Ancient texts written by sage-genius and yogis contain all their knowledge in the first four sutras. Patanjali, who compiled the Yoga Sutras over 2500 years ago, or the ancient 'bible of yoga' is no exception. Based on his work, here are the only 32 things anyone interested in yoga needs to know:
1.- Raw Materials. Our body and mind are the only things can relatively control and affect, it is the only tool which connects us with reality. It is all we have.
2.- Senses. Unfortunately we have been fooled into believing everything our eyes see, our hands touch, nose smell etc. We are brain-washed on powerful marketing lines we heard as we grew up, i.e.:
You get my point. All of these have worked as veils that cover us from seeing reality as it is. Some are helpful "don't touch fire or it will hurt". Some enslave us.
3.- In order to remove the veil we have to want to. That is Yoga Sutra number one: "Now that you are ready, let's talk about traditional yoga". OK, he uses different language, says it in Sanskrit, there are different translations, but that is what he means.
4.- To see things for what they are we need to stop the fluctuations of the mind. That is yoga sutra number 2. This is not easy. We can't just stop and have no preconditioning thinking. Be fully present right away. It takes, well, a practice.
5.- To get a clear mind we also need a clean body. We are used to breakfast with beacon, eggs and fries. It is almost part of the American religion. If only we noticed as we ate what we are doing to our bodies.
4.-However, if by some magic reason we could suddenly lift up the veil then: "TADA!!!" (Patanjali actually says "tada" in sutra # 3, check it out) we could see our very own nature as it is.
5.- We would attain the goal of yoga, which is not just union as the basic definition that has been sold to us but rather: to be at utter peace with access to complete discrimination and universal intelligence.
We would be peaceful beings with extreme intelligence, completely focused on what IS, right now and able to give our best responses, free of preconditions. Amazing.
6.- Otherwise we take the form of whatever our mind convinces us we are, or we need, or we desire. We are at the mercy of an un-trained, sometimes called monkey mind. That is sutra number 4.
And those are your first four sutras. However:
7.- How many of us can do that? not many, so there goes chapter one of the yoga sutras out the window. It's not for everyone.
We are not capable of dropping all of our pre-conditioning beliefs at once, and clean our body internally and externally to withstand such peaceful and discriminative energy.
So, for the rest of us... there is still hope, it's called: chapter two.
Not that there is nothing in chapter one we cannot use, we can definitely use 1.33 for example, on how to deal with crappy people so we can have some relative amount of peace in our lives.
8.- So, when we are fed up with the b/s and we want true peace, and access to universal intelligence, when we are ready to give up being right in order to be happy, then and only then, maybe now? we are ready to start a "practice"
9.- We start by reducing pain, in all areas, are we love addicts? are we constantly seeking intrigue and/or infatuated with external things? are we leaking energy? are we being real? Do we lie? Is our home in order? are we at relative peace?. We start at the beginning, we reduce pain so we can even begin to talk about a practice.
10.- We start by understanding that change will not happen overnight, we have our own psychological tendencies, just like nature has them.
Some days we are a tornado, some days we are a sleepy lake, some days we are focused and balanced. Some days we are all of those three at different times. We cannot fight our tendencies (see this post for a cartoon story on the gunas which is yoga-speak for our tendencies) but we can work with them, today, one day at the time, and aim towards a more balanced life.
12.- Once pain is reduced then finally we can make an educated decision, either we
a) want to just stay like this and be happy and keep living, or
b) we may want to chose the path of the yogi.
Note: up until now we are not yogis, we are just attempting to be yogis and we won't be for a while.
We cannot quite call ourselves yogis until we reach chapter one. Reality is a tough cookie and hearing this is unpleasant, but stay with me, let's call ourselves "aspiring yogis", a brand new marketing line that might actually be useful.
13.- I am going to go on the assumption that you, like me, also want to be a yogi, a real one. One that searches for the goal: eternal peace with full discrimination. Someone who can actually help our world in a major scale and with no strings attached, a real channel of light.
14.- So, if this is you and me...Then there is an 8 fold path. Budha had his, Patanjali had another one. I am choosing to go on that route. I am going with Patanjali
15.- So the 8 steps of Patanjali are not really a line, they are a circle, or a plug-and-play, we learn them as we go, by putting our attention in them, by reading about them, talking about them. Forget secrecy, the truth is out.
16.- So we start with the yamas and niyamas, your do's and don'ts. By being a "good person", but without fooling ourselves. See this post for a down to earth approach to the yamas and niyamas, and I mean down-to-earth, as in "keeping it real".
17.- Then we do our asanas (poses) which are designed so that the body can either become or remain healthy. The poses also help us get rid of the over-excited tendencies we have. So those days, when we are like a tornado, the asanas calm us down.
18.- What style of asana must one practice? It matters not. For me ashtanga works because it is a set routine, and I don't ask questions I just get on the mat. It is also a challenge. However, the type of yoga, the "style" we practice is not a defining point in determining if we will be successful.
19.- What is important with asana is that:
a) we practice
b) we work to discover and heal the body without lying to ourselves
c) We keep it real and practice daily (5-6 times a week)
d) That we do actually make an effort. Certain classes which are sometimes labeled "restorative", even when done 6 times a week, can be a treat, not a practice.
e) That we reality-check the effects. Are we more calm? is our life getting better? do we feel healthier? otherwise it might be time to get back to the drawing board
f) That we do not overdo it or get competitive. This is a huge trick where we can get caught easily in the spirit of winning the gold medal. No such thing in yoga.
g) That we follow a tradition that is healthy in itself, that focuses on proper teachings, alignment, health.
20.- Then we do pranayama (breath / life extension exercises) and the magic beings - It is in the 'silences' or the retentions (of breath) that we get glimpses. Here are 32 ways to start paying attention to your breath, even before starting a pranayama practice. Then all of a) through g) in point 19 applies to this practice too.
21.- We go deeper into pranayama and begin to notice changes in our minds. Our lives get significantly better. We start to notice a bit more control over our tendencies. Our monkey mind gets somewhat more on our side. We want less things, yet more things are available to us.
22- We now cross the portal that Iyengar calls the "pivotal moment in a yogi's life". We start practicing pratyahara, or sense withdrawal. An elusive limb of yoga where we attempt to shut down the senses. It is simpler than it sounds yet mastering it may take a life time.
23.- Going within to this level opens a whole new landscape for us. I have barely been in this territory and will confess that from now on I am going on trust, on what Patanjali tells me in a book he wrote 2500 years ago but whose wisdom goes viral when shared in proper ways.
24- Being in this environment, we are FINALLY ready to focus on one and only one thing. To actually pay attention. To sit down, pay attention to one object (breath, a statue, a satvic object) and just be with it, concentrate on it, no other thoughts (well maybe not in the beginning, but eventually).
25.- "Extend your Samadhi" says Goenka in every intense Vipassana Meditation retreat. We focus on this object (breath) for longer and longer periods of time. We extend our time in focused attention. We practice, we keep at it. It is work!
26.- Then one day we merge with the object we are focusing on. There is no "it" and "me" rather we are together. Voila! we are meditating. Voila as I understand, is French for: "there you are!"
Let's be real, we don't sit to meditate. We sit to focus. Meditation happens, with practice and dedication, and after a long period of time. Patanjali's words.
27.- Then temptations begin to arise because if we do focusing and meditation in different objects we can begin to gain knowledge that, well, is part of the universal discrimination we are after, but that if used incorrectly will mess up our peace. So we are careful what we focus on. Yes, apparently there are some superpowers in the mix.
28.- We reject the temptations and superpowers. Big work
29. We focus on on one specific thing, one super power in particular, that of discriminating between what is real and what is not. That is the only one that is allowed. This takes a warrior my friend, I kind of feel like I would like to try the walking on water part.
30.- We do that in meditation and for a long period of time
31.- We reach the goal
32. Now we are at chapter-one level. Now we are yogis. No need for congratulations, apparently once here you won't even crave them.
May we all reach the goal of yoga ! and frankly the sooner the better, not that I am in a rush or anything, I am just saying.
Recommended Reading:
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
1.- Raw Materials. Our body and mind are the only things can relatively control and affect, it is the only tool which connects us with reality. It is all we have.
 |
| One of the elements. My God-Daughter (10) says water is not actually an element, but rather a combination of elements. It is H2O. My God Son (12) said: "something" |
- "If by 35 you don't have a baby..." (big one with females).
- "Money does not grow on trees"
- "Who do you think you are?"
- "I am the first in my family to go to college" (regardless that I just got into a quarter million in debt now) -
- "Owning a home means security"
- "You have to get a job",
- "It's not manly to show feelings or cry"
- It's a man's world
- Tell me the one you have _-_-fill in the blank
You get my point. All of these have worked as veils that cover us from seeing reality as it is. Some are helpful "don't touch fire or it will hurt". Some enslave us.
3.- In order to remove the veil we have to want to. That is Yoga Sutra number one: "Now that you are ready, let's talk about traditional yoga". OK, he uses different language, says it in Sanskrit, there are different translations, but that is what he means.
4.- To see things for what they are we need to stop the fluctuations of the mind. That is yoga sutra number 2. This is not easy. We can't just stop and have no preconditioning thinking. Be fully present right away. It takes, well, a practice.
5.- To get a clear mind we also need a clean body. We are used to breakfast with beacon, eggs and fries. It is almost part of the American religion. If only we noticed as we ate what we are doing to our bodies.
4.-However, if by some magic reason we could suddenly lift up the veil then: "TADA!!!" (Patanjali actually says "tada" in sutra # 3, check it out) we could see our very own nature as it is.
 |
| Tada! |
5.- We would attain the goal of yoga, which is not just union as the basic definition that has been sold to us but rather: to be at utter peace with access to complete discrimination and universal intelligence.
We would be peaceful beings with extreme intelligence, completely focused on what IS, right now and able to give our best responses, free of preconditions. Amazing.
6.- Otherwise we take the form of whatever our mind convinces us we are, or we need, or we desire. We are at the mercy of an un-trained, sometimes called monkey mind. That is sutra number 4.
And those are your first four sutras. However:
7.- How many of us can do that? not many, so there goes chapter one of the yoga sutras out the window. It's not for everyone.
We are not capable of dropping all of our pre-conditioning beliefs at once, and clean our body internally and externally to withstand such peaceful and discriminative energy.
So, for the rest of us... there is still hope, it's called: chapter two.
Not that there is nothing in chapter one we cannot use, we can definitely use 1.33 for example, on how to deal with crappy people so we can have some relative amount of peace in our lives.
8.- So, when we are fed up with the b/s and we want true peace, and access to universal intelligence, when we are ready to give up being right in order to be happy, then and only then, maybe now? we are ready to start a "practice"
9.- We start by reducing pain, in all areas, are we love addicts? are we constantly seeking intrigue and/or infatuated with external things? are we leaking energy? are we being real? Do we lie? Is our home in order? are we at relative peace?. We start at the beginning, we reduce pain so we can even begin to talk about a practice.
10.- We start by understanding that change will not happen overnight, we have our own psychological tendencies, just like nature has them.
Some days we are a tornado, some days we are a sleepy lake, some days we are focused and balanced. Some days we are all of those three at different times. We cannot fight our tendencies (see this post for a cartoon story on the gunas which is yoga-speak for our tendencies) but we can work with them, today, one day at the time, and aim towards a more balanced life.
12.- Once pain is reduced then finally we can make an educated decision, either we
a) want to just stay like this and be happy and keep living, or
b) we may want to chose the path of the yogi.
Note: up until now we are not yogis, we are just attempting to be yogis and we won't be for a while.
We cannot quite call ourselves yogis until we reach chapter one. Reality is a tough cookie and hearing this is unpleasant, but stay with me, let's call ourselves "aspiring yogis", a brand new marketing line that might actually be useful.
13.- I am going to go on the assumption that you, like me, also want to be a yogi, a real one. One that searches for the goal: eternal peace with full discrimination. Someone who can actually help our world in a major scale and with no strings attached, a real channel of light.
14.- So, if this is you and me...Then there is an 8 fold path. Budha had his, Patanjali had another one. I am choosing to go on that route. I am going with Patanjali
15.- So the 8 steps of Patanjali are not really a line, they are a circle, or a plug-and-play, we learn them as we go, by putting our attention in them, by reading about them, talking about them. Forget secrecy, the truth is out.
16.- So we start with the yamas and niyamas, your do's and don'ts. By being a "good person", but without fooling ourselves. See this post for a down to earth approach to the yamas and niyamas, and I mean down-to-earth, as in "keeping it real".
17.- Then we do our asanas (poses) which are designed so that the body can either become or remain healthy. The poses also help us get rid of the over-excited tendencies we have. So those days, when we are like a tornado, the asanas calm us down.
18.- What style of asana must one practice? It matters not. For me ashtanga works because it is a set routine, and I don't ask questions I just get on the mat. It is also a challenge. However, the type of yoga, the "style" we practice is not a defining point in determining if we will be successful.
19.- What is important with asana is that:
a) we practice
b) we work to discover and heal the body without lying to ourselves
c) We keep it real and practice daily (5-6 times a week)
d) That we do actually make an effort. Certain classes which are sometimes labeled "restorative", even when done 6 times a week, can be a treat, not a practice.
e) That we reality-check the effects. Are we more calm? is our life getting better? do we feel healthier? otherwise it might be time to get back to the drawing board
f) That we do not overdo it or get competitive. This is a huge trick where we can get caught easily in the spirit of winning the gold medal. No such thing in yoga.
g) That we follow a tradition that is healthy in itself, that focuses on proper teachings, alignment, health.
20.- Then we do pranayama (breath / life extension exercises) and the magic beings - It is in the 'silences' or the retentions (of breath) that we get glimpses. Here are 32 ways to start paying attention to your breath, even before starting a pranayama practice. Then all of a) through g) in point 19 applies to this practice too.
21.- We go deeper into pranayama and begin to notice changes in our minds. Our lives get significantly better. We start to notice a bit more control over our tendencies. Our monkey mind gets somewhat more on our side. We want less things, yet more things are available to us.
22- We now cross the portal that Iyengar calls the "pivotal moment in a yogi's life". We start practicing pratyahara, or sense withdrawal. An elusive limb of yoga where we attempt to shut down the senses. It is simpler than it sounds yet mastering it may take a life time.
23.- Going within to this level opens a whole new landscape for us. I have barely been in this territory and will confess that from now on I am going on trust, on what Patanjali tells me in a book he wrote 2500 years ago but whose wisdom goes viral when shared in proper ways.
24- Being in this environment, we are FINALLY ready to focus on one and only one thing. To actually pay attention. To sit down, pay attention to one object (breath, a statue, a satvic object) and just be with it, concentrate on it, no other thoughts (well maybe not in the beginning, but eventually).
25.- "Extend your Samadhi" says Goenka in every intense Vipassana Meditation retreat. We focus on this object (breath) for longer and longer periods of time. We extend our time in focused attention. We practice, we keep at it. It is work!
26.- Then one day we merge with the object we are focusing on. There is no "it" and "me" rather we are together. Voila! we are meditating. Voila as I understand, is French for: "there you are!"
Let's be real, we don't sit to meditate. We sit to focus. Meditation happens, with practice and dedication, and after a long period of time. Patanjali's words.
27.- Then temptations begin to arise because if we do focusing and meditation in different objects we can begin to gain knowledge that, well, is part of the universal discrimination we are after, but that if used incorrectly will mess up our peace. So we are careful what we focus on. Yes, apparently there are some superpowers in the mix.
 |
| Watch for those superpower temptations... |
28.- We reject the temptations and superpowers. Big work
29. We focus on on one specific thing, one super power in particular, that of discriminating between what is real and what is not. That is the only one that is allowed. This takes a warrior my friend, I kind of feel like I would like to try the walking on water part.
30.- We do that in meditation and for a long period of time
31.- We reach the goal
32. Now we are at chapter-one level. Now we are yogis. No need for congratulations, apparently once here you won't even crave them.
May we all reach the goal of yoga ! and frankly the sooner the better, not that I am in a rush or anything, I am just saying.
Recommended Reading:
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Thanks for reminding us who may have read a sutra or two to keep practicing. I see a Recommended reading: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, by Swami Satchidananda, great book! Some time you should visit the Ashram in Virginia.
ReplyDeleteOh absolutely, I came closs once when I was practicing at the integral institute in NYC... would love to visit of course :-) and the book is very accessible, very non-academic, sweet...
ReplyDelete