Attainment of Non-Attachment

Cultivation of Abhyasa

Abhyasa is defined as choosing or cultivating that which leads to sthitau. To understand the meaning of sthitau, it is necessary to combine two principles. Firstly, that of tranquility, calmness, or peace of mind. Secondly, that of stability, steadiness, or being of firm ground. Thus, sthitau means a stable form of tranquility. In other words, it is the pursuit of an equanimity that is with you at all times.
A single thought arises, and the mind goes off into a fantasy about that single thought, creating a whole train of thoughts. We might simply recognize the fact that our mind has strayed and for what reasons, “Mind is starting to fantasize”. (Vikalpa) With the same thought pattern, we may note that, “This thought arose from memory (Smriti). Shall I act on this, or let it go?” We may be listening to an individual, then suddenly, perhaps with a jolt, recognize that we had stopped listening. The mind might have drifted in the direction of the blankness associated with sleep (nidra), though this does not mean we actually fell asleep. We might then remind ourselves to stay awake or remain alert. We might have been working on a task, and notice in a positive way, that for this past few minutes, the mind was fully present, seeing clearly (Pramana), and that the thought patterns were correct or accurate. We notice how useful this is. We might be experiencing some thought process, thinking about some person, or witnessing some thoughts at meditation time.
After a certain amount of time of performing such a practice, you will naturally find that the labeling process becomes non-verbal. It is very useful to literally say the words internally when you label the thoughts. However, the non-verbal labeling comes automatically as you increasingly become a witness to your thought process. During meditation, the thoughts can then easily come and drift away. (This means the mind is awake and alert, as well as clear, which is not meaning dull, lethargic, or in a trance.)
Yoga science maps out many aspects of the mental process so that the student of yoga meditation can encounter, deal with, and eventually go beyond the entire thought process to the joy of the center of consciousness. We learn to label the thoughts, and then gradually learn to go beyond them.
t is important to remember that there is another aspect of labeling and witnessing that has to do with the direct training of your mind. This is the process of deciding and training your mind whether a given thought is Useful or Not Useful. However, ultimately one must face his or her own thought process. There is no other way, as the mind stands between our surface reality and the deepest inner Truth. The methods may be somewhat different on different paths, but encountering and dealing with the mental process is inescapable.
If the “Yes” to the willingness to explore the thoughts and thought process is even a small “Yes,” then one can nurture that small flame of desire until it is a forest fire of desire to know the Self. That single-minded desire for Truth swallows up the smaller desires and opens the door for the grace which guides from within.
This burning desire to know, with conviction is called Sankalpa Shakti. Many people hear of and say they want the awakening of Kundalini Shakti, the spiritual energy within. However, the first form of Shakti, or energy, to cultivate is that of Sankalpa, or determination. It means cultivating a deep conviction to know oneself at all levels, so as to know the Self at the core. It means having an attitude that, “I can do it! I will do it! I have to do it!”
In the oral tradition of Yoga meditation, it is said that you should never just believe what you read or are told, but that you should also not reject these things either. Rather, take the principles, reflect on them, do the practices, and find out for yourself, in direct experience whether or not they are true.
The means of doing this, in this case, is to systematically explore all of the levels of the thinking process, one at a time. Repeatedly you will discover, “Who I am, is different from this particular thought pattern that I am witnessing right now!” Over and over this insight will come, in direct experience, thought after thought, impression after impression.
Gradually, you come to see in your own opinion, observation, conclusion, and experience that, “I am not any of these thoughts!” Then you own it as your own experience and truth.
Good or bad, happy or sad, clear or clouded, none of the thoughts are who we are. It is no longer a theory from some book, or the mere statement of some other person, however great that person may be. This kind of direct experience is the goal spoken of by the ancient Yogis, Sages and Masters of the Himalayas. It comes when the practices of meditation, contemplation, prayer, and mantra converge in one experience of pure witnessing.
Resting in this realization, we also come to see that the habit patterns which define our personality are perfect expressions of this individual person. The beauty of our personality uniqueness is seen, ever more clearly, as we remember our True Self that is beyond, yet always there.

Reality and Space-Time

“The nature of Reality is a game of hide and seek, which is really the only game there is. Now you see it and now you don’t. That which smiles through all faces is only One Reality and the same One is called One without second. There is only One that exists beneath all the forms of the world. There is only One…Here, there, and everywhere incomparable, changeless and everlasting.”
It is stated that as long as there exists the sense of duality, there also exists a space, along with a sense of time. These bind one under certain conditions, hence allowing for mental states, such as fear, agony, and pain.
It is significant to understand the three conditionings of the mind, which are time, space, and causation. For instance “You are afraid of someone because you acknowledge the existence of someone as different from you. If there is only One, who will be afraid of whom?”
When all desires are swallowed by only one wave, and when that wave alone exists, then there will be no time, space, or causation. It prevents one from the realization of the unity in diversity. The secrets of birth and death are revealed only to a fortunate few. “It is a rare individuals, who can lift the veil of time, space, and causation and then know that past, present, and future are but commas and semicolons in a long sentence without a period”

Mindfulness and Concentration

It is very common for teachers of meditation to describe one of two general types of meditation, and to recommend one as being superior to the other.
– Concentration: In this approach, one intentionally focuses the attention on only one object, such as breath, mantra, a chakra center, or an internally visualized image.
– Mindfulness: In this approach, one does not focus the mind on one object, but rather observes the whole range of passing thoughts, emotions, sensations, or images.
Students of meditation often find themselves confused by having to decide which is more suitable for them, having to practice only one or the other. To cause further confusion, mindfulness is often described as coming from one religion or tradition, while concentration from another religion or tradition, which is in actuality inaccurate.

Numerous sages and yogis apply both methods in yoga and meditation. In fact, they are not seen as different choices at all. Mindfulness and concentration are companions in the same one process that leads inward to the center of consciousness. If one stays only in the shallow, beginning levels of meditation, then choosing between one or the other can seem to make sense. Yet, if you wish to go deeper in meditation, you will find that both processes are essential to obtain progress.
If one practices only mindfulness, the mind is trained to always have this surface level activity present. Having this activity constantly present may be seen as normal, and the attention simply does not go beyond the mind-field. Attention can back off from experiencing deeper meditation and samadhi so as to remain in the fields of sensation and thoughts. However, if one practices only concentration or one-pointedness, the mind is trained to not experience this activity of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and images. The activity is seen as something to be avoided, and the attention may not even be ditation and samadhi.
By practicing both mindfulness and concentration, one is able to experience the vast impressions, learning the vital skill of non-attachment, while also using concentration to focus the mind in such a way as to be able to transcend the whole of the mind field, where there is only stillness and silence, beyond all of the impressions. Finally, one can come to experience the center of consciousness…
When exploring the mind, mindfulness may be emphasized, while remaining focused. Then, if a particular thought pattern or samskara is to be examined so as to weaken its power over the mind, concentration is the tool with which this examination is done. This allows an increase in vairagya, non-attachment. When settling the mind, trying to pierce the layers of our being, including senses, body, and breath, concentration carries the attention inward through the layers. When attention moves into that next deeper level of our being, then concentration and mindfulness once again work together to explore that layer, so as to once again move beyond, or deeper.

References:

– Swami Rama
– Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Yoga Of Time Travel

(Inspired by the literary works of Fred Alan Wolf PhD)

Yoga consists of a system that is partially philosophy and partially science. According to Hindu philosophy, the system of yoga is divided into two principal parts. Hatha yoga, which mainly concerns itself with physiology in order to establish health as well as the training of mind and body. The other however, Raja yoga provides the means to gain control over the mind. Yoga as a practice and system implies a concept of time that is summed up by the term Samsara. It signifies the conditioned existence as well as boundedness…the yoking of spirit to spacial and temporal confinement. Yet, above all, Samsara represents time. George Feuerstein stated that the literal meaning of Samsara is “flowing together”. A perpetual flux of things and events producing consequences of causal relationship. This “flowing together” has a counterpart of quantum physics and is essential as to how the mind constructs time and the appearance of objective events. Yet, Samsara refers to a notion that the Western mind with a linear view of time does not conceive, which the idea of the wheel of existence…That the soul experiences endless rounds of birth, life, death and rebirth, set in motion by causal links created in past lives. From a quantum physics viewpoint, these cycles can be experienced by the time traveller through recognition of the role played by the ego-mind to anchor experience, literally binding it into time providing an active focal point or ego. However, Samsara is also a synonym for Maya or illusion. The persistent beliefs that tie one to space and time, thus one participates in the flow of these perpetual cycles rather than to seek an escape from them. Conclusively, this kind of perennial philosophy proposes an infinite, unchanging reality hidden behind the illusion of ceaseless change. It lingers at the core of every being and is the substratum of the personality.
The parallel-universe paradigm states that a universe can possess identical copies of itself without the conscious knowledge of its inhabitants. In effect, each time an individual makes an observation, the universe would split into as many possible outcomes as the individual could witness from their one observation. For instance, when you flip a coin and observe it landing, the world splits into two parts. A “heads” universe and a “tails” universe. Well, at least you’ve won somewhere, right…

In summary, modern physics has proven that time and space are not as separable as originally conceived, in fact, it is ones perception of them as separate that is an illusion. As a consequence of Albert Einsteins proposal in the year of 1905, which he later named the spacial theory of relativity. Although the Western viewpoint of the matter may be rather mechanical and perhaps too linear to adequately assess the subject. Einsteins seminal paper, also published in 1905, on the electromagnetics of moving bodies, although widely frowned upon became a fast step in the progression of understanding space-time. Conclusively, his equations had enabled one to comprehend how two observers, moving relatively to each other in a smooth and unaccelerated manner, could come to differing conclusions in regards to the when and where of an event that they had both observed. As physicists began to gradually accept that space and time are inseparable, the term proper time began to be developed. It describes the time experienced by a clock travelling along a space-time trajectory when compared with the time shown by other clocks that are not and were not travelling on the trajectory. Subsequently, space-time geodesics mark the most profound proper time between events when compared with any other trajectories having the same endpoints. However, once one leaves behind the scientific outlook on the matter, one arrives at the inference that within the true self, there is no space-time. If all is one and all is an illusion, then that which is considered to be “out there”would in actuality be situation in one location at all times. In view of the concept of psychophysics, in an article published around the time of 1979, Ben Libet observed a number of patients post-operatively with the aid of implanted electrodes, which eventually led to his paper of subjective referral. For instance, Libet discovered that human beings are mostly unconscious. That the choices that are made and the sensation that are responded to originate within the unconscious. As a matter of fact, during his experiments associated with the temporal referral, he carefully applied physical stimuli to the brains of numerous patients. Henceforth, it was found out that the delay between the individuals conscious awareness and external stimuli can last up to half a second. It was then argued by Libet that the individual may not even be fully consciously aware of their response at the time, nor the actual reasons why. Furthermore, he concluded that the reaction is faster than the perception. Conclusively, that which is considered to be the present moment may appear is if it moves unidirectionally forward in space-time, however this would only be probable, if one applies a linear perspective. Yet, within the nature of mythical time, all events in the past and future are equally present. They may appear as events of chronological time, however it is merely the nature of consciousness to experience the phenomenal world in a progression of moments.

It is a widely held misconception that the laws of physics prevent time travel, however, in truth they may actually require it. Although one may easily fall into circular reasoning, the paradoxes do not usually lead to logical inconsistency. For instance, if a future action (A) leads to a consequence (action B) in the past that prevents that action A from taking place, then how could action A occur to begin with? This type of inconsistency paradox is also referred to as the grandfather paradox. Although classical physics really has no problem with events appearing in a reversed time order, which arises as the classical physicist insists that time and space are immutable. In addition, the autonomy principle and the grandfather and creativity paradoxes constitute an unstated assumption called the chronology tenet concludes that one cannot travel backward through time. This assumption was constructed out of a rather narrow common-sense viewpoint. It should be noted that according to that outlook, travel into the future would not violate the viewpoint, whereas travel to the past for even the briefest of times seemingly does. However, in essence, time-travel into the past does not violate the laws of causality, as previously expected. Yet, in contrast to classical physics, in which a single outcome of any experiment is determined by the implicit laws of causality implied, all outcomes of any experiment are predicted to actually occur each weighed by a probability. The possession of multiple outcomes, as it may, is a significant feature of quantum physics. However, it is that which happens to these alternatives after an observed outcome that remains in question. The reason would be that each time an observation occurs, the observer splits and enters into each of the six world predicted. In addition, the presence of parallel universes and closed timelike lines actually aid in the resolution of paradoxes in the chronology tenet. For instance, in the grandfather paradox, if the bright young scientist could make use of a closed timelike line to go backward in time, as she would appear in the past, the universe would split into two nearly identical copies. Instead of unconnected parallel universes, each containing its own paradoxical closed time-like line and a copy of the time-traveller. There would be two parallel universes threaded by a single closed time-like line. Conclusively, the paradoxes do eventually resolve themselves, often by construction two version of a reality, which would seem almost identical.

Each parallel world contains a single future event that connects with the present event through the modulation effect. This is seemingly how parallel worlds become separate. Once the modulation takes place, the parallel worlds split off and no longer interfere with each other. It should be also be stated that if both, the possibility wave and the complex conjugate wave, are a part of physical reality, time would not merely be a one way stream. Additionally, it is possible for the brain to naturally tune in with the future and resonate with the past. And for most, it already occurs within the mind without conscious realization. Those that are known as visionaries may as well be those who are able to tune into other worlds, besides the current one. The past and future are merely reference points on a larger, much more complex amount of timelines. For instance, the present moment can be defined as the sequence of adjacent events that are most meaningfully connected time wave clash, as it may.

Nonetheless, the phenomenal world as it is perceived depends on the subtle relationship between the possibility wave and a probability curve. Possibility waves determine when and with what likelihood events occur, also they are able to reinforce as well as cancel one another out, thus affecting that which is perceived. The “odds”, which would be displayed as probability curves, which determine the probabilities of the events in question. In consequence, probability curves arise when two related possibility waves multiply each other. Through this process, time itself emerges, as do ones immediate experiences. The causal relationship that is observed between events also arise from this deeper order, in which the possibility waves reside. Conclusively, if one were to attempt to merge with corresponding times in each and every moment of ones time bound existence, there would be no sense of time for that particular individual. Although it is the true state of our existence, timelessness according to countless spiritual doctrines, one has to gradually attain that state of being in order to come closer to the true nature of the phenomenal world. In addition, one may be capable of attaining glimpses of other existences, dimensions or parallel worlds, yet it would still be increasingly difficult to discover the location of the sequence of events. However, as the psyche of each individual differs, each individual responds differently to the vibrations of the past or future. Although they are most likely constant, each individual copes differently. Yet, Wolfs observation on the matter appears highly accurate, illustrating the fact that the future in truth ripples backwards through time, affecting the present, and thus affecting the individual. As well as the past rippling forward. Nonetheless, the visionary thus focuses on a constant amount of progress in order to attain the envisioned goal, whereas others that may be lacking that type of vision may struggle to cope without a similar type of passion towards a particular form of achievement.

The natural course of possibility waves, without the intervention of consciousness to construct a focused point, is to move from a more focused to a less focused pattern. Hence, the perception of reality appears to blur and spread out after an instance of focus. In consequence, this process can be used to the individuals advantage. Once a living being lets go, they unfocus and free up space that had been previously filled with judgements, expectations and so forth. The observer and the observed become one. Moreover, once an object is freed, as it may, the possibilities associated with it increase at any particular location in space-time. The unfocused object spreads out, which means that one is no longer seeking possible positions that the object may hold in the future. Overall, the abilities to focus and to let go constitute the basic binary activity of conscious life. Through attention and repetition, one gains knowledge. It is the manner by which the mind functions. Furthermore, the individual can learn to let go of memories or focus on possibilities, allowing a specific events to come into being. Nonetheless, it should be noted that through the practice, time is actually created. Although in technicality, it is at all times created by the mind.

Throughout the ancient teachings, it appears as if God, Krishna or “All That Is” requires a large number of focal centres, perhaps even an infinite amount, in order to awaken from the trap of material existence. In addition, it is stated that the material existence or illusion of existence merely continues due to the bondage of desire. An illusion that appears as the divine play, connecting objective time and subjective mind. However, the entrapment of the mind of the absolute does not only stabilize the universe, yet is also enables the Mind to experience itself as other beings. It provides a common awareness of the physical world, providing all living beings with a sense of objective time and space. Time becomes that which it is perceived to be through common experiences. The choice that is eventually made by the individual are displayed as possibility waves that exist in a sub-spacetime realm, moving around and existing in several locations simultaneously throughout past and future. Furthermore, when consciousness acts, possibility waves travelling backward through time modulate waves travelling forward through time. This modulation results in the squaring process that yields a probability curve, which appears as entirely logical within the physical world. In conclusion, the Yoga Sutras describe that the pure soul awareness of a true yogi is, in essence, changeless and non-moving, its form having accomplished its own intelligence, assuming the identity of knowing. Time, the sequence of modifications of the ego mind, likewise terminates, giving place to the Eternal Now. In consequence, total liberation becomes possible when three qualities of matter (light, inertia and vibration) no longer exercise any hold over the yogi as well as having discharged the four-fold aims or duties of self, family, society and country. Once established in ones own true nature, the power of pure soul awareness, only then shall one truly experience the silent truths of the universes.