#70. Bring Your Energies In Flow | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

There are five types of energy flow that govern our body, mind and everything else. First is Prana, the Flow resonating the flow of universe. Second is Apana: Flowing downwards into the earth. Third is Samana: Maintaining balance between prana and apana. Fourth, Udana: Flowing upwards towards the sky. And, fifth, Vyana: Flowing throught the body holding the rest 4 together.

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Transcript

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

Dhyansa.

We are meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

These few minutes that we sit together in meditation is a chance to reflect,

Is a chance to contemplate,

Is a chance to understand oneself,

Is a chance to meditate upon oneself,

Upon different aspects of life that allows us to live a little bit better than we otherwise would to have some more peace,

Some more love,

Some more compassion,

Some more basics,

Some more essentials in our life which this world of thought,

This world that we have created with the thought cannot offer.

We may be the greatest intellectual,

We may be the greatest achiever of thought,

With thought,

In the world of thought,

But we have to come out of it.

At some point of time,

When we realize that this world of thought,

No matter how much you win in this world of thought,

You remain a loser in life.

Loser in the sense that the very essential,

The very fundamental life itself is lost in the process of winning the thought,

The game of the thought.

So if there is really intelligence burning bright,

If there is really awareness burning bright then you have to step down from the thought,

You have to come out of the thought,

You have to put the thought in its right place,

Not at the top of things.

Thought has its place but not at the top of the things.

So what has the place at the top of everything?

Awareness.

Because awareness is life.

Awareness is the only authenticity that is there in us.

Everything else is borrowed.

Everything else belongs to the external.

The thought is artificial.

No matter how we call any thought as ours,

Or no matter how real this world looks with the creation of thought,

It is still artificial.

We all feel that,

We all know that deep down.

We keep on denying it,

We keep on maneuvering ourselves,

We keep on paddling in this world of thought,

Thinking that at some point of time there is an end,

There is a shore where everything is amazing.

But that shore never comes because this thought,

This world of thought is endless.

The only way is to come out of this world of thought,

Is to become once again aware of our authentic true nature.

Along this journey of moving from thought to awareness,

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and other people,

Other masses who have given their effort on this path,

It all helps to reflect,

It all helps to see what they are trying to say,

Where they are pointing at.

This process of opening up to what Patanjali has to say is not to follow some guideline,

Follow some spiritual concepts,

But it is just a chance for us to reflect.

It is just a framework for our mind to think out of the thought,

To be based more on awareness and less on thought.

And as we proceed in this journey,

As we become more and more clear in our spiritual journey,

We also do not need all these support systems,

All these explanations,

All these different concepts laid down by Patanjali and others.

But for now,

We definitely need them to keep us,

To keep our awareness in the right place,

To unfold the awareness,

To unfold the consciousness in the right way.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to say today before we sit in meditation.

Patanjali says,

Urana jyat jalapankha kantaka adishu asanga utkranti cha By mastery over the urana nerve current,

One accomplishes levitation over water,

Swarms,

Thorns,

Etc.

And can leave the body at will.

If you are following these sessions and following these sutras of Patanjali,

By now you hopefully are used to the bizarre and absurd claims that Patanjali makes.

But once again,

Not to get stuck in questioning these claims,

But rather see what you can learn from them.

So here he says,

By mastering over the urana nerve center,

One accomplishes levitation over water,

Swarms,

Thorns,

Etc.

And can leave the body at will.

For this sutra,

You have to understand prana,

You have to understand how yoga and the yogic philosophy,

It understands this energy system that we call as ourselves.

We are two things,

We are consciousness and we are energy.

Consciousness is something that results in awareness,

That results in us becoming aware of oneself,

Having this sentience,

Having this entire screen on which life can play.

Energy,

Life energy,

Which in yogic philosophy is known as prana,

In other eastern philosophies is known as chi and so on,

This fundamental unit of energy,

This needs to be understood,

This needs to be felt,

This needs to be experienced and we need to start seeing ourselves as a construct of energy,

The entire world as a flow of energy.

And if we start doing that,

If we can put ourselves even for a while in that mode where we see everything as energy,

Understand everything as energy,

The external and the internal.

And what energy?

This prana energy,

This life energy,

Then there is a possibility to better have a grip on what is happening in our system.

If we are at unrest,

If we are not feeling the way we should be feeling,

If there is pain,

If there is misery in life,

If there is something wrong in the system,

How do you approach that?

When you cannot approach with the physiology,

When you cannot approach through the psychology,

Then you approach through prana,

Then you approach through understanding the flow of energies in our body.

So very quickly,

I'll just give a very brief overview what,

How yoga sees the flow of energy in us,

The flow of prana in us.

It says this flow of energy is divided into five,

Into five different flows of energy.

The first flow,

Which is also called as prana,

So the prana,

The cosmic energy flow and the prana that is within us.

The prana physically you can map this around your heart.

So in the region,

In your chest,

In your heart,

This region is what resonates.

The flow of energy is exactly the same as the flow of energy in the cosmos.

That is why when we bring ourselves back to our heart,

We feel connected to the whole world.

That is why we say we are connection to others,

Our connection to the whole world,

It arises out of the heart or the heart region.

And we point out to this area when we have to denote a connection with ourselves to the external world.

So this is the prana,

Which is exactly flowing as it is flowing in the universe in the cosmos.

Then the second,

If we go to the very lower part of our body,

The legs and below our navel,

This is where the flow of energy is downwards.

This flow of energy is known as apana in yoga.

This flow of energy is what holds us to the ground,

What gives us weight,

What also allows all the process of excretion in the physical body.

But essentially it is what keeps us on the ground,

Which keeps us centered,

Which keeps us all the time balanced.

And this balance is also helped by the third flow of energy,

The samana.

The samana is the energy in between your heart region and below the navel.

So in between the region around your navel,

This is the area where this energy flows is known as samana.

This is what it holds the cosmic connection,

The prana and the grounding to the earth,

The rootedness to the earth together.

If we feel shaken up by some event happening,

By some panic,

By some fear,

What happens is the samana is disturbed.

This is where we lose the balance.

This is where we lose this equanimity,

This balance between our connection to the cosmos,

To the divine and our grounding to the earth.

And we feel nervous.

We feel that there is even on the physical level,

We feel that there is some problems,

There is some digestion problem,

Or there is some other kinds of problem that arise in this area.

It all happens when the samana,

The flow of energy is disturbed.

Then there is,

If we rise above the heart,

The region around our head,

Our hands,

This is this flow of energy is towards the sky.

This is known as urana.

This energy flow is what creates this magnificent intellectual capacity which creates the entire mind,

Which creates this flow of energy is what gives us the intelligence to the mind and allows us to imagine,

Allows us to have this whole world of perception,

This whole world of thought.

So this energy is flowing upwards and this urana is what is referred to in the yoga sutra right now.

And there is one more energy which needs to be understood,

There is one more flow which needs to be understood,

Which is,

Which integrates everything.

Vyana,

Which integrates the entire body,

Which flows in the entire body,

In all parts,

In all our constructs,

And it holds together all these rest four flows of energy.

Why this is important to understand,

Once you start recognizing this flow in your own construct,

In your own being,

You will be able to resolve certain problems that you are facing in your physiology,

In your psychology,

In your daily life.

So let us quickly finish what Patanjali has to say for today before we sit in meditation.

He says by mastery over udana nerve current,

One accomplishes levitation over water,

Swamp,

Thorns,

Etc,

And can leave the body at will.

In other words,

In more simplistic words,

When you have udana,

Which is the energy flow upwards,

If the flow is established rightly,

If that flow is harmonized,

Then you feel lightness,

Then you feel levitation means lightness,

Then you are not stuck in life,

Then you are floating in life,

Then you are moving in life effortlessly.

So this quality of effortless movement in life,

This quality of effortless meditation is achieved when the flow of udana is harmonized.

Lastly,

Patanjali says Samana Jayath Jivalanam by mastery over the Samana nerve current comes radiance to surround the body.

As I said,

Samana is what creates the balance between the prana and the apana.

If this is harmonized,

There is radiance in the body,

There is harmony in the entire system.

For today's meditation,

Let us bring our awareness to the flow of these energies in our body,

In our system.

Please close your eyes and take a posture that is comfortable,

That is restful,

With your head,

Neck and back aligned,

Alert and relaxed at the same time.

For the next minutes,

Observe yourself as energy flow,

As nothing else but energy flow.

Let this perspective,

Let this awareness,

Let this view,

Feeling settle in you,

Become clearer to you,

That you are a flow of energies.

Simply become aware of the flow of energies.

Sensations,

Whatever is happening in your physical body,

The physical sensations happening in your mind,

The movement of thoughts,

Images,

Visualizations,

All what you experience is a flow of energy.

Don't try to change it,

Simply observe your entire body,

Mind,

As a flow of energies.

Now shift your awareness to your heart region,

And with every breath,

Let this flow of energy in your heart resonate to the flow in the cosmos,

With every breath allowing your heart,

Allowing your prana to flow with the cosmos in harmony.

With every breath,

Feeling the flow of energy in your lungs,

In your heart,

In this region,

In perfect harmony with the cosmos.

Shift your awareness to the bottom of your body,

To your legs,

The area below the navel,

And visualize the flow of energy towards the ground,

To give you a firm root in the ground,

In the earth,

Like a tree.

Your body resting with its own weight,

And the energy flowing down into the earth.

Raise your awareness to the abdominal area,

Around your navel,

In between your chest,

And your navel.

Here the flow is in harmony,

In balance,

Between prana and apana,

Between the energy flow in your heart,

And in your legs.

And shift your awareness to your shoulders,

To your head,

To the region above your chest.

Notice the flow of energy,

And allow this energy to flow upwards,

Towards the sky.

Feel the lightness that arises as the energy flows upwards.

And awareness on your entire body,

From head to toe,

And a sense of this flow of energy all throughout your body,

In harmony,

In peace.

From head to toe,

All your energies flowing in harmony,

In peace,

In sync with the universe.

No more effort.

Simply stay in this silent awareness.

Sitting in harmony,

In lightness,

In centeredness,

Enrooted in the ground,

Flowing towards the sky.

Stay in this silent awareness.

Stay in this meditative silence as long as you like.

Very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes,

While remaining connected to this awareness,

Silence,

And flow of energies in harmony with existence.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Reviews

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With gratitude 🙏
Very helpful to have a greater understanding of the energetic body, energy beyond the body. Very much appreciate the teaching in advance of the meditation.

Amazing