In this article I will discuss;
The meaning of Life.
How we can each engage with that meaning in order to bring fulfillment and joy into our own life.
The wisdom that Yoga offers to guide and support that.
When I say "Yoga" I refer to to my understanding of the ancient texts of Yoga, primarily the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
And to my experience of the results of practising the principles therein.
(More of these in future articles)
What wisdom did the great yogi sages, the ascended masters, offer us?
That Life as a whole, everything, the universe, has a point/meaning/direction/purpose.
And so, as inseparable parts of that whole, we share that purpose.
That we can know that point.
That we can directly experience, live, be, the understanding of it.
So how does Yoga relate to that?
Yoga and Life share the same purpose
Yoga practice is conscious engagement with Life's overall purpose on an individual level.
It is a deliberate journey to a specific destination.
Yoga is a hands-on, applied-science/philosophy of Life.
It says ... "This is what Life's purpose is, and here's some practical ways to do your part in fulfilling that purpose".
What is the purpose?
The Big Question, huh?
The only question, perhaps.
According to Yoga ( a Vedic philosophy - more later), the Big Answer is ...
Absolute Truth is the purpose.
The Truth of ourselves, and through that, the Truth of the universe.
The Knowing and Being of that which we Are, of that which Is.
The Absolute Truth of our Self has many names in the relative universe.
Yoga refers to It as Purusha (in Sankrit), which I will translate here as Soul.
Quantum mechanics calls it Consciousness.
While the Soul is a portion of the Whole, It is also the Whole.
That which has no boundaries, no form, can have no measurement, cannot be divided.
We are a part and we are the Whole, in the same way that a hologram has the entire whole in every part.
Yoga refers to that Whole as Isvara. (aka The Great Spirit, God, Love, Freedom, Atman, Brahman, Isvara, Allah, Yahweh, Jehovah, Om, Jah, Krishna, Shiva, All-Glorious, Satnam, One-ness, The Is, The All ... so many many more names for that which has no name).
Hence, Soul/Consciousness is Isvara/God.
We are God (please insert whichever name pleases you).
Absolute Truth is before words, beyond words, and words can only ever be relative/subjective.
Words are limited.
They are signposts that point in the direction of understandings/knowings/experiences/things (ooooer ... more words), they are not the things, themselves.
Words have different meaning to different people and at different moments.
If we do not understand the language being spoken, they mean nothing.
It is the personal individual experiencing of Truth that is the goal, not just an intellectual/superficial/incomplete understanding which is all that words (or indeed any other symbols) can provide.
Yoga posits that Infinite Soul (Purusha) is forever interacting/dancing/flowing with Infinite Energy (Prakriti) to create all the manifest universe.
Everything in the manifest universe coalesces around Soul, and Soul, ultimately, governs that manifestation.
Thus we are creators of our own universe.
We are God (or whatever, as above).
Yoga says that coming to Knowing, and fully Being this eternal creative dance, is the goal of our existence.
How does Yoga help with that?
Yoga says there are only three ways to know a thing.
- Inference/deduction: Someone has come into the house dripping wet... it must be raining.
- Reliable testimony: A friend says "It's raining".
- Direct experience: We go out, we get wet.
Of these #3 is the only absolute sure way to Know a thing.
Yoga says that, ultimately, we do not need words, that we can directly experience the Truth/Self/Soul.
Yoga offers "this is likely to happen" ... "that is what you may find" ... "here is an understanding" ...
But the sages say "don't take our words for it, you too can know Truth for yourself".
It is made very clear that we can, and must, find our own way, our own Truth.
The Truth is in there.
We are Infinite Soul, just like all the ascended masters and sages.
We have all knowledge, all wisdom inside us.
We must refer to our own authority as the ultimate teacher.
Always in the awareness that that authority is based in the True Soul/Self, not in the erroneous ego/small-self.
Yoga states that we live in darkness/ignorance/error (avidya).
We do not know what we Are.
This ignorance is caused by distortions in the mind, due to our conditioning and our karma from past lives.
It is the source of all our ills and suffering.
Thus, in order to find our way out of the dark, we must clear the mind.
The clearer our mind becomes, the more we experience what we really Are.
So, Yoga is a clarifying/mastering/calming of the mind.
Yoga is a mental process.
Yoga offers a broad spectrum of tools (way beyond the bending and stretching we usually associate with it) to assist us in coming to this knowing.
More detail of these tools in future articles.
What will happen as we progress?
There are stages/landmarks along the way to full Knowing.
We will probably experience plateaus with periodic leaps-forward.
But, with commitment/dedication/courage (abhyasa) and non-attachment/surrender to the outcomes (vairagya), progress and success are certain.
Yoga scriptures do tell us what we might expect on our journey.
We become freer, in body and mind, as we increasingly express Soul.
We become more whole.
We become happier, more fulfilled in each moment.
Our relationships with each other and the world are more harmonious and joyful.
Our actions are more in balance with the laws of Nature.
We become settled/stable/peaceful in our own Being.
Our innate hidden powers/strengths (siddhis) develop and blossom.
We suffer less, less pain, less dis-ease, less conflict.
Our hidden Divinity shines more and more into our daily life.
The caterpillar gradually becomes the butterfly.
We blossom.
I can confirm this.
And when we arrive at Full Knowing?
I don't Fully Know . :b
Here's some words ... which we currently have to take as the testimony of reliable witnesses ( the great yogis);
We come to know ourselves as, and act as, Soul, as streams of Consciousness all flowing from the One, from Source.
We become masters of the eternal dance of Consciousness and Energy.
We become Free.
No more are we limited by our error/misperception, or by illusions of time/space/form.
We ascend to our highest Self, beyond our current ability to conceive.
We become free of suffering, pain, dis-ease.
We stop re-incarnating, released from the birth-death-rebirth cycle, immortal, eternal.
We are no longer bound to physical density.
We are endless potential/possibility.
Limitless power.
Infinite joy.
Yes, please.
Conclusion
Life has inbuilt, innate, fundamental, purpose/pattern/cohesion/meaning/harmony ... like an endless grand symphony.
We, each individual, are conductor, musician and instrument playing in that symphony.
But we are playing out-of-tune.
We can become in tune.
There are ways to become in tune.
When we become in tune ... the beauty of the music will be beyond our imagination.
