Sunday, November 20, 2011

free from the emotional wheel of obstacles

"Of these activities of consciousness of perfected beings, only those which proceed from meditation are free from latent impressions and influences."
Sutra 4.6 Iyengar translation.
He describes it as meditation sets us free from the emotional wheel of obstacles like; lust, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and jealousy.
Meditation leads us into the center of emotion, to the consciousness of the heart, so that we can expand spiritually.
Because this consciousness have "neither virtue, nor vice, fluctuations nor afflictions". This consciousness of the heart is conducive to experience kaivalya (freedom or emancipation).

How do I relate to this?
I relate to this with my urge to become more neutral, more anonymous. To get to see things happen and not get disturbed; this sounds like heaven to me. I'm not there YET (as you can tell), but in moments I have been given to be identified with the observer instead of the "victim", or some role like; the "mother/ex-wife/lover/employee"...

What is my experience?
My experience confirms this sutra. I felt absolutely free in the moments where I got to be neutral to the "stimuli" of the emotional wheel. Sometimes I have the opposite experience, to send or give something and then know that I wasn't free, wasn't neutral, because I want something from the other person, a certain response, or a certain action. I get to see I had a condition, I wasn't really free. The "free" action have qualities of the meditative state. It is calm, clear and at ease.

How can this inspire my personal daily practice my teaching??
I'm inspired to seek to develop the meditative state, in order to develop more and more of the neutral state - the observing position.
And I can seek to cultivate continuous awareness - by giving something to my students to focus on and to choose from the many suggestions of focal points in "light on life" that Iyengar suggests. I mean every sentence so far in this book could be a focal point for a class by it self!

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