Nirguna Yoga

The more we appreciate the beauty around us, the more practiced we become at appreciating beauty itself, the more it starts to happen naturally without us trying to do it. What’s cool is that this skill that comes with practice, continues to grow even after we are no longer consciously trying to take the time to appreciate things. This process powers itself at a certain point. So what’s the upper limit on the joy that would bring? There needn’t be one! Master Patañjali says there is ‘anumatta’, nothing higher than that joy.

Master Patañjali says that deep satisfaction (saṃtoṣa) with what we have in life brings (lābha) a level of joy (sukha) which is the very highest (anumatta) level of joy you could ever hope for.

सन्तोषादनुत्तमसुखलाभः॥४२॥

Santoṣādanuttamasukhalābhaḥ||42||

2.42 From contentment you’ll gain the highest bliss.

In some cases in deep meditation, they say that at that time you are not considered to be of this realm, that your mind has moved to a different realm. And there are even deeper realms where you are no longer obsessed with this physical sensation of meditation, but more with a subtle mental pleasure of meditation. So understanding our bodies in that way, understanding how to pull away, understanding that there can be deeper pleasures than the pleasures that we receive from our flesh and guts is a very deep and beautiful thing.

Maybe there are pleasures on the inside that we can only catch glimpses of if we have a level of subtlety that isn’t obsessed with the big, loud, gross outer pleasures. And they can be beautiful. The subtle pleasures of deep meditation can be amazing. Don’t confuse subtle with small. It can be deep, powerful, blissful and yet it is contained and delicate. And it is hard to see with the radio on or the s*xy beer commercials on, or whatever. So to develop a distaste for what is going on outside draws you inward to subtler pleasures. They say there are very deep states where the subtle pleasures of meditation are so powerful that you are no longer as interested in food, or s*x, as you are in this subtle physical sensation of meditation.

Eka means one, single pointed. Ekāgra means to develop the ability to meditate. The more obsessed we are with the outer world, the harder it is to be able to look at the inner world. Because the outer world is so loud and exciting, and there is so much stimulus to be distracted by. If we can quiet that down and let go of our obsession with the outer world, then we can reach a state of ekāgra.

Who are you, really? It’s an impossible question. How could there ever be a ‘who-you-really-are’? Whose perspective would even see such a thing? From our study, we’d argue that there is no ‘most real You’. But to see that fact clearly, directly, through a state of deep meditation, is said to expand your capacity to be of service to others in an incredible way. Then you can help others to break free from their limited view of themselves. You catch a glimpse and can lead others to glimpse the awesome sort of being that you can become as you dedicate your life to a path of loving service.

Deep states of meditation make you specially qualified (yogyatvāni) to be able to reach towards wisdom. Master Patañjali describes wisdom as ātmadarśana, meaning a direct vision, darśana, of who you really are, ātma.

sattvaśuddhi: your mind (sattva) becomes pure (śuddhi)
Here is a classical list of what happens when you clean your mind of selfishness and misunderstanding. You’ll be happy (saumanasya) and you’ll be able to meditate like a boss (ekāgrya), meaning you can think about one thing and only one thing for as long as you want without your mind losing track of that thing at all. You can only get to that state by being able to master (jaya) your senses (indriya) in the sense that you don’t get bugged or distracted every time there’s some odd sound or smell in the room.

The practice of yoga helps us become disciplined, open minded, adaptive, and playful! Just to name a few good qualities! Come practice with today, Thursday at noon!

Come practice with this beautiful yogini at 4:30 today and on Fridays at 4:30!!

सत्त्वशुद्धिसौमनस्यैकाग्र्येन्द्रियजयात्मदर्शनयोग्यत्वानि च॥४१॥
Sattvaśuddhisaumanasyaikāgryendriyajayātmadarśanayogyatvāni ca||41||

2.41 And then the mind becomes purified, cheerful, and single-pointed, bringing your senses under control and enabling you to see your true self.

They say that the more a yogi tries to be clean, the more he or she sees that they can never get totally clean. You can scrub and scrub all day, but there’s still lots of gross little bits of skin falling off of you and even grosser bits falling out of you. Then once a yogi gets to that point, they naturally realize that the same is also true of other people’s bodies. Sure, we know some of you are thinking, ‘quit grossing me out, I gotta live in this body!’ Fair enough. Us too, but we can have a tendency to be a little obsessive about our bodies, feeding them, washing them, exercising them and that’s all great but it’s never going to stop this body from being what it is: a big pile of bone and tissue that secretes weird stuff. Keeping this in mind can keep us from missing out on deeper pleasures than these bodies of ours can provide…

शौचात्स्वाङ्गजुगुप्सा परैरसंसर्गः॥४०॥
Śaucātsvāṅgajugupsā parairasaṁsargaḥ||40||

2.40 From cleanliness comes distaste for your body and avoidance of other’s bodies.

When you see through the illusion, you see that the struggle to hurt people to get what we want was all based on trying to look out for a REAL ‘Me’ that never even existed. A yogi who understands that they are their own seeds; that they are their own deeds, still wants to live. They know how to live. They are driven to live and act with love and kindness. They go on in a different way. No longer helplessly compelled by ignorant desire, they live and act in the world only in accord with a conscious drive to be of benefit to everyone around them.

Aparigraha: Letting go of the greed of holding on to ‘Me’ doesn’t go away by simply no longer caring if we live or die. It is removed only by viveka, by that wisdom which knows the difference between a REAL ‘Me’ that never existed and the ‘me’ that is a projection of my own past deeds.

There is no most true, REAL, ‘Me’ at the bottom of it all. There are only perspectives and the seeds, planted in our hearts by the way that we have cared for others, that force us to see ourselves and others in the way that we do.

Often, it seems that the people closest to us in our lives have insights into who we are that we ourselves can have a hard time seeing. Perhaps this is why a lot of our own vision of ourselves is often wrapped up in our own belief in how other people view us. That’s pretty convoluted. Our idea of the REAL ‘Me’ is connected to our opinion of other peoples’ opinion of ‘Me’.

Food For Thought: Abhiniveśa, that special desire for ‘Me’ is focused on the REAL ‘Me’, the most true ‘Me’ at the bottom of it all, that surpasses all possible interpretations or ideas? So who are ‘You’? Who is the REAL ‘You’? Are you the ‘You’ I think you are? Are you the ‘You’ you think you are? How many people in your life see you differently? Does everyone like or dislike you? Does everyone see your strengths and weaknesses the same way? Is the way you see yourself always more accurate than the way other people see you? We can’t really say that.

There is joy in practicing yoga! Come find your joy with these two beautiful ladies! You can practice Ashtanga with on Tuesdays at 5 and Saturdays at 9 am. And catch on Tuesdays at 9:30 for hot vinyasa!

We can talk about ‘Me’, or in this case ‘You’ a lot like we talked about the Pen. Is that plastic cylinder really a pen, the way you see it, or is it just as fair to say it’s a chew toy, the way your dog sees it? It could be either. It could be both. What is the most true perception of that plastic stick that surpassess all other interpretations? There’s no such thing. Some see it one way, some see it another. There’s no most true version at the bottom of it all.

It is said that at the moment of death you go through several progressive levels of being wigged the heck out. First you think ‘Aw man, I’m gonna lose all my stuff, dang!’. Then you think ‘Whoa, I’m gonna lose my friends and my family, ugh!’. Finally you realize, ‘Wait a freaking second...I’m gonna lose Me!’. It is also said that this particular type of desire is the main cause for taking another birth after we die.

Existential Quandary of the day: Abhiniveśa could be translated as ‘really intense desire to be alive’. We all have abhiniveśa. We don’t wanna die. In fact, some commentaries say that the very fact that we all have abhiniveśa is evidence of past lives. They say that since you never died before in this life, the only reason you could fear death now is if you have some seed in you from having died previously.

Aparigraha: There is an interesting topic in the ancient literature on greediness and desire. We are talking about desire for stuff in general here, but there is a special kind of desire that is traditionally associated with causing us to be born again and again in a painful body, in a painful world. It’s called abhiniveśa. Abhiniveśa is a kind of desire or grasping but it is specifically focused on not wanting to lose yourself.