Beginning on Monday, 1/23/12, Monday Night Class moves to the new Princeton Center for Yoga & Health:
PCYH @ Orchard Hill Center 88 Orchard Road Skillman, NJ 08558
In beauty may I walk All day long may I walk Through the returning seasons may I walk…. With dew about my feet may I walk With beauty before me may I walk With beauty behind me may I walk With beauty above me may I walk With beauty all around me may I walk It is finished in beauty It is finished in beauty -Navaho Beauty Way
I brought in three short readings to complement tonight’s sutras. Each offers a counterpoint to the sutra. The first, from Lalla goes beautifully with II, 43: As intense discipline burns up impurities, the body and its senses become supremely purified.
The steed called mind roams space, covering one hundred thousand miles in the blink of an eye. He who does not know how to tether it is apt to be battered to death by the inbreath and the outbreath. -Lalla
The second, from Swami Vivekananda has an interesting resonance with II, 44: Self-study deepens communion with one’s personal deity.
If there is any road to Heaven, it is through Hell. Through Hell to Heaven is always the way. When the soul has wrestled with circumstance and has met death, a thousand times death on the way, but nothing daunted has struggled forward again and again and yet again — then the soul comes out as a giant and laughs at the ideal he has been struggling for, because he finds how much greater is he than the ideal. -Swami Vivekananda
The third pairs nicely with II, 45: Through orientation toward the ideal of pure awareness, one can achieve integration.
What stands in the way of course is always the vital ego with its ignorance and the pride of its ignorance and the physical consciousness with its inertia which resents and resists any call to change and its indolence which does not like to take the trouble — finds it more comfortable to go on its own way repeating always the same old movements and, at best, expecting everything to be done for it in some way or at some time. -Sri Aurobindo
We’ve circled back to Patanjali, returning to where we left off during the summer, Book II, 43-45. These sutras elaborate the last three niyamas–which Patanjali classifies as kriya-yoga (aka, the Yoga of Action.) Remember, the niyamas, which we can think of as internal disciplines are considered the second limb of Yoga. The yamas or external disciplines are the first. Here are the sutras:
[Chip Hartranft's version]
II, 43 As intense discipline burns up impurities, the body and its senses become supremely purified. II, 44. Self-study deepens communion with one’s personal deity. II, 45 Through orientation toward the ideal of pure awareness, one can achieve integration.
Since many at class asked me to post this talk asap, I’ve done minimal editing. I usually remove extraneous laughter, asides, etc. This clip leaves most of that in. Since the talk was composed of three sections, I’ve divided the clips accordingly.
Here’s the main Dharma Talk on Sutras II 43-45, aka Kriya-Yoga:
Here’s the clip citing Nischala Joy Devi’s translation and connecting of Gayatri Mantra with these three sutras:
The third clip contains quotes I read at the end of my talk. I’ll post that clip along with the text in a few days.
Finally, here’s a lovely quote to inspire your week…
It is not meaning that we need but sight…
-Lawrence Durrell
Since this week’s class fell on Halloween, I was moved to acknowledge Samhain, the ancient Celtic holiday from which our modern celebration springs.
Here are Samhain blessings I read at class:
May wonder ever illumine your souls as the candle does a room on a long, winter night, may joy blow through your heart with the intensity of the north wind in a blizzard, may peace cover your lives like a blanket of fresh fallen snow.
May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far…
May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may you be held in the hands of Grace.
Harry Potter notwithstanding, Samhain’s special connection to the Dark Goddess has been distorted in our Halloween iconography of witches on broomsticks. It is however, a night to honor the Dark Mother, so I opened class with a medley of Kali chants. Here’s the dharma talk that followed that soaring flight of luminosity…
The impulse to chant the Gayatri mantra 2 weeks ago was just that – a strong sense that this was the correct practice for that evening. It was all about infusing ourselves with light as we move into the new fall season. As Gayatri is to Light, Navarna is to Truth. So it seemed only right to add Navarna to the mix. And now, as Navarna is to Truth, Tarika/Dhumavati-Bija is to infinite possibility. So layering these three mantras over these three weeks strikes me as a triadic blessing invoked during this sacred (which really means powerful) time of year.
This week’s Chant: The Sublime Tarika & Dhumavati Bija mantras.
Here’s this week’s dharma talk, inspired by the Tarika-Dhumavati bija mantras. It also touches on the Mangalam and quotes these lines from the Katha Upanishad…
Beyond the senses are the objects, Beyond the objects is the mind, Beyond the mind, the intellect, Beyond the intellect, the ātman, Beyond the ātman, the non-manifest, Beyond the non-manifest, the spirit, Beyond the spirit, there is nothing. This is the end, pure awareness.
For those who’ve been asking for a recording of the Mangalam, here it is, along with words to the chant and translation/commentary. So many people ask about developing a daily inner work practice. This is a beautiful chant to include. What better way to start (or end) your day than naming and blessing each and every aspect of creation!
May there be peace in earth, water, fire, and air, the sun, moon, and planet, in all living beings, in body, mind and heart. May that peace be everywhere and in everyone.
Mangala is an adjective meaning auspicious, lucky, fortunate, etc. With the suffix “m,” it becomes a noun: auspiciousness, luck, etc. It is also related to the goddess Durga suggesting, “one whose touch brings ecstasy.”
We will return to Patanjali, I promise. For the time being though, we’re luxuriating in mantra practice inspired by the fall season. This cycle of practice/teachings constellates around a family of mantras beloved to long-time Monday Nighters: Gayatri, Navarna, and Tarika Bija. I’ll likely add a handful of others to the mix, but want to underline the potency and power of these three as catalysts for illuminating and strengthening the inner being (Gayatri and Navarna) and infusing that interior essence with majesty, generosity, and grace (Tarika Bija).
Here’s a sound clip from the Navarna class on 9/26. I tried using a microphone I thought would give a better recording. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. You’ll have to listen carefully to hear DanJ’s tabla. And while I was able to salvage the dharana I gave at the end of class, the volumeof my commentary is too low. So, that bit of dharma talk remains only in the memories of those who were there. If you want to chant or listen to the Navarna mantra however, this clip will be just fine…
In closing, here are the excerpts from the Ramprasad poem I read at the end of class. This is from Lex Hixon’s book, Mother of the Universe, his ecstatic collection of Ramprasad’s poetry. This one’s on page 180:
Kali is naked reality. She is the feminine principle, unifying wisdom. This simpleminded lover of truth calls her my mother, my mother, because she is the inexhaustible affection who never neglects her children….
This poet urges every human heart: “If you wish to be liberated from oppression, abandon whatever limits you cling to and meditate on the limitless one who wears limitation as a garland of heads severed by her sword of nondual wisdom.”
For readers who’ve found this blog online and may not be familiar with the Navarna mantra or Goddess Kali, let me simply suggest you can think of Kali an an archetype of Truth–and think of the Navarna mantra as the lifeblood of that truth. So chanting this mantra nourishes, strengthens, and vitalizes your connection to, you guessed it, your innate sense of truth.
For those who want a Gayatri track to chant along with, here’s class recitation from 9/19. This is ***not*** the 108 reps we did later that evening. This is the Walk-In Open Chant from 7:30-8 pm. Sound quality is not great which is why I didn’t include it in the earlier post. It just occurred to me however that not-so-great audio not withstanding, some people might like the “good company” — and there’s definitely shakti in the track!
Although I have every intention of returning to our journey through Patanjali, I’m not quite ready to go there. It’s something about this season. The sense of fall’s new beginning combined with its dwindling of the light. Autumn Equinox, Navaratri, Rosh Hashanah. It makes me want to sing the Name, to fill up with the luminosity of Being, to allow the teachings to come entirely from within.
This week’s class was inspired by CG Jung’s famous quote:
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
We also chanted 108 repetitions of the Gayatri Mantra. If you’re unfamiliar with this Vedic mantra, I will tell you it’s considered the sonic form of light. Difficult though this concept is to grasp, one need only chant it for awhile to have the inner experience break open. It’s also considered the “Mother of the Vedas,” meaning the insight embedded in the syllables gives birth to all knowledge. I highly recommend chanting it every day through the end of the fall season. Here are words and a simple translation/commentary.
Om Bhur Bhuvah Svaha Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat
Earth. Atmosphere. Heavens. We meditate on the sacred light of the effulgent source. Let that light inspire our thoughts.
I’m also uploading my dharma talk from this class. It runs around fifteen minutes and ends with a few repetitions of the Gayatri.
If you want a preview for class on 9/26, we’ll be chanting the amazing Navarna Mantra!
This is where you'll find posts of readings from class and uploads of dharma talks and meditations, along with thoughts on living Yoga... I started this blog as we worked our way through Stephen Mitchell's lovely translation of the "Tao Te Ching," expanding the readings with stories, sacred text, and poetry from parallel wisdom traditions.
In Spring, 2011, we entered into a new cycle of teachings, working with the classic text of yogic psychology, "The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali." The versions of this text I've tended to work with are:
Chip Hartranft: The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Mukunda Stiles: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Nischala Joy Devi: The Secret Power of Yoga
Two excellent commentaries that elegantly flesh out the Yoga- Sutra for 21st century readers are:
Michael Stone: The Inner Tradition of Yoga
Stephen Cope: The Wisdom of Yoga
We're currently taking a break from Patanjali to open up more class time for mantra and meditation practice. My plan has always been to return to Patanjali. Perhaps that plan will prevail. And then again, perhaps we'll move in another direction. The Shiva Sutras have been calling me. Perhaps that's where we're headed in 2012...
