In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, samadhi explains the last growing of awareness, havingactually been engaged in yogic practices regularly for a long duration of time. It’s finest to call this a state of flexibility within oneself and a kind of freedom from the mind, rather than some of the more lofty descriptions that can make these states appear unattainable. With the right approach used regularly for years, samadhi can definitely be reached with the standingfirm professional holding the secret. In this post, I speak about samadhi as an continuous trainee of yoga with a enthusiasm for understanding this approach and its significance to contemporary life. I have no impressions of my own “enlightenment”, and havingactually practiced for 12 years, I feel even more a novice than when I started! I just hope that my commentary on these sutras will contribute to what you currently understand about yoga and include more colours to this abundant subject.
PYS 1.16: The greatest awareness shows indifference to even the most subtle qualities.
The different methods we misunderstand our real identity can be divided into gross and subtle.
The grosser misidentifications we stick to come in the kind of task titles, relationships, our financial wealth, the subculture we belong to and even the yoga approach we hold dear. All of these things are crucial, of course, however if you were to eliminate any of them from your life, nevertheless uncomfortable it may be, you are still you. Each is merely an element of how we job ourselves into the world. But they aren’t the real self.
The subtle qualities (gunas) are a action closer to the source however still not the real self. They appear as our senses, body, mind, ego, intelligence and the subconscious imprints we might not even be conscious of. A practice of yoga doesn’t getridof these phenomena permanently. (As far as I’m mindful, this isn’t possible.) But it is possible to have an experience of the awareness underneath the gunas through deep states of meditation.
One technique of experiencing that awareness is by developing a witness. Sit conveniently with your spinalcolumn straight and close your eyes. What do you hear? Try to listen thoroughly with complete existence to each noise. What do you feel? Cold/warm experiences, for example. Comfortable/uncomfortable feelings, for example. What do you believe? Let your mind roam, however simply watch it. Just like you were viewing a motionpicture, however not being in it. Watch how the ideas can simply come and go, without you getting connected to them. With time, practice and perseverance, you’ll discover that those ideas endedupbeing less and less regular. You start watching them with a dispassionate marvel. And then that area inbetween the ideas begins to have more appeal, and you discover yourself resting in that tranquil state priorto believed, ego and senses more and more often.
This is understanding awareness — your underlying self as it is. This is the start of cultivating that deep, caring peace we all hold at our centre. And the more we can go to that location, the more we can bring it into every other part of our lives. We endedupbeing kinder, less reactive, more pleased and even start to see whatever as another fantastic symptom of that verysame awareness you touch on in meditation. From there, the yoga journey truly begins getting intriguing.
PYS 1.17: Objective samadhi (samprajnata) consists of thinking, reflection, happiness and I-am-ness.
There are 2 types of samadhi (enlightenment) explained by Patanjali: goal and objectless samadhi. In this sutra, he explains the veryfirst, consisting of 4 layers. Although this state, much like love, is constantly a part of our hearts, we can’t constantly see it straight away. This is due to the widevariety of subconscious imprints that cause us to doubt the extraordinary fact inside us. And so we go through these actions which produce the conviction to take us back to who we genuinely are.
The item we usage can be anything, actually — a rock, a star, a sign or something more subtle such as a chakra. In this example, we’ll usage the body giventhat this is where Ashtanga