Marblehead School of Raja Yoga
Self-awareness and meditation – group, private and online classes
The goal of Raja Yoga is peace. The rules of the game are intended to promote a clear, calm state of mind – and it starts by practicing kindness toward others; specifically, abstaining from:
Violence • Deceit • Theft • Promiscuity • Greed
In short, practice the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you!
www.rajamarblehead.com
Play and see if you don’t feel happier and healthier!
Object of the game: mind control (to reduce stress)
Rules of the game:
1) be kind to others
2) be kind to yourself
3) control your outer body (exercise)
4) control your inner body (breathe)
5) control your thinking mind (concentrate)
6) control your sensory mind (meditate)
Player tip: learn to distinguish between your conscious mind (the part of you that’s reading this), your subconscious mind (the part of you in charge of scrolling whatever you’re reading this on), and your consciousness (the awareness that you’re reading and scrolling).
Key to success: never give up; always let go.
The first chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras explains why yoga works; the second chapter explains how to practice it; however, there is one practice instruction included in the first chapter, which makes it unique and highlights its importance: “never give up; always let go”.
Everything in life is constantly changing due to its fundamental energetic nature; thus, we have opportunities throughout each day to practice letting go. Chose not to let life’s little disappointments like a spilled cup of coffee, or running late, or packing up and leaving at the end of a memorable vacation (all things come to an end) spoil your day.
A yoga tale: two monks out for a walk came across a woman in distress about crossing a stream. With the woman’s consent and gratitude the older monk carried her across, after which the monks continued on their way. Some time later the younger monk turned to his friend – perplexed – and said: “we’re supposed to abstain from physical contact with women, yet you carried that young woman across the stream”. His friend smiled and responded “yes, but I put her down on the other side of the stream; you’re still carrying her”.
Letting go is often difficult; hence, the other aspect of yoga’s most important instruction: never give up.
Monitoring the influences on your thoughts is central to the practice of Raja Yoga. The three enemies of a clear mind are:
1. Over-identification with your body/mind
Don’t forget your consciousness! Consciousness or awareness doesn’t exist in the same way that your body and thoughts do; rather, it’s the aspect of you that witnesses those physical and mental parts. Without consciousness, your mind and body would still function, but you wouldn’t realize what you were sensing, thinking or doing!
2. Ego
Ego is a symptom of over-identifying with your body/mind. When your body/mind is sick or hurt your ego thinks “I am” sick or hurt – and the closer the identification, the deeper the sense of distress. Ego reacts like a magnet, either attracted to or repelled by the focus of its attention.
3. Fear of dying
Fear of dying is instinctive. The good news is that there’s an aspect of you that doesn’t die in a physical or mental sense because it doesn’t exist in a physical or mental manner: your consciousness. That said, until you can completely subdue your mind, you can’t experience consciousness – you can only verify its existence because without it, you wouldn’t know you’re reading this!
Raja Yoga is an individual practice in self-awareness and self-control; specifically, it’s about lovingly and patiently conquering your body/mind to experience your consciousness.
Yogis believe that only two things exist: consciousness and energetic matter. The former never changes – it’s eternal. Everything else, including our unique and miraculous bodies and minds are constantly changing due to their fundamental, energetic nature.
Consciousness is the aspect of each of us that’s unaffected by physical or mental distress – it’s just the awareness thereof. Consciousness is not dissimilar to the notion of a soul or spirit, but awareness is an aspect of yourself that you can readily verify: the aspect without which you wouldn’t know that you’re reading this!
Consciousness doesn’t exist in the same way that our bodies and minds do. It doesn’t do anything; it doesn’t function in a material sense; it can’t change or be changed – it’s simply the awareness OF something; thus, its not subject to the laws of material physics like the perpetual cycle of cause and effect (karma). We don’t experience consciousness in the same way that we feel our arms and legs or hear our thoughts, but the ultimate goal of Raja Yoga is to achieve a state of such deep meditation – of utter physical and mental stillness – that you actually experience your consciousness (in yoga-speak, you become enlightened).
Until that happens, we can only verify the existence of consciousness by imagining what life might be like without it: our arms, legs, brain, other organs and systems would still function, but without awareness or consciousness, we wouldn’t know what we were doing!
While enlightenment eludes most, thankfully, the practical and therapeutic benefits of practicing Raja Yoga are immediate and cumulative.
Introduction
Pratyahara is the fifth of the eight-limbed practice of Ashtanga Yoga introduced in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: a roadmap to peace through meditation. The Yoga Sutras – essentially a poem comprised of fewer than 200 partial sentences arranged in four chapters – is one of two widely recognized authoritative texts on Raja Yoga.
Pratyahara (transliterated as “withdrawal from the senses”) refers to concentration of the conscious mind; it is often practiced by silent recitation, essentially stringing together individual, sequential thoughts – often rhythmically – to momentarily control the content and flow of thoughts.
The stated, penultimate goal of the Yoga Sutras is to all-but-eliminate conscious thought – since at that point, without thoughts to interfere, we are conscious only of our own true nature.
Science
The four functions of your mind are:
1) Buddhi – this is your conscious mind – and the focus of the Yoga Sutras. At any given moment, you are conscious of whatever is reflected in this part of our mind. This is the aspect of mind that gets us in trouble – sometimes referred to as the “monkey mind” as we often seem at a loss to control what’s reflected therein.
2) Manas – this is your sub-conscious or sensory mind which works behind the scenes, automatically processing senses and basic bodily functions.
3) Ahamkara – this is your mental foundation: it’s the most elemental aspect of your ego: the awareness that you are a unique being – separate and apart from everything else.
4) Chitta – this is the storage aspect of your mind: your memories which still have karmic potential (i.e., to the extent the ripples of your past actions haven’t caught up with you yet, the corresponding karmic triggers are stored here).
Context
Patanjali introduces Ashtanga Yoga in Chapter 2, yet splits the discussion of the eight limbs between Chapters 2 and 3: concluding Chapter 2 with remarks on Pratyahara, and beginning Chapter 3 with a discussion of the last three limbs, signaling that Pratyahara is more akin to the first four, than the last three.
Pratyahara is the fifth in a sequence of progressively subtle exercises or practices intended to settle your conscious mind for meditation:
• Yama & Niyama – presented first, these two limbs of Ashtanga Yoga are the most important as they have the greatest impact on your peace of mind. The Yamas & Niyamas constitute a code of conduct intended to balance your actions; specifically, to mitigate the negative consequences thereof.
Note: of the 25 sutras devoted to Ashtanga Yoga in Chapter 2 (i.e., a little over 10% of Patanjali’s entire Yoga Sutras), 15 (60%) discuss these two sutras (“conduct”); three discuss Asana (“posture”); five discuss Pranayama (“breath”); and 2 discuss Pratyahara (“concentration”).
• Asana – Patanjali encourages us to learn to sit still and comfortably to facilitate meditation;
• Pranayama – Patanjali encourages us to learn to breathe deeply and subtly to facilitate meditation, as breathing exercises stimulate/calm circulation of our elemental energetic building blocks;
• Pratyahara – Patanjali encourages us to learn to concentrate (i.e., to fully-engage our conscious mind) to quell the effects of desire – the product of ego, memory and the senses – to facilitate meditation; the intent of Pratyahara is to turn one’s attention or awareness from the sensory to the thinking mind – and to begin to learn to control its content and flow.
The longer you can sit comfortably, breathe deeply and subtly, and hold the content and rhythm of your thoughts steady, the longer and more effectively you’ll be able to meditate.
Summary
When you’re sitting comfortably, breathing deeply and subtly, and controlling the rate, rhythm and content of your conscious thoughts, there is a synchronization of sorts between your heartbeats, breaths, and thoughts – a calmness that prepares you for the last three limbs of Ashtanga Yoga which involve further refining the content of your conscious mind by progressively narrowing its focus.
• September and November 2010 issues of “Yoga Journal”; specifically, articles on the history of yoga
• “Light on Yoga” by BKS Iyengar; specifically, “Part One – What is Yoga”
• “First There is a Mountain” by Elizabeth Kadetsky; presents an objective view of BKS written by a journalist who became part of his inner circle; includes many historical references
• “The Bhagavad Gita” by Winthrop Sargeant; this is the truest transliteration from Sanskrit to English; good to use as a reference though no commentary
• Any of several readily available books on the two widely recognized original and authoritative texts on Raja Yoga: the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Reading multiple interpretations provides a broader understanding of the material.
• Swamij.com
• Any of several anatomy books written for yoga students, for example, “Anatomy of Hatha Yoga” by H David Coulter, or “The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga” by Ray Long
• “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” – the version I have was written by Swami Muktibodhananda
• “Light on Pranayama” by BKS Iyengar
• Anything by Thich Nhat Hanh, including the “Miracle of Mindfulness”; while Buddhist, this is good description of what yogis refer to as a clear and correct state of mind
In order to control your mind you need to understand how it works – which is best done by observing it. That’s how the original Yogis figured it out: experientially!
The next time you look in a mirror, wave to your reflection and think about what you had for breakfast yesterday. No, this isn’t Candid Camera, just an exercise to help you see the parts of your mind as clearly as you see the reflection of your head, arms, and legs.
The original Yogis determined that your mind has four distinguishable parts: 1) your thinking or conscious mind; 2) your sensory or subconscious mind; 3) your memories; and 4) your root, or rudimentary ego.
Practice experiencing each of the four aspects of your mind:
Observe your rudimentary ego – this is the very subtle, generally subconscious, recognition that you are a unique being – as opposed to the not-so-subtle, often conscious part of your ego which thinks of yourself as witty, cute and tall. Your root ego is simply the part of you that recognizes “Hey, that’s me in the mirror!”
Observe your memories – this is perhaps the easiest part of your mind to observe.
Observe your sensory mind – note that you aren’t engaging your thinking mind when you wave at your reflection in the mirror. Generally, you’re not conscious of the workings of your sensory mind; it constantly runs in the background, automatically receiving sensory information and processing routine bodily functions. It’s your sensory mind that waves your hand (i.e., you don’t consciously think, “move hand left, move hand right…”).
Observe your thinking mind – this is the part you used to recall what you had for breakfast. Like heartbeats and breaths, your thinking mind continuously processes singular, sequential thoughts, which are naturally drawn to the objects of your desire (the products of interactions between the other three parts of your mind: sensory, memory and ego); however, you can control your thinking mind – and thus your actions – and thereby overcome desire.
Next practice observing interactions among the four aspects of your mind.
Over 3,000 years ago Yogis determined that “mind over matter” was the key to a happier, healthier life: that it’s our minds, not our bodies, which are the source of most suffering.
The practice of Yoga is largely about controlling the thinking aspect of our minds, and thereby our actions. Frankly, our selves and our actions are all we can control; the natural law of cause and effect (Karma) is responsible for everything else.
There are four general types of thoughts, or states of mind:
• Correct
• Incorrect
• Imagined
• Remembered
There are five general types of emotions which “color” or influence those thoughts, or states of mind:
• Ignorance
• Ego
• Attraction
• Aversion
• Fear
Not surprisingly, a correct, “uncolored” state of mind is most conducive to clear, calm thinking: making it easier to consider outside events and influences more objectively before (re)acting.
There are three sources of correct thoughts:
• Witness
• Inference
• Confirmation
Practice discerning between the types, and influences of your thoughts – and cultivating a calm, clear, correct mindset.
Check out SwamiJ.com.
Some of the material there is pretty deep, but if you’re interested in learning about meditation, this is a wonderful resource.
Once on the site, click on “Yoga Sutras” and then “Chapters”. You should see:
Concentration: Chapter 1 of the Yoga Sutras is entitled Samadhi Pada, which means the chapter on concentration. Chapter 1 describes yoga, witnessing five kinds of thoughts, uncoloring thoughts, the twin principles of practice and non-attachment, the stages of concentration, efforts and commitments, obstacles and solutions, and means and results of stabilizing the mind.
The 51 sutras of Chapter 1 have been divided into 9 sections:
While SwamiJ.com is truly awesome, I suggest reading multiple interpretations of what the author (Patanjali) was trying to convey. The next time you’re in a bookstore, find the section on yoga – and the smaller section on yoga philosophy; specifically, The Yoga Sutras. Flip thru whatever books are on the shelf and see if one or two of them appeal to you (some are quite academic – while quite helpful, perhaps not the place to start). Start with the chapter summaries, and then read one section of a chapter at a time – focusing on the first two chapters. Remember, this is entirely a personal practice; there’s no right or wrong way to interpret the sutras, the intent of which are to reduce human suffering!
It’s not easy to “unpack” the Yoga Sutras without a teacher, but the above is a good way to start – and as the sutras promise, hang in there and you will succeed (if “only” in improving your health and happiness)!
