#38. When Mind, Heart And Spirit Dance Together | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily meditation session with me the Anse.

We are on a journey of yoga laid down by Patanjali in his 196 sutras and we are somewhere in the middle where we have already reached one milestone of learning about samadhi.

Now we are on the path of sadhana which is the discipline of yoga.

But why yoga?

If you understand the human as a machine,

There would be three engines to this machine.

The first engine is the mind.

This engine we develop,

We grow,

We learn to use this engine throughout our life as a child is learning through education,

Through parenting,

Through culture,

Through society,

Through all sorts of education and learning and knowledge that goes on in the development.

It is so much always about the mind,

So much more about the mind and it develops the mind for it to operate,

To be a part of society,

To learn how to interact,

To learn how to function,

How to work,

To specialize in something which allows that person to exist as a part of the society.

And this entire training of the mind is only this first engine that we are focused on.

We spend 20,

30,

40 years just learning how to operate this engine.

But even that effort leads to a point where we realize that we don't understand how the mind operates.

We are unable to even hold that mind in its right place.

And at the same time as we grow older,

We develop this sense,

We understand more that just operating out of the mind is not enough.

There is something more fundamental missing.

And then we look for that,

We step down from the mind from the moments when we are in love and when we are in compassion,

When suddenly there is an opening in our heart.

And we realize there is this second enormous powerhouse engine in our heart.

And we try to then bring the balance between the mind and the heart.

We try to operate out of the mind when the mind is needed.

We try to operate out of the heart and we are learning still this balance of the mind and the heart.

And another 10,

20,

30,

40 years goes by without having yet mastered how to really be on top of the mind,

How to really be on top of the heart and how to have these two functioning in some synchronicity,

In some alignment.

And then some more opening,

Unfolding of consciousness happens and you discover,

Oh,

There is something even more deeper.

What is that?

We call that spirit,

Soul,

Being,

Whatever name you want to give it,

But we realize there is even something more fundamental to our functioning,

To our energy,

To where we are rooted.

We thought we were in the mind.

We thought we were as deep as heart,

But we realize we are even deeper than that.

We are operating,

We can also operate out of the spirit.

That spirit needs to be ignited.

That spirit needs to be awakened.

And for those who come across this awakening accidentally with going about something with a lot of passion and facing this or that,

Any extremity may cause their spirit to rise,

To awaken,

To see that spark.

They realize that there is so much more than just operating from the mind,

Than just operating from the heart.

Then there is something more that is called a spirit and they go on the path of spirituality.

But then the trouble begins.

Earlier there was only mind to manage,

Then there was heart as well to manage and now there is also spirit over there.

There are these three engines that are functioning with their own power and not always in line,

Not always in synchronicity.

The mind says something,

The heart wants something,

The spirit drives somewhere else.

What to do?

When the mind,

The heart,

The spirit,

All are alive.

One way would be what we are doing,

We kill the spirit,

We kill the heart,

We just say let us just follow what the mind has to say.

But that life is almost dead.

It's almost living just the corpus of life.

There is nothing juicy about it.

There is no aliveness about it.

Then you can say,

Okay,

Let us kill the spirit,

Let us just function out of the mind,

Out of the heart.

You can do that,

But that is so unstable,

It takes you here and there.

You would be very passionate,

But you would not know about what.

You would not know where to go.

You would want to go somewhere,

But where is the direction?

Where to go,

How to decide that?

Heart cannot decide that.

Heart only has that power,

That passion to drive you,

But that will create another sort of unsatisfaction in life.

So the only way to have a full experience of life is to have the mind,

The heart and the spirit all functioning,

But in alignment,

In synchronicity.

This alignment,

This synchronicity,

This balance of the mind,

Of the heart,

Of the spirit is achieved by yoga.

When you are functioning with the mind,

With the heart and your spirit all in one line,

Then everything unfolds for you in life.

Then in everything that you do,

There is happiness,

There is peace,

There is satisfaction,

There is purpose and there is no question.

You are always at home.

This is the simple science of yoga.

This is what one has to learn.

Many just come and live by,

They never have a chance to even learn how to operate out of the heart,

How to operate out of the spirit.

Many come and go who have the awakened heart,

Who have the awakened spirit,

But still don't learn how to have that synchronicity,

How to have that balance,

That alignment,

That moving together the mind,

The heart and the spirit.

So we go on this path of yoga,

Unfolding ways,

Unfolding the science of yoga which Patanjali has put together.

He has put together ways,

Very practical ways in which we can bring this balance into our life which extends from just the practice of meditation in few moments to how we design our lifestyle.

Let us go through the next sutra of Patanjali where he says,

Aha anga anushtanat asuddhi kyase jnanad dipti aviveka kyate By the practice of the limbs of yoga,

The impurities dwindle away and there dawns the light of wisdom,

Leading to the awareness of reality.

What he is talking about here when he says limbs of yoga.

We have already gone through a lot in this journey on yoga but now Patanjali introduces another framework,

Another set of practices which he calls as the Ashtanga yoga,

The eight limbs of yoga.

Now after introducing how to attain Samadhi,

After talking about the highest,

After showing you the peaks of the Himalayas,

He is now slowly stepping down and going into the valley where you are and talking about what practical lifestyle can you bring so that you first of all learn to live in the valley,

Then you will climb to the first peak and the second peak and to the very highest peak.

So his approach is somewhat strange where he starts from the very top,

Maybe he wants to show you how far you can go so that you set your vision,

You set your aim and then he assumes that you are patient enough to reach to the stage where you can be given now the practice,

You can be given that lifestyle of Ashtanga yoga which you can bring into your life,

Into your daily life,

Daily routines leading to that step by step growth towards the highest.

He says by the practice of the limbs of yoga,

The impurities dwindle away and there dawns the light of wisdom,

The impurities,

What are these impurities?

You can think of this imbalance between the mind,

The heart and the spirit.

These impurities that are there in the mind that do not allow the heart to be,

The impurities in the heart that do not allow the spirit to be,

The impurities in the spirit meaning the immaturity of the spirit,

It is almost like the spirit is born in you.

Gurdjieff,

He used to say that man is born without a spirit,

He has to learn to give birth to the spirit.

You can think of it as well you got this body that was your first birth where you got the body and it also took you through a lot of pain,

A lot of learning,

A lot of getting rid of the impurities meaning learning how to function smoothly,

How to reach to that elegance that your mind is at right now,

How to reach to that heart which can express itself and the same is with the birth of the spirit.

While the mind unfolds and allows the heart to function and the heart becomes purer leading to the opening of the spirit,

When the spirit rises in you it also is painful,

It is not as easy as all beautiful as you may assume,

Afterwards yes but the transition,

The process when the spirit is awakening it carries a lot of pain,

It carries also a lot of unfoldment and getting rid of the impurities and almost learning to have that new birth of energy in you.

When you practice yoga that birth of the spirit,

The development of the spirit is more smoother,

It is easier in helping you to get rid of the impurities and there dawns the light of wisdom,

What is that light of wisdom?

It is the light of your spirit,

That spiritual awakening is that light in you which starts to shine upon you,

You notice it,

Others notice it and you start to see that you are now in that light of your own spirit,

You do not need scriptures,

You do not need guidance,

You do not need anybody else to tell you what is right,

What is wrong,

How to be,

You have that very much there in your spirit knowing that knowledge of how to be,

What is it to be a unique individual,

A unique human being,

What does it mean to share love with others and so on,

So that spirit,

That awakening of that spirit in you becomes the light,

Becomes the guide.

Leading to awareness of reality,

Here he is then starting with the guidance for oneself and saying leading to the awareness of reality,

Meaning that highest peak which Patanjali has shown you in his earlier sutras from the very small,

Very practical meaning for yourself to the very large to the divine meaning of the awareness of reality,

The same light leads you to everything that is possible in one's unfoldment of the consciousness.

We will discuss these 8 limbs of yoga in more detail in upcoming sutras but for now let us sit into silence,

Let us awaken the spirit,

Let us awaken the light within us.

Please close your eyes.

Take a posture that is comfortable with your back straight,

Shoulders down,

Head straight,

Face relaxed,

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose,

Allowing your body to rest,

Allowing your awareness to step down from the mind to your heart.

As you become more still,

More silent,

More aware,

Naturally your mind will calm down,

Your awareness will move from the thoughts,

From all the activities in your mind to somewhere deeper that we call as our heart.

Where you move from thinking to feeling.

With every breath move from thinking to feeling,

From words to non-verbal sensations.

For these minutes,

Don't give any energy to thoughts.

Shift all your awareness deeper to non-verbal sensations,

To feelings,

Becoming aware of your inner space.

Awareness settling deeper below the thoughts into the realm of feeling.

With every breath arriving in this moment and simply feeling.

With every breath arriving in this moment and simply feeling.

Allow everything to settle with its own weight and your awareness going deeper and deeper even beyond the feelings to a place where for a moment there are no sensations which appears to be empty.

Allow yourself to reach there,

To move beyond your heart into the depths of your spirit,

Into the emptiness.

With every breath arriving in this moment and simply feeling.

With every breath move deeper beyond the words,

Beyond sensations,

Beyond the feelings,

Into stillness,

Into silence,

Into the vast emptiness of one's own spirit.

Let go of the body.

Let go of the mind or what you carry in your heart and move in silence.

In stillness.

Don't try to do anything.

Allow things to happen.

With every breath allow yourself to go deeper into your emptiness.

Into silence with awareness.

Let go of the mind.

From here you may choose to continue on your own,

Remaining in this silent awareness or bringing your awareness gently back to your body and back to your breath.

You may open your eyes with me.

Feeling this stillness,

This awareness and this sense of balance between your mind,

Your heart and your spirit.

I will see you tomorrow at 7 am Central European Time.

Namaste.