Yoga Sutras 12 – 16 – The Sutras on Practice and Non-Attachment

Practice and Non-Attachment

Patanjali has defined the ways in which our mind takes in the outside world: comprehension, misconception, imagination, deep sleep and memory.  He says that these means of experiencing the outside world can be painful or painless; painful when we are deceived by our own minds and painless when we can see beyond these states of mind and recognize them for what they are.

How do we know if we perceive something correctly and are not being tricked my memory, imagination, sleepiness or misunderstanding?  By practicing:

Y.S. I.12 Abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodah
The mind can reach the state of yoga through practice and detachment.

Y.S. I.13  Tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah
Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations.

Y.S. I.14 Sa ta dirgakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih
This practice, performed for a long time, without interruption and with sincere devotion will become the rock you stand on.

There will always be a tendency to start practice with enthusiasm, energy and a desire for sudden results.  But the continuing pressures of everyday life and the enormous resistance of the mind encourages us to succumb to human weaknesses.  All of this is understandable, we all have these tendencies.  These sutras emphasize the need to approach practice soberly with a positive, self-disciplined attitude and with a long-term view towards eventual success.  (Remember the Malcom Gladwell book on mastery and how it takes 10,000 hours.)

Y.S. I.15  Drishta anusravika visaya vitrsnasya vasikara samjna vairagyam
Mastery is attained when even things read in scriptures are consciously let go of.

Y.S. I.16  Tatparam purusa khyateh guna vaitrsnyam
The purest consciousness is one that reflects indifference to the most subtle qualities.

This last sutra points to the addiction of the material world and it encourages us to practice our detachment to it.  It is our preferences to pull in the things that we like and to push away the things we don’t like that create a painful state.

I was recently at an ashram enjoying a morning of chanting, meditation and satsang.  After the session we were invited to stay for chai and cake.  There was some complaining among the ashramites on the taste of the chai.  One preferred a lot of ginger and the other preferred less ginger.  A wise voice from the corner of the room chimed in, “The amount of spice in the chai is already there.  The choice is to drink the chai or not to drink the chai.”  Ah!  If it were only as simple as not drinking the chai!  But not complaining about the chai is a good example of how the mind works.

There will always be reasons to not practice, or to complain about the practice:  illness, injury, job or family circumstances will pull us away.  But we are encouraged to get back on track as soon as we can.  When I broke my foot, I did a lot of arm yoga.  When I broke my wrist, I did a lot of work on my legs.  There is always something to work on.  And it is important to celebrate what we have and can do as opposed to what we may have lost or can’t do.  And while Patanjali is talking about the mind here, you cannot separate the mind from the body as the nerves reach to all parts of the body.  The two are inter-connected.

The role of the mind is one of the most important things to consider in your practice.  When I don’t practice, I often find my mind making excuses:  I’m too tired, I don’t have time, I have to do this first, … When I do exert tapas (effort) to get to my mat and practice, whether I feel like it or not, I end up having a great practice;  I just had to get past my mind.  When there is that inevitable hiatus, for whatever reason, it is important to cultivate patience and beginner’s mind.  Our tendency is to call upon memory and tell ourselves that we used to be able to do something and so we should be able to do that now.  It is easy to injure yourself coming back to practice that way.   I’ve heard a rule of thumb that helps me be patient when beginning again and that is to allow two days  for every one day off.  And while it is true that you have to be careful to not let your ego get in the way when you start again, no progress is ever truly lost.  While I used to bemoan any injury I had as a set-back, I have come to realize, that over the long term, I have spent much less time being injured than I have not being injured.  And that my practice, when consistent is stronger than ever.

Finally, I’d like you to consider this quote from Henry Ford as you think about the role your mind has in your practice:  “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you will be right.”  It doesn’t guarantee immediate results, but over a long period of time, without interruption, it can become the rock you stand on!

The Yoga Sutras on The Architecture of the Mind

The Architecture of the Mind

These are the five kinds of thought forms, or vrttis,  that we must be aware of and be able to see them for what they are in order to be able to find inner peace.  Knowing this, the next question is:  How do we recognize these vrttis?  We need to recognize what they are before we can be able to control them.   Otherwise our thoughts take on the form of the world around us, harden like clay, and you presume that they are you.

The five thought forms are:

Y.S. I.6  Pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah
The five activities are right knowledge, misconception, imagination, deep sleep and memory.

These five activities of the mind are in action in every moment and all at the same time.  For example, the thought of “home” will be perceived in shades of its actuality (pramana), its incorrect assumption of permanence (viparyaya), our fantasies of its future (vikalpa), the memories we’ve had within it (smrtayah) and the void of its non-existence (nidra).  Knowing that our thoughts can be colored by these five characteristics can help us identify true perception (pramana) among the others.  The goal is not necessarily to see the truth exclusively, but to be able to distinguish it.

For those of you who are interested in the texts I have been using, I base my commentary on The Yoga Sutras from a combination of several texts and one app:

The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar
Light on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by B.K.S. Iyengar
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Edwin F. Bryant
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Swami Satchidananda
And an app on the Yoga Sutras developed by Daniel Levine

Yoga Sutras I.5 – I.11 - Definition of the Vrttis of the Mind

Definition of Vrttis of the Mind

I have read that we have somewhere around 60,000 thoughts a day and that 80% of those thoughts are repetitive. Of those repetitive thoughts, 80% are negative! I found that statistic to be rather amazing and somewhat disheartening. These thoughts create our reality and our suffering or lack of suffering. Yoga teaches us that we can do something about these thoughts, that we can become aware of the activities of our mind and that we can do something about these negative thoughts.

But first Patanjali has to define exactly what the mind is before we can learn how to control it. He defines the mind as the activities (vrttis) that occupy it.

Y.S. I.5 Vrttayah pancatayyah klistah aklistah
There are five activities of the mind. Each of them can be beneficial and each can cause problems.

Y.S. I.6 Pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah
The five activities are right knowledge, misconception, imagination, deep sleep and memory.

The activities, or vrttis, are each defined:

Y.S. I.7 Pratyaksa anumana agamah pramanani
Right knowledge is based on direct observation of the object, inference and reference to reliable sources.

Y.S. I.8 Viparyayo mithya-jnanam atad rupa pratistham
Misconception occurs when knowledge of something is not based on its true form.

Y.S. I.9 Sabda jnana anupati vastu-sunyo vikalpah
Imagination is the comprehension of an object based only on words and expressions even though the object is absent.

Y.S. I.10 Abhava pratyaya alambana tamo vrtti nidra
Deep sleep is when the mind is overcome with heaviness and no other activities are present.

Y.S. I.11 Anubhuta visaya asampramosah smrtih
Memory is the mental retention of a conscious experience.

These are the five kinds of vrttis, or thought forms, that we must be aware of and be able to see them for what they are in order to be able to find inner peace. Knowing this, the next question should be how to control these vrttis, because in reality, they seem to be controlling us.

Your Sphere of Influence

The Moral and Ethical Codes of Yoga

What is my Sphere of influence in the World? How do my yoga practices affect anyone else?

In Teacher Training we always talk about the Yamas and Niyamas; yoga’s moral and ethical codes.  Doing asana without the underlying philosophy is just exercise.  Yoga is more than that.

The Yamas are restraints for proper conduct; giving us tips on how to interact with each other.  The Yamas are:

Ahimsa or non-violence, Satya or truthfulness, Asteya or non-stealing, Brahmacarya or sexual restraint and Aparigraha or non-hoarding.

Inevitably when we talk about these restraints students always remark that while they might be practicing these rules that there is evidence of the opposite of these behaviors out in the world.  The Yoga Sutras speak directly to that.  The Yoga Sutra on ahimsa says explicitly:

Ahimsaa-pratishthaayaam tat-samnidhau vaira-tyaagah. Patanjali Y.S. 2.35All others will cease to feel hostility in the presence of one who is firmly established in ahimsa.

The only non-violence or truthfulness that we can be responsible for is our own.  We have no control over others.  But our actions can have a ripple effect.

Sharon Salzberg, a Buddhist meditation teacher, wrote a recent blog post for ON BEING on just this topic called “Your Three Feet of Influence”.  This article shows how our practices ripple out into the world creating our Sphere of Influence.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

One of my goals for this year is to study the Yoga Sutras.  I have been learning them randomly over the years. There are certain ones that are common and quoted often, but I have often wanted to follow the entire thread from beginning to end.  After all, the word sutra means thread.There are 196 sutras according to B.K.S. Iyengar.  My plan is to tackle 4 each week and take a year to finish the entire book.  I hope you enjoy this exercise and I encourage you to read along with me.There are 4 chapters in the book of the Yoga Sutras.  The first one is called Samadhi Pada, or the chapter on Samadhi; a state of intense concentration achieved through meditation.  In this chapter, Patanjali analyses the components of consciousness and its behavioral patterns and explains how its fluctuations can be stilled in order to achieve inner absorption and integration or Samadhi.  This is where we will begin.

Chapter 1 – Samadhi Pada

Y.S. I.1 Atha yoganusanamatha - nowyoga – unionanus – adviceasanam – instructionsWith prayers for divine blessings, now begins an exposition of the sacred art of yoga.Each sutra is a condensed thread filled with meaning.  This first one can mean that Patanjali has acquired sufficient knowledge that is he now ready and able to pass the teachings on to us.  Or, it could mean that now, because you are curious, you are ready to begin learning the deeper meaning of yoga.  Also contained in the word now is the concept of living and being in the present moment.  There is always the opportunity to begin again and again no matter how many times you forget or fall off of your practice.  You can always start again.Y.S. I.2  Yogah cittavrtti nirodhahyogah – integrationcitta – consciousnessvrtti – fluctuations in mindnirodhah – obstructionYoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness.I think this line is one that creates the most confusion for people because it makes them think that they have to stop their mind from thinking; this is the very job that the mind is supposed to do.  But if we turn inwards and we can see that there is the part of us that is thinking the thoughts and there is that part of us that is witnessing the thinking of thoughts.   At this level, often called the seer or the Capital “S” self, we can begin to realize that the thoughts are much like clouds passing in the sky and that the inner seer is much like the sun; the clouds may temporarily obscure the sun, but the sun is always shining.  Some of the clouds may be dark and stormy while others are puffy and light, but they are temporary and the sun is not.These movements of consciousness are often the cause of our changing moods.  I can feel that I have enough until I meet someone who has more and then while I was previously content, now I am not.  My circumstances haven’t changed, only my thoughts about my circumstances have.  These fluctuations in consciousness are the cause of suffering.Y.S. I.3  Tada drastuh svarupe avasthanamtada – thendrastuh – the soul, the seersvarupe – in his own stateavasthanam – abidesThen, the seer dwells in his own true splendor.By the time we get to this third sutra, Patanjali has told us all we need to know to dwell in the state of Samadhi.  However, while this is a simple concept, it is not easy.Y.S. I.4  Vrtti sarupyam itaratravrtti – fluctuationsarupyam – identificationitaratra – at other timesAt other times the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness.And that is where this fourth sutra comes in.  Most of the time, we identify with these fluctuations of consciousness, these clouds in the sky; we lose sight of the sun.

Contentment - As a Practice

I have been reading the following passage in class during the last couple of days.  It's a great reminder to practice the second niyama of santosha or contentment.

From  the book How Yoga Works
The second commitment is to be contented with whatever you have. Y.S. II.32

"It is a commitment to be content with what we have, although never with what we could become. Because no one has all the circumstances they need to practice yoga and all its ideas. Things are never perfect. It is always too hot or too cold. The body is always hurting somewhere; the mind is always tired or sad. And there is always someone nearby who disturbs us. Time itself is always short and we must always make do with what we have. None of the great ones who followed this path before us, none of them over the centuries, possessed perfect circumstances either. And so they just worked hard with what they had available to them and they achieved their ultimate goals. Thus one who follows this way commits to be contented; contented with the food, contented with the place, contented with the weather, contented with the current condition of the body and mind, contented with the company. And they do not sacrifice a single moment of their short, precious lives to the poison of complaining, out loud or in their thoughts, about anything."

So Hum – The Mantra of the Breath

The ancient yogis thought the breath was the most important thing that you had.  Obviously, without the breath you would cease to exist.  As modern people we often feel that life is fast paced and because we are so rushed, we often forget things.  But perhaps the seers of old often felt the same way.  They taught that the breath was the one thing you always had with you.  You don’t need any other things, just find a spot to sit and feel your breath.

We often take the breath for granted, but I encourage you to pause for a moment and think about it.  Breath is a most intricate dance of give and take.  When we are born Shakti, that great feminine principle of the energy of action, is said to exhale into us.  As we exhale our last breath she is there to breathe us in.

Breathing is our primary method of exchange with the universe.  When we inhale, it is an act of receiving.  How do we receive things: money, food, goods, compliments, criticisms?  Do we receive consciously and with gratitude?  Or, are we takers, gulping things down greedily?  Is our breath restricted?  Do we barely breathe, afraid of taking in new things?   Are we afraid of change?  When we exhale, it is indicative of how we give.  Do we do so generously?  Do we give out more compliments or more criticisms?  Do we give with strings attached, restricting the breath by gripping?

The ancient yogis knew about the benefits of slow, deep breathing; they passed down practices of pranayama, or breathing exercises, to us.  Most of these practices were aimed at making our breath longer, slower, deeper and more refined.  These wise practitioners cautioned us that we were born with a specific number of breaths and that when we used them up, we would die.

The ancient yogis knew what they were talking about because modern science tells us that our breath is intricately tied in with our health.  When we are stressed, we breathe shallowly and rapidly, barely ever taking in a full tankful of air. This means that the blood is never fully oxygenated and carbon dioxide is never fully released;  nutrients aren’t being delivered properly and wastes are not being removed fully.  This makes the blood more acidic.  We have all heard that if our systems are too acidic, it is not beneficial.  Increasing the acidity of the blood is one of the ways that stress is injurious to our bodies.  While we cannot control the stressors in our environment, we can do things to lessen the effects of stress on our bodies like pausing to take a few minutes to breathe fully and deeply. By fully oxygenating the blood it is restored to its normal ph level.

Since it only takes the blood about 1 minute to make a round trip to the heart, you can quickly make a difference in the effect stress has on your body.  While it would be ideal to keep up breathing slowly in a full and deep way, you won’t be able to maintain it.  But, the benefits of pausing occasionally during your day and slowing down the breath has enough benefit to make it a practice that is worthwhile.

Our bodies are regulated and controlled by our nervous system which can be further divided into what falls under our voluntary or involuntary control.  As an example, our muscles are under our voluntary control and our digestion happens involuntarily.  Most systems in the body are regulated by one or the other, but the breath falls under both.  Most of the time we breathe unconsciously.  But we can also control our breath voluntarily.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience where someone has told you to calm down and take a deep breath when you have been very excited or agitated.  When we get stressed, we breathe rapidly and shallowly.  Our involuntary nervous system kicks in taking us into ’fight or flight’ mode and shutting down things like digestion.  But we can take some slow deep breaths to calm ourselves.    This brings us out of ‘fight or flight’ and into ‘rest and digest’

The practice of the mantra So-Hum can help with this.  It is a beautiful practice that ties breath with mantra to help bring you into a quiet and calm state.

Find a comfortable seat.  This can be on the floor in a cross-legged position, or it can be done in a chair.    Close your eyes and get in tune with your breath.

As you feel the breath coming in through the nostrils, feel that it makes a subtle “So” sound, and on the exhale feel that it makes a “Hum” sound.

Sit with the breath for a few moments and feel “So” as you inhale and “Hum” as you exhale.  Allow the rhythm of the breath to establish itself.  Be consistent with the “So- Hum” sound.  Let it lull you into a meditative state.

As you feel the breath come in, begin to repeat “I am” with the inhalation and “That” with the exhalation.  With each breath feel each one of your identities that arise with the thought, “I am”.  I am a mother, a teacher, a woman, a friend, a worrier (yes, those things, too!).  You may be surprised at how many things you can identify with.  But, realize that you are more than just “that”.  Stay with this mantra and the meditation of “I am that” for anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Set a timer if you wish.     Allow yourself to run out of identities and come to the realization that you are all of those things and more.  You could be any of those things, or none.  You could be anything you want to be.  Stay with this contemplation until you come to a state of unified consciousness.  Your breathing has become slow and deep and just for a few moments, you have entered into a state of deep meditation.  Your mind is quiet.  Your breath is slow and deep and full.  Your body and your brain will thank you for this.

All Dharma Teachings agree on one point – lessening one’s self-absorption.

It is the perfect time of year to be reading The Book of Joy about the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, written by Douglas Abrams.
The topic sentence that heads this blog post comes from The Book of Joy, where the Buddhist method of Lojong teachings is mentioned. (Lojong is a mind training practice based on a set of aphorisms that are designed as an antidote to undesired mental habits that cause suffering.)

The text clarifies that when we focus only on ourselves, we are destined to be unhappy: “Contemplate that, as long as you are too focused on your self-importance and too caught up in how you are good or bad, you will experience suffering. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don’t want does not result in happiness. Included in this text is the admonition: “Always maintain a joyful mind.”
This ties in with the yogic teaching on the five kleshas being the main obstacles on our path to Samadhi, which translates as meditative absorption, freedom and joy.

The five kleshas are:
Avidya, or seeing things incorrectly. (Looking for happiness in all the wrong places)
Asmita, or ego. (Focusing too much on ourselves)
Raga, or attachment (Focusing on getting what we want)
Dvesha, or aversion (Trying to avoid what we don’t want)
Abhinivesha, or fear, specifically fear of death (Fear of change of any sort, but specifically the ultimate change of dying.)

So, what is a joyful mind?

Buddhists believe that joy is our natural state, but the ability to experience joy can be cultivated as a skill. So much depends on where we put our attention: on our own suffering or that of others, on our own perceived separation or on our indivisible connection.

Everybody wants to be happy, but the challenge is that a lot of people don’t know how. I was surprised to read in this book a statistic about a psychological study done in 1978 that found that lottery winners were not significantly happier than those who had been paralyzed in an accident! The study was perhaps the first that put forth the idea that we all have a default state of happiness; that after the initial reaction wears off, we return to a “set point”.

Further psychological studies suggest that certain immutable factors such as our genes and our temperament make up this idea of a set point which constitutes about 50% of our happiness. The other half is determined by a combination of our circumstances, over which we may have limited control, and our attitudes and our actions, over which we have a great deal of control.

Three practices that have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are:
Our ability to reframe our situation more positively. (Learn to see the lesson or blessing in every situation.)
Our ability to experience gratitude. (Cultivate a gratitude practice.)
Our choice to be kind and generous. (Always be mindful of the needs of others.)
These three practices create the attitudes and actions help us cultivate a more joyful life.

There is a wonderful Buddhist parable about suffering and the end of suffering. This story is known as the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
A young mother’s only son dies. She is heartbroken and stricken with grief. She carries his body from neighbor to neighbor asking each one if they have any medicine or can do anything to revive him, but no one can. One neighbor suggests that she take her son to Buddha and ask him to bring her son back to life. The Buddha agrees to revive her son, but he tells the woman that she needs to gather mustard seeds from households that have never been touched by death. From these special mustard seeds he will create a medicine that will revive her son. All of her neighbors are willing to give her mustard seeds, but they all told her that none of them have been untouched by death.

Through this process the woman becomes enlightened. She is able to step out of her own grief and experience the grief of others. She becomes less focused on herself and finds friends and community.

As you gather around the Thanksgiving table this year, be grateful for the many blessings in your life, for the food you have to eat, for all of those who contributed to that food being on your table, for your family and friends and finally, may you not be too self-absorbed, may you always be mindful of the needs of others.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” - Melody Beattie

The Great Death Conquering Mantra

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra:

Om Tryambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bandhanan
Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat

Literal meaning:

Tryambakam = the three-eyed one (accusative case)
Yajamahe = We worship, adore, honor, revere
Sugandhim = sweet fragrance (accusative case)
Pushti = A well-nourished condition, thriving, prosperous, full, and complete
Vardhanam = One who nourishes, strengthens, causes to increase (in health, wealth, well-being); who gladdens, exhilarates, and restores health; a good gardener
Urvarukam = disease, attachment, obstacles in life, and resulting depression (accusative case)
Iva = like, just as
Bandhanan = stem (of the gourd); but more generally, unhealthy attachment
Mrityor = From death
Mukshiya = Free us, liberate us
Ma = not
Amritat = Immortality, emancipation 

Usable meaning:

Om, We worship The Three-Eyed One (Lord Shiva)
Who Is Fragrant (Spiritual Essence)
And Who Nourishes All Beings
May He Severe Our Bondage Of Samsara (Worldly Life),
Like A Cucumber (severed From The Bondage Of Its Creeper)
And Thus Liberate Us From The Fear Of Death,
By Making Us Realize That We Are Never Separated From Our Immortal Nature 

Listen to a traditional version of the chant here.
Listen to it performed more as a song here.  This is the version I play in class.