Monthly Archives: June 2023

Svātantyra

A fundamental teaching of Tantra occurs in the beginning of the Pratyabhijñā-hṛdayam: “Consciousness (Citi) in her freedom brings about everything in the universe” (PH 1). The highest Absolute reality as the ground of being manifests relative reality out of its own freedom. The power of freedom, the svātantrya-śakti, is considered the highest form of the power of Consciousness.

Svatantra is an extraordinary and important concept. Usually translated as “free,” it also means “independent,” in that there is no reliance on anything else. The absolute Citi manifests everything as a result of its freedom, or svātantrya. At the level of the highest reality, the absolute Citi is completely free. The freedom implied in svātantrya is a much larger concept than simply liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At the level of the Absolute, it means freedom from any limiting factors, including time, space, and form. It is the ability to be anywhere as anything at any time. It seems inconceivable.

The prefix sva means “self,” and tantra can mean “loom,” (as in “weaving”), so another interpretation of this word is “self-weaving.” She takes the strands of existence and weaves them into the manifest world as we know it. I love this definition, as it invokes the image of our lives as a piece of cloth or a quilt that we create over a lifetime. So the question becomes: What do you want the quilt to be like? All your thoughts and behavior weave what becomes the fabric of your current life and, the tradition says, future lives. This concept of freedom, svātantrya, or self-weaving, is important to consider in all levels of reality. On the level of the relative manifest world, including the path of yoga, it is important to consider how freedom of choice is exercised in all of our actions.

As a fundamental quality of the Absolute, svatantra means that the Highest is completely unlimited, independent, and absolutely free. And out of that freedom, It dances everything into existence. Human beings are the result of that dance. As a wave on the ocean of Consciousness, we also have a fair amount of freedom, though not the unlimited freedom of the Absolute itself. As relative beings, by virtue of being embodied, we are more or less limited depending on our embodied form, social circumstances, progression on the path of yoga, and so on.

In everyday life, choices are often made unconsciously. We might not understand that we are even making a choice or that there are different options. We just mindlessly carry on, often out of personal habit or prescribed social convention. For example, we always brush our teeth or commute to work in a certain way, without even thinking about it. With a pause, we can see how habitual ways of thinking and general mindsets are being activated.

Many times when facing challenging situations, we yearn to go back to “normal,” which essentially means enacting old behavioral patterns. That may not necessarily be bad, but each moment is an opportunity to pause and evaluate whether “normal” is the highest way of being for everyone involved. There is an opportunity to consciously examine these patterns. Then, out of freedom, we can choose how to be. Or, we can unconsciously allow the old patterns to dominate and reiterate, which affects not only our personal lives but society at large.

We think of freedom as a birthright, but it isn’t about the ability to do or enact anything without recourse. Ultimately this can lead to bondage on so many levels. As embodied beings, svātantrya/freedom is being free of the bonds of unconscious, habitual, saṃskāric patterns so that one acts consciously from the highest accessible place, bringing the greatest possible alignment to any given situation.

I once had a teacher who suggested I consider whether or not every one of my actions would lead me farther along the path of yoga. In some ways, this is a really heavy teaching, because it puts responsibility for our lives squarely on us and requires constant mindfulness. It means that we each are responsible for how we weave the fabric of our lives. In each moment, there is a choice to create a more aligned, integrated, and joyful life out of freedom—or one can choose misalignment, disintegration, and suffering.

REFLECT AND EXPLORE

Contemplate the concept of svātantrya. How do you see it playing out in your life?

To what degree do you feel free? Consider your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What inhibits you from feeling free? What encourages a feeling of freedom?

Are there circumstances in which you unconsciously limit your freedom of choice and/or expression?

Under which circumstances do you feel most free?

Adhikāra

Before a student can appropriately receive practices that will move them along the path of yoga, they must be willing and ready. This willingness and readiness is related to the adhikāra of the student. I first learned this word as “studentship,” as in the degree of aspiration one had, as well as the proclivities of the student. One could be tepid or lackadaisical, or somewhat motivated with moderate studentship, or a very intense and dedicated practitioner (for example, see YS 1.22). One could be more open and receptive to different perspectives, or more rigid in their thinking.

In the yoga tradition, adhikāra relates to who is entitled, eligible, or qualified to receive a practice. For example, it was customary during earlier eras like Upaniṣadic times, that most practices were restricted to Brahmin men. Others were not entitled and seen as ineligible. A different and much less restrictive perspective is that adhikāra relates to the degree to which a student is prepared, ready, and interested in receiving practices and teachings. In part, this has to do with the capacity of one’s awareness and receptivity. Adhikāra relates to how a student should take the first and subsequent steps on the path of yoga, given their current degree of evolution of consciousness, which is related to the degree of śaktipāta they’ve received.

It is useful to think about this in other domains of practice and study. For example, the system of yoga in which I started had a well-established sequence of yoga āsanas, and one did not progress to a more advanced level until they displayed competence in the previous level, and were, therefore, ready to move forward. This is true in many domains of study, like mathematics, wherein one must first become proficient in fundamental concepts before receiving more advanced concepts. In both cases there is a sequence that is useful to follow.

Likewise, in the domain of consciousness particular practices are more or less appropriate for particular individuals, depending on the progress of the practitioner along the path of yoga. Many may sincerely wish for more advanced practices, though they are not prepared and may not have the capacity to receive the benefits, given their current state of awareness. Some say that advanced practices given to someone who is not ready for them can be harmful. More likely the practices just won’t be effective, which can be discouraging to a student. Often it requires a previous practice of meditation to properly “prime” the practitioner for other ancillary practices to be most effective.

Adhikāra has a lot to do with the aspiration of the student. The student must first want to step into the journey of yoga and be receptive to seeking out a teacher. For example, throughout the Bhagavad Gītā, Arjuna seeks guidance from Kṛṣṇa by asking progressively more astute questions, signaling his readiness and capacity to receive more. Adhikāra is reflected in students’ prior cultivation of their practice and study, so that the ground of their awareness is properly prepared for the seeds of further practices and teachings to flourish.

REFLECT AND EXPLORE

Write down your definition of adhikāra.

How have you seen your adhikāra play out on your path of yoga?

Have you ever had a teacher dissuade you in some way from moving into a more advanced practice? What do you think about that?

Consider these attributes of adhikāra: receptivity, fluidity, curiosity, groundedness, regularity, dedication, stamina, commitment, aspiration, degree of knowledge or awareness. What other attributes of adhikāra do you think are important?

Specifically consider your own adhikāra regarding any of the above listed (or other) attributes:

– which best describes you?

– which you tend toward?

– which you feel you need to cultivate more?

Hanuman and Jambavan

Hanuman is a character who is revered for his devotion and service to the divine. However, in his childhood and youth, he was quite precocious and sometimes acted in ways that were mischievous and even dangerous. On one such occasion he was knocked unconscious by Indra, which upset his father Vayu, the wind, who withdrew the prāṇa from the world. To appease Vayu and avoid suffocation, the Gods bestowed upon Hanuman a number of yogic powers.

Hanuman is often associated with bhakti yoga, or love of the divine, and he figures prominently in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana, in which he is devoted to his Beloved Rama and Sita. When Sita was captured by the demon Ravana and held in Sri Lanka, the rescue parties who gathered on the shores of India were consternated as to how or who had the ability to traverse the ocean to save Sita.

In this moment, Jambavan, a great friend of Hanuman’s, stepped forward to remind Hanuman of his yogic powers and ability to conquer the task. Jambuvan tells Hanuman his life story and of his great powers. Hanuman then gathers up his power to make the leap, thereby reuniting Ram and Sita. Hence the yoga posture bearing his name is Hanumanasana (also known as the splits).

This story teaches us the beauty of companionship and of a spiritual community, called the kula or saṅgha. Fellow practitioners are each a kalyāṇa–mitra. Kalyāṇa means “beautiful, virtuous, or good,” and mitra is a “friend,” so kalyāṇa–mitra refers to a spiritual friend, companion on a spiritual path, a friend of virtue, or a good counselor. And the kula, the collection of spiritual friends, is greater than each of our individual selves. Each brings the gift of their own experience, their spiritual knowledge. This is a wonderful teaching about how as friends in community we can all encourage each other and ourselves to bring our gifts forward. For this to be successful, of course, the community members have to be actively practicing and studying, not just being passive recipients of the teachings.

It is interesting to consider relationships we’ve been in, and how they led to further growth in life. Sometimes we need someone else to remind us of our greatness, and sometimes our friends simply show up to support us in our work, like Hanuman does repeatedly in the Ramayana. Other times our friends have the difficult task of reminding us when we’re out of alignment and behaving badly, as the Gods did in Hanuman’s youth. This latter has been among the best help I have received from my friends, even though usually it was the hardest help to receive.

Each of us is blessed with particular assets, be they physical, artistic, scientific, or simply being a good parent or friend, among many other possibilities. Our community and the larger world benefits from our remembrance of our gifts and bringing forth our unique contribution. Our friends, family, teachers, and the process of yoga itself serve to remind us of our own greatness. Douglas Brooks teaches that you are every character in the story. So we are each Hanuman, who here forgets his own greatness and many abilities. And we are each Jambavan, reminding each other of all we have to offer. Like Jambavan, may we each encourage the greatness of others, reminding them of their beauty and talents, especially when they’ve forgotten. And, like Hanuman, may we remember our own greatness, and harness our gifts in service of the divine. In this way, we can all be kalyāṇa–mitra for each other.

REFLECT AND EXPLORE

How have you experienced the power of the kula and those who are walking the path with you, your kalyāṇa–mitra?

How can you be a better spiritual friend?

Yogic Qualities as Emergent Qualities

Anyone exploring yoga and spirituality learns about its many edicts, all the ways yogis are supposed to be as spiritual practitioners. For example, in the Yoga Sūtra, the yamas and the niyamas are the first two limbs of the famous aṣṭāṅga/eight-limbed system (YS 2.29). They include qualities like nonharming, truthfulness, nonstealing, cleanliness, and more. Elsewhere in the Yoga Sūtra are listed several attributes to cultivate on the path of yoga, such as joy, equanimity, faith, and strength (YS 1.20 and 1.33). These are treasured attributes of the path of yoga.

As I began studying the texts in my early days as a yoga practitioner, I earnestly tried to cultivate in my daily life the qualities I read about. I imagined myself embodying various attributes, much like the New Age notion of visualizing some outcome one wishes to manifest. However, if one works only on the level of the relative surface existence, success may be relatively limited.

Consider that these treasured attributes are innate capacities of the heart that may be blocked or veiled to some degree, so success in cultivating these qualities is directly correlated with the clarity of awareness and the ability to access the highest within. A more potent and effective means of manifesting them is to align with the deepest self—that which rules over everything else. As one becomes more aligned with the Highest and refines awareness, innate capacities of the heart begin to naturally emerge and flow.

Since these qualities are actually already within us, it is simply a matter of unleashing them. The process of yoga eliminates and shifts our habitual patterns/saṃskāras and they no longer guide behavior. As awareness becomes more clear and lucid, the responses these yogic virtues represent will naturally arise. These positive characteristics can be thought of as emergent qualities. They naturally emerge as the practices move us farther along the path to greater awareness and clarity.

Like many things in yoga, cultivating these virtues is a bit paradoxical as they are both the result of practice, and they are practices in and of themselves. The world desperately needs each of us to embody these qualities, so it is good to cultivate them to whatever degree possible. The more we consciously bring these attributes into awareness, the more our being will be colored by them. And as well, the more we practice and generally clarify our awareness, the more these qualities will naturally and spontaneously emerge.

These qualities are dharmic—they help hold things together on the surface of life. As we cultivate these virtues, they create more positive saṃskāras and fewer negative saṃskāras as we proceed along the path, as they begin to arise spontaneously more frequently. Most importantly, they have a positive effect on our own lives and on the world at large.

REFLECT AND EXPLORE

How have you found positive qualities of the heart arising along the path of yoga?

How do you find them easier to cultivate over time?

How do you observe them spontaneously arising?

Samādhi and Prajñā

Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra considers several yogic qualities and the last two are samādhi and prajñā, which have a variety of nuanced meanings. The topic of samādhi is huge, evidenced by the first chapter of the Yoga Sūtra being entitled “samādhi,” and the great number of aphorisms which address it throughout the text. Briefly, samādhi refers to a meditative state of awareness with various stages, the ultimate involves a complete identification with the object of meditation. Prajñā is generally translated as wisdom. These two words can be seen as separate, or some interpret them as a phrase meaning “the wisdom of samādhi.”

In the process of meditation, one moves through the increasingly refined stages of samādhi, into the depths of awareness and the essence of reality. There’s a lot to say about the process and the effects that it has on us that is beyond the scope of the present discussion. But basically our awareness becomes clarified such that we see things more clearly. This allows us to begin to see the essence of reality, of who we are, and the nature of everything.

This clarity is associated with prajñā, translated as wisdom, insight, and discernment. It is a profound knowledge based on the increased awareness we experience in deep states of meditation. So there’s a sense of clarity and a wisdom arising from the deepest connection with the highest, yielding the ability to see things as they really are. That’s why some translators pair these two as the wisdom (prajñā) that is inherent in samādhi.

So our practice of yoga, particularly meditation, creates the conditions for this wisdom to emerge. As well, such knowledge reinforces the previous qualities listed: we have more faith/ śraddhā in the process of yoga and increased vīrya/strength. Smṛti/remembering is supported with this clarity of awareness, and one thing we remember is that connectedness the state of samādhi ultimately yields. The practical consequence is that as we access this wisdom within, it guides us in all our householder activities so that our life begins to reflect the highest possible outcomes.

REFLECT AND EXPLORE

Contemplate and write about samādhi and prajñā.

How have you experienced increasing discernment on your path of yoga?

How do you see the connection between all the five qualities listed in Yoga Sūtra 1.20?