a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
196 Boston Avenue
Suite 3900
Medford, MA 02155

781 396 0808
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

Yoga/Yoga Teaching

Non-Dual View

Collective Awakening

Shadow, Psychology and Emotions

                      Yoga Sutras Studies

 I-1  Atha yoganushasanam: Now begins the study of Yoga  

I-2  Yogash citta vrtti nirodhah:  Yoga is the cessation of compulsive mind activity.

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) mind activity is mistaken for the Self.

I-5  Vrttaya panchatayah klishta klishtah: Mind activity has five basic patterns and can be painful or not painful.

...

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.