What Does Quantum Physics Say About Consciousness?

First of all, I am an armature physicist with a superficial understanding of quantum mechanics.  It's becoming a popular trend in the New Age and spiritual community to use this superficial understanding of quantum physics to justify slinging quackery like "The Secret".  Have you ever seen that movie?  It would make it seem like all you have to do is imaging yourself driving a Ferrari or getting some random check in the mail and the "Law of Attraction" will make it happen.  By now, I'm sure most of the people that have seen that movie realize the only person getting checks in the mail or driving a Ferrari is Rhonda Byrne, the author of the movie.

This is why I am glad we have scientist out there to put hucksters into check.  I think though, that most scientists have the same wonderment of the Universe as many spiritual seekers do.  That natural curiosity drives us to seek out answers to what we don't understand.  Yoga uses it's own set of rules, just like traditional scientific method, to guide a person to conclusions about nature.  I do not think either one was meant to become a set of dogmatic rules to validate confirmation bias as we see people do so much of today.

So I still have my love of science, especially quantum physics and astronomy.  One things that I find peculiar is how a particle is a wave until it's observed, then it becomes a particle.  Physicists are still trying to solve this perplexing issue, although the math is spot on.  The best scientific explanation I have read is that whenever we try to observer a quantum particle, such as an electron, the photons used to do the actual observation of the particle change the nature of the particle itself.  On the other hand, could our conscious expectations actually influence the result?

In my earlier posts, I speak about how the primary principal of Yoga is that we are all consciousness entangled in matter, and by clearing out our associations with matter, we become free.  Some philosophers has hypothesized that the lines between spirituality, science and art will slowly erase over time and all will merge into one. 

The human capacity to project consciousness on to the environment is astounding.  With our own selective interpretations, we see what we want to see.  Perhaps as we go along, we can move past this instinct and grow collectively.

The Wierd Kid - Expanded Palate Edition

Have you ever seen the show "The Middle"?  Brick is a socially awkward kid that has his quirks.  I was that kind of kid.  One of the oddest habits I had was to chew on and or eat things that you would never think to put in your mouth.

The first dumb idea I got was from "The Never Ending Story".  Do you remember the rock biter?  His name is self explanatory.  Well I could not bite rocks, but what better way to show how awesome I was by swallowing them.  Hey, check this out!  I actually was able to swallow a couple of rocks.  I was surprised at how easy it was, I mean, it was all about the size.  I must have been six at that time, but I never found out what happened to those stones.  Use your imagination.

I think I liked to chew on things to cope with boredom.  What is more boring to a kid than church?  Being forced to sit through the same thing week in and week out on rock hard wooden benches with no air conditioning.  My church had these yellow colored enameled pews that were kind of old at the time.  I remember I would see those pews with certain areas missing their lacker.  One day I thought it would be a good idea to latch on to the pew and just start gnawing away at it.  My family usually sat in the same area, so I would return to the same pew each week and work on trying to make the hole in the pew complete.  Weeks went by, I became out of control.  One week it was just my father and I.  Now I went for it.  I started at my regular gnawing hole and chewed up the hole pew about 10 feet along the rail until a reached the end.  Another parishioner noticed the damage I was doing and told my dad, who was obviously zoned out.  He left in embarrassment with his proud beaver in tow.

So, who finally put a stop to this?  Why my middle school German teacher.  I had the unfortunate privilege of sitting at the front of the class.  I had this love hate relationship with the German language, or any language: that stupid thing called grammar.  By the time we had gotten to the gender of nouns, I had tuned out.  I mean, it was like boring math for language. 

I don't know why, but I found chewing on the binding of my German book and looking out the window more interesting then class.  There I was, minding my own business, when the German teacher stopped the class, grabbed the book and proclaimed "Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin likes the class so much, he devours the book!"  I guess he was not the subtle type, being from Germany and all.

Yup, all in a days work for the Weird Kid.

Sutra 1.39 - Keep an open mind.

1.39. Or by meditation as desired.

You could lump sutras 1.34 though 1.39 together because they all involve suggestions for enlightenment.  I broke them up because of the deeper ramifications of each element. 

So that leaves us with the last Sutra in the grouping: 1.39, which I happen to be thinking about the other day.  Earlier in my blog, I spoke about the need to develop a consistent meditation routine when you are a beginner.  It gets the mind into the habit, which gives inertia to your practice.  Have you ever started exercising for the first time?  The initial routing is different then in the general intent to get in shape.  I get bored with things after doing them for a while. 

Now here we get into an interesting difference between Yoga and religion.  Religion tends to be a set a dogmatic rules.  For instance, I belonged to the group Self Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda.  It was the first major Kriya Yoga institution in the United States.  If you read SRF literature, you would get the impression that you are practicing the best of the best form of Yoga.  So that is what I did.  Day after day for about five years, I never waivered from my Yoga routine, even at the expense of taking care of other important things in life.  Yoga had become a religion to me.

Not long after, I fancied myself to be some great Yoga Guru and joined the Temple of Kriya Yoga Seminary Program lead by Goswami Kriyananda.  The completely flipped my perception of practice upside down.  To this day, I never finished the program.  I realized that I did not need to have some sort of title to get closer to understanding the Universe.  Hey, if you feel you do, go for it.  If I had stayed on the path I was taking, I would have never gotten exposure to other awesome traditions such as Buddhism, Taosim and even loosing my love for scientific inquiry. 

So now I like to find out what works best for me by seeing what is most effective.  I share that with you because it works for me and that is the best I have to offer.  Don't get too stuck in your own routine and fear exploring things outside the path.  You have more fun playing in the woods off the trail anyway.

Sutra 1.38 - Mr Sandman.

1.38. Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.

Do you like to keep track of your dreams?  I have tried to find meaning in my dreams.  In Yoga, the wake and sleep cycle has just as much meaning as the cycle of reincarnation.  Like in Sutra 1.34, we work out our spiritual evolution through cycles of experience in order to evolve our consciousness.  In one part of the Sutras it states that sleep is one of the forms of delusion our consciousness must endure when entangled with matter.  So how does this play out in dreams?

In the practice of Kriya Yoga, a person tries to gain mastery over the wake in dream cycle through the use of symbolism and lucid dreaming.  What happens during dreams is a symbolic representation of the subconscious mind that works it's way into material existence.  Esoterically speaking, symbolism in dreams can be found in the material world, if we pay attention.

Do you remember your dreams?  I am sure you have heard of keeping a dream journal.  Keep one if you can and write down any dreams you have had.  According to Yogic timing, it takes three days for what is called the tanas, or feel of the dream, to manifest.   Was it scary?  Was it pleasurable?  Take note and see.

If you have the abililty to lucid dream, good for you.  You have a way to work through the symbolistic karma during the sleep cycle.  For instance, lets say I'm being chased by a giant red snake.  Perhaps in three day time, some circumstances may arise when I have some fearful experience associated with the color red.  "Oh that could be anything" or "Oh that's so vague it could mean anything".  Well shut-up.

Sutra 1.37 - The Object of Concentration.

1.37. Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.

Meditation is a odd thing in Yoga.  On one hand, we try to let things go as much as possible, but on the other, we try to develop effortless concentration.  As things come into the mind, training it to either latch on to it or let it go takes a long time. 

There are many "objects of meditation".  In Kriya Yoga, the object of meditation is the spot at the base of the nose, called the third eye, or the Ajna Chakra.  If you have ever wondered why Hindu's have the dot on their forehead, it's to represent this location. 

At some point though, many objects of meditation become religious symbolism and lose their meaning altogether.  This sutra refers to "ones that are freed of compulsion".  This is a direct reference to holy men and women, considered to be pure.  Just as Catholics worship the Virgin Mary or Jesus, Hindus have many objects of worship in the form of deities. Krisha, for example, is considered a pure embodiment of the preserver god Vishnu.

How does this work?  When one focuses on the object of meditation, the essence of that object is meant to be absorbed by the mind, thereby blocking out other distractions.  Let's say I decide to Meditate on Favor Flav.  On the surface, Mr. Flav bounces around the stage for Public Enemy, going Yeeah Boi!  Chuck D admitted they keep him around because he is the worlds best hype man.  Now if you have seen him on the many reality shows that he has been on, there is a deeper quality to Mr. Flav.  He is a very intelligent and deep thinker.  A philosopher of the street. 

Don't pick him as a object of meditation, but a hope you get the point.  I like to use mantra chanting myself because I can focus on the vibrational quality of the syllables.  The calming and joyful sensation is the feeling behind the mantra itself, which is then meditated upon.

Sutra 1.36 - The Blue Light Special

1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light

Hey, a Sutra I can comment on!  I was not a big fan of the last one, but as one of my good friends pointed out, it might be good to use other translations.  I have been using the one from

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm

 for continuities sake.  So here we go again.

Have you seen those spots in the darkness after you close your eyes?  Science calls this biophotonic light and has it's own theories on it: 

http://scienceline.org/2014/12/why-do-we-see-colors-with-our-eyes-closed/

These lights have a deeper meaning in Yoga.  In fact, they form one of the cornerstones of Kriya Yoga called the Jyoti Mudra.  Mystically speaking, those lights are considered a reflection of the third eye chakra.  According to Yoga, if you practice the Jyoti Mudra (Jyoti means light in Sanskrit)  a practitioner can get the blobs to form a circle of light that looks like a golden iris.  Once this form can be held without effort, the meditator tries to consciously move through the iris.

Yoga states that this is the doorway through which the soul passes upon death, or the tunnel of light which we pass through on our way to the afterlife. 

I have done the Jyoti Mudra for many years and I can tell you, at least, that the golden iris exists .   I have never been able to hold it without effort for more then a minute or so.  At one point, I had the iris become a three dimensional tunnel.  In another case, the door opened to visions of multicolored lights in the forms of DNA strands.  I was high as s kite at that point, so does that even count?

I do not suggest practicing the Jyoti Mudra on it's own.  When I used to do it, it was part of a full meditation routine.  It's a nice compliment to it though.  Paramahasa Yogananda has a great article about it here:

http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_eye1.html

Sutra 1.35 - This Sutra Does Not Make Sense.

1.35. Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.

When I read this sutra I find it odd.  It seems out of place given the tone of the rest of book one, but I am going to try my best given that contradiction.  Nothing is perfect, not even a text that I would consider perfect myself.  Better to admit that then to force something into some perceived mold.

In Yoga, our senses have two faculties: the actual senses organs and the perception of the sensation of those organs.  Personally, I have found this a hard concept to grasp (no pun intended) because we have the brain and how it interoperates these signals into our consciousness.

Another contradiction with this sutra is that, in Yoga, any sense input can be considered a distraction from the stillness of the mind.

Well, sorry for the crappy blog post.  Feel free to weigh in on it with your own impressions.

Sutra 1.34 - The cycles of life

1.34. Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.

Yogic time runs in cycles.  The largest cycles are called Yugas, which chart the rise and fall of human civilization.  Depending on your interpretation, this can last as long as the precession of the equinox, or up to trillions of years on the cosmic scale.   The Vedic Astrologer, Swami Sri Yukteswar charted the cycles by equinox procession, so I tend use that, given my astrology background.

On a personal level, if we are to accept the cycle of death and rebirth according to karmic law, we get the next form, reincarnation. 

OK, now assuming that there are some of you that take that as complete crap, let me break it down on a secular level.  From the standpoint of astronomy, we do not know for sure that the universe itself runs in cycles of the big bang and the big crunch and so on.  From my understanding, we know that stars revolve around super-massive black holes at the center of the galaxy.  We have the obvious changing of the seasons as the earth revolves around the sun.  Day becomes night, night becomes day. 

Biologically speaking, our body keeps track of time via the circadian cycle of wake and sleep.  Finally, we get to the smallest cycle in Yoga, and therefore the most important: breath.

This is why Yoga puts so much emphasis on breath.  If we can control our breath through the smallest cycle, it gives us control of larger cycles, and therefore we can change our karma over time. 

Prana is the universal energy, analogous to Chi in Taoism, that gives animation and volition to life.  The cycle of breath takes in this energy and feeds the body.  Have you every seen someone break five cinder blocks just by using their forehead?  No you haven't, because they are probably dead or in the hospital with a concussion.  With the use of the practice of pranayama, or breath control, the Yogi can achieve balance though breath techniques.

Sutra 1.33 - Taking on the A-Team

1.33. By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.

"

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team"

Oh Hell Yeah!!!!

How awesome is the A-Team?  Awesome enough to use as an example for Sutra 1.33.  This Sutra basically gives us examples of behavior and how best to cope with them.  It's straight forward and one of those sutras that says "If you do the opposite of what you are doing, you will get the opposite result."  Not quantum physics here.

Indifference towards vice is a way of understanding what might have a grip on our consciousness, causing negative traits we may not like. Templeton Peck, played by Dirk Benedict, is a con man, but he rocks it.  His indifference to his own vice gives him the ability to help the team in the way he does best.  In our own lives, we need not beat ourselves about what we know.  Acknowledge and move on. 

Blessed are the loons, for they shall inherit the Earth.  Maybe they have already.  Gladness towards virtue is an attitude that allows us to embrace all parts of ourselves.  Does Murdock know he is insane?  He doesn't care. 

I think Hannibal is a happy guy in general.  He gets to dress up and use his half-assed attempts to get the team out of trouble.  Friendliness towards happiness cultivates the attitude of accepting happiness in our lives without excitement.  There is a difference between happiness and excitement.  One is a the temporary rush we get when something positive happens.  Happiness is a long lasting feeling of contentment accepting things as they are.

Compassion towards misery.  Mr T pities fools! 'nuff said.

If you are truly honest with yourself, you can take stock in some of the qualities that block you from leading a happy life.  Be careful though.  In a world that thrives on negativity, there are people that are more then willing to pounce on you for negative character traits.  I think we live under the guise that there is always SOMETHING we can improve about ourselves and many of us go on some sort of crusade to make ourselves conform to the expectations of others.

Yoga and the Nature of Evil: What Would Mumm-Ra Say?

So what is Evil.  Another big question that is hard to answer unless you are a computer.  Binary thinking is something that something that should probably be left for computers and not for people.  In yoga, were have a few guides to help us delve into what is considered evil and what is not.  Basically these are the Yamas and Niyamas, a list of do's and don't for aspiring Yogis.  In Yoga, there is no definition of evil, just levels of ignorance.

When I talk about ignorance, it's basically the refusal to listen to your own internal truth.  If you want to look at this from a Judeo-Christian point of view, Satan is the embodiment of desire, and takes one away from the realization of God.  I take this as metaphor, symbolizing the souls entanglement in materiality and the Yogi's battle to untangle the mind. 

Thundercats was an awesomely cheesy kids show from the 80's.  I loved this cartoon, but never got any of the toys.  The transformers always won out in the end.  So Mumm-Ra is the big baddie in this series, but is he really?  In one of his trials to become the Lord of the Thundercats, Lion-o must defeat the evil Mumm-Ra. 

Totes chuckin' your Tempursophigus into your nasty Koi Pond

Now, lets look at this from Mumm-Ra's perspective.  Here he has been living on Third Earth for all these millennia, and here comes the Thundercats, who happen to crash land on his planet.  Now they go about busting up his hood to make it into what they perceive as "good"

Male lions, in nature, are know to eat the litters of other female lions in order to get them to reproduce with them.  I don't know how know this bodes for WilyKit and WilyCat.  I mean, in real life they should have been McNuggets by now.

Each individual has their own issues to deal with.  In my opinion, the less open to acknowledging your inner truth, the more you get trapped in your own material bubble.  Adhering strictly to one idealism at all costs has lead to so much suffering in the world today.  Let's face it, if the case of Good vs. Evil were that simple, it would have been solved already

Ahimsa - What is non-violence?

Do you know anyone that claims to be a pacifist?  Is there anyone around you the preaches peace?  It's a hard thing to find, at least in the main stream media and news papers.  Fear sells, and it sells quit well.  I mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but the point of this one is to go further in depth into the Yogic concept of non-violence.

Ahimsa has three levels to it.  The first level is action, the second level is speech and the third level is though.  I can't not use Homey the Clown as an example.

Homey the Clown, didn't mess around.  He didn't take any crap from anyone.  So let's take a look at how Homey can server as an example of non-violence.  First, we have Homey's actions.  This angry clown carried around a sock full of something, maybe chalk.  If you pissed-off Homey the Clown, he would hit you with his sock.  "I don't think so! Homey don't play dat!"  This is an act of violence.  Homey clearly hit the poor kid with his chalk sock thingy.  Acts of violence tend to spread into other acts of violence.  Homie inspired a generation of people to start hitting their siblings with socks.  Sorry Mike. 

Violent speech is something that can hurt us just as much as physical violence.  If you can't hurt someone physically, then speech, or in this case, writing as well, can inflict damage.  Homey had a bad attitude.  I mean, the dude constantly complained about complaining.  "Speak softly and carry a big sock"  Right, keep those kids in line. 

Now this next level is the most important and fundamental.  While we will never be able to get inside Homie the Clown's head, we can probably guess at what he is thinking.  Violent though can be the source of violent behavior.  There is, however, no level with greater personal significance.  I will admit that it's a very high standard to hold anyone to non-violent though.  Good thing no one will ever really know but you, right?

Let's go into some examples of what is considered non-violence.

Defending one's self out of preservation is not considered an act of violence, if you have it in your mind that you have no other recourse.  Many a person has went to a martial arts class hoping to come out with the ability to kill a man with one touch.  The first thing that they will teach in many self defense classes is the best way to win a fight is to never get into one in the first place. 

Phony altruism for the sake of self aggrandizement is not a form on non-violence.  How many times have we seen charities or millionaires donate money with the caveat that their name be inscribed on the side of the building, or having a fund put in their name.

Do you like to protest?  How do you feel toward the people you are protesting?  Do you wish them harm or hope that they will drop dead?  There is a lot to say about loving your enemy, as Jesus taught. 

To know yourself is to know your tendencies.  So you might be violent now on some level.  So what.  We all are to some extent.  The ability to recognize your own tendencies and work to resolve them is the best anyone can be expected to do.  Advanced meditators can bring their peaceful awareness into the world and see what part they play in the cumulative violence in the world.  There will never be any edict, law or mandate that trumps self-empowerment.

Sutra 1.32 - There's "the truth" and there's The Truth

1.32. For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.

Now that we are done with the list of all the bad stuff that can happen in the mind, lets move on to the solution.  I'm a big Simpsons fan.  I see qualities in the characters that somehow relate to Yoga.  The title of this article is a direct reference to Lionel Hutz, the shady attorney who only poor Homer can afford.  In the episode "Realty Bites" Marge become a realtor.  While trying to sell properties, Lionel tells her that there are two versions of The Truth.  Do you know what I am talking about?  Well, go watch the episode.  It's funny.

In order to get to the one truth, we have to get to our own truth.  They are one in the same.  Often we mistake someone elses truth for our own.  Through the practice of Kriya Yoga, Meditation and other awareness practices, we arrive at our truth.  So what if my truth is not your truth.  As soon as I begin to make my truth into other's truth, it looses it's meaning.  When you get to the point of know what your truth is, wear it like an old pear of jeans that you cannot get rid of. 

Yoga gives us the gift and curse of awareness of ourselves.  The one truth in Yoga is called Bindu, or one pointedness.  It is a baseline that we establish that all other experiences are measured against.  That baseline changes over time as we come to understand more about the nature of reality. 

Going on about ten years of meditating for an hour twice daily, my version of the truth has changed dramatically.  First I became aware of things in my personality that I did not like about myself.  The next step was to try to eliminate those as much as possible.  Realizing that this was a futile attempt, I began to embrace them.  Just being aware of them gave me a choice of how I can react to certain situations.  Modern psychology calls this Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and has found it more effective then medications when dealing with anxiety.  When I moved passed all that crap, I became comfortable with my truth and it opened to gate to the Universal Truth. 

Sutra 1.31

1.31. Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.

More bad news?  The laundry lest of obstacles is growing longer isn't it?  Do not despair, because if you do, you are already running into another obstacle.  Bad jokes aside, the obstacles above are a different categorization of the thought process and do not necessarily coexists with the list of mind junk listed in the previous post.   When I get closer to the end of book one, I will bring all of these together.  Think of the list above as the result of the list in Sutra 1.30

Pain - Research has shown that there is a direct link between how we feel and how our bodies react to those feelings.  Do you ever get tension in your body?  Practices such as Hatha Yoga work to relive that tension.  While beneficial, as we work through the Yoga Sutras, we are also burning the candle at both ends, meaning that we try to work on this from the inside out as well.  Medication will expose pain that you never even knew was there. 

Despair - When we don't get what we want when we want it, we tend to fell this emotion.  We live in a society of expectations, both person and ones heaped upon us by others.  It takes work to lead a life without expectation.  I will tell you the only thing you can really count on in life is that things will change.

Nervousness - This one gets me all the time.  We can look at our culture for some insight into this feeling.  How much of our culture is fear driven?  When we live in a state of fear, we cannot focus our attention and keep it in the present.  I see this as the opposite of despair, because it's fretting over something that might happen vs. something that we have not gotten.  Honestly, I can't help myself sometimes.  Even as I sit here typing this, my palms are sweaty and I worry about what might happen.  Choosing IT can be good for a nervous person.  That is what I did in High School, mostly out of desperation of my terrible grades and nervousness about the future.  See how that works?

Disordered Inspiration - This is a half-assed attempt to make something that clearly is not working, work again.  Wile E Coyote sees a gigantic rock falling toward his head and takes out a mini coctial umbrella to hold over his head. 

Expiration - Can you sweat it?  Well, this does not necessarily pertain to that.  One major limb of Yoga is called pranayama, or loosely translated as breath control.  Have you ever been told to take a deep breath?  The obsticles in Sutra 1.30 result in irregular breath.  Breath itself is such an unconscious act, that we may not even notice when we have irregular breath.  If you have been using the Hong-Saw technique, good for you.  That is meant to help in this case.

Sutras 1.29 and 1.30

1.29. From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.

1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.

So have you been meditating?  At all?  I hope you have, because if that is the case, I hope you have learned something about yourself.  If at all, at least you should have gotten some piece of mind.  Honestly, though, this is not the case much of the time.  We will naturally run into obstacles along the way. 

Sutra 1.29 tells us to expect this obstacles.  We need to know them like a the back bumper of a Wisconsin driver in the left lane.  You try to get around it, but all you see is the bumper of the thing that is frustrating you the most.  At some point you hope the driver will be curious and move into the right lane so you can get on with it. 

Sutra 1.30 is straight forward about these obstacles.  Take them for what they are at face value now, but know that not all of them appear in all of us at the same time and with the same intensity.

Disease -  The could mean diseases of the body or diseases of the mind.  This is why yoga spends a lot of time focusing on diet and right living.  Unfortunately, this has become the main focus of what many people think of as Yoga.  Sorry, just because you are a Vegan or a Vegetarian does not mean you will reach enlightenment.  It sure makes Whole Foods a lot of money.

Inertia - This is the lack of willingness to change when we KNOW we need to change.  Meditation should help you untangle that ball of sting I have been talking about.  This is about overcoming denial and the mechanism that keeps it in place, rationalization.  It takes time to sort some of this stuff out, but as you do, you life will become easier as confidence builds

Doubt - Well, at least justified doubt.  It is ok to be a critical thinker, but deliberately being a contrarian for arguments sake veils the truth.

Lack of Enthusiasm - If you don't like doing Yoga at all, it's not the path for you.  Enthusiasm is the gas the drives the engine of our practice.  Generally, the better the results the more enthusiastic you will become.

Laziness - Get off your ass and practice already, or if you sit on your ass, at least meditate

Sensuality - Sex is a deep topic in Yoga and is integrated with the study.  When we speak of doing Kundalini Yoga, it is meant to drive the sexuality of the lower chakras up through the spine into the brain via the central nervous system.  Sex is not bad and should be enjoyed.  We are looking for balance though.  In later sutras, the sexual drive is mentioned as one of the four primal fountains, something that, at best, can be redirected.

Mind Wandering - Part of meditation is letting go at the same time as focusing.  Some will tell you that getting lost in daydreaming is meditation, it is not. 

Missing the Point - I have to go back and look at other translations, since I do not think this is the best one. 

Instability - Our outer lives are a direct reflection of our inner lives and vice versa.  When we clearly see that something on the outside is effecting us in a negative way on the inside, we must address that issue.  If our outer lives are in order, it naturally leads to inner peace and makes meditation easier.

Sutra 1.28 'Sup with that Om thing - Part 2

1.28. The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.

This is a very deep subject and ultimately can only be understood intuitively.  Coincidentally, I am writing this on the same day that Leonard Nemoy passed away.  How better to explain the meaning of Om through the Vulcan philosophy of "infinite diversity in infinite combinations".  Pretty mind blowing huh?  That is what Om is, in a sense. 

In Hindu mythology, the God brought forth the word in through the his voice of primordial vibration of Om.  It's has it's parallel in the Bible "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"  It's the first verse in the Book of John.  So, we Yogis tend to draw a parallel between the two for better or worse.  So, with this, what was one broke into many, then into infinity, only to be brought back into the whole.  That is how I understand it at least.  By understanding a piece of the whole, we understand the nature of the whole itself, because the whole, by it's own nature, is indestructible and infinite. 

So, if we chant Om enough, we will eventually, and intuitively understand it's meaning.  Honestly, in practice, I have not had much luck doing this.  In Yoga, there are thousands of Mantras you can use.  I happened to have a racing mind, so longer mantras are better for me.  When I have sat in meditation, in my the chanting has played out like this:  Oooooommmm, Oooommmmm, Oooommmm, what's on the Walking Dead tonight? 

Some practices in Kriya Yoga help one hear the vibration of Om by doing a practice called the Jyoti Mudra.  It takes a long time to master, so if you Google it, keep that in that back of your head.

Sutras 1.27 'Sup with that whole Om thing? Part 1

1.27. God's voice is Om.

So what's up with that whole Om thin?  I mean, we see Yogi's chanting it all the time.  The symbol is all over bumper stickers, T-shirts and everything else Yoga related.  Well, to start out with, let me dispel one misconception: It's pronounced Aum, not Om.  Why?  First lets look at it's origins, the Sanskrit alphabet called

Devanagari. 

The

Devanagari alphabet is a map of the human vocal range, with it's letters pointing to positions of the tongue and throat and amount of aspiration used in each base vowel.  Now, when you say the word Aum, notice how the beginning of the word works it's way from the back of the throat to the tip of the tongue.  Thus it is said to encompass the whole human vocal range, excluding belching out the Star Spangled Banner (BTW don't try to do that, it's a bad idea, not that I would know). 

So, in sutra 1.27, we say that God's voice is Om since it encompasses the full vocal range.

There is a much deeper meaning to the symbol.  In Yoga, Om is called a Bija syllable, or a root vowel in which mantra is performed.  In fact, it is considered THE root syllable.  Mantra works by using the vibratory nuance of Sanskrit syllable to rewire our nervous system.  If you chant a mantra long enough, it becomes part of you in a way.  I use it myself to steady the mind and get rid of nasty thoughts that hang out like a bad roommate that steals your food and hoards the air conditioning (sorry guys). 

Sutras 1.25 and 1.26: A Small Introduction to Mantra

1.25. In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.
1.26. Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.

Continuing on our voyage into the qualities of the Atman, or that little piece of God imbued in everything, we are given a closer glimpse into It's nature.

A grouping of writings called the Upanishads speaks heavily on this subject.  My favorite is called the Isha Upanishad.  It's opening incantation can be used as a mantra.  During my studies with Goswami Kriyananda, I was given this Mantra to contemplate:

 oḿ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaḿ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate 

Which roughly translates to: Om ! That (world) is a complete whole. This (world) too is a complete whole. From the complete whole only, the (other) complete whole rose. Even after removing the complete whole from the (other) complete whole, still the complete whole remains unaltered and undisturbed.

Did you get that?  Makes perfect sense right? So goes attempting to understand something that has no form, but trying to put it into an understandable form.  When I chanted the Mantra above, I did it in Sanskrit, doing a full Mala at least once a day.  A mala is that necklace of beads worn by Yogic practitioners to keep count.  One necklace will always contain 108 beads.  

The power of the Sanskrit language does not reside in what it says, but the quality of how it is said. 

While chanting a mantra, you begin by saying it out loud.  The next step is the say the mantra out loud in you mind. Finally, nearing the end of the mala, what is left over is a "feeling" that the mantra gives you.  That feeling, is the intuitive sense of what the mantra is trying to convey.  Holding on to that feeling during formal meditation ingrains it into the subconscious.  

Mantra chanting can be done on it's own or part of a larger meditative practice.  I recommend it for anyone who has a noisy mind.  After about six month of doing a mala once a day, the mind will be calm and allow you to go deeper into meditation.  

There is so much more to Mantra then what I have said above.  I will include more in future lessons.

1.24 - The Ladder.

1.24. God is a particular yet universal indweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.

The next few Sutras go into the nature of God according to Yoga.  In Vedic tradition God is typically referred to as the Unknown, Truth, Unmanifested Absolute, Eternal Bliss and so on.  Yoga, instead of giving an actual definition of God, like a dude with a white beard in the sky, gives us the tools to know God as we are able to intuit.  To give you some more background, let me show you the four levels of existence spoken about in the Yogic tradition.

Unmanifested Absolute:

I like this term in particular for the what is considered God in Yoga.  Whatever does not exist in our physical conciseness, exists itself, as pure conciseness.  Pure awareness of all that

is

.  The trouble with trying to explain what this level is with actual words is that as soon as you put it into words it looses it's meaning all together.  So we go to our Yoga practice to reach this state in an intuitive manner, so that it can be understood for what it is, not what others say we think it should be.  

Realm of Thoughts:

In this state of awareness, everything exists as an idea.  There is nothing attached to this idea in the form of Samskaras.  For instance, let's take the idea of a table.  When a carpenter has an idea of how he wants to make a table, it starts at this level and works it's way down through creation into existence.  So the carpenter gets the inkling to make the table.  This is also why this is called the causal realm.  

Realm of Symbolism

In the this state of consciousness, ideas have symbolism attached to the idea brought forth.  Going back to the example of the table, the carpenter thinks what kind of table he will make.  What kind of wood is going to be used to make the table?  If the carpenter decides to use some sort or embroidering or wood work on the table, what kind of design should be used and what kind of emotion will the provoke to onlookers.  

Material Realm

This is self explanatory.  Where we live and what we see now. The Sutra talks about the indweller, which is untouched by any actions or impression.  Every speck of creation on the material realm has as it's source, part of the Unmanifested Absolute.  What started as nothing, made it's way down through the levels of conciseness to become the idea of what it ought to be, given it's attachments and what symbolism we give it.  

So, Yoga seeks to reverse the process.  We start at the bottom and work our way up to the top.   

Sutra 1.23: What Surrender To God Means.

1.23. Or by surrender to God.

Part of me thinks I should have grouped this in with the last set of Sutras because it talks about walking the path, but it is a segue into the next line set of sutras which gets heavy into the whole meaning of God in the Yogic text.

Surrender to God in the Yoga Sutras can have many meanings.  Some take this to mean the literal surrender to a higher being of power.  I take it to mean having the willingness to adhere to what you believe is true, and having the willingness to change when you know you are wrong.  Don't deliberately lie to yourself.

Yoga works to release us or our Karma, but that is not always a fun process.  Like I have said in earlier posts, when we take a look inside ourselves, there may be things that we do not like.  While you are digging in your backyard to plant a tree, you may run into a power line or a sewage pipe. Digging through our inner psyche can be shocking or just down right shitty.  The typical response is to not even bother digging in the first place.  Why would you try to dig a hole again when you get covered in poo or shocked by the cord?  You should have called the digger's hotline of Yoga.

As you go along in this process, you will see many correlations to modern psychology and Yoga. The important message of this Sutra is to adhere to truth as best you can of what you know at any particular time, knowing that it will change.

Sutras 1.19 to 1.22: The Path of Effort.

1.19. For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause.
1.20. For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equal minded contemplation.
1.21. Equal minded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.
1.22. There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.

These four sutras speak about effort.  Effort, while doing Yoga, is the true determining factor in how we progress on the spiritual path.

I like hiking.  There is this trail about a block away from my house that I use when I walk my dog. Depending on the time of year, the trail will change.  In the winter, it tends to either be muddy with packed snow or iced over.  During the spring season, the trail will dry out after the winter snow melts, becoming dusty.  Next comes the summer monsoon, which will wash out the trail, littering it with rocks.  Finally, in fall, the trail is alive with flowers, tall grass and yellow jacket hornets that like to chase me.

You see, the context of the path will change, but it still leads to the same destination.  Yoga is a path, set out by the guide posts of the sutras.  The path takes on a different look depending on who walks it. If we try to walk in the path of others, our path will become theirs.  One of my favorite Gurus, even though he would not call himself that, is named Yogani.  He wrote a great, straight to the point step by step guide to Kundalini Yoga:

http://www.aypsite.org/MainDirectory.html

At the end of every lesson he states:  "The Guru Is Inside You".  You are your own Guru and you take your own path.

1.19 refers to causality in the sense that in our general perceptions we see the world as the cause of our actions an reactions.  We simply don't pay attention.  Awareness is key.  When we are aware, we are likely to see what WE do in the world to cause the world to react to US.

1.20 states four ways that one can achieve a clear mind.   Having faith, even if blind faith in a concept or deity, will mold the consciousness through trials brought upon it by the world.  When we have the energy to practice Yoga, there will be results.  Memory, in the form of awareness of Samskaras and Chitta allows one to change actions as they arise, giving differing results.  In a later article I will explain the concept of time in Yoga.  Equal minded contemplation is a result of effort.

1.21 One big contradiction in Yoga is the transcending desire, yet in order to accomplish that goal, you need the desire to transcend desire.   Don't get too caught up in this concept.  As you work to remove the attachment to Samskaras, your desires will naturally change.

1.22 Intensity times Duration equals results.  That was the formula given to me by Goswami Kriyananda.  This sutra states that there are three kinds of effort: mild, medium, and intense.  So how do you like your salsa?