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Mental Yoga

In the same way that there lots of shades of grey between black and white, there are lots of yoga practices which are a combination of the two principle types: physical and mental.  Mental or Raja Yoga is largely about seeing life differently – beginning with yourself.

Here’s the short version:

You can’t count and recite the alphabet simultaneously because your brain thinks single, consecutive thoughts (similar to the way your heart beats and you breathe).

But when you silently count “1+1=2”, two things do happen simultaneously: the counting – and the awareness of the counting.

Yoga is based on the premise that your awareness (aka your consciousness) is not a mental function; rather, it’s a separate and distinct part of you – the way your body and mind are distinguishable parts of you – but unlike your thoughts and physical body, your awareness never changes. It can’t because it’s simply your awareness or perception OF something – not the cognition and judgement which follow; so there’s nothing to change.  This is the distinction between mind and consciousness: the former functions while the latter simply exists – universally, yet separately within each of us.  Without awareness, we’d all robotically go about our business – unaware as we were doing so!

The stated objective of Yoga is to self-identify with your awareness rather than your body/mind. The Yoga Sutras include an eight-step proof that your consciousness is indeed distinct from your mind. Few people get to that point in their practice, but the mental and physical benefits of trying are cumulative and hugely rewarding/calming.

The first five steps essentially prepare your mind to meditate – and the last three steps are meditation exercises. Of the five preparatory steps, the first two which address personal conduct (essentially “be a good person”) account for 70% of preparing to meditate – the next three steps (posture, breathing, and concentration) only account for 30% of preparing to settle your mind.  The implication is that your conduct has twice the impact on your state of mind as stretching, breathing and concentrating!

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Note to a Student

Hey Pal,

Sorry for the length of this note, but here are a few thoughts on our discussion about a 20 minute workout; of course we’ll do that, but keep in mind:

Raja Yoga is a constant practice in trying to see yourself differently; specifically, trying to identify with your consciousness rather than your body/mind – and in that regard this practice doesn’t really lend itself to a 20 minute routine.

No amount of stretching, breathing or concentrating will bring about a sea-change in your life the way a change in attitude or paradigm will. That’s the endgame here: to see yourself differently.

Things to consider:

• Constantly strive to distinguish between your consciousness and thoughts. Consciousness is simply the awareness or perception OF your thoughts; it never changes. Everything else, including your thoughts and memories are subject to the vagaries of time and circumstance. Remember the “1+1=2” exercise: there are two things happening simultaneously: the counting, and the awareness of the counting. Subconscious thoughts (the consequence of interactions between your three non-cognitive mental functions: sensory, memory, and ego) percolate up into your conscious mind unless you override that natural involuntary process via concentration – just as you interrupt your involuntary breathing process when you practice controlled breathing.

• This is a simple yet difficult practice; it’s counterintuitive to identify with something you can’t see, smell, hear, taste or feel, rather than the face smiling back at you in the mirror. But think of it this way: if you were physically or mentally debilitated, that wouldn’t fundamentally change who you are, or somehow diminish you as a person – so why chose to identify with the fickle, constantly changing parts of yourself which will eventually turn to dust. Wouldn’t it make sense to identify with the part of you that’s consistent (so that how you see yourself isn’t constantly changing like your body/mind)?

• The most important general practical advice from the Yoga Sutras comes from the first chapter: don’t stop trying, and don’t beat yourself up when you slip.

• The first specific practical advice of the Yoga Sutras is introduced in chapter two: success depends on your mindset. Recognizing the difficulty of identifying with an aspect of yourself that you can’t even see, the practice promotes finding faith in something and devoting yourself and your practice to it.  Is there something in your life that you’re willing to sacrifice everything for? Draw strength and determination from that which you have faith in; in short, remain determined, discerning and devoted.

• Chapter two of the Yoga Sutras goes on to introduce an eight-step practice to prove to yourself that your consciousness is distinct from your mind. While the steps are sequential, they’re also integrated; the first five settle your body/mind, preparing you for the last three purely mental, meditative exercises. The theory is that once you’ve virtually emptied your cognitive mind of thought – and btw, you can’t do that if your physical, energetic and mental aspects aren’t settled – your consciousness, then having nothing else to be aware of, becomes aware of itself. Regardless of whether you meditate, it’s comforting to know that when you need to, you CAN calm yourself physically, energetically and mentally – and it gets easier with practice!

• The other thing to remember is the energetic nature of all matter. Your entire physical/mental being – from your memories to your toes – everything besides consciousness – by its very nature is in a constant state of flux at a cellular or elemental level.  The practice prioritizes personal conduct because physical actions generate greater energetic consequences than mental ones (actions speak louder than words). Remember, the first two preparatory steps (i.e., being a good person) get you 70% of the way to a settled mind.  And thus, while the last three preparatory steps (i.e., physical, respiratory and concentration exercises) are helpful, don’t be misled; they are NOT the focus of Raja Yoga.

Btw – here’s some Raja Yoga nomenclature: “Self” (with a capital “S”) refers to your consciousness (aka awareness), while “self” (lower-case “s”) refers to your material body/mind. This is a practice in cultivating Self-awareness: recognizing the distinction between cognition and consciousness, ironically by mastering “self” control (i.e., you can’t control your “Self”; it just “is”), keeping in mind that your actions have the biggest impact on your state of mind (for one thing, every action has perpetual consequences)!

While everyone has a body/mind, cellularly or elementally, there’s nothing truly unique about them; however, while everyone also has awareness – IT is what makes you unique – since no one else perceives life as you do.  In the Yoga tradition, THIS is the part of you worth celebrating, acknowledging, honoring, etc. – the unchanging enduring part of you which perceives, rather than the temporal parts of you which act but are fleeting.

So, what’s the most efficient use of your time if you’re going to set aside 20 minutes a day? My advice: exactly what you were doing when you thought, “it’s sort of like my body/mind is a car and my consciousness is a passenger” – THAT effort – to see your awareness as a distinct part of you – is the most productive way to spend any free time you have with respect to this pursuit of happiness.

That said, we’ll practice a 20 minute physical/energetic/ mental routine tomorrow that you can do daily! 😉 My best.

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20 Minute Daily Routine

Prerequisites:

A rudimentary understanding of the anatomical and energetic aspects of your respiratory system (read: don’t try this without some initial instruction and supervision).

Caveat:

As with ALL pranayama exercises, tread deliberately and cautiously; allow your breathing to return to normal if you feel ANY degree of discomfort, jitters, etc.

Guarantee:

Practice some version of this every day for the rest of your life, and you will smile more often than you’ll frown.

 

The Daily Routine: (up to 2-3x a day)[and btw – try to get at least 20 minutes of fresh air every day as well]:

Roughly 5 minutes – “Snow Globe”

Do your own “Shake It Up Baby” happy dance; after a few minutes, settle into a comfortable, seated position keeping your body upright and balanced.

Roughly 10 minutes – Pranayama

Pre-flight “check-in”:

How are you feeling generally? Bring awareness to your:

“maya kosha” markers:

  • heartbeat
  • breath
  • thoughts

“energy centers”:

  • perineum
  • genitals
  • stomach
  • chest
  • throat
  • brain
  • crown of your head

Remind yourself why you’re doing this:

Anatomically, you’re using your diaphragm as a bellows to rhythmically stimulate your internal organs and the flow of oxygenated blood throughout your body. Energetically, you’re stimulating those same organs and blood flow at a cellular level, facilitating the proper functioning of your body/mind at an elemental, or energetic level.

Abdominal breaths (your stomach distends on the inhalation) – repeat 5-6x: SLOW, DEEP inhalation; SLOW, DEEP exhalation.

Thoracic breaths (your chest lifts on the inhalation) – repeat 5-6x: SLOW, FULL inhalation; SLOW, FULL exhalation.

Alternate nostril breathing – begin with 3-4 cycles – or more as time permits (keeping the length of inhalation, retention and exhalation roughly the same; remember you’re looking for smooth consistent rhythm as you breathe); increasing 1-2 cycles daily as appropriate up to 40 cycles. [Note: eventually, you’ll just practice alternate nostril breathing].

Alternate nostril cycle =

  • close L; open R; inhale
  • close R; retain
  • open L; exhale, inhale
  • close L; retain
  • open R; exhale

Post-flight “check-in”:

Repeat the pre-flight check-in and observe any difference in your markers and energy centers; generally, you should feel more calm physically, energetically and mentally than before you started.

Roughly 5 minutes – Contemplation

Spend these few minutes contemplating consciousness.  Remember the “1+1=2” exercise: two things are happening simultaneously: thinking and consciousness of the thinking.  Perhaps the easiest way to recognize the distinction is to imagine what life might be like without one or the other: the ability to think, or consciousness. Without cognition, you’d be a vegetable – unable to process thoughts; without consciousness you’d be a robot – unaware of your own thoughts and actions! Remember, thoughts change constantly; consciousness never does.

Possible side effects: Weight loss (your appetite might wane), mild constipation, and peace of mind…and remember, practice makes perfect. 😉

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Unique vs. Collective Vantage Points

No matter how beautiful and brilliant, bodies and minds fade, but consciousness – the unique vantage point from which we experience life – arguably the most beautiful and brilliant aspect of each of us – never does.  While everything you witness changes all the time, your consciousness or awareness of it remains constant.

Imagine what life might be like if our unique, steadfast vantage points were what defined us socially – rather than our constantly-changing appearance, aptitude, belongings, and circumstances. Every vantage point simply constitutes one of our collective view; no one is more valuable than another.

It’s like the parable of the eight blind monks trying to describe an elephant by touching different parts of it: it doesn’t matter what the monks are wearing, how big or strong they are, what ethnicity they are – their contributions are their individual perceptions of the elephant. If we weigh each monk’s perceptions equally, in aggregate, we’ll get a pretty good idea of what the whole elephant looks like.

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Why Do I Teach?

I’ve battled addiction and OCD for most of my 58 years; however, life started getting easier about 13 years ago when my first Yoga teacher gave me her copy of “The Essence of Yoga – Reflections on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” by Bernard Bouanchaud.

It changed my life. Practicing mental or Raja Yoga has made letting go easier; the practice is rewarding and fulfilling in a sustained way that doesn’t produce a physical or emotional hangover. Although Raja Yoga is not a cure, it provides tools and builds confidence to draw upon when the demons come – and sometimes that’s enough. Besides, it’s fun and it feels good!

The Yoga Sutras is essentially a cross between the serenity prayer and a guide to help practice it; it literally includes specific step-by-step instructions to attain serenity! Seriously, for the life of me, I don’t understand why everyone on the planet isn’t practicing this!

Raja Yoga is about inclusion (though, ironically it’s an individual practice). We all want to feel accepted, as though we’re part of something, a sense of belonging and purpose. This practice is about the interconnectivity of everything – from the common elemental building blocks that comprise all matter, to that which each of us has in common: our consciousness; accordingly, the practice promotes peace, acceptance, love, oneness, and unity.

Raja Yoga is about changing behavior (think: breaking bad habits). Ironically, this meditative practice stresses the importance of our actions because every act has perpetual consequences. That’s the essence of Karma: the natural law of cause and effect. Karma is one of two primary underlying sciences which the practice of Raja Yoga is based on.

Raja Yoga includes an eight-limbed DIY proof of its other underlying science, Sankhya: the contention that the universe consists of only two things: consciousness and matter. While the first two preparatory limbs of the practice address behavior, the remaining three preparatory limbs address controlling and settling ourselves physically, energetically, and mentally in preparation for the last three limbs: seated meditation (i.e., you can’t meditate an unsettled body/mind). The three post-behavioral, pre-seated meditation limbs of the practice are the subject of MSRY’s introductory course (think: relaxation techniques).

Raja Yoga is about finding faith. While it’s not a religious practice, Raja Yoga recognizes that faith can provide strength and determination necessary to change one’s behavior and perspective, and to cope with the human suffering aspects of life; accordingly, the practice encourages everyone to find faith in something if you aren’t already so blessed.

In short, the mantra here is “change your perspective & change your life – and btw, here’s how to do it”. Changing your perspective IS the practice of Raja Yoga (i.e., success requires consistency; this is not something that’s done once a day, or once a week). The practice is simple but not easy; however, the Yoga Sutras promise that you WILL attain serenity IF you practice consistently and diligently, and based on my experience over the past 13 years, I have no reason to doubt it.

The Yoga Sutras provide the tools; practicing provides the confidence. You CAN change your life by practicing.

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The Gist of Raja Yoga

The Yoga Sutras include a series of physical and mental practices to achieve lasting serenity (not surprisingly, the longer and more diligently it’s practiced, the better it works).

The practice is based on the belief that a) your consciousness is NOT a mental function; rather, it’s an entirely distinct part of you, and b) that the rest of you – from your thoughts to your toes – is constantly changing based on its energetic nature.

The Yoga Sutras include an integrated eight-limbed meditative practice to prove the discrete existence of your intangible consciousness; specifically, by completely quieting your mind. The theory is that because your consciousness never changes (remember: it’s your consciousness – aka your awareness or perception OF something – it’s the intangible part of you which objectively witnesses whatever is reflected in your tangible brain) – so, if there’s nothing on your mind to be conscious of, your consciousness becomes self-aware. Again, the purpose of the eight limbs is to learn to distinguish between your body/mind and your consciousness – and ultimately identify with the latter. In essence, the practice is about seeing and acting from a point of objectivity and balance. THAT will change your life.

The eight-fold path to identify with the intangible part of you includes two indirect and three direct preparatory steps, and three actual seated meditation practices to refine and ultimately empty your mind:

• Indirect preparation (~70% of preparatory text): two limbs addressing personal conduct

• Direct preparation (each ~10% of the preparatory text): three limbs addressing posture, breathing, and concentration, respectively

• Actual meditation: three limbs on meditation, or refining the content of your mind

MSRY’s intro course focuses on the three direct preparatory steps as these physically and mentally settling steps offer the greatest immediate reward for the least effort – think: “tricks” you can use for a lifetime to reduce stress!

While our conduct has the greatest effect on our state of mind, the initial two most important, indirect preparatory steps aren’t covered in MSRY’s intro course because it’s assumed that we all know right from wrong (these two indirect steps were a precursor to the Ten Commandments: don’t harm, lie, steal, etc.) – in short, Karma’s a bitch so act accordingly!

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Self-awareness

Raja Yoga is a dual practice in self-awareness and self-control.

It prompts you to rethink life in a “What in the world am I doing here?!” manner, and to see it in a “WOW, this is awesome!!!” kind of way. It’s a practice in letting go of the notion that you are only your body/mind, and realizing with the same certainty that you have a brain and a heart, that you also have a distinct and equally amazing consciousness.  This is the self-awareness portion of the practice.

However, in order to get to that point, you must learn to meditate, and while that’s clearly a mental practice, you can’t meditate an unsettled mind, and you can’t settle your mind if your body isn’t settled physically and energetically.  So while the goal here is controlling your mind, there are conduct and physical exercise components to the practice of mental Yoga!  This is the self-control portion of the practice.

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Self Image

Incorporating consciousness into your perception of yourself can be HUGELY liberating.  Your consciousness isn’t tangible the way that your body and mind are, but realizing that a vital part of you is never hungry, tired or in distress can take some of the sting out of pain, desperation out of desire, and make it easier to find balance literally and figuratively.

For example, rather than thinking “I’m freezing!”, if you think “My [feet] are freezing!”, you put the same physical sensation in context, making it seem less overwhelming and easier to contend with. In the case of cold temperatures, your intangible consciousness doesn’t get cold, your non-physical mind doesn’t get cold, and it’s probably too late if your internal organs and systems are!

 

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Gunas

Matter consists of two oppositional, energetic, constantly changing states (think Star Wars: the light and dark sides of the Force). While the two states are exact opposites (Yoga refers to them as Rajas and Tamas – other schools as Yin and Yang), there’s a third, stable, steady, quiet, balanced state where the two opposing states are found in equal parts (represented by the dividing line in a Yin/Yang symbol): Sattva.

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A Conversation about Yoga

A: I once heard that there’s a special hell – and a special heaven – for the best and worst of humanity. I don’t know how – certainly not why – but I feel like I’m living in that special heaven right now. I know it won’t last; nothing does – but right now is awesome.

J: Glad you’re in a “good place.”……I was reflecting the other day about how lucky I am. When I think back on all the stupid crap I did growing up, it’s amazing I’ve made it this far. I’ve worked hard over the years, but that’s not all of it. I swear, “someone” must be looking out for me (an angel on my shoulder or some such thing)…..

A: I totally relate to the “angel on your shoulder” remark. Too many times my ass has been miraculously saved to be coincidence.

I probably shouldn’t add this but you already know I’m off the reservation: I believe that there are aspects of life that we’re not only unaware of but – by nature – are beyond human comprehension. Some of which might explain that sort of thing, how sometimes you know someone’s looking at you before you see them, prodigies, etc.

Some folks believe that we all share a common, cosmic, infinite consciousness – and by our individual physical, energetic and mental constitution (some of us have more Yin, less Yang – and visa versa) somehow are drawn to – or repelled – by similarly-constituted people, circumstances – and, here’s the leap into Crazytown – that – somehow we can communicate subconsciously.

Clearly two embodied beings can communicate subconsciously. If you believe that you ARE your “consciousness” (rather than that aging bag of water and bones) – and that consciousness survives the cessation of your body’s functioning – why can’t that disembodied consciousness communicate “subconsciously” with an embodied consciousness? Wouldn’t it be fun to “stick around” after your body stops working and watch out for your kids?

Like I said….off the reservation…

J: I spoke with a woman recently who has some of your same beliefs. Or at least they sound similar. Very interesting, very educated woman who taught at Oxford, etc.

A: a lot of it is from a 2500 year old text – sort of the original self-help guide to life: it’s all about self awareness: looking at everything objectively; learning to control both our physical and mental “aspects” (i.e., there’s no need to – nor is it possible to – affect your “consciousness”) – so that we can act in a “balanced” manner, and better cope with life’s heartaches.

It’s a “universally applicable, though individually applied” course of conduct which becomes self-perpetuating: if it feels good to stop banging your fist against the wall – it may feel good to stop banging your head against it too!

I’m convinced that people were at least as smart 2500 years ago as we are now – frankly, probably smarter. All we have that they didn’t is the benefit of other people’s experience.

The text itself is fewer than 200 sentences; written in what’s been called a perfect (e.g., mathematically precise, “rich”) – albeit dead – language. The actual script is “linguistically succinct”, communicating so much more than the translated English. The thing is like a philosophical rubik’s cube. Granted I’m a bit slow, but I’ve spent 12 years ruminating on just the first 100 sentences. 😉

Because it’s an individual practice – and because the author didn’t leave behind any notes on how to interpret his “poem” – while most people agree on its main themes, there are countless interpretations – and in this country unfortunately (in my opinion) most of those are commercially-driven.

I feel like Don Quixote – trying to #bringbackpatanjali. Someone named Patanjali is credited with writing the Yoga Sutras some 2500 years ago; I love the fact that the guy didn’t somehow “sign” his work; he anonymously gave humanity a path to individual – and thus by definition, our collective – or global peace; if that isn’t what the world needs now, I don’t know what is!

The thing is like a cryptic treasure map to lifelong bliss. Here it is in a nutshell: we can choose to see everything as miraculous – even if “only” statistically – and act accordingly – knowing that EVERYTHING that has EVER happened HAD to happen EXACTLY as it did in order for you to be reading this – or in short, “everyone take a fuckin’ chill pill!”

It’s universal in part because we’re encouraged to act out of devotion to whatever we personally have faith in (encouraging us to find faith in something, or to turbocharging our existing faith – in a “devoting your life to someone or something provides strength of purpose” kinda way.

Love you. Thanks for the chance to “download” some of what’s rattling round in my mental aspect! Happy trails.