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Yoga Sutra translations, and on becoming “super-normal”

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:32:46 -0500

Q: Thank you again for your lessons!!! Two questions if I may. Could you possibly recommend a good translation of Pantajali's Yoga Sutras? Lastly, in working with the sutras I found my chest feel as if it was expanding, as well as my head - It was quite extraordinary. Is this normal? You spoke of the different ways of the energy manifesting and I was just wondering if this too is one of those manifestations? With love and unity.

A: There are many translations of the Yoga Sutras out there. Here is one that is pretty good:

hrih.hypermart.net/patanjali/library.htm

This can also be found in the links section of the group under, "Yoga Sutras - International Translations." On this site there are links to 29 more English translations (many with commentaries), plus translations in 17 other languages, plus the original Sanskrit. I have not read them all!

If you are wondering where the eight limbs are described, it starts in Book 2-29.

Book 3 is on samyama and supernormal powers. By the way, the idea of becoming "super-normal" is pretty appealing, isn't it? -- As in very, very normal. Normal for human beings is enlightened. So why not become super-normal?

Yes, your expansion is (super) normal, a beautiful indication of your silence moving out from inside. This is samyama in action. Many different things can happen. There can be more expansion, inner sensory experiences, strong emotions, laughing, crying, physical vibrations, and new kinds of breathing. It is all about obstacles being dissolved as inner silence moves out through the nervous system as a result of our practices, now with samyama added. The nervous system knows what to do as pure bliss consciousness moves through it. If symptoms become excessive, just use self-pacing in your practices. If necessary, that can mean paring back on the number of repetitions in samyama for a while. Always take plenty of rest coming out of meditation and samyama. That is important to facilitate stable energy flows in daily activity.

All of these symptoms are normal releases and are signs of the emergence of inner divinity. It is okay to let them happen. If your body wants to move or shake, let it, but not to hazardous extreme. If breathing changes, let it, but not to hazardous extreme. If emotions come, let them, but not to hazardous extreme. If sexual arousal comes (and it can) let it, but not to hazardous extreme. It is all normal as divine energy bubbles out through the nervous system from the inside.

I am reminded of a passage in Swami Muktananda's book, "Play of Consciousness," where he described a certain stage in his journey when he'd go out of his house and roar like a tiger. Needless to say, the neighbors were a bit concerned. There's no need to carry it that far.

At times along the path it might seem that there is not much happening with our inner energy. Maybe things are being loosened underneath without many symptoms, and later we will notice something. Or maybe we are waiting for inner silence to come up with more weeks and months of meditation. Or maybe we are not letting go with the subtle feeling of the sutra in samyama. Sometimes doing nothing is a bit tricky - just not favoring anything that comes up in the mind during that fifteen seconds in silence.

Successful yoga is not about experiences; it is about following the procedures of our practices. We are changed by practices, not by experiences. Experiences are the by-product of our practices and the resulting spiritual transformation that is going on.

Also remember that immediate responses coming up from sutras should also be let go during samyama. It is the ultimate karma yoga - divine doing while letting go of the fruit of the doing. It is built into the technique of samyama - doing and letting go of doing. So samyama is also cultivation of the outflowing of divine love which expects nothing in return. If we do our samyama that way, in time we will become radiating beacons of divine light floating in the air.

Then who will be able to deny what we human beings are? Who will not want to become super-normal?

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on samyama practice, covering multiple applications, see the AYP Samyama book.

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Thinking about meanings versus doing samyama practice

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:15:34 -0500

Q: Now I'm a little confused, I thought we were to just think the word and then let it go. This recent response sounds like we should meditate or think about it. Another question - I am getting these bursts of feelings/energy within my body throughout the day. They can be localized and I seem to have some control over them. I am assuming they are kundalini. My question is this - are they just a pleasant aftermath or is something being released?

A: Yes, you are right. Just pick up the sutra as a faint idea and let it go. Then 15 seconds of silence. The discussions on meaning have nothing to do with performance of the samyama practice itself. Some people are going through some clarification, settling in with meanings, finding their own ecology. We have many languages in the group, so you can imagine what everyone is going through. As everyone settles in, the meanings go to subconscious. That is not part of the practice of samyama. It is just like, "What is akasha?... Okay, that is what it is." Then just forget it and do samyama on the words, the sutra. The meaning is in there. We don't ponder it during samyama. We just pick up the sutra faintly, and then let go.

The pleasurable "bursts" are very good. Inner silence is moving in you from your samyama. It can be experienced in many ways. Another lesson (on becoming "super-normal") has been posted today with more details on that. Many are having similar experiences. No need to "control" experiences. They are natural. Let them happen, within reason. They are the release of obstructions and the emergence of divine energy. They will stabilize to steadiness over time -- more natural silent bliss and ecstatic radiance in life. Samyama is doing yoga from the inside out, added to our practices that go from the outside in.

The early results many are having with samyama are very impressive. Bravo!

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on samyama practice, covering multiple applications, see the AYP Samyama book.

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Samyama: Settling in with your sutras

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:33:51 -0500

Q: I am a little bit confused over how we are supposed to relate to the sutras. Radiance and Unity are for me very vague and ambivalent - for me they are pretty much context words where as Love is self-explanatory. Why do we choose the particular sutras, take "strength" -somebody would argue that agility can be more useful. What about pratyahara and akasha? If you've never experienced those things then they are as meaningless as mantras. Where does the eventual effect then come from? Can you add personal sutras or is this hazardous? Some people may for example desire more humility in themselves. I hope this will help you with filling the gaps of my understanding. Thanks for all the time you put into this group - it's a real goldmine!

A: At first I thought to give specific definitions for each sutra, but decided not to, as each person will find their own "ecology" with meanings within their own language and culture, just as you are finding yours now. It is as it should be. Some settling in time is normal.

Someone else wrote saying they don't know what Love is, and liked all the rest. So, everyone will be different. The individual meanings are not as crucial as the overall practice, for everyone will eventually come into their own right meanings. Samyama will stimulate the rise of inner silence using the full range of sutras, which, taken all together, purify and open the entire nervous system.

As for changing sutras, it is up to you. If "humility" is not contained in "Love" for you, then add it. If "Radiance" is not clear, use "Divine Radiance" or "Outflowing Light." If "Unity" is unclear, use "Oneness." Or, maybe those clarifications will give you comfort in using the originals.

Akasha is best understood as living inner space - alive emptiness. Almost pure bliss consciousness itself. Our body is that - energy in vast empty space. There is nothing much here. Only the appearance of something. Akasha means that. Then, in the sutra "Akasha - Lightness of Air" we let it go into silence, and everything moves in us to manifest lightness. Whoosh! Don't worry too much about meanings. The necessary knowledge is inside. It doesn't take much to set the right direction.

Pratyahara is not offered as a sutra - "Inner Sensuality" is, which will enliven the senses inward. There is a lesson a month or so back (#121) on pratyahara which should make the meaning of this clear. It is also discussed in the lesson before last on the eight limbs of yoga.

Picking sutras is not exact science. Commit to a good list for yourself and go with it. You can't wander too far off track if you stay with the basic range of meanings. There are plenty more in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, many far more abstract than the ones given here. The idea is to cover the whole of body/mind/heart, stimulating inner silence out through it. This will purify and open the important channels (nadis) in the nervous system. Once you settle in with samyama, it is suggested you not change sutras around often. We want to go deep, and that will be difficult if we keep moving the location of our digging. For the same reason we stay stable with our mantra, except for occasional enhancements when we are ready to "shift gears" to broaden our presence in pure bliss consciousness.

As your habit of samyama develops through daily practice, you will gradually find all of your thinking and feeling during daily activity naturally originating deeper inside. This is the ultimate benefit of doing samyama practice. It cultivates the habit of living and expressing from the level of divine silence in us. Then we find increasing success and happiness in everything we do. It is a habit of thinking and doing we are cultivating. So, while the choice of each sutra is important, it is the overall effects of the full range of sutras in our everyday life we are really after.

Q: Thank you very much for your reply. It clarified things. I just wonder, some people say that Akasha has the meaning of spirit. It's the fifth tattva, in the European esoteric tradition equivalent with the fifth element spirit - ruler of the other elements. I'm not familiar with the Indian words, but it is interesting anyway.

A: Akasha is the last stepping off point before unmanifest pure bliss consciousness, the infinite silence within us which is the essence of all that is. In all traditions there is a necessity to assign mythological deities, rulers, authority figures, to the various levels of functioning in nature. It has to do with the natural human need for an ishta (chosen ideal), which stimulates bhakti and spiritual growth. This is how bhakti works, and it is very important that we have it in some form. However, we don't want to get all wrapped up in flights of bhakti during the practice of samyama. We just easily pick up the sutra very faintly and let it go into silence. It is important not to favor flights of contemplation with the mind or rituals of worship during samyama. We can do that later. Samyama, like deep meditation, is a specific practice that we favor during the time we are doing it.

The body as "akasha" (living empty space) is the first step of the two-part lightness sutra. The second part, "lightness of air," moves inner silence, and our akasha-body with it. But it can only happen if we let the sutra go into silence. So it is with all divine manifestation, which includes everything in the cosmos. Everything we see and know emanates from vibrations flowing out from pure bliss consciousness.

John 1.1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made by the Word..."

The basic principles of samyama are behind all temporal manifestation.

For the sake of our enlightenment, we can enter into this divine creative process within ourselves.

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on samyama practice, covering multiple applications, see the AYP Samyama book.

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Samyama practice

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:02:17 -0500

Meditation is the process of bringing the attention inward to stillness, inner silence, pure bliss consciousness, the witness state, samadhi. All of these describe aspects of the same thing. We have a particular meditation procedure that we do for set amount of time twice daily. It works like clockwork and, over time, as we meditate each day and then go out and be active, our nervous system becomes naturally accustomed to sustaining and radiating inner silence. Our daily life then becomes calmer from the inside. We are less overwhelmed by external events. This is the rise of the first stage of enlightenment, which is inner silence present in our life twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Once we have some inner silence, even just a little, we have the opportunity to begin to operate from that level of infinite potential in us. All that exists is manifested from that, and we, being that, are capable of manifesting from that infinite reservoir of life within us. So, with our toe in the infinite, we can begin to move from there for the benefit our transformation to enlightenment. It is simple to do.

You will recall that in meditation we use the thought of a sound with no meaning, the mantra, to systematically allow the mind to go to stillness. It is in letting go of any meaning, language or intellectual content, and just easily picking up the thought of the mantra, that are able to dive deep into pure bliss consciousness. The nervous system also goes to silence with the mind, and our metabolism slows way down.

With samyama, we begin to go the other way. After our meditation time is up, we rest for a minute or two and we transition into samyama. We begin with an easy state of not thinking, just resting in our silence. If thoughts are coming, we just let them go without entertaining them. In samyama practice we do not entertain the mantra either. We start by not favoring anything but being easy in our silence, however much silence we have from our just completed meditation session, and naturally present in us from our months or years of daily meditation. This is the starting point for samyama -- silence.

The only prerequisite for doing samyama practice is having some inner silence. For most people this is after a few months of daily deep meditation, as covered in the early lessons.

Now we are ready to begin samyama practice. Here is how we do it.

With samyama, we are initiating meaning in silence. We do it in a simple, easy, systematic way. First we create an impulse of meaning in silence, and then we let it go in silence.

Let's begin with "Love." It is a good place to start with samyama. In samyama it is suggested you use your most intimate language, the language that goes deepest in your heart, whatever it may be.

In your easy silence, pick up, just once, the fuzziest feeling of the word "Love" in your own language. Don't deliberately make a clear pronunciation, or mental images of this or that scene or situation that represent Love to you. Just have a faint remembrance of Love, and then let go into your silence, the easy silence you are in as you pick up the faint meaning of Love. Don't contemplate Love or analyze it during samyama. Don't think about it at all. Just come to it once in a faint, subtle way, and then let go into silence. It is a subtle feeling of Love we are coming to, nothing more, and letting it go. Like that.

Having thought "Love" once, be in silence for about fifteen seconds. If any thoughts come, let them go easily. Don't look at the clock. With a little practice your inner clock will tell you with good enough accuracy when fifteen seconds is up. Just be easy in silence for about a quarter of a minute. Then pick up the faint, fuzzy meaning of "Love" again, and let it go again into your silence for about fifteen seconds again.

That is two repetitions of samyama – twice picking up Love at its subtlest level of thought, and twice letting it go into inner silence.

What is the effect of this? What will happen?

To the extent we are picking up meaning on the border of inner silence (the subtlest level of thought), and then letting go easily into our silence, the effect will be very powerful. Inner silence is a huge amplifier of subtle thought. Inner silence is the only amplifier of thought. It is the source of thought. Usually our thoughts come out of silence stimulated by all that is lodged in our subconscious mind. So many habitual patterns are lodged in our obstructed subconscious mind, and these are what distort and weaken the flow of divine energy coming out from inner silence into our everyday life. With meditation we are clearing out the obstructions in the subconscious mind and developing a clear awareness of our inner silence. With samyama we are acting directly within our inner silence to produce an outflow of positive effects that purify our nervous system and surroundings in powerful ways.

During samyama maybe we will feel some energy moving out from our silence. It can be experienced as physical, mental or emotional. Or maybe we won't feel much until later in activity, and then we are more loving and compassionate for no obvious external reason. We are changing from the inside. This is what samyama is – moving intentions from the divine level of silence in us out into external manifestation.

Samyama is what prayer is when it is taken to its deepest level of communion with the divine inside us – taken within divine inner silence. Effective prayer is based on the principles of samyama we are discussing here.

Each thought/meaning we use in samyama is called a "sutra." In sanskrit, sutra means, "to tie together, or to stitch." The English medical word, "suture" comes from sutra. In samyama, sutras are bits of meaning we give to unbounded pure bliss consciousness to amplify out into everyday life, to "tie together" our inner and outer life. So, sutras are bits of yoga we can consciously cultivate in ourselves through samyama practice.

In the third chapter, or book, of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras on supernormal powers, many sutras are given for many different things. All this information is not for obtaining instant results or powers. If it were, it would not be doing anyone a favor in terms of gaining enlightenment. All those powers would be a great distraction to yoga if they were so easily obtained. Fortunately, as mentioned in the last lesson, samyama is morally a self-regulating practice, which means inner silence (samadhi) is the prerequisite for success in samyama. If there is inner silence, there will also be moral responsibility and conduct (yama and niyama), due to the connectedness of all the limbs of yoga.

Samyama is having inner silence (samadhi), and the ability to pick up a thought (focus/dharana) and let it go inward (meditation/dhyana). Then the results of samyama come out from inner silence automatically. If we have the last three limbs of yoga, we will also have the other limbs, so powers from samyama will be divine in purpose. Even so, we should be clear about experiences versus practices, as always, and be mindful not to get caught up in experiences that come up. When experiences come up, we easily come back to the practice we are doing.

As with all advanced yoga practices, the real benefits from samyama are to be found in long term daily practice of a particular routine of sutras. If we keep changing sutras around every day or week, and are irregular in our practice, the results will not accumulate. If we want to strike water, we will do best to keep digging in the same place. In advanced yoga practices we can do samyama after every meditation session before we go into yoni mudra kumbhaka (if doing that then) and our ending rest period. Samyama is a continuation of our meditation practice. First we are going in with meditation, and then we are coming out with samyama.

For this purpose, a balanced series of nine sutras are given here. The suggestion is for each to be done for two cycles of samyama, two times with about fifteen seconds in silence for each sutra, and going straight through the list in order like that. In a few days they will be memorized and easy to navigate through using the method of samyama, going gradually deeper in practice with each session. The sutras are:

Love

Radiance

Unity

Health

Strength

Abundance

Wisdom

Inner Sensuality

Akasha – Lightness of Air

Each sutra is to be taken in its entirety, with the fifteen seconds in silence afterwards. For example, "Inner Sensuality" is a single sutra followed by fifteen seconds of silence. It is for pratyahara, introversion of senses. "Akasha – Lightness of Air" is also a single sutra, followed by fifteen seconds in silence.

The meanings for the sutras can be translated to your deepest or first language, as discussed above. All except "Akasha," which is a sanskrit word meaning, "subtlest ether, inner space." We know from physics that we are ether, empty space inside, nothing really solid in here at all. Our body is that, and when we do samyama on "Akasha – Lightness of Air," we begin to feel very light.

If you do each of these nine sutras twice in your samyama session, it will take about five minutes. If there is a particular one you feel the need to do more of, then add that on to the end and do samyama with it for another five minutes. The cycles remain at fifteen seconds, and we just keep going with that for five minutes, by the clock for that last five minutes. If there is no preference, then you can do the lightness sutra for five minutes at the end. It is very powerful. It is a mental kundalini technique that brings much energy up through the nervous system. It is not uncommon to experience physical symptoms such as panting (automatic bastrika pranayama) and "hopping" during samyama with the lightness sutra. If this happens, make sure you are sitting on a soft surface like a mattress. There can be various symptoms manifested with the other sutras as well. We are moving the infinite inner silence within us, so the manifestations coming out can be very real and noticeable. Patanjali calls these manifestations "supernormal powers," or "siddhis."

For those who are full with bhakti for enlightenment, samyama repetitions can be increased to four for each sutra, and then ten minutes with a preferred sutra at the end (default is the lightness sutra). This is about twenty minutes of samyama practice. Make sure to take plenty of rest when coming out of your routine of practices, especially when doing samyama. Lying down for five or ten minutes at the end is good. As always, use self-pacing in your practices. Mental techniques such as meditation and samyama are very powerful, so to overdo them is to court uncomfortable energy flows. We each will find our comfortable limit through prudent self-pacing.

Samyama greatly strengthens our presence in the silence of pure bliss consciousness. It promotes the integration of the inner and outer aspects of our nervous system. Samyama stimulates the nervous system to purify and open to the second and third stages of enlightenment, as well as enhancing our inner silence (first stage) in everyday life. Samyama makes the overall power of our desires much stronger. When we want to accomplish something that is in tune with the divine flow, resistance will be much less and obstacles will seem to melt away.

For those who live in the silence of pure bliss consciousness and develop the habit of functioning naturally from that infinite level of life, a constant stream of "small miracles" becomes commonplace.

Do samyama practice after your meditation for a few months and see for yourself. Samyama is more than a sitting practice. It is a way of thinking and doing that rises in our everyday life as we travel on the road to enlightenment.

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on samyama practice, covering multiple applications, see the AYP Samyama book.

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The eight limbs of yoga, and samyama - Melting the darkness

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:02:41 -0500

It is time to move on to samyama, which involves moving outward with our attention in pure bliss consciousness, resulting in the cultivation of so-called yogic powers as a side effect. Before we discuss samyama, let's talk about the eight limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, which we have not done yet. Samyama is a combined application of the last three of these eight limbs, and ties in with the other five limbs as well, so this is a good time to cover them. All of yoga is connected, you know. It all connects through the human nervous system. In fact, all of yoga is a product of the human nervous system. Not the other way around, as we sometimes tend to think.

It took a while for people to believe that the world is round instead of flat, and that the sun is the center of the solar system instead of the earth. It took some proof. Then almost everyone believed, and the rush was on to find all the benefits in the new knowledge, the new paradigm.

Now it is time for us to come to grips with the fact that the human nervous system is the center of all spiritual experience and all divine bliss. That is your nervous system, the one you are sitting in right now. The sooner we get used to the idea that each of us is a direct gateway to the divine, the better it will be for everyone. As with the acceptance of any knowledge, it takes some proof. In this case, the proof is in you. Open a few doors here and there by doing some effective yoga practices and you will see what you are. Then the rush will be on to open it all up. A new paradigm is born!

Nothing is new, you know. Our ancient ancestors knew of these things. Much of it was written down. But communications were poor, and people lived so much in superstition. It is different now. We can find any information we want. There are so many doors of knowledge opening to everyone. The old wisdom is becoming new again. The human nervous system hasn't changed over all this time. It has been waiting patiently, like a treasure chest longing to be opened. It is time.

Patanjali's book of yoga sutras is one of the greatest scriptures of all time. Not only does it tell us what we are, but also it tells us how the doors of the nervous system can be opened. It lays out the relationships between the natural principles of opening that exist in us. This is done with the famous eight limbs of yoga.

We have been traveling through the eight limbs ever since we started the lessons of AdvancedYogaPractices. We have not gone in order, and some would call this non-conventional. We have gone in a way that is effective and makes sense, so there will be no apologies. We'll talk about that some more, but first let's review the eight limbs:

1. Yama – It means "restraint," and includes ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (preservation of sexual energy and cultivation of it), and aparigraha (non-covetousness).

2. Niyama – It means "observance," and includes saucha (purity and cleanliness), samtosa (contentment), tapas (heat/focus/austerity), svadhyaya (study of scriptures and self), and isvara pranidhana (surrender to the divine).

3. Asana – It means "posture," and includes all those asanas we have come to know and love. In the lessons, asanas are used as a preparation for pranayama and meditation. Certain asanas stimulate the rise of kundalini.

4. Pranayama – It means "restraint of life force/breath," and includes the pranayama methods we have discussed, plus some we are yet to discuss. Pranayama cultivates the soil of the nervous system, preparing it for deep meditation and divine experience. Particular kinds of pranayama raise kundalini.

5. Pratyahara – It means "introversion of senses." In the lessons, pratyahara is both effect and cause, occurring as kundalini rises and ecstatic experiences draw our attention naturally inward. Then, through pratyahara, we come to know our sensory experience as a continuum spanning the full range of manifestation from the first inner vibrations of pure bliss consciousness (OM) all the way out into the physical world.

6. Dharana – It means "concentration or focus of attention," and is the first step in taking the mind inward through meditation. In the lessons, we don't hold the attention on anything for long. We just bring attention easily to an object (the mantra), and then let it go how it will. This brings attention almost immediately beyond the beginning perception for the object, which is what we want. The mind will take us inward if we give it the opportunity.

7. Dhyana – It means "meditation," and is the flow of attention inward. It can also be described as the expansion of attention beyond any object. In the lessons, the mantra is used as the vehicle for this. We come easily to the mantra, and then the mantra changes and disappears. Our attention expands, arriving in its natural unattached state - stillness.

8. Samadhi – It means "absorption/transcendence," and it is what we experience in daily meditation. It expands over time, eventually becoming our natural state of being in daily activity. It is pure bliss consciousness, the inner silent witness. Samadhi in its various stages of unfoldment is the experience of our immortal universal Self. That is what we are.

You may have noticed that after yama and niyama, which were presented pretty much with the classical definitions (except for brahmacharya), all the rest of the limbs were given a twist according to the way these lessons have been presenting the knowledge of advanced yoga practices. This is a normal thing. In fact, every yoga teaching has its own way of presenting the eight limbs of yoga.

The eight limbs of yoga are so logical and easy to understand that virtually every teacher of yoga claims to be teaching them, which is true to one degree or another, because the eight limbs cover everything one can do in yoga. In this sense, they represent a complete road map, a blueprint and spiritual checklist of the various ways to open the human nervous system to divine experience.

Taken together as an overall system, the eight limbs have been referred to as "ashtanga yoga" and "raja (royal) yoga." But what is in a name? AdvancedYogaPractices are the eight limbs too. So is any approach to human spiritual transformation, in part or whole, including what we find in all the world's mainstream religions. If it has to do with human spiritual transformation, it is going to be found somewhere in the eight limbs. That is the beauty of the eight limbs. When you look at any spiritual teaching or religious tradition using the eight limbs as a measuring rod, you will see right away what is there, and what is not. The more enlightened traditions will have more of the limbs covered, and the less enlightened ones will have fewer limbs covered.

Traditionally, the eight limbs have been taken in sequence. The rationale has been that people have to learn to behave themselves and prepare through strict codes of conduct before they can begin doing more direct spiritual practices. Once they know how to behave rightly, they can begin with the body (asanas), and, later, work their way in through the breath (pranayama), and, finally, be ready for concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and pure bliss consciousness (samadhi). With a traditional approach like this it can be a long road to hoe, especially if a guru (in the flesh) holds his disciples to the highest standards of performance each step along the way. Even Patanjali had this sequence of practice in mind when he wrote the yoga sutras.

That part of it (going through the eight limbs in sequence over a long period of time) doesn't work very well. This has become widely recognized in the yoga community, and Patanjali must have known it too. Maybe in his time it wasn't so easy to be jump-starting people with advanced yoga practices like deep meditation and spinal breathing the way we can do it today.

Over the years different teachers have jumped directly into the eight limbs in different places. Some start with asanas and others with pranayama. Some focus first on devotion and then jump to meditation, or something else. Some jump straight into meditation, and then work their way back through the limbs. As you know, these lessons are of the latter approach. We start with deep meditation, and then head into pranayama, physical techniques, and so on, keeping a good awareness of the role of bhakti/desire all the way through.

One thing everyone who does yoga has found is that the limbs of yoga are connected, meaning, if we start in one limb, the others will be affected, and, as we purify and open, we will eventually be drawn into all of the limbs. It is common for new meditators to become voracious spiritual readers (svadhyaya), lean toward a purer diet (saucha), and feel more sensitive about the wellbeing of others (ahimsa). In fact the best way to achieve progress in yama and niyama is by going straight to samadhi with deep meditation. Then harmonious behavior comes naturally from inside, rather than having to be enforced from outside. These things are indicators of the connectedness of yoga. It occurs on all levels of practice. Sometimes it is called "Grace," because spiritual blessings seem to come out of nowhere. In truth, such blessing are being telegraphed through us via spiritual conductivity rising in our nervous system from something we did somewhere on the eight-limbed tree of yoga. Even the sincere thought, "Is there something more than this?" is a powerful yoga practice, and it is found in the niyama limb – it is surrender, bhakti. As you know from the lessons, this conductivity in the nervous system becomes "ecstatic" when kundalini begins to move. When that happens we are really getting connected through the limbs of yoga - here, there, and everywhere.

If we engage in effective practices in a coordinated way in multiple limbs from early on, then our nervous system will be purifying and opening most rapidly. This is an important principle that is recognized in the core strategy of these lessons – using an integrated system of practices, having the option of working through as many limbs as possible.

Samyama is a jumping off point from the eight limbs. It is something different from any one limb that can be used to purify and open the nervous system. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras it gets a whole chapter called, "supernormal powers."

Samyama is defined as the combination of the last three limbs of yoga used with an object. So, using focused attention (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and deep inner silence (samadhi) with an object, or objects, in a particular way we are able to develop supernormal powers, also called siddhis. Patanjali tells us that samyama is a more intimate practice and that it leads to "the light of knowledge." He also tells us to avoid getting distracted by the experiences that come up when doing samyama. We have been dealing with this in the lessons already. We see lights or have some ecstatic experiences, and we have to remind ourselves to easily go back to the practice we are doing. This is because experiences do not advance our spiritual progress. Only practices do. The same goes for siddhis when they manifest themselves. As was mentioned way back in lesson #76, we do samyama to expand pure bliss consciousness and ecstasy in the nervous system, and beyond.

If we come to samyama expecting to get some powers for our personal use, we will not get much. This is the beauty of samyama. Morally, it is a self-regulating practice. It depends on the presence of inner silence. No inner silence, no pure bliss consciousness - no samyama. It is not possible to do this practice without at least some inner silence in the nervous system. If we have some samadhi, then automatically we will also have some yama and niyama. The more samadhi we have, the more the yama and niyama, and also the more success there will be in samyama. If there is a lot of samadhi (first stage of enlightenment), there will be a lot of yama and niyama, and a lot of progress in samyama. The limbs of yoga are always hanging together like that.

Samyama is working on the deepest level of consciousness within us, and coaxing it into full manifestation by giving it a series of channels to move through in our nervous system. With samyama we are moving inner silence. We are moving the immovable, moving the rock of pure consciousness. Actually, we are expanding the rock. We are expanding it out through our nervous system. With most practices we are working from the outside inward. With samyama, we are going the other way. We are working from the inside outward. With most practices we begin with our limited ego-self and go in. With samyama, we begin with our universal divine-Self and come out. That is the difference between samyama and the other practices.

As consciousness moves outward with samyama, we experience more opening, and all of our practices move to a higher level. This is the advantage of integration of practices. Everything we do in yoga helps everything else we are doing in yoga. In this way yoga practices become like a spiral of ecstatic bliss going higher and higher.

So, as we continue to do the practices we have learned so far, we will also have the option to add samyama practice, which is opening our nervous system in yet another way. The prerequisites for doing samyama are not so many. It is a mental procedure, so there are no physical prerequisites. Unless, of course, you start flying willy-nilly through the air, and then the appropriate physical precautions should be taken. :-)

Anyone who is meditating for a few months and is experiencing some inner silence can do samyama, with effects in proportion to the amount of inner silence established in the nervous system. Samyama expands and stabilizes our inner silence, so it is an excellent complement to meditation. In the next lesson, we will cover the particulars of samyama practice.

With the eight limbs of yoga, and samyama, we will be melting the darkness everywhere. Let's do it.

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on practical application of the eight limbs of yoga, see the AYP Eight Limbs of Yoga book.
For detailed instructions on samyama practice, see the AYP Samyama book.

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