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Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – chapter 2 loosely translated

Patanjali takes a two-pronged approach to living peacefully, giving equal weight to attitude (kriya) and behavior (astanga).

Chapter two (25%) of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is 55 lines long and entitled “Prepare” to meditate; section headings below are inserted for reference:

EMOTIONS

What is Kriya Yoga and what’s its purpose?

1.     Kriya Yoga is a practice in serenity, courage, and wisdom

2.     Practicing reduces the cause of self-inflicted suffering (“emotions”)

What are the causes of self-inflicted suffering?

3.     Ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion and fear

4.     Ignorance causes the other four, which are dormant, feeble, intermittent or sustained natural impulses

5.     Ignorance is mistaking the impermanent [body/mind] for the permanent [Consciousness]

6.     Ego is mistaking mind for awareness

7.     Attachment stems from pleasant experiences

8.     Aversion stems from unpleasant experiences

9.     Fear, specifically of loss and death is natural

How are emotions subdued?

10. Effects of emotions may be subdued via concentration,

11. And may be eliminated altogether via meditation

KARMA

Why is it important to subdue emotions?

12. Emotions influence thoughts which precede actions; every action precipitates an endless cycle of cause & effect: karma

13. Karma set in motion before we were born is largely responsible for the quality, duration and circumstances of our lives

What is Karma and why is it important?

14. Karma refers to the perpetual cycle of cause and effect initiated by every action

15. Karma is the natural consequence of two energetically charged, oppositional states of matter [Yin and Yang]; this energetic, oppositional nature is the cause of our constant mental conflict

16.  Only when the energetic, oppositional states of matter constituting our body and mind are in balance can peace be found

CONSCIOUSNESS vs. COGNITION

Consciousness vs. cognition is the key; avoid pain by remaining aware of the difference!

17. Avoiding future pain is a matter of remaining aware of the distinction between matter and Consciousness

18. The latter witnesses life through the former

19. The oppositional states of matter are infinite

20. Consciousness is just that; it’s perceived as, but isn’t, a mental function

21. Matter is the instrument of Consciousness…

22. ….although its not our nature to see it that way

23. The union of Consciousness with our body/mind makes us miraculous

24. Confusing Consciousness with cognition is the source of ignorance

IGNORANCE

How to eliminate ignorance

25. Eliminate ignorance by remaining aware of the distinction between thought and awareness of thought

26. Constant, discriminative awareness of our dual nature is how to do so

27. This ultimate self-recognition is liberating in every sense

What is Astanga Yoga?

28. The eight limbed practice leads to discriminative awareness

29. Abstentions, observations, outer bodily control, inner bodily control, conscious mind control, and three successively subtle stages of subconscious meditation

Abstentions & Observances

30. Abstentions: harming, lying, stealing, lust and greed

31. There are no exceptions to this most important limb

32. Observances: cleanliness, serenity, courage, wisdom and faith

33. Foster positive thoughts

34. Reflect on the source and strength of emotions behind your thoughts

Abstentions:

35. Hostilities cease in the presence of one who abstains from harm

36. To abstain from lying, focus on your thoughts since words are preceded by thoughts

37. One who abstains from stealing becomes rich in more meaningful ways

38. Restraining lust produces vigor

39. One who abstains from greed attains ultimate knowledge

Observances:

40. Take care of your self; recognize your frailties

41. Cleanliness and self-care foster self-awareness and self control, engendering peace of mind

42. Serenity is the source of bliss

43. Courage brings out the best in us

44. Wisdom deepens one’s faith

45. Faith, surrendering to something greater than yourself, makes bliss possible

Outer bodily control [posture]

46. Posture should be steady and comfortable

47. Overcome restlessness in your posture by concentrating on the infinite

48. That’s how to attain balance; tranquility conquers the outer body

Inner bodily control [breath/energy control]

49. Now you’re ready to control your inhalations and exhalations

50. Learn to control the duration, separation, and rate of your breath

51. There’s a fourth, non-physical aspect to breathing [i.e., in addition to inhalation, retention, and exhalation] which occurs during concentration

52. As a consequence of this fourth state of breath, the veil of ignorance is lifted

Conscious mind control [concentration]

53. Now you’re ready to concentrate [i.e., to control your conscious mind]

54. Concentration is focusing to the point that you’re not aware of your sensory (sub-conscious) perception

55. Practice concentrating until you have complete mastery of your sensory mind

 

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Energy

Intuitively, you know that your body is energetic since it requires energy to move, but it also requires energy (albeit subtler) to think; specifically, to change your mind and go in a different direction!

How does it work? The three-horse chariot is a classic Raja Yoga metaphor of your energetic self:

3 HORSES – represent the three functions of your subconscious mind: 1) sensory receipt & processing (i.e., bodily functioning), 2) memory storage, and 3) your sense of “I-am”

REINS – represent the subtle subconscious mental energy that powers your three subconscious mental functions; this subconscious mental energy or mind can be controlled by your conscious mind

CHARIOTEER – represents the conscious mental energy that you’re aware of: your thoughts! This is the part of your mind that you make decisions with and that you hear. Your conscious mind should remain vigilant (THAT is the real practice of Raja Yoga!) and direct your subconscious mind regarding what to pursue and avoid – rather than letting it run amuck!

CHARIOT – represents your body; the energetically dense part that sustains, propels and protects you; its up to you to keep your chariot in good working order to more effectively fulfill your responsibilities. Obviously, the physical demands on a soldier are different than a grade school teacher – but a broken chariot is going to distract any charioteer!

In short, we are literally pulled about by the natural functioning of our subconscious mind: an energetic mix of sensations, memories and need, BUT thankfully we can use our conscious mind to reign in and direct our subconscious mind’s natural tendencies.

Raja Yoga is a dual practice in self-awareness and self-control for which I thank God and the divinely inspired Patanjali, every day.

Allan

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Raja Yoga group classes – June

Consciousness = awareness OF your mind’s thoughts

Meditation = quest to transcend one’s mind to experience consciousness

Raja Yoga = science of meditation or mind control

RAJA YOGA group classes:

211 Essex Street, Swampscott – across from the high school

  • Increase – strength, flexibility, balance, stability, energy, endurance, stamina, concentration and focus
  • Decrease – stress, destructive desires and anxiety

www.rajamarblehead.com

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Desire

Desire binds you and makes you restless. Even by desiring enlightenment, you bind yourself. To know Truth, you must be without desire.

Ironically, you’d die without desire! Your subconscious mind by its very nature desires to keep you alive! So what does it mean to be “without desire” practically speaking? To desire and act selflessly.

Selfless action or serving others doesn’t trigger in you another infinite cycle of merciless cause and effect (karma) – because pure, selfless desire and action have no expectation whatsoever – thus you can’t be disappointed, regardless of the result. But even better, you ARE rewarded: when you make someone happy, you see it in their face and you feel happy too.

“The more you serve, the more happiness you enjoy. Such a person knows the secret of life.” – Sri Swami Satchidananda

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Classes start again this week

Patanjali said that peace comes when we think and act:

WISELY – understanding the nature and distinction between mind (the source of our thoughts), and consciousness (the awareness of our thoughts);

COURAGEOUSLY – never giving up; practicing selflessness; being physically disciplined; and

SERENELY – always letting go; practicing non-attachment and mindfulness; being mentally disciplined.

Peace and blessings, Allan (“Skip”)

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Meditation and faith

Meditating can turbocharge your faith.  Understanding the difference between your mind and consciousness begs questions that only faith can answer.

Conscious mind

Your thoughts are evidence of this aspect of your mind; conscious thoughts are like breaths and heartbeats: single, consecutive and constant. Yes, your conscious or thinking mind can only handle one task at a time! If you need convincing, try simultaneously counting and reciting the alphabet. Right, so don’t text and drive! This is the aspect of your mind that you hear; it’s the part you interact with; you’re either engaging it to make a decision or it’s engaging you, acting like a monkey dredging up permutations of ego, memory and sensation from your sub-conscious mind. You CAN learn to control the conscious aspect of your mind and thus the clarity and nature of your thoughts.

Subconscious mind

You can’t hear this aspect of your mind nor can you control it; the only evidence of it is its functionality. This aspect of your mind is responsible for three things: (i) sensory receipt and processing, including seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, feeling, moving, talking, eliminating, and reproducing – things you don’t have to think to do; (ii) memory storage; you carry around a mental impression of every conscious thought (e.g., sight, sound) you’ve ever had; and (iii) the root of your ego: your sense of “I”.

Consciousness

When you tried counting and reciting the alphabet at the same time, two things did happen simultaneously: the thinking – and the awareness of your thoughts. The awareness OF your thoughts is your consciousness. Your thoughts change constantly, but your awareness OF them never does. The ancient texts say this part of you can’t be drowned or burned with fire – and yet you know it exists because without it you wouldn’t realize that you were reading this! Without it life would be pretty dull; imagine being unaware of being alive! What would be the point?!

Meditation

Think of your subconscious mind as a child bringing things to show you. To listen effectively to your subconscious mind, your conscious mind should be in neutral: observing without thinking. You know you’re simply observing if you don’t hear your inner voice analyzing, judging, or commenting. When your conscious mind is not obscured by thoughts, consciousness sees what your subconscious mind wants it to be aware of.  As your subconscious mind unburdens itself, you draw closer to the deepest, most subtle aspect of you, your essence: your immutable consciousness.

Understanding the nature of consciousness – and tapping into its quiet, calm, stillness though meditation – opens your mind to an entire universe of questions that only faith can answer!

Happy trails, Skip

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I’m a Raja Yogi

Technically, Raja Yoga is the pursuit of consciousness through meditation; practically, it’s about living in harmony with the world around us.

Several thousand years ago, before the advent of written language, someone named Patanjali concocted a 200-line poem, the Yoga Sutras, a recipe for living more joyfully and peacefully.

The practice is entirely personal; it’s intended to foster faith in YOURSELF (yes, though technically in your consciousness) because faith can be a source of strength, courage and wisdom. Sound familiar? Patanjali’s poem is the source of the Serenity Prayer.

Practicing Raja Yoga boils down to conducting yourself in a manner that will minimize your physical and mental distress, and practicing four types of exercise: two physical (inside-out & outside-in) and two mental (conscious & subconscious). All are intended to drive home something you already know intuitively: that there’s a difference between thinking and being aware of your thoughts. The latter is your consciousness.

Raja Yoga is an attempt to better understand and somehow tap into the subtlest aspect of yourself: your consciousness. The practice will either turbo-charge your existing religious or spiritual faith or engender it in you – as it did in me.

The spiritually deepening practice of Raja Yoga doesn’t require a leap of faith in something that you can’t readily verify. The holy grail of Raja Yoga is your own consciousness: the aspect without which you wouldn’t realize that you were reading this!

Here’s an excerpt from a letter to a new friend, a Buddhist:

“Since I set out on this quest, I’ve been under the apparent misconception that my teacher, Patanjali – and yours, the Buddha – were seeking and had found the same thing.

I’ve told people for years that Thich Nhat Hanh [a universally renowned and respected Buddhist teacher] does the best job of describing what I thought was our shared objective: to literally bear witness to consciousness. But your guest assured me that she’s seeking something BEYOND consciousness – which in my mind, makes your practice more of a religion than a purely objective quest or practice – in the sense that yours is a quest for something you literally CAN’T experience or witness with your tangible human body and mind: the source of the universe, “God”.

Raja Yoga doesn’t ask that we make THAT leap of faith; ours is a practice in self-awareness and control. You KNOW that your quiet, still, calm consciousness exists because YOU’RE AWARE THAT YOU’RE READING THIS!

Consciousness doesn’t function; it’s merely the awareness OF your thoughts. Without it, you’d be sitting there, reading this – completely unaware that you were doing so! So Raja Yoga celebrates THAT aspect of ourselves – and rewards us physically, mentally and spiritually (body – mind – consciousness) in our pursuit!

Sorry to blather on – I thought you may be receptive. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Center and I’ll be back – where else can I meditate for half a day?! Certainly not at home! Susan would surely find something else for me to do. Which may be the biggest difference between our practices: my teacher reminded me just recently that Raja Yoga is for “householders” – those of us who for practical or other personal reasons don’t sit in meditation for extended periods of time – though joyfully look forward to the limited times we do. Accordingly, 75% of the practice of Raja Yoga is done BEFORE sitting to meditate to make the most of the experience.”

May you find some part of this post useful.

Skip Dowds
skip@rajamarblehead.com

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CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness is the subtlest aspect of each of us; it’s subtler than our subconscious mind.

Humans are three-dimensional: body, mind and consciousness. Ancient texts describe consciousness as the aspect of us that “can neither be wetted nor burned”. It’s the part of us that’s not subject to the laws of karma (i.e., it doesn’t age or change; it’s immutable). In the same way that matter and energy can’t be lost or destroyed, neither can consciousness.

Consciousness doesn’t operate or function in the same sense that our bodies and minds do; it’s so subtle, the only way to verify it’s existence is to recognize that without it, you wouldn’t be aware that you were reading this (your body & mind may still work, but without awareness you’d effectively be a biological, non-sentient robot).

Your consciousness is identical to mine, though obviously WHAT yours has witnessed – in essence, what you have witnessed – is entirely different than what I have. Collectively, our individual consciousness is referred to as Universal Consciousness.

The general nature of consciousness or awareness is: Calm – Still – Quiet – Observing – Witnessing – Non-judgmentally accepting – Unconditionally loving – and it’s at the center of each of us!

Your consciousness has witnessed EVERY thought you’ve EVER had, EVERY word you’ve EVER uttered, and EVERYTHING you’ve EVER done – without judging you.

Raja Yogis celebrate consciousness for what it is, but we also turn inward via meditation to “get me some o’ that”. We meditate to literally draw closer to, or better understand – and perhaps begin to experience – our own true nature, or at least allow it to have a greater affect on our body and mind!

The holy grail of this practice is to remove our physical and mental self as obstacles to our consciousness becoming Self-aware. In that sense, meditation is a form of self-sacrifice (self for Self). This practice grew out of a time in human history when we were literally sacrificing our animals and possessions in hopes of changing our fate; Raja Yoga piggybacked on the concept of sacrifice, though teaches us to find faith in ourselves!

BKS Iyengar [a universally revered, modern day yogi] said “Yoga isn’t a religion; it’s the study of religion.”

I’ve never met a Raja Yogi who wasn’t a spiritual person, though I’ve met several whose yoga practice has clearly turbocharged their religious practice!

As you practice this form of yoga, you begin to see yourself (and frankly, everything) as miraculous, and in the process develop a curiosity about your own intangible, immutable consciousness – which leads to even more fundamental questions about the source of THAT, which is why we go to church, synagogue, temple – places of prayer, study and devotion!

Studying various understandings of the source of the universe can only deepen and broaden our own spiritual and/or religious practice; however, developing faith in something BEYOND our readily verifiable individual consciousness is beyond the scope of Raja Yoga. This practice just expedites that process.

Meditation, the inward quest for answers to questions about THIS life, fosters faith and confidence in yourself (Self and self) and engenders in you – if you’re not already so blessed – reverence and devotion to something you can only imagine: the source of life itself.

Here’s the thing: your consciousness is not just the essence of who you are – it is who you are.

God bless, Skip

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Radio Head

If you don’t like what you hear in your head, change the channel!

Your conscious or thinking mind generates a perpetual stream of thoughts which your consciousness is simultaneously aware of; in essence, your consciousness “hears” your conscious thoughts. Mechanically, your gross or higher thinking mental function operates the same way your physical heart and lungs do: single, consecutive, perpetual beats, breaths – and conscious thoughts. Your conscious mind is your controller; it’s the aspect you use throughout the day to make decisions, but when you’re not engaging it, it “thinks” on its own, scanning your subconscious mind and projecting random memories, emotions, fears and desires onto your conscious mind’s eye!

Your subconscious or sensory mind receives information from your environment through your five inbound senses, and processes the information internally, virtually without you being aware of it, directing your body to perform rote or “reptilian” tasks: eliminating, reproducing, moving, grasping, and speaking. This subtle or lower sensory processing mental function also stores your memories and is the source of your identity. Subconscious thoughts aren’t the source of your distress; this part of your mind functions beautifully as long as your conscious mind is operating clearly and correctly.

So, if you don’t like the subconscious thoughts being dredged up by your conscious mind, change the channel! Your conscious mind is like a radio: it has selection and volume controls. Since your conscious mind can only make one decision or perform one cognitive task at a time (try simultaneously counting, and reciting the alphabet – not going to happen!) – you can decide what to listen to! It’s literally as simple as “A, B, C”: as long as you’re reciting the alphabet (or any clear and correct mantra) your thinking mind CAN’T dredge up fears, concerns, desires, etc.

The next time you don’t like what the voice in your head is saying, change the channel! Try reciting the alphabet silently to yourself (it’s same concept as counting to ten before you act). If at first that’s difficult, turn up the volume: if you scream the alphabet loudly enough in your conscious mind, I promise you’ll drown out ANY other thoughts!

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Takeaways from chapter one of Patanajali’s Yoga Sutras (see recent FB posts)

Raja Yoga is a life-long endeavor to control our thoughts – because our thoughts precede our actions, which directly impact our health and wellbeing.

The crux of Raja Yoga comes in understanding the difference between our mind and consciousness. Our mind is tangible; it has four functions: thinking, sensing, remembering, and identity; however, our consciousness is IN-tangible; it doesn’t “do” anything; it never changes (in that sense it’s eternal!); its simply the awareness OF our thoughts; without it, our body and mind would function, we just wouldn’t be aware of it!

In short, consciousness is the essence of who and what we are. The object of Raja Yoga is to progressively subdue and calm the four functions of our mind, successively passing through four gradually clearer states of mind, until eventually realizing our own nature with absolute clarity: the blissful stillness of consciousness itself.

Patanjali’s only instruction in the first chapter: never give up; always let go.