Being the Web
The phrases “threshold times” and “present moment awareness” have become so commonplace that I’ll confess I often feel a complacency as I hear them or use them myself. This month we have been exploring Yoga’s ethical teaching of Asteya, or non-stealing, and I’ve experienced an integration of the myriad of teachings and experiences that have inspired me on my path that has felt nothing short of magic.
Last month as we studied the teachings of Satya or truthfulness there were 2 quotes that stopped me in my tracks and felt like an invitation to take a pause and attend to how I perceive life:
"We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are." - Anais Nin
“What are you not seeing because you are seeing what you are seeing?” - Yogiraj Achala
As these words stirred something deep inside me I was reminded of the profound inspiration I received from Christina Donnell more than a decade ago when she asked the question, “How did our concept of mind ever get so small that we thought it was simply inside our skulls?” Through teachings and experiences she guided us to experience our mind as not just our thoughts and intellect, but as a heartmind that is our soul, with our senses as the gateways into living life rooted here.
Pondering what leads us down the narrow path to live our lives trapped inside our thoughts, I was reminded of the Patanjali’s second yoga sutra:
yogah cittavrtti nirodhah
Yogah- yoga (union) is
Chitta- of mind field
Vritti- modifications, activities, fluctuations
Nirodhah- control, suppression, restraints, blocking
This simple four-word thread entirely describes the experience, purpose and practice of yoga and is often translated as Yoga is the control of the thoughtwaves in the mind. The first time I read the Yoga Sutras over 20 years ago I reread this sutra and the interpretation over and over again thinking if I kept reading it, I would “get it”. Then I finally noticed the line, “if you completely get this you do not need to read the rest of the sutras, the rest of the sutras simply explain the path.” This month I decided it was time to study the sutras once again and days after making this decision a copy of the yoga sutras with translations and commentary by Baba Hari Dass appeared on the front porch of Dayaalu. Whoever left this book I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! They say when the student is ready the teacher appears. Baba Hari Dass describes the Chitta, or mind field, with the three other aspects of the mind as the human psyche or antahkarana in four faculties according to function:
1. Manas (recording mind) receives impressions through the senses and responds to them through the organs of action.
2. Buddhi (intellect) discriminates and contains intuitive wisdom.
3. Ahamkara (ego) is the owner of all experiences, relating them to its identity.
4. Chitta (mind or field of consciousness) includes manas, buddhi, and ahamkara as described above, and also the storehouse of samskaras (latent impressions).
He goes on to explain that the nature of the Vrittis or fluctuations is movement and is transitory. Though nirodha is often translated as restraint or blocking, it is actually the process by which the mind excludes these fluctuations in order to bring the focus necessary for absorption or union, the experience of yoga.
Through a series of other magical synchronicities the book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds by Merlin Sheldrake also showed up last week. From the beginning I have been completely entranced by this masterpiece. In chapter 4 Mycelial Minds, Merlin explores the mystery and science of how psilocybin mushrooms shape and change our minds. Scientific studies have shown the profound impact medicinal mushrooms have on a wide variety of medical conditions such as severe depression, anxiety, addiction as well as coping with the emotional effects of terminal illness. Researchers discovered that, to their surprise, psilocybin does not increase the activity of the brain, as one might expect, given the dramatic effects it has on people's minds and cognition. Merlin explains that instead, it reduces the activity in the key area of the default mode network (DMN). This area is active when our minds are not focused and we are idly thinking about the past or the future. These studies showed that the subjects that reported the strongest sense of “ego-dissolution” or loss of sense of separate self had the most dramatic decrease in the activity of the DMN. As I read this I could feel my brain synapses connecting and snapping like a wild fire and felt on a deeper level how the practice of yoga, of calming the thoughtwaves, opens up an entirely new reality.
The weave of these insights gave me a whole new experience of the web of life. I now understand Asteya as living our lives as if we are separate beings. We are deeply conditioned to live from the vantage point of separation and even our language falls short of communicating this deep interconnectedness. The word union or connection can imply a dualistic perspective of bringing two separate things together. Initially I was in awe of the discoveries of how mushrooms support all life on earth but realized this is still a perception rooted in our separateness. The immensity of the truth–these beautiful mushrooms that sometimes choose to pop up above the soil line–are simply the fruit of the magnificent web of life that fungi weave through creation. What if we perceived interconnection as the source of all matter, all life and creation itself. From this view, our purpose is to serve this web of life rather than our constant striving to be served by life. This way of seeing changes everything and brings the practice of yoga to life. Yoga teaches us that meditation is a path to union and meditation is described as absorption, a dissolving of our sense of separation. More than ever I’m aware that for me this experience is magnified when I’m steeped in nature, connected to my body through dance or in deep presence with others–especially in ceremony. Though the experience of absorption may happen while sitting in silence, it is the experience of being fully immersed into the web of life that is yoga.
With love and gratitude,
Sue