existance of a greater reality 4.16 and 4.17

iyengar:
4.16
an object exists independent of its cognizance by any one consciousness. What happens to it when that consciousness is not there to perceive it?
4.17
an object remains known or unknown according to the conditioning or expectation of the consciousness

desikachar
4.16
if the object were indeed the conception of a particular individuals mind, then in the absence of her perception, would it exist?
4.17
Weather an object is perceived or not depends on its accessibility as well as the individuals motivation.

Trying to keep it simple here.
Desikachar supports my view that there is a greater reality that exists independent of me as an observer. I'm motivated by many different things, and if my motivation for doing yoga is to get more strong or flexible, then this is what I will get. But it doesn't mean that this is all I can get. My master tells me to look deeper and ask for more (well he didn't say to ask for more, he just told us there was more, and this inspires me to search for more).

In supta swastikasana I'm told, that it most certainly can be about stretching the groins or about staying alert, but there is more, much more to find. And this is just one example - there are so many treasures to find.
So this inspires me to go for the subtle. To examine the neutral observer position.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

longing for imortality

Both Iyengar and Desikachar gives me a cosmogony, when they unfold their understanding of this sutra. I get to read about a world view that describes how we humans came about and were... put together..

Here is the sutra 4.10, in Iyengar's translation:
"These impressions, memories and desires have existed eternally, as the desire to live is eternal."

Desikachar writes that this eternal desire to live is "what inspires the instinct for self preservation in all of us" . Just like our eternal longing for immortality, so is the memories and our desires eternal.
Since there is something destructive in the urges that are built upon these impressions and memories, I relate to this sutra by my life experience. I have both the destructive and the constructive powers in me. Iyengar writes about how yoga can set us free from oppositions (black and white actions) polarities of pleasure and pain. Hereby we will not be driven by past memories and the fears and desires they lead to and we will get free from experiencing joy and sorrow. Maybe destruction and construction end here, like time ends here?
Ok, I'm gonna let me go there :-) maybe the circle of destruction - construction - or karma, if you want - gets so close that we suddenly cannot see a beginning or an end and suddenly there is no time any longer, the autumns chestnut falling of the tree is the birth of spring.

This is a great meditation, to try to rest in the pause between breathing in and breathing out, to try to find the exact moment where one breath is transformed into the other. Impossible and great meditation.
I also love the meditation to experience breath as a giving and a receiving. As soon as I think I've got it figured out (for example; "inhalation is giving") it turns up side down and into it's opposition.

Ok, this sutra inspires me to search for freedom from being driven by "wants" and "fears" in asana work, to go for neutrality. But it also inspires to work with whatever brings vitality to me and pass this on. Right now it's to work with chest full and abdomen hollow. Rotations and chest openers brings vitality to me, so this is a focal point.

Happy new(?) year :-)
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

navel navel who am I??

Sutra 3.28 (Iyenhgar counting) “By samyama on the navel, the yogi acquires perfect knowledge of the disposition of the human body” (Iyengar translation)

And since it’s the body we gain knowledge Iyengar recalls what the five layers of the body are.. I just keep on quoting;
“The anatomical sheath consists of seven substances: skin, blod, flesh, sinew, bone, marrow and semen…
The physiological sheath consists of the circulatory, respiratory, digestive, excretory, endocrine, lymphatic, nervous and reproductive systems.
The psychological sheath is the seat of motivation…
The intellectual sheath, reasons and judges.
The spiritual sheath, body of bliss, is also called the casual body.”

So these are the areas of knowledge we are promised to achieve, if we meditate on and integrate (samyama) the navel.
One of my daughters had a very close relation to her navel her first 7 years in the world. She should always touch it if she was sad or when the evening came.. She called it “maldi” which means nothing in Nordic languages (it’s called navel here as well…), so when Iyengar mentions that the navel is a centre of all the nadis in the body, known as kandasthana (kanda=egg) and that all our energy arrives from this centre, well I’m not completely surprised :-) even though I still have only a vague idea of the nadis.
But this new form of Yoga I’m committed to, shows me so much more from the inside, (wordless I’m gaining knowledge of the nadis and the chakras – sorry guys if this is too flowery for you)
I don’t have to read books (haha working at a library, even if I work a lot with development it’s still a BIG statement). Actually the organization of the sheaths is also interesting if you work with organization of knowledge or databases in any old way (Linné, dk5…Dewey classification system). It serves as an opposing force – beautifully to us westerners thinking we have it all put into the right places – I just love this!!

So for the asanas, the teaching, the home practice this week; energy of the body (thanks) and focus on the navel, recognizing the sheaths or starting to experience some of this wisdom (not instead, but along with).
Namsté
Jenni Saunte

my inner milky way

Sutra 3.27 (Iyengar counting) "By samyama on the sun the yogi will have knowledge of the seven worlds, and of the seven cosmic centers of the body"

This is one of these "coincidences" - that I love. Last week I asked the great reality to reveal itself to me within, free and clear from my intellectual interpretation of a sign. And I was given a day where I woke up a 4 am with a feeling that my whole inner center was a cosmos, a planetary system, a milky way within, slowly turning around itself.
Now Iyengar writes that Patanjali doesn't only talk about how the yogi should meditate and integrate the sun (in the sky) - but to search within! "As microcosm represents the macrocosm, man's body epitomizes the entire structure of the great universe."

So.. I say yes! I can relate. He also writes about the sun of within "The light that shines from the seat of the soul is the sun of life".
My teacher says that the Gayatri mantra is a celebration of the sun - that we pray to shine our light on all around us, as life giving and generous and not judgmental but including. We give thanks for the life that the sun gives and the light that makes us able to see clearly (awaken) the world.

So focus for this week - my inner sun (and the outer spring sun coming around) the Gayatri mantra and going for integration and meditative state on this :-) exploring the micro- and macrocosm.
love jenni saunte

sense of getting cleaned, and being the cleaning-person at the same time

Sutra 2.32
“Niyama comprises:
1. Cleanliness, or the keeping of our bodies and our surroundings neat and clean.
2. Contentment or the ability to be happy with what we have and do not crave what we do not have.
3. The removal of impurities in our physical and mental systems through the maintenance of correct habits such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, work and relaxation.
4. Study and the necessity to review our progress.
5. Actions done more in the spirit of service than for personal gain.” (Desikachar translation)

Ok. So this is our attitude towards ourselves. Here is my "check in": 1. yes, Cleaning as an act, is very present in my life :-) two kids, 6 and 10 years – makes it very urgent to keep on cleaning – not to get It done, once and for all, but to be in the process. It is kind of a creative act (am I too weird now?) to organize and to play that I know where stuff should be, in relation to other stuff :-) creating jennis-universe through cleaning – ha. But it sometimes also brings me the position as the servant, number 5. Because I can tell that my kids loves their rooms and our place more when the surface of the table is visible and the dog is to be found. 2. contentment is a gift, and I love the thought of us – always being content, underneath :-) some five or ten years ago I was a supporter of the idea, that if I ever got mad or sad, I’ve probably always was mad or sad, but just not in touch with (suppressing) my tru depressing feelings. Well a wise person told me – it might as well be the other way around. Maybe I’m always content and happy, and sometimes I forget it in the turbulence of my ego or life’s overwhelming richness. But there is an ease and a peace of mind, in contentment that reminds me of “were the piece of the puzzle fits”. This makes it attractive to me.
3. When I sleep well and there has been a feeling of healthy food and moving of my body, I guess I feel pure – and the opposite is also true, I feel impure or like “a mess” when I slept bad or eat really only sugar and fat and didn’t move at all :-) yea that happens !
4. I love that work and study are mentioned in 4 and 5, because I feel so passionate about these aspects of my life. They melt together, but is also a true sound position for me to be in. The months after graduation before I got a job, I renamed my job-applications to “my job”. I couldn’t relate to being without job, fine lets call my new job “hired as unemployed” but the idea of: "without job"… too weird for me. My daily and weekly practice of self-inquiry or self-examination and study of yoga, is a lifeline, my beloved oxygen mask. And it reveals me to me, again and again depths of realization, patterns and brings me to bottoming out in non-functional patterns and bringing me through vague, uncertain periods into new grounds, new positions. It brings me perspective and proportion.

In my yoga practice and in the asana, it gives me: sense of getting cleaned, and being the cleaning-person at the same time. The asana gives me (most of the time) contentment. It brings me exercise and a good nights sleep. It is both my work and my study :-) and it often gives me the position to be serving a crowd of yoga-lovers <3 This little relation practice tells me that; doing the niyamas, is the same as doing my personal practice – fantastic!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

the small self and the cosmic self :-)

I’ve been resisting even to start writing this post. The resistance is with me right now :-) Because, you see, this sutra is like a whole cosmogony, a way of looking at life, that baffles me and overwhelms me. The sutra it self is ok: “The gunas (three qualities of nature) generate their characteristic divisions and energies in the seer. Their stages are distinguishable and non-distinguishable, differentiable and non-differentiable.” (Iyengar translation, 2.19)
This sutra unfolds layers of nature’s manifestations. Fine! I’m on it. Let’s seek into what we can and cannot distinguish and differentiate…
But...

Then Iyengar unfolds a classification which is a part of the yoga-philosophy “way of thinking” that I was unaware of. You get to share my own notes here.

“Nature (prakrti) consists of cosmic intelligence (mahat), which has the three qualities of luminosity (sattva), action and motion (rajas) and inertia (tamas).” From these qualities, our life rise and cycles…
“The individual counterpart of cosmic intelligence (mahat) is consciousness, or citta. Citta consists of mind (manas) which reviews sensory and vibrational stimuli; intelligence (buddhi), which is the discriminatory faculty; and ego or small self (ahamkara) which is the individuals “I”.”

After I’ve read this, my head exploded. Everything in me objects every time I read a classification (consider my daily day in a library:). Something awakens that wants to prove it wrong, that’s just how my ego works…
I haven’t experienced anything afterwards, which couldn’t be categorized under one of the three qualities. And this became my teaching, to explore the three qualities in every asana.

But I get to get more overwhelmed. Iyengar unfolds even more classifications here. “There are also five senses of perception – ears, tongue, eyes, nose and skin…” Yes, western-schooled-Jenni agrees and love that the organ is mentioned instead of the sense.
He continues: “five organs of action – legs, arms, speech, genital and excretory organs.” I can’t help smiling. I never thought like this -it tickles my brain.
The five elements, senses and organs of action are distinguishable and concrete in form. They produce changes that may be pleasant or unpleasant.
There are the five subtle parts of the elements and the small self and the deep within spiritual self that exists in a vibrational form, not distinguishable or differentiated.
Creation is a process when the unspecified matter transforms into specific.
The reversed process, when specified or concrete matter turns into the universal spirit (purusa), can be seen as a divine marriage – “which becomes possible through the work of yoga.”

Wow.
I need some time, but I’m so grateful to you, for making me put words on my understanding and my focus in Iyengars text this week.
Love and Namasté