Meditating With Yoga Sutra 1.3
Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.3 offers us good news; that as we use this practice to lessen the fluctuations of our minds, we are finally able to see our true nature. It all starts with this practice because "when our mind is in less turmoil, and when our mind has less fluctuations, we are each able to rest in our true nature." Today we sit and we rest.
Transcript
Welcome to today's meditation time,
Inspired by the teachings of Yoga Sutra 1-3.
I invite us all to settle into our space,
Wherever that might be for you today.
Settle in physically as you allow your eyes to close or your gaze to soften.
Settle in mentally as you allow yourself to let go of the distractions around you and within you,
And then begin to notice how you feel in this very moment.
Notice if you're tired.
Notice if your mind seems to be going all different places.
Notice if you feel rested and peaceful.
Just notice it all.
Notice all the things that you've brought into this present moment and very gently begin to embrace them.
Embrace each and everything that you notice.
Now begin to notice the breath.
Watch it coming in slowly and watch it going out.
Sense the rhythm of it.
What does it feel like to you?
If it feels good as you breathe in and out,
Keep that rhythm right where it is.
If it doesn't quite feel right,
Like what you need,
Give yourself permission to adjust it.
Maybe the inhale becomes longer.
Maybe the exhale is a big audible sigh,
But make the adjustments until it feels right for you.
And in our practice today,
As we journey into the Yoga Sutras,
Just think about this idea of Sutras,
These beautiful threads of ancient teachings that tie this practice together right here and now and bring clarity and insight into why we have arrived in this very moment together.
As we sit,
We become aware of those fluctuations in our mind,
But as we give focus to the breath,
We begin to notice the fluctuations are getting just a bit quieter.
We're not trying to force them to stop.
We embrace them.
We embrace the awareness that they are there and we offer them permission to quiet down just a bit.
It was Patanjali in that second Yoga Sutra that offered us an assurance that this practice will calm the fluctuations of our mind.
But today,
Our focus is on what he wrote in the Sutra that followed,
Tara Drashtu Svarupe Avasthanam.
The translation of this Sutra that inspires our time together today says,
When our mind is in less turmoil,
When our mind has less fluctuations,
We are each able to rest in our true nature.
When our mind is in less turmoil,
When our mind has less fluctuations,
We are each able to rest in our true nature.
Just sit with that for the next few breaths.
Notice how it resonates with you.
See what it means to you.
As the mind has fluctuations,
These waves,
This turbulence,
It's usually caused by some sensory stimulus that's come in and we've responded to it.
Something in the world around us has brought up an agitation in our emotions and these fluctuations,
This turmoil really is our reaction to something going on around us,
To us,
Or even within us.
For some of us,
It's coming from past ways of thinking.
For others,
It's connected to a worry about the future.
And still for others,
It's those never-ending lists that we keep trying our very best to accomplish.
And every time we come to a place of quiet and stillness,
It feels like one of those things,
Those fluctuations,
Those disturbances,
Immediately swoop in and attempt to drag our attention away.
But then we breathe in,
We breathe out,
We utilize the tools of this practice like our breath and the fluctuation passes.
And then as we breathe in and out again,
Maybe we're able to keep it away a little longer.
And then we begin to notice as we go through our day,
More fluctuations come.
But we keep going back to the tools of this practice.
Back to the breath,
Back to the quiet,
Back to the stillness.
And the Sutra is telling us that as we access those tools again and again and again,
We're finally able to rest in our own nature.
Not in the noise of the world,
Not in the labels of the world,
Truly resting in our own nature.
I know there are people,
Maybe some listening in this meditation time right now who think that the idea of resting in my own nature sounds daunting to even consider.
Maybe there's parts of us that we're not sure we want to just sit with and rest with.
Maybe there's parts of us that we haven't begun to embrace fully just yet.
And while I recognize we're all in a different place in our journey,
I think that as we trust in the teachings of the Yoga Sutras,
And as we trust in the steadiness of the breath,
And as we trust someday in the experience of our own practice,
Little by little,
Being with ourselves,
Our true nature will not be as daunting anymore.
It won't be as scary.
So let's just pause for a few breaths and allow that idea just to sink in.
The idea that our breath,
This practice,
These tools that calm the fluctuations of our mind will actually give us a road map back to the true nature of us.
Just pause,
Sit with that,
Continue to breathe.
For some of us,
This Sutra just confirms things we already know and we already believe.
For others,
It sounds really elusive,
Like this concept of resting in our own true nature is really not attainable in this contemporary noisy world in which we live.
And while the Sutras,
These very ancient teachings from a long time ago,
Came to us in sands,
In Sanskrit,
I wondered if maybe some modern-day words,
Some contemporary thoughts that are really saying the same thing might help to anchor us to what Patanjali was teaching us so long ago.
So just continue to breathe and to root down and to become steady where you are and listen to these words from Henry David Thoreau.
He said,
It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.
The question is not what you look at,
It's what you see.
Just listen again as you continue to breathe,
Just let it sink in.
It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.
The question is not what you look at,
It's what you see.
And while the writings of Thoreau did not directly tie his thoughts back to the words of the Yoga Sutra,
Specifically 1.
3,
Isn't this a beautiful expression of what happens when we learn to rest in our true nature?
There's beauty in the quieting of our spirit.
And within that quieting,
There's this pure,
Unstained consciousness that the world hasn't quite gotten its hands on yet.
There's simplicity there,
But there's also this profound way of being,
This profound way of seeing.
Thoreau was not speaking of the face that we see in the mirror.
He was speaking of that quiet,
Beautiful spirit that dwells within.
And when we pause,
And we breathe,
And we quiet those fluctuations that are trying to distort our view of reality,
We not only can rest in our true nature,
But we can begin to see the beauty of it.
And when we see that beauty within,
It dramatically changes how we see the world around us.
Things begin to look less broken.
We stop just noticing behaviors of people and begin noticing hearts.
It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.
And the question is not what you look at,
It's what you see.
Because when our mind is in less turmoil,
And when our mind has less fluctuations,
We are each able to rest in our true nature.
It's not elusive,
And it's not unattainable.
It's right here with this next breath coming in.
Let's practice it together.
Practice quieting the fluctuations and discovering our true nature within that quiet.
So as you breathe in,
Notice what's in your head.
What thoughts are coming in?
What distractions do you hear?
And as you breathe out,
Notice even more.
And then on that next breath,
Take it deep from within your belly,
Slowly breathing in,
Expanding through the entire body,
Feeling your heart lift just a little,
And then slowly,
Gently sighing it out.
And again,
From deep in your belly,
A slow,
Gentle breath in.
And then exhale,
Gently sighing it out.
One more together,
A deep breath in.
And on this exhale,
Turn your focus inward.
Look within as if you're trying to see your heart.
You're peering in to see the pure nature of you,
To see the beauty of your spirit.
See the goodness.
See the compassion.
See it all as if you're looking in a mirror.
See it as if it is real.
And then begin to know that it is.
And then know that when the next fluctuation comes back,
The next breath is right there waiting.
Breathing in and breathing out right back into this present moment.
Returning to the beauty of the true nature of who you are.
And so goes the practice.
There's a sense of abiding,
Of being in the here and the now,
Accessing the incredible breath,
Calming the fluctuations,
And peering inside,
Seeing the beauty of you.
Noticing when the fluctuation returns,
And doing it all again.
Over time,
You'll begin to notice that the space between the fluctuations starts to get bigger.
And the time that you're able to abide and rest in this beautiful true nature of you will begin to increase.
And while I don't have a timeline of how long it takes for it to happen,
I assure you,
It does happen.
Because when our mind is in less turmoil,
When our mind has less fluctuations,
We are each able to rest in our true nature.
And then we begin to understand that it's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.
Namaste.
