The Path To Realization

¹ Yoga has 3 components:

1. Discipline
2. Self-study
3. Faith in the Supreme (Isvara)

² The aim of Yoga is to eliminate suffering and attain samadhi.

³ The causes of suffering are:

1. Ignorance
2. Ego
3. Desires
4. Aversion
5. Self-preservation

⁴ Ignorance is the starting place for for all the other causes of suffering, whether they are dormant or active, or noticed or unnoticed.

⁵ Ignorance causes one to think that:

• the impermanent is permanent
• the impure is pure
• what causes suffering is what causes happiness*
• what is not your nature is your nature

⁶ The ego assigns the power of awareness to the self.

⁷ The ego then pursues desires for pleasure ⁸ and avoids suffering.

⁹ The ego then, even of a wise person, seeks to preserve itself.

¹⁰ These causes of suffering can be removed by seeing subtly where they come from and reversing course.

¹¹ Intense meditation destroys their patterns.

¹² These causes result in actions which pile up unseen impressions in the soul which are expressed in future lives.

¹³ So long as this root source exists, its contents will lead to birth, life, and experience.

¹⁴ Life is then marked by delight or anguish, in proportion to those good or bad actions that created the piled-up impressions (samskaras).

¹⁵ The wise see the suffering caused by:

• the anguish of impermanence
• the variety of samskaras
• the beligerence of the propensities (of the sentient, mutative, and tamasic)

¹⁶ But the suffering which has not yet come may be avoided.

¹⁷ The cause of the suffering can be overcome by discerning the events in the phenomenal world.

¹⁸ This discernment will make one realize that the patterns of activity, rest, and knowledge in the phenomenal world, making it both the source for experience and for liberation. ¹⁹ It reveals the distinction between the gunas (sentient, mutative, static).

²⁰ This discernment makes consciousness a witessing entity through the mind that perceives the phenomenal world.

²¹ The phenomenal world exists to reveal the true nature to consciousness.

²² Once the true nature is revealed, the phenomenal world no longer appears as such. It continues to exist as a common reality for everyone else.

²³ The phenomenal world has the power to take on many forms.

²⁴ This is the cause of Ignorance (or the Illusion).

²⁵ Yoga ends the ignorance, revealing that awareness is free and untouched by phenomena.

²⁶ Continuous discernment is the means for attaining liberation.

²⁷ True wisdom manifests in seven stages.

²⁸ When the limbs of yoga are practiced:

• impurities dwindle
• the light of understanding shines forth, illuminating the way to discernment

²⁹ The eight limbs of yoga are:

1. Yama (External Rules)
2. Niyama (Internal Rules)
3. Asanas (Yoga Poses)
4. Pranayama (Breath Regulation)
5. Pratyahara (Sense Withdrawal)
6. Dharana (Focus or Concentration)
7. Dhyana (Intense Meditation)
8. Samadhi

³⁰ Yama is made up of:

1. Ahimsa (Non-harming)
2. Satya (Truthfulnes)
3. Asteya (Non-stealing)
4. Brahmacarya (Seeing all as the Supreme)
5. Aparigraha (Focus on Needs, not Wants)

³¹ The yogi has a great vow to observe these at all levels regardless of time, place, circumstance, or position in life.

³² Niyama is made up of:

1. Shaoca (Purity)
2. Santosa (Contentment)
3. Tapah (Austerity)
4. Svadhyaya (Self-Study)
5. Isvara Pranidhana (Surrender to Supreme)

³³ Unwholesome thoughts can be neutralized by cultivating wholesome ones.

³⁴ Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.

³⁵ Being firmly grounded in non-violence creates an atmosphere in which others can let go of their hostility.

³⁶ For those grounded in truthfulness, every action and its consequences are imbued with truth.

³⁷ For those who have no inclination to steal, the truly precious is at hand.

³⁸ Those who see the Supreme in all acquire vitality.

³⁹ Freedom from wanting unlocks the real purpose of existence.

⁴⁰ From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one’s own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.

⁴¹ Purification leads to a one-pointed sense leading to happiness, mastery of the soul, and ability for vision.

⁴² Contentment brings unsurpassed joy.

⁴³ Auserity burns away impurities, increasing the powers of the senses.

⁴⁴ Spiritual self-study brings one closer to one’s divine goals.

⁴⁵ Surrendering to the Supreme gives powers to reach samadhi.

⁴⁶ Asanas bring steady happiness. ⁴⁷ These relax the body, allowing a deeper meditation ⁴⁸ so that one is no longer disturbed by the play of opposites.

⁴⁹ With this deep meditation, the flow of inhalation and exhalation, as pranayama, can further end the play of opposites.

⁵⁰ This leads to a breathing pattern of inhalation, exhalation, and lull. When done in a specific duration, number, and focus, the breath becomes subtle. ^51-52 This makes the external and internal world give way to the fourth world of light that removes the veil ⁵³ so that the mind’s capacity for focus in attained.

⁵⁴ Pratyahara is the decoupling of the senses from external objects. This is achieved when the mind itself decouples from the external world. ⁵⁵ Then, the senses serve only the Supreme.