province:

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