Ponder of the Day: The Mind, Yoga, and Stillness

Well, it's been awhile since I was here last, but, due to a recent flood of readings about "cultivation" today, I feel a bit guilty about how long I've been away. I suppose that certain words, like "cultivation" and "liberation" and "freedom" are speaking loudly to me because they resonate with an area of focus I have been devoting some time to cultivating. I have been thinking about mental activity (such redundancy, I know) and how to tame such an unwieldy force in my life. Yes, I am victim to an overly active mind, much to my own detriment. I over-think many things, and I have been practicing the silencing or stilling of that mind for about six months now. I think I am starting to get the hang of it, and yet, it seems to be a daily challenge. But today was a source of renewed inspiration, which naturally made me want to share, here.

To contextualize, I recently started my PhD work at Claremont Graduate University, and one of the courses I am taking is in religion, entitled "Yoga and Ultimate Reality." Yes, the yogi in me was desperate to enroll.  My professor has introduced me to some fascinating books and articles and ideas regarding Indian philosophy, Hindu culture, and yogic practice, some of which I would like to share. However, in order for us to be on the same page, I would like you suspend any notions that you may have about yoga. Most of us in the Western world associate yoga with a way of maintaining physical fitness; however, yoga is much deeper than poses and exercise. So if you decide to keep reading, I suggest temporarily letting go of whatever preconceived notions you may have about yoga, and instead, let your thoughts be open to a perhaps new or rededicated way of thinking about yoga.

The book is Yoga: Discipline of Freedom, attributed to Patanjali and translated by Barbara Stoler Miller.

"The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T.S. Eliot called the 'still point of the turning world.' This is a state of perfect equilibrium and absolute spiritual calm, an interior refuge in the chaos of worldly existence.  In the view of Patanjali, yogic practice can break habitual ways of thinking and acting that bind one to the corruptions of everyday life" (1).

"Cultivation of mental tranquility is crucial to reversing the accumulation of psychological fetters, for only when thought is tranquil can one realize one's spiritual nature" (17).

"The goal of yogic transformation is realized in contemplative practice. The path to freedom consists of a gradual unwinding of misconceptions that allows for fresh perceptions... The way of yoga is not a simple, linear path. Rather, it is a complex method involving a radical change in the way we experience the world and conceive the process of knowing ourselves. It gives us techniques with which to analyze our own thought processes and finally to lay bare our true human identity" (25).

"The goal of yoga is to stop the thought processes so that the spirit can be free, isolated from the turmoil of thought from which it mistakenly takes its identity" (30).

"For Patanjali, the interior dimensions of yoga are impossible to attain unless one first pays attention to the body. Later traditions expand this aspect of yoga into a system of physically and spiritually efficacious postures, commonly known as hatha-yoga" (57).

So, beginning with the asanas (or postures/poses) is a start, but it is not enough.  More is waiting... will we discover it???