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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Self Behind the Curtain of the Mind: An Exploration of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (Pt. 1)



(Opening note:  We are currently exploring the Yoga Sutras in our Saturday afternoon meditation group.  For the next several weeks I will be posting on the Sutras as we go through them.
Also I would like to state that I noticed that my reference to “soul” in my last post brought forth an anti-Obama advertisement.  I just want to state that I support President Obama and do not support any advertisements attacking him.)

In the course of evolution the mind has manifested in the form of human life, but by no means is this mind perfect and infallible. Though it is a gift of nature, the mind also has its limitations. It has to depend on the sensory channels for information and stimulation. Therefore, the Raja Yoga Sutras contend that this imperfect mind can be made more perfect and efficient through the practice of sadhana.
-    Swami Satyananda Saraswati

In the early 1980s I had the experience of hearing Swami Satyananda expound on the Yoga Sutras in several lectures over the course of his tour of the U.S.  This was my fortunate introduction to this somewhat ancient text and tradition.  Needless to say, I was very intrigued and this fascination has continued to this day.  The Sutras outline both a philosophical and experiential way of connecting with our innermost being.  It is not an intellectual/informational text in the sense that reading it superficially gains one anything of value.  Instead one must combine study and “laboratory work” to truly understand its meaning.  The laboratory in this case is our own body-minds.  It is the laboratory of the soul.  The methodology is meditation.
“Meditation” is actually not a very accurate term for what in the yoga tradition is referred to as “dhyana.”  The English word implies a process of deep thinking, dhyana implies going beyond thought.  It means being open to immediate experience unmediated by thought.  Thus the second sutra of the Yoga Sutras defines Yoga as “Chitta vritti nirodha,” or “the complete cessation of mental activity.”  Our problem in this regard is that we cannot even conceive of ourselves beyond our cognitive formulations.  Because we have been induced into a bio-memetic trance we have forgotten who we truly are.  Yoga teaches that we are not our body-mind vehicles but consciousness itself.  We are what Patanjali refers to as the “drashta’” or “seer.”  Beneath and beyond the appearances of sensation and mentation, we are beings of pure awareness.
The chitta vrittis, or patterns of mind, are five-fold: valid cognition, mistaken cognition, imagination, deep sleep and memory.  Everything within our experience is comprised of these five-fold mental patterns.  Yoga points to and guides us into the experience of what is real beyond the five-fold modifications.  Even what we accurately perceive as real is only relative.  It is true for this moment.  On the other hand we are subject to false beliefs and false information.  We internalize beliefs at times which have no evidential support.  Imagination, dreams and fantasy are also part of our mind’s activities.  We should not overlook the importance of imagination, however.  It is the faculty within us which creates the world of our experience.  As Albert Einsten said, “Imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions.” 
In deep sleep consciousness is present without any external or internal object.  It is a state of emptiness.  The fifth pattern of mind is memory, in which we are aware of the thought remnants of past experiences.  These five-fold modifications comprise the mental filters through which we experience.  In order to have the unmediated experience of pure being we must get beyond them.  According to Patanjali, this is done by bringing these patterns into a state of stillness.  This state is known as Samadhi.  In this state of consciousness we are completely at peace, attuned to higher awareness, fully awake and free from all vestiges of suffering.
Our suffering is based on a paradoxical problem.  On one hand, all we need to be completely happy is to relax and be who we are.  On the other hand, we have been so thoroughly programmed and conditioned that we have completely forgotten who we really are.  We are invested in an elaborate fabrication.  If we could awaken suddenly from this dream we would discover that we are already liberated.  Unfortunately most of us need to work on the process of awakening.  This work is referred to as “sadhana.”  According to Patanjali there are two primary aspects of sadhana that will help us to awaken: abhyasa – consistent practice, and vairagya – nonattachment. 
 Abhyasa is not so hard to understand.  However, it is difficult to put into practice.  It is not enough to meditate a little now and then.  We must be consistent, persistent, insistent.  We must fall in love with our spiritual practice.  We must be mindful not just in meditation but in all activities.  We must fight against our tendency to fall into non-consciousness. 
    Vairagya, nonattachment, is also fairly easy to understand.  Basically it means to be free from desire.  Desire and aversion are the two primary conditioning factors within our minds.  Desire tells us that in order to be happy we need something outside of ourselves.  It is the constant impulse of desire which keeps us from realizing that we are already complete, whole and perfect.  Nonattachment is not the same as renunciation.  It is an inner transformation rather than an outer behavior.  It becomes stronger with practice.  The more that we are able to rest in the bliss of our own being the less desire we feel for the objects of the world.  It doesn’t mean we completely withdraw from the world, instead we can approach others with true love and compassion (no personal agenda.)  

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