Sutra Sunday
Sundays, Maggie Reagh presents a series of blog posts on one of Patanjali’s key Yoga Sūtra-s (YS), encouraging you to reflect on how it relates to your current life situation through a Yoga Sūtra Journal Question.
The sacredness of Sun (Surya)-day, the day that the Sun is honoured in many cultures, is a brilliant day to do Sva-dhyaya (Self-reflection) through the vehicle of the YS, which like koans, can break your head open, revealing the wisdom of your inherent shining Heart.
Maggie honours her great Yoga-acharya, DV Sridhar of Yoga Rakṣanam, Chennai, India for teaching her the YS for more than 10 years. This blog is dedicated to him and her other Yoga Masters, Radha Sridhar and Viji Vasu with great gratitude.
While what she has learnt from her Masters is the starting point of her Sūtra reflections, Maggie’s blogs include her own insights and interpretations from 20 years of Yoga practice both on and off the mat.
She requests your indulgence for any mistakes unintentionally made and would appreciate any feedback.
Latest on Sutra Sunday
Trusting The Heart
As we continue to explore the five routes to experiencing Yoga, we open up the fourth pathway to a focussed, stable mind (citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ - see YS I-2) through the door of Trust.
The Five Pathways to Yoga
- Abhyāsa– By practicing – (Yoga Sūtra-s) YS I, 12-16
- Vairāgya – By detaching - YS I, 12-16
- Bhavapratyayo – By birth (naturally born in a state of Yoga) – YS I, 19
- Śraddhā – By trusting our Heart - YS I, 20-22
- Īśvara pranidhānā - By surrendering to the Highest - YS I, 23
Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra-s (YS) I-20 śraddhā (trust, faith, enthusiasm, interest, inspiration) virya (energy) smṛti (memory) samādhi (enlightenment) prajña (intuitive knowledge) pūrvaka (before mentioned) itareṣam (other than)
By trusting in our true heart’s desire, we find the energy to move forward, remembering to keep on course towards that enlightened state of intuitive knowing called Yoga.
Trusting our Hearts without Attaching to Outcomes Other than those who are naturally in a state of Yoga by birth, the rest of us must get there through our own efforts (pathways 1-2). Trust (śraddhā) is the motivation behind those efforts to stay on course. It helps us to practice being present and detach from anything distracting us. We must trust (śraddha) in our deepest heart’s desire without attaching to any outcomes because one never knows in life. All we can do is be true to this inner calling without worrying about what it means or how it will manifest. This trust (śraddha) will provide us with the energy (virya) to move forward and will keep reminding (smṛti) us of what our heart is truly calling for even if the desired outcome appears to be impossible.
Taming the Wild Horse Mind In this Chinese New Year of the Horse, the wild horse mind can take us towards many possibilities that seem equally compelling. We need to keep on course to guide that horse towards our deepest heart’s desire. As we saw last fall, it often takes letting go (vairāgyam) of old patterns to let in (abhyāsa) new ones. It often feels safer to hold on to what we know than to step out into something new with no certain outcomes. What fuels us to make those changes?
Enthusiasm – The Fuel of Transformation Where there is interest (śraddhā), there is energy (virya). This enthusiasm (from the Greek “being filled with Spirit”) helps us to remember (smṛti) where we are going and why. When that energy is lacking, ask yourself why. Maybe you are off course. Maybe there is another path which will bring you greater Joy (ānanda), inspiring you to live your life on purpose.
Is it Love or Lust? The Play of the Three Guna-s: Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva Sometimes we feel filled with apathy. We feel uninspired to get out of bed and face the tasks of our day. This is called tamas (heaviness, darkness, laziness). Other times we feel inspired to make a change, but those passions (rajas) are short lived. We fall in lust with a person or an idea, but it doesn’t last. By contrast, when we feel śraddha, we may be filled with a Love that doesn’t die. Something deep within us compels us to act. Our Hearts are running the show, and our heads are along for the ride. Nothing can stop us from reaching our heart’s true desire.
This śraddha (faith, trust) is a sattvic (pure, balanced) quality of mind that naturally arises when we are centred in the Heart and grounded in the body. The first goal of Yoga is to develop this sattvic state of being, freeing us from both debilitating lethargy (tamas) and unsustainable passion (rajas) to rather enjoy a balanced, grounded, pure state of being (sattva). In this mind-body state, we find our deepest Heart’s desire. It fills us with the trust and innocence of sattvic (pure) child, who dares do exactly what she wants with great enthusiasm(śraddha) and energy (viryam), continuously remembering (smrti) to play in the truth of her being (samādhi prajña).
Yoga Sutra Questions What is your Heart calling you to do right now? Do you have the energy to do it? If not, is your Heart just not into it? Are you lacking a particular direction for a fundamental reason? Is it time to change course?
Natural Yogis – Angelic Beings of Light
The Five Routes to Experiencing Yoga:
Abhyāsa– By practicing – (Yoga Sūtra-s) YS I, 12-16
Vairāgya – By detaching - YS I, 12-16
Bhavapratyayo – By birth (naturally born in a state of Yoga) – YS I, 19
Śraddhā – By trusting in your goal - YS I, 20-22
Īśvara pranidhānā - By surrendering to the Highest - YS I, 23
This month, we will discover the last three routes to this mystery called Yoga: by birth, by trust, and by surrender. Today, we will delve into the angelic realm of experiencing Yoga by birth and consider the up and down sides of being naturally gifted in any domain.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra-s (YS) I-19 Bhava(to be)-pratyayo(with an empty mind) videha(angelic)-prakṛti(nature/bodies)-layānām(reincarnation)
There are also angelic beings who reincarnate with empty minds.
Natural Yogis – No Effort Required
Have you ever met someone who seems to radiant Light and kindness with an effortless ease? Does it seem like they are calm and relaxed most of the time even though they do no spiritual practices nor have a history of such practices? If so, they might be a natural yogi, born with an empty mind and open Heart!
Patanjali says there are such deva-s (angelic beings of Light) who don’t have to go through the process of transformation (YS I, 17-18) that the rest of us do. They don’t have to practice Patanjali’s 8-limbed approach (YS II, 29) to Yoga at all. They don’t have to do anything to empty their minds and enter into a state of samadhi (YS I, 18). They are naturally in that state of enlightenment by birth.
These are likely the Buddhist bodhisattva-s (pure=sattvic + minds=buddhi-s) of the Yoga tradition, who achieved enlightenment (samadhi) in a previous life, but have chosen to reincarnate to serve the world’s suffering.
The Upside of Being a Natural Yogi
This sūtra reminds me of a colleague at my University who never does spiritual practices and in fact, says she is an atheist, but is one of the most evolved souls I have ever met. We all so appreciate her because of her calm, loving demeanor with seeming effortlessness and stability. With such stability, you can always count on her to be there for you when the chips are down – a rock in a sometimes stormy world.
When I compare myself to her, I know that it has taken me 20 years of practice to achieve such stability and even now, I still get thrown off course at times by the karmic dumps of life! How can it be? How can she always be so calm and seemingly unfettered by challenging life events? Maybe she was just born that way!
The Downside of Being Naturally Gifted
Then, I am reminded that in order to become a great Yoga teacher, one needs to pass through the fires of transformation personally, not theoretically. Those special individuals who are natural born yogi-s are not always the best Yoga teachers because they haven’t had to make the same efforts as the rest of us have to achieve stability of body, breath, and mind.
In the same way, those who are naturally gifted and good at their jobs often get easily bored. They are always switching careers because they are not being challenged enough. They also get impatient easily because they can’t suffer fools gladly.
The Gift of Experience
The naturally gifted in any area, in fact, are not usually the best teachers. For instance, the best hockey coaches are sometimes those who were only mediocre players in the NHL. A fabulous music teacher might never have made a living as a performing artist at the top of her field.
There is a gift to having learnt through the school of hard knocks and challenging life experiences. We who have learnt the hard way often have much compassion for others who are still in the throes of suffering. We can offer solace based on personal experience to those who are still in the process of transformation. We can become great teachers of how to move from darkness to Light because we ourselves have been in our students’ or friends’ shoes not so long ago.
Yoga Sutra Questions
What do you do for a living? Does it involve something you are naturally gifted in or something that presents some challenges for you to overcome? Does it offer you room to evolve and grow as a person? If not, have you considered changing to a career that does?
Empty Mind – Open Heart
An Empty Mind – The Final Transformation In October and November, we explored Yoga Sutra-s (YS) I, 12-16: how to arrive and stay at a place of being centred, focussed, grounded (nirodhah), the precursor to experiencing that state called Yoga.
For the last 2 weeks, we have been exploring the step by step process of transformation (YS I, 17), leading to Self-Mastery (samprajnātaḥ).
This week, in YS I,18, Patanjali tells us that there is something beyond this process of transformation - an empty mind.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra-s (YS) I-18
Virāma(full stop)-pratyaya(contents of mind) abhyāsa(practice)-pūrvaḥ(previous) samskāra(deep-seated patterns of behaviour)-śeṣaḥ(left behind) anyaḥ(beyond that)
Beyond that previous practice (YS I,17), you will eventually experience an empty mind though you will still retain the essential samskāra-s(behaviours) needed for survival.
Beyond Practice – Form to Formless In YS I, 17, we learned about the steps leading to Self-Mastery (Samprajnātaḥ). In today’s sutra, we move beyond that Mastery to Asamprajnātaḥ. These are two stages of Samādhi (Enlightenment, Self-Realization): Samprajnātaḥ and Asamprajnātaḥ
In the first stage of Enlightenment (Samprajnātaḥ YS I, 17), we are still practicing something. We are focusing our minds on a particular Yoga practice (abhyāsa) be it basic (vitarka YS I, 17), or refined (vicāra YS I, 17). We are still focusing on a form to bring us to the formless.
In the second stage of Enlightenment (Asamprajnātaḥ YS I, 18), we move beyond practicing something. We start to experience an intuitive, spontaneous knowing that is not dependent on the mind but beyond the mind. This is the most refined level of practice (abhyāsa), where all practices cease to become necessary. We rest in that joyful state of knowing that is not based on the mind and its contents.
Beyond the Mind – Intuition In this state of beyond the mind, we start to experience intuition, which is not dependent on logic - the knowing of this, that, these, and those. In this state, we no longer need to concentrate the five cognitive processes of the mind (vrtti-s, YS I,2) to become grounded and centred (nirodhah YS I,2). We spontaneously and effortlessly experience the non-dual (Advaitan) state of Sat Cit Ānanda – Changeless Truth, Pure Awareness, and Endless Joy!
How Intuition Speaks Our intuition speaks to us in many different ways. It comes through special dreams, spontaneous insights, or experiences of synergy, beyond our control. For me, my deepest experience of this, was through a dream. I dreamt that I was at the source of the Ganges in Rishikesh, India. I was flowing down the river at a rapid rate, being flung here and there, with my arms stretched out overhead. At times, a vehicle (a Yoga practice, an idea, a situation, a person?) would come to support me temporarily only to dissolve, one after another. I held onto surf boards and boats of all shapes and sizes until I finally found myself in a paper sailboat, which quickly dissolved out of my reach. After that, I finally surrendered to the Flow of Life, the Ganges. With arms stretched out overhead, I gave up, and continued down with River (Life), without a vehicle, without a practice, and absolutely Free!
Yoga Sūtra Questions What are you holding onto in your life that is holding you back from Freedom? What is your intuition showing you through your dreams, insights, or experiences?
Sūtra Sunday will be on holidays for the rest of December. Happy Holidays filled with spontaneous experiences of Joy!
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