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?

Yoga and Addiction.

Addiction is a bitch.  I've been it's bitch for many years.   Growing up in the booze laden State of Wisconsin, I became conditioned to binge drink alcohol.  Honestly, I hate the taste of alcohol and never cared for it beyond the high it would give me.  It worked great, until it stopped working.

So, fast forward a couple of decades and multiple attempt at getting sober and I can say that there is something detrimentally wrong with the way addiction is perceived.  Did you know that over ninety-five percent of the recovery programs in the United States are twelve step programs?  I was lucky enough not to have my addiction get me to the point of serious physical health issues.  

In my opinion, I think it's time that we stop viewing addiction as some sort of spiritual weakness and look to what science had told us for years.  Addiction is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain and should be treated like any other physical ailment.  Our prisons are overflowing with prisoners incarcerated around failed attempt to control the supply, instead of treating the cause of demand.  Ok, I'll stop ranting.

So what does this have to do with Yoga?  Well, through the perspective of Yoga, addiction is not a spiritual issue more than any other Samskara that we may have to deal with.  In my humble opinion, I think the most important factor in Yoga is it's power to reveal things in the psyche and allow you to transcend them.  If I did not have my addictions, I would have never become involved in Yoga.  I cannot say that it is solely responsible for my sobriety though.  That took a lot of self effort and commitment.

Generally speaking, addiction starts off with getting a taste of altered consciousness.  It's the desire to feel something other than what we are experiencing at the time.  So, here is the critical juncture that people face:  Either we do not care for the experience, or we get trapped in the never ending quest to re-experience that novelty.  I think novelty was built into material existence so that, at some point, we will pursue something outside ourselves.  It's part of the trap.

If you have an addiction, stop hiding in the shadows and get treated.  Secondly, don't be embarrassed if you do.   If you do not, go ahead and imbibe, gamble and smoke to your hearts content.  My baggage ain't your problem.  Hey, maybe I'll see you on this side of the fence someday.

Mmmmmmm Doughnuts! A note about diet.

I can't believe how many times this subject gets to put the forefront of Yoga.  Classically, Yogis have eaten a diet consisting of mainly vegetarian cooking.  Let me explain the reasoning for this.  It is based on ancient Vedic writings.

A long time ago, the writers of the Vedas looked a lot to nature to make their comparative assumtions.  For instance, many Yoga poses are named after animals.  Looking at how animals stretched themselves, the writers of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika incorporated this into a system meant to help prep people for meditation.  In the same manner, looking to the animal world, the ancients looked at the length of digestive track relative to the body proportion of what the animal ate.  The human digestive system was somewhere in between that of herbivores and carnivores, hence an omnivorous diet was considered best.  Then, somehow vegetarianism became integrated with Yoga through Hindu tradition.

So what should you eat?  Eat whatever.  The fact is, we all have different body constitutions and if a certain diet lead to enlightenment, that would be all we have to do.   I have found no advantage to being vegetarian.  I can understand vegan-ism and the intent not to do harm to living things, but in Yoga, the intent to harm is an internalized samskara.  In my opinion, if you start doing meditation, you may move in that direction.  If not, don't beat yourself over it.  Enjoy the steak or burger.  Use your common sense and do what works best for you at the time.

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.