Someone suggested that I leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back out of the Cummings Center the other day.
This is me leaving breadcrumbs for the next person trying to understand Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:
Life is mathematical.
Here’s how it works:
The centerline represents zero; everything to the left of the centerline is negative; everything to the right of the centerline is positive.
Our universe is similarly bipolar. Everything we can sense, including our own body/mind, is a unique manifestation of positively and negatively charged sub-atomic particles. The East refers to these two elemental “states of matter” as Yin and Yang. Patanjali refers to them as Rajas and Tamas. Lucas called them the Light and Dark forces.
The image of a circling tiger and dragon is commonly used to represent those two constantly moving energetic states of matter. Love it!! The oppositional polarity keeps them on the move, giving rise to the “hunger” (the fears and desires) within each of us.
Back to the graph above, half of the world’s population is generally positive. A very small subset of positive people are extremely so, though most fall within a “normal” range.
Same on the other side of the elusive perfectly balanced middle line: half of the world’s population is generally negative. A very small subset [thankfully] of negative people are extremely so.
In class this morning, Master Leone asked students why they practice and train. Here are their responses:
To:
- avoid suffering
- have fun
- find tranquility
- find love
- find community
- find peace of mind
- reduce pain
The keys to smiling more for ALL of us are self-awareness and self-control; specifically, never forgetting that consciousness is NOT a mental function!
Patanjali said:
1.12. Practice and non-attachment
1.13. Practice means NEVER giving up
1.14. By practicing continuously and earnestly over a long time, your efforts become habitual
1.15. Non-attachment means ALWAYS letting go (mastering desire)
1.16. With ultimate self-awareness, all attachments fall away
Master Leone said:
“It’s a constant struggle. It’s NEVER ‘Hey look Ma! No hands!’… EVERY MINUTE EVERY DAY.”
Blessings and gratitude, Skip
❤😊🕉
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