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The Yoga Sutras Here is a brief outline of the Sutras The Yoga Sutras are made up of 195 sutras divided into four parts: Chapter 1:
Title: Samadhi Pada :
Transcendence Path Investigating the mind The first part, Samadhi Pada, inquires into how we ordinarily use the mind. This ordinary way gives us our usual sense of self. The ordinary way is intrinsically mistaken - it mistakes a mental model for reality itself. Understanding the mistakes opens the possibility of using the mind in a more accurate way. This leads to a different sense of self and the world, and the possibility of a transformed and transcendent experience of being – Samadhi. Chapter 2: Title: Sadhana Pada :
Effort Path The
word Sadhana literally means the means
or procuring or getting. It is the means by which, the Sutras say, you may be able
to get to that state of unity.
It is called Effort Path in
these notes, because for most of us to use those means requires a consistent
discipline. This is the chapter
that describes the Eight Limbs of Yoga, or Astanga Yoga. The purpose of them is to loosen the
grip of mental habits which keep us locked in a state of disunity and
disconnection with reality. There
is a public perception, however, that there is but one limb of Yoga, ie,
Asana, the stretch and bend aspects
of Yoga. That is a great
pity. But even if a yoga school did teach all eight limbs, they would still
not be teaching what Yoga is, unless they put the eight limbs in the context
of the journey towards enlightenment, Self-realisation, or Absolute Freedom,
which is the sole purpose of Yoga. What
are the Eight Limbs?
Yama - Ethical Constraints Asana – posture. (This
where Hatha Yoga arose. It is
interesting to note that the Sutras define ‘asana’ as a position of
steadiness and ease’. ) Pranayama – conscious breathing Pratyahara – conscious sense experience Dhyana – stillness of mind,
meditation Samadhi – transformed awareness Chapter 3:
Title: Vibhuti Pada : Power Path
The
third path describes some of the powers that become available to a trained
mind. These are often thought of as miraculous – being able to make yourself
invisible, for instance. That
sounds rather miraculous. And
yet we’ve all experienced either not noticing someone who was present or
being present ourself and not being noticed. Is it such a leap to imagine that one could have a direct
influence on the phenomenon.? But
however you look at it, Patanjali certainly doesn’t see the ‘powers’ as
anything miraculous. They are
only at the far end of normal, and usually come with training – though in the
fourth chapter, in a bit of a run on from the second, he says that they can
also occur naturally, or by training, or by psychotropic action. Patanjali
also says that chasing after the apparently magic powers will spoil your
new-found yogic state. Chapter 4:
Title: Kaivalya Pada: Absolute
Freedom Path
The
fourth chapter describes the state of enlightenment. But we should notice that in the
Sutras it is never called enlightenment. Yoga is a state of union, and the unitary state is one of
absolute freedom. That’s
it. Never is there any
suggestion that the mind will become full of light. It may become a clearer mirror to reflect the light, but
the mind is nevertheless only a faculty that comes with human existence. It is not the seer; it is not
immortal; it perishes with the body. All
the same, the mind is affected by the Yoga, the Kaivalya, the Realisation of
Self as nothing other than the Universal Energy. The personal qualities are a sense of limitless freedom,
accompanied by a feeling of bliss and the capacity for deep compassion. Why
bliss and compassion? The Sutras never hold up anything as a must-do. Virtue and vice are only aspects of
the polarized mind, and the actions of a Yogi are ‘neither virtuous nor
vicious”. So why freedom, bliss and compassion? Perhaps it’s the natural
state. The unnatural state is
when we see through the ego-centre.
How realistic is it to act as though the perspective of this tiny
individual is the correct and objective one? Or that this tiny individual is somehow more special than
the billions of other tiny individuals?
Or that this tiny inividual has preferences that all the other
billions of tiny individuals should uphold? Or that this tiny individual’s
desires or beliefs give it the right to cause distress to any others of the
billions of tiny individuals in the world? All non-bliss comes through that state of
ego-centred perception. The self-realised person recognizes the distress of
being locked into ego-reactions.
The mind thinks and the heart feels. But just as the mind becomes a clearer mirror of the
universal will, the heart becomes a clearer mirror of the universal
love. There is no
ego-perspective to obscure it. |
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