What is Yoga Part I
One of the great sages of yoga, Patanjali, wrote a treatise on the inner journey, meditation, many years ago. Some think that Patanjali lived about the time of Buddha, whilst others feel that his life and work go back in time much further than this. In his treatise, Patanjali writes a series of lines, which, when strung together in consecutive order, give a detailed account of the start, journey and destination of yoga. Although Patanjali wrote about Raja Yoga, the science of exploring the inner world and the inner faculties and knowledge from personal experience which manifest from the process, he was also very explicit about what yoga actually is.
In his second line, or sutra, Patanjali says:
"to block the patterns of consciousness is yoga."
We may understand this better as "the elimination of mental fluctuations". For this he gives a description of practices to bring about this process. Briefly they are: social code; personal code; asana (sitting pose); control of prana; sense withdrawal, all of which prepare the body-mind complex for concentration; meditation; and superconsciousness. The first 5 are for removing the external distractions, whilst the remaining 3 remove disturbing thoughts and psychic manifestations of mind. All play their part in blocking patterns of consciousness.
The social and personal codes are for reducing the friction between our inner and outer world, what we think and do, what we feel and experience what life holds in store for us and how we handle it all. Many yogis feel that the yoga practices themselves lead us to employ these codes naturally, whether we know about them or not. We come to a point of understanding that certain patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving are creating disharmony in our life, and that we can, and do, change, or block these patterns so that the mental /emotional system has peace, union, or less inner and outer turmoil. Furthermore, the practices of yoga tend to alter brain activity to a more positive outlook via posture, pranayama (breathing techniques), and meditation and yoga nidra (very deep relaxation), so that we are less inclined to perpetuate the patterns of thinking, feeling and doing which cause turmoil. This is a culminative process, from a calmer mind which progressively becomes more and harmonious and less and less inclined to perpetuate conflict from patterns of consciousness which have previously caused disharmony, either for oneself or others.
Asanas, or postures, have specific purposes, and whether or not one is inclined to practice them to block patterns of consciousness, they do alter the psycho-physiological framework. They bring a body to a state of harmony, and affect the mind by correcting physical disturbances. They are important .for they bring us to a point of equilibrium. Pranayama increases the vital energy and concentrates it, leading to energy-control and one-pointedness. It energizes the brain, stimulating the area there which automatically "prefer" different, more harmonious methods of inner and outer interaction. If we can understand that energy does concentrate in specific area of the brain, and cause us to have repetitive electrical, or nerve, impulses, we can realise that this concentration can also become more intense, so that the same old thoughts and feelings can go on and on and on, causing destructive feelings and reactions. What can we do? Sometimes these patterns of consciousness cause us so much turmoil. Quite simply, we can energize the brain by strengthening and balancing both hemispheres, left and right, which in turn also creates concentrations of energy in different areas of the brain with breathing techniques. We can "block" by shifting the energy in the brain.
The next step is sense withdrawal, which can be described as "gathering inwards", going beyond the temptations of the senses. Generally speaking we are very affected by our 5 senses, we like this taste, hate that sound, love to touch some things. Our patterns of consciousness become addicted to our likes and dislikes. Of course this applies to a broad spectrum of life experiences and feelings, and where it is important here is being able to take the mental energy to an inner space which is not reliant on sensory activity, but is comfortably ensconced in a total inner experience.
Here the journey of blocking the patterns of consciousness takes quite a different route. The inner journey at this point starts dealing with the very deep patterns of consciousness.
We'll elaborate on this fascinating subject in the next issue!
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