Sutra 1.2 and What IS Yoga?

1.2 yogas-citta-vrtti-nirodhah. Yoga is the cessation of the movements in the consciousness.

Patanjali gives us the tools to quell the whirling vrttis when a teenager says one phrase, no longer than a sutra, and my vrttis start to spin chaotically... It's an amazing phenomenon to behold. And it requires much self-effort to practice the yoga of quelling the thoughts before saying the reactive, impulsive, negative words--to pause and remind myself that Now is the time to practice the yoga I have studied. Each life situation is a chance to study yoga, to study and review what works. For life itself truly gives us the most creative and surprising exercises of yoga. Consciousness in Patanjali’s yoga is within the level of mind. As yoga progresses, the definition of consciousness changes into one that encompasses mind, and the power to desire, create, know everything and all things possible, a One source from which all Purushas are born. That One source is Shiva-Shakti or Paramashiva.

The tantra has a newer understanding of what yoga can be...In a tantric text called the Kularnava Tantra, verse 14.38 states Shaktipata-anusarena shisho anugraham arhati. It means by entering the current of Divine Shakti's descent into the heart, the true disciple becomes capable of receiving grace.

If I enter the currents of grace completely, then I won't be so unraveled by my beautiful daughter. Instead I can see her beauty and see that, in that moment, I have the honor of being able to guide this amazing being. By listening to her--for she is that flow of grace descending and ascending--I may guide. And since I have learned a few things about how to flow with grace, and since I aim to teach it, I have come to love this definition of yoga, of Anusara Yoga. A little Patanjali (a stilling of thoughts for a moment), a pause, so that I remember I am either aligning with grace or not--whatever She brings me--in each moment.

From some tantric perspectives, it is not at all necessary to still thoughts of any kind because when we are in that current, all time and no time simultaneously exist. In certain extraordinary moments, all we know is this current of grace, for we enter it and even as it is moving us from inside, it is somehow utterly still and complete, even for just a moment. There is no need to still thoughts, for every thought ever born or to be born is within that current as we ride it, and it is in its own way beautiful. All the beauty of the world is in that current. There is no beauty nor richness nor good thing that is not present within that current. Enter life, enter into the current, enter life with all our heart, enter into Grace. Deep in the current of scintillating calm, She sings us awake, She sings us asleep. She is the beauty of my children’s faces, their smiles gliding freely, their impetuous currents, all.

What is your goal of yoga? When you say you practice yoga, what is it that you are using that word to describe?

Shall we still thoughts? If we still the movements, how will we know consciousness? Shall we ride the currents of them into that rushing one that is Shakti descending in our hearts? Shall we see each thought as nothing less than that stillness that She is inside Her current? Is it necessary to go and out? Is it even possible?

Thankfully Grace doesn’t kick us out of the club. We can’t make one too many mistake. We can try again. She will smile at us each time, She will not throw us out. She will not tire of us, She will not deny us. We have the opportunity to align with Her, again and again.

1.1 atha yoga anushasanam. Now is the time to practice yoga.

What could be more applicable to life than the first sutra? When Patanjali invites us to gather ourselves and remember all we have done to now receive these teachings, we sit quietly and set ourselves to the task. What is truly remarkable is that even if this is not the first time we have heard these teachings, it becomes new once more. The process is totally natural when we are engaged. Now we are ready to receive the teachings, perhaps again, perhaps for the first time.

Truly great teachings just keep giving. They are like love that is tended, like flowering faces of children smiling up at us. When we move towards them, they freely offer their sweet fragrance. This first sutra is not to be overlooked, as I have learned from Douglas Brooks. It is in itself a teaching of presence, of the fullness of time, of what meaning we infuse into our lives. One of Iyengar’s defintions of atha is benediction. How wonderful--bene is Latin for good or well, and dicere is to speak. Ironically it is usually an invocation at the end of a service. This gives us a twist in meaning for the word “now”. “Now” becomes “then.” At the end of our processes, we can invoke Saraswati and any other deity of such prodigious wisdom, because the end of whatever we were just doing is the beginning of now.

What does it mean to start with saying “now we will commence the study?” Saying the word now means everything. It means all time, and so encompasses a sense of timelessness. Past has placed each of us right here in our own individualities, and as such we are setting our intentions for future study in yoga. We are about to study, so we ready ourselves. We center. Presently, we pay the closest attention as we do when we fall in love with something, mesmerized by the potential that will possibly unfold in the future. And, to ravel time a bit more, all those times we have studied ourselves in the past--all those insights that have marked our way--will turn their lights towards this present endeavor to study once more. Each time we have gathered, it is as if we have gathered light and the light grows in its splendor. This light is a gathering of strands of past efforts and reflections on change, lovely intentions in the present, and future promises. Looking into the future, we say this one word: Atha. Now.

Not tomorrow, not next year, but for however long we have traveled thus, we find ourselves at the feet of a sacred wisdom that is a map of our own souls, so much more than some old forgotten, inapplicable and inexplicable pedantic text. Let us make no mistake--whenever we study a sacred text we are studying ourselves.

And so we begin. Shall we? A Patanjali Party anyone? An oxymoron if you are a classical yogin, but a challenge well worth the effort for us Tantrikas. It’s my first challenge to myself: Can I make this fun without reducing its seriousness or effectiveness in any way? It sounds so much like a Pajama Party, I couldn’t resist. Much of this will surely be written when all the lights but this one at my desk have gone out, when the children are nestled. Justin has said “come to bed”. . .soon honey, but not yet.

Okay, now. . . atha, bed. Tomorrow will be the time, will be the now to study and contemplate sutra 1.2. It is the big one.

A Patanjali Sutra-a-Day

On 1-11-11, Charlotte, North Carolina was a winter wonderland. We often feel cabin fever in the wintry weather, but this time, my family also cleaned out cupboards, enjoyed reading marathons, drew laboratories and goddesses, wrote spy tales, cooked delicious food, drank hot chocolate and composed music. Snow-boundedness at the beginning of the year also lends itself to refining our intentions, resolutions and goals. As a yogin, each time I come to my mat, I create intention. There is a beautiful root teaching in yoga that states, “Energy follows intent.” Some may think that since we create intention every day, there is nothing special about the beginning of the year. Let’s not miss out on this yearly opportunity to reach deeper, to create an intention that could last a whole year. 2011 for me is dailiness. To incorporate what I didn’t "have time for" in the past that I really want to be part of every day in this body, in my heart and in my mind. Every day in this life. One of my several resolutions for this year is to write each and every day. This practice is not to include emails, lists, checks, class plans, etc. Love letters, journal entries, creative pursuits, documentaries are all fair game.

As I recently planned for another weekend of Anusara Yoga Immersion, a thought struck me: What would it be like to contemplate and write each day about one of Patanjali’s sutras, in the context of my daily life? Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is perhaps the most popular and well read of yoga texts. As I looked back through old plans, notes, and the sutras, I realized that it would be nice to live with these more intimately this year, to get to know them better. I have enjoyed looking back at Patanjali from my favorite Tantric texts, like the Shivasutra, the Pratyabhijna Hrdyam, Vijnana Bhairava, and more, and noticing what is new and sparklingly true to me each time. The land of Yogasutra is quite austere and steep, and there is difficult climbing ahead, but the skies are clear and the lake is exquisitely placid. I am up for this yoga journey inside the workings of my heart-mind. To give structure to daily writing, I have chosen these particular sutras for their brilliance and clarity--they provide landmarks for a journey inside. A daily focus on these sutras over the course of half a year or so will also give structure to how I can be more conscious and more grateful for each day this year.

The project is really quite simple, in part thanks to the scholars who have dedicated countless hours to translate and interpret their meanings. I revere scholar-yogins who have been smitten by yoga teachings, and have committed to a lifelong love affair with these great teachings, and the great beings who wrote and lived them. These scholar-yogins make the teachings and the great beings who lived them come alive for us by re-contextualizing their meanings for today. They are also living these teachings, and teach us that this path is ours, that we too can aspire to such greatness as the likes of our very own Selves. Anything you can read today about yoga is certainly influenced in some way-directly or indirectly-by these scholars’ work. So from the beginning, I bow to Douglas Brooks, Paul Muller-Ortega, Sally Kempton, Bill Mahony, their teachers and so on, other scholars, Gurumayi, Baba Muktananda, and to John Friend who knows these teachings in his heart and mind and shares them from his experience. One of my favorite teachings from Douglas is that each of us is invited to make the teachings our own, that the teachings themselves invite and empower us to make them our own. Today, I hope you will join me on a journey to make the sutras our own.

As we begin, it is helpful to realize that the sutras are strung together as clusters, that they come in sets that go together as little packages. The order of the sutras is significant as the author leads us mindfully from his lofty goal and definition of yoga to the relentless practice with its pitfalls and rewards. It is also important to recognize that if we don’t know Sanskrit, we are at the mercy of those who do. Scholars and yogins have interpreted each word according to the rules of Sanskrit grammar, their own traditions, and to their own understandings of each word. Many words can have widely ranging meanings, so naturally it follows that the interpretations we receive are quite varied. Looking at a few translations side by side, we see that many sutras are identical, while others are radically different. Regardless of similarities or differences, we will have plenty to contemplate for ourselves. At the same time, when we really look at the differences, it will add a wonderful richness to our sutra study. Rather than trying to simply decipher an ancient text, I aim to let the sutra sit with me and reveal itself in my contemplation, meditation, and daily life. If you would like to contribute, then this practice will reveal our shared contemplations.