The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Also

from "The Five Houses Of Zen", Lin-chi (9th century)

As an analogy, eventually we are able to see the valley once we have climbed the mountain. We cannot truly know and experience the tree without knowing that is part of the forest. Here the true operation of the gunas (the dualistic conditioned reality of cause and effect) become instantaneously revealed, thus removing their power to obstruct, color, or limit consciousness. This is facilitated through our acknowledgment and embrace of param purusa (the non-dual transpersonal self). This is achieved through releasing our tendencies to seek answers within the sea of our pre-existing dualistic conditioned confusion. No matter how familiar we may be with our prisons, we can never leave it, if we are not willing to surrender its chains. We can not shoot a picture of the sun until we get out of our shadow, and hence, Patanjali says in Sutra I.43 "Smrti-parishuddhau svarupa-sunye va artha-matra-nirbhasa nir-vitarka". All of the sutras form a non-contradictory whole, while they mutually inform and expand each other. Please look at I.43 as closely related to this sutra. This is the gradual direction, where we are headed. The gradual realization of vairagyam has to penetrate into our life styles and become integrated in All Our Relations in order to remove/release spiritual tension/resistance.

Purusa (introduced first here in Sutra I.16) is a much misunderstood term because the Vedic and samkhya academics tend to differ. They will read-in their own egoic and biased predilection, preference, and agendas into it, which may have some semblance of truth, but it is not Patanjali's perspective. Not to say that Patanjali is contradicting the Vedas. Patanjali is leading us in an accelerating intensity toward isvara pranidhana, which is the surrender to an omni-present universal all pervasive purusa, which is described in 1.23-27. There is no coincidence that vairagyam (as release) and purusa (as in isvara pranidhana) are thus linked, because isvara pranidhana, as will be elaborated upon later, is the surrender to our innermost evolutionary potential or Buddha nature. Indeed vairagya and isvara pranidhana operate as two sides of the same coin as we shall see through practice. Vairagya and isvara pranidhana are not only simple practices, but also profound teachings. Abhyasa-vairagyabhyam as presented here is also both a practice and a teaching in itself.

This then leads us into the discussion leading to the progressively deeper stages of samadhi or infinite all pervasive awareness and how this can be realized. This is the theme of the remaining verses (17-51) of chapter I and in particular Sutras 17-45, which depends upon the acknowledgement of this deeper transpersonal Self (param purusa) which we are told in the next sutra is devoid of egotism (false identifications of a separate self).

See Sutra III.50 regarding the practice of vairagya in relationship to purusa and sattva and how that leads to absolute liberation (kaivalya). See also Pada IV. Sutras 32-34 along the same lines of the unification of purusa and sattva.

Here we have introduced the two major remedies and teachings of yoga which are meant to be taken together (vairagya as non-attachment and abhyasa as continuous focused enthusiastic application). That effects continuous flow and openness. No moss is collected that way-- the river flows without disruption in an innate natural continuity. Thus the yogi having been progressively exposed to the yogic ideal of a continuously and permanently accessible samadhi (nirbija samadhi) -- an all encompassing spiritual connection which includes both life and death in All Our Relations -- a sacred presence within the context of a Great Universal Integrity outlining the various gradual processes and steps of temporary and partial realizations, revelations, and satoris as minor temporary samadhis (sabija samadhi) which forerun nirbija samadhi (samadhi without seed). This is realized when one realizes the fundamental unity of pure absolute consciousness and pure absolute being -- where pure consciousness manifests in the human form as pure awareness and receptivity -- as absolute beingness. HERE in Sat-Chit-Ananda -- only in param purusa can absolute and pure objectivity and absolute and pure subjectivity be married. In the Great Integrity of universal Consciousness and being siva/sakti, spirit/nature, and the mind/body become completely non-dually integrated.

From Light On The Path, page 98, by Baba Muktananda

Try to know Him who does not sleep during the state of sleep, remaining fully aware of it and witnessing all the goings-on of the dream world. On waking up, one may say, "I slept very well. I also had a dream of a beautiful temple." Are these words uttered by the one who slept? He says that he slept and saw a temple during sleep! What an enigma! O brethren, behold the spectator who remains awake while you sleep, poised far from sleep. Who is He? He is the pure witness, the attributeless One. He is the Supreme Being. He is within you, but you look for Him outside.

Here the clear road to nirbija samadhi in Samadhi Pada continues on its own accord through the self liberatory practices rooted in vairagya (the process of non-expectation).