WHAT IS YOGA? Yoga means unification, within yourself and with the external world. It can be a powerful antidote to the suffering associated with fragmentation, disconnection and isolation.
YOGA SUTRAS Compiled around 400CE by the sage Patanjali, the Yoga Sutras are comprised of 196 compact teachings on understanding and quieting the mind. The sutras were originally unpacked and taught one-on-one by qualified teachers according to each student's particular needs.
These are the foundational sutras:
- Unification happens when the mind is quiet.This is the essential practice of yoga. All the other sutras exist to support this.
- Then, you become established in seeing. In other words, seeing (awareness) becomes your default setting rather than thinking.
- Otherwise, you'll become identified with your thoughts. This typically leads to suffering.
MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS 1. Seated posture - Stablize your body, spine erect but not stiff. - Relax all physical and mental effort. - You may notice that extremes (heat/cold, bright/dark, quiet/noisy) no longer disturb you. 2. Breathing - First feel the breath as it is. To heighten your awareness of it, you can notice the inhales, exhales and pauses; allow the breath to lengthen or deepen, or count each breath as you exhale. - Without forcing, allow the breath to quiet, so much so that the inhales and exhales become indistinguishable or unnoticeable.
CONSEQUENTIAL DEEPENING OF MEDITATION - After the body and breath are quieted, you may notice a U-turn of attention inward, in which you have the power to choose to engage your senses or not. - Then an ability toconcentrate on one thing temporarily while able to return your focus more and more quickly and easily to your object of concentration. - Then an effortless flow of attention. - Then a deep state in which your perception of being separate from the object of attention dissolves into a unified (yoga) experience.
THE TWO REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIFICATION 1. Consistent, heartfelt practice over a long period of time 2. Nonattachment to the results whether positive, negative or neutral
TYPES OF THOUGHTS These can be helpful, unhelpful or neutral. They can be colored (emotionally charged and entangled) or uncolored (clear and straight-forward). 1. Right knowledge - has three sources, in order of reliability: - Direct experience (you stand in the rain and know it's raining) - Sound reasoning (someone comes inside drenched, with a wet umbrella, and you deduce that it must be raining) - Reliable source (a good friend tells you that it's raining) 2. Wrong knowledge - based solely on appearance (a rope that looks like a snake) 3. Imagination - based on words with no corresponding reality (a rabbit with horns) 4. Memory - clinging to impressions from the past (hating the color yellow because a yellow balloon popped in your face)
TYPES OF COLORING 1. Not seeing. This is the cause of all the other types of coloring. When you don't see, thinking becomes your go-to and gives rise to coloring. Side effects include: 1) thinking what's impermanent is permanent, 2) thinking that your accumulation of thoughts about yourself is who you essentially are, and 3) thinking that what seems pleasant at first will remain pleasant when in fact it will eventually cause suffering when the pleasant feeling is gone or wears off.
2. The feeling of being separate. Identifying with your collection of thoughts about yourself.
3. Attachment. Clinging to what gives you pleasure because it reinforces your self-image.
4. Aversion. Avoiding anything that brings you pain or discomfort because it threatens your self-image.
5. Fear of death. Afraid that your body or other aspects of your self-image will perish.
POWERS ARISING AS A RESULT OF MEDITATION - Nonharming. When you're established in this, hostility subsides in your presence. - Non-stealing. When you're established in this, a mindset of abundance predominates and manifests in your life. - Truthfulness. When you're established in this, what you intend and say comes to be. - Nonhoarding. When you're established in this, your true purpose in life is revealed. - Sitting in the fire of non-reaction. When you're established in this, unhelpful patterns of thought, speech and action are burned off and you are free of them. - Acceptance. When you're established in this, reactive resistance gives way to unsurpassed joy. - Surrender. When established in this, the deep meditative state of non-separation (yoga) arises spontaneously.
SOCIAL PRACTICES TO QUIET THE MIND These are done in daily life, in the moment of opportunity, with meditative awarness: 1. Friendliness toward the happy 2. Compassion toward the miserable 3. Gladness toward the benevolent 4. Neutrality toward the malevolent