Happiness and the Persuit of Novelty

How much of our lives have we spent on the pursuit of happiness?  The founding fathers of the United States enshrined it in the Declaration of Independence.  It's one of the most quoted line from the Declaration, other than "We the people."  Countless books have been written on how to be happy.  I don't even know how many times in this blog I have mentioned the word happiness.  Count it if you feel like it, it will up my page views.

Happiness is  as personal an experience as depression.  It's one of those feelings that is hard to put into works and comes in many forms: euphoria, excitement, elation,  relief and so on.  My journey on the Yogic path has been about the relief of negative feelings and not the pursuit of positive ones.  When I started to feel the bliss accompanies meditation, I didn't know what to do with it because I did not know what I was looking for.  When you are feeling depressed or anxious, it's hard to know what the opposite feeling is like.

Have you noticed how we are programmed to pursue novelty?  Every year it seems like there is something bigger, better or faster than the previous year.  So now that the new thing is here, the old thing sucks.  There is a scientific explanation this: novelty is a direct result of our brains limbic reward system.  I love the satire in South Park.  Watch the episode "Freemium isn't free".  In this episode, Stan gets hooked on fermium games released by the Canadian Ministry of Gaming.  It turns out that the Canadian Devil has rigged the game so that its novelty never runs out, and people feel compelled to pay to get more access in the game.

Joking aside, this episode does a great job of explaining novelty and how it works.  The brains reward system is rewired for short term pleasure and thus never finds fulfillment in ordinary life.  Yoga does something to the brain that restores the natural balance of the brain to allow it pleasurable experiences without the need for instant gratification.  In essence, life itself is gratifying enough as it is.  Have you ever been told to have an "attitude of gratitude"?  This is also used as a meditative technique and has the effect of eliminating a sense of lack from out lives.

Now, does this come at the expense of personal improvement?  Realistically, an argument can be made that lack of satisfaction can lead to self improvement.  I mean, why would anyone want to do Yoga in the first place if they did not get any benefit our of it?  I would say, if the effort in novelty pushes you to a self satisfactory goal, then it has served it's purpose well.  If we are never satisfied and keep pushing from goal to goal without enjoying the rewards, what have we done with our lives? 

Sutras 1.47 to 1.49 - If I Tell You What It Is, It's Not What It Is

1.47. On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.

1.48. Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom. 1.49. The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.

So we have reached the supreme state of Samadhi, a state of pure spiritual consciousness.  The Yogi that can hold on to this state effortlessly has almost reached the goal of final liberation.  Everything is running on pure intuition at this point, since the mind has been wiped clean of any obstacles.

So what is the supreme wisdom spoken about in Sutra 1.48?  Again, we are in no man's territory because the very next Sutra 1.49 basically means anything I would tell you about it is not actually like what it is, but I will try anyway.  Pure wisdom is the ability to act on any particular situation in life without any hesitation due to Samskaras that were previously lodged in the brain.  So, why would you not instinctively throw your TV out the windows while watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"?  I mean, that show does suck, right?  So throwing the T.V. out the windows only seems wise. 

When one is tapped in to the pure flow of spiritual energy, or pure consciousness, the feeling of oneness with everything leads toward a natural compassion.  The feeling of hatred toward the Kardashians has subsided, so you may not even own a T.V., or perhaps it's just sitting there collecting dust.  Even the state of Samadhi will change our view of our "Gut Instinct".  What you thought your felt was right will change. 

Sutras 1.44 to 1.46 - Getting Toward the End of the Line

1.44. In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.

1.45. The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark. 1.46. These constitute seeded contemplations.

So, as we come close to the end of Book One of the Yoga Sutras, we get a vague descriptor of what the near end of the finish line looks like.  Book Two describes the actual process of getting to this point, which is the reason why I am holding off on further practice instruction.  If you have already started your practice, or followed the links I have provided, that's great. 

Sutras 1.44 through 1.46 is a reference to a state of mind called Samapatti, or to put it in a differently, Samadhi.   Samadhi has differing states with blurred boundaries between them.  Through consistent effort, a Yogi will reach a state of meditation on their object of choice, that all will merge into one state of being.  So, the meditator, the object of meditation and the act of meditation become one.  This is something that is difficult to describe on paper.  It's one of those things that a Yogi strives for, but does not come after a set amount of time, effort or method. 

By this time, the sameness is everything is realized.  Nothing is really different from another.  A thought is the same as a bush is the same as the cosmos.  We have rid the mind of all our Samskaras, meaning that there are no more subtle impressions lodged in the unconscious mind.  This is what "seeded contemplations" means in Sutra 1.46. 

So this brings up and interesting and somewhat frightening question.  What the hell is left of me once I have eliminated everything associated with the Ahemkara, or your sense of self identity?  Why would anyone even want to give up their self identity in the first place?  Well, I can only tell you what I feel from my perspective. Peace of mind is all I ever wanted from life.  Once I got a dose of that, many other material things fell to the wayside.

The Vedas talk about four states of existence that we all most go through in our soles journey back to the divine: Dharma or Righteousness Duty, Artha or Wealth, Kama or Desire, Moksha or Liberation.  We all incarnate with a mixture of these four primary motives.  No one is better than the other, so if you want to lead a wealthy and hedonistic lifestyle, go for it.  Yoga's intention, at it's resolution, is meant to bring about Liberation of the soul.   I think some of us that are on this path are deliberately left unfulfilled by material life in order to push us in this direction.

It's interesting how Vedic Traditions tie into one another.  For instance, you can get a complete picture of your karma by studying Vedic Astrology.  I have studied it myself and still find things about it that I never knew existed.  If you want more information on how in depth in can be, see my post on what a Vedic Astrology chart looks like: a giant Sudoku puzzle.

Sutras 1.42 and 1.43 - Perception is Nothing Percent of Reality.

1.42. The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.

1.43. When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.

It's all about communication, or the Benjamins, if you think money talks.  Sutra 1.42 is a reference to what causes disagreement on fact in the mind when we are speaking through our own limited perception.  I don't think we all can ever really agree on everything, except the fact that the Brewers suck so far this year. 

In Yoga, there are different ways of obtaining knowledge.  The first way is through word of mouth, or someone relating their perception of an experience though another medium.  We obtain most of our knowledge this way.  When knowledge is conveyed through someone else's perspective, however, it brings all the fundamental inaccuracies of their perception along with for the ride.  That is why the scientific method has control groups built into the process.  Good scientist will also put their work up for pier review and try to have other's replicate their findings. 

The second method of obtaining knowledge is through direct experience.  Going through the process of meditation, while digging through our own mind, this is the only compass we have.  You will find many books on meditation, but not many about the results of meditation.  My personal opinion is that the results are so personal and individual, that it's hard for anyone one person to understand them unless they go through their own process.  At best, even the Yoga Sutras are a guidebook.  Goswami Kriyananda said that if you try something related to Yoga three times and it does not work out for you, give up and do something else. 

So, Sutra 1.43 points out that if our mind has be purified of the obstacles listed in my "What Is Thought" post, the meditator sees all things as the same, and therefore there is no need to have arguments about the nature of any given part of that sameness.  This is why many will seek out enlightened Gurus to ask them questions.  In Hindu and Yogic traditions, one who's mind is pure cannot speak an untruth.  It's also a good way to pull a scam and make some money, so beware.

Is Yoga a Form of Reverse Entropy?

Looking at how awesome the world is, I marvel at its complexity, wrapped up in a form of unity.  From my simplistic understanding, entropy is the theory that the universe is moving toward ever increasing chaos, to explain the perception of linear time.  There is a lot more to it than that of course, but I would like to purpose an idea.

Yoga, as a practice, is meant to remove things from our consciousness in order to better perceive things as a unified whole.  As we delve deeper into the inner workings of the mind, we identify predefined obstacles hindering our perception by using certain techniques.   Yoga, as put forward in the Sutras, is a best a loosely defined process.  You can comb through multiple interpretations as much as you would like, and I invite you to, to find examples of specific techniques.  For instance, what Hatha Yoga poses are given in the Sutras?  None that I have seen.

I have been practicing meditation twice a day for about ten years now.  I have been through the gambit of multiple practices using different branches of Yoga, many of them claiming to be the best.  FYI, none of them are, they are all just a means to an end.

So, as my spiritual practice has developed, it has become less complicated.  My view of the world has changed dramatically in ways I did not even expect.  So when I bring up my theory that Yoga is a form of reverse entropy, I mean it from a conscious, individual perception of things, and not from direct observation in the materialistic scientific sense.

Looking at the world through a clearer lens, I have notices that there is a subtle unity to everything.  Not in that butterfly-my-fart-will-cause-a-hurricane-in-China sense, but that beyond our conscious perception, there is a fundamental, intuitive, underlying unity.  Chaos seems to be a differing form of order.  We see the chaos because we have a preconceived notion of what order is.  Even our actions being perceived as good and evil are just part of that over all system.  Without attachment to thought, time seems to slow down.   

I find Rupert Sheldrake to be a fascinating person.  I have not read his work beyond his "banned" Ted talk.  He does raise some interesting points about modern materialistic science though.  I feel it's always good to keep the door open for debate, even on the validity of Yoga.  I'll keep doing it for now until I find something better.

Sutra 1.41 - The Fortress of Mindful Solitude

1.41. When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented. knower, act of knowing, or what is known

If there any Sutras that you should pay attention to, it's this one.  It's the most important Sutra in book one until I say something otherwise, which I'm sure I will.  I will break this one down into it's constituent parts because it contains a lot of esoteric information. The Fortress of Mindful Solitude

When the agitations of the mind are under control

All attachments to matter cause agitations in consciousness and drag it willing or unwilling in a certain direction.  The agitations of the mind are called Vrittis.   I don't know why water makes such a good metaphor for things Yoga related.  I don't even like swimming or boating.  Anyway, going back to my reference on the nature of thought in my post "Sutras 1.5 - 1.11:  What is Thought?"  I used a pool of water looking at the surface of the moon as a metaphor for the way the undisciplined mind perceives reality.  Now to read that, I'll wait...  Good for you smart Alek, you skipped it!  The stillness of the water is called Vritti Nhirhodah, or stillness of thought.  Practice will get you to this stage of awareness.

the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented,

Now that your mind has been stilled, it becomes clear.  Now you get to go back and read my post on loosing your marbles.  The crystal is like the glass jar.  The Yogi then uses this clarity to focus on the object of meditation, which is covered under my posts about My Flav.  

knower, act of knowing, or what is known

So here we have one of the holy trinities in Yoga.  The essence of you is the knower, which is separate from the action of knowing something, which is conscious projection on to the object of what is known.  Like I spoke about in my Cycles of Life posts, much of the logic in yoga runs in circles.  We first have to pull apart everything in the mind, to then understand it, to then get rid of it, only to put what is left back together to understand the whole. 

Sutra 1.40 - Particle Constituency, Boooiiyyyeee!

1.40. The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.

Thousands of years ago, the Vedic culture had a word for the smallest constituent particle in the universe.  It was called Anu.  People falsely translate this to atom, thinking that the ancients had some sort of knowledge of the atom itself as a fundamental building block to matter.  One of the eight schools of Hinduism is devoted to the study of the invisible that makes up the universe.  See here: 

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/jainism/atoms.asp

So, this Sutra is directly related to the results of actions taken in Sutra 1.37.  To meditate on the nature of Flava Flav is the know the nature of the larger whole Public Enemy.  If you know Public Enemy, you know the nature of Chuck D, Hip-Hop and so on.  By slowing ripping away the emotional and psychological associations we have with matter, we intuitively understand it's nature. 

I know that I have mentioned this in other posts and it seems redundant, but the sutras do this purposefully to hammer home the importance of fundamental points.  Part of this also has to do with the nature of the Sanskrit language.  There are no punctuation marks like an explanation point, so the writers had to resort to redundancy and hyperbole to convey important ideas.  Case in point: you hear YEAAHH  BOOOOIIIIIYYYY!! enough, it gets really irritating.  

What Does Quantum Physics Say About Consciousness?

First of all, I am an armature physicist with a superficial understanding of quantum mechanics.  It's becoming a popular trend in the New Age and spiritual community to use this superficial understanding of quantum physics to justify slinging quackery like "The Secret".  Have you ever seen that movie?  It would make it seem like all you have to do is imaging yourself driving a Ferrari or getting some random check in the mail and the "Law of Attraction" will make it happen.  By now, I'm sure most of the people that have seen that movie realize the only person getting checks in the mail or driving a Ferrari is Rhonda Byrne, the author of the movie.

This is why I am glad we have scientist out there to put hucksters into check.  I think though, that most scientists have the same wonderment of the Universe as many spiritual seekers do.  That natural curiosity drives us to seek out answers to what we don't understand.  Yoga uses it's own set of rules, just like traditional scientific method, to guide a person to conclusions about nature.  I do not think either one was meant to become a set of dogmatic rules to validate confirmation bias as we see people do so much of today.

So I still have my love of science, especially quantum physics and astronomy.  One things that I find peculiar is how a particle is a wave until it's observed, then it becomes a particle.  Physicists are still trying to solve this perplexing issue, although the math is spot on.  The best scientific explanation I have read is that whenever we try to observer a quantum particle, such as an electron, the photons used to do the actual observation of the particle change the nature of the particle itself.  On the other hand, could our conscious expectations actually influence the result?

In my earlier posts, I speak about how the primary principal of Yoga is that we are all consciousness entangled in matter, and by clearing out our associations with matter, we become free.  Some philosophers has hypothesized that the lines between spirituality, science and art will slowly erase over time and all will merge into one. 

The human capacity to project consciousness on to the environment is astounding.  With our own selective interpretations, we see what we want to see.  Perhaps as we go along, we can move past this instinct and grow collectively.

The Wierd Kid - Expanded Palate Edition

Have you ever seen the show "The Middle"?  Brick is a socially awkward kid that has his quirks.  I was that kind of kid.  One of the oddest habits I had was to chew on and or eat things that you would never think to put in your mouth.

The first dumb idea I got was from "The Never Ending Story".  Do you remember the rock biter?  His name is self explanatory.  Well I could not bite rocks, but what better way to show how awesome I was by swallowing them.  Hey, check this out!  I actually was able to swallow a couple of rocks.  I was surprised at how easy it was, I mean, it was all about the size.  I must have been six at that time, but I never found out what happened to those stones.  Use your imagination.

I think I liked to chew on things to cope with boredom.  What is more boring to a kid than church?  Being forced to sit through the same thing week in and week out on rock hard wooden benches with no air conditioning.  My church had these yellow colored enameled pews that were kind of old at the time.  I remember I would see those pews with certain areas missing their lacker.  One day I thought it would be a good idea to latch on to the pew and just start gnawing away at it.  My family usually sat in the same area, so I would return to the same pew each week and work on trying to make the hole in the pew complete.  Weeks went by, I became out of control.  One week it was just my father and I.  Now I went for it.  I started at my regular gnawing hole and chewed up the hole pew about 10 feet along the rail until a reached the end.  Another parishioner noticed the damage I was doing and told my dad, who was obviously zoned out.  He left in embarrassment with his proud beaver in tow.

So, who finally put a stop to this?  Why my middle school German teacher.  I had the unfortunate privilege of sitting at the front of the class.  I had this love hate relationship with the German language, or any language: that stupid thing called grammar.  By the time we had gotten to the gender of nouns, I had tuned out.  I mean, it was like boring math for language. 

I don't know why, but I found chewing on the binding of my German book and looking out the window more interesting then class.  There I was, minding my own business, when the German teacher stopped the class, grabbed the book and proclaimed "Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin likes the class so much, he devours the book!"  I guess he was not the subtle type, being from Germany and all.

Yup, all in a days work for the Weird Kid.

Sutra 1.39 - Keep an open mind.

1.39. Or by meditation as desired.

You could lump sutras 1.34 though 1.39 together because they all involve suggestions for enlightenment.  I broke them up because of the deeper ramifications of each element. 

So that leaves us with the last Sutra in the grouping: 1.39, which I happen to be thinking about the other day.  Earlier in my blog, I spoke about the need to develop a consistent meditation routine when you are a beginner.  It gets the mind into the habit, which gives inertia to your practice.  Have you ever started exercising for the first time?  The initial routing is different then in the general intent to get in shape.  I get bored with things after doing them for a while. 

Now here we get into an interesting difference between Yoga and religion.  Religion tends to be a set a dogmatic rules.  For instance, I belonged to the group Self Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda.  It was the first major Kriya Yoga institution in the United States.  If you read SRF literature, you would get the impression that you are practicing the best of the best form of Yoga.  So that is what I did.  Day after day for about five years, I never waivered from my Yoga routine, even at the expense of taking care of other important things in life.  Yoga had become a religion to me.

Not long after, I fancied myself to be some great Yoga Guru and joined the Temple of Kriya Yoga Seminary Program lead by Goswami Kriyananda.  The completely flipped my perception of practice upside down.  To this day, I never finished the program.  I realized that I did not need to have some sort of title to get closer to understanding the Universe.  Hey, if you feel you do, go for it.  If I had stayed on the path I was taking, I would have never gotten exposure to other awesome traditions such as Buddhism, Taosim and even loosing my love for scientific inquiry. 

So now I like to find out what works best for me by seeing what is most effective.  I share that with you because it works for me and that is the best I have to offer.  Don't get too stuck in your own routine and fear exploring things outside the path.  You have more fun playing in the woods off the trail anyway.

Sutra 1.38 - Mr Sandman.

1.38. Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.

Do you like to keep track of your dreams?  I have tried to find meaning in my dreams.  In Yoga, the wake and sleep cycle has just as much meaning as the cycle of reincarnation.  Like in Sutra 1.34, we work out our spiritual evolution through cycles of experience in order to evolve our consciousness.  In one part of the Sutras it states that sleep is one of the forms of delusion our consciousness must endure when entangled with matter.  So how does this play out in dreams?

In the practice of Kriya Yoga, a person tries to gain mastery over the wake in dream cycle through the use of symbolism and lucid dreaming.  What happens during dreams is a symbolic representation of the subconscious mind that works it's way into material existence.  Esoterically speaking, symbolism in dreams can be found in the material world, if we pay attention.

Do you remember your dreams?  I am sure you have heard of keeping a dream journal.  Keep one if you can and write down any dreams you have had.  According to Yogic timing, it takes three days for what is called the tanas, or feel of the dream, to manifest.   Was it scary?  Was it pleasurable?  Take note and see.

If you have the abililty to lucid dream, good for you.  You have a way to work through the symbolistic karma during the sleep cycle.  For instance, lets say I'm being chased by a giant red snake.  Perhaps in three day time, some circumstances may arise when I have some fearful experience associated with the color red.  "Oh that could be anything" or "Oh that's so vague it could mean anything".  Well shut-up.

Sutra 1.37 - The Object of Concentration.

1.37. Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.

Meditation is a odd thing in Yoga.  On one hand, we try to let things go as much as possible, but on the other, we try to develop effortless concentration.  As things come into the mind, training it to either latch on to it or let it go takes a long time. 

There are many "objects of meditation".  In Kriya Yoga, the object of meditation is the spot at the base of the nose, called the third eye, or the Ajna Chakra.  If you have ever wondered why Hindu's have the dot on their forehead, it's to represent this location. 

At some point though, many objects of meditation become religious symbolism and lose their meaning altogether.  This sutra refers to "ones that are freed of compulsion".  This is a direct reference to holy men and women, considered to be pure.  Just as Catholics worship the Virgin Mary or Jesus, Hindus have many objects of worship in the form of deities. Krisha, for example, is considered a pure embodiment of the preserver god Vishnu.

How does this work?  When one focuses on the object of meditation, the essence of that object is meant to be absorbed by the mind, thereby blocking out other distractions.  Let's say I decide to Meditate on Favor Flav.  On the surface, Mr. Flav bounces around the stage for Public Enemy, going Yeeah Boi!  Chuck D admitted they keep him around because he is the worlds best hype man.  Now if you have seen him on the many reality shows that he has been on, there is a deeper quality to Mr. Flav.  He is a very intelligent and deep thinker.  A philosopher of the street. 

Don't pick him as a object of meditation, but a hope you get the point.  I like to use mantra chanting myself because I can focus on the vibrational quality of the syllables.  The calming and joyful sensation is the feeling behind the mantra itself, which is then meditated upon.

Sutra 1.36 - The Blue Light Special

1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light

Hey, a Sutra I can comment on!  I was not a big fan of the last one, but as one of my good friends pointed out, it might be good to use other translations.  I have been using the one from

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm

 for continuities sake.  So here we go again.

Have you seen those spots in the darkness after you close your eyes?  Science calls this biophotonic light and has it's own theories on it: 

http://scienceline.org/2014/12/why-do-we-see-colors-with-our-eyes-closed/

These lights have a deeper meaning in Yoga.  In fact, they form one of the cornerstones of Kriya Yoga called the Jyoti Mudra.  Mystically speaking, those lights are considered a reflection of the third eye chakra.  According to Yoga, if you practice the Jyoti Mudra (Jyoti means light in Sanskrit)  a practitioner can get the blobs to form a circle of light that looks like a golden iris.  Once this form can be held without effort, the meditator tries to consciously move through the iris.

Yoga states that this is the doorway through which the soul passes upon death, or the tunnel of light which we pass through on our way to the afterlife. 

I have done the Jyoti Mudra for many years and I can tell you, at least, that the golden iris exists .   I have never been able to hold it without effort for more then a minute or so.  At one point, I had the iris become a three dimensional tunnel.  In another case, the door opened to visions of multicolored lights in the forms of DNA strands.  I was high as s kite at that point, so does that even count?

I do not suggest practicing the Jyoti Mudra on it's own.  When I used to do it, it was part of a full meditation routine.  It's a nice compliment to it though.  Paramahasa Yogananda has a great article about it here:

http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_eye1.html

Sutra 1.35 - This Sutra Does Not Make Sense.

1.35. Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness.

When I read this sutra I find it odd.  It seems out of place given the tone of the rest of book one, but I am going to try my best given that contradiction.  Nothing is perfect, not even a text that I would consider perfect myself.  Better to admit that then to force something into some perceived mold.

In Yoga, our senses have two faculties: the actual senses organs and the perception of the sensation of those organs.  Personally, I have found this a hard concept to grasp (no pun intended) because we have the brain and how it interoperates these signals into our consciousness.

Another contradiction with this sutra is that, in Yoga, any sense input can be considered a distraction from the stillness of the mind.

Well, sorry for the crappy blog post.  Feel free to weigh in on it with your own impressions.

Sutra 1.34 - The cycles of life

1.34. Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.

Yogic time runs in cycles.  The largest cycles are called Yugas, which chart the rise and fall of human civilization.  Depending on your interpretation, this can last as long as the precession of the equinox, or up to trillions of years on the cosmic scale.   The Vedic Astrologer, Swami Sri Yukteswar charted the cycles by equinox procession, so I tend use that, given my astrology background.

On a personal level, if we are to accept the cycle of death and rebirth according to karmic law, we get the next form, reincarnation. 

OK, now assuming that there are some of you that take that as complete crap, let me break it down on a secular level.  From the standpoint of astronomy, we do not know for sure that the universe itself runs in cycles of the big bang and the big crunch and so on.  From my understanding, we know that stars revolve around super-massive black holes at the center of the galaxy.  We have the obvious changing of the seasons as the earth revolves around the sun.  Day becomes night, night becomes day. 

Biologically speaking, our body keeps track of time via the circadian cycle of wake and sleep.  Finally, we get to the smallest cycle in Yoga, and therefore the most important: breath.

This is why Yoga puts so much emphasis on breath.  If we can control our breath through the smallest cycle, it gives us control of larger cycles, and therefore we can change our karma over time. 

Prana is the universal energy, analogous to Chi in Taoism, that gives animation and volition to life.  The cycle of breath takes in this energy and feeds the body.  Have you every seen someone break five cinder blocks just by using their forehead?  No you haven't, because they are probably dead or in the hospital with a concussion.  With the use of the practice of pranayama, or breath control, the Yogi can achieve balance though breath techniques.

Sutra 1.33 - Taking on the A-Team

1.33. By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.

"

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team"

Oh Hell Yeah!!!!

How awesome is the A-Team?  Awesome enough to use as an example for Sutra 1.33.  This Sutra basically gives us examples of behavior and how best to cope with them.  It's straight forward and one of those sutras that says "If you do the opposite of what you are doing, you will get the opposite result."  Not quantum physics here.

Indifference towards vice is a way of understanding what might have a grip on our consciousness, causing negative traits we may not like. Templeton Peck, played by Dirk Benedict, is a con man, but he rocks it.  His indifference to his own vice gives him the ability to help the team in the way he does best.  In our own lives, we need not beat ourselves about what we know.  Acknowledge and move on. 

Blessed are the loons, for they shall inherit the Earth.  Maybe they have already.  Gladness towards virtue is an attitude that allows us to embrace all parts of ourselves.  Does Murdock know he is insane?  He doesn't care. 

I think Hannibal is a happy guy in general.  He gets to dress up and use his half-assed attempts to get the team out of trouble.  Friendliness towards happiness cultivates the attitude of accepting happiness in our lives without excitement.  There is a difference between happiness and excitement.  One is a the temporary rush we get when something positive happens.  Happiness is a long lasting feeling of contentment accepting things as they are.

Compassion towards misery.  Mr T pities fools! 'nuff said.

If you are truly honest with yourself, you can take stock in some of the qualities that block you from leading a happy life.  Be careful though.  In a world that thrives on negativity, there are people that are more then willing to pounce on you for negative character traits.  I think we live under the guise that there is always SOMETHING we can improve about ourselves and many of us go on some sort of crusade to make ourselves conform to the expectations of others.

Yoga and the Nature of Evil: What Would Mumm-Ra Say?

So what is Evil.  Another big question that is hard to answer unless you are a computer.  Binary thinking is something that something that should probably be left for computers and not for people.  In yoga, were have a few guides to help us delve into what is considered evil and what is not.  Basically these are the Yamas and Niyamas, a list of do's and don't for aspiring Yogis.  In Yoga, there is no definition of evil, just levels of ignorance.

When I talk about ignorance, it's basically the refusal to listen to your own internal truth.  If you want to look at this from a Judeo-Christian point of view, Satan is the embodiment of desire, and takes one away from the realization of God.  I take this as metaphor, symbolizing the souls entanglement in materiality and the Yogi's battle to untangle the mind. 

Thundercats was an awesomely cheesy kids show from the 80's.  I loved this cartoon, but never got any of the toys.  The transformers always won out in the end.  So Mumm-Ra is the big baddie in this series, but is he really?  In one of his trials to become the Lord of the Thundercats, Lion-o must defeat the evil Mumm-Ra. 

Totes chuckin' your Tempursophigus into your nasty Koi Pond

Now, lets look at this from Mumm-Ra's perspective.  Here he has been living on Third Earth for all these millennia, and here comes the Thundercats, who happen to crash land on his planet.  Now they go about busting up his hood to make it into what they perceive as "good"

Male lions, in nature, are know to eat the litters of other female lions in order to get them to reproduce with them.  I don't know how know this bodes for WilyKit and WilyCat.  I mean, in real life they should have been McNuggets by now.

Each individual has their own issues to deal with.  In my opinion, the less open to acknowledging your inner truth, the more you get trapped in your own material bubble.  Adhering strictly to one idealism at all costs has lead to so much suffering in the world today.  Let's face it, if the case of Good vs. Evil were that simple, it would have been solved already

Ahimsa - What is non-violence?

Do you know anyone that claims to be a pacifist?  Is there anyone around you the preaches peace?  It's a hard thing to find, at least in the main stream media and news papers.  Fear sells, and it sells quit well.  I mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but the point of this one is to go further in depth into the Yogic concept of non-violence.

Ahimsa has three levels to it.  The first level is action, the second level is speech and the third level is though.  I can't not use Homey the Clown as an example.

Homey the Clown, didn't mess around.  He didn't take any crap from anyone.  So let's take a look at how Homey can server as an example of non-violence.  First, we have Homey's actions.  This angry clown carried around a sock full of something, maybe chalk.  If you pissed-off Homey the Clown, he would hit you with his sock.  "I don't think so! Homey don't play dat!"  This is an act of violence.  Homey clearly hit the poor kid with his chalk sock thingy.  Acts of violence tend to spread into other acts of violence.  Homie inspired a generation of people to start hitting their siblings with socks.  Sorry Mike. 

Violent speech is something that can hurt us just as much as physical violence.  If you can't hurt someone physically, then speech, or in this case, writing as well, can inflict damage.  Homey had a bad attitude.  I mean, the dude constantly complained about complaining.  "Speak softly and carry a big sock"  Right, keep those kids in line. 

Now this next level is the most important and fundamental.  While we will never be able to get inside Homie the Clown's head, we can probably guess at what he is thinking.  Violent though can be the source of violent behavior.  There is, however, no level with greater personal significance.  I will admit that it's a very high standard to hold anyone to non-violent though.  Good thing no one will ever really know but you, right?

Let's go into some examples of what is considered non-violence.

Defending one's self out of preservation is not considered an act of violence, if you have it in your mind that you have no other recourse.  Many a person has went to a martial arts class hoping to come out with the ability to kill a man with one touch.  The first thing that they will teach in many self defense classes is the best way to win a fight is to never get into one in the first place. 

Phony altruism for the sake of self aggrandizement is not a form on non-violence.  How many times have we seen charities or millionaires donate money with the caveat that their name be inscribed on the side of the building, or having a fund put in their name.

Do you like to protest?  How do you feel toward the people you are protesting?  Do you wish them harm or hope that they will drop dead?  There is a lot to say about loving your enemy, as Jesus taught. 

To know yourself is to know your tendencies.  So you might be violent now on some level.  So what.  We all are to some extent.  The ability to recognize your own tendencies and work to resolve them is the best anyone can be expected to do.  Advanced meditators can bring their peaceful awareness into the world and see what part they play in the cumulative violence in the world.  There will never be any edict, law or mandate that trumps self-empowerment.

Sutra 1.32 - There's "the truth" and there's The Truth

1.32. For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.

Now that we are done with the list of all the bad stuff that can happen in the mind, lets move on to the solution.  I'm a big Simpsons fan.  I see qualities in the characters that somehow relate to Yoga.  The title of this article is a direct reference to Lionel Hutz, the shady attorney who only poor Homer can afford.  In the episode "Realty Bites" Marge become a realtor.  While trying to sell properties, Lionel tells her that there are two versions of The Truth.  Do you know what I am talking about?  Well, go watch the episode.  It's funny.

In order to get to the one truth, we have to get to our own truth.  They are one in the same.  Often we mistake someone elses truth for our own.  Through the practice of Kriya Yoga, Meditation and other awareness practices, we arrive at our truth.  So what if my truth is not your truth.  As soon as I begin to make my truth into other's truth, it looses it's meaning.  When you get to the point of know what your truth is, wear it like an old pear of jeans that you cannot get rid of. 

Yoga gives us the gift and curse of awareness of ourselves.  The one truth in Yoga is called Bindu, or one pointedness.  It is a baseline that we establish that all other experiences are measured against.  That baseline changes over time as we come to understand more about the nature of reality. 

Going on about ten years of meditating for an hour twice daily, my version of the truth has changed dramatically.  First I became aware of things in my personality that I did not like about myself.  The next step was to try to eliminate those as much as possible.  Realizing that this was a futile attempt, I began to embrace them.  Just being aware of them gave me a choice of how I can react to certain situations.  Modern psychology calls this Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and has found it more effective then medications when dealing with anxiety.  When I moved passed all that crap, I became comfortable with my truth and it opened to gate to the Universal Truth. 

Sutra 1.31

1.31. Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.

More bad news?  The laundry lest of obstacles is growing longer isn't it?  Do not despair, because if you do, you are already running into another obstacle.  Bad jokes aside, the obstacles above are a different categorization of the thought process and do not necessarily coexists with the list of mind junk listed in the previous post.   When I get closer to the end of book one, I will bring all of these together.  Think of the list above as the result of the list in Sutra 1.30

Pain - Research has shown that there is a direct link between how we feel and how our bodies react to those feelings.  Do you ever get tension in your body?  Practices such as Hatha Yoga work to relive that tension.  While beneficial, as we work through the Yoga Sutras, we are also burning the candle at both ends, meaning that we try to work on this from the inside out as well.  Medication will expose pain that you never even knew was there. 

Despair - When we don't get what we want when we want it, we tend to fell this emotion.  We live in a society of expectations, both person and ones heaped upon us by others.  It takes work to lead a life without expectation.  I will tell you the only thing you can really count on in life is that things will change.

Nervousness - This one gets me all the time.  We can look at our culture for some insight into this feeling.  How much of our culture is fear driven?  When we live in a state of fear, we cannot focus our attention and keep it in the present.  I see this as the opposite of despair, because it's fretting over something that might happen vs. something that we have not gotten.  Honestly, I can't help myself sometimes.  Even as I sit here typing this, my palms are sweaty and I worry about what might happen.  Choosing IT can be good for a nervous person.  That is what I did in High School, mostly out of desperation of my terrible grades and nervousness about the future.  See how that works?

Disordered Inspiration - This is a half-assed attempt to make something that clearly is not working, work again.  Wile E Coyote sees a gigantic rock falling toward his head and takes out a mini coctial umbrella to hold over his head. 

Expiration - Can you sweat it?  Well, this does not necessarily pertain to that.  One major limb of Yoga is called pranayama, or loosely translated as breath control.  Have you ever been told to take a deep breath?  The obsticles in Sutra 1.30 result in irregular breath.  Breath itself is such an unconscious act, that we may not even notice when we have irregular breath.  If you have been using the Hong-Saw technique, good for you.  That is meant to help in this case.