Why Practice Yoga?

Yoga is by all standards and definitions a universal science.
- Paramhansa Satyananda Saraswati

As yoga becomes more popular in our culture it also risks being misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many people seem to think that yoga is only a system of physical exercises. Others suspect that it is a religious system. Few realize the true scope of yoga. Yoga is an ancient science which teaches us how to harmonize body, mind and spirit. It is a means of promoting and maintaining optimal physical and psychological health and for developing the higher capacities inherent but dormant within us. I have had the good fortune of studying the system of yoga developed by Paramhansa Satyananda Saraswati, known as “Satyananda Yoga.” It is based in the broad tradition of yoga and incorporates elements of many different approaches to yoga, or “union.” These are known traditionally as hatha yoga, raja yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jñana yoga, laya yoga and kriya yoga. Each of these aspects of yoga work with a different dimension of the personality. We won’t go into detail here in describing each approach however; suffice to say that yoga offers a means of working with body, mind, daily activities, emotions, intellect and the deeper unconscious energies dormant within our beings.

Yoga tells us that we are much more than meets the eye and much more than we think. Our body-mind system is not the full extent of our identity. In fact it is a “vehicle” or instrument through which our higher dimensional consciousness interacts with this world of experience. We are eternal spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. Yoga has two purposes really. One is helping us to awaken to our true nature. The second is helping us to care for and manage this “vehicle” through the challenges of life. The path of awakening is a process of dehypnotizing; of undoing false conditioning. In this process we can understand ourselves and our lives more clearly, more truthfully and responsibly. We can live with greater sense of meaning, optimism and courage. Wherever you are in life, you can begin to practice a form of yoga which is appropriate for you. You can begin the process of recognizing and reconnecting with the source of your being.

Many people begin with the physical practices of hatha yoga. My classes typically involve postures, or asanas, breath practices, pranayama, and relaxation/meditation practices. We start with the outer being, the physical layer and work our way inward. When the effects of stress have been released from the body and the bio-energy, or prana, has been balanced through the breath, then we are more able to relax and turn inward to work with the mind in meditation. The asanas help to release built up nervous tension in the muscles, promote balance in the endocrine system and improve the circulation of blood and prana. They also serve to purify and rejuvenate the internal organs. Pranayama is a means to awaken, balance and harmonize the flow of “life-energy” through our systems. Called “prana” in Sanskrit, it is also known as qi or chi. The practices of hatha yoga were developed to work with this underlying energy. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a classic scripture of hatha yoga, states, “When prana is steady, the mind becomes steady.” Thus the practices of hatha yoga bring about psycho-somatic balance, integrity and well-being.

Meditation, or inner yoga, is best facilitated by hatha yoga, but this is not strictly necessary. Inner yoga begins with deep relaxation and inner awareness. Inner awareness, or pratyahara, means disconnecting from the outer world of the senses to explore the inner world of consciousness. This can greatly facilitate the resolution of psychological complexes related to depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, anger, obsessions, etc. As a licensed therapist I often advocate yoga practice to my clients. On the other hand, yoga is not necessarily a complete substitute for psychotherapy and those suffering from these conditions will best benefit from a combination of both. One doesn’t have to have psychological “problems,” though to benefit from meditation. Meditation has numerous benefits including improved concentration, memory, learning retention, happiness and optimism, sense of meaning and purpose. It also has dramatic effects on physical health and well-being. It slows the aging process and helps rejuvenate our brains. It also helps us to develop and mature psychologically.

Relaxation is just the beginning of inner yoga. There are practices to develop the capacity for visualization, awakening the chakras or centers of psychic energy within the body, developing psychic or intuitive potentials, etc. The greatest benefit though is the experience of true inner peace, expanded awareness and connection with the universe at large. The benefits of yoga practice don’t necessarily come right away, though. People generally feel a sense of relaxed well-being from attending a single yoga class. However, the effects are cumulative over time, as well as lost quickly without continued practice. The Yoga Sutras state the importance of non-attachment to outcome (vairagya) and consistent practice (abhyasa). With these two disciplines added to our yoga practice it becomes a process of joyful unfolding of our inner nature. There will always be struggles and obstacles, of course, but if we are open and consistent in our practice we will overcome!

Here is a selection of books by Paramhansa Satyananda:
 
Kundalini Tantra/2009 Re-print
Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha/2008 Fourth Revised EditionA Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and KriyaYoga Nidra/2009 Re-printFour Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of PatanjaliSurya Namaskara: A Technique of Solar Vitalization
Yoga Nidra and Meditation
Sure Ways to Self-Realization
Meditations from the Tantras
Yoga and Cardiovascular Management
Yoga Education For Children

Inner Yoga: Pathway to Healing, Transformation and Liberation

Yoga is complete equanimity of mind.
- Sri Krishna Search Amazon.com for bhagavad gita

Life can be extremely stressful at times. Although we struggle to get ahead, to provide security and maintain healthy relationships disruptions inevitably occur. Even when things are going well we are prone to worry about them. Stress-related illnesses abound and it is uncertain to what degree stress is implicated in all illnesses, as well as recovery. Within the area of mental health we see that depressive and anxiety disorders affect an increasing percentage of the population. Stress contributes to substance abuse, marital problems, problems at work and a general sense of dissatisfaction with life. There are definitely external sources of stress in our lives. Illness and death, job loss, difficult people, significant changes challenge us throughout life. A great deal of stress, however, is self-generated. It has to with our thoughts and behaviors. It has to do with our ways of perceiving ourselves and the world. As the ancient Greek philosopher, Epictetus put it, "Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them."

Although the effects of stress on health have been known for some time now, we seem to have trouble changing our lives. Fast food, crammed schedules, chronic worrying, poor sleep and lack of exercise are common for many of us. Perhaps the main underlying source for all these is a sense of powerlessness. We get locked into habitual patterns and find it so hard to break out that we give in and in so doing sacrifice our quality of life along with years of our lifespan. We get locked into mental attitudes as well. Habitual negative judgments, defensiveness, the need to control others, etc. contribute to chronic unhappiness. The biggest problem is our inability to live in the present moment: too often we are busy ruminating about the past or anticipating the future. “The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.” writes Echardt Tolle in The Power of Now. Psychotherapy can be one way of becoming aware of the subconscious thoughts that run our lives. So is meditation, or inner yoga.

Yoga offers us a systematic means of managing stress in our lives. The physical practices of asana (postures) and pranayama (breath practices) help to reduce chronic muscle tension, balance endocrine functioning, dissipate nervous energy and contribute to an overall sense of well-being. The physical practices of Hatha Yoga have become increasingly popular in our culture. Yoga studios have become commercially viable and people come to practice slow-motion “yuppie calisthenics.” Many are not aware of the deeper significance of these practices. They may be primarily concerned with health or beauty, or with stress reduction and the relaxation which comes from practicing the asanas, or postures. The physical practices, however, are really just a prelude to the inner practices of yoga which work with the mind. Meditation is the core of true yoga practice which aims at a transformation of mind and consciousness.

Relaxation is an important part of yoga practice but there is much more to meditation than merely achieving the “relaxation response.” If we limit ourselves to the level of practice where we achieve temporary states of stress relief and relaxation we fail to make the lasting progress and lasting changes possible through a deeper commitment and involvement. Inner yoga is about exploring the deeper dimensions of our own beings, experiencing our connection with the spiritual source of our beings and awakening to our true nature. It is about opening to inner resources of joy, unconditional love, wisdom and freedom. In order to do this however we need to tackle the wayward habits of our minds and develop the capacity of a deeper “witnessing awareness” which allows us to observe our subconscious programming. It is the subconscious system of thoughts, beliefs and reactions within us that keeps us stuck, going around in vicious circles, unable to make real changes within ourselves and within our lives. It is also what keeps us stuck in a false ego-identity which is cut off from both God and each other. To borrow from Tolle once again, "At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is." (ibid.)

Part of our problem, a big part, is our cultural conditioning. We are generally taught to see ourselves as “skin-encapsulated egos,” as confined within the limits of our physical bodies. This is a normal part of development but it is not the end. The goal of life according to the Yoga tradition is to awaken beyond the physical and temporal limits of our bodies. The materialist reductionist paradigm which originated in the nineteenth century has limited us to being bio-mechanical beings. In this view who we are is determined by our bio-chemistry. With the discovery of DNA it seemed that we might be nothing more than “genetic robots.” Genetic research, of course, continues to be of great value. It is just that, if we limit ourselves to the reductionist and determinist model established around it we limit and disempower ourselves. We are more than our chemical components. We are beings of consciousness. According to Yoga philosophy, the body is a temporary vehicle for the soul, the light of consciousness within.

There is some scientific evidence to support this view. One might be the “observer-effect” found in quantum mechanics. QM finds that consciousness is somehow involved in the creation of the material universe on a submolecular level. Another is the developing field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) or psychoendoneuroimmunology (PENI). PENI explores the ways in which thoughts, emotions and behavior affect our bodies’ ability to fight off and heal from illness. “Understanding how the mind, the endocrine system, the nervous system and immune system all interact (better known as ‘psychoendoneuroimmunology’(PENI) is crucial in helping people conquer the stress in their lives and stay healthy,” writes Oakley Ray, Ph.D., in a 2004 review of research published in American Psychologist. Research indicates that personality lifestyle, environment and beliefs can influence the onset and course of disease.

If we accept that our attitudes and beliefs affect our bodies than we have to admit that we are not simply victims of biochemistry, or “bad genes.” More recent discoveries have lead to the new field of epigenetics. Epigenetics has challenged purely Darwinian ideas of how DNA functions. Epigenetic research has revealed that environmental factors affect patterns of gene expression. The DNA code doesn’t change but the way that it expresses in terms of health may. Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. is a cell biologist who has done research into the way our minds, our beliefs, can affect us on cellular level causing epigenetic changes. He writes, “It is not gene-directed hormones and neurotransmitters that control our bodies and our minds; our beliefs control our bodies, our minds and thus our lives.” Again positive beliefs and attitudes contribute to health and healing, while negative beliefs contribute to illness and even death.

One of the problems we face though is that we are often unaware of our thoughts and beliefs. They function subconsciously. Often we don’t think our thoughts as much as our thoughts think us. Again, meditation can help to bring our subconscious beliefs to the surface. It can also help us to establish more positive and empowering beliefs. Recent studies have shown that meditation not only improves concentration and memory, but has anti-aging effects as well. Scientists found an increase in the hormone telomerase, referred to as the anti-aging hormone. They speculate that cellular health and longevity comes about through meditation due to an increased sense of meaning and purpose in life as reported by meditators in the study. This in turn leads to an improved sense of control in life and a decrease in negative emotions leading to a “cascade of emotional and psychological changes” which are reflected in increased levels of telomerase. Yoga psychology has long told us that meaning, purpose, joy, love, etc. are to be found not in the external world of the senses but within ourselves, within our consciousness.

Join us for meditation groups in Riverside and yoga classes in Yucaipa, CA!  You can contact me at turiyasaraswati@gmail.com for information.

References:

“How the Mind Hurts and Heals the Body,” Oakley Ray, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; American Psychologist, Vol. 59, No. 1.

“Why DNA Isn’t Your Destiny,”  John Cloud, Time Magazine, Jan. 6, 2010

Lipton, Bruce, Ph.D., “The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles,” 2005, Hay House, Inc.

“New Meditation Research: Putting the Om in Chromosome.” Wray Herbert, November 18, 2010 on Huffington Post.

Bhakti Yoga: The Path of Love

Love is not an expression of the intellect; it is not an expression of emotion; it is not an expression of proper relationship. It is an expression of man's deep rooted divinity.

- Paramhansa Satyananda Saraswati
There are different paths within the Yoga tradition, but they are all pathways to God. Karma Yoga is the path of selfless service, Raja Yoga is the path of meditation, Jnana (Gyan) Yoga is the path of self-inquiry and Kriya Yoga is the path of awakening the inner energy of self-evolution. Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion. It is the path of transcendent emotion. Although there are different cultural forms of religious devotion, Bhakti itself cannot be learned or practiced. It must awaken spontaneously in the heart. All of the ritualistic forms of devotion that we know are empty gestures without the true awakening of devotion within.

Bhakti, however, is the fuel, the force behind our spiritual evolution. Without love, philosophy is just endless pages of ink, semantic trickery. Without faith it is nearly impossible to stick to the practice of meditation. When we perform our work out of an attitude (bhava) of devotion it is transformed from drudgery to inspired service. Once Bhakti is awakened within us the mystical path of union becomes an open freeway. God is love and God resides within our hearts so there is really nothing but love. Love and faith are deeper than mind and intellect.

Thought is always dualistic. Its nature is to divide, fragment, analyze, distinguish and dissect. Relying exclusively on thought, we inevitably become lonely and isolated. Physicist David Bohm realized this as he investigated deeper into both relativity and quantum physics. He posited that our universe of apparent diversity and separation is actually based in a holographic unity. Behind the world of appearances is a deeper unified order. Bhakti Yoga tells us that it is love not wisdom which actually connects us with this deeper hidden unified field.

There are three aspects of Bhakti Yoga: Prem (love), Bhava (mood or attitude) and Bhakti (total surrender.) Just as we might begin a Hatha Yoga class and struggle painfully at first until we learn to flow ecstatically with the energy of the asanas, so Bhakti Yoga begins, perhaps, with an effort to focus feeling on the Divine. It is a process of transference. We might begin with the feelings of love and attachment we have towards family, friends, pets, money and possessions, etc. Knowing that these are all transitory objects we endeavor to turn our attachment towards that which is eternal. Thus Bhakti can be channeled by wisdom. However, the feeling, the emotion must be powerful and genuine to succeed. Too many of us have closed up our hearts because we have lost faith.

On the path of love and devotion we understand that the ego is constructed out of this lack of faith. We hold onto our narrow, neurotic and painful self-concept as a defense against our fear of self-annihilation. We are afraid to love because we can’t risk losing our self-control. This is a problem in all of our relationships. The need to be in control is a huge obstacle. So is the need to be approved of by and to feel superior to others. Perhaps we have been hurt, manipulated, rejected or abandoned by the love-objects we have sought in the world. Perhaps we have driven them away out of arrogance and self-centeredness. This is all a learning process on the path of love.

The mystics tell us that God is the only true object of love, and God is the true source of love. Within mystical union lover and beloved become One. The Divine Being lives within each of us, not as object but as subject. Once we can go beyond form or appearances, we can intuit the formless essence within. It is the same Self shining within the diversity of sacred forms. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states:

Those who realize the Self enter into the peace that
brings complete self-control and perfect patience.
They see themselves in everyone and everyone in
themselves. Evil cannot overcome them because they
overcome all evil. Sin cannot consume them because
they consume all sin. Free from evil, free from sin and
doubt, they live in the Kingdom of Brahman (God.)
This kingdom is yours!
The Upanishads (Classic of Indian Spirituality)

Or as a famous mystical teacher told us, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is the Kingdom of Bhakti.

Koshas – The Five Levels of Our Being

The physical sheath (kosha) is made of food.
Within it is the vital sheath made up of life-energy (prana.)

Within the vital sheath is the mental sheath
Made up of thought patterns.

Within the mental sheath is the wisdom sheath
Made up of detachment.

Within the wisdom sheath is the bliss sheath
Made up of pure joyous awareness.

- Taittiriya Upanishad
The Upanishads (Classic of Indian Spirituality)

At the center of our beings is pure awareness, according to Yogic teachings. It is known as Atman, or The Self. “The Self,” or any other term we use to identify “it,” however is misleading. This pure awareness can never be objectified it is always and only the subject, the awareness which illuminates any and all objects. It cannot be grasped, seen, measured or conceptualized. It is pure presence. To “realize” this presence as your true being is enlightenment.

The reason that we are not enlightened, and that we therefore suffer, is that our central being has become imbedded in layers of objectivity. Remember from the last post how Patanjali explained that ego-identification is the mistaken identification of the “knower” with the instrument of knowledge? The koshas as identified in the Upanishads are the successive layers of objectification of the Atman within. “Kosha” can be translated as a layer, sheath, level or dimension of the body-mind-spirit complex which forms our being in the world. If we start from the physical body, the most completely objectified layer, each successive layer represents a more subtle, more inward level of subject/object identification.

                                                              Figure 1. The Koshas

The physical body is known as the annamaya kosha, which means the “level of food.” It is the material and outermost layer of being. When we identify with our bodies, we ourselves seem to be objects in a world of objects. Because food is needed to maintain this body, and also because the body becomes food, this is how it is identified in the Upanishads. It is also known at times as the mrityormaya kosha, the “layer of death.” Because we are identified as material objects in space and time, we are subject to birth and death. The Atman is bound by neither space nor time.

Within the physical body then is the layer of vital-emotional energy, the pranamaya kosha. Without prana, or life-energy, according to Yoga, the physical body would just be inert matter. Prana, known as chi in Chinese medicine, circulates throughout the physical body and is responsible for the functioning of our various organs. It is also the intermediary between mind and matter. If we think of raising an arm and then raise it this is due to prana following the mental directions. From the Yoga perspective many of the illnesses we experience are caused by an imbalance or the blocked flow of prana within our system.

Figure 2. Illustration of the pranamaya kosha

The next level/layer of our beings is the mental or manomaya kosha. This is the level of mind, a further interiorization of self-identification. This is the level of thought, both conscious and subconscious. This is the level of ego-identification. The mind receives information through the senses, forms an interior image of the world and then identifies with it. As Joseph Chilton Pearce writes in Evolution's End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence, “The triune brain displays our universe, created within, projected without, and we enter into that creation, identify with it, lose ourselves to it, and become subject to it.” Although mind is not equivalent with the brain, we do know that brain structures reflect levels of mental functioning as they have evolved over time. We have a sensorimotor level of brain/mind, an emotional level and a higher level which is intellectual and intuitive, symbolizing and reasoning, etc. These also represent the cognitive developmental stages that we go through as we mature. Yoga tells us that there are higher levels of development than we generally realize. They don’t usually develop spontaneously though, but require sadhana, or spiritual work to activate.

                                                                Figure 3. Triune brain

If we stop to reflect on these first three koshas, we notice that, while each is interior to the prior, each successive level also operates on the level below. Prana enlivens, energizes and moves the physical body while mind directs prana to some extent. As we move to the next level, that of the vijnanamaya kosha, or wisdom layer, we are talking about a level that many people have not yet developed. It is a higher or deeper level of self-reflection. It is associated with metacognition, which is the ability to inwardly step back from and reflect on our cognitive processes. However, it is deeper than just “thinking about thinking.” It is also associated with the quality of mindfulness, which is an open and non-attached awareness of mental processes. As Daniel J, Siegel, MD, writes, “Mindful awareness . . . actually involves more than just simply being aware: It involves being aware of aspects of the mind itself. Instead of being on automatic and mindless, mindfulness helps us to awaken, and by reflecting on the mind we are enabled to make choices and thus change becomes possible.” The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being  When we are fixated or imbedded in the mental level of being we are identified with our egos as part of what John Bowlby referred to as our IWM, or inner working model of the world. I believe that the development of this level of functioning is the true work of psychotherapy. It is greatly facilitated by the practice of meditation.

Beyond or deeper than the wisdom layer is the level of bliss: the anandamaya kosha. This level is actually developed by a few rare and exceptionally individuals. It is known and developed through deep meditative insight wherein awareness begins to reflect upon itself as its own object. It is an extremely subtle level of objectification. It is closer to enlightenment than the other koshas but still not quite “there” yet. As Rishi Vivekananda writes,

“What can we say about this level of human experience? There are no words for it. How can we at our present level of functioning imagine the oneness with the absolute, the total security, the transcendental bliss, the vast power for good, the cosmic love, the omniscience, and the total communication with the universal spirit that a person in this state is experiencing?”
Practical Yoga Psychology

Perhaps the anandamaya kosha is the closest we can come to realizing the Atman while remaining in the human form. However, the Atman is central to our beings. It is merged in the Cosmic Consciousness of Brahman. As the Taittiriya Upanishad further tells us,

The Self is the source of abiding joy.
Our hearts are filled with joy in seeing him
Enshrined in the depths of consciousness.
If he were not there, who would breathe, who live?
He it is who fills every heart with joy.

It is important to remember and to realize that this level of being cannot be accessed through the intellect, although we are trying to talk about it here. It is known when the mind becomes very quiet and when we are not identified with our thoughts at all. The Upanishad while describing the bliss of realization also warns against our possible tendencies to intellectualize the whole thing:

When one realizes the Self, in whom
All life is one, changeless, nameless, formless,
Then one fears no more. Until we realize
The unity of life, we live in fear.
For the mere scholar who knows not the Self,
His separateness becomes fear itself.

The koshas represent progressive levels of awakening until we transcend body and mind. We know from developmental psychology that there is a progressive development of cognitive functioning from concrete to formal operations. Yoga psychology tells us that we can continue this progression until we move past the mind altogether. Again this is enlightenment. Don’t get trapped in your mind!

The Spiritual Path of Yoga

Yoga means bringing the patterns of the mind
Into complete stillness
Wherein one’s true nature is revealed.

- Rishi Patanjali

We are essentially spiritual beings according to the teachings of the Yoga tradition. That is, we are beings of Pure Consciousness. We are beings of transcendent wisdom, love and joy who have entered into this experience of ourselves as embodied beings in this world. Somewhere along the way, though, we have lost ourselves in the experience. We have forgotten our true nature and believe ourselves to be limited body-minds, or as Alan Watts said it, “skin-encapsulated egos.” The path of Yoga is about disidentifying with our false self-construct and realizing our true self-nature.

According to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, this case of mistaken identity has five features known as kleshas, or “afflictions.” They are known as afflictions because they are the basis of all suffering in life. They are the conditions which imprison us. Perhaps this will become clearer as we go along.

The first affliction is called avidya. This is often translated as “ignorance,” but it is not meant in our usual sense of intellectual lack but in a more basic sense of not knowing our true self-nature. In fact, our attachment to intellect contributes to avidya. We might think of avidya as how we get “lost” in a film and become emotionally involved even though it’s just a movie. Through avidya the subjective essence of our beings becomes confused with thoughts, perceptions, feelings and actions. This is difficult to understand at first. As Patanjali explains, “Ignorance means regarding the non-self as the Self.” The inner awareness is purely subjective. It has no form, no limits, pervades space and time and transcends them. It is aware of the changing display of forms, thoughts and feelings.

The second affliction is called asmita. This is generally translated as “ego.” Actually we are better off to refer to it as a false sense of ego, or “I-am-ness.” As the Yoga Sutras state, “Asmita is the misidentification of the knower with the instrument of knowing.” The instrument of knowing is the mind-body. We “know” or experience our unique reality through the mind and the senses, through this amazing psychobiological complex which somehow both receives and creates our universe of experience. Through asmita we experience ourselves as particular limited beings in a five-sensory world. A more childlike individual might identify exclusively with the body and senses. As Freud wrote, “The ego is first and foremost a body ego.” As we develop psychologically we might end up identifying ourselves mostly with our intellects, with higher cognitive functions. Asmita in this sense is more of a narrative based on past personal history, social status and relations, etc. Again, the true Self is beyond thought.

The Kenopanishad conveys a way to approach this. Like most Upanishads, it takes the form of a dialogue between teacher and disciple. The teacher explains, “Seek not what is known through the senses but that which knows. Seek not the thoughts but that through which thought is revealed.” (There is a nice reading from this Upanishad by Ram Das on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTfEXfA7OAs&feature=grec_index)  Once the false sense of ego is released, the Self is seen to be both knower and that which is known. Everything exists within the meta-space of Consciousness. Buddhist teachings refer to this as shoonyata, or emptiness. Our sense of ego is really just the “I-thought.” It is not who we truly are.

The next afflictions are known as raga, or desire, and dwesha, aversion. These are the basic drives which propel us through life creating karma. Karma is action and reaction. While ego-identification creates a basic split between self and the ground of Being, desire and aversion further the process of fragmentation. Karma accumulates within us as memory; memory creates further desire and aversion. Our ego selves become conditioned by what we crave and what we hate. This, of course, is a very natural process. The tiniest amoeba has the tendency of approach or avoidance. It is the basis of life.

Combined with ego, intellect and memory, however, raga and dwesha become very complex. Our desires can become confused and self-destructive. Aversion can keep us from facing responsibilities. Desire keeps us attached to what is known and comfortable. Aversion can keep us from learning something new, from growing and developing. Desire means wanting what we don’t have or holding on to something we are bound to lose. Aversion means having what we don’t want or trying to avoid the inevitable. Pleasure and pain are the necessary consequences of our embodiment, but we don’t have to let them dominate our consciousness.

The fifth affliction is known as abhinivesha, “clinging to life.” It is the fear of death. It is also our fear of change, of transformation and liberation. Because we have lost our sense of ourselves as a unified field of pure consciousness and have identified instead with our temporal, transient ego-selves, we cling desperately to transient phenomena and we fear inevitable change. There is no way for the body to live forever, however we never really die.

This may all sound pretty heavy. Somehow we like to deny the reality that life inevitably involves suffering and death. People often turn to religion as a way of comforting themselves. Religious belief, however, is not the point. Belief is just a part of the intellect. It is a conceptual system to which we might become emotionally attached. Intellect is a useful tool for analyzing the world of experience. It is also a useful tool to an extent on the spiritual path. It is also a sophisticated trap. We can go around forever in our minds trying to figure things out; or we can become attached to what we believe is the right answer. “Seek the company of those looking for the truth,” someone has said, “Run from those who claim to have found it.”

Yoga is a much different approach. It doesn’t just involve thinking; instead it investigates who it is that thinks. Who is the thinker of thoughts? It is a way of detaching from our concepts, our working models of the world. Yoga means “meditation,” but meditation in this sense means stepping outside of your self-system. It means entering into the silent, still space beyond thoughts, into an actual recognition of one’s true Self. Because of multiple layers of conditioning however, this is not so easy for most of us.

The Yoga Sutras recommend the path of Kriya Yoga which has three aspects according to Patanjali: Tapas, Swadhyaya and Ishwarapranidana. These are generally translated as austerity, scriptural study and surrender to God. This is the beginning stage of Kriya Yoga, but there is a deeper more esoteric meaning. We can begin to overcome the kleshas by developing mindfulness. This means austerity in the sense of accepting “what is.” What is present for us in the moment may be pleasurable or painful. If we can accept it with equanimity we are making real progress. If we can accept ourselves and our reactions with an inner equanimity then perhaps we are making more progress. Scriptural study and contemplation is also important. It is a way of turning the mind towards our inner being. It is not about reading a lot of “spiritual” books and memorizing them so that we can expound impressively. It is about reading deeply and taking the words to heart, contemplating their meaning and seeking to realize it. Scriptures in this sense, means the written works of highly realized beings. The Yoga Sutras are a good example. So are the Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, Upanishads, The Bible, Tao Te Ching, Qu’ran, etc. The point is to connect deeply with the material not to read through quickly to the end.

Surrender to God might be tricky for some of us. How do we define God? In the Yoga context, God is actually our innermost being. He is the universal Consciousness operating in and through us. Surrender means letting go of the ego and allowing our deeper Self to shine forth. The ego is defensive and aggressive. It seeks to be happy through desire and aversion and is deeply afraid of its own dissolution. It wants to be important and competes with others. It wants to judge and to be in control. Surrender means easing up on that stuff and turning inward to find the lasting source of happiness and fulfillment right there inside. Deepak Chopra writes, “. . . happiness for a reason is just another form of misery because the reason can be taken away from us at any time. To be happy for no reason is the happiness we want to experience.” This is the grace that comes to those who can truly surrender.

A Mindful Yoga Approach to Weight Loss

The Spiritual path – is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most just don’t know it.


- Marianne Williamson

I sometimes get a little overzealous in reminding people that yoga is a spiritual discipline. When I am asked about subjects such as weight loss, I often tell people that they need to seek elsewhere. If the extent of your interest in yoga is physical, there are other forms of exercise, dietary disciplines or psychological interventions. Yoga is about realizing our true nature as beings of consciousness. It is about the union of the individual soul, jivatman, with the universal soul, Paramatman. However, I’ve been rethinking my position.

You don’t have to have a lofty spiritual goal to practice yoga. You certainly don’t have to subscribe to a belief system. However, you need to be aware that the yoga path may awaken a deeper awareness within you. It will challenge your habitual ways of thinking about yourself. Some yoga teachers have tried to take the spiritual elements out of their yoga classes. Some have dispensed with Om chanting for instance. The popular emphasis seems to be on the physical postures, the asanas of hatha yoga. Traditionally, however, these are preparatory practices for the deeper levels if inner yoga. Asanas are meant to take us beyond the body. Meditation takes us beyond the mind.

A Mindful Yoga approach to weight loss incorporates all aspects of our beings: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Just as psychological symptoms, life threatening disease, or other life crises can open us to a deeper perspective on our lives, a weight problem might be an invitation to look more deeply into whom we are and the meaning of our lives.

Then again maybe not . . . It’s up to you whether you are willing to inquire more deeply into yourself. First of all yoga will teach you that you are not your body. The body is the material vehicle through which the conscious soul experiences this life. It is a temporary flawed expression of your innate timeless perfection. As such it is also perfect. Mindfulness begins with a loving acceptance of what is. If you hate your body and you identify with your body then this is where you start: by going deeper and finding the compassionate awareness of your soul.

The next thing that yoga will teach you is that you are not your emotions. You are not the victim of your emotions either. Through the practice of mindful awareness you become aware of emotions as energy which moves through you. You don’t have to react to negative emotions like anger and resentment, guilt and shame. You can simply let them be present in your awareness. This is where we move deeper into the inner witnessing awareness. I wish I could tell you that this is easy. I can tell you that it gets better with practice.

Yoga will also teach you that you are not your thoughts. Just as we are aware of bodily sensations and the world of the five senses, of emotional energy which we might express or suppress, we are also aware of thoughts as they pass through our minds. Although it might be easy to understand that we are not bodies – we tend to say “I have a body.” It is harder to not identify with our emotions – we tend to say “I am angry.” It is harder still not to identify with our habitual thought patterns.

When you say something like, “I am too fat.” Who are you referring to? The “real you” is not too fat, not too skinny but just right. The real you is “loving awareness,” to quote Ram Das. Be as you truly are. Recognize yourself as the pure awareness beyond this seeming space-time matrix. Then if you still feel the need to work on your weight:

1. Become more physically active. Do dynamic hatha yoga practices as prescribed in Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha. Take walks, run if you are able. Dance! Do “laughter yoga!”

2. Become more aware of your eating habits. Pay attention to your energy levels. What foods make you feel truly nourished, truly healthy and attuned to your inner being? Fast one meal per week and pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Forget fast food. Limit sweets.

3. Focus yourself mentally on spiritual goals, on meaning and purpose in your life, on God or Enlightenment. Practice meditation on a daily basis.  Specifically the practice of Yoga Nidra with a carefully formulated sankalpa will be helpful.  (Refer to my earlier post Yoga Nidra and the Importance of Relaxation

for more information.)

The Significance of Dreams and Dream Consciousness

The first step in dream practice is quite simple:
One must recognize the great potential the dream holds for
the spiritual journey.
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Every night we sleep and dream. Many people report not remembering dreams but sleep research tells us that we all dream whether we remember or not. There are different theories regarding the reason and purpose for dream activity. However, it is generally agreed that we process information through dreams. We take in an immense amount of information through our senses daily, a great deal of which we are unaware of on a conscious level. Dreams seem to be a way for our brain/minds to organize, prioritize and “file” this information. We also process emotions in our dreams. Recurrent dreams or nightmares seem to present us with emotional material that remains unresolved within our psyches. Emotionally charged dreams are easier to remember when we wake up.

Freud famously referred to dreams as “the royal road to the unconscious.” He recognized that dreams represent the working of an autonomous process within the psyche which is generally unknown to the conscious ego. Within Freudian theory this unconscious process revolves around our more primitive drives of sex and aggression, suppressed by our super-egos which are the psychic products of civilized culture. In “Civilization and It’s Discontents,” he writes, “It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.” So, psychoanalysis was developed as a way of helping neurotic individuals come to terms with their primitive drives within the context of civilized society.

Some dreams, however, seem to convey a significance which is not simply primitive and instinctual. As Jung recognized, they also represent an inner process of healing and spiritual development. For Jung dream symbols represented a deeper process of moving towards wholeness, self-realization or individuation. It is not just primitive instincts that we need to integrate consciously to heal but also spiritual potentials. Thus, dreams help us to find meaning and purpose in life. Other psychologists have gone on to develop their unique way of working with dreams as well.

The yogic understanding of dreams is similar in some respects to the psychoanalytic. The Mundakya Upanishad, for example, tells us that dreams are based on “memory and desire.” Memory and desire make up the karmic traces within our minds. According to yogic theory, all of our actions and experiences are based on the activation of these karmic “seeds.” In waking life we experience this fruition of karma as our life experience. In dreams we become aware of karma in a potential form. If we pay attention to dreams we can be more aware of the inner karmic process that informs our lives. We can perhaps mitigate the negative tendencies as well, but this takes a great deal of awareness and discernment. If we pay no attention to our dreams, than we miss out completely.

The yoga means of working with dreams, however, is distinct from psychoanalysis. While the yoga aspirant might analyze the contents of the dream, she is more interested in the exploration of the dream consciousness itself. The events of dream experience can be predictive, they can convey information not available to our normal waking consciousness or they can be utilized as a means of waking up to the deeper reality which is beyond both waking and dreaming. From the yogic perspective both dreams and waking life are the projections of our psychological, karmic tendencies. These are not just based on the biographical material of a single lifetime but contain seed memories from multiple past lives as well.

The Tibetan yoga tradition contains a dream yoga practice which is deeply profound and also difficult to practice. Meditation practice is essential for preparing the mind to enter into the dream state both with lucidity and stability. While Westerners who have discovered the practice of lucid dreaming might use it to experience the power of flight, or maybe to have fantasy sexual encounters, the spiritual way of working with dreams is to develop an awareness of the mind’s projections. Ultimately, this will help us when we die and enter the bardo or intermediate state between death and rebirth.



Recommended Reading:

The Upanishads (Classic of Indian Spirituality)

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

The Freud Reader

Man and His Symbols

Sleep, Dreams and Self-realization

The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.
- Ramana Maharshi


Every twenty-four hours we cycle through three basic states of consciousness. We experience the waking state primarily during the day and at night we experience the dream state and the state of deep dreamless sleep. It is generally assumed that we spend a third of our lives sleeping. Some people resent this thinking of all the wasted time when they could be doing something productive. Others of us wouldn’t mind a little extra time to sleep and dream. In any case, sleep and dreams are necessary for our physical and psychological health.

Sleep research differentiates these three states as waking, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and NREM sleep. REM sleep is associated with intensive dream activity. Although there are sometimes dreams in NREM sleep, it is generally a deeper state of rest in which there is sparse mental activity. As Jayne Gackenbach, Ph.D. writes in The Emerging Mind, “In brief, the function of REM sleep is information processing, and the function of NREM sleep is body maintenance.” Depth psychologists know that dreams reveal unconscious drives and motivations. While the ego dominates waking consciousness, it gives way to a deeper connection with the unconscious mind in dreams and sleep. In sleep states we are connected, not just with the personal unconscious but possibly with the transpersonal or collective unconscious as well.

There are of course other states of consciousness generally described as altered states. These include peak experiences, religious experiences, drug states and meditative states among others. Psychiatrist John E. Nelson, M.D., in Healing the Split, suggests that we can understand psychosis as an altered state of consciousness as well. There is perhaps a thin line between madness and mystical exaltation. A principal difference might be that while psychosis comes unbidden, perhaps as the result of extreme stress or of a genetic predisposition, mystical experiences generally come through the practice of disciplines designed to cultivate them, such as yoga. Of course, there also seems to be some overlap between mystical experience, psychosis and psychedelic or “entheogenic” drug experiences.

Yoga and Vedanta pose the question though, “Who is it that ultimately experiences the varied states of consciousness?” In other words we seek to find the basic substratum from which various states arise. In the Yoga Sutras this basic substratum is referred to as drashta, the “seer” or inner witness. The inner witness is the basic condition by which all states are states of “consciousness.” There is ultimately an aware being present and consistent throughout all changing states. In the Upanishads this inner being is referred to as atman, which is often translated as the “Self.” The Self or atman is our deeper authentic being rather than our ego-personalities which are primarily a feature of our waking state of consciousness.

Because it is other than the ego, this substratum of awareness is referred to as “not-self” in Buddhist terms. Through the doctrine of anatta, or not-self, Buddha took pains to remind us that we cannot associate this deeper awareness with our individual ego identities. It is an expansive, all inclusive awareness which cannot be identified as any limited construct, idea or concept. It is important to remember as we engage in the practice of yoga that while the ego itself is associated with the idea of “I, me and mine,” our deeper being is unconcerned with these limited attributes.

Yoga suggests that one way to experience our inner being is to enter consciously into dreams and deep sleep. The Mandukya Upanishad gives us a succinct overview of this approach. The Mandukya is one of twelve “major” Upanishads which are some of the earliest written texts of the Yoga tradition. They represent the teachings of the earliest masters of this mystical yoga; spiritual pioneers who explored consciousness to the point of Self-realization (or “not-self” realization.) One of my favorite English translations and commentaries is The Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran.

The central message of the Upanishads is that the atman, our inner being or awareness, is essentially inseparable from Brahman, the Universal Being or Consciousness. The Mandukya Upanishad tells us that it “lies beyond past, present and future.” Our innermost being is beyond space and time. It is eternal, immortal, omniscient and omnipresent. Our limited body-minds are the product of limited expression of this greater being. Long before Einstein theorized that space and time are actually aspects of a four-dimensional continuum, the sages of the Upanishads understood that space and time are actually limiting constructs or categories originating in a timeless, hyperspatial being of Consciousness. A potential new paradigm is currently arising from the discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics which supports this ancient view. As physicist Peter Russell writes in From Science to God, “While the old meta-paradigm saw conscious as rising from space and time, the new meta-paradigm sees space and time rising from Consciousness.”

According to the Upanishad, sleep and dreams are essential to understanding how this process occurs. It occurs through the involvement or association of consciousness with the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. In the waking state consciousness is turned outward, or perhaps more accurately “projected outward.” In the waking state we are aware of the world of the five senses and either unaware or only vaguely aware of our inner being. In the dreaming state we are aware of mental patterns composed of memory and desire. In deep sleep dreams and desires fade into a state of deep peace and inner unity. In deep sleep there is no desire, no hatred and no suffering. The only problem is that we are not aware! The Mandukya Upanishad tells us that if we could only become aware within the state of deep dreamless sleep it would, “open the door to abiding joy.”

Within and beyond these three states is the inner witness. It is experienced in and of itself as non-dual consciousness in a fourth state of consciousness, called turiya, which is known only to mystic-yogis. Turiya is actually comprised of a continuity of awareness through the three states and represents an awakening to the deeper Self present within and beyond them. As the Upanishad states per Easwaran’s translation:

                                  The fourth is the superconscious state called
                                  Turiya, neither inward nor outward,
                                  Beyond the senses and the intellect,
                                  In which there is none other than the Lord.
                                  He is the supreme goal of life.
                                  He is infinite peace and love. Realize him!

While we are normally preoccupied with the world of the waking state and therapists are often intrigued by dreams, Yoga tells us that it is actually in the deepest state of dreamless sleep that we discover the reality of our beings – if only we would awaken.

Developing the Inner Witness

Whatever thoughts that come to your mind, let them do so.
With closed eyes remain a witness of the various thoughts coming
into your mind and do not try to consciously control the thought process.
Do not be disturbed . . .

- Swami Satyananda Saraswati
http://www.yogavision.net/

In its deepest sense, yoga is a science of consciousness. Its aim is to help us develop our consciousness, raising it from the mundane to the sublime. Meditation is central to this process and is generally considered to be essential to spiritual evolution. Meditation, however, can take many forms. The practice of hatha yoga postures, for example, is a way of meditating if practiced with a present-centered, mindful awareness. Sacred dance, music, art, work, life in general . . . can all be forms of meditation. The key is the quality and intensity of awareness which we bring to each moment. Sitting meditation, of course, is very helpful for developing awareness.

When I first began studying yoga with Swami Niranjan, he emphasized this “inner” aspect of yoga practice. Whether meditating, practicing asanas and pranayama, cleaning, or even eating meals it was important to be present, to be aware and to watch the flow of thoughts continually going through our minds. This was very hard at first. Often, I just wanted to let go and go with the flow of thoughts, fantasies, memories, etc. instead of trying to be aware of them. We often prefer to go through life on auto-pilot while lost in thoughts, dreams or fantasies. It takes consistent practice to develop this inner witnessing awareness, often referred to as “the inner witness.”

There are basically two types of meditative discipline. One involves focused concentration whether on the breath, mantra, visualization or maybe a physical object like a candle flame. Concentration means intentionally shutting out distracting thoughts and is a way of making the mind calm and focused. The second type of meditation practice involves opening up awareness, accepting thoughts and feelings as they arise. The trick is to remain apart from them in some sense. As Swami Satyananda instructs us above, we don’t try to control the process but we don’t let it control us either. Both types of meditation are important. The first helps us to develop focused attention and intention. The second helps us to become aware of the subconscious processes going on within us. As Dr. Rishi Vivekananda writes in Practical Yoga Psychology, “Yoga helps us to develop the ‘witness position’ – the ability to stand back and get a new view of events, situations and even our own thought patterns. Then we can question the real truth of all of our valued opinions and decide if we should keep them or not.”

The inner witnessing awareness enables us to step outside of our egos. It is the first step in moving from ego-identification to awakening as an aspect of the universal consciousness. Deepak Chopra refers to the ego as the “local mind.” In The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, he writes, “The local mind is personal and individual to each of us. It holds our ego, the self-defined “I” that wanders through the world a slave to our conditioned habits. By its very nature the local mind separates us from the rest of creation. It puts up thick, artificial boundaries that many of us feel compelled to defend, even when this means cutting ourselves off from the deeper meanings and joyous connections that come from feeling part of the universal.” It may not seem like it at first, but the inner witness is actually the presence of the universal consciousness within us.

Chopra refers to this as the “nonlocal mind.” “Nonlocal mind, on the other hand, is pure soul or spirit, known as universal consciousness. Operating outside the boundaries of normal space and time, it is the great organizing and unifying force in the universe, infinite in scope and duration. By its nature, nonlocal mind connects all things because it is all things.” When we are fixated within our egos we can barely glimpse the possibilities of our nonlocal mind. As we continue to develop the witnessing quality of awareness we can gradually transcend the narrow confines of our ego-identities. I say “gradually", because many of us get frightened at the possible “loss of identity.” So it is best to take it step by step. However, our true nature, true self, is unbounded consciousness, eternally blissful and absolutely free.

Yoga allows us to enter into a series of higher developmental stages which transcend ego development as generally known to psychology. In The Eye of the Spirit, Ken Wilber writes about the possibility of “subject permanence,” a concept developed by Charles Alexander based on his research into the developmental stages of consciousness through meditation. Subject permanence is a higher developmental stage which can be compared to “object permanence,” as identified by Piaget. Just as object permanence represents an important stage of cognitive development in the infant, subject permanence represents an important stage of mature consciousness development. Writes Wilber:

“This ‘subject permanence’ is a constant state of witnessing carried unbroken through waking, dream, and deep sleep states, a constancy which . . . is prerequisite and mandatory to full realization of nondual Suchness (and a constancy which is unmistakable, self-referential, postrepresentational, nondual, self-validating, self-existing, and self-liberating.)”

Yoga, of course, begins where we are. It begins with a compassionate awareness and acceptance of the limited, neurotic, conditioned, alienated aspect of ourselves. The inner witness is necessarily non-judgmental, compassionate and often quite humorous. It is the not the cold detachment which is actually a defensive retreat from our more difficult thoughts and feelings. It is an awareness which can liberate us from our “mind-forged manacles,” to quote William Blake. It is the Divine Presence within us.

Quantum Yoga?

The universe is self-aware through us. – Amit Goswami


Is it possible to understand the deeper teachings of the Yoga tradition through the discoveries of quantum physics? Remember that Yoga is about revealing the true nature of consciousness. The physical disciplines, or postures, are really a preparatory stage for deeper self-investigation. Quantum physics, while ostensibly about investigating the minutest aspects of “matter,” has revealed that consciousness is an integral feature of the equation. “Consciousness,” writes physicist Amit Goswami in The Self-Aware Universe, “is the agency that collapses the wave of a quantum object, which exists in potentia, making it an imminent particle in the world of manifestation.”  Consciousness, it seems is ultimately responsible for the material world.

From the perspective of Yoga, the world is a product of the interaction between consciousness and energy. We might say, between basic awareness and the quantum field. While physics is most interested in investigating the underlying energy, Yoga practitioners are interested in investigating consciousness itself. Science, per se, cannot truly investigate consciousness. It is not something that is measurable, observable, or quantifiable. It cannot be objectified because it ever the subjective aspect of experience. However, without a subject there can be no objective reality. As Robert Lanza, MD, writes in Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe, “Some may imagine there are two worlds, one “out there” and a separate one being cognized inside the skull. But the “two worlds” model is a myth. Nothing is perceived accept the perceptions themselves, and nothing exists outside of consciousness.”

Yoga psychology teaches that the biggest obstacle we face in realizing the true nature of consciousness is ego-identification. Rather than the psychoanalytic ego, here we are talking about our most basic sense of identification with our individual physical beings and our internal thought processes. Remember that the physical body, as an object, comes about as result of the collapse of the quantum wave due to consciousness. The true “self” of consciousness is non-physical, nonlocal, non-temporal. Because we fixate on the objective world we forget that we are not ourselves objects within that world. Desire, aversion and fear help to keep us fixated. The goal of yoga is to awaken to ourselves as interconnected and immortal beings of consciousness.

Awakening is a process, however. Yoga provides a step-by-step path towards spiritual realization. Patanjali outlined eight stages on this path in his Yoga Sutras. It culminates in the practices of meditation. Meditation is a means of releasing both the cognitive and emotional bonds that keep us attached to a falsely limited identity. In Meditations from the Tantras, Swami Satyananda Saraswati gives us a number of approaches to meditation practice. Ultimately meditation is not just practice but the awakening of a new consciousness, a new mind and a new reality. As Swamiji states,

“One normally sees oneself as a small, insignificant part of the universe, as a small cog in a large wheel, a small particle in unending space and time. One often feels completely isolated and often alienated from other parts of existence. One feels, alone and very mortal. One never even suspects that one can overcome this situation. Most people merely shrug their shoulders and fatalistically accept their fate. Meditation changes all this. One realizes through meditation that one is a necessary, intimate and important part of the universe. One starts to relate deeply to everything that exists. They are no longer separate entities. You are That.” (p. 48)

The discoveries of quantum physics have taken us beyond the mechanistic, materialist paradigm of the 19th century - although many people still adhere to it. We now know that instead of living in a blind mechanical universe in which our consciousness is a meaningless epiphenomenon, we live in a universe in which consciousness is a central feature. Thus quantum physics has opened the door to an understanding and validation of age-old Yogic teachings. Still, it is up to us to adopt the practice relevant to our level of psychological and spiritual development in order to realize our true nature.