a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
214 Crosby St.

Arlington, MA 02474

781 643-0117
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

12 Principles of Awakening

Spiritual Foundation

Scientific Foundation

Embodying the Practice

Collective Awakening

                      Yoga Sutras Studies

                    Essential Sutras for This Course

from the I: Samadhi Pada

I-1  atha yoganushasanam:

Now begin the teachings of Yoga .

Now, where the infinite meets the world of time and space,

Now, the holy moment, the only moment

Now, at this time of tremendous climatic and social change

Now, with revolutionary breakthroughs in science and spirituality

Now, as we are ready to be initiated into spiritual adulthood,

begin the teachings, passed on from teacher to student,

begin the teachings, preserved in the sacred texts,

begin the teachings, revealed moment by moment in Consciousness

begin the teachings, revealed moment by moment in the radiant expression of the natural world,

begin the teachings, as revealed in the infinite wisdom of the body,

of Yoga, the knowing of Unity,

of Yoga, the disciplined practices of integration known as samadhi.

Sutras I-2 - I-5 are by far the most important sutras of the 196 articulated by Patanjali . All of the subsequent sutras in this and the other three chapters offer further elaboration and refinement on the basic principles stated here and thus we will focus deeply on this sutra group

I-2  yogash citta vrtti nirodhah: 

Yoga is the dissolution of the (dysfunctional) mind states.

I-3  tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam:

Then the identity of the Self with pure Awareness becomes stable. 

I-4  vrtti sarupyam itaratra: 

(At other times, i.e., in dysfunctional mind states) mind activity is mistaken for the Self.

I-5  vrttaya panchatayyah klishta aklishtah:

Mind activity can be classified into five basic categories and can be painful or not painful.

     What are the key points here? First of all Patanjali says that we want to dissolve, attenuate, and eliminate mind activity, citta-mind, vrtti-activity, niroddha-attenuate. Not all mind activity! This is an important point raised by Vyassa and is crucial to our understanding. In sutra I-4, Patanjali elaborates by stating that mind activity that poses as "I" is not the yoga he describes in I-3 where the "I" knows itself as Awareness. And In sutra I-5, he describes mind activity as being either painful or not painful. We can conclude that mind activity that poses as the Self is not yoga, and is painful. We have mind activity and Self. Mind activity is of the nature of prakriti, Self is Purusha.

No-mind does not mean a coma. It means that no self-centered thoughts interrupt the flow. ZBR 38

We need to step back and examine dysfunctional mind states to uncover the truth of the self, the sense of "I am". Also, mind activity posing as the self is dysfunctional, but not all mind activity is dysfunctional. Wonderful!

 What is a mind state? According to neurobiologist Dan Siegel, a 'state of mind' is a clustering of a profile of activation within the brain's neural network. Also, a state of mind is "a pattern of activation of recruited systems within the brain responsible for (1) perceptual bias, (2) emoptional tone and regulation, (3) memory processes, (4) mental models, and (5) behavioral response patterns."

  Mind activity involves changing patterns of activity known as states of mind. These states can be painful (dysfunctional) or not painful (not dysfunctional). Yoga involves eliminating the dysfunctional states as they create the illusion of a self that is false, a self that is based on mind activity, which we can call 'I" thoughts. I am unhappy, I am angry, I am ... fill in the blank. I want..., I need..., if I only could..., then I would be happy, whole free.

The true Self, Awareness, Purusha is not subject to change, movement or transformation of any kind.

Yoga is healing (making whole) the self sense suffering from confusion and misunderstanding. Yoga is integration, the natural process of the nervous system when in a healthy environment.

   Why do we suffer? And by suffering, its important to carefully . differentiate physical and physiological pain from pyschological and emotional pain. A tooth ache or a broken bone, influenza or any of a number of unpleasant diseases and conditions are painful, miserable experiences. Intelligent living and life style choices can eliminate some (see Yoga Sutras, Chapter II), various types of pain and disease are an inevitable aspect of the human condition.

  However thoughts also have an amazing capacity to inflict pain and suffering and this is the realm addressed in these sutras. How do some thoughts come to be self destructive, or dysfunctional? Why do some people seem immune to mental anguish while other seem totally imprisoned by it. Most of us lie somewhere in between, moving in and out of suffering like the sun moving in and out of the clouds.

 The Sanskrit word for suffering is dukha and literally means to be stuck. It comes from the root kha meaning axle and refers to a wheel that is either no longer turning, or wobbling and off center giving a bumpy unpleasant ride. It complements the sanskrit word sukha which means free or flowing, or easy as a well greased, well centered wheel flows smoothly over the road. When the mental suffering becomes great enough there is often the incentive to take action.

   Dan Siegel, in his book "The Mindful Brain", describes 9 distinct domains of neural integration. Neural integration is "the linkage of anatomically or functionally differentiated neural regions into an interconnection of widely distributed areas of the brain and body proper. These interconnections take the form synaptic linkages structurally, and create a form of coordination and balance functionally."

Sutras I-6 - I-10 offer further elaboration on these five categories. Dan Siegel offers a useful definition of mind as " a process that regulates the flow of energy and information."

I-6 pramana, viparyaya, vikalpa. nidra, smrtayah

(the 5 basic categories of mind activity are)

correct or valid knowledge, incorect knowledge, imagination,

sleep and memory

I-7 pratyaksha, anumanaagamah pramanani

correct or valid knowledge (arises through) direct perception, inference, and testimony

How do we know something is true, is correct? There is a perception, an interpretation and a correct conclusion drawn. This is a complex process, not a simple one, where at least these three layers are involved. Patanjali includes three variations on this process.

1. An object is directly perceived and correctly recognized. I see the apple. I hear a Beatles song. I smell the coffee brewing.

2. I see smoke rising in the distance. Although I do not see fire, I can infer its existence from the smoke. I see foot prints in the sand. Although I do not see a dog, I can infer that a dog was walking here. Good trackers are masters of subtle inference

3. My son told me about seeing a rabbit in the back yard. I did not see it, cannot infer this from any evidence, but trust his word. Reliable testimony is the third form of uncovering correct knowledge.

I-8 viparyayah mithyajnanam atadrupa pratistham

wrong understanding arises through misperception, misconception, (or some combination of both)

As in I-7, there is a perception, interpretation and a conclusion. But here, the conclusion is wrong or false. We make a mistake. The form perceived is misinterpreted. but the truth of the form is available to correct. Sometimes our senses fail us. In low light, we don't see as well, we do not always hear clearly, etc.

I-9  shabdajnana anupati vastushunyah vikalpah

imagination is when conception is not based on something that actually exists.

I-10  abhava pratyaya alambana vrttih nidra

I-11  anubhuta visaya asampramosah smrtih

I-12  abhyasa vairagyabhyam tan nirodhah

I-13  tatra sthitau yatno'bhyasah

I-14 sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih

I-15 drshtanushravika-vishaya-vitrshnasya vashikara-sanjna vairagyam

I-16  tat param purusha-khyater guna vaitrshnyam

...

I-33  Maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha dukha punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatash citta prasadanam.

(The mind becomes purified by) friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference (equanimity) (respectively) towards those who are successful, suffering, virtuous and unvirtuous.

It is not uncommon to feel envious or jealous over other people's success or good luck. Practicing (maitri) amity, friendliness or loving kindness in those situations helps to keep  the mind calm.

When we see others suffering we may either turn away to avoid the depths of feeling, of perhaps take some cruel delight if it happens to be an enemy that is suffering. Choosing to remain compassionate (karuna) keeps us in our hearts and grounded in being.

Virtuous people may make us feel inadequate, less that worthy, insecure in our selves if we engage in comparison. Expressing joy or delight (mudita) in their virtuousness allows us to touch our own joy, our own virtue and thus strengthen our own self sense.

Seeing injustice can easily evoke anger and fear. The sanskrit word upeksha literally means indifference. Here, indifference to injustice does not mean inactivity (See Bhagavad Gita) but a state of non reactivity so that anger and fear do not arise to disturb the mind field with a torrent of negative emotional energy. The Buddhists translate upeksha (upekka in Pali) as equanimity. Again the point is to be present to injustice without falling into emotional turmoil. Then appropriate action can be taken with a clear mind and open heart.

from the II: Sadhana Pada: on practice

II- 46 sthira sukham aasanam

posture is stable and fluid

II-47 pra-yatna shaithilyaananta sam-aa-pattibhyaam

with the release of effort and absorption in the limitless (posture is mastered)

II- 48 tato dvandvaanabhi-ghaatah

then one is no longer entangled in duality