Yogis insights into the human condition...
I'm reading this great book at the moment called 'The Wisdom of Yoga' by Stephen Cope. It kinda explains the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali through the experiences of a Psychotherapist/yoga teacher and a small group of people he is coaching at the Kripalu Centre in massachusetts.
It is full of beautiful insights into life and the teachings of the Sutras. I think the following phrases (taken from the prologue of the book) briefly outline the teachings of yoga from the ancient sramanas (truth seekers) really well:
The ordinary reality in which most human beings live is merely an elaborate construction based on subtle but important errors in perception (avidya or ignorance).
These chronic errors and inadequacies in perception become "fetters" (klesha or afflictions) which obscure a clear view of reality and lead us to act in ways which are counterproductive. The unskillful actions which result from a fettered mind create suffering for ourselves and others.
The "fetters" become learning disabilities which make it impossible for us to bring to fruition the deepest capacities of the body, mind and heart - capacities which lie within the reach of all human beings, but are beyond the comprehension of the ordinary mind.
It is possible to become gradually disentangled from these unskillful habits of body and mind, and as we do, to see more clearly and to experience less suffering.
The process of disentanglement is not easy. It requires a considerable amount of effort and the cultivation of insight and subtle mental and physical skillfulness. It is, nonetheless, within the reach of virtually every human being.
As we become disentangled from unskillful habits, we discover that the mind at its subtlest levels - what yogis call illumined mind - follows different laws than the ordinary mind out of which we routinely function.
When the fetters have been attenuated, only the deepest, most illuminated functioning of the mind remains. Freed from the fetters, we learn to be guided by the luminous wisdom of awakened mind, making choices that create happiness for ourselves, others and the world.
These are radical views, to be sure. Strivers found the human being to be caught in a subtle web of delusion. Their investigations revealed this web to be tenacious in its grasp. And yogis found the process of extracting ourselves from this mesh an extraordinarily complex one.
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The above comments make so much sense to me and I wanted to blog about them so that they remain with me even more. I find that as it makes so much sense and as the path is achievable to almost all humans it acts as a great source of inspiration which is well worth sharing!
In my own yoga practice I have encountered these releases of unskillful habits, thoughts and actions and it did make me feel enlightened in comparison to my older self. Over the last couple of years, due to injuries and other life circumstances I have left my yoga practice drop off considerably and boy have I noticed a backward transgression to a less enlightened state and old unskillful patterns have crept back into my life.
Hopefully this blog post will act as a marker for me to delve deeper into my practice with my enlightened knowledge of what happens when you don't keep up the skilful habit of practice.
I would really like to hear your thoughts on the comments I have mentioned today and your own personal experiences of the practice of yoga. so please feel free and make the effort to drop by and do so :-)
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