Sutra 1.3 Our Mind, our Splendor, Prakasha-Vimarsha
.Sutra 1.3 bestows remembrance of when we steep in our essence. Then the seer dwells in His or Her own splendor.
When does this occur? When do you dwell in your own true splendor?
I watch my son, Oliver, being tickled by his dad. That laughter and light shines. I watch my daughter belt it out on stage when acting and singing in her school play. Their lights are so purely radiating at these times. These are two instances of them shining in their own true splendor. For my experience of watching: of being the "seer" in this instance-the one watches other "seers" become and be themselves. A seer watching seers can lead to that seer dwelling in her true splendor. I bathed in the rays reflected upon the mirror of my own consciousness.
For a tantric thinker, to read this is to think of places in our tradition where words like "splendor" and "seer" and "consciousness" reside.
Prakasha is the power of the emanating light of consciousness, it is how we are “seers”. Vimarsha is the power of self-reflection. These are the powers of the divine to know itself. These are the powers within each of us to know our selves. Prakasha is not experienced without a mirror, without self-reflection. To empower our experience, we reflect. In the tantra, we say that the entire universe emanates within the screen of our own awareness.
There I was, reflecting joyfully watching my children being themselves. Yes, they are always themselves, yet sometimes we are somehow “more of ourselves”. Our children, and all of us really, seem to be ourselves when we are in our passion, when we are doing what we love, be it in nature, listening to or playing music, flowing freely in a challenging asana sequence, and so on. What is it about these circumstances that lend to the flow of consciousness somehow in a deeper alignment? Somehow the negative peripheral thoughts are quieter. Instead of being a league of overgrown antagonists, they become more like harmless, floating insects on a warm picnic day. They may still be there, but we are in the fullness of the experience of the entire shimmering landscape of our consciousness. Douglas Brooks of the Rajanaka tradition always says that “yoga is becoming virtuosic in being yourself.” Be yourself. Dwell in your splendor.
When does this occur? When do you dwell in your own true splendor?
I watch my son, Oliver, being tickled by his dad. That laughter and light shines. I watch my daughter belt it out on stage when acting and singing in her school play. Their lights are so purely radiating at these times. These are two instances of them shining in their own true splendor. For my experience of watching: of being the "seer" in this instance-the one watches other "seers" become and be themselves. A seer watching seers can lead to that seer dwelling in her true splendor. I bathed in the rays reflected upon the mirror of my own consciousness.
For a tantric thinker, to read this is to think of places in our tradition where words like "splendor" and "seer" and "consciousness" reside.
Prakasha is the power of the emanating light of consciousness, it is how we are “seers”. Vimarsha is the power of self-reflection. These are the powers of the divine to know itself. These are the powers within each of us to know our selves. Prakasha is not experienced without a mirror, without self-reflection. To empower our experience, we reflect. In the tantra, we say that the entire universe emanates within the screen of our own awareness.
There I was, reflecting joyfully watching my children being themselves. Yes, they are always themselves, yet sometimes we are somehow “more of ourselves”. Our children, and all of us really, seem to be ourselves when we are in our passion, when we are doing what we love, be it in nature, listening to or playing music, flowing freely in a challenging asana sequence, and so on. What is it about these circumstances that lend to the flow of consciousness somehow in a deeper alignment? Somehow the negative peripheral thoughts are quieter. Instead of being a league of overgrown antagonists, they become more like harmless, floating insects on a warm picnic day. They may still be there, but we are in the fullness of the experience of the entire shimmering landscape of our consciousness. Douglas Brooks of the Rajanaka tradition always says that “yoga is becoming virtuosic in being yourself.” Be yourself. Dwell in your splendor.
posted by Sangati at
6:38 AM
3 Comments:
Swami Satyananda Saraswati's commentary, Four Chapters on Freedom, mentions the implication of the use of "avasthanam" in this sutra. He explains that this word indicates "restoration to its original state". It seems fitting that the culmination of yoga - the ability to dwell in one's own splendor - is being restored to our purest Essence in our own perspective (as the Seer) when that vision is not limited by the various filters (or as you put it - peripheral thoughts) that color our ever-changing experience. This also implies the cyclical nature of our energy, our Essence, and the fact that we are returning to, reuniting with, a previously known state - something natural to us! - not that we are seeking to discover it anew. I find it comforting.
I love that idea "Be yourself. dwell in your splendor." Part of Desikachar's commentary says "The tendency not to be open to a fresh comprehension and the inability to comprehend are overcome." The analogy about your children is so helpful in my understanding of this sutra, kids are just naturally themselves especially when they are younger, I can remember hearing "well aren't you full of yourself" and I don't think it was meant in a good way...but, it should have been, it is a positive thing to not be enslaved to any image or idea but to be utterly unconstrained and in that state where you have perfect liberty to be yourself. We all have that pure liberty of spirit that inner splendor I guess i just have to find her again.
I've heard Douglas say something similar: "Draw from the alchemy of your own being. You are what you are: be it! and nurture your own distinctiveness!" Although I've put it in quotes, this is not a direct quote, but is roughly attributable to D.B.
I raise this point for obvious reasons. Deep within each of us is a luminous, beautiful, splendid, inherently free presence. This inner presence is purusa. It is entirely free and eternal within each of us, but is also simultaneously independent of each one of us. What a perfect tantric notion! Patanjali's 1.3 is going to the heart of this notion. The "seer dwelling in his own splendor" is tapping into that deep presence, which to my mind is nothing less that cit-ananda. If we succeed, as instructed in 1.1 and 1.2, then we find an undistorted view of that-which-is (think Heidegger modified here), not ensnarled by fluctuation or movement of consciousness. This leads us, ultimately, if we are steadfast and a little bit blessed by lila, to Kaivalia and Samadhi. It is here that we find the ability to celebrate life but, at the same time, not be caught in it. THIS is why we practice yoga!
Look at Chapter 12 of the B.Gita: the concept of bhakti, so richly investigated here by Abhinavagupta, is worth revisiting in this context. If we succeed in evening the flow of our consciousness, we are able to approach anupaya: the calm, unaffected, but genuine response to whatever is presented to us. A response of equanimity. This doesn't mean that we don't care. It simply means that we respond with an unruffled countenance. It is important to remember that, just as our thoughts -- our "movements of consciousness" -- can take us away from the "seer," so too can our thoughts, practices, actions, and emotions help us to return to this inherent and beautiful splendor. This is where we truly belong. This is the seer, the one who is unfettered by these samskara or other disturbances. This is where we find the anandamayakosha. This is where we find our "selves," the alchemy of our own being and distinctiveness. Dwell in it. Nurture it. This is who we truly are. On Namah Shivaya!
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