Sutra 1.18: What Is Meditation? Plus Kriya lesson 3.

1.18. There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.

Meditation has a broad definition.  The goal of any type of meditation is to lull the mind into an altered state of conciseness.  Even in Yoga, I think the definition of meditation is somewhat fuzzy.  I can break it down into to types:  Formal and Informal.

Formal meditation is any time that you intend to go into an altered state of conciseness.  So far in this series, I have spoken at length about the mind, types of thoughts and how they operate.  To further muddy the waters, there are different types of attached thoughts that are attributed to the categories of thoughts.  Don't be concerned about that, it's later in the Sutras.  During my formal Kriya Yoga routine, I spend about fifteen minutes of what I would call "prep work", which can involve breathing exercises, called Pranayama and some mantra chanting.  I try to do some hatha yoga before I start to limber up the body, but I do not put too much emphasis on that, mainly because I'm built like a beer keg.

Informal meditation happens spontaneously.  Have you went on a hike and stopped to admire the beauty of nature?  In that moment, you become connected with something other than what is going on in your mind.  Runners get into a groove of what could be considered meditation.  I would not know about that because I get winded walking to my car.  Popular media grabs our attention, like books, television, video games and movies.  The Kriya Yoga guru Paramahansa Yogananda compared our lives in the world to watching a movie: we are so engrossed in the movie that we do not even know we are a part of it.  "

All the world's a stage, 

And all the men and women merely players" to quote Vanilla Ice, or Shakespeare.  Whatever. 

Sutra 1.18 speaks about working on focusing on something while we meditate, until the meditator become so engrossed in the object of focus, that other thoughts subside.  Traditionally, Yogis are taught to pick an object of meditation, like a deity, the breath or the flashing lights you see when you close your eyes, to focus upon.  Once the true nature of that object is understood, so is the nature of all matter.  The premise of this is that all matter is the same at a fundamental level, so the understanding of the object is the gateway to higher levels of awareness.  

I am now going to give you a very basic, but powerful meditation technique.  It's very common and you may have run into it before at some point.  In Kriya Yoga, it is said that if one follows this technique, it will lead to stilling of the mind.  Think of it as your object of meditation right now.  It is called the Hong-Saw technique.  

We want to become aware of the breath when we meditate.  Pranayama, roughly translated, means breath control.  The Hong-Saw technique combines mantra with breathing.  The goal is to let the breath flow in and out naturally while mentally chanting this mantra.  While inhaling, mentally say Hong (Rhymes with Bong, Dong or Song).  You do not want to hold your breath after you inhale, just exhale naturally and mentally change Saw.  Do not try to control the breath in any way.  This sounds much easier in a blog than in practice.  It's natural to have shallow breaths followed by a deep breath as the body becomes aware.  Do not worry about how fast or how slow you breath.  Over time, the breath will still, and the mind will move toward a meditative state.  

Map of the Yogic Mind

Something that is not mentioned in the Yoga Sutras that I think is important to know for in depth yoga practice is the four functions of the mind.  They coexist and operate on different levels, sometimes simultaneously.  They are the Manas, Ahamkara, Bhuddi and Chitta.

The Manas is the lower mind that is responsible for the five input and output mechanisms of the senses.  The input mechanisms are sight, hearing, feeling, tasting and touching.  Output from the Manas comes in the form of eliminating, reproducing, moving, grasping and speaking.  This level of the mind operates on a reflexive level.  For example, if you touch a hot stove I hope you do not have to think about removing your hand away from it.  Keep in mind that all of our senses and reactions run through the Manas, regardless of the process in between

Chitta is the storehouse of memories and our impressions of them.  Samskaras are triggered from the Chitta by input from the Manas.  

Ahamkara means "I-maker" in Sanskrit.  The closest term I can think of in psychology is Ego, but it's not exactly the same.  This is the false identity that we have of ourselves as perceiving the mind as part of matter.  For example, there is a sixteen year old boy who just came into possession of a 1992 Mazda 626.  The boy, excited by his new car identifies himself with the speed an thrill of his new found freedom, races down Seventh-sixth street and gets pulled over by the Franklin police.  "Sir, the far right lane is not the 'racing' lane." says the cop.  The boy goes home with a stack of tickets and a broken ahamkara.  So the association of himself with the car

as

 himself caused suffering.

The Bhudhi is the higher mind.  It decides and judges from a place of wisdom detached from matter. We all have to make difficult decisions in our life.  Some happen on a day to day basis, like what to eat, and some have larger implications.   The Bhudhi is the part of the mind that decides to buy the sports car when you have the money, instead of going into disastrous debt.  Dark Helmet in Spaceball fell pray to the Ahamkara when ordering Spaceball One to ludicrous speed, when the Bhudhi would have just went to the desert planet, you know, where Yogurt lived.

So thought categorization is meant to help us balance these four factors of the mind so that it will become still, allowing use to dig deeper to the next level. A good barometer for discerning the difference between the Ahamakara and the Bhudhi are the types of thoughts and actions that cause use the most suffering.  Start with the action or Manas part of the mind, then pay attention to what thoughts may have triggered that action.  Actions are always triggered by thoughts and thoughts are always triggered by external stimulus.  Symbolism attached to the external stimulus is what churns up the thought associations in the Chitta.  When the higher, discerning part of the mind is in control, we can avoid racing into ludicrous actions and bashing our egos.

Sutras 1.15 to 1.17: Losing Your Marbles

1.15. Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.

1.16. This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller.

1.17. Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'

The spiritual path is an individual journey.  Yoga intends, as it's goal, to reach the end of that path. Sometimes when we begin Yoga, the practice can be more painful then pleasurable because we become aware of things about ourselves we may not like.  Think of it as a mirror being held up in front of you to show you your true self.  Digging into the consciousness can make us hit the proverbial sewage line, but these Sutras tell us to keep digging until we reach the vein of gold.  Even at that point, we must keep digging until we transcend all desire.

Sutra 1.15 emphasis desirelessness.  Desire is a cause of suffering.  When we are in a state of want, we set ourselves up for a state of lack.  I think the game of life is rigged so that our material cravings can never be satisfied.  Our economy is based on the idea of novelty.  The marketing and sales industry have used this to drive our consumerist habits for better or worse.  Spiritual seekers often get stuck along the side of the road during their journey.  One day, we reach a profound understanding, only to have it taken away.  Disirelessness is reached through detachment, which leads to mastery of practice

1.16 is a direct reference to the three gunas.  The gunas are fundamental attributes that make up material existence.  They weave themselves through the universe like a cosmic tapestry, maybe more like a hammock that we lay ourselves upon.

Tamas represents inertia, dullness, darkness and ignorance.  It does not necessarily mean "evil" in the traditional sense.

Rajas is the activated state of matter.  This attribute is active, fiery, and listless.

Satva is the higher state of being.  It represents purity. balance and order.

Matter, as taken in Samkya Yoga philosophy, is a mixture of this states.  Think of Rahas like a pendulum that swings between Tamas and Sattva.

1.17 get's into the "I am-ness" of things.  "I am" has the deepest connotation in Yoga.  It's the goal, the end of the road, the realization that I am.  It's the part of the larger whole, or that pure, untainted consciousness the Yogi strives for.  Abrahamic religions use the word Amen or Ahmeen as an affirmation of truth at the end of a prayer.  In Sanskrit Aham means "I-am".  See the correlation?

One of my Gurus, Goswami Kriyananda put these three sutras into an elegant metaphor:  Think of the mind as a glass jar full of marbles.  Some of these marbles are colored back, some red and some white.  Red represents Rahas, Black Tamas and White Satva.  All of our jars are a mixture of marbles of differing combinations.  When practicing Yoga, we try to replace the black marbles with red ones, then the red ones with white ones.  At the end of the journey, we dump the jar out.  The glass jar represents pure consciousness, with the clarity to see things as they are, unencumbered by the weight of the marbles.

An Example of a Samskara: Depression

"Don't Worry! Be Happy!"  Yeah, easy for you to say pal.  I'm sure 

Bobby McFerrin was feeling that way when he went to the bank with his royalty check.  We talk a lot about depression in our society.  I have been dealing with it for many years now.  Part of the reason I got into Yoga in the first place was to find an effective way to deal with it.  Does Yoga cure depression?  No.  If it did, everyone who had depression would be doing it and the problem would vanish.  

Science

 has made great breakthroughs into the biological causes of depression, which has lead to better treatment.  We take medication to feel better, but for me , it was never a cure all.  So, does biology dictate thought or thought dictate biology?  In my experience, both go hand in hand.  Yoga is the science of consciousness.  It teaches that we are not our thoughts.  Like I stated in my last post, we are conciseness trapped in our identity with thought.  As we untangle ourselves from our identity with materiality, we begin to identify with pure consciousness.  

A Samskara is an impression made on the consciousness in the form of thoughts, memories and the emotions associated with them, which in turn are triggered by our identification with matter.  In my case, I had a deep Samsakra associated with the memories of my father, who died when I was sixteen years old.  We never really got along and when he died, all the memories associated with him stayed with me as subtle impressions. My dad served in Vietnam, in the Navy.  Let's just say he did not come out the same person he went in. Ironically, he also never talked about being a soldier or his experiences.  Since he was a veteran, he got a burial flag and a free spot in the V.A grave yard.  My inheritance from him was a a box, about two square feet, full of papers from his time in the service and the flag he had draped over his coffin at his funeral.  

Flash forward about a decade or so when I started my Yogic practice.  I became aware that I got very depressed around patriotic holidays such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the Forth of July.  My mind's association with the symbolism during those days triggered a deep Samskara in.  This is why symbolism is very important as you start your practice.  When looking at the world through the prism of Yoga, we see nothing more than a group of objects.  Matter is matter.  It's out association with these objects that determines our false identity as the mind and thoughts.  

Have you ever noticed in commercials for depression medication they tell you to contact a mental health care professional if you have suicidal thoughts?  I have been at that point and I will tell you it was a waste of time for me.  What helped me the most was realizing that I was not the thought of suicide.  A thought is just another subtle form of matter, it is not me.   Thoughts come and go like the rise and fall of the tide.  If we can do the hard work of identifying the triggers, we can begin to devolve their power.  Instead of drowning in the tide, we can sit on the surface and let the wave pass us as we sit in our boat of mental stillness.  

Kriya Lesson Number 2: Tarka

I'm hoping that you have found the time to Sit'n Chill for a few minutes a day.  Developing the habit of trying to meditate is about as important is the act itself.  We are, by nature, creatures of habit.

When you first taste inner tranquility or some sort of positive result, it creates the mechanism that propels you to seek deeper levels of understanding.

Yoga is a lot like unraveling that mess of cords behind your computer.  One day you find out that you can't pull your keyboard out as far as you would like too.  You look behind you desk and see the tangle of cords bundled up like a ball of yarn.  If you are like me, you will ignore that ball of spaghetti as long as you can.  At some point though, your internet goes out.  Oh crap, that one cord you need to communicate with the rest of the world is unplugged and you finally have to un-bundle the cords.  So you think you a slick by going wireless to subvert my analogy?  Ha! Lightening struck your house and you have to wait for the internet company to fix it.  I had to put that in there because I like to subvert analogies.

In our consciousness, we have tangles of thought patterns called samkaras.  In my last post, I spoke about how memories have subtle impressions associated with them.  In the beginning stages of Yoga, we try to first identify these impressions, then work to unattached ourselves from them.  Like Shrek said:

Shrek

: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think. 

Donkey

: Example? 

Shrek

: Example... uh... ogres are like onions! 

[

holds up an onion, which Donkey sniffs

] 

Donkey

: They stink? 

Shrek

: Yes... No! 

Donkey

: Oh, they make you cry? 

Shrek

: No! 

Donkey

: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs... 

Shrek

: [

peels an onion

] NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers... You get it? We both have layers.

This brings us concept of Tarka.  It's very simple in concept, but it can be hard to practice.  It's the beginning of self observation.  Go back and read my post about the different categories of thought.  What you are trying to do is become an observer of your own thoughts without passing any judgement upon them.  The very act of doing this starts the process of separating the consciousness from the thing we think of ourselves as: the mind.  

Start by keeping a journal of your thoughts and try to fit them into one or more of the five categories.  A good place to start is with the thoughts you find most disturbing.  Those thoughts are the ones that have the highest level of attachment .  I want you remember that you are not your thoughts.  You are pure consciousness entangled in a ball of thought cords that need straitening.  The result will eventually carry over into your St'n'Chill time.  That may be the best time to do it since your mind may be the most active.  If you have the time to carry a journal around with you during the day, go for it.  You are just observing and trying to categorize now, nothing else.  

Sutras 1.12 - 1.14: Starting Your Sadhana

1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.
1.13. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
1.14. This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without     interruption over a long period of time.

One thing we often look for in life is the "Easy Way" to do things.  Some of us like a challenge and will charge into any task.  Effort is all over the spectrum, but so is enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm for our practice is what gives us the positive motivation to go down the path and continue.

Any sort of devoted Yogic practice is called sadhana.  It is meant to be unique to each individual.  All of us are born into this world with many lifetimes of accumulated karma that we have to address sooner or later, so why not start now?  Sutra 1.12 is straight forward when it states that the thought streams are controlled by practice.  What about non-attachment?  That is the ultimate goal OF practice.  It's an odd dichotomy, practicing at letting go.

What do you think non-attachment is?  We hear about it a lot in eastern philosophy.  Let's go back to my last post of what the nature of thought is: the amount of attachment you have to anything is directly correlated to the impact it has on your life.   There is a difference between detachment and abstaining.  When one abstains from an activity and still suffers, they are attached.  I could quit drinking coffee today, but I would have one hell of a headache, therefore, just by abstaining from this activity does not make me detached.  I did quit smoking cigarettes about 10 years ago.  I am not bothered by them one way or another.  That is detachment.  The truly non-attached can preform their duties in the world without any thought to their consequences.   Non-attachment is also not indifference.  There are three types of fundamental actions in the universe, but I will get into those in the next set of Sutras.

Sutra 1.13 flows like a river throughout sadhana.  In some way the yogi is trying to secure balance in all things.  The hatha yogi tries to hold a position effortlessly.  While chanting mantra, bakti yogis try to perfect the meter and pronunciation while getting lost in devotion.  In this stage of practice, you are trying for the sake of trying.  Getting in to the habit of practicing in the first place is a huge step.

Ninety to one hundred days is generally where people tend to lose interest in practice.  This is what separates the sincere seeker from the dabbler.  Sutra 1.14 makes this clear.

Sutras 1.5 - 1.11: What is Thought?

1.5. The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.

1.6. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.

1.7. Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.

1.8. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.

1.9. Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.

1.10. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.

1.11. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.

This is going to be a long post, but it's well worth it.  These seven Sutras explain the makeup of though and how the mind attaches itself to it.  When dealing with the mind in Yoga, it is considered a separate entity.  Who do you think you really are?  What identifies your self concept?  If I were to ask you to compile a list, I think it would contain nothing more than thoughts, symbols and memories accrued over time.  The goal of attaining liberation and enlightenment lies beneath all of that.  One of my favorite analogies is comparing  the mind to looking at the reflection of the moon in a lake of water.  When the water is unsettled, you do not see the moon clearly for what it is.  So are the thoughts that run through the mind.  They scatter our perception of the true nature of reality by pulling our focus from here to there.  True yogic meditation does not begin until we start to sort through the waves breaking the image of our true selves.

So, sutra 1.5 and 1.6 state that there are five kinds of though which are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.  These thoughts are on a continuum of painful to non painful.

One disagreement that I have with the translation that I prefer the words attached and unattached instead of painful and non painful.

ATTACHED <===========================================> NON ATTACHED

All thought in the mind fall somewhere on this spectrum and differ from person to person.  For instance, if someone has a fear of heights, all the thoughts associated with that fear would be considered attached.  The same person could very well go up to a hornet's nest with a stick and beat on it with no fear.  I would still call that stupid, but that is not the point.  

The Five Types of Thought  

1.7 - Right Knowledge - is what is left over once all thought has become non-attached.  

1.8 - Wrong Knowledge - I like the following story, it helps explain.  Two men were setting on a hill when off in the distance a cloud of smoke appeared on the horizon.  One man jumped up an yelled Fire and ran to the nearby village to evacuate the residents.  The other man walked over to the spot where the smoke first appeared and saw no fire.  A gust of wind had blown a pile of dirt giving the appearance of smoke.  

We see wrong knowledge occurring all the time in our society.  People use confirmation bias, second had accounts and gossip in place of right knowledge.

1.9 - Fancy simply means day dreaming.  Weather we are fretting about something that has not happened, or thinking about something other than what you are doing at the time.

1.10 - Deep or dreamless sleep is more of a level of consciousness then a type of thought.  Dreaming while asleep is close to daydreaming.

1.11 Memory is the last type of thought.  These thoughts are tainted with the impressions of past experience.  In Sanskrit, these impressions are called Samskaras.  A Samskara is any sensory perception that accompanies a thought, which includes emotions.  Getting back to the example of the fear of heights: You may have fallen off a chair when you were a child, and the impression of that fall now accompanies you when an event triggers the thought.  Did you break your arm when you fell off the chair?  I bet that hurt.  Were you rushed to the hospital?  What was the doctor wearing when you got there?  Those are all the Samskaras associated with this knowledge.  Now, if you happen to stand on another chair, what are the chances you will fall again?

What Does a Vedic Astrology Birth Chart Look Like?

I am posting this to give you an idea of what a Vedic Astrologer looks at when trying to determine your Karma.  Since this system was never suppressed in India like it was in the west, an advanced system of mathematical calculations evolved and continues to evolve to this day.  The best astrologers are about 80 percent accurate.

These are called the Varga charts.  Not only is their a main birth chart, but a chart for other aspects of life such as marriage, children, luck and career.

The next area shows the strength of each planet, transit and house on many levels.

Next we have the positions of the planets in the zodiac.  This was taken today at about 12:15 Arizona time.

Finally, this is called the Dasa system, or the planetary clock that can be used to predict events to a specified time period.  

Sutra 1.4: Beginning to scratch the surface

1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.

This is the starting point for us in one form or another.  I do not mean that we all start out at the same level of conciseness, to the contrary, some of us are born with the natural ability to restrain though. The people that are able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat or at their own will amaze me.  Somehow, they are able to turn off or tune out the rush on mind noise and move into a different state on conciseness.  

This is a stage of meditation.  It is only natural to fall asleep when the mind is clear.  For some, like me, who have had trouble falling asleep, this is a great blessing.  Some of us have very active minds, we swim in the thought streams as we let our imagination run it's course.  These are the creative people and are also expressing a state of meditation, but on the opposite spectrum.  

So what is the goal and how do I get there?  Be prepared to be overloaded with more information about the mind then you have seen before.  Right after this sutra is where Patanjali gets into the surface mind and how it works. From there, he works into the various sub-strata, their functioning and how they interrelate with matter.  While you are doing the "Sit 'n Chill" exercise, you will learn how to observe senses, thoughts, impressions and how they interrelate in later Sutras.  Like I said before, the Sutras do not have any specific practices on how to accomplish this, but I will add them as I go along.  I also have been hesitant to us any Sanskrit terminology up until this point, but English does not always provide a good description and much gets lost in translation.  I will provide the best meaning and translations as I continue.

Kriya Yoga Lesson One: Where to start?

If you Google to word Yoga, you will get thousands of results.  In my opinion, this shows how murky the waters of practice have gotten over time.  It seems like every few years, there is a new type of Yoga that becomes popular, then will fade out and will make a comeback in a new form.  Do you remember the high top fade?  I heard it referred to as the black mans mullet, but now we see them coming back into style.  I don't even understand why people began hating on mullets in the first place?  It's a very practical hairstyle and I am proud to have sported one in high school.  My balding head prevents me from every having that kind of fun again.  Anyway, back to Yoga.  In the end, Yoga is Yoga.  It's all just a means to an end.  There are thousands of techniques that people use, some better than others.  What it comes down to is what works for each practitioner and to what level they want to take it.   Do you want to use Yoga to lose weight?  Go ahead and do the exercises.  Do you want to be able to fall asleep at a whim?  Go ahead and work on guided meditation.  Do you want liberation?  Kriya can help with that.

Kriya is Yoga is somewhat if a misnomer.  Kriya in Sanskrit means to do or to complete.  So just by taking the step of doing Yoga, you are doing Kriya.  Getting into more detail however, Kriya is considred Raja Yoga, or Royal Yoga.  It takes into account the greater whole of practice, takes what it perceives to be the "best of the best" and puts it into a systematic form of practice.  To me, what gives it credibility is it's direct link to the Yoga Sutras.  It's practices correlate to the Sutras to obtain specific results listed there in.

First rule:  Self Pacing.

Yep, I putting the pacing of practice solely on YOU, save for the stuff I decide not to tell you, which you could probably look up anyway.  As a general rule, people tend to either take on too much when they start, or just give up on it after a couple of tries.  Your goal is to be somewhere in the middle.  Yoga is more about the trip than it is the destination.  There are many stops along the way, but we do not want to hang out at each stop.  This does not mean that we are not allowed to enjoy the scenery.

Second Rule:  You are your own guru.

I'm breaking with thousands of years of tradition by saying this, but I find that you are your own best judge.  This whole journey is an individual experience.   Teachers are there for one reason, to guide a student.  Many end up becoming cults of personalities because they get stuck in the grandiosity of it all.

Third rule:  You get out what you put in

Simple enough.  You do the work and put in the time, you will get results.

Technique Number 1: The Sit'n chill.

It's that simple.  You just sit and chill out.  Find a place that you can rest for a while.  It doe not matter at this point.  The purpose of this is to start making the time.  Yoga practice is something that require as good deal of time, but you have to start somewhere.  That place should be somewhere that you are comfortable.  I am not saying that you have to lock yourself away in a room and stare at at candle.  That is great if you can do that, but I'm being realistic here.  If the best you got is sitting on the couch with your kids jumping all over you while you watch the cartoon you hate so much, just so long as you can begin to relax, go for it.  If you can spare an extra five to ten minutes before your alarm goes off in the morning, just lay in bed and enjoy the stillness before the day starts.  While laying in bed at the end of the day, take that few minutes before you start ruminating about all the garbage of the day or what you think might go wrong the next day.  Just make some time.

Sutra 1.3: State of the Seer

1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.

Sutra 1.2 explains the very beginning state of Yoga while Sutra 1.3 states the ultimate goal. To get a better understanding of this, I like to use the word "observer" rather than the word "seer". To be more specific, we can separate these into pure consciousness, which is the observer, and matter, the observed.

The natural state of consciousness is pure observation with no attachment. When a Yogi loosens the bonds of matter from which their consciousness has been trapped in for an untold amount of time, the true nature of the universe is seen. There are many different names for this state of being in other religions. In Yoga and Hinduism, it is called Moksha, or liberation. The Buddhists refer to this is the state of Nirvana and Zen. In Gnosticism, this is the final Gnosis, the ultimate knowledge. Final unity of the one with the whole. In this state, the Yogi has risen above all desires, even the desire to do good. There is no more reincarnation at this level, since there is nothing else to experience. The Ultimate Truth has been revealed.

Sutra 1.2: State of the Knower

1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.

Ray Parker Jr.

I woke up a couple of days ago with the Ghostbusters theme song running through my head. As I laid there in bed and tried to fall asleep, the song got louder and louder. After about an hour of this "who ya gonna call!" My answer was a lobotomist. This song was an example of a thought stream. It does not have to be a song however, it can just be a line of thinking set off by some sort of random stimulus. Have you ever driven by a restaurant you liked, then though, boy I really want to stop there? Then you thought about the last time you stopped there, the good or bad time you had, how dirty the bathrooms were. Now you remember that you need to clean your bathroom. Oh crap, I need to stop by the store to get some more cleaner!

These are both examples of thought streams and they are natural to the mind. One clear distinction, as Patanjali would refer to it, is "The Mind" not "Your Mind". Many think that identity is the thoughts put together in the mind. In Yoga, your mind is not you. You are the consciousness behind the mind and all its functions. This includes anything you identify yourself with: your memories, hopes, dreams, fears and awesome movie soundtracks. The mind in its natural state is nothing more than a lens though which we perceive thoughts.

The tradition of Sankya Yoga, in which Kriya Yoga is a part of, states that the world is a very real place and as entities of consciousness, we identify ourselves with this materiality. Matter therefore consists of anything that is not awareness.. Thoughts are nothing more than objects that the mind naturally attaches itself to during its entanglement in matter. The Atman, or the soel, is free from entanglements. It's ultimately the goal of Yoga to free our-self from these entanglements, uniting with the true self.

Sutra 1.1: What is Yoga

1.1 Now, instruction in Union

This is it, this is the very first sutra, but it's one of the most important.  One of the meanings of Yoga in Sanskrit is union.  It also means "Yoking", or the attaching of a plow harness to an animal. Specifically in this context, it means the complete realization of the Atman.  As I explained in my previous post about the connection between Vedic Astrology and Yoga, I spoke of the Atman as analogous to the soul.  This is about as close to an English definition that can be found.  A closer definition is that part of pure consciousness that lies at the heart of every separate entity that makes up part of the universal whole.  Yoga is the process of removing all the layers of being placed between our material awareness and the awareness of this pure, untainted part of the higher consciousness.

This sutra is so important because it does one thing that carries out through the entirety of Yogic practice: The intent to DO.  Simply by reading this, you are declaring a conscious intent to practice Yoga, weather or not you even read beyond this point.  "Now" is very important.  So important that Patanjali made it the first word.  "To declare the intent to seek instruction on living in nowness" is how I see it.  In later sutras, we will study how consciousness only exists in a state of the moment and how thoughts of past and future are not part of awareness itself.  

When the guru would teach his students, they would sit at his feet listening to each set of instruction. A general session would consist of a scriptural reading, then the guru's explanation of that reading. This is called Satsang in Sanskrit, and continues to this day in most major religions.

Into to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Around the year 250AD an author name Pantanjali took it upon himself to write down a list of verses into a grouping know as the Yoga Sutras.  In Sanskrit, sutra means thread, so think of these groupings of verses like threads woven into a tapestry to create a greater whole.  The whole text has less than 200 verses, making it very short from a reading perspective.  Each verse is shortened to deliver the most information with the least amount of wording possible.  Before the Yoga Sutras were written, they were passed down from teacher to student via the oral tradition.  This way, each guru would be able to teach the student their own perception of the sutras, being conveyed from their understanding and experience.

I my opinion, something is lost when a spiritual teacher dies and their thoughts are put into written format.  We lose a lot of the context of the delivery when this happens.  What was the teacher thinking at the time?  What sort of verbal inflections were being used as the words were spoken? Think about the United States Constitution and how much it has been amended by jurice prudence over the last 200 years.  What was the intent of the founders?  The one thing that the Yoga Sutras has is that the text, taken as a whole, was not meant as a one size fits all for the masses.  I like to call it a guidebook on the science of conciseness.

The content of the Yoga Sutras is divided into four chapters and lays out the Vedic perception of how consciousness interrelates with matter, how the atman or soul can become one with the whole and what the results of this are.  There are no direct instructions on what meditation technique to use, what positions to preform or instructions on how to still the mind and breath.  That is up to each individual to develop as they move down the path toward enlightenment.  I have been trained in the Kriya tradition of Yoga, which has it's own techniques which I will share as I do more commentary.  I will also share my experience on the path and what has worked and not worked for me.  Take what you find useful and throw the rest out.  The journey is for you and you alone to experience as you see fit, and no one can tell you otherwise.  What worked for me may not work for you and therefore keeps the tradition of self exploration intact.

The Unknown Bible

Growing up in the Catholic Church, I had a hard time understanding the format of the Bible.  We were never taught much of the history of the Catholic Church beyond what IN the bible.  Think about that...  the church is about 2000 years old, but I could not tell you much of the history between the time of Jesus's death and the say Pope John Paul the 2nd.  Even going to mass was difficult for me. Week in and week out it was the same thing.  I had a potty break perfectly timed so I could get through the more boring parts of the mass.  At least at the end I got a shot of wine and a cracker as a consolation prize.

I tried going back to the Catholic Church right about the time I began my studies in Kriya Yoga and Vedic Astrology.  Yoga itself was never meant to be a religious practice, so I do not see any conflict with one going to church and being an active meditator.  Well, I found out about these formerly hidden books called the Gnostic Gospels and that got me interested.

The story goes like this:  The church was a very different entity just after Jesus's death.  Many of his disciples were woman, and were given equal standing in the church, something that was considered heresy to other jewish sects.  Also, the Conical Bible does not mention anything about the life of Jesus between the ages of thirteen and the time he started his ministry in Isreal.  As Christianity started to flourish in the Roman Empire, so did the culture of the Roman Empire flourish in Christianity.  Along came the first Roman Emperor to embrace Christianity: Constantine the First. He called the First Counsel of Nicaea to standardize what was going to be in the Bible.  This was a literal death blow to the mystical study of Christianity know as Gnosticism.  Hunted down like witches, the Gnostics were put to death, their teachings now considered heresy.  

Flash forward to Egypt in 1945.  In the city of Nag Hammadi, a vase if found to contain several books of early Christian origin.  What they found is still being debated and analysed.  Gospels apparently written by the disciple Thomas and Phillip were found, with many other pieces of literature.   

Out of all these, my favorite is the Gospel of Thomas.  It is broken up into a number of "Sayings" instead of a pros format.  This is interesting to me because Vedic literature such as the Yoga Sutras has the same format.  A Sutra is a line of text broken down to convey the most amount of meaning with the least amount of words.  For centuries, these teachings were conveyed orally from teacher to student before they were written down around 250 AD, so it only prudent for brevity's sake.  

I intend to do further blog posts on the sayings contained in the Gospel of Thomas and how it relates to the Yoga Sutras and esoteric studies in general.  In the meantime, I invite you to check it out online for yourself.

  http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html

The connection between Vedic Astrology and Yoga

It's not know by many that the Vedic system is completely interconnected.  There are many branches of study, such as Yoga, Jyotish, and Ayurveda as examples.  Jyotish is the Sansrkit word for Vedic Astrology and it roughly translates to "the study of light".  How is this so?  The Vedic theory of evolution states that our soul is part of a greater whole, that greater whole being called God, the Universe or the Absolute.

Everything in existence from though, matter and energy is imbued with a small part of this greater whole, with each part trying to work itself back to the whole as it's sole purpose of existence.  For example, I like to use the analogy of the cells in our bodies.  There are many of them, all performing their different functions to make up the larger part of the whole know as our bodies.  Cells are born, reproduce and die.  Over the course of the full lifetime of a human, each cell is replaced at least once.  Now lets apply this to humanity as a whole.  Each of us goes about our business in life the best we know how at the time we know how to.  Like the cells in our body, we believe we have our function to perform and carry that out.  How does a cell know what it's function is?  Is a cell self aware?

Vedic Astrology treats humanity like one gigantic organism with each of it's component pieces controlled by karma.  Karma is much more complicated then tit for tat, according to Vedic Tradition, it is the law of causality that propels individual and soul evolution forward to it's inevitable reunification to the greater whole. over the course of multiple lifetimes.  At the time of your birth, your soul is considered connected to the material plane at the time of your first breath.  This sets the karmic law in motion, and this law is played out in the expression of light reflecting off the planets and their position at the time of birth.  Simply put, your birthchart is simply a map of your karma of this lifetime.

Now, Yoga is simply the study of how to shortcut the system of Karma.  There is much more to it then just doing poses, but unfortunately in America, it has been reduced to a set of exercises and stretching.  I will start a series on the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali in future blog posts to better explain the depth of Yoga.

Most people who have practices Yoga have heard of Chakras.  Each of the seven chakras is associated with a planet and sign in the zodiac.  As each planet makes it's trip around the zodiac, it will trigger a chakra or combination of chakras in which your karma is stored.  In a way, each chakra is associated with an gland in the endocrine system.  Karma manifests itself in the biological or psychological urge to do something.  To paint a picture, imagine that karma are seeds stored in each chakra.  The planets associated with that chakra will release that seed into nervous system where it will take hold an sprout into the fruition.  One of the goals of Yoga is the "burn" these seeds before they are released, thus mitigating karma from manifesting in certain ways.  Jyotish by itself simply predicts the type and timing of the seeds release.

Life as a Yogi Part: One

The never ending process to figure out what is wrong with yourself, some sort of psychological hypochondria.  That is how I lived most of my adult life, skipping from therapist to psychiatrist, counselor to psychologist, mainly in a viene attempt to find sleep of all things.  At that time, all I really wanted out of life was a good nights sleep and just a little of not having to deal with any shit that came my way.  One of the hardest things I had to come to grips with was my obvious alcoholism.  By obvious, I mean subtle, but really I mean obvious. 

The first time I ever got intoxicated was, ironically, behind a liquor store when I was 15.  I had tried some alcohol before, but it was nothing more then a couple of sips of hard liquor and maybe some malt liquor here and there.  This time it was going to be Mission Accomplished.  I did not have to walk out on to the deck of an aircraft carrier in a some sort of PR stunt in a flight-suit to get this done.  Just plug my nose and guzzle it.  The mission was accomplished and I loved it all the way up to the puking part.

The next day I laided on this wicker sofa in the back room of my house watching my mother iron some cloths, just complaining how sick I was.  I hated the stuff at the time.  Why the hell would anyone want to pay this price for something that tasted so shitty?  That, at least for the moment, kept me off the hooch for a couple of years.  It was not until much later in life I discovered this was part of the issue

Now, as time went on, I just could not put things together.  I could tell that there was something different about myself.  I never fit in with anybody.  I had at least two groups of friends, one of them was the group that would deal with my drinking, at least until I turned into a cocky mofo, then the other group was where I went when I wanted a break from the daily grind of drug use.  To me, I figured if I could cobble together a couple of days of sobriety between benders, I was ok.

I met Dr. Holloway in 2004.  He was an older psychologist, but he also was not indoctrinated into the failed cabal that is modern psychiatry.  If anything, he was a hippie that traded his hair for a suit and tie, plus a fancy degree on the wall.  There was one difference between him and the others I had been to see up until that point.  He had done a lot of Yoga, not just the stretchy Yoga that people claim men to do get at their junk*, but honest meditative Yoga.  He gave me a book to read "Autobiography of a Yogi".  That set me off on a long a complicated path of self discovery and awareness that continues to this day.

*By junk I mean penis.