A little bit about yoga
This page provides some topics about yoga:
– Some history and yoga darshana
– Yoga-Sûtra and Patanjali
– Why so many “yogas”?
– Why do we suffer?
– What to do?
– Meditation
Note: Sanskrit words are written in italic . They don’t have plural, unless when they are imported to our languages. So you we’ll see for example darshana and not “darshanas“.
A little bit of history
It is said that many centuries ago a civilization was moving across the Middle East. Their origin was the actual region of Iran / Iraq; they moved across Asia to the region now known as the North of India. They are known as the “Aryans”.
This people had a very reach culture. Along the centuries, there had been several inspired wise men who left a legacy of beautiful poems and texts about life, human existence and the Divine.
As they moved down to the South of India, they met another culturally very rich civilization: the Dravidian people.
The Vedas, were the result of the melting of these two cultures and the combination of their knowledge. The original language of the Vedas is Sanskrit, ‘the perfect language”. Indeed, today it is difficult to translate many of the concepts conveyed by Sanskrit words. Many of them are about spiritual concepts, states of the mind, etc.
This problem arises with our actual languages, but understanding the Vedas is as difficult today as it was many centuries ago,… in the West or in India.
In order to help solving this problem, groups of wise men, along the centuries, formed what we could call “schools of thought”, a poor translation for the Sanskrit word “darshana“. It is also translated as “point of view” because its root means “to see” or “sight”. The darshana help us to see or understand the Vedas.
There are six classic darshana. Each of them is attributed to a master. Things in ancient India were very different from what they are now in the world. They didn’t feel the need to claim the authorship of a text, or a philosophical idea. So we don’t even know if some of these masters really existed.
These darshana can be grouped in pairs and they are the following:
NYÂYA.
VAISHESHIKA
MIMÂMSÂ
VEDÂNTA
SÂMKHYA
YOGA
The first two are respectively a system of logic and a cosmogony. Mimânsâ and Vedânta are the base of Hinduism.
Sâmkhya is a system that also explains the cosmos. It explains how nature develops and the steps (tattva) that it takes. Yoga (whose great master is Patanjali, the “author” of Yoga-Sûtra) is the way of experiencing what Sâmkhya exposes.
Yoga-Sûtra and Patanjali
Patañjali (or Patanjali) is one of the masters who could be a legend. It is said that he was sent to our plan of existence to help mankind. By then people had some serious problems of communication and so he made a grammar of Sanskrit (Panini’s grammar). Also people were sick and so he left them a treatise on Ayurveda. And at last, people were confused and didn’t understand life and so he gave them Yoga-Sûtra.
Yoga-Sûtra is a wonderful master piece; it is composed by four chapters, each of them presenting different aspects of Yoga. It is said that he had four disciples and each chapter was dedicated to each of the disciples. In general, Yoga-Sûtra explains what Yoga is and the different states of the mind before the highest state is achieved, it explains what to do to get there, what can happen in the way and the last chapter reveals some details and compares Yoga to other systems.
Patanjali defines Yoga as the interruption of the turbulence of the mind. Our mind generally is busy all the time, switching from one subject to another without our control. Even when we focus, sooner or later our mind will be wondering around. In the state of Yoga, which is a state of complete peace and clarity, we can finally understand who we really are, what is around us and what life is about.
Why so many “yogas”?
We hear about jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga, kriyâ yoga, râjâ yoga, hatha yoga… and many others. Why? Professor Krishnamacharya was asked this question. He slowly looked up to the sky and said, “There are so many stars in the sky…”
Yoga-Sûtra offers many possibilities to follow the path of yoga, which consists of clearing the mind from all the things that distract us, not allowing us to focus. Some of these paths will be more suitable for some people and others for other people.
So, for example, jnana yoga is a path based on knowledge – not technological knowledge but the knowledge of who we are and how we “function”. This knowledge may be given from the exterior, but it is inside of us. Meditation helps us finding it.
Bhakti yoga is a path based on devotion. Patanjali doesn’t specify any religion. He speaks of an extraordinary entity, who is timeless, is the source of all the knowledge and is omnipotent and omnipresent. Each one is free to recognize this entity in her/his own culture. He tells us that a close and respectful relation with this entity helps us solve all our problems.
Karma yoga: karma means action. This concept is very well developed in a Hindu text called Bhagavad Gîtâ. It also appears in Yoga-Sûtra, but not so clearly. Our actions cause consequences. As a human being cannot live without acting, we are always producing consequences, which we will have to experience, sooner or later. The only way to escape this circle is to act in an uninterested way, without expecting results, or in other words, being detached from the results. We should do whatever we do the best way we can and detached from the results. Difficult,… not impossible though.
Kriyâ yoga is described at the beginning of the second chapter of Yoga-Sûtra. We may say that it includes all kinds of yoga. Patanjali describes it as being composed by three parts: tapas, the effort to purify the body and the mind, removing blockages and tensions; svâdhyâya, knowledge of one’s self: and Îshvarapranidhânâ, understanding that we cannot control everything, and that there is something greater than us (devotion)… The practice of âsana and prânâyâma are part of tapas. According to Patanjali, kriyâ yoga will reduce the causes of our unhappiness and suffering and will lead us to perfect clearness and bliss. Later Patanjali exposes the ashtanga yoga which will clarify and detail the procedure.
Râjâ yoga also includes all forms of yoga that lead to the “king” (râjâ =king). This king is God, or if you don’t accept this concept, let’s say that this path will lead you to the most sacred in you.
Hatha yoga is the yoga that will lead you to the unification of ha (feminine energy) and tha (masculine energy). Energy flows in our body through conduits (called nâdî) in the same way blood flows inside vessels. In fact some of the nâdî coincide with blood vessels, but others are more subtle. There are many thousands of nâdî in a human body, but some are more important than others. The most important are idâ nâdî, pingalâ nâdî and sushumnâ nâdî. These three nâdî are connected with the vertebral column; they all start at the bottom of the coccyx. Idâ nâdi goes up in a kind of zigzag along the spine until it reaches the left nostril. Cold, feminine or lunar energy (ha) flows in it. Pingalâ nâdî has the same origin and goes up also in zigzag, crossing idâ nâdî along the spine until it reaches the right nostril. This nâdî carries warm, masculine or solar energy (tha). Sushumnâ nâdî runs inside the spine, intersecting the two previous ones in the points were they intersect each other. These are very important energetic points; they are known as cakra (pronounced “chakra” and often brought to our languages as “chakras”). Energy would circulate freely through sushumnâ nâdî if there was not the blockage of ignorance (avidyâ). The destruction of ignorance allows Prâna (energy) to flow in the central conduit (sushumnâ nâdî) and that corresponds to illumination. The idea of unifying ha and tha corresponds to this: unifying the two energies in the central conduit.
Why do we suffer?
In the second chapter of Yoga-Sûtra, Patanjali explains why we are not always happy. Patanjali says that if we knew our real nature, if we knew who we really are, then we would be always joyful. The problem is that we do not know the answer to that question. This ignorance is called avidyâ. It is the root of all our other problems.
Because we don’t know who we really are, we tend to identify with things around us: our thoughts, our body… this may go far: clothes, studies, car, house, job, etc.! If something happens to one of these things, we feel threatened, we feel it as a personal attack, we get angry, or we feel sad. In short, we are not happy! We think we are important, we are better than the others, we are right… This is the (sick) ego!
Next, we try to surround ourselves with things or have experiences that (we think) give us pleasure. And of course if we don’t get the pleasure we want, we don’t feel happy. Often things change, and a pleasant situation becomes unpleasant… And anyway, pleasant situations don’t last forever…
In the same way, we try to avoid what we don’t like. The feeling is bad and if we cannot do anything to avoid it, we are not… happy!
To complete the list, there is fear! This is fear of losing what we have: job, car, house, friends… and the worst of all: fear of death (losing our body)!
It seems we cannot escape these problems, but fortunately there is a way out: to find out who we are! That is what yoga is all about !
We are not talking about an intellectual knowledge, but truly experiencing our reality, which is our being. The only thing that makes this difficult is our mind, because of its tendency to be restless or sleepy. Our mind acts like a filter between our deep essence and what is around us (close or distant). Only when it is calm and alert, it is clear enough to allow us to have some understanding.
What to do?
Patanjali doesn’t leave us with this problem in our hands. He explains that there is a method to ‘clean the impurities of the mind, make knowledge shine (in our minds) and develop a deep discernment of who we really are: it is the ashtânga yoga, or the eight limbs of yoga (ashta – eight; anga – limb).
In a very brief way, these members are:
– Yama – indicates how to relate with the exterior world:
– Ahimsa – be non-violent
– Satya – be truthful
– Asteya – be honest
– Brahmacharya – respect the others (usually translated as chastity)
– Aparigrahâh – be detached and generous
– Niyama – indicates how to relate with yourself:
– Shaucha – purity (of body and mind)
– Samtosha – contentment (it comes with yoga practice, as a result of the “shine” of your inner Self; at the beginning, a good way of thinking of this is “be happy with what you have, not unhappy because of what you do not have!”).
–Tapas – to make an effort to practice, choose well what you eat, drink and see; choose your friends, hobbies and environment so that they will bring you tranquility and clarity to your mind, not the opposite.
–Svâdhyâya – know yourself, especially your inner Self (through reliable texts, before you start to realize it by yourself)
– Îshvarapranidhâna – devotion, in the most suitable way to you; you can start by recognizing that you cannot control everything in your life!
– Âsana – work with the body, poses (this will bring you physical and psychological health. It will help sitting without effort with your back straight, if you wish to practice the following disciplines)
– Prânâyâma – work with the breath; the practice of well-chosen breathing exercises brings peace, balance and clarity to the mind.
– Pratyâhâra – retraction of the senses; happens naturally, when you are focused on an object (it can happen during âsana, breathing exercises, or meditation)
– Dhârana – concentration
– Dhyâna – meditation
– Samâdhi – complete absorption in the object of meditation
The way Patanjali exposes this subject lets us understand that all these eight limbs should be, as much as possible, developed at the same time.
Yoga meditation
We hear a lot about meditation. People say: ” I am going to meditate ! “
According to Patanjali’s Yoga-Sûtra, meditation is the 7th of the eight limbs of ashtânga yoga. It appears right after “concentration” (dhârana). So let’s see what meditation means in the context of Yoga.
The way how the eight limbs are presented in Yoga-Sûtra is not sequential, in the sense you should develop a member at a time. The use of the term “limb” suggests they should be developed all at the same time. What would be of a body with an extremely well developed arm, if the other limbs were atrophied?
However, in reality there is a certain sequence. If we are going to practice âsana with a bad conscience because we were verbally rude to someone, will we be able to concentrate? Will we have peace in our mind? No!
In the same way, Patanjali speaks about concentration / meditation / samâdhi (in this order), for some reason.
Let’s stay with this last three limbs of ashtânga yoga and suppose that the others are as much in place as possible. So, first we have “concentration”. Concentration is focusing our mind on an object. It is something that demands our will, at least in the beginning.
Here we can learn our first lesson about meditation. We choose the object. In other words, when we concentrate on something because it attracts our attention in that moment, (for example, like a movie) we did not really decide to choose it previously as the object of our meditation. Our attention may stay fixed on the “object”, but this is not really what Patanjali meant. In those cases, our senses drag us to the “object”.
Then there is the subtle separation line between “concentration” and “meditation”. “Meditation” is the state we achieve when, after being concentrated on the object, our attention stays with the object without any more effort. You can think: “But that is what happens when I see such a film!” Right, but did you choose to meditate on that film?
We use our will to stay focused, and then our will “turns off”, and we just stay with the object. We don’t voluntarily “turn off” the will. This does not depend on our will. The same happens when we “want” to sleep. As long as we are thinking that we “want” it, we stay awake.
We are too much used to “do” things, or using our will to do something. Do we know how to allow it to “turn off”? Usually, no. And without it… there is no meditation.
Many years ago I was reading a book of anatomy applied to yoga, which was written by M. M. Gore, an Indian doctor. I was very curious, because he was saying that after moving into a pose, we should relax our mind and abstain from wanting to go further. He was saying that like this we could relax our cortex, and he was talking about its benefits in the nervous system. I think he didn’t want to go far way with his explanation. I am certain he was also thinking about meditation.
It is understandable not to want (and not to know how) to let go of our will in our everyday life. But on our yoga mat it is different, it is safe. There we can allow ourselves to be what we are, we don’t need to prove anything to anybody, and we are safe – especially when we practice alone, because our ego is treacherous… This kind of will is related to our ego: we “want” something (think of raga, one of the things that sooner or later will make us unhappy).
So, we need to have moments when we let go of our will and calm down the ego. It is a kind of training.
In the first chapter of Yoga-Sûtra (YS. I.39) Patanjali also tells us about the choice of the object of meditation. We will spend a lot of energy trying to concentrate on something that does not interest us. That is why we must choose an object that means something to us; it should attract us, (but not in the same way we were talking at the beginning of this page ! ). And we must keep in mind what is going to be said next.
Something very interesting happens when we meditate frequently on the same object: we absorb the qualities of the object of meditation. Unfortunately this happens when we choose the object or when we are dragged to it by our senses. I am sure everyone can tell an example of this. For example, think how people drive after watching a car race. This should make us more aware of what we choose to watch, or listen, even people with whom we spend our time.
It is important to retain that we absorb the qualities of the object of meditation. So the best thing to do is to realize what we need. This is easier with the help of a teacher or a good friend. Then we start looking for the object that transmits us that, which we need. Try to stay away from conventions. What is good for someone may not be good for another person, or you.