Demystifying The Yoga Sutras: Lesson No. 2

Our second Sutra Class brought our band of seekers together again with some new faces added to the mix.  Kquvien herded us through the first fourteen Sutras in an effort to take in more of these Sutras or threads in one sitting.

What shall we sew with these threads? Well, it’s always an interesting question to ask.  Nuance from translation to translation provides us with more appreciation for each strand’s specific texture and strength.

We talked about earlier guidebooks on Yoga (somewhere between the 6^th and 15^th century AD) like the Hatha Pradipika by Swami Muktibodhananda, which ---while providing an extensive guidance for the practice of yoga its temporal directions are are geared more to a specific time and place:  Choose a house near a kind king; make sure the house isn’t close to where tigers live; create a dung floor.

On the other hand, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, written much later around 500 BC provides timeless advice and ever-applicable guidance based on the human condition. His Sutras are short pithy aphorisms that could be memorized quickly, yet each meaning grows as you deepen your practice.  Kquvien adds, "Patanjali's Sutras are more like 'Tweets' some of them are not even full sentences."   

Patanjali is quite clear in his Sutra 1.2 “Yogah cittavrtti Nirodha” that Yoga is all about mastering the mercurial nature of the citta or consciousness, which is composed of the Manas (mind), Buddhi (intellect), and Ahumkara (ego or prideful sense of self).  

As BKS Iyengar says in Light On the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, controlling the thoughts is the vehicle to get us to the atman (soul/our highest self).  It is the path to unifying us from our Prakrati (material world/skin self) to our Purusa (spiritual world/highest self) But as Iyengar explains Patanjali knew the only way that unification could occur was if we could restrain the incessant vibrations of the consciousness.

Yoga student and instructor, Lee Barrineau gave a wonderful image to compare the vrittis or fluctuation of thought waves to how we can’t see through a lake or ocean in turbulent water.  The water has to be calm before you can see the bottom clearly.

Kquvien brought out some fine points on Patajali’s Sutra 1.1 Atha Yoganusasanam – Now we begin.  The word Atha or now is like the thesis statement.  Be present. Be in the now.  We are being guided to be present and in the now to focus on Sutra 1.2 Yogah cittavrtti nirodha, stilling our thought waves.  It doesn’t take long (a millisecond max) to see that this is no easy task.

Seeds of thoughts seem to be everywhere in our head –some scattered, some buried, others sprouting from other seeds of thoughts. Iyengar Certified Intro Level II instructor, Chris O’Brien explained that we have a choice what we are going to do with those seeds.“What manifests depends on what tapas we put around it.”  Tapas is a kind of burning discipline.  Therefore, if we put a fiery discipline around stilling the thoughts we can burn the seeds and gain better control over our thought waves.

This is where Kquvien says the Yamas and Niyamas come into play.  When we are compassionate to others and to ourselves. When we practice non-violence with others and ourselves.  Kquvien cuts to the chase: “Just don’t act like a jackass.” When we follow that simple advise, we don’t have to second-guess ourselves. We can avoid guilty and painful thoughts. That knocks out a heck of a lot of vrttis in one pop.

So you can see how the Yamas and Niyamas help to retrain the vrttis but there are all kinds of vrttis and some don’t initiate in the mind. Kquvien explains these are known as Snaus or vrttis that are instigated by physical obstacles.  My knee is sore, which is making my hip hurt, which is making it impossible to think straight. As you can see the vrttis are rampant.  Basically, anything drawing a veil over the purusa is a vrtti.

Patanjali’s Sutra 1.3 Tada drastuh svarupe avasthanam talks about once we can restrain all the vrttis, then we can dwell in our own splendor. 1.4 follows that at other times we are going to identify with the vrttis. We are going to luxuriate in them and become our thoughts: I am fat.  I am ugly. I'm stupid.  I'm a genius.  I'm a hunk of burning love. 

1.5 vrttaya pancatayyah klista aklistah says the movements of consciousness are five-fold they may be known or unknown, painful or non-painful. 1.6 explains they are caused by correct knowledge, illusion, delusion, sleep and memory: Pamana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah. 1.7 – 1.11 goes through a deeper description of the five different kinds of fluctuations of consciousness. 

1.12 Abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodhah: practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness. Practice must happen to build strength and attain detachment and freedom from desires. The study of consciousness and stilling it takes practice Abhyasa -which is more a mechanical practice, which later becomes anusthana, which implies a more devotional dedicated practice.

Henry Hibbert brought up the idiom, ‘Practice makes perfect’ which is so right and  I'd like to add that it's important to keep in mind that ‘practice makes permanent’.  So it’s good to refer back to what Chris said that what we manifest depends on the tapas (rigorous discipline) we put around each and every seed of thought.

1.13 tatra sthitau yatna abhyasah let’s us know that practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations and practice is an effort. It is a constant refining of the mental muscle. So we see how yoga is like tuning our mental and physical self, which brings us to a finer point:  Alignment.

The question of “What is alignment” has fostered an every growing dialog among Kquvien’s students ever since she posed it to us a few weeks ago.  Chiara Stella, a long-time Iyengar student had given the question a lot of thought and offered that there is an external alignment that we strive for through our asana practice and then there is an internal alignment --both are inter-related and interdependent -and both have to be given constant attention if a sattvic or harmonized state is to be attained.

I like to think of it all as if it is a fine handcrafted musical instrument: like a violin. No matter how long I practice my violin, no matter how well I take care of it, or how talented I become, I still have to tune it every time I play.

Here’s Sutra Class No. 2 – Thanks again Kquvien.  Namaste.