Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 08 - Book Three, Sutras 1-36 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

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08 - Book Three, Sutras 1-36 - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Book three Sutras one to thirty six Sutra one. The
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Speaker 1: binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is
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Speaker 1: attention dah Rana. Emerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying
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Speaker 1: that he made his great discoveries by intending his mind
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Speaker 1: on them. That is what is meant here. I read
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Speaker 1: the page of a book while thinking of something else.
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Speaker 1: At the end of the page, I have no idea
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Speaker 1: of what it is about, and read it again, still
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Speaker 1: thinking of something else, with the same result. Then I
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Speaker 1: wake up, so to speak, make an effort of attention,
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Speaker 1: fix my thought on what I am reading, and easily
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Speaker 1: take in its meaning. The act of will, the effort
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Speaker 1: of attention, the intending of the mind on each word
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Speaker 1: and line of the page, just as the eyes are
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Speaker 1: focused on each word and line, is the power here contemplated.
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Speaker 1: It is the power to focus the consciousness on a
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Speaker 1: given spot and hold it there. Attention is the first
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Speaker 1: and indispensable step in all knowledge. Attention to spiritual things
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Speaker 1: is the first step to spiritual knowledge Suit Tre two.
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Speaker 1: A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region
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Speaker 1: is meditation Dianna. This will apply equally to outer and
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Speaker 1: inner things. I may for a moment fix my attention
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Speaker 1: on some visible object in a single penetrating glance, or
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Speaker 1: I may hold the attention fixedly on it until it
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Speaker 1: reveals far more of its nature than a single glance
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Speaker 1: could perceive. The first is the focusing of the searchlight
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Speaker 1: of consciousness upon the object. The other is the holding
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Speaker 1: of the white beam of light steadily and persistently on
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Speaker 1: the object until it yields up the secret of its details.
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Speaker 1: So for things within, one may fix the inner gaze
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Speaker 1: for a moment on spiritual things, or one may hold
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Speaker 1: the consciousness steadily upon them, until what was in the
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Speaker 1: dark slowly comes forth into the light and yields up
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Speaker 1: its immortal secret. But this is possible only for the
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Speaker 1: spiritual man, after the commandments and the rules have been kept.
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Speaker 1: For until this is done, the thronging storms of psychical
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Speaker 1: thoughts dissipate and distract the attention, so that will not
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Speaker 1: remain fixed on spiritual things. The cares of this world,
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Speaker 1: the deceitfulness of riches choke the word of the spiritual message.
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Speaker 1: Sutra three. When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is
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Speaker 1: wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated,
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Speaker 1: and is freed from the sense of separateness and personality.
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Speaker 1: This is contemplation Samadhi. Let us review the steps so
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Speaker 1: far taken. First, the beam of perceiving consciousness is focussed
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Speaker 1: on a certain region or subject through the effort of attention.
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Speaker 1: Then this attending consciousness is held on its object. Third,
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Speaker 1: there is the ardent will to know its meaning, to
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Speaker 1: illuminate with comprehending thought. Fourth, all personal bias, all desire
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Speaker 1: merely to endorse a previous opinion and so prove oneself right,
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Speaker 1: and all desire for personal profit or gratification must be
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Speaker 1: quite put away. There must be a purely disinterested love
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Speaker 1: of truth for its own sake. Thus is the perceiving
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Speaker 1: consciousness made void, as it were, of all personality or
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Speaker 1: sense of separateness. The personal limitation stands aside and lets
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Speaker 1: the all consciousness come to bear upon the problem. The
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Speaker 1: over soul bends its ray upon the object and illumines
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Speaker 1: it with pure light sutraphour. When these three attention, meditation,
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Speaker 1: contemplation are exercised at once, this is perfectly concentrated meditation Sanyama.
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Speaker 1: When the personal limitation of the perceiving consciousness stands aside
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Speaker 1: and allows the all consciousness to come to bear upon
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Speaker 1: the problem. Then arises that real knowledge, which is called
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Speaker 1: a flash of genius, that real knowledge which makes discoveries,
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Speaker 1: and without which no discovery can be made, however painstaking.
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Speaker 1: The effort for genius is the vision of the spiritual man,
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Speaker 1: and that vision is a question of growth rather than
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Speaker 1: present effort. Though right effort, rightly continued, will in time
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Speaker 1: infallibly lead to growth and vision. Through the power. Thus
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Speaker 1: to set aside personal limitation, to push aside petty concerns
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Speaker 1: and cares, and study the whole nature, and will in
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Speaker 1: an ardent love of truth and desire to know it.
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Speaker 1: Through the power. Thus to make way for the all consciousness,
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Speaker 1: all great men make their discoveries. Newton, watching the apple
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Speaker 1: fall to the earth, was able to look beyond, to
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Speaker 1: see the subtle waves of force pulsating through apples and worlds,
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Speaker 1: and suns and galaxies, and thus to perceive universal gravitation.
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Speaker 1: The oversaul, looking through his eyes, recognized the universal force
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Speaker 1: one of its own children. Darwin, watching the forms and
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Speaker 1: motions of plants and animals, let the same august consciousness
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Speaker 1: come to bear on them, and saw infinite growth perfected
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Speaker 1: through ceaseless struggle. He perceived the superb process of evolution.
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Speaker 1: The oversoul, once more, recognizing its own Fraunhoffer, noting the
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Speaker 1: dark lines in the band of sunlight in his spectroscope,
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Speaker 1: divined their identity with the bright lines in the spectra
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Speaker 1: of incandescent iron, sodium, and the rest, and so saw
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Speaker 1: the oneness of substance in the worlds and suns, the
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Speaker 1: unity of the material of the universe. Once again, the
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Speaker 1: over soul, looking with his eyes, recognized its own. So
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Speaker 1: it is with all true knowledge. But the mind must
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Speaker 1: transcend its limitations, its idiosyncrasies. There must be purity, for
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Speaker 1: to the pure in heart is the promise that they
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Speaker 1: shall see God sutrify. By mastering this perfectly concentrated meditation,
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Speaker 1: there comes the illumination of perception. The meaning of this
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Speaker 1: is illustrated by what has been said before. When the
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Speaker 1: spiritual man is able to throw aside the trammels of
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Speaker 1: emotional and mental limitation and to open his eyes, he
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Speaker 1: sees clearly, he attains to illuminated perception. A poet once
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Speaker 1: said that Occultism is the conscious cultivation of genius, and
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Speaker 1: it is certain that the awakened spiritual man attains to
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Speaker 1: the perceptions of genius. Genius is the vision the power
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Speaker 1: of the spiritual man. Whether its possessor recognizes this or not,
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Speaker 1: all true knowledge is of the spiritual man. The greatest
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Speaker 1: in all ages have recognized this and put their testimony
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Speaker 1: on record. The great in wisdom who have not consciously
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Speaker 1: recognized it, have ever been full of the spirit of reverence,
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Speaker 1: of selfless devotion to truth, of humility, as West Darwin.
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Speaker 1: And reverence and humility are the unconscious recognition of the
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Speaker 1: nearness of the spirit, that divinity which broods over us,
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Speaker 1: a master or a slave Sutra six. This power is
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Speaker 1: distributed in ascending degrees. It is to be attained step
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Speaker 1: by step. It is a question not of miracle, but
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Speaker 1: of evolution of growth. Newton had to master the multiplication table,
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Speaker 1: then the four of arithmetic, then the rudiments of algebra,
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Speaker 1: before he came to the binomial theorem. At each point
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Speaker 1: there was a tension, concentration, insight. Until these were attained,
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Speaker 1: no progress to the next point was possible. So would Darwin.
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Speaker 1: He had to learn the form and use of leaf
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Speaker 1: and flower, of bone and muscle, the characteristics of genera
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Speaker 1: and species, the distribution of plants and animals. Before he
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Speaker 1: had in mind that nexus of knowledge on which the
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Speaker 1: light of his great idea was at last able to shine.
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Speaker 1: So is it with all knowledge, so is it with
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Speaker 1: spiritual knowledge. Take the matter this way. The first subject
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Speaker 1: for the exercise of my spiritual insight is my day,
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Speaker 1: with its circumstances, its hindrances, its opportunities, its duties. I
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Speaker 1: do what I can to solve it, to fulfill its duties,
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Speaker 1: to learn its lessons. I tried to live my day
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Speaker 1: with aspiration and faith. That is the first step. By
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Speaker 1: doing this, I gather a harvest for the evening. I
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Speaker 1: gain a deeper insight into life in virtue of which
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Speaker 1: I begin the next day with a certain advantage, a
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Speaker 1: certain spiritual advance and attainment. So with all successive days,
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Speaker 1: in faith and aspiration, we pass from day to day
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Speaker 1: in growing knowledge and power, with never more than one
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Speaker 1: day to solve at a time, until all life becomes
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Speaker 1: radiant and transparent Sutra seven. This threefold power of attention, meditation,
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Speaker 1: contemptation is more interior than the means of growth previously
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Speaker 1: described very naturally so, because the means of growth previously
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Speaker 1: described were concerned with the extrication of the spiritual man
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Speaker 1: from the psychic bondages and veils. While this threefold power
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Speaker 1: is to be exercised by the spiritual man, thus extricated
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Speaker 1: and standing on his feet viewing life with open eyes
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Speaker 1: Sutra eight. But this triad is still exterior to the
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Speaker 1: soul vision, which is unconditioned, free from the seed of
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Speaker 1: mental analyzes. The reason is this The threefold power we
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Speaker 1: have been considering. The triad of attention, contemplation, meditation is,
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Speaker 1: so far as we have yet considered it, the focusing
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Speaker 1: of the beam of perceiving consciousness upon some form of
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Speaker 1: manifesting being with a view of understanding it completely. There
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Speaker 1: is a higher stage where the beam of consciousness is
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Speaker 1: turned back upon itself, and the individual consciousness enters into
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Speaker 1: and knows the all consciousness. This is a being, a
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Speaker 1: being in immortality, rather than a knowing. It is free
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Speaker 1: from mental analysis or mental forms. It is not an
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Speaker 1: activity of the higher mind, even the mind of the
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Speaker 1: spiritual man. It is an activity of the soul. Had
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Speaker 1: Newton risen to this higher stage, he would have known
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Speaker 1: not the laws of motion, but that high being from
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Speaker 1: whose life comes eternal motion. Had Darwin risen to this,
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Speaker 1: he would have seen the soul, whose graduated thought and
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Speaker 1: being all evolution expresses. There are therefore these two perceptions,
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Speaker 1: that of living things and that of the life, that
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Speaker 1: of the soul's works, and that of the soul itself.
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Speaker 1: Sutronin One of the ascending degrees is the development of control.
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Speaker 1: First there is the overcoming of the mind impressive excitation.
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Speaker 1: Then comes the manifestation of the mind impressive control. Then
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Speaker 1: the perceiving consciousness follows after the moment of control. This
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Speaker 1: is the development of control. The meaning seems to be this,
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Speaker 1: some object enters the field of observation and at first
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Speaker 1: violently excites the mind, stirring up curiosity fear one. Then
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Speaker 1: the consciousness returns upon itself, as it were, and takes
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Speaker 1: the perception firmly in hand, steadying itself and viewing the
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Speaker 1: matter calmly from above. The steadying effort of the will
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Speaker 1: upon the perceiving consciousness is control, and immediately upon it
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Speaker 1: follows perception, understanding insight. Take a tried example, supposing one
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Speaker 1: is walking in an Indian forest, a charging elephant suddenly appears.
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Speaker 1: The man is excited by astonishment and perhaps terror, but
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Speaker 1: he exercises an effort of will, perceives the situation in
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Speaker 1: its true bearings, and recognizes that a certain thing must
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Speaker 1: be done. In this case, probably that he must get
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Speaker 1: out of the way as quickly as possible. Or a
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Speaker 1: comet unheralded, appears in the sky like a flaming sword.
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Speaker 1: The beholder is at first astonished, perhaps terror stricken, but
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Speaker 1: he takes himself in hand, controls his thoughts, views the
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Speaker 1: apprestion calmly, and finally calculates its orbit and its relation
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Speaker 1: to meteor showers. These are extreme illustrations, but with all knowledge,
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Speaker 1: the order of perception is the same. First the excitation
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Speaker 1: of the mind by the new object impressed on it.
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Speaker 1: Then the control of the mind from within, upon which
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Speaker 1: follows the perception of the nature of the object. Where
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Speaker 1: the eyes of the spiritual man are open, this will
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Speaker 1: be a true and penetrating spiritual perception. In some such
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Speaker 1: way do our living experiences come to us First with
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Speaker 1: a shock of pain. Then the soul steadies itself and
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Speaker 1: controls the pain. Then the spirit perceives the lesson of
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Speaker 1: the event and its bearing upon the progressive revelation of
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Speaker 1: life suit Tritenne. Through frequent repetition of this process, the
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Speaker 1: mind becomes habituated to it, and there arises an equable
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Speaker 1: flow of perceiving consciousness. Control of the mind by the soul,
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Speaker 1: like control of the muscles by the mind, comes by
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Speaker 1: practice and constant voluntary repetition. As an example of control
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Speaker 1: of the muscles by the mind, take the ceaseless practice
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Speaker 1: by which a musician gains mastery over his instrument, or
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Speaker 1: a fencer gains skill with a rapier. Innumerable small efforts
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Speaker 1: of attention will make a result which seems well nigh miraculous,
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Speaker 1: which for the novice is really miraculous. Then consider that
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Speaker 1: far more wonderful instrument, the perceiving mind, played on by
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Speaker 1: that fine musician, the soul. Here again, innumerable small efforts
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Speaker 1: of attention will accumulate into mastery, and a mastery worth winning.
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Speaker 1: For a concrete example, take the gradual conquest of each day,
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Speaker 1: the effort to live that day for the soul. To
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Speaker 1: him that is faithful and to death, the master gives
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Speaker 1: the crown of life. Sutra eleven. The gradual conquest of
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Speaker 1: the mind's tendency to flit from one object to another
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Speaker 1: and the power of one pointedness. Make the development of
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Speaker 1: contemplation as an illustration of the mind's tendency to flit
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Speaker 1: from one object to another. Take a small boy learning arithmetic.
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Speaker 1: He begins two ones are two, Three ones are three,
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Speaker 1: And then he thinks of the three coins in his pocket,
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Speaker 1: which will purchase so much candy in the store down
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Speaker 1: the street, next to the toy shop where our baseballs, marbles,
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Speaker 1: and so on. And then he comes back with a
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Speaker 1: jerk to four ones are four. So with us also
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Speaker 1: we are seeking the meaning of our task. But the
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Speaker 1: mind takes advantage of a moment of lackened attention and
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Speaker 1: flits off from one frivolous detail to another, till we
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Speaker 1: suddenly come back to consciousness after traversing leagues of space.
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Speaker 1: We must learn to conquer this and to go back
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Speaker 1: within ourselves into the beam of perceiving consciousness itself, which
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Speaker 1: is a beam of the over soul. This is the
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Speaker 1: true one pointedness, the bringing of our consciousness to a
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Speaker 1: focus in the Soul Sutra thirteen. Through this, the inherent character,
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Speaker 1: distinctive marks and conditions of being and powers according to
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Speaker 1: their development are made clear by the power defined in
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Speaker 1: the preceding sutra. The inherent character, distinctive marks, and conditions
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Speaker 1: of beings and powers are made clear. For through this power,
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Speaker 1: as defined, we get a twofold view of each object,
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Speaker 1: seeing at once all its individual characteristics and its essential character,
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Speaker 1: species and genus. We see it in relation to itself
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Speaker 1: and in relation to the eternal. Thus we see arose
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Speaker 1: as that particular flower, with its color and scent, its
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Speaker 1: peculiar fold of each petal. But we also see in
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Speaker 1: it the species, the family to which it belongs, with
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Speaker 1: its relation to all plants, to all life, to life itself.
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Speaker 1: So in any day we see events and circumstances, we
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Speaker 1: also see in it the lessons set for the soul
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Speaker 1: by the Eternal Sutra fourteen. Every object has its characteristics
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Speaker 1: which are already quiescent, those which are active, and those
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Speaker 1: which are not yet definable. Every object has characteristics belonging
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Speaker 1: to its past, its presence, and its future. In a
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Speaker 1: fir tree, for example, there are the stumps or scars
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Speaker 1: of dead branches which once represented its foremost growth. There
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Speaker 1: are the branches with their needs spread out to the air.
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Speaker 1: There are the buds at the end of each branch
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Speaker 1: and twig, which carry the still closely packed needles, which
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Speaker 1: are the promise of the future. In like manner, the
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Speaker 1: chrysalis has as its past, the caterpillar as its future,
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Speaker 1: the butterfly. The man has in his past, the animal
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Speaker 1: in his future, the angel. Both are visible even now
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Speaker 1: in his face. So with all things, for all things
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Speaker 1: change and grow Sutra fifteen. Difference in stage is the
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Speaker 1: cause of difference in development. This but amplifies what has
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Speaker 1: just been said. The first stage is the sapling, the caterpillar,
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Speaker 1: the animal. The second stage is the growing tree, the crysalis,
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Speaker 1: the man. The third is the splendid pine, the butterfly,
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Speaker 1: the angel. Difference of stage is the cause of difference
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Speaker 1: of development. So it is among men and among the
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Speaker 1: races of men. Sutra sixteen. Through perfectly concentrated meditation on
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Speaker 1: the three stages of development comes a knowledge of past
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Speaker 1: and future. We have taken our illustrations from natural science,
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Speaker 1: because since every true discovery in natural science is a
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Speaker 1: dimidation of a law in nature attained through a flash
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Speaker 1: of genius, such discoveries really represent acts of spiritual perception.
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Speaker 1: Acts of perception by the spiritual man, even though they
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Speaker 1: are generally not so recognized. So we may once more
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Speaker 1: use the same illustration. Perfectly concentrated meditation, perfect insight into
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Speaker 1: the chrysalis reveals the caterpillar that it has been, the
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Speaker 1: butterfly that it is destined to be. He who knows
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Speaker 1: the seed knows the seed pod or ear it has
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Speaker 1: come from, and the plant that is to come from it.
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Speaker 1: So in like man, he who really knows today and
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Speaker 1: the heart of today knows its parent yesterday, and its
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Speaker 1: child tomorrow. Past, present, and future are all in the eternal.
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Speaker 1: He who dwells in the eternal knows all three Sutra seventeen.
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Speaker 1: The sound and the object and the thought called up
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Speaker 1: by a word are confounded because they are all blurred
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Speaker 1: together in the mind. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the
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Speaker 1: distinction between them, there comes an understanding of the sounds
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Speaker 1: uttered by all beings. It must be remembered that we
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Speaker 1: are speaking of perception by the spiritual man. Sound, like
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Speaker 1: every force, is the expression of a power of the eternal.
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Speaker 1: Infinite shades of this power are expressed in the infinitely
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Speaker 1: varied tones of sound. He who, having entry to the
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Speaker 1: consciousness of the eternal knows. The essence of this power
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Speaker 1: can divine the meanings of all sounds, from the voice
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Speaker 1: of the insect to the music of the spheres. In
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Speaker 1: like manner, he who has attained to spiritual vision can
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Speaker 1: perceive the mind images in the thoughts of others with
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Speaker 1: the shade of feeling which goes with them, thus reading
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Speaker 1: their thoughts as easily as he hears their words. Everyone
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Speaker 1: has the germ of this power, since difference of tone
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Speaker 1: will give widely differing meanings to the same words, meanings
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Speaker 1: which are intuitively perceived by everyone. Sutra eighteen. When the
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Speaker 1: mind impressions become visible, there comes an understanding of previous births.
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Speaker 1: This is simple enough. If we grasp the truth of rebirth,
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Speaker 1: the fine harvest of past experiences is drawn into the
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Speaker 1: spiritual nature, forming indeed the basis of its development. When
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Speaker 1: the consciousness has been raised to a point above these
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Speaker 1: fine subjective impressions and can look down upon them from above,
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Speaker 1: this will in itself be a remembering of past births.
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Speaker 1: Sutra nineteen. By perfectly concentrated meditation on mind images is
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Speaker 1: gained the understanding of the thoughts of others. Here for
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Speaker 1: those who can profit by it is the secret of
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Speaker 1: thought reading. Take the simplest case of intentional thought transference.
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Speaker 1: It is the testimony of those who have done this
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Speaker 1: that the perceiving mind must be stilled before the mind
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Speaker 1: image projected by the other mind can be seen. With
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Speaker 1: it comes a sense of the feeling and temper of
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Speaker 1: the other mind, and so on in higher degrees Sutra twenty.
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Speaker 1: But since that on which the thought in the mind
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Speaker 1: of another rests is not objective to the thought reader's consciousness,
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Speaker 1: he perceives the thought only, and not also that on
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Speaker 1: which the thought rests, the meaning appears to be simple.
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Speaker 1: One may be able to perceive the thoughts of someone
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Speaker 1: at a distance, one cannot, by that means alone, also
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Speaker 1: perceive the external surroundings of that person which arouse these
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Speaker 1: thoughts Suitra twenty one. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the
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Speaker 1: form of the body, by arresting the body's perceptibility, and
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Speaker 1: by inhibiting the eye's power of sight, there comes the
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Speaker 1: power to make the body invisible. There are many instances
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Speaker 1: of the exercise of this power by mesmerists, hypnotists, and
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Speaker 1: the like, and we may simply call it an instance
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Speaker 1: of the power of suggestion. Shankara tells us that by
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Speaker 1: this power the popular magicians of the East perform their wonders,
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Speaker 1: working on the mind images of others, while remaining invisible themselves.
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Speaker 1: It is all a question of being able to see
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Speaker 1: and control the mind images. Sutra twenty two. The works
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Speaker 1: which fill out the life span may be either immediately
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Speaker 1: or gradually operative. By perfectly concentrated meditation on these comes
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Speaker 1: a knowledge of the time of the end, as also
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Speaker 1: through signs. A garment which is wet, says the commentator,
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Speaker 1: may be hung up to dry and so dry rapidly,
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Speaker 1: or it may be rolled in a ball and dry slowly,
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Speaker 1: so a fire may blaze or smolder. Thus it is
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Speaker 1: with karma, the works that fill out the life span.
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Speaker 1: By an insight into the mental forms and forces which
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Speaker 1: make up karma, there comes a knowledge of the rapidity
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Speaker 1: or slowness of their development, and of the time when
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Speaker 1: the debt will be paid Sure twenty three. By perfectly
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Speaker 1: concentrated meditation on sympathy, compassion, and kindness is gained the
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Speaker 1: power of interior union with others. Unity is the reality,
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Speaker 1: separateness the illusion. The nearer we come to reality the
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Speaker 1: nearer we come to unity of heart. Sympathy, compassion, kindness
25:27
Speaker 1: are modes of this unity of heart, whereby we rejoice
25:30
Speaker 1: with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
25:34
Speaker 1: These things are learned by desiring to learn them. Suitra
25:41
Speaker 1: twenty four. By perfectly concentrated meditation on power, even such
25:48
Speaker 1: power as that of the elephants may be gained. This
25:53
Speaker 1: is a pretty image. Elephants possess not only force, but
25:57
Speaker 1: poise and fineness of control. They can lift a straw,
26:02
Speaker 1: a child's a tree with perfectly judged control and effort.
26:07
Speaker 1: So the simile is a good one. By detachment, by
26:11
Speaker 1: withdrawing into the soul's reservoir of power, we can gain
26:14
Speaker 1: all these force and finesse and poise, the ability to
26:18
Speaker 1: handle with equal mastery things small and great, concrete and
26:22
Speaker 1: abstract alike. Suit Her twenty five. By bending upon them
26:30
Speaker 1: the awakened inner light, there comes a knowledge of things
26:33
Speaker 1: subtle or concealed or obscure. As was said at the outset,
26:41
Speaker 1: each consciousness is related to all consciousness, and through it
26:47
Speaker 1: has a potential consciousness of all things, whether subtle or
26:50
Speaker 1: concealed or obscure. An understanding of this great truth will
26:54
Speaker 1: come with practice. As one of the wise has said,
26:59
Speaker 1: we have no concerent option of the power of meditation.
27:05
Speaker 1: Sutra twenty six. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the sun
27:11
Speaker 1: comes a knowledge of the world's This has several meanings. First,
27:18
Speaker 1: by a knowledge of the constitution of the sun, astronomers
27:21
Speaker 1: can understand the kindred nature of the stars, and it
27:25
Speaker 1: is said that there is a finer astronomy where the
27:27
Speaker 1: spiritual man is the astronomer. But the sun also means
27:32
Speaker 1: the soul, and through knowledge of the soul comes a
27:35
Speaker 1: knowledge of the realms of life. Sutra twenty seven. By
27:42
Speaker 1: perfectly concentrated meditation on the moon comes a knowledge of
27:47
Speaker 1: the lunar mansions. Here again are different meanings. The moon
27:53
Speaker 1: is first the companion planet, which each day passes backward
27:58
Speaker 1: through one mansion of the stone. By watching the moon,
28:03
Speaker 1: the boundaries of the mansion are learned with their succession
28:06
Speaker 1: in the great time dial of the sky. But the
28:09
Speaker 1: moon also symbolizes the analytic mind with its divided realms,
28:14
Speaker 1: and these two may be understood through perfectly concentrated meditation.
28:22
Speaker 1: Suitra twenty eight. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the fixed
28:28
Speaker 1: pole star comes a knowledge of the motion of the stars.
28:34
Speaker 1: Addressing duty stern, daughter of the voice of God, Wordsworth
28:39
Speaker 1: finally said, thou cost preserve the stars from wrong, and
28:44
Speaker 1: the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong,
28:49
Speaker 1: thus suggesting a profound relation between the moral powers and
28:53
Speaker 1: the powers that rule the worlds. So in this sutra,
28:57
Speaker 1: the fixed pole star is the eternal spirit about which
29:00
Speaker 1: all things move, as well as the star towards which
29:04
Speaker 1: points the axis of the earth. Deep mysteries attend both,
29:08
Speaker 1: and the veil of mystery is only to be raised
29:11
Speaker 1: by meditation, by open eyed division of the awakened spiritual man.
29:20
Speaker 1: Suitra twenty nine, perfectly concentrated meditation on the center of
29:25
Speaker 1: force in the lower trunk brings an understanding of the
29:28
Speaker 1: order of the bodily powers. We are coming to a
29:33
Speaker 1: vitally important part of the teaching of yoga, namely the
29:36
Speaker 1: spiritual man's attainment of full self consciousness, the awakening of
29:40
Speaker 1: the spiritual man as a self conscious individual behind and
29:44
Speaker 1: above the natural man. In this awakening and in the
29:48
Speaker 1: process of gestation which precedes it, there is a close
29:51
Speaker 1: relation with the powers of the natural man, which are
29:54
Speaker 1: in a certain sense the projection outward and downward of
29:58
Speaker 1: the powers of the spiritual man. This is notably true
30:02
Speaker 1: of that creative power of the spiritual man, which, when
30:06
Speaker 1: embodied in the natural man, becomes the power of generation.
30:11
Speaker 1: Not only is this power the cause of the continuance
30:13
Speaker 1: of the bodily race of mankind, but further, in the individual,
30:17
Speaker 1: it is the key to the dominance of the personal life,
30:21
Speaker 1: Rising as it were, through the life channels of the body,
30:25
Speaker 1: it flushes the personality with physical force, and maintains and
30:29
Speaker 1: colors the illusion that the physical life is the dominant
30:32
Speaker 1: and all important expression of life. In due time, when
30:36
Speaker 1: the spiritual man has begun to take form, the creative
30:39
Speaker 1: force will be drawn off and become operative in building
30:42
Speaker 1: the body of the spiritual man, just as it has
30:45
Speaker 1: been operative in the building of physical bodies through generation
30:49
Speaker 1: in the natural world. Perfectly concentrated meditation on the nature
30:55
Speaker 1: of this force means first that rising of the consciousness
30:59
Speaker 1: into the spiritual world world already described, which gives the
31:02
Speaker 1: one sure foothold for meditation, and then from that spiritual
31:06
Speaker 1: point of vantage, not only an insight into the creative
31:09
Speaker 1: force in its spiritual and physical aspects, but also a
31:13
Speaker 1: gradually attained control of this wonderful force, which will mean
31:17
Speaker 1: its direction to the body of the spiritual man and
31:20
Speaker 1: its gradual withdrawal from the body of the natural man,
31:23
Speaker 1: until the over pressure, so general and such a fruitful
31:27
Speaker 1: source of misery in our day is abated and purity
31:30
Speaker 1: takes the place of passion. This over pressure, which is
31:34
Speaker 1: the cause of so many evils and so much of
31:37
Speaker 1: human shame, is an abnormal, not a natural condition. It
31:42
Speaker 1: is primarily due to spiritual blindness, to blindness regarding the
31:45
Speaker 1: spiritual man, and ignorance even of his existence. For by
31:50
Speaker 1: this blind ignorance are closed the channels through which were
31:53
Speaker 1: they open, the creative force could flow into the body
31:56
Speaker 1: of the spiritual man, there building up an immortal vesture.
32:01
Speaker 1: There is no cure for blindness with its consequent over
32:04
Speaker 1: pressure and attendant misery and shame, but spiritual vision, spiritual aspiration, sacrifice,
32:12
Speaker 1: the new birth from above. There is no other way
32:15
Speaker 1: to lighten the burden, to lift the misery and shame
32:17
Speaker 1: from human life. Therefore, let us follow after sacrifice and aspiration.
32:23
Speaker 1: Let us seek the light. In this way. Only shall
32:26
Speaker 1: we gain that insight into the order of the bodily
32:29
Speaker 1: powers and that mastery of them, which this sutra implies
32:36
Speaker 1: Sutra thirty. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the center of
32:42
Speaker 1: force in the well of the throat, there comes the
32:45
Speaker 1: cessation of hunger and thirst. We are continuing the study
32:50
Speaker 1: of the bodily powers and centers of force in their
32:53
Speaker 1: relation to the powers and forces of the spiritual man.
32:57
Speaker 1: We have already considered the dominant power of physical life, life,
33:00
Speaker 1: the creative power which secures the continuance of physical life,
33:04
Speaker 1: and further, the manner in which, through aspiration and sacrifice
33:09
Speaker 1: it is gradually raised and set to the work of
33:11
Speaker 1: upbuilding the body of the spiritual man. We come now
33:15
Speaker 1: to the dominant psychic force, the power which manifests itself
33:19
Speaker 1: in speech and in virtue, of which the voice may
33:22
Speaker 1: carry so much of the personal magnetism, endowing the order
33:25
Speaker 1: with a tongue of fire, magical in its power to
33:28
Speaker 1: arouse and rule the emotions of his hearers. This emotional power,
33:34
Speaker 1: this distinctively psychical force, is the cause of hunger and thirst,
33:39
Speaker 1: the psychical hunger and thirst for sensations, which is the
33:43
Speaker 1: source of our two sided life of emotionalism, with its
33:46
Speaker 1: hopes and fears, its expectations and memories, its desires and hates.
33:53
Speaker 1: The source of the psychical power, or perhaps we should
33:56
Speaker 1: say its center of activity in the physical body, is
34:00
Speaker 1: said to be in the cavity of the throat. Thus,
34:03
Speaker 1: in the Teityria Upanishad it is written, there is this
34:07
Speaker 1: shining ether in the inner being. Therein is the spiritual
34:10
Speaker 1: man formed through thought, immortal golden. Inward in the palate,
34:17
Speaker 1: the organ that hangs down like a nipple, This is
34:20
Speaker 1: the womb of Indra, and there where the dividing of
34:24
Speaker 1: the hair turns, extending upward to the crown of the head.
34:29
Speaker 1: Indra is the name given to the creative power of
34:31
Speaker 1: which we have spoken, and which we are told resides
34:35
Speaker 1: in the organ which hangs down like a nipple. Inward
34:37
Speaker 1: in the palate Sutra thirty one, by perfectly concentrated meditation
34:45
Speaker 1: on the center of force in the channel called the tortoise,
34:48
Speaker 1: formed comes steadfastness. We are concerned now with the center
34:55
Speaker 1: of nervous or psychical force below the cavity of the throat,
34:58
Speaker 1: in the chest in which felt the sensation of fear.
35:02
Speaker 1: The center the disturbance of which sets the heart beating
35:05
Speaker 1: miserably with dread, or which produces that sense of terror
35:08
Speaker 1: through which the heart is said to stand still. When
35:11
Speaker 1: the truth concerning fear is thoroughly mastered through spiritual insight
35:15
Speaker 1: into the immortal, fearless life, then this force is perfectly controlled.
35:19
Speaker 1: There is no more fear, just as through the control
35:22
Speaker 1: of the psychic power, which works through the nerve center
35:25
Speaker 1: in the throat, there comes a cessation of hunger and thirst. Thereafter,
35:30
Speaker 1: these forces, or their spiritual prototypes, are turned to the
35:34
Speaker 1: building of the spiritual man. Always, it must be remembered
35:37
Speaker 1: the victory is first a spiritual one. Only later does
35:40
Speaker 1: the brink control of the bodily powers Suture thirty two.
35:47
Speaker 1: Through perfectly concentrated meditation on the light in the head
35:51
Speaker 1: comes the vision of the masters who have attained The
35:56
Speaker 1: tradition is that there is a certain center of force
35:58
Speaker 1: in the head, perhaps the penial gland, which some of
36:02
Speaker 1: our Western philosophers have supposed to be the dwelling of
36:05
Speaker 1: the soul, a center which is, as it were, the
36:08
Speaker 1: doorway between the natural and the spiritual man. It is
36:11
Speaker 1: the seat of that better and wiser consciousness behind the
36:14
Speaker 1: outward looking consciousness in the forward part of the head,
36:16
Speaker 1: that better and wiser consciousness of the back of the mind,
36:20
Speaker 1: which views spiritual things and seeks to impress the spiritual
36:23
Speaker 1: view on the outward looking consciousness in the forward part
36:25
Speaker 1: of the head. It is the spiritual man seeking to
36:28
Speaker 1: guide the natural man, seeking to bring the natural man
36:31
Speaker 1: to concern himself with things of his immortality. This is
36:35
Speaker 1: suggested in the words of the Upanishad already quoted. There
36:39
Speaker 1: were the dividing of the hair turns extending upward to
36:42
Speaker 1: the crown of the head, all of which may sound
36:45
Speaker 1: very fantastical until one comes to understand it. It is
36:49
Speaker 1: said that when this power is fully awakened, it brings
36:52
Speaker 1: a vision of the great companions of the spiritual man,
36:54
Speaker 1: those who have already attained, crossing over to the further
36:58
Speaker 1: shore of the sea of death and rebirth. Perhaps it
37:01
Speaker 1: is to this divine sight that the Master alluded, who
37:03
Speaker 1: is reported to have said, I counsel you to buy
37:07
Speaker 1: of me, I salve that he may see. It is
37:11
Speaker 1: of this same vision of the great companions, the children
37:14
Speaker 1: of light, that a seer wrote, though inland far we be,
37:18
Speaker 1: our souls have sight of that immortal sea which brought
37:22
Speaker 1: us hither, can in a moment travel thither and see
37:25
Speaker 1: the children sport upon the shore, and hear the mighty
37:29
Speaker 1: waters rolling evermore Sutra thirty three, Or through the divining
37:37
Speaker 1: power of intuition, he knows all things. This is really
37:42
Speaker 1: the supplement the spiritual side of the sutra, just translated
37:46
Speaker 1: step by step as the better consciousness. The spiritual of
37:49
Speaker 1: you gains force in the back of the mind. So
37:52
Speaker 1: in the same measure, the spiritual man is gaining the
37:54
Speaker 1: power to see, learning to open the spiritual eyes. When
37:58
Speaker 1: the eyes are fully opened, the spiritual man beholds the
38:00
Speaker 1: great companion standing about him. He has begun to know
38:03
Speaker 1: all things. This divining power of intuition is the power
38:07
Speaker 1: which lies above and behind the so called rational mind.
38:11
Speaker 1: The rational mind formulates a question and lays it before
38:14
Speaker 1: the intuition, which gives a real answer, often immediately distorted
38:18
Speaker 1: by the rational mind, yet always embodying a kernel of truth.
38:23
Speaker 1: It is by this process through which the rational mind
38:26
Speaker 1: brings questions to the intuition for solution, that the truths
38:29
Speaker 1: of science are reached. The flashes of discovery and genius.
38:33
Speaker 1: But this higher power need not work in subordination to
38:36
Speaker 1: the so called rational mind. It may act directly as
38:40
Speaker 1: full illumination the vision and the faculty Divine suit Tra
38:45
Speaker 1: Thirty four. By perfectly concentrated meditation on the heart, the
38:50
Speaker 1: interior being comes the knowledge of consciousness. The heart here
38:56
Speaker 1: seems to mean, as it so often does in the Upanishads,
39:00
Speaker 1: the interior spiritual nature, the consciousness of the spiritual man,
39:04
Speaker 1: which is related to the heart and to the wisdom
39:07
Speaker 1: of the heart. By steadily seeking after and finding the
39:10
Speaker 1: consciousness of the spiritual man, by coming to consciousness as
39:14
Speaker 1: the spiritual man, a perfect knowledge of consciousness will be attained.
39:18
Speaker 1: For the consciousness of the spiritual man has this divine
39:21
Speaker 1: quality while being and remaining a truly individual consciousness. It
39:25
Speaker 1: at the same time flows over as it were and
39:28
Speaker 1: blends with the divine consciousness above and about it, the
39:32
Speaker 1: consciousness of the great companions. And by showing itself to
39:35
Speaker 1: be one with the divine consciousness, it reveals the nature
39:38
Speaker 1: of all consciousness, the secret that all consciousness is one
39:42
Speaker 1: and divine Sutra thirty five. The personal self seeks to
39:50
Speaker 1: feast on life through a failure to perceive the distinction
39:53
Speaker 1: between the personal self and the spiritual man. All personal
39:58
Speaker 1: experience really exists for this another, namely the spiritual man.
40:03
Speaker 1: By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the sake of
40:07
Speaker 1: the self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man. The
40:13
Speaker 1: divine ray of the Higher Self, which is eternal, impersonal
40:16
Speaker 1: and abstract, descends into life and forms a personality which,
40:20
Speaker 1: through the stress and storm of life, is hammered into
40:23
Speaker 1: a definite and concrete, self conscious individuality. The problem is
40:28
Speaker 1: to blend these two powers, taking the eternal and spiritual
40:31
Speaker 1: being of the first and blending with it, transferring into
40:35
Speaker 1: it the self conscious individuality of the second, and thus
40:38
Speaker 1: bringing to life a third being, the spiritual man, who
40:42
Speaker 1: is heir to the immortality of his father, the Higher Self,
40:45
Speaker 1: and yet has the self conscious, concrete individuality of his
40:48
Speaker 1: other parent, the personal Self. This is the true immaculate conception,
40:54
Speaker 1: the new birth from above, conceived of the Holy Spirit.
40:59
Speaker 1: Of this new birth, it is that which is born
41:01
Speaker 1: of the Spirit, is spirit, Ye must be born again.
41:08
Speaker 1: Rightly understood, therefore, the whole life of the personal man
41:11
Speaker 1: is for another, not for himself. He exists only to
41:15
Speaker 1: render his very life and all his experience for the
41:18
Speaker 1: building up of the spiritual man. Only through failure to
41:22
Speaker 1: see this does he seek enjoyment for himself, seek to
41:26
Speaker 1: secure the feasts of life for himself, not understanding that
41:29
Speaker 1: he must live for the other, live sacrificially offering both
41:33
Speaker 1: feasts and his very being on the altar, giving himself
41:37
Speaker 1: as a contrition for the building of the spiritual man.
41:41
Speaker 1: When he does understand this and lives for the higher Self,
41:44
Speaker 1: setting his heart and thought on the higher Self, then
41:47
Speaker 1: his sacrifice bears divine fruit. The spiritual man is built up,
41:51
Speaker 1: consciousness awakens in him, and he comes fully into being
41:55
Speaker 1: as a divine and immortal individuality Sutra thirty six. Thereupon
42:04
Speaker 1: are born the divine power of intuition and the hearing,
42:08
Speaker 1: the touch, the vision, the taste, and the power of
42:12
Speaker 1: smell of the spiritual man. When in virtue of the
42:16
Speaker 1: perpetual sacrifice of the personal man, daily and hourly giving
42:20
Speaker 1: his life for his divine brother, the spiritual man, and
42:23
Speaker 1: through the radiance ever pouring down from the Higher Self
42:26
Speaker 1: eternal in the heavens, the spiritual man comes to birth.
42:30
Speaker 1: There awaken him those powers whose psychical counterparts we know
42:33
Speaker 1: in the personal man the spiritual man begins to see,
42:37
Speaker 1: to hear, to touch, to taste, And besides the senses
42:41
Speaker 1: of the spiritual man, there awakes his mind that divine
42:45
Speaker 1: counterpart of the mind of the physical man, the power
42:48
Speaker 1: of direct and immediate knowledge, the power of spiritual intuition,
42:52
Speaker 1: of divination. This power, as we have seen, owes its
42:56
Speaker 1: virtue to the unity, the continuity of consciousness, whereby whatever
43:01
Speaker 1: is known to any consciousness is knowable by any other consciousness. Thus,
43:05
Speaker 1: the consciousness of the spiritual man, who lives above are
43:08
Speaker 1: narrow barriers of separateness, is an intimate touch with the
43:12
Speaker 1: consciousness of the great companions, and can draw on that
43:15
Speaker 1: vast reservoir for all real needs. Thus arises within the
43:19
Speaker 1: spiritual man that certain knowledge which is called intuition, divination, illumination.
43:30
Speaker 1: End of Book three, Sutras one to thirty six.