Body, Mind & Spirit

I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit. - Laurence Fishburne

When I was an intern therapist with Riverside County Mental Health there was a Psychologist whom I worked with whose name I can’t quite remember.  What I do remember is that he was a strict Behaviorist.  He would jokingly challenge me at times by saying, “You say there is a mind, but can you show me one?”  The only good response I could come up with was, “Well maybe you don’t have one.”  I never actually said it out of deference, but truly his position seemed absurd and still does. 

Seriously, who or what might even be asking the question here, or monitoring behaviors, writing articles?  There is no denying that there is an interior component of who we are – and it constitutes the “black box” which has proved to an insolvable problem in strict behavioral psychology.  For better or worse there is no psychology without psyche.  And, there is no psyche without awareness.  Awareness is the spiritual principal within us, without which the rest is simply chaos.

It is really all part of a developmental process.  When we are young, once we emerge from what William James referred to as “blooming, buzzing confusion,” we begin to make sense of this world by identifying with our physical bodies.  As we develop we begin to understand ourselves as interior beings, “mind beings.”  In terms of cognitive development this is referred to as developing a “theory of mind.”  Briefly stated, “having a theory of mind is to be able to reflect on the contents of one's own and other's minds.” 

People with autistic disorder especially lack this developmental ability.  As Lynne Soraya, in an article for Psychology Today writes, “For many of those with autism or Asperger's, mindblindness, or lack of Theory of Mind creates major barriers to communication and closeness. These barriers often lead to those nearest to the individual feel, whether real or perceived, a lack of empathy from the individual.”  (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-diary/200805/empathy-mindblindness-and-theory-mind)  From my limited experience working with individuals who suffer from autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder, I believe the capacity is there but needs help drawing it forth.

The development of spiritual awareness is an awakening to another dimension of our beings.  While we can relate to and empathize with one another on a mind level, we start to resonate at a higher level as we awaken spiritually.  It begins with a deepening of mindfulness, the ability to become an inner witness of our own mental processes.  At each stage of development we have to be able to separate from, transcend and integrate who we once thought we were.  Eventually, we arrive at an awareness of ourselves as pure awareness.  Buddha described this as arriving at the identity of oneself as “no-self.” 

     As I have practiced meditation over the past several years, it seems I have moved more and more into an expansive sense of being – beyond body and mind.  But the other morning I came back to a love and appreciation of this body.  How marvelous to have this experience!  However, conditioned and temporal it may be, it is great ride.  It wasn’t just “me” experiencing this however.  It is the One who experiences through each and all of us.  We are all loved and Love is who we are. 

Why Stress?

Stress is not the cause of all our ills. The cause is our inability to cope

with changing conditions. Stress accumulates and intensifies and then we feel the

negative results in our lives.  – Swami Niranjan

http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1998/cmay98/stress.shtml

We live in times of ubiquitous stress.  It so prevalent in our lives that we fail to perceive it until the volume is turned all the way up.  Many people seem to believe that stress is inevitable and natural, just part of the way things are.  However our stressful lifestyle is making us sick.  Chronic stress is implicated in a myriad of psychological and physical illnesses.  As Psychologist Sheldon Cohen states, "Effects of stress on regulation of immune and inflammatory processes have the potential to influence depression, infectious, autoimmune, and coronary artery disease, and at least some (e.g., viral) cancers," (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009164122.htm)

Stress is an underlying factor in a number of our societal ills as well, such as, violence, substance abuse, relationship problems, etc.  And because these “symptoms” create more stress it just snowballs.  However we can’t just identify stress as the underlying cause of our psychological, physiological and sociological problems.  Stress itself is a symptom and a signal that we need to change and adapt.  It is a sign that we need to shed old patterns of thought and behavior. 

As Peter Merry writes, “At this moment of transition, there are two options.  Either we can begin to open up to what we are perceiving, allow it in to disturb our current way of doing things and explore what it has to teach us.  Or we can try and deny its existence and bury ourselves in the old, stable, seemingly safe way of doing things.”  Often we opt for the second response but this is what causes us to accumulate stress.  We choose to be mindless and run on autopilot.  We can use substances, food, entertainment, sex, whatever to distract us from the signs and signals but they will continue to be there until we are willing to make necessary changes.  “When we can no longer make sense of the world around us,” says Merry, “when we can’t find our place in it, we get sick.” (http://www.petermerry.org/blog/books/evolutionary-leadership/)

Meditation first came into prominence within our scientific culture when Herbert Benson identified the “relaxation response,” which was seen as a way of countering the “fight or flight” response of our autonomic nervous systems.  It was seen as an antidote to stress.  Meditation, however, has much more significant benefits.  In fact, it is a way of cultivating our potential for deeper awareness, a way to step away from our preconceived patterns of thought and behavior.  This has been referred to as the capacity for inner witnessing awareness, or “mindfulness.”  However we choose to describe it, it is an inner experience rather than a concept.  Here is one description from Dr. Jonty Heaversedge and Ed Halliwell, “Mindfulness means observing things just as they are—our thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and what’s happening in the world around us. It shows us the world just as a mirror reflects images: clearly, openly, and without bias. It’s what happens when the mind watches and engages consciously with life, rather than being blindly caught up in what’s going on.”  (http://www.healyourlife.com/author-dr-jonty-heaversedge-and-ed-halliwell/2012/04/wisdom/inspiration/what-is-mindfulness)

We might try to imagine some higher being who embodies this awareness but it is really just us, you and me, as we are.  At the same time, it is definitely not who we think we are.  In fact, when we first encounter this awareness in meditation, or otherwise, it might seem like an alien being looking over our shoulder.  A friend of mine often reaches back over her shoulder when describing her experience of the inner witness.  There is no other, there is no inner guide, there is no “god,” really.  There is only just this present miracle of awareness.  I will be bold here and assert that this is IT and IT is “I”.  Awakening is nothing more than this. 

This simple “fact” of awareness though, changes everything.  When we are able to disengage from our contextual focus and open to an awareness of who we truly are, then things don’t matter so much.  At the same time we are more open and able to help ourselves and others.  It gives us space.  It gives us perspective.  We open to compassion.  We open to unconditional love.  It is important to remember to stay present and not to space out. 

Ultimately, it seems to boil down to the ego-principal.  “Ego” is our sense of being a separate “self” apart from everything and everyone else.  This is not bad or wrong, it is simply something which we can regard from a higher or more expansive and inclusive perspective.  It is actually very important and very healthy to have strong interpersonal ego boundaries.  On the other hand, a self-centered identity and value system has ceased to be a viable mode in our global community.  We simply have to see our individual needs and desires relatively.  Is that possible?

The stress of our times is the result of our need to let go of our self-centered ego perspectives and to move into an “aperspectival” consciousness as identified by Jean Gebser.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAeXdm5XGEc) Mindfulness means stepping outside of our usual contextual awareness, stepping outside of our conditioning and looking at everything anew.  It doesn’t mean turning our minds off or embracing stupidity.  Let’s not use it for an excuse to join the “dumbing down” of our culture.  Instead we can become truly meta-cognitive, not just thinking about thinking but reflecting upon thinking from a wisdom perspective. 

Life as a Spiritual Path

All the problems that you face in life, all the ups and downs are really the means to your personal evolution. Everything that you face in life, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is really the means to higher awareness. They really help you. Though they may seem to hinder you from a limited and personal viewpoint at this stage, they are really the tests, the means to your eventual transcendence and total understanding of reality.  
– Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Some of us approach the spiritual path with the hope that it will cure all our ills, dissolve our problems and make life easy sailing.  The true purpose however is not necessarily to improve life but to awaken awareness.  It is to develop the inner confidence to face life head on no matter what.  Of course yoga can help us greatly in maintaining health and well being, but there are still times when we will encounter difficulties: illness, loss, pain, loneliness, etc.  It is a matter of the attitude we bring to these situations that will help us to develop our deeper potential.

Our egos are dedicated to avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure.  In doing so, however, we really create more suffering for ourselves in the form of stress, anxiety, addiction, health problems and so on.  When we shift from an ego to a soul perspective we become more open and accepting; we become the witness of experience.  Our egos cling to a temporary situation while our souls witness the passing show.  The problems we face life are actually opportunities to awaken from the dream of the ego into the spaciousness of our essential being. 

I remember when I first heard Swamiji talk about the need to face hardships in life.  Honestly, I really didn’t want to go there.  I think I secretly thought that because I was being a good “chela” that somehow I could squeeze past them.  It is not easy to develop an attitude where you welcome problems into your experience!  Unless we develop this attitude though, we just make things worse.  In fact the only real suffering in life comes from our resistance to ‘what is.’  As Ram Dass puts it, "Within the spiritual journey, you understand that suffering becomes something that has been given to you to show you where your mind is still stuck. It’s a vehicle to help you go to work. That’s why it’s called grace." 

When we are able to accept the problems in our life, we can begin to deal with them in a different way.  First of all, why not reconsider our definition of “problem?”  Perhaps we have created this idea of a problem out of thin air through false interpretation.  It might actually be an adventure, opportunity or a blessing in disguise.  On the other hand some things are not so easy to reframe.  A violent crime or the loss of a loved one, for example are not situations we can easily reinterpret.  They may even challenge our basic sense of trust in ourselves, others and the world.  It may take some time to heal, to reintegrate and to emerge stronger and wiser.

Ultimately, our life journey is about learning to see through our attachments and false identifications, self-centered desires and hatreds.  Freedom lies in awakening to our transcendent being, who is not someone we have to become but who we truly are.  The universe is self-aware in and through us.  When we cling to a limited ego perspective we are bound to suffer; when we expand our awareness we awaken to absolute peace.  Underneath all the changing phenomenon of life there is a vast space of peace, joy and unconditional love.  This is who we truly are.  All the rest is “drama.”

The Divine Indweller

Know him to be the primal source of life

Whose glory permeates the universe,

Who is beyond time and space, yet can be

Seen within the heart in meditation.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad

Science looks at the universe from the outside in while mysticism looks at the universe from the inside out.  From its vantage point, science struggles with the issue of consciousness.  Some scientific theorists believe that consciousness is a late development on the evolutionary scene, an “epiphenomenon” which is inessential to our overall picture of the universe.  Others are more inclined to agree with the mystics that consciousness is somehow more fundamental to the universe.  Certainly the “observer effect” in quantum mechanics seems to suggest that consciousness plays a role in determining the outcome of subatomic events.  As Amit Goswami, Ph.D. puts it, “Quantum physics says that all objects are possibilities for consciousness to choose from.” (http://wisdom-magazine.com/Article.aspx/1320/)

The scientific method seeks to know reality by observation through the senses, or the extension of our senses through instruments.  Yoga methodology attempts to find out who it is that is looking, not just through our technical instruments but through the “instruments” of our mind and senses as well.  Who or what is the “I” of experience?  For example, when we taste an orange, there is the sensual experience of sweetness and tartness, a reaction of pleasure perhaps and some thought about the experience.  However these are all experienced within awareness.  Who is having the experience?  Yoga meditation seeks to discover who it is that is experiencing through this body and these thoughts; a deeper aspect of awareness which is sometimes referred to as the inner witness.

In Yogic terms this inner being is called “purusha.”  It literally means the “one who dwells within the city.”  In this sense, the body, the psyche and the universe are the city.  The counterpart of purusha is prakriti which is unmanifest creative energy.  It is through the interaction of purusha and prakriti that the known universe unfolds.  As David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva) writes, “The Purusha, meaning a person or conscious being, is a Sanskrit term for the Cosmic Being behind the universe, the spirit within all things. The entire universe is a manifestation of the Cosmic Person.” (http://www.vedanet.com/component/content/article/19-yoga-and-tantra/37-the-cosmic-person-of-light)  If we simply translate purusha as “consciousness” and prakriti as the quantum field, we can see where this ancient Yogic worldview and modern science might possibly converge. 

In order to understand the concept of purusha we have to go beyond our limited understanding of consciousness.  Consciousness does not belong to the ego.  It is not restricted to human beings, instead it pervades the infinite expanse of the universe itself.  As Frawley further states, “In the yogic view, our true individuality is an inner consciousness that unites us with all – not a physical, mental or religious entity that keeps us apart. Our self is mirrored in all the selves in the universe. If we look deeply, we can see that everything in the universe has a personality or spirit within it, whether it is the Sun, the mountains, animals or human beings. Every form in nature from the rocks to the clouds is a face of Consciousness. All faces of all creatures, we could say, are masks of God.” 

It is one thing to grasp the concept of purusha.  It is quite another to be able to experience this consciousness as residing in oneself, connecting us to all other beings and to the transcendent dimensions as well.  This is where meditation comes in.  In order to know our true self-nature, we have to disentangle ourselves from the phenomenal world.  We have to dive deep within.  The sensory world is like a thin veneer really, like the surface of the ocean.  As the Kena Upanishad enjoins us:
 

That which makes the tongue speak but cannot be

Spoken by the tongue, know that as the Self.

This Self is not someone other than you.

That which makes the mind to think but cannot be

Thought by the mind, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

That which makes the eye see but cannot be

Seen by the eye, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

That which makes the ear hear but cannot be

Heard by the ear, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

That which makes you draw breath but cannot be

Drawn by your breath, that is the Self indeed.

This Self is not someone other than you.

(http://www.amazon.com/The-Upanishads-Eknath-Easwaran/dp/0915132397)

The Yoga Sutras outline a progression of four stages in meditation through which our inner being can be realized. 

1.   The first is called pratyahara or inner awareness.  It means withdrawing attention from the outward flow of the senses and turning it inward. 

2.  The second is called dharana which means focusing attention on a specific object, a mantra, the breath or a visualized image for example (or it could be all three.)  This is because when we turn inward we become lost in the thought-currents of the mind. 

3.   The last two are called dhyana and

4.   samadhi.  In these later stages we move more and more into an awareness of awareness itself.  We let go of the sensory world, we let go of memories, dreams and desires, let go of the idea of a separate self. 
 

This takes practice but is not as hard as it seems.  In fact it becomes easier, more blissful and ecstatic as we make progress.  When we enter fully into the deep state of meditation it is said that prakriti is withdrawn into purusha.  We enter into the state of the universe before becoming, a state of infinite possibility and potential, a state of unbounded love and absolute joy.  We become aware of our greater being, unlimited by spaciotemporal boundaries, beyond birth, death and becoming.  As Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita, “This, the Indweller in the body of everyone, is always indestructible, O Arjuna! Therefore, thou shouldst not grieve for any creature.”  (http://www.dlshq.org/download/bgita.pdf)

On the other hand, this deeper Self awareness allows us to be more compassionate, more understanding and better able to attend to others.  “He who knows Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all the worlds and the friend of all beings, attains to peace.” states Krishna.  When we are free of ego we are more able to be present and helpful to others.  We can be “a friend to all beings.”  Mindful awareness in our daily encounters and activities is a means of bringing meditative wisdom into our world.  As Ram Dass puts it, “Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.” 

Our egos take the drama very seriously.  We get offended and hurt over nothing.  We react to internal stimuli of which we are unaware.  We see ourselves as apart from the universe.  In fact we are part and parcel.  “Time and space are an illusion,” as Albert Einstein said, “albeit a stubborn one.”

Transformative Awareness

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there. – Hua Hu Ching

True yoga can actually be defined as the mastery of awareness.  Through the various practices of yoga we are developing our capacity to expand awareness, to move from the limits of ego-infatuation to an expanded state of selfless presence.  It is a progression from bodily awareness to mental awareness to formless awareness.  Many people think of yoga as a merely physical practice of asanas, but this is just a start.  Asana is actually a way of transcending physical awareness.  Through asana practice we can learn to relax the body so completely that we can forget about it.

The same with pranayama: through pranayama we bring our subtle energy into balance and harmony so that both mental and physical restlessness is alleviated.  We are then ready to enter into a state of inner awareness wherein the subconscious filters of our experience become apparent.  The Sanskrit term for these filters is samskara.  Samskaras are the latent impressions within our minds which condition how we experience ourselves and our world.  As we become aware of and release these samskaras we achieve greater freedom and self-transformation.

Samskaras are both personal and collective.  Our personal conditioning is a result of the unique experiences of this and previous incarnations.  All of our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, others, our reality are the result of previous impressions.  Psychotherapy is generally aimed at helping people to resolve negative samskaras from an earlier age.  Trauma is a powerfully charged samskara which can completely take over our awareness and leave us stuck reliving a past event.  Collective samskaras belong to us as a race.  They are passed down culturally and are generally harder to separate from.  When we begin to become aware of them however, we can begin to understand that we are not who we have been taught to believe we are.

The process of yoga meditation is a process of dehypnotizing ourselves and awakening to a deeper reality.  We move from gross, to subtle and then into causal realms of being.  The causal realm is found in the state of deep sleep.  It is nondual, non-spatial and atemporal.  In the earlier stages of meditation we are learning to separate the witness from the objects of experience – gross-physical and subtle-mental.  In the deeper stages we find there is no separateness of anything.  There is no observer and nothing to be observed.  This is liberation – freedom from the idea that there is anything to be liberated from! 

The idea however is not to remain in some state of suspended animation.  We can bring this awareness into our daily activities through the practice of karma yoga, or nonattached action, selfless action.  In this way the enlightened ones work tirelessly for the liberation of all beings, helping us to awaken from the illusion of suffering.