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WHAT IS YOGA?
By Jenifer Ebel
The word yoga means union. Union of body, mind, spirit; of individual self
and transcendental Self; of internal and external; of individual and collective.
Union, or Yoga, is our natural state. It is already our truth. We have the
illusion of separation. We live with the notion that we can hurt someone
else without hurting ourselves, or that we can dump toxins into the streams
without getting it in our bloodstreams, but the fact is, what we do to others
or to the earth, we do to ourselves, and the separation we perceive is illusory.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the authoritative scripture on meditation
states; “Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. There we reside
in our essential nature, which is unlimited, unbounded consciousness. The
rest of the time, we are identified with our thoughts.”
Yoga is a merging of the mind and senses with the consciousness underlying
all things. When we are in yoga, our individual will and Divine will are
one and the same. Union, (yoga), is our natural state. That is true now,
not later, after we perfect the postures or sit in meditation for hours
at a time, or realize the perfect diet, or find the perfect religion.
In The Yoga Sutras, Patanjali explains to us that when we are not residing
in awareness of truth, we identify with our thoughts. When we identify with
our thoughts, we are so engrossed in them we forget they are just thoughts
that we are thinking. It is as if we are really there, living the experience,
which is, in reality, only a thought. The thoughts that we are identified
with are usually thoughts of the future, fretting about or fearing what
has not yet happened. Or they may be thoughts of the past, things that happened
long ago, which we are unable to let go of. Identifying with such thoughts
can have a devastating effect on our health and on our lives. They take
us out of our present moment experience, which is all we really have. Right
now, present moment is the only time we have for directly experiencing anything.
When we are identifying with our thoughts, to any degree, we are missing
out on life as it is in the moment. We are getting it all second-hand.
Living in illusions, we have the erroneous belief that we are separate from
others and from our environment and from God. Our words and actions are
too often motivated by fear, and we go to great lengths to protect our limited
idea of “I”. (Just observe, for example, how much energy is
spent on being right.) Every lie we live, every time we cause harm or hoard
possessions, we create more of an illusion and turn away from our own Divine
nature. When we stop identifying with our thoughts, we can watch them in
objective awareness. As we continue to observe ourselves without judgment,
we become aware of parts of ourselves we previously denied or suppressed.
The more we accept of ourselves, the more we can accept of others. We begin
to see ourselves in everyone, and everyone in ourselves. When this happens,
we naturally become more understanding and more compassionate, less critical
and less judgmental. We begin to realize that although the universe does
not revolve around us, the entire cosmos is within us.
In the
practice of yoga, to realize our true nature, we clear the field of consciousness
of self-limiting thoughts. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offer a practical
approach to clearing the field of consciousness. The sutras are aphorisms,
threads of teachings, and if you start to study them, you’ll find
many variations of commentary on them and many different translations. Here
I’d like to digress a moment, to enjoy a bit of poetry with you. The
English equivalent, and perhaps descendant of the word sutra is suture.
My Oxford English Dictionary offers this definition of the word suture;
“the joining of the lips of a wound, or of the ends of a severed nerve
or tendon, by stitches; also, an instance of this; a stitch used for this
purpose.” The Sutras are threads, snippets of teachings, not a whole
cloth, but threads of teachings, to be fleshed out by the teacher. After
having spent years with the Yoga Sutras, I am beginning to see a deeper
beauty in Patanjali’s approach. My understanding of the sutras, and
my ability to apply them in my life, has evolved over the years. As my practice
deepened, so did my understanding of these timeless words of instruction.
The Yoga Sutras are for realizing union (yoga). In other words, they are
for Self-realization. They are literally, the threads we can use to join
the lips of our wound of illusion.
With
the practice of yoga, (yamas, niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana,
dhyana) the mind becomes less agitated, more settled. And there we are,
in our essential state of pure, unbounded awareness (samadhi). Actually,
awareness is as good a word as any to define yoga. Pure awareness; awareness
of our Divine nature; awareness of our timeless, infinite, boundless existence;
awareness of the folly of who we think we are. It’s who we think we
are that causes us so much suffering; the fact that we identify with so
much of what is not us. We identify with possessions, stories, locations,
names, personalities, roles, professions or bodies. But upon closer scrutiny,
it becomes apparent that none of these can truly be defined as “I”.
Through the practice of yoga, we begin to peer through the layers of illusion
to see the underlying reality, coming to know the Self, the Atman, or what
in Christian terms is referred to as the eternal soul, which is our essential
nature. When we are in a state of yoga, we are in a steady, unbroken awareness
of our true nature. We are experiencing full presence, a perfect balance
and union of body, mind and spirit. Freedom from self-limiting thought clears
the way for Self-discovery, and opens us to our own Divine nature.
Everyone,
regardless of past, present or future conditions, has within them, as the
very core of their being, Divine happiness, bliss. It is the very same happiness
that is sought after everywhere in the world. In the practice of yoga, we
become the witness of the mind and of all the various states of the mind.
Through this witnessing, it is possible to move beyond the pains and pleasures
of our waking, sleeping and dreaming states to the sublime peace of the
Self. We are Sat-chit-ananda; Truth, Consciousness, Bliss.
