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Mithuna
France
7 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 22 2024 : 11:08:17 AM
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Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are for many of us the reference text for our practice. Their conciseness and expression, both explicit in its sobriety and mysterious in its implications, remains a source of inspiration. I find in Yogani's desire for integration and pedagogy a deep filiation by putting into practice the Yoga Sutras.
Many contemporary commentators, historians specializing in Hindu philosophies and the Sanskrit language, but also serious practitioners of Yoga, note a radical break between the first chapter ? Samadhi Pada ? stating "the resorption of mental operations" put into practice by opening up to inner silence and the following chapters, in particular the second chapter ? Sadhana Pada ? structuring the practice around the 8 components of Ashtang Yoga and in which our mind is not reabsorbed but becomes a tool leading us to liberation.
For two translators and commentators in French (I am French) recognized for their competence, the first considers that the Samadhi Pada describes a path reserved for ascetics because it is untenable in a commitment to the world, while the second chapter would be a legacy of the Bhagavad gita opening up a spiritual path to everyone, through the practice of the eight precepts of the Sadhana Pada. For another, when I am in Yoga (inner silence) my mental and analytical operations being suspended, I cannot describe this state at all and as soon as I return to my ordinary state of consciousness, I am no longer in Yoga and any attempt at conceptualization fails to analyze this state: there is therefore a total discontinuity between these two states.
Such a discontinuity would be the daughter of the dualistic foundation of Yoga, the Samkya philosophy which revolves around two eternal principles constituting reality, Purusha, the Spirit that manifests itself in the Drastr, the seer of whom Patanjali speaks as the goal of Yoga "Then the Seer is installed in its true nature" and Prakriti, nature (rather than matter) generative and active principle imprisoning the Seer, the Witness in the spectacle of mental operations.
But what I have lived and what I am living, in the continuity of Yogani's teachings, is different.
During the two sessions of deep meditation, I practice the resorption of mental operations, which is the foundation of the practice and corresponds to the cultivation of a seed of inner silence (Samadhi Pada). Then in daily activities, I strive to stay focused (Dharana). Thus working in the world is a form of karma yoga that is complementary (but not ancillary) to meditation. It allows us to reveal and overcome inner conditioning in relational work (Yogani's essential relational approach getting along just as well for me with the world and others as with the witness).
Having an extremely active and demanding professional life as an engineer, I have gradually experienced the integration of these two aspects in my daily practice. What I noticed was that the more I invested myself in my professional obligations "by renouncing the fruit of actions", which in concrete terms meant not a restrictive detachment but of serializing complex projects or tasks involving many actors by detaching myself from them at the end of each task, it was that the contact with the inner silence remained within me, permeating every area of my life. Thus the rupture between the resorption of mental operations and the relational involvement of my daily life becomes a fertile polarity, putting into action the Purusha Prakriti duality of the Samkya and its resolution in the lived experience. This dynamic continually dissolves and coagulates the images of my inner universe, thus reinvesting the energy within a new landscape: Shiva awakens and continually erases and recreates the inner and outer worlds.
The coexistence of these two aspects remains difficult to describe concretely. The comparison that comes to mind is that of a ground bass ? the silence of Samadhi ? a serene and profound frequency on which are grafted variations which are the mental operations of my activity. They coexist because as soon as I suspend one of the stages of my work, inner silence emerges in my consciousness and simultaneously my consciousness descends into inner silence, which also corresponds to a somatic and energetic descent and refocusing. Even if these two states do not simultaneously occupy (for objective time) the field of my personal consciousness, the concentration (Dharana) in which I am active is the portal of meditation (Dhyana) ? the emergence of inner silence.
During important difficulties, I noticed that instead of seeking a solution through the continuation of my mental operations, the rise of this inner silence by breaking this continuity opened up new perspectives for me, manifesting itself in new situations, both concrete and relational: the scenery of the play changes and new actors appear or change roles. This inner silence has always proved to be fruitful and creative: the ground bass arrives as a counterpoint to the variations, discovering the continuation of the inner path. In a word, inner silence has always increased my efficiency and creativity. Two temporalities, that of inner silence, out of time, and that of my personal becoming coexist and are fertilized.
Reciprocally, during deep meditation sessions, "silence is the guardian of silence": what has not been resolved in my active life, conscious or not, appears on the edge of inner silence and then disappears into it. Inner silence is both the revealer and the remedy for every source of trouble that it coagulates and then dissolves.
As for the third chapter focusing on Siddhis and Samyama, I and many of my friends who are serious meditation practitioners have had experiences that are close to what is described (sometimes in a weird way for us) and resembling "shamanic visions". In the continuity of Yogani, for me, such experiences are phenomenal, the consequence of an inner work but with no other value than an indicator of the metamorphoses that the practice operates in us. On the other hand, I have noticed concretely that by allowing inner silence to emerge during difficulties or trying circumstances, not only does it produce in the first place a somatic, emotional and energetic refocusing that allows me to take a step back, but in many cases crystallizes a favorable evolution of external conditions, according to Yogani's beautiful expression "tranquility in action".
For me, Yogani is deeply in line with Patanjali's spiritual line. Both are integrators. Patanjali has masterfully synthesized elements from different practices, Yogani has done an exceptional job in gathering and organizing techniques from several traditions of Yoga and integrating them into a spiritual teaching of great coherence, assimilable and practicable by everyone. Patanjali describes the map, Yogani gives us the guide and tools to travel the territory and lead us to our destination.
This experience is a sharing and the fruit of an inner work, in no way a method. It is up to each of us to walk through our work in his own context, keeping in mind the mantra that concludes all of Yogani's lessons: "The guru is within you".
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Dogboy
USA
2201 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2024 : 12:49:54 AM
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Thanks for sharing your observations and experiences.  |
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