#31 Don't Search In The Stack Of Straws | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Today's yoga sutra from Patanjali can be appreciated only by those who have some meditativeness in them as Patanjali makes a blanket statement by saying that 'Everything brings misery'. What does he mean? Is he a pessimist? Has he misjudged life?

Meditate and find out yourself.

Transcript

Namaste and welcome to this daily life meditation session with me, D'Anse. A smuggler was crossing the border. A custom officer stopped him, Said, ''What's your business? Where are you going? '' He said, ''Going to the next village. I'm an honest smuggler. '' The custom officer heard this man and thought he must be joking, But he still stopped all the goods of this man. He was with a donkey and a stack of straw on top of the donkey, A huge pile of straw on top of the donkey. So he said, ''Put this stack of straw down. '' So the man put the stack of straw down and the custom officer with his guards, He looked every bit and piece in this stack of straw and found nothing. He searched the clothes of this man, Found nothing. He looked into the straps of the donkey. He did not find anything. He let the man go. The man passed by and a few days later, Again, Same thing happened. The man with the donkey and a stack of straw came. This time he looked slightly more richer. He had better clothes. Again, The same custom officer, He stopped him. He said, ''You're the same man from that day. Where are you going? What is your business? '' He said, ''I'm an honest smuggler. '' He again took the straw down, The stack of straw and the inspector, The custom officer, Along with his guards, Once again searched the entire stack of straw, Spent hours looking at every corner. They did not find anything. They searched this man. All his clothes did not find anything. They unstrapped the donkey, Nothing found below the straps or anywhere. They let the man go and this kept on happening day after day after day. The same man, The same stack of straw and the same police officer, The same custom officer, But every time this happened, The man became more and more richer. He appeared more and more wealthier. He must be doing something, But the custom officer, He could not find. He tried his best. He questioned the man. He stopped, Searched everywhere, Every time, But he found nothing. Years passed by and one day the custom officer, He retired. After his retirement, He was just in a marketplace somewhere in a village and he found this man over there as well, Enjoying in a restaurant some drinks. So he went up to that man. He said, Oh, Do you remember me? The man said, Yes, Of course. Every day I passed by your borders and you searched me. You searched my stack of straw. Yes, I remember you. And he laughed. The custom officer said, Now I'm not the custom officer, So you don't need to be scared of me, But tell me the truth. What were you smuggling all this time? I searched all over you. I searched in the stack of straw. Were you hiding something in the back of the donkey? Were you hiding something in the mouth of the donkey? What were you hiding? What were you smuggling all this time? The man laughed. He said, I was smuggling donkeys. We are also searching all the time for happiness, Joy, Love, Freedom, Satisfaction in the stack of straw that we are carrying on the back of the donkey. We're never looking at the obvious, The donkey itself. We ourselves, We never look at ourselves. We look for happiness. We search for happiness and all other things that we think are going to bring us to this place where there is bliss, Where there is satisfaction in life, Where there is everything amazing. We look for that everywhere. We search for that everywhere, But we never pay attention to the very obvious. We ourselves, If you look at ourselves, We see we are the source of bliss. We are the source of happiness, Love. And these are not just words. These are not just theories. These are experiences. These are things that you cannot validate by any concept, By any experiment, But only by experience. In this journey towards discovering oneself, Towards coming back home to oneself, We are going through Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. And we are at a point where Patanjali has elaborated, Discussed all miseries that we are going through, Why we are going through those miseries, How to overcome those miseries. He pointed out at five different root causes of misery. He also spoke about the theory of karma, Which is also tied to the misery creation that we are responsible for our own results. All the actions that we do are resulting in the implications that we are experiencing. So we are responsible for whatever we are experiencing, All our actions, They contribute to that. So Patanjali has given a breadth of views and dimensions to where this misery is coming from, How to resolve this misery, What is this misery. And now he brings in a very important Sutra, Which I would like to share with you in this session before we sit for meditation. Patanjali says, Parinama tapa samskara dukhair guna vritti virodha chadukham eva sarvaim vivekina. Parinama, The consequence, The transformation, The alteration, The consequence, The result. Tapa, The anxiety, The anguish. Samskara, The subliminal impression, The impression that you're carrying in your mind in the depths of your unconscious, Subconscious, And conscious. Dukhair, Due to pain from the above three guna qualities vritti functioning virudha contradiction chadukham painful eva indeed sarvaim all vivekina to the man of discrimination. If you put all these pieces together, What Patanjali is saying is to the one of discrimination, To that person who has that spiritual insight, Who can discriminate now, Who has the eye, Who is not just now stuck in rationals, Who is not just stuck in the mind, But can see through the awareness, Can discriminate who's buddhi is active again, Who's actually really thinking on his own. For that person, Everything is painful indeed. Everything is misery indeed. Here, Patanjali brings in something that is very difficult to accept. It is something that can be very easily misunderstood. He says everything brings misery without exception. If you can discriminate, If you can see, If you have that spiritual wisdom to see through things of this physical, Psychological world that we're living in, Everything is misery. Think about it. You may find this pessimistic. You may find this negative view on life. You may find this somewhat untrue, But you have to look deeper. You have to look deeply and taste this for yourself with the spiritual wisdom, With the spiritual insight that you have through your own unfoldment of the consciousness that everything in this physical world without exception, Everything in the psychological world is indeed misery. What that means is it is not the truth. Why Patanjali is calling it misery? Because it is not the truth. It is misery. It can never satisfy you forever. It can never lead you to a place where you're back home, Where you're in bliss, Where you're in a place where there is no more search that can not happen with anything in the physical world, Anything in the psychological world. Therefore Patanjali calls everything as misery. Indeed. He says due to its consequence, Which is that it never leads to that satisfaction. And he gives a few ingredients to why this is the case. He gives a few reasons why this is the case. He says the anxiety that you have, Meaning while you are in this chase of constant something in the physical world, Something in the psychological world, Not just the chase of the money and the fame and the power and so on, But also the chase of happiness. There is anxiety in it. There is anguish in it. See this anxiety. See this anguish that is there in the chase, In the search of no matter if you're searching for the spiritual, For the psychological, For the physical, There is this anxiety, Anguish in the search. That is why everything is creating misery. Fear over losing what is gained. When you have gained something, Then you have the trouble that you will lose. Then you have this constant fear in yourself that you will lose this. And it can again be for something physical. It can be also for psychological. If you had some moments of peace, Some moments of happiness, Some moments of love, You want them to be there forever. You have the fear that they will go away. So the moment there is something, At the same moment, You have the fear of losing it. Therefore, This also becomes the source of misery. Therefore, Everything is creating misery. He says, And the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings, Meaning all the impressions that you have collected from the past. This we had discussed yesterday in detail about karma. The impressions that you have collected, The actions, The thoughts, All movements in your consciousness, They are documented as impressions in your subconscious, In your unconscious, And they rise above in your conscious to create the misery, To create the same pattern all over again and again and again. And you're caught up, You're never out of the misery. And he says, And lastly, The constant conflict among the three gunas which control the mind. Here he's talking about the three, The sattva, The tamas, And the rajas. This I will explain in upcoming sutras in more detail when we talk about these three gunas. But basically, What Patanjali is saying is that the entire mind, The entire chase of the mind and this search is bringing misery. You cannot resolve it. No matter whatever you achieve, You cannot resolve it. The only way is to know oneself. The only way is to spot the donkey, The most obvious, And be in your own being and be in the bliss that comes along with being in your own center, In your own true nature. Let us meditate over this sutra that everything that is there in the physical, In the psychological is bringing misery and we have to distance ourselves from that. Please close your eyes. Sit in a posture that is comfortable for you, Allowing you a few moments of introspection, Silence, And being in this moment without having to go anywhere, Do anything. Simply sitting, Settling in the moment with every breath, Body, Resting, Becoming still, Mind coming down. With every breath settling more and more in the moment, With your awareness inwards, In your inner space. For the next minutes, Remember the sutra, Everything is misery, Meaning everything that arises in your consciousness is not the truth. It can never lead you to the truth. Let go of anything and everything that arises in your consciousness and you will be in the place where you should be. The body, The sensations, Physical sensations, Let go of them. They are not the truth. They are the truth. Free your awareness from the body, From the physical sensations. If they are there, Let them be. Awareness, Not getting involved with the body. Thoughts, Ideas, Images, Thoughts, Thoughts, Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, In a chatter. All this is misery, Is not the truth. Let them go. Don't involve your awareness with your mind. If it's there, It's there. You take your awareness away from your mind, Away from your body. In the beginning, You may not know where to go with awareness. Let it settle on its own. You remain away from the body, Away from the mind, Without giving in any attention, Any awareness. Anything that arises in your consciousness, Is misery, Is not the truth. Take this moment to let it go, And the awareness to free itself. Let it settle on its own. Let it settle on its own. Awareness unclutched. Awareness unclutched from everything. Awareness detangled from everywhere. Free floating awareness. Let it settle on its own. No movement, No thought, Only awareness. Let it settle on its own. Awareness has its own place, Has its own presence. Breathe in that presence. Let it settle on its own. If you wish to stay in this pure awareness, Keep your eyes closed. Maintain this meditative state as long as you like, Before you come back to your body and mind, And open your eyes. Or very gently and slowly, You may open your eyes with me. Noticing the difference in your awareness, Before and now, In the inner silence, In the stillness. And taking this to your daily life, Reflecting on the sutra that we learned today. I'll see you tomorrow at 7 am Central European Time. Namaste.

Reviews

I will remember to notice the donkey. ❤️🙏

Stillness, awareness...

Very buggy. Kept stopping.

Thank you. This is a most enlightening practice and I shall return for more.