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The Third Eye

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

“Having returned and eaten, the Lord put away his bowl and cloak, bathed his feet, and sat with legs crossed and body upright upon the seat arranged for him, mindfully fixing attention in front of himself.”

I remember reading this passage several years ago and thinking that this refered to holding his attention in the Ajna Chakra (Third Eye). Ajna is Sanskrit for control.

Sutra 54, Book II, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali reads: “Abstraction (or Pratyahara) is the subjugation of the senses by the thinking principle and their withdrawal from that which has hitherto been their object.”

And if you care to look up Pratyahara in Wikipedia here’s what you’ll find: “Apart from Pranayama, another device that is used to aid in the development of Pratyahara is to concentrate on the point between the eyebrows. This location is known as Ajna Chakra or the third eye.” Is this the root of the nose that some authors on meditation refer to?

Go to Ajna Chakra in Wikipedia and someone wrote that“it represents the superior mental consciousness that favors the direct perception over the invisible worlds, and the direct perception of the subtle aspects of manifestation.”

It is said that the Buddha was born, enlightened and died at the full moon of Taurus whose esoteric key note is: “I see and when the eye is opened all is light”.

May you awaken and be free.

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Sutras of Patanjali – Book II

Friday, June 29th, 2007

We take the second section from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali today. Part 1 focused on the problem of union. Part 2 now focuses on the steps to union. There’s a lot in here to absorb and a lot of technical details. I’ve provided links to explain the various concepts.

  1. The Yoga of action, leading to union with the soul is fiery aspiration, spiritual reading and devotion to Ishvara.
  2. The aim of these three is to bring about soul vision and to eliminate obstructions.
  3. These are the difficulty producing hindrances: Avidya (ignorance) the sense of personality, desire, hate and the sense of attachment.
  4. Avidya (ignorance) is the cause of all the other obstructions whether they be latent, in process of elimination, overcome, or in full operation.
  5. Avidya is the condition of confusing the permanent, pure, blissful and the Self with that which is impermanent, impure, painful and the not-self.
  6. The sense of personality is due to the identification of the knower with the instruments of knowledge.
  7. Desire is attachment to objects of pleasure.
  8. Hate is aversion for any object of the senses.
  9. Intense desire for sentient existence is attachment. This is inherent in every form, is self-perpetuating, and known even to the very wise.
  10. These five hindrances, when subtly known, can be overcome by an opposing mental attitude.
  11. Their activities are to be done away with, through the meditation process.
  12. Karma itself has its root in these five hindrances and must come to fruition in this life or in some later life.
  13. So long as the roots (or samskaras) exist, their fruition will be birth, life, and experiences resulting in pleasure or pain.
  14. These seeds (or samskaras) produce pleasure or pain according as their originating cause was good or evil.
  15. To the illuminated man all existence (in the three worlds) is considered pain owing to the activities of the gunas. These activities are threefold, producing consequences, anxieties and subliminal impressions.
  16. Pain which is yet to come may be warded off.
  17. The illusion that the Perceiver and that which is perceived are one and the same is the cause (of the pain-producing effects) which must be warded off.
  18. That which is perceived has three qualities, sattva, rajas and tamas (rhythm, mobility and inertia); it consists of the elements and the sense organs. The use of these produces experience and eventual liberation.
  19. The divisions of the gunas (or qualities of matter) are fourfold; the specific, the non-specific, the indicated and the untouchable.
  20. The seer is pure knowledge (gnosis). Though pure, he looks upon the presented idea through the medium of the mind.
  21. All that is exists for the sake of the soul.
  22. In the case of the man who has achieved yoga (or union) the objective universe has ceased to be. Yet it existeth still for those who are not yet free.
  23. The association of the soul with the mind and thus with that which the mind perceives, produces an understanding of the nature of that which is perceived and likewise of the Perceiver.
  24. The cause of this association is ignorance or Avidya. This has to be overcome.
  25. When ignorance is brought to an end through non-association with the things perceived, this is the great liberation.
  26. The state of bondage is overcome through perfectly maintained discrimination.
  27. The knowledge (or illumination) achieved is sevenfold and is attained progressively.
  28. When the means to yoga have been steadily practised, and when impurity has been overcome, enlightenment takes place, leading up to full illumination.
  29. The eight means of yoga are, the Commandments or Yama, the Rules or Nijama, posture or Asana, right control of life-force or Pranayama, abstraction or Pratyahara, attention or Dharana, Meditation or Dhyana, Contemplation or Samadhi.
  30. Harmlessness, truth to all beings, abstention from theft, from incontinence and from avarice, constitute yama or the five commandments.
  31. Yama (or the five commandments) constitutes the universal duty and is irrespective of race, place, time or emergency.
  32. Internal and external purification, contentment, fiery aspiration, spiritual reading and devotion to Ishvara constitutes nijama (or the five rules).
  33. When thoughts which are contrary to yoga are present there should be the cultivation of their opposite.
  34. Thoughts contrary to yoga are harmfulness, falsehood, theft, incontinence, and avarice, whether committed personally, caused to be committed or approved of, whether arising from avarice, anger or delusion (ignorance); whether slight in the doing, middling or great. These result always in excessive pain and ignorance. For this reason, the contrary thoughts must be cultivated.
  35. In the presence of him who has perfected harmlessness, all enmity ceases.
  36. When truth to all beings is perfected, the effectiveness of his words and acts is immediately to be seen.
  37. When abstention from theft is perfected, the yogi can have whatever he desires.
  38. By abstention from incontinence, energy is acquired.
  39. When abstention from avarice is perfected, there comes an understanding of the law of rebirth.
  40. Internal and external purification produces aversion for form, both one’s own and all forms.
  41. Through purification comes also a quiet spirit, concentration, conquest of the organs, and ability to see the Self.
  42. As a result of contentment bliss is achieved.
  43. Through fiery aspiration and through the removal of all impurity, comes the perfecting of the bodily powers and of the senses.
  44. Spiritual reading results in a contact with the soul (or divine One).
  45. Through devotion to Ishvara the goal of meditation (or Samadhi) is reached.
  46. The posture assumed must be steady and easy.
  47. Steadiness and ease of posture is to be achieved through persistent slight effort and through the concentration of the mind upon the infinite.
  48. When this is attained, the pairs of opposites no longer limit.
  49. When right posture (asana) has been attained there follows right control of prana and proper inspiration and expiration of the breath.
  50. Right control of prana (or the life currents) is external, internal or motionless; it is subject to place, time and number and is also protracted or brief.
  51. There is a fourth stage which transcends those dealing with the internal and external phases.
  52. Through this, that which obscures the light is gradually removed.
  53. And the mind is prepared for concentrated meditation.
  54. Abstraction (or Pratyahara) is the subjugation of the senses by the thinking principle and their withdrawal from that which has hitherto been their object.
  55. As a result of these means there follows the complete subjugation of the sense organs.
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Sutras of Patanjali – Book I

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

The The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, apparently written between 800 BCE and 300 BCE. That places it in the time of the Buddha. For the Zen practitioner there are some interesting insights if not least as an important backdrop for the flowering of the Buddha. Take a look.

  1. AUM. The following instruction concerneth the Science of Union.
  2. This Union (or Yoga) is achieved through the subjugation of the psychic nature, and the restraint of the chitta (or mind).
  3. When this has been accomplished, the Yogi knows himself as he is in reality.
  4. Up till now the inner man has identified himself with his forms and with their active modifications.
  5. The mind states are five, and are subject to pleasure or pain; they are painful or not painful.
  6. These modifications (activities) are correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, fancy, passivity (sleep) and memory.
  7. The basis of correct knowledge is correct perception, correct deduction, and correct witness (or accurate evidence).
  8. Incorrect knowledge is based upon perception of the form and not upon the state of being.
  9. Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence.
  10. Passivity (sleep) is based upon the quiescent state of the vrittis (or upon the non-perception of the senses.)
  11. Memory is the holding on to that which has been known.
  12. The control of these modifications of the internal organ, the mind, is to be brought about through tireless endeavor and through non-attachment.
  13. Tireless endeavor is the constant effort to restrain the modifications of the mind.
  14. When the object to be gained is sufficiently valued, and the efforts towards its attainment are persistently followed without intermission, then the steadiness of the mind (restraint of the vrittis) is secured.
  15. Non-attachment is freedom from longing for all objects of desire, either earthly or traditional, either here or hereafter.
  16. The consummation of this non-attachment results in an exact knowledge of the spiritual man when liberated from the qualities or gunas.
  17. The consciousness of an object is attained by concentration upon its fourfold nature: the form, through examination; the quality (or guna), through discriminative participation; the purpose, through inspiration (or bliss) ; and the soul, through indentification.
  18. A further stage of samadhi is achieved when, through one pointed thought, the outer activity is quieted. In this stage, the chitta is responsive only to subjective impressions.
  19. The samadhi just described passes not beyond the bound of the phenomenal world; it passes not beyond the Gods, and those concerned with the concrete world.
  20. Other yogins achieve samadhi and arrive at a discrimination of pure Spirit through belief, followed by energy, memory, meditation and right perception.
  21. The attainment of this state (spiritual consciousness) is rapid for those whose will is intensely alive.
  22. Those who employ the will likewise differ, for its use may be intense, moderate, or gentle. In respect to the attainment of true spiritual consciousness there is yet another way.
  23. By intense devotion to Ishvara, knowledge of Ishvara is gained.
  24. This Ishvara is the soul, untouched by limitation, free from karma, and desire.
  25. In Ishvara, the Gurudeva, the germ of all knowledge expands into infinity.
  26. Ishvara, the Gurudeva, being unlimited by time conditions, is the teacher of the primeval Lords.
  27. The Word of Ishvara is AUM (or OM). This is the Pranava.
  28. Through the sounding of the Word and through reflection upon its meaning, the Way is found.
  29. From this comes the realization of the Self (the soul) and the removal of all obstacles.
  30. The obstacles to soul cognition are bodily disability, mental inertia, wrong questioning, carelessness, laziness, lack of dispassion, erroneous perception, inability to achieve concentration, failure to hold the meditative attitude when achieved.
  31. Pain, despair, misplaced bodily activity and wrong direction (or control) of the life currents are the results of the obstacles in the lower psychic nature.
  32. To overcome the obstacles and their accompaniments, the intense application of the will to some one truth (or principle) is required.
  33. The peace of the chitta (or mind stuff) can be brought about through the practice of sympathy, tenderness, steadiness of purpose, and dispassion in regard to pleasure or pain, or towards all forms of good or evil.
  34. The peace of the chitta is also brought about by the regulation of the prana or life breath.
  35. The mind can be trained to steadiness through those forms of concentration which have relation to the sense perceptions.
  36. By meditation upon Light and upon Radiance, knowledge of the Spirit can be reached and thus peace can be achieved.
  37. The chitta is stabilized and rendered free from illusion as the lower nature is purified and no longer indulged.
  38. Peace (steadiness of the chitta) can be reached through meditation on the knowledge which dreams give.
  39. Peace can also be reached through concentration upon that which is dearest to the heart.
  40. Thus his realization extends from the infinitely small to the infinitely great, and from annu (the atom or speck) to atma (or spirit) his knowledge is perfected.
  41. To him whose vrittis (modifications of the substance of the mind) are entirely controlled, there eventuates a state of identity with, and similarity to that which is realized. The knower, knowledge and the field of knowledge become one, just as the crystal takes to itself the colors of that which is reflected in it.
  42. When the perceiver blends the word, the idea (or meaning) and the object, this is called the mental condition of judicial reasoning.
  43. Perception without judicial reasoning is arrived at when the memory no longer holds control, the word and the object are transcended and only the idea is present.
  44. The same two processes of concentration, with and without judicial action of the mind, can be applied also to things subtle.
  45. The gross leads into the subtle and the subtle leads in progressive stages to that state of pure spiritual being called Pradhana.
  46. All this constitutes meditation with seed.
  47. When this supercontemplative state is reached, the Yogi acquires pure spiritual realization through the balanced quiet of the chitta (or mind stuff).
  48. His perception is now unfailingly exact (or his mind reveals only the Truth).
  49. This particular perception is unique and reveals that which the rational mind (using testimony, inference and deduction) cannot reveal.
  50. It is hostile to, or supersedes all other impressions.
  51. When this state of perception is itself also restrained (or superseded), then is pure Samadhi achieved.
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