New(ish) Edition of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

ByElizabeth

One of the things I am enjoying about studying in depth with Paul Muller-Ortega is permission to invest in new books for my library.  I already had on my book shelves a number of the suggested books for supplementing our practices and studies, but there are a number of new ones I am excited to read.

I was taught by my philosophy professors to read at least three translations of a philosophy text side by side unless you can read the text in the original language.  Alas, I cannot read Sanskrit, so I have, therefore, multiple translations of the seminal yoga texts, including the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  The translation of the Yoga Sutras on which I have relied the most, is BKS Iyengar’s Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, in part because his approach is clear, and I can tell why he translated certain words the way he did.

At Paul Muller-Ortega’s suggestion, I just started reading Edwin Bryant’s translation, which includes translations of the key commentaries, which is a fantastic resource and opportunity for new contemplation.  I can tell that it is going to be an important part of my library.

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    Guru Purnima (without a “guru”)

    ByElizabeth

    A yoga teacher acquaintance once said rather dogmatically to me that it was not possible to be a true yoga teacher unless one had a guru.  He meant having a guru in the traditional sense — being devoted to a particular person as the embodiment of the divine and of the true teachings.  I did not engage on the issue, thinking (perhaps unfairly) that he would not listen to another point of view.

    I do not have a guru in the technical sense.  It would be unlikely.  I was raised attending unprogrammed meetings of the Society of Friends (Quakers), where services are premised on the idea that there should be no preacher or minister because the light of the spirit shines equally in all and that each person is equally able to connect through his or her own faith and practice to the spirit.  My first major exposure to the teachings of yoga was through the writings of J. Krishnamurti, which a teacher in an alternative program in high school I attended gave us to read, along with the classic yoga texts.  Krishnamurti believed that all change comes from within and eschewed devotion to a guru.

    Although I do not have a particular guru to whom I give my devotion (bhakti), I strive to honor and recognize that our true teacher is the light and spirit that is within all beings.  The first line of the Anusara invocation — om namah shivaya gurave — resounds with truth for me.

    On this guru purnima, the full moon of July, I honor the teachings that have so shifted my life, my teachers, especially John Friend and Suzie Hurley, and all of my students and friends, who shine with light always, and who inspire me to try each day to live more aligned with the ideals of yoga.

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    Darshan or Puja?

    ByElizabeth

    The other day I was telling one of my regulars that I’d described the group house practice as starting with receiving darshan — receiving sacred knowledge, sitting in the presence of the divine embodied in a great being — from Uma and Sully, who wait downstairs for the students to arrive and expect a petting before everyone goes upstairs to practice.

    ” Is it darshan or puja [performance of ritual worship]?” my student asked.  The two are intertwined.  We naturally offer our gratitude and worship for those in whom we recognize the divine and from whom we learn to know the sacred.

    What would our lives be like if we treated all our encounters and relationships as both darshan and puja, if we came to each person and being open to receiving a glimpse of the divine and the knowledge the divine imparts and approached each encounter as an opportunity to make puja, to formally act with reverence?  The cats certainly expect it.

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    Another Self-Induced India Photo Flashback (Roadside Temples)

    ByElizabeth

    Another self-induced India photo flashback after a long work day reading and writing at the computer with breaks only for shoveling snow and for eating and cleaning up.

    We were traveling on the bus when I saw the Durga temple (the fifth photo–the one with the white glare and flat sky, but an incredible Durga).  I suggested to my seatmate that he take a picture with his better camera.  I recall it quite reasonably and correctly being pointed out to me the flat, white heat of the midday, humid sky and the glare off of the window would make it impossible optimally to show the intricacy and vividness of the temple.

    I snapped a picture anyway.  I was seeing things at angles coming and going and with whatever the light was at the moment.  I likely wasn’t ever going to be there again and certainly not any time soon.

    Sometimes the bus would pause in just the right place for a perfectly composed shot, but mostly it didn’t.  In this, the act of taking these photos was much like other aspects of life and practice.  Our path is not always certain.  Sometimes it is hard to see because there is too little light or too much.  Sometimes we have something obscuring our vision.  Sometimes we are going too fast and only notice just before it would be too late for that turning.

    But even with vision turned or obscured, we are always experiencing something.  How can we make the best of each moment of experience?  For me, it is meditating and bringing the spacious awareness of meditation to what I am witnessing.  Taking photographs helps me witness in a certain way, too.

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    Some Thoughts on Sadhana

    ByElizabeth

    A regular reader of this blog commented on the consistency of my practice of taking photographs. Thinking about this practice, reminded of something I recall John Friend having said. We have a steady hatha yoga practice (asana, pranayama, meditation), for two reasons. When we’re feeling full of joy and gratitude, we practice to make offering in thanks. When we are feeling disconnected or off-balance or sad, we practice to remind ourselves of our connection in spirit. This pretty much means there is always a reason to practice.

    With the photographs, sometimes the sweetest moment of my day was noticing a flower or a cloud. I practice doing so, especially when I’m feeling too caught up in the tumult. In the moment (and on reflection later when I review, select, and edit an image to share, I remember, as I do when I do my hatha yoga practice, my current well-being. Sometimes there is more about yoga practice I can say with a photograph than I could with a paragraph.

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