Technically, Raja Yoga is the pursuit of consciousness through meditation; practically, it’s about living in harmony with the world around us.
Several thousand years ago, before the advent of written language, someone named Patanjali concocted a 200-line poem, the Yoga Sutras, a recipe for living more joyfully and peacefully.
The practice is entirely personal; it’s intended to foster faith in YOURSELF (yes, though technically in your consciousness) because faith can be a source of strength, courage and wisdom. Sound familiar? Patanjali’s poem is the source of the Serenity Prayer.
Practicing Raja Yoga boils down to conducting yourself in a manner that will minimize your physical and mental distress, and practicing four types of exercise: two physical (inside-out & outside-in) and two mental (conscious & subconscious). All are intended to drive home something you already know intuitively: that there’s a difference between thinking and being aware of your thoughts. The latter is your consciousness.
Raja Yoga is an attempt to better understand and somehow tap into the subtlest aspect of yourself: your consciousness. The practice will either turbo-charge your existing religious or spiritual faith or engender it in you – as it did in me.
The spiritually deepening practice of Raja Yoga doesn’t require a leap of faith in something that you can’t readily verify. The holy grail of Raja Yoga is your own consciousness: the aspect without which you wouldn’t realize that you were reading this!
Here’s an excerpt from a letter to a new friend, a Buddhist:
“Since I set out on this quest, I’ve been under the apparent misconception that my teacher, Patanjali – and yours, the Buddha – were seeking and had found the same thing.
I’ve told people for years that Thich Nhat Hanh [a universally renowned and respected Buddhist teacher] does the best job of describing what I thought was our shared objective: to literally bear witness to consciousness. But your guest assured me that she’s seeking something BEYOND consciousness – which in my mind, makes your practice more of a religion than a purely objective quest or practice – in the sense that yours is a quest for something you literally CAN’T experience or witness with your tangible human body and mind: the source of the universe, “God”.
Raja Yoga doesn’t ask that we make THAT leap of faith; ours is a practice in self-awareness and control. You KNOW that your quiet, still, calm consciousness exists because YOU’RE AWARE THAT YOU’RE READING THIS!
Consciousness doesn’t function; it’s merely the awareness OF your thoughts. Without it, you’d be sitting there, reading this – completely unaware that you were doing so! So Raja Yoga celebrates THAT aspect of ourselves – and rewards us physically, mentally and spiritually (body – mind – consciousness) in our pursuit!
Sorry to blather on – I thought you may be receptive. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Center and I’ll be back – where else can I meditate for half a day?! Certainly not at home! Susan would surely find something else for me to do. Which may be the biggest difference between our practices: my teacher reminded me just recently that Raja Yoga is for “householders” – those of us who for practical or other personal reasons don’t sit in meditation for extended periods of time – though joyfully look forward to the limited times we do. Accordingly, 75% of the practice of Raja Yoga is done BEFORE sitting to meditate to make the most of the experience.”
May you find some part of this post useful.
Skip Dowds
skip@rajamarblehead.com
