Inside Yoga 180 (17/10/2016)

We are often told things take time and that the answer will come eventually; and yoga definitely requires time, perseverance and patience especially when one is looking for clarity, perfect knowledge or supreme awareness.

Patanjali’s yoga sutras states (in chapter 2, verse 27) that “Through this unbroken flow of discriminative awareness, one gains perfect knowledge which has seven spheres.” (Iyengar, Light of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali).

Desikachar’s describes the same verse in shorter language, “The attainment of clarity is a gradual process”.

They both point to the search for clarity, with Iyengar’s reference to unbroken flow of discriminative awareness referring to continual and constant yoga practice – staying on the ball, so to speak. And remember this is a gradual process as Desikachar points out.

Other translations refer to this “perfect knowledge” being also awareness and consciousness.

Whatever the translation, through yoga we seek a sense of clarity and understanding. Practice makes perfect as the saying goes.

It is easy to understand that practice takes time, and the attainment of clarity takes time, but what are these seven stages of spheres?

According to Iyengar there are “seven frontiers to be integrated between the seen (prakrti) and the seer (purasa). They are: integration of the body (sarira samyama), the senses (indriya samyama), energy (prana samyama), mind (mano samyama), the intellect (buddhi samyama) and consciousness (citta samyama) and soul (atma samyama), each realising its own individual identity. Proficiency in yoga will bring this sevenfold knowledge.”

According to Patanjali, says Iyengar, the seven states of consciousness are: emerging consciousness, restraining consciousness, sprouted or individualised consciousness, tranquil consciousness, attentive consciousness, fissured consciousness, and pure consciousness.

Iyengar then says, in order to simplify the meaning of this sutra, the seven can be explained: “knowledge of the body (sarira jnana), knowledge of energy (prana jnana), control of the mind (mano jnana), stability in intelligence (vijnana jnana), knowledge gained by experience (anubhavika jnana), absorption of the various flavours that life offers (rasatmaka jnana) and knowledge of the self (atma jnana).

He adds that the yoga practitioner “conquers his body, controls his energy, restrains the movements of the mind and develops sound judgement, from which he acts rightly and becomes luminous. From this luminosity he develops total awareness of the very core of his being, achieves supreme knowledge and surrenders his self to the supreme soul (paramatman).”

Got it? Well I would admit that sometimes these texts appear to want to confuse the reader, with their lists and diagrams or goals that feel a long way off. Yet are these relevant to our lives? Yes I do believe they are, but maybe not for everyone.

I was one of these people who devoured lists and texts fuelled by my need to understand not just the practice of yoga but my life and what it is all about. Several years later my practice had reached a stage where these lists and texts became less important and what was in its place was an understanding based on experience – I just practised. I was often told by my teachers and by the texts I read that the intellectual understanding of these practices might come quickly but what takes time is the experiential understanding and wisdom. This was very true from my experience and what is clear I would not have arrived at this point of understanding without having first undertaken the study first.

In other words, we cannot realise we do not need something until we have fully used it or explored it. For some of us, we need to analyse before we stop analysing; we need the lists and diagrams. The cliché is that these spiritual practices, such as yoga, are often described as being beyond words, yet we need the words to describe what it is all about to those who wish to learn about them, and therein lies the inherent contradiction.

Yet we continue to practice and study because once we are on this path or journey we feel or know, or both, that we are heading the right way.

Feel free to share this blog with others, and any thoughts, questions or comments do contact me via the reply panel or email me gary@yogabristol.co.uk