Samkhya Philosophy, Foundation of Yoga

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As a philosophical system, yoga has its basis in a philosophy called Samkhya, which means “list” or “enumeration.” Samkhya is a description of the universe and gives a detailed account of 24 different elements from which it is composed. Some of the elements contained within this description of the universe are the five great elements that make up all matter: earth, water, fire, air, and space.

Samkhya also lists the different levels of mind as elements within the created universe. These include citta, which could be defined as consciousness in the broadest sense. Next comes buddhi, which is our faculty of discrimination and higher wisdom. The conventional mind of thought and emotion is called manas, and that part of ourselves that identifies us as an individual being is called ahamkara,which can be related to the ego.

The Samkhya view of the universe corresponds well to the description of the universe found in modern physics. Both see the universe as essentially energy that has the appearance of matter in differing compositions, and both believe the universe originated from an initial unified source. In the case of physics, the beginning of the universe is the Big Bang. The same idea is found in Samkhya, but the essence of the universe in Samkhya philosophy is seen as a unified consciousness or cosmic intelligence from which all matter evolves.

When we begin to explore Samkhya philosophy together with the insights of quantum physics, we come up with some interesting possibilities. From this perspective, we are the universe. Each of us is a living cell within a living organism, which is our Earth. This means that we have always been here in some form since the beginning of the universe and will also continue to exist indefinitely.

When we extend these ideas to the history of yoga, we come up with a completely new approach. Rather than the history of yoga being a series of dates and names of spiritual texts and spiritual teachers, it becomes the story of our own lives. Each of our lives becomes a microcosm of the creation and evolution of the universe. In this way, the universe story, including the development of spirituality, becomes our own life story.

 

 

*extracted from the Teacher Training manual

 

Samkhya Philosophy for Children of all Ages

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Once upon a time, there was a planet called Purusha. You could say that Purusha was a perfect place to live. Everyone was happy and there was a sense of timelessness and limitlessness. In fact, the people of Purusha were absolutely complete in every way. The only problem was that in all that vast kingdom there wasn’t a mirror to be found. Without a mirror, the Purushans couldn’t see themselves, and in fact, couldn’t know themselves at all, because in Purusha there was no sense of  separation

One day the Purushans heard about a far away planet called Prakurti, where it was possible to know one’s self in a world of duality, with the world out there and a separate “me” to experience it. This world of duality could be experienced through sound, touch, sight, taste and smell, so it was like having a mirror for all five senses. By traveling to Prakriti, the purushans would be able to have all of the limitless peace and joy of planet Purusha and also to know themselves as joyful, a journey of learning of exploration and learning, to return to Purusha enriched and more self-aware.

To make the journey to planet Prakriti, the Purushans needed spacecraft that could withstand the atmosphere when they arrived, so they built their ships from the same five elements that composed planet Prakriti – earth, water, fire, air, and space. Each ship was hand-crafted and had individual characteristics, but overall they fit into three basic models: the kapha ships were dense and solid, the pitta ships were fiery, with powerful engines, and the vata models were light and quick.

The ship itself was called Body. At the center of each ship was the main occupant, called Spirit, which carried the essence of limitless joy, the hallmark of planet Purusha. Each ship also had a pilot called Mind. Only through the integration of Body, Mind, and Spirit would the journey be possible.

At the beginning of their journey, the Purushans installed a powerful transmitter in space so they would always be in touch with planet Purusha. This transmitter to and from Purusha was called Mahat, which means “the great.” Each spacecraft also had an ultra-intelligent on-board computer, called Budhi, to make sure that signals coming from Purusha were received. In this way, the pilot of the ship would always be in touch with planet Purusha.

All the ships left Purusha together, but each had a unique journey. The kapha crafts were heavy and slow, but made steady progress. The pitta craft excelled in perfect performance, but when things went wrong, time was lost going over details again and again and looking for who to blame. The vata craft had the most exciting journey, exploring different universes and planets, but more than once forgetting where they had left the keys to the spaceship and losing time. In the end, all the spaceships arrived at the same time.

As they neared Prakriti, the pilots prepared the sensing devices they would need for exploration.  One set of sensing devices was the jnanendriyas, or instruments for knowing, such as ability to hear, touch, see, taste, and smell. The others were instruments for action called karmendriyas,  such as ability to speak, touch, move, grasp, eliminate waste, and even to procreate little Purushan ships.

As the ships neared planet Prakriti, they encountered a series of unexpected storms that form part of its atmosphere. There were storms of tremendous energy and turbulence, called rajas. There were also doldrums, called tamas, in which nothing moved at all. These cycles of rajas and tamas were interspersed with moments of perfect balance, called sattva, when the journey flowed smoothly and effortlessly.

All the ships managed to reach planet Prakriti, but the journey was a costly one. Most of the pilots arrived traumatized and suffered from chronic recurring amnesia, in which they forgot their original mission of exploration and self-knowledge in order to return to planet Purusha. They became mesmerized with the sense experiences on planet Prakriti, and came to believe they were there just to experience their equipment and drive their spaceships around in circles. This pattern of driving their ships around in circles, comfused about their mission in life, was called Samsara.

There were a few,  however, who remembered their true identity and purpose. These were called the Rishis, or seers, and Gurus, the ones who could lead the people from the circular trafficpatterns of planet Prakriti, back to the light of Purusha.Those that decided to make the trip back first needed to repair their ships from the chronic stress from sensory overload common on planet Prakriti. These repair stations, used a science called Ayurveda to put the five elements the ships were made from back into balance. Sometimes all of the ships’ systems had to be completely cleaned out, in a process called Panchakarma. Once in balance, the ships needed to have a path laid out for their journey home, and one of the clearest of these was compiled by a Sage named Patanjali. A manual on return to Planet Purusha in 8 steps, called Ashtanga Yoga.

The first two steps, called yama and niyama, were guides for conduct and behavior on the journey home. The third step, asana, was for keeping the ship stable and comfortable to ensure its structure along the way. The fourth step, pranayama, involved having adequate energy for the journey and using this energy wisely. The fifth step, pratyahara, involved removing the attention of the pilot from all of the distractions on planet Prakriti so they could re-focus on their true mission. The sixth step, dharana, involved setting a course and staying that course all the way home. The seventh step, dhyana or meditation, is the journey itself, with all the ship’s systems (Body, Mind, and Spirit) functioning in an integrated way, guided by Budhi in contact with Mahat to maintain a continuous communication with the energy of peace and joy from planet Purusha.

Through this system, many of the ships were able to return home, and once there, reassume their true identity as citizens of planet Purusha and return to a state of perfect happiness called samadhi, the final step, but not the same as when they left. Now they had with them the mirror of knowing. They knew planet Prakriti and the world of duality and now by returning to planet Purusha they were complete and whole and knew it to be so.

The final and deepest learning from this journey is that planet Purusha and planet Prakriti are actually one and that the world of matter and the world of spirit are not opposed to to each other, but that our own version of planet Prakriti, called Earth, is calling out for us to treat her with love and reverence so that Purusha and Prakriti may live together in peace and joy happily every after.

Mudras for Healing and Transformation is released in Japan

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The Japanese publisher GAIABOOKs INC, specialized in natural therapy, yoga, bodywork and mind-spirit, has released the first Japanese edition of the book Mudras for Healing and Transformation, by Joseph Le Page and Lilian Aboim in February 2019.

According to the publisher of GAIABOOKs, Fumika, the book has been well received, with favorable comments that mudras are useful for meditation and Yoga practice. The idea of ​​publishing the book in Japanese came from a Japanese yoga teacher who requested the translation of the book because she uses it as a textbook in her classes.

The book was translated from English to Japanese by Ms. Kaori Kohama. It is available in bookstores in Japan as well as online stores such as GAIABOOKs and others, like Amazon.

Mudras for Healing and Transformation was originally written in English and published in the USA in 2013 and has also been translated into Portuguese, released in Brazil in 2019. It is the result of the authors’ intense research into the world of mudras, leading the reader on a true journey through the psychology and philosophy of Yoga and within himself.

Joseph Le Page and Lilian Aboim are the founders of the Enchanted Mountain Yoga Center in Garopaba, (Brazil), one of the largest spiritual retreat centers in Latin America. They are also authors of the Yoga Toolbox, one of the most widely used materials by teacher training programs in the US and Brazil, published by Integrative Yoga Therapy.

Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 2

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The Vision of Yoga Therapy in the Bhagavad Gita

 

2.70  apuryamanam acalapratisham

samudram apah pravishanti  yadvat

tadvatkama yam pravisanti sarve

sa shantim apnoti na kamakami

 

Arjuna is looking for healing and wants to know what the very essence of that healing involves.  He has communicated to Krishna that he is willing to give up the world of action and become a renunciate, somehow believing that giving up the world will be a solution to his problems. In this verse, Krishna defines the essence of healing as a sense of wholeness based in self-knowledge that is so deep and so complete, that nothing can disturb it.  It is like an ocean: rivers run into it, storms rage across its surface, waves flow across it, fish swim within it, and yet the ocean is whole, full, deep and complete, at all places and all times. Krishna encourages us to become like that Samudra, the vast, open, deep sea.

 

 

3.17  yastvatmaratireva syad

atmatrptashca manavah

atmanyeva ca samtushtas

tasya karyam na vidyate

 

What does this healing and wholeness look like in reality? And once this wholeness is found, how do we maintain our connection with it? Krishna points out that self-knowledge is an end in itself; and that through knowledge of the true Self, a sense of inner satisfaction arises and inner contentment.  Through this sense of self-knowledge and inner contentment, stress is eliminated and health at all levels is cultivated. Beyond this, nothing needs to be done.

 

 

3.20  Karmanaiva hi samsiddhim

asthita janakadayah

 lokasamgrahamevapi

 sampashyan kartum arhasi

 

And as we become healed along the journey, what is our mission? Krishna has already made it clear to Arjuna that renouncing the world is not the answer, at least for him. In this verse, Krishna outlines Arjuna’s mission saying that complete success on the path will come through action in the world, and that many great people have achieved liberation while setting an example for others and providing service. The word Krishna uses, lokasamgraha, has special significance. Loka means “the world” and samgraha means to “bring together”, so that through our actions we bring the world toward that same wholeness that we are cultivating within ourselves. This is done in Yoga therapy sessions, individually or with a group.

 

Read Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 1

 

Meditation, the Source of Happiness

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Meditation is often thought of as a state we attain through a practice of a technique, normally seated in a meditation posture. This perspective gives an impression of meditation as an achievement or something we add on to our lives that was not previously present.

A clearer understanding can be gained by taking the opposite approach: meditation is an experience that is always present, waiting to be uncovered or discovered. From this perspective, meditation is the nature of life, and the essence of what we call reality. Meditation, rather than taking us away from mundane reality, is actually developing complete objectivity in which we come to see ourselves and the world exactly as they are.

This objectivity involves removing all of the conditioning and colored filters of belief that stand between us and seeing life as it is. This process can be called the practice of meditation, and the experience of living in the world free from conditioning and all of its accompanying emotional pain, sorrow, fear, and anger can be called the experience of meditation itself. Since our conditioning includes the sum total of our experiences at a cultural, social, and family level, the deconditioning process is extensive and normally requires a multifaceted approach. For this reason, there are numerous techniques and methods of meditation.

Our conditioning offers us the gift of an individual self, a rare opportunity to experience this world of duality and develop the knowledge, wisdom, and insight to see beyond appearances and to look directly at the source from which these appearances spring. This source can be viewed as the background of life, the energy and intelligence behind all of the laws of nature, including those that govern human behavior and the functioning of the mind.

How was meditation “invented,” and where did it come from?

Yogis and shamans in all cultures have discovered the state of meditation whenever they peered beyond the appearances of everyday life. Often, these wise people took time out from the daily struggle of survival and began to glimpse a joy that deepened as they allowed the experience to occur more often, eventually becoming an ecstatic experience far beyond human vocabulary. They found communion for this experience in the larger vision of the universe—the movement of the stars, the turning of the planets, and the juxtaposition of the sun and moon. For some individuals, this ecstatic union was so complete that they left everyday life behind to immerse themselves fully in the knowledge and understanding of this greater reality. These were the original yogis, rishis (seers), and gurus (the one who shows light where there is darkness). To share this understanding, they developed techniques and methods that became the practices of meditation we know today.

These enlightened ones, rather than bringing about some new experience, actually shed light on things exactly as they are so that others can see them. This ultimate reality that the seers show us has been given many names, such as Source, True Self, Brahman, God, Buddha nature, etc. Such words have a spiritual or religious connotation, which is natural because the meditation experience is the foundation of all religions. It is important, however, to distinguish between meditation and religion, since meditation is always an experience, and religion may be only another form of conditioning at the cultural, social, or family level and may involve blind faith rather than experience, which is the essence of meditation.

 

 

 

*extracted from Teacher Training Manual

Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 1

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The Vision of Yoga Therapy in the Bhagavad Gita

 

2.11 – Ashocyan anvashochastvam

 prajnavadamshca bhashase

gatasun agatasumshca

nanushocanti panditah

 

Arjuna is suffering from depression. He sees his own life and the world as sad, hopeless, and meaningless. At an intellectual level, Arjuna understands the spiritual path, but he is unable to apply it to his own life. Krishna begins his Yoga therapy session with Arjuna by letting him know that a change of perspective is needed; and through this change in perspective, he will gain the self-knowledge to see that the problem and the solution both lie within him.

 

2.40 – Nehabhikramana shosti

 pratyavayo na vidyate

svalpamapyasya dharmasya

trayate mahato bhayat

 

Yoga therapy encompasses the whole person and the entire life journey, along which we gain wisdom of body, mind, and spirit. Arjuna is concerned about how little knowledge he has, but Krishna reminds him that in the practice of Yoga, no effort is wasted. There is no going backwards, and even a little bit of self-knowledge can protect us from great danger. Here, Krishna reminds us that it is not enlightenment that heals us, but the journey of healing that is essential. And along this journey, we must open that door to healing that is most appropriate.

 

2.48 – Yogasthah kuru Karmani

 sangam tyaktva dhanamjaya

siddhyosiddhyoh samo bhutva

samatvam yoga ucyate

 

Along the Yoga therapy journey, Arjuna will learn to believe in himself and in his own power of healing. At the beginning of the journey there is a projection onto Krishna, the therapist, as the healer. As he grows stronger, Arjuna will have to learn to rely on his own inner resources and value himself, for himself.  As he comes closer to his true Self, Arjuna will gain equanimity. Krishna advises Arjuna to stand firm in Yoga and do his healing work, not worrying about the result, but just staying with the process; and along the journey maintaining and developing equanimity of mind which Krishna defines as the essence of Yoga.

 

2.51 – Karmajam buddhiyukta hi

 phalam tyaktva manishinah

 janmabandha vinirmuktah

padam gacchanty anamayam 

 

We need to remember that Arjuna came to Krishna to resolve the problem of suffering, not because of some academic interest in Yoga philosophy and Sanskrit. Arjuna is suffering from depression and some of his contemplated actions even involve suicide. He’s looking for reassurance that there really is a way out. Krishna assures Arjuna that there is a place free from pain and explains it in the following way:

Connected to their higher wisdom, having renounced the fruits of action, the wise are free from the bondage of rebirth and gain that place that is free from pain and disease.

Note that the word anamayam is not just a reference to spiritual freedom, but refers directly to a state free of disease and filled with physical health.

 

2.66  nasti buddhir ayuktasya

na cayuktasya bhavana

nacabhavayatah shantir

ashantasya kutah sukham

 

Krishna, as a well-trained Yoga therapist, understands fully the importance of stress management on this journey. Without gaining control over the mind, the stress cycle will continue and the peace that can facilitate health and healing, will not be possible. For this reason, Krishna emphasizes connection to our higher wisdom, or buddhi, as an essential element of health and explains it to Arjuna in the following inspired verse:

For the one who is not joined to their higher wisdom,

meditation is not possible; and without meditation, there is no peace. 

And without peace, how can there be happiness and ease?

 

 

Read Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 2