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Each Person Can Make a Positive Difference by Turning All Life into Yoga · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Namaste. People are discouraged,
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  depressed, worried. The world is seemingly breaking
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  down in a number of different ways.
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  We're focused on the political disruptions, the economic
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  concerns, the toxic chemicals that are polluting our
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  environment and increasing our health issues.
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  We're concerned about the climate change and the change in
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  disease vectors and the wars and the mass migrations and all
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  these other problems. We've discussed endless times.
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  And people are simply tired, burned out, discouraged.
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  What can I do as just some small individual here to solve any of
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  these problems? And this leads to either apathy
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  or distraction. But we have another option, and
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  that is to support the development of a new form of
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  consciousness that can transform the way we look at things,
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  transform the way we act, the way we think, and the way we
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  interact with others and with the world around us.
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  We think, what can I do? I'm just some individual here
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  out of 8 billion or more people on the planet.
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  But there is a way forward, and that way forward is really not
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  complicated. We think, oh, there's 8 billion
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  people, but not all 8 billion people have the same influence
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  or power of concentration and focus and action.
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  And so we find that there are what was called in some
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  sociological research done back in the 1960s, what we may call
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  opinion makers. These are people who have an
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  outside, outsize influence on what people think, what they do,
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  and how they act. Many of us have heard about the
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  100th monkey phenomenon. The 100th monkey phenomenon was
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  an observation made by some anthropologists and some
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  primatologists that there were certain monkeys in a part of the
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  world where one monkey started washing his fruit before eating
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  it and then other monkeys started copying it and pretty
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  soon that whole tribe of monkeys began to wash their fruit.
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  The interesting part was that once a certain number of monkeys
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  started washing their fruit, this behavior seemingly
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  promulgated to monkeys worldwide who were not in contact directly
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  with the specific group of monkeys that initiated this
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  behavior. So this was called the 100th
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  monkey phenomenon, and it involved what we might call a
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  tipping point by which a certain consciousness, a certain
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  awareness, a certain capacity suddenly develops and manifests
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  across a population when a certain number of that
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  population make the change and adjust their awareness, their
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  consciousness and their action. And so the question that we
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  raise is if we do something, if I do something, if you do
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  something, if the next person next to you does something and
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  we influence other people and they do something just by our
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  actions and behaviors and thought patterns.
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  Who will be the corresponding 100th monkey in the human race
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  to change the approach of fragmentation and separation and
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  division and conflict into one of cooperation and harmony and
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  increasing understanding of the unity of all existence?
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  We need to reflect on that, and then with that understanding, we
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  can begin to act. What can we do?
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  First of all, each individual can take up spiritual practices
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  for inner growth. This is not a prescription for a
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  specific religious background, philosophical background,
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  scientific background. It's simply that each
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  individual, where they are, with whatever their belief system is,
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  should take up the practice of inward observation, meditation,
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  concentration, to begin to understand the forces that move
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  them and begin to separate themselves from that motivating
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  energetic force that just drops on them from outside, from the
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  world around them, from their contacts and their
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  correspondence with other people.
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  And begin to understand that they have the ability to choose,
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  the ability to refocus their attention on higher things,
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  higher principles, more harmonious resolutions, rather
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  than a vital reactive nature based in separation,
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  fragmentation and hostility. When that happens, we begin to
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  see that our own lives take on a new tenor.
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  We begin to change. Our understanding of things
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  grows and develops. And as that happens, we begin to
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  interact with people in a different way, and that begins
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  to change the way other people respond and react.
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  So this is a way for each individual to become part of the
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  solution rather than remaining part of the problem.
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  Now, we also work externally, We do things in the world.
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  And generally we try to separate our inner life, our spiritual
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  life, our spiritual practices from our outer life.
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  And we say, I'm going to sit for meditation, or I'm going to go
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  and pray, or I'm going to do a retreat.
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  And then we come back to our outer life and we seemingly
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  forget all that. We go out and we do our jobs and
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  we earn money and we live our lives.
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  And it's like we've made an artificial separation.
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  When we get to the point of seeing that the outer work can
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  and should express the inner consciousness, then we begin to
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  extend the influence of our new insights, our new capacities,
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  and our new standpoint into everything we do.
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  Whether it's some work that we consider trivial or meaningless,
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  or it's some larger program in the economic, political,
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  scientific, or technical fields. Whatever it may be, if we treat
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  it with an understanding that it is the expression of our
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  spirituality, then we begin to have an outside and outsize
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  influence on things, events and people around us.
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  And so we look at what Trio Robindo had to say that all life
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  is yoga. What does that mean?
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  It implies that we can transform our activities, our lives and
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  our purpose into a yogic process.
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  If we look at the Eightfold Path of Patanjali, the first step is
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  to develop an asana. Asana means seat in their
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  traditional yogic practice. It means that you sit in a
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  particular posture, with your legs crossed, sitting upright
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  and still, quiet and relaxed, in order to undertake the spiritual
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  discipline. But in a broader sense, our
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  asana is the standpoint we take in society, in each situation,
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  in our work, in our families, the seat of our consciousness.
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  The next step is pranayam. Pranayam is the control of the
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  breath, and in the traditional path of yoga they have
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  particular breathing techniques that you have to do and
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  practice. But in a broader sense,
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  pranayama is the control of the vital energy that comes into you
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  and that you absorb and that you then transmit through your being
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  and that you then release back into the world.
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  And so we can make our vital interchange into a form of
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  pranayam. Before the practice of asana and
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  pranayam come the preliminary practices called the yamas and
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  the niyamas, and these are really usually treated as some
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  kind of moral observations. You shouldn't harm other beings.
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  You shouldn't be jealous, you should have contentment, you
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  should treat others with respect, etcetera.
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  These are however, not moral statements.
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  They are practical scientific statements.
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  They are statements to create the correct mental, emotional
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  and vital basis to hold higher energies as they begin to
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  manifest, without spilling them, without erupting and without
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  breaking down our physical, mental, emotional, nervous and
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  vital being through the force of those higher energies.
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  And so practicing the Yamas and the Niyamas is essential, not
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  necessarily as a moral statement of rules, but as a methodology
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  for understanding the vibrations that can act upon us and that
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  distract, disturb and disperse the energies of our lives.
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  We then come to pratyahara, which is withdrawing the
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  attention from the energies that are active in our lives so that
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  we can then begin to concentrate and focus.
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  And this means to in the practical sense of the
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  traditional yoga, it means withdrawing your attention from
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  all the senses. But in a wider sense, pratyahara
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  means simply to change the focus and attention of what we deal
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  with in the world. Do we focus our attention on the
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  various energies of accumulation, of food, of sex,
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  of fame, of vanity? In other words, are we trying to
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  aggrandize our ego or are we switching our attention to the
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  spiritual purpose, the meaning of our lives, the opportunities
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  we have to contact and attain a higher state of consciousness?
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  Withdrawing our attention from activities which are dispersing
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  and lowering of our level of awareness that are distracting
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  to us is the deeper meaning on an external sense of the
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  practice of pratyahara. The obvious next step in the
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  eightfold path is called dharana, which is the focus of
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  the concentration. And again in the practice of
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  yoga, it means to then concentrate the force.
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  Generally, there are prescriptions to concentrate it
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  in the energy center between the eyebrows or behind the heart or
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  above the head, and that's important.
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  But the real sense of dharana in a wider viewpoint is to focus or
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  concentrate on the positive uplifting activities and the
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  growth of awareness, the consciousness, beauty and
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  positivity in the world to begin to enhance our ability to tune
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  and focus to these higher forces and energies and concepts as
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  opposed to being distracted. The next is tiana or meditation.
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  This is to again create a mental space of calm and quiet that can
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  be centered, that doesn't get drawn out every time something
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  happens that is not externally focused and reactive, and which
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  can then appreciate what is taking place in the world from a
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  new, calmer, more balanced perspective.
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  We come then to Samadhi, which is in the practice of the
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  traditional path of yoga, the development of a trance like
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  state in which all outer awareness is withdrawn and we
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  are totally focused inwardly. And this also can be reapplied
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  on an external sentence to just maintain throughout our lives in
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  all of our activities, all of our actions, that centered
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  space, that separation of the witness consciousness from the
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  active nature of our being, where we can see and act and
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  respond totally from what we might call a divine standpoint
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  as opposed to the ego standpoint.
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  Now, there are certain other formations that are used to
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  enhance the yogic practice in the traditional paths of yoga.
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  One of them is called mudra. Mudra is the physical expression
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  or gesture, and mudra is the stance we take in the world in
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  how we interact with others. The energy we put into the world
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  and our receptivity to higher vibrational forces is what we
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  could call our mudra. There is the mantra, which is
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  the use of various sounds to concentrate and develop energies
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  on certain vibrational levels. And the mantra in the world is
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  the way we express ourselves, the way we put energy out into
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  the world using the power of voice as a mode of expression of
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  our consciousness. And then there's bhava.
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  And bhava is more or less the mood or the standpoint we take,
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  the energetic stance we take as we go through the world.
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  We can convert every action, every deed, every expression
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  into a form of yogic practice. There is no separation between
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  our inner life and our outer life.
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  When we do this, we can find that the influence that occurs
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  naturally not through some kind of power of money or politics or
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  connections or whatever else the world has traditionally found,
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  but through simply the power of the radiance of your being.
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  You begin to have an impact and build around you people and
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  circumstances that support the expression of a higher mode of
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  consciousness. And this is the first step in
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  the solution towards creating a better world.
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  There are many more steps, and we can discuss those in future
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  sessions, but for now let's take away from it that the first step
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  is to Orient ourselves towards turning all life into the
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  practice of yoga.