From an interview aired on NBC 4/20/22:
Hoda Kotb: “The only thing I want in life is to feel peaceful…Do you feel peaceful?”
Prince Harry: “I don’t know how many people feel truly peaceful…”
How telling. Clearly, if these two hugely successful and beloved celebrities don’t know peace, what chance do the rest of us have?!
The good news is that each of us was born with everything we need to know true, deep, lasting peace.
A brief history of the roadmap to peace
Several millennia ago, while studying mankind and the internal and external influences on our lives, scholars in India realized that “one of these things is not like the others”; specifically, that Consciousness (i.e., awareness) is not subject to natural laws of physics; it is literally immutable, intangible and as far as we know, eternal. In other words, Consciousness is essentially divine.
That realization, “Samkhya”, became one of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism. Classical Indian yoga or meditation became another. If Samkhya is the hypothesis, yoga is the proof.
Classical Indian yoga was the bridge between prehistoric and modern religion. It supplanted our faith in something external to which we offered sacrifices, with faith in something partially abiding within ourselves: our spirit or soul which upon death returns to its source.
Not coincidently, true, lasting peace won’t be found outside oneself: not in alcohol, drugs, sex, food, or anything else you can think of. While those and other tangible distractions may provide temporary relief from what ails us, they are not viable long-term paths to lasting serenity and bliss.
An introduction to Patanjali’s roadmap
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is the “bible” of classical Indian yoga – a roadmap to discovering the true nature of our own Consciousness.
This blog post is the 15th in a series intended to shed light on Patanjali’s iconic text, outlining the ancient practice or “proof” that life as we know it is only possible because of something within ourselves that’s essentially divine. Once you “see” the nature of Consciousness – after a few “OMGs!!” and headshakes – you will know true peace, a sense of purpose, acceptance, and belonging which words can’t adequately express.
Will all your pain and worry evaporate in that moment of clarity and insight? Likely not, as we remain very much human, but you will certainly be better prepared to navigate life’s inevitable bumps, bruises, losses and related suffering.
Patanjali’s 200-line poem consists of four parts. The first introduces enlightenment: what it is, how to achieve it, and obstacles we may encounter. The second part prepares us to meditate; specifically, outlining how to quiet our thoughts, why that’s important, and distinguishing between our thoughts (evidence of our temporal mind) and the awareness OF our thoughts (evidence of our intangible Consciousness).
Preparing for peace
The rest of part two of Patanjali’s outline addresses five preparatory practices to facilitate and enhance the act of meditation:
- Intro (sutras 2.28 & 2.29)
- Abstentions & observances (sutras 2.30 – 2.45)
- Stilling our outer body (sutras 2.46 – 2.48)
- Settling our inner body (sutras 2.49 – 2.52)
- Quieting our conscious, thinking mind (sutras 2.53 – 2.55)
The sutras which address our routine behavior (i.e., abstentions & observations) comprise over 55% of the section on preparing to meditate. While posture, breathing and concentration exercises are important, the best things we can do to prep for meditation involve our behavior, because – as Patanjali pointed out previously – our every action has perpetually rippling consequences (karma) which have similarly lasting effects on our state of mind.
While this post doesn’t address specific sutras, I hope the context provided here is helpful.
For info about private lessons or workshops in self-discovery and peace of mind see the ‘Contact Us’ page of this site.
God bless, Skip
#patanjali #consciousness #meditation
