True Self-Nature

 

 

Yoga occurs when the patterns of mind become completely still.

Then the Self rests in its own true nature.

-    Patanjali

 

     Who are we?  If we think about it too much we miss the point.  In fact, most of us assume that we are who we think we are.  Who we think we are is based on our conditioning – who we have been taught to believe we are.  Our apparent identity is based on name, family relations, social status, how we look, our achievements or lack thereof, race and ethnicity, religious upbringing, marital partner, offspring, pets, cars, favorite sports teams, musical tastes, health condition, and so on and on.  From a deeper perspective it is all false.

     All of the things listed above are relative and impermanent.  Yoga teaches us that there is something else within us that is unchanging, independent and universal.  It is referred to as Atman, the Self.  It is neither body nor mind.  Instead it is pure awareness.  Atman witnesses the passing parade of the world without getting involved.  It employs body and mind as instruments for this particular human experience but is not bound by them.

     Ultimately the sense of a separate self is lost in the awareness of Atman – in the awareness of awareness itself.  When we are falsely identified with body and mind we see ourselves as inexorably separate and ultimately alone in the universe.  When we rest in our true self-nature as Atman, as pure awareness we are intimately connected with God and with all beings.  In this sense Atman is Love.  Not love of this or that but all-encompassing, unconditional Love that flows through everything.

     Meditation is what enables us to deconstruct our false identification and to rest in our essential nature as Love-Bliss-Awareness.  Concentrative meditation as taught in the Yoga Sutras helps us to transcend the pervasive patterns of the mind that condition our awareness.  Another approach is simply to witness the mind’s activity from the vantage point of the inner witness, or Sakshi.  Either way (or both) with persistent practice and patience, we can awaken from the false dream of the world into a recognition of our inner perfection.