Sleep / Nidra ( YS I - 10)

I'm sure we are all familiar with the word sleep. Ever since we were born, we have had to sleep everyday. Sleep is a natural state of bodily rest and essential for survival.

Nidra is the Sanskrit word for sleep. So as I continue with a review of the five vrittis (the modifications of the mind) in the Yoga Sutra I-10, the fourth type is ABHAVA PRATYAYALAMBANA VRTTIR NIDRA. Translated it means That mental modification supported by cognition of nothingness is sleep. Swami Satchidananda's commentary that "Normally, we say we do not have any thought in the mind during sleep. But actually we have the thought of having no thought." He furthers says that's why we can say we slept well. He continues to say that if there were no thought and we were completely unconscious, we would not feel that we had slept. He concludes that "All other thoughts are temporarily suspended except for this one thought of emptiness in the mind, which leaves its impression upon waking." With this information we can start to ask ourselves who is the one who is watching?

Now in "Mystery of the Mind" by Swami Muktananda, he interprets this sutra as Sleep is the modification based on the absence of any content in the mind. He talks of the nidra vritti as ignorance or lack of knowledge of true Reality. He further stated that this vritti not only operates during the sleep state. This sleep can also happen when one's eyes are open and appears to be listening. I'm sure everyone may have experienced this when maybe one has not had enough sleep and is in class trying to stay awake. Also some of us who are 'waking up' or are becoming more consciously aware can begin to see that some of the people around us are literally asleep.

Delusion - YS I - 9

This picture illustrates the next Yoga Sutra I-9 SABDAJNANANUPATI VASTU SUNYO VIKALPAH translated as An image that arises on hearing mere words without any reality [as its basis] is verbal delusion. The picture has the microphone from which we can hear sounds from.

We hear things all the time. If you listen to someone speak from a radio, on the telephone or in person we get different impressions all the time. And those impressions might not be true. The commentary from Swami Satchitananda on this sutra is that "in vikalpa (verbal delusion) there is nothing there , yet you still create some opinion about it." He gives an example of a guy taking his car to a garage and on the way all four of his tires are punctured. One might deduce that maybe the driver got into an accident, not really hearing the words and not taking time to think about what was actually said. This reminds me of how gossiping starts from hearsay.

Swami Muktananda, author of the book "Mystery of the Mind" refers to vikalpa vritti as "imagination or fantasy." " Imagination is the supporter of wrong knowledge." This brings to mind the times I hear someone over the radio or over the phone and I imagine how the person looks. Then when I actually see an image of the person or meet the person, they look completely different from what I imagined. Have you had that experience? Now you know that this is one of the mental modifications that we experience in the mind. So become mindful of your thoughts.

Stay tuned for the other vrittis (modifications of the mind)

What is your Life Saver? YS II - 33

What is your life saver? Technically one would picture a ring like in the picture on this post. A life saver is defined by www.thefreedictionary.com/lifestaver as :

1. an attendant employed at a beach or pool to protect swimmers from accidents and or
2. a life preserver in the form of a ring of buoyant material

Then you might wonder how does this apply to you? As you know, if you are a reader of this blog, that this blog entitled "Always Be Om," consists of yoga related information related to this theme. So in that context I am now using the live saver as a metaphor.

What got me to think of this subject is the energy of the time we are living in. According to the news we are in" a recession". This is affecting everyone, depending on how they see as I spoke about in the posts on "Thoughts as Eyeglasses" and "Taking Pictures". Thus, whatever we choose can fall between "Bondage and Liberation" for us.

So getting back to the original question of what is your life saver, for me it is my yoga practices. Case in point my practice of swadhyaya, self study which includes studying the yogic texts like the Guru Gita, which is latter part of the Skanda Purana. (The Guru Gita is a Hindu scripture of 182 verses, authored by the sage, Vyasa. It is a part of the larger Skanda Purana.) You can also see the post I did on swadhyaya.

I was feeling a little down noticing some thoughts I was having. I won't go into detail about the thoughts as what you focus on expands, however I do acknowledge the process. So I applied pratipaksha bhavana (a Sanskrit term)- When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite ones should be thought of. Pratipaksha bhavana is a method which is given as a clue to control and obstruct thoughts in Yoga Sutra II - 33 - VITARKA BADHANE PRATIPAKSA BHAVANAM .

I had not sat down and chanted the Guru Gita for a long time, even though I do play the CD of it from time to time. So I sat down and recited this text. I cannot begin to describe how much better I felt! My focus was no longer on the thoughts I had or how I was going to solve the situation. I was studying my Self and refreshing my self with the text of the Guru Gita. This was better than attempting to numb myself with other alternatives, which as a yoga teacher I do not do anyway. But one can see pretty much that when others do not know of yogic/or other healthy alternatives that they may attempt to "escape" through other means such as drugs, alcohol, food, shopping,etc.

So hopefully I can probe you to ask yourself what do you use as a life saver? Is it a positive tool? Again for me, my tools are the many branches of yoga which are really life savers.

Stay tuned. Check out the workshop I will be doing on 12/14/08 at http://www.bometernally.com/

Misconception or False knowledge YS I - 6

It is evident to see in the news and in everyday life that there is a lot of misconception or false knowledge that runs the world. I could say look at the so called war that is happening in Iraq or what is happening to the Stock Market, the banking industry, real estate etc. Eventually the public learns of the "real" facts after the event of the misconception that was perpetrated. How does this fit in with yoga or Always Be Om?

Again I will refer to the Yoga Sutras as a continuation of "YS I-6 Pramana Viparyaya Vikalpa Nidra Smrtayah Patanjali lists the five types of vrittis (mental modifications) as right knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep and memory." Misconception is the second of the five types of vrittis.

The commentary on this sutra by Swami Satchidananda simply gives the example of mistaking a coiled rope for a snake in the twilight. In reality there is no snake and in that light there is a false understanding. "But still it created a terror in your mind . Not only valid or right knowledge creates thought waves, but erroneous impressions also."

As stated in the beginning of this post, the terror created is evident in the news reports of the real estate debacle, the unstable stock market, etc. As we become more aware, we can observe these misconceptions in various events in our lives as well. If we study our thoughts carefully, we can begin to discern what is the valid or false knowledge operating in our life situations.

Pramana - Right Knowledge YS I - 6

This post is a continuation of yesterday's post in which I stated "In YS I-6 Pramana Viparyaya Vikalpa Nidra Smrtayah Patanjali lists the five types of vrittis (mental modifications) as right knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep and memory."

Today I will address Pramana which is translated as Right Knowledge. Pramana is a Sankrit word used in the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali. Pramana forms one part of a tripuţi (trio) concerning Pramā (the correct knowledge of any object arrived at by thorough reasoning, Sanskrit), namely:
1. Pramāta, the subject, the knower
2. Pramāņa, the means of obtaining the knowledge
3. Prameya, the object, the knowable

Knowledge can be defined as information we know through study, experience, education, perception, reasoning etc.

In Swami Satchidananda's commentary of this sutra, he states "Pantanjali calls valid knowledge is what you understand by seeing something yourself-direct perception. If you see something face-to-face you don't have any doubt. That is one way to get valid knowledge." Then he states another way is through inference (i.e. how humans draw conclusions) as if one saw smoke, one knows there cannot be smoke without fire. Or if " you see a cow giving milk, you infer the cows gives milk." A third way Satchidananda refers to is "a reliable authority or person who has really understood something tells you." And here he refers to holy scriptures. Here explains that "The words of prophets given through holy scriptures are finalized. They can't be modified."

So in regard to your thoughts of knowing the right or valid knowledge, we have to become more focused on the kinds or thoughts we have on a daily basis. Are we living our lives through right or valid knowledge? Especially with all the bombardment of other people's thoughts of their knowledge through media, associations, what we learn in school, in the work place, how are we affected? Dharana which is concentration and Dhyana which is meditation are great tools to see where we are at. See what methods works for you. Eventually, by being fully present we will have to leave all the thoughts and knowledge behind at some point if we are to have peace.

How is your Mind? YS I -5, YS I - 6, YS IV - 15

The mind can be defined as "The human consciousness that originates in the brain and is manifested especially in thought, perception, emotion, will, memory, and imagination" as per the http://www.freedictionary.com/.

The mind is such a vast subject and yet it is what is used to live through our days. In the Yoga Sutras (YS) IV - 15 Vastu Samye Citta Bhedat Tayor Vibhaktah Panthah is translated as " Due to difference in various minds, perception of even the same object may vary." This is very evident in how our day unfolds. We see this everyday in the news. Because there are differences in people' s minds there are uplifting events as one helping others or stealing and/or killing others. Due to these varying emotions and wills we vote for people, tolerate situations or petition for different beliefs we have. These differences are reflected in how we live, what we wear, how we eat and what we focus on.

It is interesting to note in the Yoga Sutras how Patanjali explains the vrittis:
Vritti (plural: Vrittis), in the context of Hinduism and its yoga stream, is the name given to different tendencies which come to our mind without our conscious knowledge. In YS I-5 Vrttayah Pancatayyah Klista Aklistah it is stated that there are five kinds of mental modifications which are either painful or painless. Swami Satchidananda's commentary of this sutra is to substitute "painful" or "painless" as "selfish" thoughts and "selfless" thoughts. Satchidananda states that "The selfish thoughts ultimately bring pain." and that selfless thoughts will bring peace. Near the end of this sutra commentary he states "In our daily lives we always work with these two categories of thoughts....We have to watch carefully the moment a thought-form arises in the mind. We become analysts. This itself is Yoga practice- watching our own thoughts and analyzing them."

In YS I-6 Pramana Viparyaya Vikalpa Nidra Smrtayah Patanjali lists the five types of vrittis (mental modifications) as right knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep and memory. As you can see this all affects the mind. How is your mind?

Study your mind and stay tuned.

Scriptures

Scriptures can be defined as a sacred writings or books. There are many kinds of scriptures from different religious paths like Christian, Hebrew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist. There are also scriptures from the yogic path like the Bhagavad Gita, The Ramayana, The Yoga Sutras, Shiva Sutras, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, etc.

Reading scriptures that appeal to us are a great way to deal with our present day stresses and myriads of demands we have everyday. This is also a tool that is part of a yoga practice. Test it for yourself and see if can make a difference. The following quote sums it up nicely:

"The teachings of the scriptures add another, deeper dimension to your awareness of the value of life. They have the capacity to point you toward the light hidden in your own being. They can expand your understanding of the world you live in" - Swami Chidvilasananda