Between the Bhagavad Gita’s spiritual yoga and the Hatha Pradipika’s physical yoga lies the Yoga Sutras text. The wisdom of the Yoga Sutras was passed down by sages from early times then later written down by Patañjali. There’s a myth that Patañjali was a serpent, who overheard the secrets of yoga while being worn as God's necklace. Here's my translation:
Chapter I – Deep Meditation
1. Now are presented instructions on yoga.
2. Yoga is mastery of the mind’s wandering and cessation of its modifications.
3. In this way, the witness (conscious spirit) rests in its own essential nature.
4. Otherwise the witness identifies the experience with the mind's modifications.
5. There are five modifications of the mind, afflicting more or less.
6. They are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, imagination, sleep, memory.
7. Right knowledge can be experienced by direct perception, inference, or inner inspiration.
8. Incorrect knowledge is what does not correspond to reality.
9. Imagination is identification with knowledge brought by thoughts inconsistent with reality.
10. Sleep is a modification of the mind that does not hold as mental content.
11. Memory is what retains the perceptions experienced by the senses.
12. The cessation of the modifications is achieved by persistent practice and nonattachment.
13. Persistent practice consists of being firmly established in one's own effort.
14. It becomes firm when it is done for a long period of time without interruption and with devotion toward and concentration on the proper goal.
15. Non-attachment is that state of awareness in which craving for sense objects, such as what can be seen or heard, is under control.
16. The highest non-attachment is when pure consciousness is known and therefore results a freedom from desire found in harmony with nature.
17. Awareness with conscious feeling is associated with sounds, words, subtle perceptions, pleasure, and the sense of individuality.
18. The higher awareness is the cessation of content of the mind, although the non-manifested sensory impressions still remain.
19. This form of awareness is attained at birth by those who previously were yogis devoid of the sense of their own body and by yogis fully merged into nature.
20. Others attain this awareness by faith, discipline, remembering, and wisdom.
21. Those with an intense desire attain it quite soon.
22. This is achieved by a gradual rise of desire from mild to medium to intense.
23. Similar results are attained by those with surrender and devotion to God.
24. God is that non-differentiated existence untouched by limitations or karmic actions and consequences.
25. In God is the root of unlimited knowledge and understanding of everything.
26. Being unlimited in time, God is the original guru of all gurus.
27. In the sound of the mantra Om, God manifests.
28. The repetition of the mantra Om should be accompanied by an awareness of its spiritual significance.
29. Thus, the awareness turns inward and obstacles disappear.
30. Obstacles of the mind to be overcome are disease, dullness, procrastination, doubt, laziness, hedonism,delusion, mental agitation, and lack of concentration.
31. Symptoms of a distracted state of mind are pain, depression, nervousness, and shallow or unsteady breath.
32. For their removal, one should practice meditation concentrating on one point.
33. In order to detach from and end vices and misery, the mind can be purified by the practice of attitudes like friendliness, compassion, gratitude, and contentment.
34. Or purification can occur by control of the breath energy through breathing exercises of pranayama.
35. The mind can also become steady and tranquil by focusing intensely on a body sense experience.
36. Or the mind can become steady and tranquil by focusing on the inner light that is beyond human suffering.
37. Or by concentration on the heart of a person who has transcended worldly passion.
38. Or by meditating on the content of sacred dreams.
39. Or by meditation on blissful experiences.
40. In such, a yogi obtains mastery over all things from the smallest to the largest.
41. Absorption is attained by the one whose mind is at rest and whose mind modifications are weakened by the merging of the knower, the known object, and the process of knowing into one unity. In such, the mind shines like a pure crystal.
42. Awareness of sound (or word) is a state in which awareness is directed toward that sound, the sense perception of that sound, and what is the real cause of that sound.
43. Awareness without sound (or word) is a state in which memory is used to direct awareness toward that sound, the sense perception of that sound, and what is the real cause of that sound.
44. In the same way can be explained the awareness with subtle perception or awareness without subtle perception.
45. Yet, the objects of subtle awareness perception are in the realm of nature.
46. Therefore, the above types of awareness are with seeds only.
47. Only after mastering awareness without subtle perception does the spiritual light dawn.
48. From there begins the full experience of pure consciousness/ higher awareness.
49. In the state of pure consciousness/ higher awareness, the understanding is different from that obtained by something that is heard or by logical inference, because both of these still have an object to focus on.
50. The result of that knowledge is still born out of the latent impressions that prevent higher awareness from dawning.
51. It is only after blocking the latent impressions that the awareness without seed (enlightenment or supra-consciousness) is obtained.
Chapter II – Basic Practice
1. The practice of self-purification, the analysis of one's own self, and surrender to God are the beginning of classic yoga.
2. For achieving awareness, the obstacles have to be diminished first.
3. Ignorance, ego, aversion, uncontrolled passion, and fear of death / clinging to life are the obstacles.
4. It is because of ignorance that things appear to be inert, contradictory, dispersed, and endless.
5. Ignorance erroneously takes what is perishable as eternal, what is impure as pure, what is sad as happiness, what is not Self as the Self (universal spirit).
6. Ego by mistake identifies two manifestations: the object of experience and the experience (for example, what is seen and how it is seen).
7. Passion is accompanied by pleasure.
8. Aversion is accompanied by pain.
9. Whereas the will to live is self-sustained and strong even for the learned ones.
10. These obstacles can be reduced in a subtle way by getting them absorbed into their primal foundation.
11. Thus, the manifestations of obstacles can be reduced by meditation.
12. Yet, the existence of a storehouse of karma is the root cause of obstacles to be experienced as present and future lives.
13. As long as the root cause is in the storehouse, the results are manifested in the experience of rebirth and life span.
14. Depending upon merit and demerit, the fruits of the experience of rebirth and life span are seen as happiness or sorrow.
15. Because of the impressions as modifications of the mind and activities of the attributes, all these consequences are painful, even to people who possess discrimination.
16. Yet, future suffering can be avoided.
17. The cause of identification of the seer with what is seen can also be avoided.
18. What is seen has properties like light, movement, steadiness, composition or sensitivity that can be experienced through the senses for the sake of liberation.
19. The manifestations of the properties of primal matter energy are four in number: crude or fine and traceable or untraceable.
20. The seer is pure awareness/ consciousness, but though pure, the seer appears to see through the mental concept.
21. What is seen as nature is for the sake of that pure awareness (to experience it).
22. For the liberated one, whose purpose has been fulfilled, the material world is destroyed in his mind, but is not destroyed for all other people who have ordinary cognition.
23. The purpose for the disunion between the two powers (spirit consciousness and primal matter energy) is for the one to acquire mastery and to rest in its own essential nature.
24. The cause of the union of the two powers (in some minds) is ignorance.
25. By the absence of ignorance, this association of the spiritual and material disappears, thus the seer attains liberation.
26. The means to avoid ignorance is obtaining wise discrimination in a continuous flow.
27. Prior to achieving the higher awareness, there are seven steps.
28. By the practice of yoga steps, the impurity diminishes. Thus, the acquisition of wise discrimination culminates in liberating insight.
29. There are eight steps of yoga discipline: moral restraint, doing good, steady posture, energized breath, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and Self-realization.
30. The five codes of moral restraint are: don’t harm, be truthful, don’t steal, control lifestyle, and don’t cling.
31. These great disciplines are universally valid for all social positions, places and times.
32. The five codes of doing good are: be moral, be content, discipline self, know yourself, trust in and surrender to God.
33. When the mind gets disturbed by sounds (or words), one should use their opposites to counteract them.
34. Such negative thoughts leading to turmoil are caused by greed, uncontrolled passion, and attachment to oneself or to others or to things. They vary in intensity from mild to medium to intense, causing endless suffering and ignorance. They should be counteracted by meditating upon their opposites.
35. In the presence of one who is firmly established in not harming, hostility ceases.
36. When honesty/ truthfulness is firmly established, life functions more smoothly.
37. When non-stealing is firmly established, general prosperity is increased.
38. When lifestyle control is firmly established, health and fitness are obtained.
39. When not clinging to possessions is firmly established, insight into life’s real purpose is sought and found.
40. In seeking physical and mental purity, there is non-attachment toward one’s own body and the bodies of other people.
41. With purity, one is capable of mental clarity, cheerfulness, concentration, sensory control, plus visualization and realization of the Self (universal spirit).
42. Unlimited true happiness comes from contentment.
43. By performing austerities of diet, exercise, and meditation, toxins in the body are removed and perception of the senses becomes acute.
44. By studying spiritual scriptures, union with deity is sought and found.
45. Success in deep awareness comes from complete surrender to God.
46. Yoga postures should be steady and comfortable.
47. Loosening of body and mind tension during the practice of yoga posture is accomplished by reflecting on the eternal and infinite.
48. Thus, the opposing forces of pain and pleasure have no effects on the yogi.
49. Next is the energizing control of the breath, which is the control of inhalation, exhalation, and pause.
50. In other words, the stages of control of the breath are three: external, internal, and suppression. They vary by measuring the length, by counting the number, by the place or hour of practice, and by degree of subtlety.
51. Yet, that fourth kind of control of the breath (pranayama) is so subtle that it transcends the sensory object of mere breath movements.
52. In this way, the covering sheaths over the inner light will be peeled off.
53. By pranayama, the gross wandering mind becomes fit for concentration.
54. Withdrawal of sense experience is the withdrawal of senses from their objects. Thus, the higher mind can reside in its own essential nature.
55. By the withdrawal from the sense experience comes the highest mastery over the senses.
Chapter III - Mystical Power
1. Concentration is holding the mind fixed on a particular object.
2. A continuous flow of concentration toward an object is called meditation.
3. When only the essence remains and all the forms disappear, this is called awareness (enlightenment).
4. The practice of these three (concentration, meditation, and awareness) constitutes samyama or directed awareness.
5. By its mastery comes the light of pure wisdom.
6. It can be applied to any refined state.
7. The components of directed awareness are internal experiences, compared to the previous stages of yoga.
8. Yet, they are still external in relation to the state of pure awareness.
9. By the cessation of transformations, the impressions are stopped and the higher mind becomes capable of true self-reflection.
10. The flow of self-reflection becomes steady by constant repetition.
11. Thus, awareness as a one-pointed state comes as a result of the disappearance of transformations.
12. By the one-pointed state of the higher mind, the transformation that manifests in the content of the mind ceases to exist.
13. By this is explained various changes of perception of the primal elements and the senses depending on the dharma, character, and condition of that experience.
14. This is because the substratum that is manifested or unmanifested is in a latent state in everything.
15. The differentiation in the substratum causes the transformation to appear.
16. By performing directed awareness on the three transformations (dharma, character, and condition), the knowledge of the past and induction of the future can be obtained.
17. The word as sound reflects mental content. By performing samyama on that word, knowledge of the content of the minds of beings that have produced that sound occurs.
18. By performing samyama on mental impressions, the knowledge of previous existence of that being is perceived.
19. By performing samyama on somebody's content of mind that knowledge is obtained.
20. But anything else that is not subject to directed awareness cannot be known.
21. By performing samyama toward suspension of perception of the existence of one's own body, by cutting off the eye perception of the light, the yogi's mind loses awareness of one's own body. Therefore it is not seen by anyone else.
22. In the same manner (that of losing perception) can be explained the disappearance of sound and experiences related to touch, taste, and smell.
23. By performing samyama (directed awareness) on omens or on active and accumulated past actions (karma), the knowledge of time of death is obtained.
24. By performing samyama on friendship, friendship comes.
25. By performing samyama on the strength of an elephant, vigor is obtained.
26. By performing samyama on light, the knowledge of what is subtle, hidden, or distant is obtained.
27. By performing samyama on the sun, knowledge of the solar system is obtained.
28. By performing samyama on the moon, knowledge about the position of the stars is obtained.
29. By performing samyama on the polar star, knowledge about the movement of the stars is obtained.
30. By performing samyama on the navel, knowledge of the constitution of the body is obtained.
31. By performing samyama on the throat pit, cessation of thoughts of hunger and thirst is obtained.
32. By performing samyama on the tortoise energy path, steadiness is obtained.
33. By performing samyama on the subtle light in the head, the vision of accomplished yogis is obtained.
34. Everything can be obtained by intuition.
35. By performing samyama on the heart and compassion, the knowledge of the nature of mind and character is obtained.
36. The higher mind and pure consciousness are very different. By performing samyama on the subjective knowledge of higher mind, the objective knowledge of pure consciousness is obtained.
37. Thus, the awareness of the senses like hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling becomes supranormal.
38. Yet, they are mind powers for the world, but obstacles for samadhi.
39. An advanced yogi could take over another person's body by entering in the subtle body then loosening the bondage that prevents that person's mind from accessing the causal body.
40. By control over head and neck breath energy, an advanced purification occurs and the yogi is undisturbed by the touch of water, mud, or even thorns.
41. By control over chest and abdomen breath energy, the yogi's body glows like a blazing fire.
42. By performing samyama on hearing the subtle sounds from space, the divine hearing is obtained.
43. By performing samyama on the relation between body and space, the mind is empowered to feel the body as light as cotton floating on the air.
44. By performing samyama on the shadow of the body, the mind is empowered to grasp a state of existence without a body.
45. By performing samyama on the relations between the gross, the subtle, and the essential nature, mastery over the gross elements is obtained.
46. With the acquisition of power to grasp the true inner self, the body functions unobstructed in obtaining perfection.
47. By performing samyama on beauty, grace, vigor, and strength, it is obtained.
48. Mastery over the sense organs is obtained by performing samyama on their true nature, characteristics, application, and function.
49. By the ability of the mind to control the senses comes freedom from their objects and independence from natural forces.
50. By performing samyama on pure consciousness and the quality of purity, omnipotence and omniscience are obtained.
51. By non-attachment and elimination of the parts of omnipotence and omniscience that are still imperfections, liberation is obtained.
52. In such, when the yogi merits invitation from the heavenly powers to join them, he should not feel attachment or pride, because he may fall again by their revival.
53. By performing samyama on a moment in time and the one that follows, the discrimination of reality is obtained.
54. In this way (by obtaining discrimination between the real and unreal, eternal and temporary), a yogi is able to acquire wisdom and make distinction between things that look superficially similar.
55. Thus, the highest knowledge that is born of discrimination transcends all.
56. Liberation is obtained when the same degree of purification that is in the pure consciousness is manifested as purity of the higher mind.
Chapter IV – Spiritual Liberation
1. The mystical enlightenment powers can be obtained by birth, herbs, mantras, austerities, or awareness.
2. By manifestation in the realm of nature, a transformation occurs as a result of performing samyama.
3. In this way, the various obstacles of nature are removed, like a farmer weeds a field with a tool.
4. By the lack of the sense of ego, other creative minds are born within a person.
5. Yet, there exists only one higher mind above the differences in individual minds.
6. Out of all minds, the real one born out of meditation is free from impressions.
7. In this way, the karma of yogis is not polarized, whereas for others it can be of three kinds: good, bad, or mixed.
8. For these people, by manifestation of the conditioned mind, the ripening of their karma takes place accordingly.
9. Impression and memory are similar in form, although they may differ by how they are produced in time and place.
10. Karmic impressions (or ingrained patterns) can continue endlessly from the craving to live eternally.
11. These patterns can disappear by the elimination of causes, effects, sources of experience, and objects of experience.
12. Thus, the past and the future exist in their essential nature because of having different characteristics.
13. That already manifested (as past time) or not yet manifested (as future time) is subject to the three qualities of nature: rajas (birth, energy, passion), tamas (death, darkness, destruction), and sattva (light, purity, goodness).
14. In their essence they are unique objects, due to transformation that happened only in the past.
15. From the point of view of time, they are similar objects, but are separated in the mind’s perception by a different path of manifestation: the past already manifested but the future still to manifest.
16. What happens then, when the one higher mind is not dependent on the object or design of cognition?
17. The answer is that the higher mind needs to reflect the object in itself in order to know the object.
18. Yet, pure consciousness is not subject to transformations and thus always knows the modifications of the mind.
19. Such mind chatter and clutter is not self-luminous, but subject to perception.
20. Either the cosmic consciousness or the mind consciousness could prevail.
21. Confusion arises with the absurd idea that a mind could cognize another mind by intellect and memory, thus excluding cosmic consciousness as the only one capable of such cognition.
22. True knowledge is accomplished in the higher mind by resting in one's own nature and not flitting from one impression to another.
23. Any higher mind is impressed by nature, only a seer has a higher mind that is autonomous in itself.
24. Although it is subject to many diverse impressions, the higher mind succeeds because of its association with pure cosmic consciousness.
25. The one who can have such a perception is conscious of a complete cessation of distinction between things.
26. Thus, a mind of discriminating quality is inclined toward achieving liberation.
27. Yet, until wise detachment is obtained, the content of the mind still manifests through past impressions.
28. It is recommended that the removal of the content of the mind be done with the same methods as the removal of the obstacles.
29. The ultimate state, where one stops becoming and exists in the virtue cloud, comes from acquisition of discrimination by one who has given up even the desire for the highest form of meditation.
30. From this comes the freedom from obstacles and karma accumulation.
31. Then, for the one who has removed all coverings and impurities that hang on, the spiritual quest is fulfilled, because of the attainment of infinite knowledge.
32. Thus, the three qualities of nature subside, after fulfilling their purpose and the process of change concludes.
33. The process of change, corresponding to the passing of time, comes to an end.
34. Liberation is that state in which the three qualities of nature are absorbed into their cause, thus becoming devoid of any purpose. Pure consciousness is therefore established in one’s own essential nature. That is all, and this is all of the sutras.
No comments:
Post a Comment