Harikirtana - 2/4 - Hari-kirtana das

What does it mean to be ‘eternal’?

Q: During yoga classes, teachers often talk about how everything, with the exception of our eternal spirit, is impermanent. Using the word ‘eternal’ implies permanence so I just want to confirm my understanding that all is impermanent except for our eternal spirit. Is this a correct understanding?

A: Yes, you’re understanding is correct: according to yoga philosophy, everything in the material world is temporary except for us. Both the Yoga-sutras and the Bhagavad-gita confirm that our existence is not dependent on the existence of our physical bodies:

“There has never been a time when I did not exist, nor one when you did not exist, nor one when all these kings did not exist; nor is there any possibility that in the future any of us shall ever cease to be.” – Bhagavad-gita 2.12

The weather changes, popular tastes in music change, and civilizations come and go over the course of time. The material bodies that we inhabit are also temporary. However, the first assertion of yoga philosophy is that we are not our bodies; we are eternal spiritual beings having a temporary material experience.

The bodies are perpetually changing. The body you’ll have when you finish reading this will not be the same body you had when you started. Our material bodies come into being, remain for a relatively brief time, and then disappear. It’s like a magician’s trick: now you see it, now you don’t.

We don’t see consciousness, either, at least not directly. What we do see is evidence of consciousness: we can perceive that others are conscious and we experience consciousness our selves but we never actually ‘see’ consciousness because consciousness is categorically different from matter and is thus beyond the range of material vision.

We speak of our bodies in the possessive: ‘my hand, my legs, my body.’ Who is the possessor? The person who resides in the body. The symptom of the presence of a person residing in a body is consciousness of one level or another.

When consciousness is absent we understand that the person is gone.
Where did they go? Since consciousness is neither a product of matter nor dependent on matter, a person who leaves one body moves on to another body in accordance with their destiny:

“Just as the wind carries aromas from their source, a person carries different conceptions of life from one body to another. Thus a person takes one kind of body and, upon leaving it, takes on another.” – Bhagavad-gita 15.8

Here’s a little more to think about in this regard: we are eternally individual people. In Vedic yoga, such as in the Yoga-sutras, we make a distinction between purusa – a conscious person and prakriti – unconscious matter.

What does it mean to be a person? It means to be conscious of one’s own individuality, to have the power to think, feel, will, and act. It means to have senses with which to experience the world and respond to the world, which implies a world and other people with whom to interact within a shared environment.

In other words, just as there is a temporary material world within which we live temporary lives in a material body, it stands to reason that there is an eternal spiritual world within which self-realized people live eternal lives in a spiritual body.

This is an important distinction between the goal of yoga described in the Yoga-sutras and the yoga of the Bhagavad-gita: in the Yoga-sutras, the person who has reached the ultimate goal experiences nothing other than their own pure consciousness. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna describes a relationship between himself and all beings that finds its ultimate fulfillment in his own abode:

“Yet there is another, unseen world that is eternal and transcendental to this world of manifested and unmanifested matter. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. Described as unmanifest and infallible, it is known as the supreme destination from which, having attained it, one never returns. That is my supreme abode.” – Bhagavad-gita 8.20-21

Having already established a clear distinction between himself and all other beings, Krishna’s description of his own ‘supreme abode’ amounts to an invitation to join him there. But to get there one has to develop an awareness of one’s original, spiritual form, of which our material bodies are a distorted reflection.

When we come to the point of residing in our true nature, we arrive at the point of realizing our true, spiritual form. So to be eternal doesn’t necessarily mean to merge into formlessness. On the contrary, we have an eternal form made of pure spiritual energy through which we experience our eternal individuality in relationship with all other individual beings and, ultimately, with the Supreme individual being, who is the sum and substance of all individual beings.

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What Does The Bhagavad-Gita Say About Gay Marriage?

I’m often asked what traditional yoga wisdom texts have to say about homosexuality and gay marriage.

‘May all beings be happy and free’ is a traditional benediction that’s commonly recited in modern yoga classes. Given the all-inclusive nature of the benediction, one may take it for granted that yoga philosophy supports the rights of everyone – straight, gay, and otherwise – to be happy and free.

However, the Bhagavad-gita, a time-honored text of spiritual wisdom, is set in an ancient and orthodox culture. As such, one would be justified in wondering whether or not the teachings of the Gita support gay marriage.

While the specific issue of gay marriage never comes up in the Gita, a careful study of the text can reveal principles that support an inclusive, spiritually oriented society.

The Bhagavad-gita is a book about dharma. ‘Dharma’ is a complex word that connects one’s ‘essential nature’ to one’s ‘social duty’. It can also mean ‘the path of righteousness.’ To put it another way, one’s dharma is ‘the best way to respond to one’s destiny.’

The Gita teaches us that we all have two essential natures: a temporary material nature and an eternal spiritual nature. In other words, we are eternal spiritual beings who, somehow or other, have acquired temporary material identities. The practice of yoga, as described in the Gita, builds a bridge that connects our temporary identity to our eternal nature.

The best way to respond to our destiny

In the course of making his practical and philosophical arguments, Krishna consistently refers to Arjuna’s royal lineage, his martial talents, and his natural aptitude for leadership and heroism. In other words, Krishna emphasizes that Arjuna’s social duty is not an arbitrary assignment; it’s a function of genetics and fate. Arjuna’s dharma is a function of his karma: he was born that way.

The Vedic social system aligns people’s social obligations with their natural inclinations. Arjuna is naturally endowed with the essential qualities of a warrior and his social obligation is aligned with those essential qualities. Therefore we can understand that dharma, as a function of social duty, does not exist in isolation from dharma as an expression of an essential nature.

Which brings us back to our two essential natures: material and spiritual. A key difference between the two is that the former is a temporary fluctuation in the quality of consciousness and the latter is an eternal and steady state of consciousness. Krishna characterizes our material consciousness, the temporary fluctuation, as a kind of spiritual amnesia resulting in a case of mistaken identity by which we think we are male or female, black or white, gay or straight, etc.

The cure for our amnesia is to bring our temporary material identity into harmony with our eternal spiritual nature by means of a transformation of consciousness. The Gita teaches us that the best way to respond to our destiny is to optimize the temporary, relative truths of our material identity in ways that will move us in the direction of the eternal Absolute Truth and, subsequently, our eternal spiritual identity. This is the essence of a spiritual journey.

Crossing the bridge of yoga

So let’s re-frame the question: ‘how does the Gita support the spiritual journey for those who are karmically pre-disposed to have an attraction to members of the same sex?’

To find out, we can cross-reference a few relevant verses. Let’s start with this one:

“Even those who possess knowledge act according to their own nature, for everyone acts in accord with the tendencies they have acquired due to contact with the three qualities of material nature (goodness, passion, and ignorance). What will repression accomplish?” – Bg 3.33

‘Knowledge’ in the context of the Bhagavad-gita means the ability to distinguish between the spiritual self and the material body, the latter of which includes the mind and all of the psychology and behavioral tendencies associated with the mind and senses. Krishna is describing a person who is simultaneously acquainted with transcendental knowledge and yet is still affected by behavioral conditioning that arises due to contact with prakrti, material nature.

As we cross the bridge we’re building to connect our temporary identity to our eternal nature we’ll find ourselves straddling the gap between our material and spiritual identities. Since this can be a precarious position, we need a solid bridge, a firm foundation underfoot to stabilize us as we attempt to cross this gap.

A steady yoga practice grounded in both a clear understanding of our eternal spiritual nature and a compassionate acceptance of our temporary material identity is the raw material from which we build such a solid bridge.

The social function of yoga philosophy

Throughout the Gita, Krishna encourages Arjuna to act according to his nature, both spiritually and materially. Since the Gita’s teachings are universal the same must apply for any eternal spiritual being who, due to contact with the three qualities of material nature, identifies as being gay or trans, etc. in this or any other lifetime.

This brings us to the next relevant verse:

“I created the four social orders of human society, which are divided according to the qualities one acquires and the actions one performs. You should know that, although I am the creator of this system, I have no position within it, for I am eternally transcendental to such qualities and actions.” – Bg 4.13

Yoga philosophy has a social function: to provide every member of society with an opportunity to make spiritual advancement.

The social organization of yoga has four divisions: one for vision and guidance, one for protection and administration, one for production and commerce, and one for construction and support.

These four divisions are intended to work cooperatively to ensure that every member of society can live peacefully, with their needs fulfilled, and build a bridge, both individual and collective, so that everyone’s spiritual journey is supported. This is the basis for the cultural spiritualization of society.

Everyone’s primary need is the opportunity for spiritual advancement. In order to focus on our spiritual advancement we need to be peaceful. In order to be peaceful some reasonable material needs need to be met. This includes basic human rights like the right to self-determination in balance with reasonable social obligations, the right to share our lives with those we choose to share it with, access to education that matches our potential and medical care that matches our needs, and equal opportunities to work in accordance with our natural talents.

If the institutions of a society systematically deny any of these basic human rights to people based on race, gender, nationality, or any other temporary material designation then it fails to live up to the Bhagavad-gita’s standard for a society that protects and supports the progressive spiritual progress of all of its citizens.

Inalienable rights

The Bhagavad-gita is not a book of religious commandments. Krishna makes it unmistakably clear that we have free will in the matter of choosing how we respond to our destiny. It is, however, a book about what the world looks like from God’s point of view. Though not shy about establishing his omniscient position, Krishna often uses the phrase ‘in my opinion’ during the course of his dialog with Arjuna and encourages Arjuna to decide for himself what his course of action should be:

“Thus I have described to you the most confidential secret of all. Carefully consider everything that I have said and then do as you wish.” – Bg 18.63

Krishna, speaking from the position of God, confirms that freedom of self-determination in relationship to social obligation is an inalienable right that cannot be denied by any human agency. To do so would constitute an injustice.

Thus, if a government imposes restrictions on how we may respond to our destiny, such as restricting our right to choose who can visit us in the hospital when we’re sick, who is permitted to make critical decisions on our behalf when we are unable to make them for ourselves, who is qualified to inherit our assets, dispose of our liabilities, or take over legal guardianship of our children when we die, etc., then that constitutes an unreasonable imposition of state will on our divinely bestowed free will, an injustice.

Arjuna’s social obligation is to fight injustice. The Gita presents Arjuna as a role model for aspiring yogis. One can therefore reasonably argue that depriving gay people of the rights enjoyed by straight people is an injustice that ought to be opposed by anyone who aspires to follow in Arjuna’s footsteps.

Marriage as a social construct and marriage as ‘holy matrimony’

The most conspicuous right in connection with social justice and the LGBQT community is the right to be legally wed to the partner of one’s choice. This right, now confirmed in America by its highest court, touches on both the idea of marriage as a social construct and marriage as ‘holy matrimony’. The emphasis on the latter is at the heart of most religious objections to same-sex unions.

‘Holy’, as an adjective in this case, means ‘devoted to the service of God; morally or spiritually perfect; dedicated to religious purposes’. The word ‘matrimony’ has its roots in the French word matremoine, which appears around 1300 CE and is derived from the Latin word matrem – meaning ‘mother’ – monium – indicating an action, state, or condition. The assumption is that motherhood follows marriage.

In other words, the institution of marriage is meant to sanctify sexual intercourse. Heterosexual intercourse undertaken with the expectation that its natural outcome will be responsible procreation may thus be regarded as both a social duty and the fulfillment of ‘holy matrimony’ insofar as expectant couples intend to guide their offspring toward proximity with divinity as an essential part of the sacrifice known as ‘parenting’.

At no point in the Gita does Krishna repudiate this conception of marriage, which brings us to the next relevant verse:

“O best of the Bhāratas (Arjuna), among the strong I am strength that is free from passion and attachment. Within all beings, I am desire that does not conflict with the principles of religion.” – Bg 7.11

The most compelling of desires is the desire for sex in one form or another, which lends paramount importance to its sanctification for one on the path of yoga. Given that the word ‘religion’ in the context of the Gita means ‘healing by reconnection’ (in Latin, re-ligio: again, to bind together) and the word ‘yoga’ means ‘union’, the words ‘religion’ and ‘yoga’ are synonyms.

As such, the principles of religion as they pertain to sex are the same as the principle of brahmacharya in yoga: the direction of sexual energy toward a spiritual purpose.

Arjuna achieved spiritual perfection by overcoming his superficial impulse toward pacifism, embracing his unique calling as a warrior, and offering both his action and the results of his actions to the Supreme Person. Similarly, couples can achieve perfection by following the dharma of ‘holy matrimony’ and making both the act and the results of procreation a spiritual sacrifice.

Unless, of course, their can be no expectation of procreation from the act of sexual intercourse. In this case there are no results to offer, rendering the act itself un-offerable. Since the ‘principle of religion’ throughout the Gita is proximity to the Supreme Person rather than increased personal intimacy between loving couples, the spiritual content of sex between same-sex couples, however much it may be an expression of interpersonal love, comes into question: how is an expression of intimacy in the form of sex between same sex couples spiritual?

A Progressive Approach to Spiritual Life

One may just as easily ask ‘how is any sexual activity not associated with procreation spiritual?’ How many modern heterosexual couples abide by such an orthodox standard of spiritual lovemaking? Not many, I’ll bet. The potential for ‘holy matrimony’ may be present in heterosexual unions in a way that’s absent from same-sex unions but, in practice, such lofty standards are rarely aspired to.

Fortunately, for both gay and straight couples, the Bhagavad-gita is not a draconian work of inflexible edicts. On the contrary, Krishna offers a very progressive approach to spiritual life that provides a point of entry for everyone:

“Even if you are unable to practice (the regulative principles of yoga), just try to work on my behalf. By offering your actions to me you will surely attain perfection.” – Bg 12.10

Here, Krishna clearly indicates that any person who is unable to fully abide by the highest standards of the Gita’s injunctions, such as those concerned with ‘desire that does not conflict with the principles of religion”, can still engage in spiritual life as long as one is not resentful of such principles. As clearly stated in this verse, simply by working for the sake of Krishna’s mission, namely, the spiritual emancipation of all beings, one will certainly, in due course of time, be promoted to the stage of spiritual perfection.

This does not offer anyone a license for promiscuity. The constructive direction of sexual energy either by celibacy (if one is single) or principled restraint (by couples) is definitely upheld in the Gita as a fundamental requirement for substantive spiritual attainment (6.14, 8.11, and others). Monogamy within a committed relationship, irrespective of sexual orientation or gender identity, is more conducive to spiritual growth than indiscriminate or casual sex.

Language matters

The last issue is one of language: if gay couples can work towards the ideal of spiritual life within the context of a committed relationship, why must that relationship be called ‘marriage’? Why not simply divorce the social issues from the religious ones and advocate for “civil unions” for gay couples?

The answer is simple: language matters. To call the union of two straight people one thing and the union of two gay people another based exclusively on procreative potential creates the perception that there is an inherent inequality, irrespective of legal guarantees, that implicitly condones acts or attitudes of discrimination. In short, human nature ensures that ‘separate but equal’ never works.

Everyone’s marriage is different in one way or in many ways but the emotional experience of marriage is the same for one as it is for the other. The language to describe that experience should also be the same.

From the standpoint of the Bhagavad-gita, the issue of language would fall under the category of a guarantee of protection for all citizens by the social order rather than under the category of religious rituals conducted in association with a marital union. From the standpoint of the Gita’s Vedic culture, ceremonies for same-sex couples would differ from those for opposite sex couples insofar as the purpose of their respective unions would be different.

The principle, however, is one of equal protection and inclusivity. Since we do not live in a Vedic society the issue is one of proper application of principle in accordance to time, place, and circumstance.

Transcendental Inclusivity

The relevance of the Bhagavad-gita to the contemporary world is that it’s a handbook for social activism in pursuit of a non-sectarian spiritualization of modern society. The Gita’s position on such issues as gay rights and gender identity is of particular importance because love of the Supreme Person, the ultimate goal of the Gita’s teachings, is inclusive by definition: to love the Supreme Being is to love everyone because everyone is a part and parcel of the Supreme Being:

“O son of Pandu (Arjuna), having acquired this knowledge, you will never again fall under the influence of illusion, for by this knowledge you will see the shared spiritual essence of all living beings and how they all abide within me.” – Bg 4.35

Progressive spirituality is concerned with ascertaining the proper application of the Gita’s timeless teachings to contemporary life. The beauty of the Bhagavad-gita is found in the universality of its philosophical conclusion, namely, that all relative dharma-s are subordinate to one ultimate dharma: complete and fearless surrender, motivated by love, to the will of the Supreme Person.

There is no verse in the Gita where Krishna says “I support gay marriage”. The difference between religious fundamentalism and progressive spirituality is the project of ascertaining the proper application of the Gita’s timeless teachings to contemporary life. The proper application in this case rests on the understanding that any relationship that supports this objective is considered higher than one based on the pursuit of mundane religiosity, worldly prosperity, material happiness, or even liberation from material existence.

A truly spiritual society functions like a house in which the whole world can live. The Bhagavad-gita promotes a message of transcendental inclusivity in pursuit of the spiritualization of human society.

Tell me what you think

How do you think the traditional wisdom of yoga relates to the issues that affect the LGBTQ community? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments section below. Hearing from someone who can offer an experiential point of view would be especially welcome.

6 Steps To Developing Resolute Determination

I used to tell people that I don’t make New Years resolutions. I told myself that, too, but the truth is every year I made a few without telling anyone. Being secretive about them was a way to give myself an out if I didn’t follow through on them.

Over the past few years I’ve gotten a lot better at keeping my resolutions. And sharing the fact that I’ve made them is one reason why. As I thought about what resolutions I would make for this year, the first one that came to mind was strengthening my determination to keep whatever resolutions I made. And for me, basing my resolutions on spiritual intentions is the essential element to maintaining my determination to see my resolutions through.

Most people make New Year’s resolutions based on material concerns, by which I mean physical, mental/emotional, or social interests. Perhaps the most common goals are those associated with our bodies, such as exercising more, eating a healthier diet, or making life-changes aimed at reducing stress. These are all good resolutions. And they become great resolutions when we connect them to an underlying spiritual intention.

Setting a spiritual intention

The first lesson of yoga is that our eternal spiritual identity is not dependent on the temporary material body we inhabit. If that’s the case then you might think I’d dismiss bodily concerns like physical fitness or emotional well-being as mundane objectives.

But if we understand that our minds and bodies are given to us as sacred vehicles for both our own self-realization and to be of service to others, then taking good care of these gifts becomes a spiritual activity. And that’s the magic of a spiritual intention: it transforms an otherwise mundane activity into an integral part of your spiritual life.

Yoga places a higher value on the intention behind an action than on the action itself. And yoga is ultimately a spiritual practice with a spiritual goal. So if we want to make our resolutions part of our yoga practice, we need to base our resolutions on spiritual intentions.

In order to ensure that our intentions are spiritual we need to have a clear understanding of what ‘spiritual’ means and how ‘spiritual’ differs from ‘material’. Yoga wisdom texts make this distinction in terms of three spiritual qualities: permanence, cognizance, and joy.

If the intention of your resolution moves you in the direction of deeper understanding and sustainable happiness, you’re starting with a spiritual intention.

Keeping a resolution requires resolute determination

A resolution is like a seed: the intensity of our determination to follow through after planting the seed will determine whether or not the seed of our resolution takes root. As time wears on, our determination may wear down. So here are six practical steps you can take to support and solidify your resolute determination to see your resolution through:

1. Be specific

Write out your resolution and then think, ‘how can I make this more specific?’ Write in additional details. Then look for the essence of those details and see if you can compress your idea into a simple phrase. Repeat this process until you have a very clear and concise statement that describes precisely what your objective is and why you want to achieve it.

2. Make a plan

Draw yourself a map of how you’ll get from where you are to where you want to be. Break your journey down into as many measurable and achievable steps as possible by working backward from your goal: think of what you need to do before you reach your goal, then what you need to do before you reach that stage, and so on until you get to the first step.

3. Visualize each step

Once you have a plan, think about what the first step looks like, feels like, and sounds like, etc. Engage all of your inner senses in a complete mental and emotional experience of taking that first step toward the fulfillment of your resolution. You can visualize the fulfillment of your resolution, too, but to turn that internal vision into an external reality it’s just as important to visualize the progressive stages of your plan. This isn’t an exercise in magical thinking; it’s an affirmation that progressively molds your mind into a shape that’s conducive for the fulfillment of your resolution. We go where our minds take us so fixing your mind on where you want to go is an essential step in getting there.

4. Re-set your resolution every day

This is the most important step: create a simple daily ritual that re-connects you to your resolution. You can write your resolution out and then read it out loud to yourself every morning. You can make your resolution an offering to the higher purpose you’re serving through your resolution. You can pray for the voice of inner wisdom to guide you along the path of your resolution. By developing your own simple, daily ritual through which you re-commit to your resolution your resolute determination to reach your goal will keep gaining momentum.

5. Allocate time

Decide when you will take the necessary actions and put them on your calendar. When the time comes, obey your calendar. As soon as you start re-scheduling your resolution, it’s as good as gone so don’t give in to the temptation to rationalize a delay. Honor the time you set aside to follow through on your resolution.

6. Make yourself accountable

Share your resolution with friends. Going public with your resolution is a proven psychological tactic to fuel your resolute determination to follow through with your commitment. For spiritual commitments, being part of a spiritual posse – a satsang – is a great way to find strength and support for your commitments to make progress in your spiritual life.

Using the mind to overcome the mind

Going it alone, not giving your resolution time on your schedule, letting your resolution wither from neglect, failing to make a plan, or starting out with vague and unrealistic ideas are some of the reasons why our resolutions can fade into the oblivion in short order. Perhaps the biggest reason is that, however much we think we want to change or do something differently, deep down we think that we can’t succeed, that our resolution is really just wishful thinking. And, sure enough, we go where our minds take us.

Beyond the physical practice, yoga is a kind of mental judo: the art of using the mind to overcome the mind. If we make a daily re-commitment to the pursuit of our worthy goals by remembering why we’re pursuing our goals and meditating on what the next step of our plan looks, sounds, and feels like, we can re-direct the mind so that it takes us to where we want to go rather than to where it wants us to go. As Krishna tells us in the Bhagavad-gita:

“For one who controls the mind, the mind is the best of friends; for one who fails to do so, the mind shall remain the foremost of enemies.” – Bg 6.6

Recruiting the mind to befriend us on our quest to follow through on our resolutions will ensure our resolute determination to succeed. And we can succeed in our recruitment mission by engaging the mind in these six action items. By pursuing a resolution based on a spiritual intention you can make a positive impact on your own life and the lives of others. So try taking these six steps and see if they help you to sustain your resolute determination to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself this year.

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What do you think?

What spiritual resolutions have you made for this year? Please tell me what you hope to achieve, how you think these six steps might work for you, and share any other ideas you may have about how to turn a resolution from wishful thinking to a realized dream.

From Russia With Love

My first opportunity to learn a second language came when I was in Junior High School, what we now call Middle School. Back then, Latin, Spanish, French, and German were the standard choices and perhaps they still are. By the will of providence, my school district offered the rare opportunity to take Russian. I have both a penchant for novelty and a tendency to make my life more difficult than it needs to be so choosing Russian was the obvious choice.

In addition to Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and our 45th President, Russia has also given us Leo Tolstoy. In his later life, Tolstoy became both a spiritual ascetic and a political activist bent on putting an end to politics. Basing his position on the premise that the evil of violent force was the foundation of every nation’s existence, Tolstoy considered the existence of government in any form to be inimical to any prospects for personal and social happiness.

Obviously, yoga is antithetical to violence since non-violence is its first ethical imperative. But yoga also shares something of Tolstoy’s anarchistic philosophy insofar as the idea of nationalism is concerned. Yoga rejects nationalism, regarding it as one component of our illusory misidentification of the body as the self.

You can’t step into the same river twice

Because I was born in America I may think that I’m an American. As such, I may further subscribe to the notion that America is an exceptional nation with a specific culture that’s connected to a particular ethnicity, which is my ethnicity and not somebody else’s, that America has a reason for being that’s connected to a particular conception of religion, etc.

Yoga thinks that this is all bunk. The technical term is ‘upadi’, temporary material designations that have nothing to do with the eternal identity of the individual consciousness that inhabits one body today and will inhabit another body tomorrow.

Just as we can’t step into the same river twice, we can’t breath into the same body twice. By the time we finish a cycle of breath our bodies have changed; cells that were here a minute ago are gone and new cells that weren’t here a minute ago have appeared. At every moment our bodies are changing, our minds are changing, our intelligence is fluctuating, and our personalities are developing. However, we, who witness all of these changes, remain unchanged, constant as the Northern Star.

The great curse of youth

To experience our selves as an immeasurable quanta of pure eternal consciousness rather than as a temporary complex of biological machinery is the ultimate goal of yoga. In his yoga-sutras, Patanjali tells us that one arrives at this perfection of yoga only when our practice is steady and sustained over a long period of time. Steadiness in practice requires determination and patience.

Impatience is the great curse of youth. In my experience, one of the great ironies of getting older has been that as the time I have left in this world decreases my level of patience increases. Perhaps I’ve simply grown accustomed to the fact that things take time. It’s an interesting mix: a sense of urgency about completing the mission of my human life on the one hand and relative equanimity about the crazy state of the world on the other. Somehow it adds up to a kind of peaceful perseverance in both my spiritual practice and my social activity.

Yogis are spiritual warriors by nature: on a spiritual level we fight the forces of illusion, on a material level we fight the forces of injustice. Our aim is to harmonize our eternal nature with our temporary situation so that our actions serve to elevate consciousness, our own and everyone else’s.

It’s helpful, of course, to have powerful allies in our fight against illusion and injustice. Which brings us back to Tolstoy, who said,

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

Patience is the recognition that time is the all-consuming destroyer of all. And time will destroy our illusions if we see time as a relentless ally on whose currents we can flow toward our true and eternal selves.

The way of the world

The way of the spiritual warrior is to understand time as a manifestation of divine energy, to practice patience, and to patiently practice. The key to having a patient practice is consciously cultivating our love for all beings, even those we think of as our enemies.

Like all political upheavals, the current brouhaha about Trump and Russia will come to a head and then fade into the oblivion of history. The dark days will be followed by brighter days, only to be followed by darker days again. Such is the way of the world.

However bright or dark our days may be, making a conscious effort to act from a position of love, even when we’re not feeling it, is part of a spiritual practice. This is because a spiritual warrior knows that, ultimately, love conquers all, even unconquerable time. Or, as Tolstoy put it,

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.

And there you have it: from Russia, with love. Dosvedanya.

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Feel free to offer an opinion

How do you feel about patience and time? What are your thoughts on nationalism and government and how they relate to spiritual life and our prospects for happiness? Please contribute to the conversation by leaving a question, comment or a suggestion about how we can act from a position of love, even during our darkest hours.

Understanding the Fluctuations of the Mind

In his Yoga-sutras, Patanjali defines yoga as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Curiously, yoga philosophy thinks of the mind as a form of matter. It’s subtler than what we normally think of as ‘matter’ in that it’s a metaphysical aspect of the physical world.

One way to understand the mind is to visualize it as if it were made of invisible clay. Just as you can mold the shape of clay, we can mold the shape of the mind. By purposeful action, such as spiritually oriented rituals and practices, we can create impressions on the mind that are conducive for the elevation of consciousness and, ultimately, to stilling the movements of the mind.

This assumes that we’re taking a pro-active position in order to influence the movements of our minds. However, this is not always the case. In fact, most of the time we are reactive rather than pro-active: the mind’s propositions are our marching orders.

It turns out that the mind has a mind of its own. Left to its own devices, the mind will re-shape itself by thrusting thoughts, feelings, and desires into the forefront of our consciousness and then withdrawing them back to the subconscious in favor of different thoughts, feelings, and desires.

This on-going sequence of processions into the conscious mind and recessions into the subconscious mind are the fluctuations of the mind that Patanjali speaks of. Since this perpetual rotation of assorted thoughts to and fro happens of its own accord, without our active participation, we should ask why we have these thoughts and inquire as to where they come from.

How attachments and aversions are born

The explanation of yoga philosophy is that the shape of the mind’s fluctuations is determined by impressions on the mind. Here’s what happens:

1. We have a sensory experience: we see, hear, taste, smell, and/or feel something.

2. That experience sinks instantly down beneath the plane of our physical senses into the metaphysical depths of our subconscious mind, where it creates an impression, just as pressing your thumb into a lump of clay would create the shape of your thumb in the clay.

3. Each unique experience leaves its own unique impression. Each unique impression stores the memory of that unique experience. Each unique memory stores the thoughts, feelings, and desires that are associated with the experience.

4. When the mind moves a memory of something we like from our subconscious mind to our conscious mind, our senses pick up on it and communicate an urge to repeat the pleasurable experience.

5. Motivated by the urging of our senses, we seek out whatever our senses desire in the hope of re-creating the pleasurable experience.

6. We try to fill the impression that provoked our desire with the same experience that created the impression in the first place. While the desire may feel fulfilled for some time, the long-term result is that we deepen the impression rather than satisfy the desire that the impression provoked. Thus, sooner or later, the desire returns with an even greater urgency than before.

7. When we continually strive to satisfy such desires, the impression increases to the point where we develop an attachment to the sense object that formed the impression. Hence, attachments are born, which, when unchecked, can develop into habits or even addictions.

8. When the impression is a negative one, in which the senses seek to avoid the repetition of an unpleasant experience, the same process results in aversions. Hence, aversions are born of negative impressions.

The Mission of the Mind

One of the most remarkable aspects of yoga psychology is something I mentioned earlier: the idea that the mind has a mind of its own. Take a moment to try to control your mind. You’ll see right away that it’s easier to control the wind. Although it can be done with sufficient practice, the easiest way to experience how the mind has its own agenda is to try to impose your agenda on it and then watch how much resistance it puts up.

We become yogis; our minds don’t.

So what’s the mind’s agenda? Its first priority is to protect the ego or, more accurately, our false ego: the illusory misidentification of the self with the attachments and aversions that reside in the mind. Yoga and meditation is, for intents and purposes, an assault on our illusory misidentification with our attachments and aversions. Your mind’s rejection of your meditation practice is a survival mechanism because when your false ego goes, your mind goes with it.
Hence, we find this verse in the Bhagavad-gita:

For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends. But for one whose consciousness remains estranged from their true self, the mind, out of enmity, will be a tenacious enemy.

Sometimes the subconscious mind will send memories to the conscious mind on its own. Sometimes the senses will summon a memory to the fore. And sometimes something in our environment will stir an impression in the mind. Events from past lives leave impressions that carry over into our present lives, as evidenced by the predispositions of a child. Similarly, events in our childhood leave impressions that we carry forward with us into adulthood.

There is one such impression that almost everyone of my generation still carries.

Reflections on a dark impression

In the mid-1980’s I embarked on, or perhaps fell into, a career in what was then a new and esoteric field: computer graphics systems. Successive opportunities quickly led to a position with a manufacturers representative, a firm than managed the sale of various manufacturer’s products through a distribution channel. My job was to demonstrate how the technology worked and train paying customers how to use it.

The computer graphics industry, like most others, has periodic trade shows and doing product demos at them was part of my job. The first one to come up for me that year was in Dallas, Texas.

The owner of the company, a man 30 years my senior, was a generous employer running a successful business who believed that business trips were opportunities to live large. So, we all flew first class, checked into a swanky downtown hotel, and gathered in the lobby to go out to a fancy dinner on the company’s dime.

An eerie familiarity

The restaurant was up in the Reunion Tower, a Dallas landmark that looks like a giant golf ball sitting on a very tall tee. It featured a revolving floor that facilitated a view of the entire city and beyond. I sat right next to the spacious window with my back facing the direction the floor was moving in, the city slowly revealing itself to me from behind my right shoulder.

Fine dining meant slim pickings for vegetarians so it didn’t take long for me to figure out what I could order. I put the menu down and stared out the window. Off in the distance, the Texas sky reclined on a vast horizon. Right below us, the cluttered downtown slowly gave way to a clearing; a park cut into onion-shaped puzzle pieces by a convergence of curving roads.

An uncomfortable feeling crept under my skin. I’d never been to Dallas before but as I looked out onto the plaza below there was something eerily familiar about it. Something about the place made me… uncomfortable.

As the plaza scrolled from right to left, an imposing cube of brick, conspicuous in its isolation, entered the stage from the corner of my eye. I turned my head to focus on the building that seemed to look menacingly down on the plaza, a monolithic sentinel casting an invisible shadow.

It’s squat symmetry, distinctive arches, and angle to the plaza sparked instant recognition: the Book Depository Building. My ears pulled back, my eyes widened, my breath froze, my belly tightened, the corners of my mouth clenched, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck being to rise.

A grim realization

“Creepy, isn’t it?” My employer, sitting across from me, had apparently witnessed the evolution of my grim realization. “Yeah.” That was really all I could say about it.

I watched a lot of TV when I was seven years old. There were only three networks, three local channels, and a public television station to choose from. For a few days in late November of my seventh year there was only one thing on: coverage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. School was cancelled. I watched it all; from the downcast newscasters struggling to retain their composure to the solemn procession down Constitution Avenue.

To this day, the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen on TV was watching Lee Harvey Oswald being escorted out of a Dallas police station: murder on live television.

Places hold on to the impression of the things that happen there just as our minds retain impressions of experience. In Sanskrit those impressions are called samskaras. The size and shape of the samskaras we accumulate determine the shape of our minds. The character of the impressions from our past form the natural impulses we feel in the present and the impressions we accumulate today will determine the impulses we feel tomorrow.

On a summer evening in 1986, the invisible shadow over Dealey Plaza leapt 500 hundred feet into the air and threw an icy chill onto a slumbering impression that a dark day 23 years past had imprinted on my young mind.

It was creepy.

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What do you think?

What events in your life have made the deepest impression on your mind? Are there things about the character of your consciousness that can only be explained as having come from an impression from a previous life? Share your thoughts on how you think impressions on our minds shape our thoughts and feelings.

7 Great Strategies for Reading Yoga Wisdom Texts

You’ve probably had students ask you which translation of the Yoga Sutras or the Bhagavad Gita you think they should read. It’s great when our students want to explore yoga’s philosophical foundations. But it’s disheartening if we hear later that they stopped reading because they couldn’t get past the first chapter without feeling lost.

Reading translations of ancient Sanskrit texts requires some guidance, determination, and persistence, especially when the translations are accompanied by lengthy commentaries, as is the case in so many authoritative editions.

Here are seven helpful reading strategies you can share with your students that will help to make the texts accessible and fuel their enthusiasm for yoga philosophy:

1. Just read the translations first, then go back and read the commentary

Assuming a student has an edition that includes the Sanskrit and elaborate commentaries, suggest that they start by ignoring the Sanskrit and the commentaries and just read the translation from start to finish. This will allow them to get a general sense of the complete text. Then they can go back and dive into the details of each verse by reading the commentary. It’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed by reading all of the commentaries along with each text on the first pass, and that can be very discouraging.

2. Try to understand the message of the author.

This may sound obvious but actually it’s very tempting to interpret a yoga wisdom text in ways that validate our own ‘personal truths’. We assume that there’s no such thing as an objective or ‘Absolute’ truth, so we privilege our own perspective.

But communication requires both the articulation of the message by the sender and the comprehension of the message by the recipient. Anytime you try to communicate with another person you have an intention; you want to be understood by the person you’re communicating with.

The authors of traditional yoga wisdom texts want their message to be understood. If we interpret the text with the intention of validating our own opinions or lifestyle, then our egos will sabotage the reception of the message. So encourage students to read with a receptive attitude. That will increase their chances of understanding the message of the author. Then they can decide if the message resonates with them or not.

3. Keep it in context

Taking verses out of context is another way that we can miss the message of the author. Sutras and verses are generally grouped together around a particular topic. For example, early in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita we read that one should not lament for the living nor for the dead. Taken in isolation we could entertain numerous speculations about what this means and why it may or may not be true.

But if we read the subsequent verses we find the reasoning for the proposition; grieving for someone in any condition, living or dead, means that one has mistaken the temporary body for the eternal self. If we interpret a verse in isolation we may never understand its connection to previous or subsequent verses and miss the point that the text is trying to make about that topic.

4. Defer to the authority of the author

Sometimes we come across passages that fly in the face of our modern sensibilities. It’s tempting to accept the parts of the text that we like and reject the parts we don’t by dismissing them as cultural anachronisms or by turning them into metaphors or by inventing a more favorable interpretation.

The problem with cherry picking the verses we like and casting the ones we dislike aside is that, by doing so, we elevate our own attachments and aversions – the very things yoga wisdom texts encourage us to transcend – above the authority of the author and, in the process, we make ourselves the ultimate authority on yoga. Students who do this effectively disconnect themselves from the lineage of teachers, from the line of transmission through which we receive yoga wisdom.

A better strategy is to encourage students to use their power of critical thinking to try to understand how a disconcerting passage or concept may be true rather than dismissing it, allegorizing it, or re-interpreting it according to their own prejudices.

5. Contemplative reading

The goal of contemplative reading is to allow the text to affect us rather than to absorb information. It’s about associating with the author, listening carefully to the author’s message, and letting the author’s words penetrate deeply into the core of our consciousness.

Encourage students to take their time and and hang out with what their reading. Taking a moment to set an intention of reading with an attitude of humility and gratitude is a great way to slow the process down right from the start. Then they can read through the verses and commentaries with rapt attention until a word, a phrase, or an idea captures their attention. Repeating the significant phrase to themselves a few times will also help them assimilate an idea. Ask them to stay with that point until it releases them, and then continue to read until another point captures their attention.

6. Act on what you read

Yoga philosophy is not armchair philosophy. A unique attribute of yoga wisdom texts is that they give the reader the means by which to re-create the revelatory experience of the author. Realization is applied knowledge: the knowledge contained in the texts comes alive for us when we actively apply the principles that such texts describe. This is the difference between book knowledge and realized knowledge. And the realizations that come from applied knowledge inspire us to dive even deeper into the texts that stimulate such transformative experiences.

So follow up with your students; ask them not just about what they’ve read or what they understood from their reading, but also about how they’re applying their realizations in their life, both on and off the mat.

7. Re-visit the text 6 months later

Once your students have read it, assimilated it, and lived it for a while, encourage them to go back and read it again and repeat the process. This phenomenon never ceases to amaze me: I can read something that I’ve read a dozen times before and each time I find something that feels like I’m seeing it for the first time. Or something will jump out of the text and inspire a thought that hadn’t occurred to me before. I also come up with new questions that had never before occurred to me.

The joy of teaching

In all cases, the value of a qualified teacher to help students understand a text on a deeper level than they might get to on their own can’t be overstated. A good teacher can also help students to apply the teachings to in their own lives. Of course, it’s hard for a novice to identify the credentials of a qualified teacher. If you feel that you have a handle on the teachings of a text that one of your students is interested in and you have the bandwidth to extend yourself, offer to talk with your students about what they read and share your personal realizations with them. Odds are your own depth of understanding will increase simply by having to articulate your understanding. That’s always been the case for me: deepening my own understanding of yoga wisdom texts is one of the reasons why I teach in the first place.

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What are your favorite reading strategies?

How do you approach reading yoga wisdom texts? How do you encourage your students to read for realization rather than just information? Please contribute to the conversation by leaving a comment or suggestion about your favorite reading and realization strategy.