What Pandit Rajmani Tigunait was eluding to in Yoga International september 2004 was about separating from attachments such as family worries when practicing the TM exercise - or non-exercise of calming the mind.
Reading what you shared here reminds me of a Tantric Tibetan Buddhist writing not long ago where the author says something like: "Concentrating on the breath is not the thing. That is just to keep the mind busy so that it won't think!" Though even in what he says, concentrating on the breath is good, just not the end in itself.
I found what Pandit Rajmani Tigunait said helpful, because indeed, if one is trying to quiet the mind of thoughts, often family and responsibility worries make it impossible. He gives clear example with his worrying about his sister, and how he finally decided that his calmness outweighed his family responsibility - his worry, and he was able to relax or meditate.
quote:Originally posted by dattaswami:
TRUE ESSENCE OF YOGA
Divine discourse of H.H. Sri DATTA SWAMI
Yoga is the most prestigious field of spiritualism. People think about 6 wheels (Chakras) or lotus flowers present in the spinal card, which are not seen by the eyes. They are imaginary and so they carry some inner meaning...
Much of this quote is about how the chakra information is imaginary, or not relevant. Like concentrating on the breath as in my example above, I think they are and are not at the same time. Let me explain in more detail:
In the Chemetan or Egyptian mythology Thoth/Tahuti holds a staff called the Caduces which has winding spirals called Ida and Pingala in Hindi (talk about mixing myths!) Between the spirals are said to be the chakras-meaning wheels, and though Sri DATTA SWAMI says that they are imaginary, kerilian photography has taken some type of pictures of them and my own reference is from Barbara Ann Brennan's 
"Healing Hands Of Light" where she gives full visual descriptions. She was a scientist at NASA which gives her more credence than some snake-oil-salesperson eh? The graphic on the right is how she describes an aura or human-energy-field when it is in good shape. Similar but connected to another field of study is the seven endocrine glands all seemingly on the exact points where these wheels or energy vortexes or chakras are! Because I am a musician I enjoy looking at the similarities to the seven note musical scales. I grew up in Berkeley California and have had enough discussions about chakras for a few lifetimes!
But whether they are "imaginary" or "real" or even just important is what I'm addressing here. Just as the Pentatonic music scale of 5 notes fits nicely under the 5 fingers of the hand, therefore I practice "runs" going the full length of the keyboard with that scale, the seven - or six as you mention - energy centers layer nicely with seven levels of awareness - and coordinate with the endocrine glands that are associated. If someone is fearful and trying to survive, it can be said they are "stuck" in the first chakra, the adrenalin gland. Creative energy is in the second, the gonads. You can go up the endocrine glands and there is a type of synchronicity with the chakras in a loose way. So layered on the musical scales, going from C to D then E then F is a nice type of resolution. This is likened to "achieving the heart level" in chakra-babble. As you go up to the seventh step, if you just stay singing that note, you want to hear the next octave, the note above it, and this seems similar to some chakra mystical connection from our highest center to a cosmic next octave or Atman-Brahman type of thing. So musically the chakras have a neat way of representing spiritual growth or evolutionary stages. Parmenides a Greek writer made a story about a chariot with 2 horses and 7 gates. Again you have the central pillar (Sushumna) and 2 snaking coils, this time horses. In Voodoo or more properly Vodoun which means life, they have the 2 snake gods Aida Weedo and Dumbalah which seem to layer on the snaking coils as well. And to top all of this off... DNA strands are spirals with life energy information eh?
http://Givnology.com/chakras.htm
This is taken even farther, if you can believe it, in the book "Nothing In This Book Is True But It Is How Things Are" where he explains cell mitosis dividing from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 and the "Flower Of Life" of the 8 cells/circles is said to be the basis of ALL things, including our musical scales! On the linked chakra page above, he explains how to visualize chakra points outside of the body and create a Mercaba which looks synchronistically like the Hebrew Star Of David, and within this Mercaba he says space and time travel are possible. OK I think I have worn out my little notes on whether chakras are imaginary or just mumbo-jumbo, they are obviously both!
I like to chant the major scale and visualize healthy energy throughout my body, I sing: "Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet" or sometimes "...Purple White" for the last two. I do this and IMAGINE my "system" being "tuned up" or all my energies being healthy and appropriately in their right places. Green for the heart feels right as nature is full of greenery. The blues and top colors make me think how they are "royal" colors! The entire transition from the red to the white seems logical in a spiritual way, the body has red blood cells and such, the spirit is in a bright white light eh?
So I do this visualization, singing the major scale and playing my being as an instrument, and feel tuned up and recharged. THEN I DETACH FROM THIS IDEA COMPLETELY And I simply let my mind rest, try to empty it of all thoughts, all chatter, all worries and materiality.
In my example here, I showed how I am quite attached to this chakra business, those imaginary wheels or whatever, but how I go through that process, tune up and have a nice resonating harmonizing creshendoing musical finale "in my head," then completely break any mental attachments and rest my mind into the absolute nothingness.
That's my musical interpretation of "Full awareness in order to meditate" using whether or not chakras are worth anything as the attachment that I detach from in order to meditate. And my Kundalini or life force healthfully and joyfully raises up my visualized spine of musical notes and colors, blossoming to a healthy happy human bean flower.. he he..
then sprouts in my Ateph hat (Chemetan headdress) and the heavenly healthy energy flows back down mainly the front of the body, as mentioned in "Cultivating Male Sexual Energy" which all creates what is called "The Microcosmic Orbit" and I am fully sure that everything from my DNA to my cells to my spine to my endocrine glands to my entire being to the cosmos are more tuned up and harmonic. Ta-Da! I like how Nick said: "Dhiravamsa's comment that the word "alone" is a contraction of "all" and "one" always fit in very harmoniously with that notion that one can practice Vipassana Meditation (literally "passive watchfullness") without having to define or actively analyze ourselves adding to the noise of the already existing internal dialogue that gives us a sense of our "self.""
The real idea is to not need to think about much, but when you "come back" from "the void" it is nice to have a harmonic landing pad eh?
May we all be in harmony and have excellent use of silence as the great composers do. Amen and Awomen. And so it is.
Love and light being, Teo