#2 Yoga Is The Cessation Of Mind-Stuff From Taking Various Forms | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Yoga is the union of energies. Ordinarily, our energies are scattered, all over the place. When we achieve yoga, all energies get organized and like a flame point towards one, upwards, waiting to meet the divine. That divine meeting is liberation, moksha, nirvana, enlightenment.

In order for yoga to happen, the mind has become silent. All modification in 'Chitta' has to cease.

Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily life meditation session with me,

Dhyansa.

As we enter Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,

Once again my salutations to the knowledge of Yoga to Patanjali,

Allowing me to share this with you to bring this to our lives.

Yoga is union.

Union of energies.

We as we live right now,

Our energies are all over the place.

And Yoga means to unite all these energies,

Scattered energies that we are living,

That we are into one.

If you imagine the shape of your energies,

In Yoga it would be like a flame.

It would be that your energies are all in one line,

All in union.

For what?

Waiting for this one energy to meet the Divine.

As we are scattered,

The energy is all over the place.

In Yoga,

It takes the shape of one,

It's aligned,

It's disciplined for it to meet the Divine.

And when that meeting of we as one energy in the Divine happens,

That's the explosion which is known as liberation.

That explosion is known as truth and self-knowledge,

The reality of life,

Liberation,

Moksha,

Nirvana,

All these words become meaningful.

Patanjali gave these Yoga Sutras to take from wherever we are in life.

It does not matter if we are completely messed up in whichever way,

He takes care of that and he gives these Sutras to bring these energies in whichever form we have in our life right now to put them together,

To bind them together,

To prepare them for that ultimate meeting.

So he always works with a goal in mind and the goal is liberation,

The goal is truth,

The goal is to get out of the miseries of life,

To be in a state which is our highest potential.

Currently the way we are living,

We are living 1%,

2%,

3%,

5% of our maximum potential and that is why there is a sense of unsatisfaction in life because we know we are much bigger than what we are right now living.

The experience of life right now is somewhat incomplete and then there is this deep sense which always validates that whatever we are experiencing is falling short of what we can experience and that gap is what Yoga fills which takes us from the limited experience that we have to the ultimate experience that is possible.

Along the way there are solutions to all the miseries of what we are going through in our daily life.

It is not just for the exploration of the highest truth for liberation but also for the very practicalities of our life for how we execute,

Operate ourselves in daily life.

We started the sutras yesterday with the first sutra,

Atha,

Yoga Anushasanam,

Now the discipline of yoga and for today sutra number 2,

Yoga's Chitta Vritti Nirodha.

Yoga is the cessation of mind stuff from taking various forms,

Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha.

This has to be understood,

A lot of things about our own mind has to be understood,

The framework of our mind has to be opened up and understood part by part in order to appreciate how Patanjali has put together everything in one formula.

He said Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha,

He is saying Yoga happens when there is a cessation of the mind stuff taking various forms,

Vrittis.

It also means Yoga is Chitta Vritti Nirodha,

Yoga is the cessation of mind stuff taking various forms.

If we look at the modern understanding of mind,

There is actually nothing like as mind,

There is only physical signals,

Electrical signals,

Chemical signals.

There is nothing else than that.

But in yoga,

The explanation of mind,

Body,

Soul,

All this is of a different order.

The model is much more sophisticated.

The model is built in a way that you can understand,

That you can change,

That you can operate,

That you can modify and really pinpoint how to bring about that change if you understand the model of mind,

If you understand the model of energies,

If you understand the model of this entire construct that we call as ourselves.

The model is such that,

Let's take an example.

When you hear something,

You are hearing my voice,

That voice is a signal.

When that signal,

When that sensation is taken up by your ears,

You have an organ,

An instrument which receives that signal.

And that signal then is taken to in the yogic model,

What is known as buddhi.

Buddhi is what discriminates,

Decides,

Is that intelligence which decides what it is,

What to do with it.

And what it does is,

It refers also to the memory bank that we have in us and that memory bank plus the intelligence deciphers,

Decides what to do with that signal,

What is this signal.

Then along this decision,

Another flash happens in our internal space,

That flash is of ego,

That flash is of a sense of I.

Along with the signal of the intelligence,

Of the interpretation of the signal via intelligence and the memory,

The sense of I is born.

And this entire process then is presented to a witness in us,

Known as the purusha or just see this as a witness,

Something in you that is hearing,

Something in you that is experiencing what I am saying,

The sounds,

The words,

The meaning,

That is the witness.

That witness is born out of awareness,

That witness is the purusha.

So if you understand this construct,

Now see that this entire construct is in an energy field.

That energy field is known as chitta,

The mind stuff,

The stuff which is the fabric of this entire process that is happening.

Now chitta is this field of energy in which all this is happening and vritti is any waveform,

Any modification that is created in this chitta.

So for every sensation in the world,

Be it sound,

Be it a visual sensation,

Any sensation in the world,

There is a modification in chitta and the entire experience of the world is created because of this modification in the chitta.

Another analogy for this is,

Chitta is like a lake,

Like a mountain lake,

If you drop a stone in it,

There are ripples,

There are waves,

That wave is what is known as vritti,

The modification.

And because of the wave,

You don't see what is in the depths of the lake,

You only see the ripple,

You only see the wave and that modification,

That creates the experience of whatever you are seeing,

Whatever you are hearing,

Whatever you are experiencing.

If there is no vritti,

Meaning if the lake is completely silent,

If there is absolutely no movement on the surface of the lake,

What you can see is,

You can see through the lake and you can go into the depths of the lake and then there is no end to which you can see.

You can penetrate the chitta,

You can penetrate the mind,

You can penetrate this lake,

This energy field and go inside yourself and see the entire process,

What's happening,

See the entire depth of who you really are.

That's what is known as yoga,

Chitta,

Vritti,

Nirodha.

Yoga is when there is no modification in the chitta,

There is no ripple in the lake of your consciousness,

The lake of your chitta,

The lake of this mind stuff that creates all the experiences of our world.

As a meditation,

What we should be practicing is to see,

Observe this process of what happens when we hear something,

What happens when we grasp a sensation from the outside.

This is only possible when you give yourself moments of silence,

When you give yourself this chance for the awareness to capture this first hand,

For the witness to not go through the buddhi,

Not go through the entire process of letting the signal be interpreted from the memory,

Triggering the ego and then receiving a prepared version of it but rather your awareness to first hand directly experience the sensations,

What's happening and observe the entire process and then move to this direct perception of what is happening all around us.

In this process,

In this meditation,

Once you are established,

Once you have seen the process then you focus on this witness.

Who is this witness?

What is this witness that is able to perceive this entire process?

Because the breakthrough happens when you understand,

When you witness the witness itself,

When you observe the witness itself.

I know it is not easy to digest in the first explanation.

I will break this down more in upcoming sessions.

For now,

Let us move into meditation,

Let us move into silence and observe the process of our mind,

Observe this witness that is experiencing this whole world,

This whole experience of life.

Please close your eyes.

Make sure that your posture is upright.

Your body is comfortable.

Your head relaxed.

Imagine your awareness turned inwards.

Your awareness on your thoughts.

On your senses.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All thoughts,

All sensations,

All interpretations are referring to your memory,

What you already know.

Notice a witness,

An observer who is observing,

Who is observing the mind,

Who is observing this entire experience.

Then move away from everything else and focus on this observer.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

That observer in you who sees the thought,

Who sees the entire experience of sensations,

Pay attention to the observer.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

Remain aware of the observer.

All that you receive as a signal,

As a sensation from the outside.

A sense of aboardness.

Offness,

Hexafax A sense of 40 13 A presence in you that is experiencing all the sensations.

I am aware of that presence.

I am aware of that presence.

I am aware of that presence.

As you become aware of the witness,

Silence arises in you.

A sense of centeredness arises in you.

A sense of union,

Yoga,

Arises in you.

Remain in this state with awareness on the witness.

I am aware of that presence.

I am aware of that presence.

If you wish to continue,

Keep your eyes closed with focus on the witness,

Allowing yourself to go deeper in silence with awareness,

Or very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes,

Maintaining this centeredness,

Awareness,

Silence,

And a taste,

A sense of this witness inside,

That is experiencing all the sensations that we call as our world,

Our experience.

As you go through your day,

Maintain this thought,

Maintain this sensation of this witness which is experiencing all what is happening around.

I will see you tomorrow at 7 am Central European Time.

Namaste.

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Powerful 🧘🏾‍♂️

Thank you!