I have two translations of The Yoga Sutras, and I will admit that for the past three or four years I
have been stuck on two of the sutras. The words are simple, but I have not been able to wrap my mind around them. I have discovered that the yoga sutras are not
something to read from start to finish. So, how do you even get an overview of what may be in them?
Where do you start if you want to learn more about yoga beyond asana
and the eight limbs?
I recently finished a book that has given me
some more foundational knowledge: The Inner Tradition of Yoga by
Michael Stone. He has an understanding to the point where he can apply
theory to our everyday living and write about it for those of us just beginning to explore yogic theory in earnest. In Inner Tradition,
he unpacks what the sutras say about suffering and brings definition and clarity to
them. He also outlines the subtle bodies, or dosas, in a way that is easily understood, accessible, and grounded. In the beginning, he introduces this book to be about the psychological experience of a committed yoga practice and the letting go that must happen if a practice is to deepen and expand. Instead of being about postures and how to deepen them, this book is about how a yoga practice can be experienced and cultivated in our lives. He remains true to his aim, which
is to introduce yogic theory to modern day Westerners and apply this
theory to what we face in our day to day lives.
Yoga oftentimes is treated as just a physical practice, with the deeper aspects denied or ignored. I think that many are fooled that by practicing postures alone, we will become enlightened, or at the very least wiser. It's like saying that going to an aerobics class makes us wise. It could, but what is required is that we bring a awareness to what we are doing and a willingness to explore ourselves internally. A physical practice without a mindfulness practice only cultivates the separation of who we truly are from what we want to be (a.k.a. narcissism). Physical practice includes any kind of workout, and one form of yoga is a physical workout.
Here is an excerpt from page 12, "This book is about how to cultivate a yoga practice, what constitutes a yoga practice, how to recognize and work with the different stages on the path, and how to keep the tradition of yoga a living tradition through committed practice and critical engagement. On a heart level, this book is about the cultivation of patience, honesty, nonviolence, wisdom, and the ability to meet life as it occurs from moment to moment without habitual forms of clinging"
The message
throughout the book is to stay mindful during practice and from this,
we begin to understand clearly the dimensions of the self and reality.
With breath and asana, we stay grounded as understanding develops.
Breath and asana are the classroom. We can pay attention or not, but
to pay attention is to discover the richness of life because we are
experiencing it directly and not through an emotional filter, a mental
block, a belief, or any other construct of the mind.
From page 14, "In the center of the human body we find the center of all
things because when breath, mind, and body come together in an instant
of experience, reality unfolds. Reality unfolds when the mind can stay
completely present in a breath cycle, especially at the completion of
an exhale. The exhale completes itself in the pelvic floor, the center
of gravity, the resting place of the mind."
I appreciate that despite all the theory and concepts that he lays out, breath and asana are at the center of what each yoga practitioner must do. In the focus on breath and asana, we come to realizations about ourselves, and we come to accept these realizations. Using breath and asana as a vehicle to self realization keeps us grounded and closes the gap between who we truly are and what we want to be.
He defines the causes of suffering and distinguishes them from the symptoms of suffering (also termed poisons of the heart). It is in this area of the sutras where I have gotten bogged down, and now, I can go back to them with more receptivity to what the sutras and their translators have to say about dukkha (suffering) and the klesas (poisons of the heart).
Also, I keep going back to the way he describes how we process information. We receive data through our senses, our brains register the data, then we decide whether or not we like it. From there, we own it and hoard it away somewhere in our body. This can be a vicious cycle if we get stuck on the aversion track. It can also stunt us if it is the pleasure track. He points out that this cycle is the way an addiction forms. Addiction is like a scratched record. Through breath and letting go, we can nudge the needle off the repeating track and onward into the rest of what life experience has to offer us. This was one of the many aha moments that I had while reading the book.
Side note about the broken record: I think we can unknowingly get stuck, even in a yoga practice. For instance, many of us think we aren't doing anything if we don't feel the pose where we think we should feel it. The shoulders and the spine can be a tricky like that. If we reach out, we may take our arms past our spine behind us bending the spine back by tilting the tailbone up thinking we need to feel the stretch in the pectoral muscles of the chest. But, really, just reaching the arms out while keeping the spine in a neutral position is what we need. From this position, we do not overstretch the shoulders, we can engage deep breathing much easier and the actual stretch in the chest will feel more like an unloading. And taking a load off our chests is exactly what we need most of the time.
Since starting this post, I have gone to the sutras that have mystified me and don't know why I got stuck. What I needed was a general picture, which is what Stone has provided
with The Inner Tradition of Yoga. Now, I can pick up the
sutras and take them one at a time and read the commentaries without
feeling like a blind person being led by a stranger across uneven terrain.
Books referred to in this post:
The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner by Michael Stone
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Translation and Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda
The Essence of Yoga: Reflections on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Bernard Bouanchaud
