The Prescription: Part III

The Lion's Backward Glance: Foundational techniques

Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Salutations to all the teachers.

Meditation can be difficult.

For many of us, when we try to jump right into it, we find that the mind is racing with thoughts, memories, and imaginations. We may feel bored, fidgety, anxious to see how much time is left before we can stand up again. The body may be restless or uncomfortable, and some sensations may start to become increasingly unbearable.

For some of us, we may even start to feel sleepy, or tempted to lie down.

This is completely normal.

The reason for this is that the mind has strong kleshas - mental colourings - which manifest in the form of restlessness, tiredness, boredom, or racing thoughts. The stronger the kleshas are, the stronger the vyutthaana samskaaras, or outward tendencies are. Said another way, the stronger the kleshas are, the harder it is to meditate.

As a result, if we wish for the mind to settle down, we must start by weakening the kleshas, rather than jumping straight to meditation.

Over the past few weeks, we have been recapping the entire system of Yoga through the fourfold method used in traditional Indian medicine to communicate with patients:

1. Rogah (रोगः): The Diagnosis

2. Hetuh (हेतुः): The Etiology, or the Cause

3. Aarogyam (आरोग्यं): The Prognosis

4. Bhaishajyam (भैषज्यं): The Treatment

In our case, the diagnosis is dukkha - the bumpy ride nature of life, where we chase after objects for fulfillment, but nothing quite fills the void. Objects can include anything from physical things like cookies, candy, or gold to ideas like money, identity, power, and so on.

The Diagnosis: An analysis of suffering

Next is the cause of the disease. The cause of dukkha is the Conjunction between the Seer and the Seen - Purusha and Prakriti.

The Cause: The Conjunction between the Seer and the Seen

One may then ask - is there a further cause of this conjunction?

There is. In Reality, we are already free from Prakriti, but we confuse ourselves with parts of our experience (ie. the body, the mind, and the reflected awareness), and therefore suffer when they change or deteriorate. This confusion is known as avidya - the Primal Ignorance, and the root of all the kleshas.

Am I the body, or does it belong to me?

But does this avidya have a further cause? No. It is beginningless and causeless. This can feel like a cop-out, but it is not. All ignorance is beginningless, and you can find more in the article here:

Can ignorance have a beginning?

Next, we discussed (over six articles, below) the prognosis - the state in which we are free from the disease. It is good news - there is, in fact, a way out of suffering, and the state of freedom is known as Kaivalyam or Moksha.

The Prognosis: Kaivalyam

What happens in the mind upon Enlightenment?

“You” don’t really exist.

The Turning Point

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

Consider the lilies of the field

Finally, over the past two weeks, we have been going over the treatment - the prescription to get out of suffering.

This is a sort of lookback - the Lion’s Backward Glance - over the material we have covered over the past 108 weeks of this newsletter.

When a Lion traverses a certain distance, it stops and majestically glances back upon the land it has covered. In the same way, we are now looking back upon what we have covered over the past 108 weeks. This is our singha-avalokana-nyaya - the Method of the Lion’s Backward Glance.

Thus far, we have revisited the purpose of life, the four Yogas, the 25 Tattvas, and the 5 Bhumis.

The Prescription: Part I

We then went over the classification of all mental activity into the 5 vrittis and 5 kleshas, the nine obstacles to Yoga, as well as the twin foundation of Yoga - abhyaas (practice) and vairaagya (letting go).

The Prescription: Part II

This week, we will go over some preliminary practices to calm the mind so as to prepare ourselves for a deeper practice.

These techniques are not the same as “meditation”, although they are often classified in this way in popular culture.

Rather, they are foundational techniques that help to reduce the kleshas, making the mind sufficiently calm for meditation to become easier and deeper.

Eka-Tattva-Abhyaas: The practice of one thing at a time

The mind, left alone, is like a restless child. It runs from one thing to another, often in rapid succession, without much rest.

As a result, we may feel mentally exhausted, anxious, sad, or even bored.

P: Bored? Isn’t boredom when the mind has nothing to do?

Jogi: Boredom happens when the mind is restless and scattered. The next time you are bored, try to focus deeply on any one thing, looking at it through different angles, with curiosity, and see what happens!

P: What about sadness? How does mental scattering make the mind sad?

Jogi: When the mind is scattered, only a minimal amount of attention is spent on each object of attention. This minimal amount of attention is used to symbolize the object - categorize it, name it, and then move on to the next thing. As a result, we miss out on the depths of each object, and begin to live in a world of these symbols - words, meanings, and ideas - rather than the objects themselves. When this happens, the world starts to feel empty, and we start to feel sad.

In order to combat this, one of the first techniques in Yoga is eka-tattva-abhyaas - the practice of focusing on one thing at a time.

For example, rather than watching TV with your phone and laptop open, close your laptop, put down your phone, and just watch TV. Then, if you want to look at your phone, pause the TV, and pick up your phone. When walking, just walk (aka “walking meditation”). When talking, just talk. When eating, just eat. When sitting, just sit.

As opposed to this one-pointed focus, multi-tasking causes mental scattering. In a sense, “multi-tasking” is just a phrase we use to describe a scattered mind. When we “multi-task”, what we’re really doing is spending fractional attention on each task. As a result, the mind gets tired, nothing feels fulfilling, and over time, the world starts to feel empty.

The mind is habituated to moving attention between objects rapidly, and so this technique, like anything else in Yoga, take practice and letting go - abhyaas and vairaagya.

If, for example, you find yourself picking up your phone while watching TV, simply notice that you are doing it - this is the first step.

Then, gently let go of the desire to do one of the two things.

Finally, practice keeping your attention on one of them.

Over time, the mind will create a new tendency towards focusing on one thing at a time.

There is no need to force it, be gentle, remain honest with yourself, and use your daily life as an opportunity to practice.

For more on this technique, scroll down to the bottom of the article here:

How do I stop feeling this way?

The Brahmavihaaras: The Four Attitudes

A significant portion of our suffering comes from our relationships with other people.

We may feel envious at another person’s success, drained when someone is continuously sad, or we may feel angry when someone does something we feel is wrong. These feelings are like hot coals - the longer we hold them, the more they burn, and if we try to throw them at others, we burn ourselves first.

What’s more, we are all experts at keeping thoughts alive.

When someone wrongs us, or when we feel upset, we expend energy on making sure that the thought does not leave the mind, like a person desperately fanning a dying flame.

This technique - keeping a thought alive - is called bhaavanaa, or “cultivation of thought.”

Most of the time, the thoughts we try to keep alive are not useful, and lead to further suffering. For example, if we are jealous of someone’s success, we may habitually think about how it came to be that they did so well, or why we didn’t achieve what they did, and so on.

What if there were a way to feel mentally calm - even happy - regardless of the situations around us?

This is what the method of the Four Attitudes is for.

Specifically, this technique teaches us how to skilfully use our expertise in cultivating thoughts to adjust our mental environment so that we can remain calm and peaceful no matter the circumstance.

P: This sounds amazing, how does it work?

All situations in life that relate to other living beings (including oneself) can be categorized into one or more of the following four classes, based on how we perceive the situation:

1. Sukha (सुख): When you see that someone is happy

2. Dukkha (दुःख): When you see that someone is sad

3. Punya (पुण्य): When you see someone else’s success, or see someone commit a “good” deed

4. Apunya (अपुण्य): When you see someone else’s failure, or see someone commit a “not good” deed

In each of these situations, there is only one mental attitude which will lead to a calm mental state. All other mental attitudes will result in varying degrees of mental turmoil - either now or later on.

The goal of this technique is to practice cultivating the correct attitude in the correct situation, so that over time it becomes second-nature.

In the beginning, it will take some effort - you may need to whip out your notes from time to time. Eventually, however, with practice and letting go of old patterns, it will come naturally. In fact, the Brahmavihaaras are the natural state - anything else is due to the clouding of past conditioning. Rather than trying to force the Brahmavihaara, one way to approach this technique is to simply remove any blockages that stand in the way.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

- Rumi

The mapping is as follows:

The Brahmavihaaras: When the right attitude is cultivated in the right circumstance, it results in a feeling of mental calm. The attitudes are the natural state - any other attitude is the result of conditioning. In this way, the practice eventually evolves into removing blockers to the Brahmavihaara rather than trying to cultivate the Brahmavihaara itself - a combination of abhyaas and vairaagya - effortful practice and letting go.

In the case of sukha, when you see that someone else is happy, cultivate friendliness.

In the case of dukkha, when you see that someone else is sad, cultivate compassion (this is different from empathy, which is discussed in the article).

In the case of punya, when you see that someone has succeeded, or has committed what you consider to be a “good” deed, cultivate gladness.

In the case of apunya, when you see that someone else has failed, or has committed what you consider to be a “not good” deed, cultivate equanimity. As equanimity develops, we find that the ideas of praise and blame drop away, since they are seen as oversimplification of a much more complex reality.

Why “it’s your fault” makes no sense

Each of these attitudes has a near and a far enemy. The far enemy is the opposite - the attitude and the far enemy cannot coexist in the mind simultaneously.

The near enemy is subtly opposed to the attitude, but looks similar to it from a distance. This is dangerous, because it is an enemy masquerading as a friend.

Each attitude has a near and a far enemy. The near enemy is dangerous - like an enemy masquerading as a friend. It is subtly opposed to the attitude, but seems very similar to it on the surface. On the other hand, the far enemy is the polar opposite, and cannot exist simultaneously in the same mind as the attitude.

The better we get at these four attitudes, the more we can dissolve our boundaries, rather than using them as crutches.

On Boundaries

Like the technique of focusing on one thing at a time, the Four Attitudes are a daily-life practice. It is not necessarily something you sit down and do (although you certainly can), but rather a technique where our everyday lives become an opportunity to practice Yoga.

For more on the four attitudes, take a look at the full article here.

The Four Attitudes

Six Stabilizing Techniques

The last two techniques were daily life practices. This set of six stabilizing techniques are more like spot-fixes. That is, if you find that your mental activity is particularly overwhelming at a given point in time, you can sit down and practice one of these techniques to bring yourself back to a state of relative calm.

1. Follow the breath

2. Notice your sensations

3. Visualize an inner light, or focus on the sense of “I am”

4. Imagine the attributes of a person you consider to be beyond desire (e.g. Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet (pbuh), Krishna, Rama, etc.)

5. Bring attention to the cycle of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep OR focus on the contents of an elevating dream

6. Focus on anything that you find to be agreeable, calming, and elevating

For those who have some background in meditation, these techniques may seem familiar. In particular, these show up in a number of guided meditation techniques on YouTube, Calm, Headspace, and so on. These are excellent ways to calm and stabilize the mind, and can be practiced at any time at all, even without prior preparation.

However, while these are tremendously helpful, keep in mind that these are not, strictly speaking, meditation in the Yoga school - that comes later in the sixth through eighth limbs of the eight-limbed practice (which we will recap in the next couple of articles).

Six Techniques

Kriya Yoga: When “I want to do it, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”

The path of Yoga is difficult, and requires tremendous energy and willpower. Regular practice, constant alertness of your mental state, and rigorous questioning are prerequisites, without which progress is slow.

However, this kind of energy does not come naturally to most people.

P: I know many people who are very energetic, but have a hard time sitting down to meditate. What’s up with that?

Jogi: This kind of energy is, most often, rajasic. That is, the energy and passion is driven by a desire for something - wealth, power, identity, or even dharma (doing the right thing). Over time, rajasic energy drains the mind, leading to tiredness and feelings of insufficiency. For such people, using the techniques above can be helpful to bring the mind to a more sattvic state before jumping in to Kriya Yoga.

Kriya Yoga, literally the “Yoga of Action” is a threefold technique that serves to raise the will-power and vigor in the practitioner in a sattvic way, preparing the mind for the eight-limbed path. The three parts of Kriya Yoga are:

1. Tapas (तपस): Self-discipline

2. Svaadhyaay (स्वाध्याय): Self-study

3. Ishvarpranidhaan (ईश्वरप्रणिधान): Self-surrender

These three techniques, when practised together, increase the strength of the nishchaya-vritti - the movement of mind which decides (aka the buddhi). This comes in handy later on by creating a mental environment of extreme alertness and strength of will that is required for the eight-limbed practice.

Tapas, literally “heat” is the practice of something which you find difficult to do, but not so difficult that it creates a pattern of aversion, or something which causes the body harm. It should be something where it takes a certain amount of will-power to make the body do it, but not so much will-power that you don’t do it at all.

Some examples of tapas may be taking a cold shower, sleeping on a hard surface, fasting, or exercising every day. Do not use meditation as your tapas, lest you accidentally create an aversion to it in your mind and hinder your future practice.

Svaadhyaay, or Self-study, is specifically the regular study of soteriological teachings - that is, teachings which lead to Liberation from the cycle of suffering. The method of svaadhyaay is threefold - listening, doubting/questioning, and assimilating. The teachings need not be limited to a particular school such as Yoga, Vedanta, etc., but can be from any tradition. The Bible, Qur’an, Torah, Buddhist texts, and so on are all included within svaadhyaay. However, try to initially limit yourself to a single school, and go deep there, rather than shallow study in a large number of schools. The repeated daily study of even a single short text is far more effective svaadhyaay than a limited study of several long texts from different traditions.

Ishvarpranidhaan is Self-surrender. This in itself is a threefold practice:

1. Gratitude: Thanking God for everything that you have - big and small.

2. Sacrifice: Acknowledgment of the fact that everything that is “yours” is actually God’s, and you are just borrowing it.

3. Surrender: Surrendering the fruits of your actions to God.

For many of us in today’s Western-educated society, “God” can be a scary (or questionable) word. We will discuss this topic in future articles, but remember for now that Yoga does not require any sort of belief or faith in a supernatural being. Instead, there are two approaches to this:

1. The Jnani approach: Practicing Ishvarpranidhaan after gaining a logical understanding of God.

2. The atheist approach: To practice Ishvarpranidhaan without God.

For the former, Ishvar, or “God”, is defined as Pure Consciousness limited by the limiting adjunct of space, time, and causation. It is discussed in some more detail in the article here, and we will go into this in more detail in the future.

For the latter, consider the following:

1. Gratitude: Giving thanks to the circumstances which brought you to where you are right now, including the entire breadth and depth of causal factors, with an attitude of wonder for how the entire Universe, since the beginning of time, has conspired to make your situation possible.

2. Sacrifice: Realising the fundamental truth of impermanence. You cannot hold on to anything, and trying to hold on is a major cause of our suffering. Sacrifice here means to let go of the false idea of permanence, and to recognise the impermanence of your possessions, your situation, your relationships, your body, and your mind.

3. Surrender: Realising that you are not the actor, and that it is just your ahamkaar taking credit for the workings of nature. This can be done by noticing the infinite depth and breadth of causal factors that led to the outcomes you normally give yourself credit or blame for.

The third aspect of Kriya Yoga is Ishvarpranidhaan, or Self-Surrender. This practice has three components - gratitude, sacrifice, and surrender. Surrender itself has four components, which are also known as Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is one of the four Yogas, and is a sufficient path to Moksha unto itself. If you practice nothing else, just this final piece is enough.

Practicing Tapas, Svaadhyaay, and Ishvarpranidhaan on a daily basis is known as Kriya Yoga, and over time helps to build sattvic mental energy and will-power. It can be helpful to keep track of one’s practice in a notebook, or even a note on your phone, to find patterns and notice progress.

TL;DR

For those just starting out on the path, meditation can feel difficult - and it is!

The mind is restless, jumping from one thing to the next. However, this jumping is completely normal, and is simply due to habit patterns - samskaaras - that pull the mind in an outward direction (aka vyutthaana samskaaras).

In order to calm the mind sufficiently to begin the eight-limbed path (more on this next time), these foundational techniques can be practised during one’s daily life, using everyday situations as an opportunity to practice Yoga.

The techniques we revisited today were:

1. Eka-tattva-abhyaas: Focusing on one thing at a time

2. Brahmavihaaras: The Four Attitudes of friendliness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity

3. Six Stabilizing Techniques: Following the breath, noticing sensations, etc.

4. Kriya Yoga: The threefold method to build will-power and sattvic energy

Next time, we will continue our singha-avalokana-nyaya - the Lion’s Backward Glance - with the external limbs within the eight-limbed (Ashtaanga) path.

Until then, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions - whether about these articles, or about anything else. Some questions may even be featured in future articles!

Next time: The Prescription: Part IV