subtle, internal, intimate and subjective

Sutra 3.7 Desikachar translation “Compared to the first five components of yoga (sutra 2 – 29) The next three (sutra 3 – 1,2,3) are more intricate.” All my texts sees the first five aspects of yoga to be about; our attitude (action) to our environment (yama), our attitude towards us self (perception)(niyamas), practice of body exercise (asana), practice of breathing exercises (pranayama)and restraint of the senses (pratyahara). Iyengar writes about them all that they are cleansing and purifying practices, this is interesting to me. I’ve been given the guideline of uncover, discover, discard, with the promise that everything I truly am and everything that I need to be will still be there after discarding as good as I can :-) Or maybe in yoga-discourse, to be new, cleansed and purified…

Well they all write about how subtle and internal the last three aspects of yoga are.

Intricate, I need to look up, it means; “having many complexly interrelating parts or elements”. So I move on to Iyengars text, which gives me the words I can relate to: “dharana, dhyana and Samadhi are more subtle, internal, intimate and subjective practices.” It’s about the inner layers, the intelligence, the consciousness and the soul – all very close to the spiritual heart.

Yoga asana and pranayama can be a meditation and have these aspects. Have you tried to have a teacher that just strengthens you in your own rhythm, your own true path? Well I have, and this is what I relate to when I hear about these intimate, subjective and subtle aspects, when I’m with a good teacher who is not trying to control – then my experience of these subtle qualities comes fourth. Beautifully.

Love and light
Jenni

integration

Sutra 3.4 “The three together – dharana, dhyana and Samadhi – constitute integration or samyama.” (Iyengar translation)
Ok, first for me, find out what integration means on a semantic level, Merriam Webster:

Definition of “Integrate”:
1 : to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole : unite
2 : to find the integral of (as a function or equation)
3 a : to unite with something else b : to incorporate into a larger unit
4 a : to end the segregation of and bring into equal membership in society or an organization b : desegregate

So I’m back at the subject of unite and oneness a unified whole. When I read Desikachar and Iyengar I understand that samyama is a describing concept of what goes on.
I relate to samyama as a description of a process in which dharana (removal of obstacles, concentration), dhyana (staying in focus, meditation) and Samadhi (unification of the seer and the object, absorption) is not always chronologically connected but happens in the now as a movement and a stillness. They happen at once. There is an evolvement but it is more like the breath, expanding and contracting.

Iyengar describes it as a depth, where dharana brings stability in mind, dhyana develops maturity in intelligence and Samadhi acts to diffuse the consciousness. “The intermingling of mind, intelligence and consciousness is samyama of the three.” At the deep level, within the mind, the intelligence and the consciousness is the seer.

(Iyengar also writes that a samyami is a person who subdues her passions and remains motionless. It relates to a theme of abstinence and ahimsa, which is growing in me, so I had to write it in. I think “motionless” was my personal hint/spark/jenniplace)

Somehow this makes my daily practice more steady, I don’t have to have all obstacles removed before I can practice, I don’t have to know where it’s going, I just have to do it and look at the results.
In teaching it reminds me of how we say “observe the state of your mind/thoughts/feelings” not that the student have to be in a certain way to be able to do yoga but just awareness to what is, is a start on this integration.

Namasté
Jenni –who’s cold and fever, gets medicine from Iyengar yoga treatment this now ;-) thanks for Janet MacLeod