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More Ways to Breathe December 5, 2020

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Abhyasa, Books, Fitness, Health, Life, Meditation, Philosophy, Science, Vairagya, Yoga.
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[Email subscribers, please note that there may be some errors in the Sanskrit lettering, which I will correct as soon as possible. My apologies.]

“There are thousands of postures. In order to heal our physical and psychological injuries we must learn to select the postures suitable to our specific needs and arrange them in the proper sequence. Sequencing of asana is crucial because, as with anything else, a change in sequence drastically changes the result. (YS 3:15). Next, we have to practice these properly sequenced postures while staying within the boundaries of our comfort. Then, we must take our practice to the point where we are able to feel and touch the threshold of our discomfort. We refine our practices as we apply the principle of effortless effort described in the previous sutra.”

– commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.48 from The Practice of the Yoga Sūtra: Sadhana Pada by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD

All the cues on moving into and activating a pose can be really overwhelming. It can seem constant and continuous… because it is. I often tell beginners not to worry about doing what they don’t understand – or even, to an extent, what doesn’t make sense. Do what you can do, as much as you can do it, for as long as you can do it (to paraphrase a very wise man) and eventually things start falling into place. Literally, the more you practice, the more parts of you start aligning. Yes, it’s true, that you can practice incorrectly – and you can do it for a really long time. It’s also true that when doing something wrong becomes the habit (and the practice) things don’t fall into place… things fall apart. We see that in our mind-bodies and we see it in the world.

Do you ever wonder where all this information came from? Do you every think about that first yogi, Adiyoga, and those first seven students? Initially, no one told anyone how to do anything. The first seven were inspired by seeing someone else do something they thought had value – and then they listened to their own mind-body! The question is always: How can I breathe deeply here? Or, what can I do to breathe more deeply here? And the answer is already inside of us. We just have to “listen,” which in the case of our mind-body requires paying attention to sensation, to how we’re feeling and how we are responding to what’s happening inside of us and all around us. That’s the practice.

“You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

– quoted from Letter #4 (dated July 16, 1903) addressed to 19-year old officer cadet Franz Xaver Kappus, published in Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Being human, we have the ability to play, explore, and experiment, to see what works, when and where it works, and for how long something works. Thus, someone started moving their body into different shapes and then breathing in those different shapes, which had different effects. Then they would move into the shapes in a different way, breath into that different way, and noticed the different effects. Then they saw other people could do the same and experience similar effects. Then people, like Patanjali and Vyasa, started to codify the practice by writing it down. And this whole process and practice comes back to the breath, the spirit, the life force – and different ways to breathe, engage the spirit, and expand life.

Yoga Sūtra 2.49: tasminsati śvāsapraśvāsayorgativicchedah prāņāyāmahah

– “Prāņāyāma, which is expanding the life force by controlling the movement of the inhalation and exhalation, can be practiced after completely mastering [the seat or pose].”

Yoga Sūtra 2.50: bāhyābhyantarastambhavŗttirdeśakālasasamkhyābhih paridŗşţo dīrghasūkşmah

– “The breath may be stopped externally, internally, or checked in mid-motion, and regulated according to place, time and a fixed number of moments, so that the [pause] is either protracted or brief.”

In commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.50, Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati is quick to point out that while stambha (“cessation” or “transition”) is often translated into English as retention and therefore equated with kumbhaka (which is retention), there is a subtle difference in the usage here. First, the practice involves awareness of three parts of the breath: inhalation, exhalation, and the transition (or pause) between the first two parts – which is repeated twice. Next, there is the slowing or expansion of the breath (as described in YS. 2.49). Finally, there is awareness and regulation of the breath in different places in the body – even directing it to those places; controlling the time (or length and duration of the breath); and counting (or numbering) each part of the breath.

Breath regulation in place, time, and by numbering can involve the practice of kumbhaka, which is breath retention achieved by holding the breath on the inhalation or exhalation, and/or stambha vŗitti kumbhaka, which is breath retention achieved in the middle of an inhalation or exhalation. Notice that the breath retention highlights transition.

Any breath retention is considered an advanced practice and, just as is instructed with more “basic” types of prāņāyāma, should only be practiced after mastering previous elements. Some teachers advise only practicing kumbhaka when after it naturally arises in your practice. This does not mean that you are ready to practice breath retention when you finding yourself holding your breath or shallow breathing because you are overly challenged in a pose or sequence. In fact, it means quite the opposite.

“Patanjali assumes that aspirants who reached this level of yoga sadhana are familiar wth the practice of the seven pranayamas, which together constitute the practice of prana anusandhana. Therefore, these aspirants have built a strong foundation for practicing the three advanced pranayama techniques he is presenting here.”

– commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.48 from The Practice of the Yoga Sūtra: Sadhana Pada by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD

The practicing of connecting the breath – and connecting to the breath – is broken down into the following seven steps:

  1.  Aharana prāņāyāma  – which is “to bring back” and revolves around awareness of the breath and how it feels in the body, as well as positioning the body so there is no shakiness, interruption, or abnormal breathing.
  2. Samikarana prāņāyāma – which is “to equalize,” and involves maintaining an equal calmness in the breathing and in the mind-body. There is also focus on certain areas of the mind-body.
  3. Dirge-prashvasa prāņāyāma – which is “long exhalation,” and involves focus on certain areas of the mind-body.
  4. Nadi shodhana prāņāyāma – which is alternate energy channel or alternate nasal breathing, and involves alternating the exhale and inhale between nostrils.
  5. Anuloma prāņāyāma – which is “to follow the same path,” and involves rapidly inhaling and exhaling through only one nostril.
  6. Viloma prāņāyāma – which is “to follow the reverse path,” and involves exhaling through one nostril and then inhaling through the other.
  7. Pratlioma prāņāyāma – which is “to switch paths back and forth,” and is only practiced after the previous two are mastered.

Note that the last three are practices are only intended for people who are healthy and have no underlying conditions. Also, please note that these terms are also sometimes used to refer to a specific pattern of breathing related to length and duration of each part of the breath.

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, December 5th) at 12:00 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0.

You can request an audio recording of Saturday’s practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10272020 Pranayama II”]

### To live is to breathe. To breathe with intention is the practice. To live with intention is the goal. ###

To Say (& Do) Before Going to Sleep December 4, 2020

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Dharma, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Loss, Mantra, Mysticism, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Suffering, Vipassana, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
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“To Say Before Going to Sleep”

“I would like to sing someone to sleep,
have someone to sit by and be with.
I would like to cradle you and softly sing,
be your companion while you sleep or wake.
I would like to be the only person
in the house who knew: the night outside was cold.
And would like to listen to you
and outside to the world and to the woods.

The clocks are striking, calling to each other,
and one can see right to the edge of time.
Outside the house a strange man is afoot
and a strange dog barks, wakened from his sleep.
Beyond that there is silence.

My eyes rest upon your face wide-open;
and they hold you gently, letting you go
when something in the dark begins to move.”

– poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

We all have our bedtime rituals, traditions, and habits. Some of them started in our childhood, and we continue them because they serve us. Some are as comfortable as our favorite pair of pajamas. Then there are some that have stuck around even though they are clearly worn, out, holey, and ill-fitting – not to mention the fact that some of folks just don’t bother with things like pajamas. Perhaps mixed up in those rituals, traditions, and habits are prayers, a glass of water by the bedside, a quick fluff of the pillow, and a bedtime story.

Because who doesn’t love a good bedtime story? The only problem is that the older we get – especially if we’re a parent and/or a single adult – the less opportunity there is for someone to read us a story. On the flip side, as an adult, we can appreciate all the different forms a bedtime story can take.

Some bedtime stories rhyme like a poem. Others read like a letter. Some are just beautiful, “lyrically intense,” and create a cozy space in our hearts and mind. Some are full of adventure. Still others are full of advice and make us turn inward. My favorites are all of the above. Perhaps, that’s why I love the poems and letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, who was born today in 1875; because, they make great bedtime stories.

“Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am”

– quoted from Sonnets to Orpheus, II.29 by Rainer Maria Rilke

Even though we started with a focus on prānāyāma, the “First Friday Night Special” series started because a dear friend requested “Bed(time) Yoga” and a handful of other friends got excited about the idea. In all honesty, I was half asleep when I texted something like, “Sure. I’ll get on that.” Only to wake up hours later and wonder, “Wait? Did you want yoga to help you go to sleep or yoga to help you wake up?” I realize that to most people this sounds like a seriously dumb (and slightly rhetorical) question. You must realize, however, that I sometimes do a bed-sequence at night and a slightly different sequence (in or on the bed) in the morning. Which means, of course, that this first “Bedtime Yoga” practice – also known as “Sleepy Time Yoga” – is just the beginning.

This month’s “First Friday Night Special” is a sequence to help you release, relax, and rest. The practice will also include tips on how the poses can be adjusted to make it a morning “get out of bed” sequence. It is accessible and open to all, regardless of age, experience, or gender. And, naturally, it includes a bedtime “story” or two.

“Here, where I am surrounded by an enormous landscape, which the winds move across as they come from the seas, here I feel that there is no one anywhere who can answer for you those questions and feelings which, in their depths, have a life of their own; for even the most articulate people are unable to help, since what words point to is so very delicate, is almost unsayable. But even so, I think that you will not have to remain without a solution if you trust in Things that are like the ones my eyes are now resting upon. If you trust in Nature, in what is simple in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge. You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

– quoted from Letter #4 (dated July 16, 1903) addressed to 19-year old officer cadet Franz Xaver Kappus, published in Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Please grab your pjs* and props* and join me today (Friday, December 4th) 7:15 PM for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom – that you can practice on your mat or in your bed. The Meeting ID and link are in the “Class Schedules” calendar. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or email myra(at)ajoyfulpractice.com.

Tuesday’s playlists are available on YouTube and Spotify.

(The playlists contain a different variety of musical selections and you will only need one track/album for the practice. With one exception, the tracks play without interruption. There are more options on the YouTube playlist (and that has my preference), but there is a different Sigur Rós option on the Spotify playlist.)

*NOTE: Your regular yoga clothes will work for this practice. You can use standard props if you are doing the sequence on the mat, floor, or chair; however, I would suggest just using pillows and a strap if you are practicing in bed.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. You can also purchase a drop in class or use part of a package.

“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.”

– quoted from Letter #1 (dated February 17, 1903) addressed to 19-year old officer cadet Franz Xaver Kappus, published in Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Mark your calendars, because the first Friday of 2021 is January 1st and there will be two special offerings! See the “Class Schedules” calendar for details on how you can start the new year with 108 Sun Salutations or Yin+Meditation.

### Zzzzzzz ###

Tolstoy’s Theories & Questions (soooo many questions) September 9, 2020

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Love, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Philosophy, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
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“Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it you too have the only method of saving your people from enslavement. In very ancient times love was proclaimed with special strength and clearness among your people to be the religious basis of human life.”

– quoted from section V of “A Letter to a Hindu” by Leo Tolstoy (dated 12/14/1908)

Consider that if you practice ahimsā (“non-harming” or “non-violence”) and satya (a dedication to “truth”), there are times when telling the brutal honest truth, creates harm. So, the questions become (1) how to mitigate the harm – while also being dedicated to the truth – and (2) how to be honest without telling the truth. Someone who would have strived to find the balance was Leo Tolstoy who, in my humble opinion, sometimes failed miserably to find the balance.

Going by the Gregorian calendar, Leo Tolstoy was born today in 1828. He was born into nobility near Tula, Russia and, in many ways, his story could mirror that of Prince Siddhartha’s story of enlightenment… if it weren’t for those pesky trips to the brothel. Yes, born into wealth and privilege, Tolstoy indulged himself. Then he fell in love and very quickly married the 18-year old Sophia Behrs, the daughter of a court physician. There was a difference in their social status and a 16-year age difference; however, those were not the problems. Their marital strife started before they even got married when, under the guise of full disclosure, Tolstoy forced Sophia to read his diaries – filled with his sexual exploits – the night before their wedding. In a similar vein, he would later tell his favorite daughter Maria, known as “Masha,” that although it was sad that she had experienced another failed birth, “it is clearly a benefit to your spiritual life.”

Yeah, Tolstoy kinda sucked like that.

He was also, by all accounts, incredibly moody.

If you only know of Tolstoy as the Nobel Prize nominated author of giant Russian novels that many consider the greatest literature ever written, then my earlier statement about his story mirroring the Buddha’s story may come as a surprise – especially given his interpersonal skills as described above.

I completely understand if, given the above information, you don’t want to read anything more. (Especially considering the fact that I don’t think the rest of the story redeems him.) Here’s the thing though: Tolstoy spent much of his adult life in the middle of a spiritual crisis and his efforts to resolve this crisis led him to “start” a spiritual movement that inspired people from all over the world – including Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & Rev. James Bevel. Gandhi even named a spiritual settlement in South Africa after Tolstoy.

“I believe that such a time has now arrived—not in the sense that it has come in the year 1908, but that the inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of the beneficence of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has for centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of violence. This contradiction must be faced, and the solution will evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of violence, but to the truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men from remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is in accord with the nature of man.

But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they have completely freed themselves from all religious and scientific superstitions and from all the consequent misrepresentations and sophistical distortions by which its recognition has been hindered for centuries.”

– quoted from section VI of “A Letter to a Hindu” by Leo Tolstoy (dated 12/14/1908)

But, I’m jumping ahead. So, let’s back up a minute. Before we get to the part where Leo Tolstoy was rooted in pacifism and Christian anarchism, we have to go back…even before the brothels.

At an early age, Tolstoy’s teacher wrote him off as not being too smart. Yet, he taught himself twelve languages. His brother suggested that he enlist in the army and also encouraged him to write. The fighting that he saw at the front during the Crimean War, combined with an execution he witness in Paris (1857), and his brother’s death around 1859, caused Tolstoy to question his faith and his place in the world. In particular, he questioned “superstitious belief in progress,” which led to a moral crisis and spiritual awakening.

Part of his questioning led him to the desire to marry and have a family. His marriage with Sophia, while full of conflict, was instrumental in the completion and publication of the novel “1805,” which was renamed War and Peace. Sophia Tolstoya rewrote each revision of the novel by hand. She wrote out the entire novel eight times in seven years, although she had to rewrite some sections 30 times – all while giving birth to four of their 13 children and taking care of the day-to-day operations of their home and business affairs. Despite their personal conflicts (which included Tolstoy’s insistence that she continue having children even after a doctor said it was detrimental to her health), Tolstoya continued to support her husband’s literary efforts throughout their marriage.

The couple’s ultimate split occurred after their estate was essentially turned into a de-facto settlement for “Tolstoyans” (who wanted to be closer to their “spiritual leader”) and Sophia Tolstoya demanded Tolstoy sign over control of his publishing royalties (because she feared he would bankrupt the family). The ultimate split between the couple caused quite a public scandal, but that’s towards the end of the story. In between, there were the novels (including Anna Karenina, which Tolstoy considered his “first novel”). The Kingdom of God is Within You (the title of which references John 17:21), a series of short stories collected under the title What Men Live By (which includes more questions), and his 1908 “Letter to a Hindu” (addressed to Tarak Nath Das).

“All that exists is One. People only call this One by different names. ~The Vedas

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ~ 1 John 4:16

God is one whole; we are the parts. ~ Exposition of the teaching of the Vedas by Vivekananda”

– quoted from “A Letter to a Hindu” by Leo Tolstoy (dated 12/14/1908)

All of Leo Tolstoy’s work can come under that heading of “what men live by.” The Kingdom of God is Within You highlights Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek. It also questions what Tolstoy viewed as hypocrisy, corruption, and moral contradictions within organized religion. Although it was banned in Russia, it was published in Germany several years after Tolstoy was placed under police surveillance by the czarist government and excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church.  “A Letter to a Hindu” draws quotes from a plethora of sacred text and shows the parallels between religious traditions many people may not realize have shared teachings.

There’s more to the story, of course there is more, but just this little bit brings up the original questions above plus some particular to the author: Was Tolstoy the ultimate hypocrite? Is he the perfect cautionary tale? Did he spend his life becoming/being what he most despised and criticized?

Then, there are the questions that, perhaps, you have found yourself asking over the last few years: Do we disregard the message/teaching because of the messenger’s bad behavior? Should we excuse bad behavior because nobody is perfect, but some people have good intentions? How much should someone be condemned if they are doing their best to work towards a better world, but their bad (suffering-causing) behavior is rooted in years of privilege?

At each point, I think we have to come back to the beginning: ahimsā and satya. At each point, we have to turn inward and ask ourselves: What creates the least amount of harm while simultaneously allowing us to maintain our dedication to the truth?

“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating feelings of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked [ or non-virtuous].”

– quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (1.33), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

“As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence —as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single individual. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so, either in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the collection of taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the world will be able to enslave you.”

– quoted from section V of “A Letter to a Hindu” by Leo Tolstoy (dated 12/14/1908)

Please join me today (Wednesday, September 9th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom (featuring “Three Questions,” one of Tolstoy’s short stories). Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

“O ye who sit in bondage and continually seek and pant for freedom, seek only for love. Love is peace in itself and peace which gives complete satisfaction. I am the key that opens the portal to the rarely discovered land where contentment alone is found.”  ~KRISHNA.

– quoted from section VI of “A Letter to a Hindu” by Leo Tolstoy (dated 12/14/1908)

Updated 09/09/2023.

### “LIVE THE QUESTION NOW” (RMR) ###

You’ve Got The Power June 15, 2020

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“…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

 

– from the preface to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

 

“…I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Perhaps you do carry within you the possibility of creating and forming, as an especially blessed and pure way of living; train yourself for that but take whatever comes, with great trust, and as long as it comes out of your will, out of some need of your innermost self, then take it upon yourself, and don’t hate anything.”

 

– from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (Letter #4 to Franz Kappus, dated July 16, 1903)

 

As you will see, I am looping back around to a previous post. Really, I am looping back around to several posts and several conversations, including a couple of conversations about dana (much thanks to Adam and Cameron) after last week’s Common Ground practice (on Zoom). However, I feel I should preface this by saying a couple of things, so….

First, I am surrounded by a lot of really smart people – and I have been all my life. Some people are intellectuals; some are even recognized as such. Others are intellectually smart – even if they don’t have a lot of formal education. Some are labeled as fun, but you would be ignorant to underestimate their knowledge base. Still others are smart, savvy in a way that underscores the origins of “savvy,” which comes from Spanish by way of pidgin English for “you know.” (In other words, they know things – and they may or may not have ever read about those things in a book or seen them in a movie.) Second, teaching yoga the way I do is a little like being a comedian (or any kind of writer) in that if we have a conversation or any kind of interaction there’s a good chance you’re going to pop up in my practice. After all, one of the lojong or “mind training” techniques in Tibetan Buddhism is, “Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with practice.”

Keeping all of that in mind, you can be sure that when I post a title like “How Ignorant Are You?” – as I did on Saturday – I did it knowing that it was blunt, in your face, and that a lot of people’s knee jerk reaction is, “Well, I’m not ignorant, but [insert person of choice]….” Calling someone, or even implying that someone is, ignorant is a great way to push someone’s buttons. It’s like calling someone racist when they are exhibiting racist behavior (especially when they believe they are “not racist” and/or believe they are straight up “woke”). It’s also like calling someone racist when they have been a victim of systematic racism (especially when you do so while exhibiting your own racist behavior). These are great examples of shenpa, which Pema Chödrön translates to as “the hook” and is a sign of attachment (which is one of the afflicted thought patterns that produces suffering).

Avidyā is the Sanskrit word for “ignorance.” It can also be translated as misconception, misunderstanding, or incorrect knowledge. We may also think of the English word as “lack of knowledge.” No matter how you view it, we are all ignorant of something – either because we have not experienced it (i.e., perceived with our own senses); we have not inferred (or logically deduced) it based on information we have perceived; and/or it has not been revealed or taught to us through sacred text (i.e., the documented experience of another). Note that I have been very specific about how we can lack knowledge. I have been very specific, because these descriptions are specifically outlined in the Yoga Sutra 1.7 as vidyā (“correct knowledge”), which is obviously the opposite of incorrect knowledge.

Correct understanding and incorrect understanding are two of the five mental functions. But, perhaps even more importantly, the five mental functions (correct understanding, incorrect understanding, imagination, dreamless sleep, and memory, as indicated in Yoga Sutra 1.6) fall into two categories: klişțāklişțāh (“afflicted and not afflicted”). Afflicted thought patterns create suffering and there are five afflicted thought patters: “Ignorance (or lack of knowledge), false sense of self, attachment (rooted in pleasure), aversion (which is attachment rooted in pain), and fear of death of loss.” Again, I’m very specific here, because these are the definitions outlined in Yoga Sutra 2.3.

Furthermore, these afflicted thought patterns (which I referred to as “dysfunctional” on Saturday) are all connected. When we don’t have correct knowledge or understanding about the world that means we also don’t have correct knowledge or understanding of ourselves (and others). That initial lack of knowledge leads us to create stories so that, inevitably, we define ourselves according to the things and people we like (attachment rooted in pleasure) and the things and people we don’t like (attachment rooted in pain). Finally, we fear change, because all change is the end/death of something and a loss of something – specifically the death or loss of ourselves and our world as we know it.

Take a breath. Let all of that settle in for a moment before you move on to the next paragraph.

So, Patanjali starts off his explanation of the 8-limb philosophy of yoga by explaining how the brain/mind works and then gets into the practice, which is how we can work (work with / play with) the mind. Along the way he mentions siddhis, which can be loosely translated as “powers.” It is more literally “fulfillment: or “accomplishment.” Even if you’ve never delved into any Sanskrit texts, this may sound familiar if you know the story of the Buddha (Siddhartha Guatama), the story of Siddhartha Finch, and/or you’ve been to one of May the 4th classes (when I talk about Jedi Knight tricks). More often than not, when random people (myself included) talk about siddhis in the context of yoga, we are talking about the extraordinary (or “Supernormal” as Dean Radin calls them in the book of the same name) powers/accomplishments Patanjali describes at the end of the yoga sutras. However, when he goes deeper into the nature of afflicted or dysfunctional thought patterns, Patanjali indicates and alludes to the side effects – in other words, some of the direct suffering – of these thought patterns.

Patanjali specifically points to nine obstacles to practice and to maintaining a clear, joyful mind (YS 1.30) plus five physical conditions which arise because of the obstacles (YS 1.31). The physical conditions (pain, mental agitation, unsteadiness or trembling limbs, abnormal  or unsteady inhalation, and abnormal or unsteady exhalation not only arise from the obstacles, they also feed into the obstacles. So, it is a constant loop of suffering that dulls the mind. And all of this starts with those five afflicted or dysfunctional thought patterns, specifically ignorance. I could go on all day about this (and have), but my focus today is on some very specific powers we lose when we are steeped in avidyā.

“The nine obstacles described in the previous sutra rob the body of vitality, strength, stamina, and agility, and the mind of clarity and peace. The absence of these obstacles is the ground for joy. Their presence is the ground for pain, which in turn leads to the four other debilitating conditions….”

 

– commentary on Yoga Sutra 1.31 from The Practice of the Yoga Sutra: Sadhana Pada by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD

In commentary, which is based on comparative analysis and lived practice, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD, describes how our minds (and bodies) become disempowered in 28 different ways. These different types of disempowerment fall into three categories: (1) disempowerment of our mind and senses, (2) disempowerment of our inner sense of fulfillment, and (3) disempowerment of powers unique to humans. Now, the first category manifests as dullness in experience; we are riddled with doubt and the world loses its vibrancy. Think about how food tastes (or lacks taste) when you are steeped in depression or sadness versus how it tastes when you feel alive and engaged. The second category has a series of subcategories (with their own subcategories), but let’s just say that we experience one (or more) of these nine subcategories when we are rigid in our beliefs; when we are satisfied with the (spiritual) trappings of our beliefs and believe those external trappings will bring us peace; when we procrastinate; when we fall into what I call the “fate/predestination” trap; and/or when we use any of a number of logical arguments to avoid engaging in worldly matters. The third type of disempowerment is a loss of power related to “powers and privileges unique to humans.”

Here, finally, is the focus for today! According to the Sāmkhya Karika, possibly written around the same time as the Yoga Sutras, humans have the following six siddhis:

  1. the power of discovery (i.e., intuitive knowledge;
  2. the power “to give a form to sound, assign meaning to each segment of sound, and to store both sound and meaning in memory….[and] the capacity to communicate both sound and its meaning to others. We also have the capacity to give a visual form to each segment of sound and the meaning associated with it[;]”
  3. the power to “study, analyze, and comprehend” abstract ideas no matter how they are (effectively) communicated;
  4. the power to eliminate “three-fold sorrow – physical, mental, and spiritual;”
  5. the power to “[cultivate] a good heart; finding friends;”
  6. the power of dana, which is “the ability to give.”

 

“I’ve got the power
I’ve got the power

It’s getting, it’s getting, it’s getting kinda hectic
It’s getting, it’s getting, it’s getting kinda hectic”

 

– from the 1990 song “The Power” by Snap!

 

Now, I (personally) can’t say for sure that all of these are unique to humans, but I do feel comfortable saying that most very clearly are human abilities/powers. I’ve experienced them in myself and in others, and one of the things that has struck me over the last week in particular is how much of these siddhis are being lost, dulled, or completely short circuited in people all over the world. Yes, there are some people all over the world who are experiencing their powers – even recognizing the responsibility that comes with their powers – and using their powers for help those around them. But, I bet if you could identify and poll those people, most of them would also say they have felt a loss in powers. So, the question becomes, how do we activate our innate powers? According to the sacred texts, the removal of ignorance is the key (or secret) to experiencing true peace, fulfillment, and freedom. Furthermore, every system of religion and philosophy recommends surrender in order to obtain that key or secret.

If you’re interested in a little sweet surrender, please join me on the virtual mat today (Monday, June 15th) at 5:30 PM for a 75-minute yoga practice on Zoom.

This is a 75-minute Common Ground Meditation Center practice that, in the spirit of generosity (dana), is freely given and freely received. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.

If you are able to support the center and its teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” my other practices, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible, class purchases are not necessarily.)

There is no playlist for the Common Ground practices.

“We have both the wisdom and the courage to share what lawfully belongs to us with others. We are designed to experience the joy of giving. This joy is the architecture of human civilization, characterized by self-sacrifice and selflessness.”

 

– commentary on Yoga Sutra 2.24 (as it relates to “dana”) from The Practice of the Yoga Sutra: Sadhana Pada by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD

 

 

 

#### “… with great power there must also come great responsibility” SL, et al ####