Review of Sutras 1.29-1.33

Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji So we've had this beautiful definition of Ishwara, the supreme reality or the ultimate reality, as a consciousness that is without limit, that's beyond our limitations and again and again whenever I look at this I just feel this is so beautiful because this definition or description of ultimate reality is so inclusive. What is God or the Lord or the supreme? It is consciousness that is without limit. So if we are of religious persuasion we can relate to this, even if we are not, if we have no devotional predilections, the idea of the consciousness that is without limit, it's very relatable. So I find this very very beautiful and how is Patanthi described Ishwara? It's a consciousness that is not limited by time, by space, by capacity. We too are conscious beings but we experience these limitations.

Ishwara, beyond all those limitations, including the limitations that are kind of part and parcel of having a physical body. But as we get into Chapter 2, Patanthi is going to be telling us how we can reduce the effects of these limitations that flesh is heir to. It's kind of normal to experience these limitations but Patanthi, always practical, is going to give us lots of practical mechanisms, structures and principles to help us reduce the veiling and limiting effects of having a body and being subject to the law of karma and things like that. Things that Ishwara is not subject to. And Patanthi also very very beautifully has said, Ishwara is beyond name and beyond form. It is beyond denotation.

So this is another thing that I find staggeringly beautiful in the Indian tradition. The ultimate reality is referred to by so many thousands of names. It is represented in thousands of different ways. And what that does, or one of the things that does, is reminds us that really there is nowhere God is not. There is nothing that stands outside of consciousness. And Patanthi does the same thing here in his brilliant, succinct, concise, linguistic way when he says, Tasyavachikav pranavaha.

The supreme reality cannot be denoted but can be connoted by the mantra, om, by the pranava, this primordial syllable, aum, which moves from the first possible sound we can pronounce to the last thing we can enunciate. And so it symbolizes the first, the last and everything in between. And he tells us, as we repeat that notion, as we keep reminding ourselves that everything we do, everything we experience is happening within consciousness, is only possible because of this underlying conscious essence. This reminding ourselves, this attitude of walking as if we are walking on sacred ground is going to help us actually recognize the underlying vastness, the underlying beauty, mystery and divine power or consciousness that is the source of life itself. And then, what will be the effect of that?

As we start practicing Ishwarapranidhana, so as we start consecrating our actions towards the highest, Patanthi then in the next sutra tells us what that will lead to. Tatah pratyak chetana adhikam opyantaraaya abhavashche So, tatah and then, pratyak chetana adhikamaha. So, adhikamaha, we will come to the understanding of pratyak, our individual self and chetana, the more, let's say, universal self. So, as we start to recognize this consciousness that is here, there and everywhere, that is all around, then we'll start to really understand who we really are and what we're really made of and we will start to understand and recognize more of the true nature of the bigger field that we are part of. And, antarayaha abhavaha, there will be the abhavaha, the absence of antarayaha.

Now, antarayaha, we've not encountered this word yet in the sutras, what does it mean? If you know the French language, the word ant means in between, it's come from this Sanskrit root, antar. So, antarayaha are things that stand between us and that experience of wholeness or totality or yoga. And he potentially says, by repeatedly reminding ourselves that there is nowhere God is not, that everything is divine, that everything is consciousness, then we'll come to understand our essential nature, the essential nature of reality and this will also bring the absence of obstacles. And this actually makes great logical sense because if we recognize everything as divine, then even these obstacles, they are also part of that field of conscious experience.

But of course, there's also the idea that the more we tune in to yoga, it's also going to help us transform those things that could be like difficulties into opportunities. The attitude that yoga helps us strengthen and cultivate is going to help us transform and transmute more easily, challenging aspects of our human experience so we can actually tune in more to our deeper innate capacity for balance and oneness. But Patanates mentioned this new term, antarayaha, these things that can get in the way, these obstacles, what's he talking about? Guess what he does in the next sutra? He's going to tell us what these obstacles are. So in the 30th sutra, Patanates lists these obstacles and he also talks about them as being factors that bring our chitta, our awareness, into a state that is vikshitta, disturbed, dispersed, unclear, shaky. So remember at the beginning of the chapter, Patanates defined yoga as a state in which our chitta, the realm of our awareness, its movements have been brought into a nirodaha state, a state in which they've been checked, brought within the realm of our consciousness, within our awareness.

But when the obstacles are at play, they have this effect of making our awareness kind of scattered, dispersed, unclear. So what are these obstacles? VyÄ쳌rīṣṭyÄ쳌na samsayÄ쳌pramadÄ쳌rasyÄ쳌virati prÄ쳌nti darÅ?yÄ쳌nÄ쳌raptabhu mekattvÄ쳌á¹?a vastitatvÄ쳌á¹?i chittaviká¹£epa sthÄ«ntarÄ쳌yÄ쳌n. So these antarayaha that have this effect of being chittaviká¹£epa, they make the chitta, the awareness, confused, dispersed, inconsistent, troubled. What are they? First, vyÄ쳌rīṣṭyÄ쳌n.

Now, vyÄ쳌rīṣṭyÄ쳌n basically means physical dis-ease. So obviously, if we have some physical affliction, it can make it really difficult to feel balanced. Obvious obstacle. SthyÄ쳌na. SthyÄ쳌na is like language, so like a mental in this position. If, you know, our mindset is just not feeling, we don't feel motivated for it, obviously it's going to get in the way.

Samshaya. Samshaya means doubt or indecision. And this too can be an obstacle to practice. Let's take an example for this one. So imagine that, let's just say, for example's sake, that you are in the habit of waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning and one day you wake up at 3.40 in the morning and you feel thoroughly rested. Your bed holds no appeal. You do not want to turn over. You want to get out and meet the day.

And you feel quite exhilarated that you have woken up feeling rested and lively and enthusiastic at 3.40 because you know this is the fabled brahma-muhurta, these hours before the sunrise which are most propitious for yogic practice. Now, ordinarily, when you wake up at 6, you devote an hour to your morning practice, let's just say. And let's say, for example's sake, you could do 20 minutes meditation, 20 minutes on the breath and 20 minutes movement and asana, for example. And that takes you from 6 to 7 o'clock, let's say. But now, it's 3.45.

You've got all the time until 7 to practice all these different techniques that normally just do a little bit off, except on the weekends when you go to the class or you give some more time. But now, at this special, and it's so peaceful, you've woken up, it's so lovely, it's so nice to be up at this time of the morning. Now, ordinarily, 6 o'clock, you know, you do your meditation and your breath and your movement, let's say that's the order you do them in. It could be any order. Classically, it might be asana, brahma-muhurta and meditation.

But there are lots of benefits to doing everything in its own particular order. Some people might say, well, I like the meditation first because that sets the mood. And then when I do the breath work and the movement, it kind of prepares me to get going out into the world. Somebody else might say, I like to do my movement first because it kind of wakes me up. And then I do the breath work that helps me kind of draw inwards at the same time as energizing all the circuits in my body that I open with a movement.

And then I do the meditation. There are benefits to doing everything in different order. But this morning, whatever's your habitual order, you wake up, now it's not 3.45am anymore. Because we've just been talking about the different possibilities of doing things in different orders, now it's 3.48. Time is fleeting by and you're thinking, hmm, which one shall I do first?

Hmm, it's so quiet. Oh, yeah, man, let's meditate. But then as you meditate and you start to notice your breath, your breath feels so calm and deep. You think, actually, maybe I should do the pranayama now because, wow, my breath feels so nice and relaxed. Yeah.

And then you think, oh, yeah, but just imagine if I do my asana with the breath feeling so quiet and relaxed. And then if I do the whole asana session like that, just imagine the pranayama. And then what happens? Now the brahma muhurta is fleeting by and before long it's six o'clock and I haven't decided what to do. All this is to say that indecision, indecisiveness can be a real obstacle.

One of the most famous plays in the English language, Shakespeare's Hamlet, is about the tragedy of samsaya, the tragedy of indecision. It's actually something I've wanted to do for many years, is to do a course called the Hamlet Purana, which reads this play through the lens of yoga and looks at all the yoga teachings we can extrapolate from it. But coming back to the point at hand, three obstacles mentioned so far. Vyadi, physical indisposition, illness, sickness, disease, sthyana, mental indisposition, and samsaya, doubt and indecision. Next, vyadi, sthyana, samsaya, pramada.

Pramada basically means carelessness, but it's a very specific type of carelessness. It means carelessness with regard to the cultivation of samadhi. Remember, this is the samadhi pada of the yoga sutra. So the context, the main theme, is samadhi, the yogic state of balance and integration. Now, this carelessness thing, there's a pretty classic story that is helpful to illustrate this.

I have a friend who was working closely with a man. He was a man who had a lot of, let's say, success in the public domain. He was an artist, and he was also quite into yoga, and he had various practices that he liked to do. And he'd been through some tough times in his life. And when things were really tough, he would grab hold of his practice like it was a life raft.

He'd get up in the morning and go straight to the mat and the meditation cushion. He was so conscious of how yoga's helping me so much get through this tough time. And during this period, he was very regular in his practice. And sure enough, this too shall pass. Before too long, he turned a corner.

Life was flowing more smoothly again. His work was going really, really well. All sorts of opportunities were coming his way. He was feeling great and primada. He got a little bit careless about practice.

Instead of that regular twice daily dropping in and connecting to that place beyond all the comings and goings, he was skipping his practices and just riding the wave of good fortune. What do we know about good fortune? Fortune is personified in the tradition as being of fickle nature, as she is in many other traditions as well. Because we know everything is always changing. But what this man experienced and I know thousands of people who have experienced the same thing.

Things are going really well. It's like I take my eye off the ball. I stop paying attention to the roots. I stop tending the foundations and then I lose my balance. So the idea in yoga is always constancy.

Practice as Patanjali has told us, it's a constant, steady, heartfelt, unbroken, consistent effort. Primada, when I neglect that, I don't keep tending the fire of practice. We'll speak more about the fire of practice, we get into chapter two. Fire, what does it require? It requires that constant, vigilant attention.

So this negligence or carelessness with regard to the cultivation of equipoise can be a barrier. And one more thing to say about that. There's also the idea, sometimes people say challenging times can be great teachers and this is of course true. But yoga reminds us, we can learn in the good times and the lovely times as well as in the difficult times. And there's the idea that if when things are going smoothly, if then we assiduously stay committed to our practice, this is going to have a very powerful effect because what it's going to allow is for our steadiness to become more robust, more deeply embedded within the core of our being so that when the next big challenge comes, we'll have kind of prepared the ground to be able to navigate it more smoothly.

So, pramada can be a barrier when we don't pay, let's say, respectful enough attention to really cultivating that deeper level of balance in our system with regularity. Alasya, next, basically means sloth, can't be bothered, laziness, obviously this will be a barrier. Avirati, Avirati refers to our sense powers and basically this principle when potentially flags this up as a potential antaraya, a barrier, it's making clear how important it is to respect the powers of our senses. So, yoga recognizes that our five sense powers and our action capacities too, these are very powerful entities. So, if we consider, for example, the field of our being like our kingdom or queendom and we are the emperor, the king, queen, sovereign of this realm.

But this realm is home to some very powerful entities in the form of our sense of hearing, our sense of touch, our sense of sight, our sense of taste, our sense of smell. Is it true that these are powerful things? They're very powerful things. So, you can imagine, if we have this kingdom and these powerful entities that are not respected, not given proper attention, neglected and ignored, how will those powerful entities respond? Sometimes people liken our sense powers to horses. Now, I'm not a horseman, but I have a couple of friends who've done a lot of work with horses and they tell me that if you work with the horse very with great presence, with loving presence and regularity, then you can give the horse the experience of the joy of running with you where you want to go.

And you can even get several horses to run together where you would like them to by letting them do that in a way that brings them joy and satisfaction, allows them to relish the exercise of their own horsepower. And then when they recognize and they know that when they work together under your guidance, they feel good, then they will happily carry you and take you where you want to ride. But if you don't give them attention, you don't create that loving mutuality, that connection, that affinity, that understanding, then they're more likely to think, well, no, I'll exercise when and where I like. Thank you. I'll run wherever I want. No, I'd rather stay still for a moment now. Thank you very much. Same with our sense powers. If we neglect them, if we try to suppress them or we repress them or we ignore them, it's likely that they will get the message that they need to look after their own short-term needs in the only ways they know how to.

And so they're likely to kind of flare up and kind of like tear off and explode, perhaps in ways that we might not really want them to in an imbalanced way. So, Avirati, potentially mentioning this, it makes clear that yoga recognizes it's important to respect the sense powers, to use them skillfully, not to indulge them, but to give them regular, proper nourishing exercise so they can actually serve the experience of centered awareness. Because centered yogic awareness is going to use the subtler powers of the senses orienting towards the center to give us greater, steadier, stronger access to that experience of samadhi. Next is Branti. And Branti basically means getting the wrong end of the stick, mistaken notion, mistaken understanding. So what does that mean here? So one thing, one way we can understand it is having the wrong idea, getting the wrong end of the stick about what we're really practicing for.

For example, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that somebody who is practicing yoga or working with yoga technique could fall into the trap of mistaking a technique for practice and thinking that I'm practicing to expand or deepen my prowess in the execution of technique. So, for example, somebody might have the idea, the Branti, the mistaken notion that if I can just stand on my one hand perfectly and nail my one arm handstand in the middle of the room, then I will be a master of yoga. Or somebody else might think, ah, when I can levitate from my meditation cushion and sit in the sky, yes, then I'll have got it. Or somebody else might think, when I can hold my breath for 16 minutes and take one breath an hour, then I will be in yoga. Let's imagine that we get fixated on being able to perform a particular technique.

This fixation could be very a yogic, it could go against yoga. So if we think I need to really nail the one arm handstand, we might put all our attention on the execution of this particular physical skill and neglect many other aspects of our life. Similarly, if we think, oh, I need to hold my breath like this, we could do tremendous damage to our circulatory, to the systems within which prana circulates and actually make it much, much harder to keep practicing. Make it harder for us to access yoga because we've stressed the system in this greedy, acquisitive pursuit of the attainment of some arbitrary idea of yoga. Yoga means balance.

So, like, I think you can't remember which book of the Bible it's in, where it says, remember, the Sabbath is for the man, the man is not for the Sabbath. So the point of the Shabbat, the day of rest, is to help us. It's not that we exist for the glorification of this day. Similarly with the yoga techniques, the yoga techniques are intended to support the real practice of yoga, the cultivation and deepening of balance through the rest of the day. So let us use the techniques to serve and support and deepen our own integration, our own harmony, our own well-being.

Let's not get stressed about having to do a particular technique. One of my friends, Boris Georgev, he says, don't let your yoga practice become another stress in your life. I think it's pretty safe to say that in the world today, there are very, very few of us who need more stress in our lives. So let's take care not to make our ideas of what yoga practice is a stress for us. Let's remember the techniques are always intended to help cultivate balance, harmony, sustainable good vibrations, sustainable well-being.

So of course, cultivating something that's physically challenging can be a wonderful exercise to bring about that yoga awareness, to train us in the ways of doing whatever we're doing with all of ourselves. Similarly, really inviting the prana to circulate efficiently in our bodily vehicle to pay attention to prana. This can be such a wonderful exercise to help us connect with greater reverence and appreciation to the life force all around us, the force of nature that we are not separate from. And similarly, aiming to sit in the sky could be a very helpful practice because one of the things about these, let's say, a little bit more far out meditation practices is that they really demand very subtle awareness. They require sustained subtle focus and the cultivation of sustained subtle focus can undoubtedly bring so many benefits to all of our life.

But if we allow ourselves to become fixated, then this is going to become a barrier. Everything in yoga is always about the center point. The same thing that can be medicine can also be poison. I've said this before. I will say it again. Poison, medicine, it all depends on the situation, the constitution and the dose.

And we can add to that the attitude. And that's what this sutra is really all about. Or one of the things it's all about is about our attitude because any of these obstacles, when potentially lays them out for us, one thing he's doing is he's making it clear. When you practice yoga, when you invite Samadhi, you will experience blocks. You will experience obstacles. These barriers will emerge.

But the way we meet them, that's what really counts. The next two really emphasize this. Darshana alabdabhumikattva means not being able to return to a state of awareness that we have previously experienced. So let's say, for example, we are meditating. Let's say it's the morning time.

We wake up and we go to our meditation place. And we just have the most amazing, blissful, transcendent experience. And we are loath to leave that subtle internal realm. But the demands of the day call us. Out we go into the day.

And we felt, wow, man, that was so wonderful. And all day long we're thinking, oh, I can't wait to meditate this evening or tomorrow. And next time we go to the meditation place, what are we thinking? What are we wanting? What are we hankering after?

What are we expecting? Expectations. What do we know about expectations? Sooner or later, if we have expectations, we're going to be disappointed. I've said it many times, don't go to yoga class with expectations.

Yoga class, yoga practice is designed and intending to free us from the burden and the prison of expectations. Can we become free of expectations? So we can actually savor this moment for the uniqueness that it really is. So if I have experienced at some point a lovely state of samadhi, but I can't get back to it, well, this is actually quite normal because life is always changing. We experienced it then. It's gone.

We can never, ever experience the past as it was. We like to do this as human beings. We have a lovely experience. We often hark back to it, especially when the present is feeling a bit more challenging. So Patanjali is saying here, yes, we can experience some degree of samadhi, but then we can't get back to it.

If that then torments me, if I become frenzied because I cannot get back to it, that's going to exacerbate the barrier. So that being able to experience something wonderful and then not being able to get back to it, that our attitude around that is going to determine how much of a barrier to yoga that is, to samadhi that is. So here I am and I'm meditating. And just yesterday I had a peaceful meditation, but today my mind is just shouting in 17 different directions. What's the instruction?

Just notice that. Allow myself to experience that and invite myself back to the object of meditation. If, as I'm experiencing that, I'm getting down on myself, I can't get back there, then the obstacle is becoming more and more of a problem, becoming bigger. Similarly with the last one, anavasthitatva, which means instability. Sometimes I'm in samadhi and then sometimes I'm not.

Sometimes I can access it, sometimes I can't. Again, this is completely normal on the path of practice. But if that freaks me out, then I'm going to make it more of a barrier. So very, very beautiful sutra here, because Patanjali makes it clear, we will experience obstacles. We will experience barriers.

An ocean crossing is highly, highly unlikely to always be plain sailing. We will have to tack, we will have to take our sails down, we will have to hunker down when the storm comes in. We will have to observe the horizon, waiting for the wind to rise again. This is all part of the game. It's part of the process.

We'll experience these ups and downs, and we will experience these obstacles. And we will know it, because when these obstacles appear, when they are manifesting, they do not come by themselves. They come with their attendance. So how do we know that our chitta is being vikshipta? How do we know that our awareness is being tormented and troubled and we're not in clear samadhi, we're not in that really balanced equipoise state?

When any of these obstacles are operating, then we're going to experience also dukkha. You can hear what this means here, dukkha. So Sanskrit is quite often an onomatopoeic language. So dukkha literally means difficult space. Kam means space, dukkha, difficult space.

Sukham, agreeable space. Dukkha, a space in which there is discord, disharmony. So when any of these obstacles we just mentioned, when any of them are operating, then we will feel some difficulty in the space of our being. Also, dauramanasya. We will feel some despondency, some despair.

So our limbs will be unsteady. Now this doesn't just mean physical shaking, but it means all our constituent parts, all the different powers within us, they won't sit together in perfect union. They will feel out of kilter, will feel out of balance. So when these obstacles are operating, we will feel imbalance, disturbance, distortion, confusion at the physical, mental, emotional, intellectual levels, perhaps all at once. And shva-saprasvasa, it will also affect our breath.

When we're in a state of complete yoga, the breath will be as if suspended. It will be ultra subtle, super subtle, as if we're not breathing. It becomes so refined. But when these obstacles to yoga are operating, then our breath will be affected one way or another. It might be shallow, it might be accelerated, it might be irregular.

We might feel the sighs of grief, for example. Are these signs familiar to us? Well, sure, yeah. I've experienced difficulty, I've experienced feeling despondent or dejected. I've experienced feeling shaky, feeling disjointed, feeling confused.

I've experienced perturbation to my breath. Ah, yes, these things are known to me. And as I make that recognition, what happens to my breath? I sigh, I'm not in the state of yoga now. What to do about it?

Never fear. Practical, potentially, is here. He tells us the poison, he gives us the remedy. And now he continues in sutra 33 to 39 to teach us how to overcome these natural obstacles, these things that are part and parcel of life that can have this effect of making our chitta vikshipta, how we can overcome this distortion, this imbalance, this disturbance, and actually come to chitta prasadana to bring our awareness into a state of clarity. So now we come to sutra 133. And you may notice that I have introduced, I hope you notice, that I have introduced this sutra with a little bit of extra weight or gravity or reverence.

Sutra 133, in my opinion, is a very special sutra because this, as I understand the Sanskrit, is the essential yoga practice, the most important practice, the non-negotiable practice, the compulsory practice, the obligatory practice. Why do I say this? Because in sutras 34 to 39, every sutra there, in which Patanjali, in his amazing distilled style, lays out literally oceans of possibilities for subtle internal meditative support and yoga techniques. Each of those sutras 34 to 39, they all contain the particle va. Va means and, or, as well, in addition, optionally, if you like. But in sutra 33 there is no va, there is no optionality.

And what I also understand from this is that if we do behave as sutra 33 enjoins reflexively, automatically, if that is the way we always respond to the types of situation it lays out, then that is a demonstration that we are established in yoga. If, however, we do not always respond in that way, then it might be a great idea and a great support to take recourse to the supportive possibilities that are encoded in sutra 34 to 39. So 34 to 39, internal meditative practice techniques, many, many options. But sutra 33 is basically how to be in day-to-day life, how to respond to the different types of situation we can encounter in life for the sake of yoga. And what we see in sutra 33 is a beautiful example of the way that yoga teachings combine description and prescription.

The way that an established yogin behaves or is, is described. And simultaneously is prescribed a course of practice for the rest of us who are not quite there yet. So what does sutra 133 say? It says, Maitri karuna mudhito pekshanam sukadukha punya punya vishayana bhavanata schitta prasadhanam So notice, chitta prasadhanam. Prasadhanam means clarification, purification of the chitta. In order to bring our chitta, our awareness, into the prasada state, potentially gives us four ways to be, four ways to behave.

So remember at the beginning of the chapter, chitta vritti nirodha, this is the state of yoga. In order to cultivate the nirodha state, we need our awareness to be prasadhanam, to be clear. And here we get the recipe. So what's the recipe? Maitri karuna mudhito pekshanam are four ways of being, four ways of responding, four ways of behaving in response to four types of situation. Now of course in life there are infinite types of situation we can encounter, but potentially in his linguistic genius, as he manages to do so often, he distills them into four categories.

So first attitude, first way of being, first behavioral response to cultivate, maitri. In response to sukham. So when we experience sukham, good space, agreeable situation, pleasantness, potentially says be maitri. Now maitri is related to the word mitra. Mitra in Sanskrit means friend.

So maitri is friendliness. So basically when things are agreeable, be friendly. What does it mean? If I want to be friendly to something, then how do I need to be? For example, if I turn to my side and I see the plant, if I'm going to enter into a friendly relationship with the plant, how do I need to be in relation to it?

I need to be present to it. I need to be open to it. I need to recognize it. Would you agree? If I'm going to be friendly with something, I've got to pay it some attention. It always comes down to presence in yoga.

So when things are agreeable, be friendly to them. When things are easy. So remember what we heard earlier about the obstacles. Don't be negligent. Don't be careless. When things are agreeable, pay attention to them and be friendly to them.

So when people are kind to us, reciprocate that kindness. Of course, but also what this means, I feel. When the universe offers us something very nice, pay attention and express, feel gratitude. Sometimes in life, this has happened many times to me, the universe has given me a lovely opportunity. Life has thrown something my way that would be a lovely thing to do or experience, but sometimes I get in my own way.

My idea about what I should do or what I have to do or must do stops me accepting this lovely invitation that life has just offered me. So Maitri, I feel, a very important part of it is to be open to the unexpected gifts and opportunities of life. Sometimes when we are blinkered or on autopilot, it's easy to rush past what we have actually been longing for. So I've noticed myself doing that on many occasions over the years. What does that tell me? It tells me I'm not in a yogic state.

If I was in a yogic state, a state of balance, then my perception and my awareness would be clear. So when a lovely invitation was extended, I would have the presence to be able to accept it, enjoy it, relish it, savour it, rather than go chasing after some idea, some fiction that is dominating the way I am actually meeting the present moment. So as soon as my ideas, they pull me away from the present. Genuine Maitri, real friendliness, means allowing myself to be here now. This also means being friendly to myself.

If I deny myself the riches of this moment because I am chasing some imagined future outcome or future experience, what am I doing? I'm behaving in a criminal way because I am stealing from myself. So yoga says, enough of such criminality. Let me inhabit this present moment with real appreciation. So when things are sukham, when we're in an agreeable space, be friendly and open and respectful to it.

However, sometimes in life, we will not always experience sukham. We will also experience dukkha, difficult space, not so pleasant vibrations, discord, suffering. What to do when we experience discord, suffering, bad vibes. And Batanjali says, karuna, exercise compassion. So when things are easy, be friendly and open.

When things are difficult, be compassionate. Punya, when things are wonderful, when we see people doing fantastic, great meritorious, virtuous things, how to respond there. Mudita, let it lift us up. Let ourselves feel joy at that. So sometimes in the world, when people are doing fantastic things, and we see this sometimes in the media, people like to criticize them.

People like to fault find and pick something that's not so great. Instead of celebrating the wonderful thing they're doing. Also sometimes, when we see other people doing fantastic things, rather than celebrate it, rather than feel inspired, we might feel, oh God, I'm so terrible by comparison. Batanjali and Yogas say, cast away that negative self-sabotaging attitude. When we see other people doing virtuous, meritorious, courageous, beautiful things, let it fill us with joy.

Let it inspire us. Let it lift us up. Now, imagine that you lived in a neighborhood, in a province, in a nation or a country, on a continent, on a planet, where all your neighbors practiced those three principles. When things were agreeable, people were warm, friendly, open, present. When things were difficult, people exercised compassion. And when people saw the people doing wonderful things, they felt inspired.

They were energized, uplifted, and perhaps then encouraged a greater action. Would you like to live in a neighborhood, in a planet like that? I certainly would. Fourth type of situation, apunya. Sometimes in life, we look out and we find it's not so inspiring.

It's not so virtuous. It's not so courageous. We see corruption. We see cowardice. We see exploitation. We see terrible things. What to do when we find ourselves facing terrible injustice? When we find ourselves seeing exploitation, degradation, and so on?

How to respond? Upeksha. Now, upeksha is the verb ich, with the prefix upa. Ich means to look at closely, to examine. Upa, as if from a high vantage point. So, upeksha, you could consider it as equipoise or equanimity.

I'd just like to highlight, it's quite possible that if somebody goes to a published translation of the yoga sutra, they may see upeksha, rendered in English, by the term indifference. Please do not be misled by that translation. The yoga sutra were translated a number of times in the 19th century. Many of those 19th century translators used the English word indifference for upeksha. In the 19th century, the primary denotation of indifference was kind of neutrality.

It doesn't make a difference to me. Easy come, easy go. It doesn't make no difference either way to me. It had very much that strong meaning back in the 19th century. But by the mid 20th century, or the second half of the 20th century, the primary denotation of indifference in English had shifted, and it carries much more this immediate sense of not caring. But that's not what upeksha means.

The indifference in the older sense of the word in English, of it not letting it make a difference to our centre, this is very accurate. But the study of not caring is completely off, how to say, it's just not accurate in terms of representing upeksha. Yes, when we see these terrible things, do not let them rob us of our centre. Can we be equipoised? So don't let it make a difference to your centre.

So I don't know about you, but what I've noticed in my own life is, say for example, I see tyranny, or I see injustice, and we don't often have to look so far in the external world to see signs of these things. Sometimes this can be very shaking, it can be very disturbing, it can be depressing. But if I allow myself to become pressed down by dejection, or riled up with furious rage, or lost in sorrow, what happens to my capacity to respond in a way that is actually going to foster a return towards greater harmony in the collective? It is diminished, yes? So the idea is, when things are agreeable, be friendly and open.

When things are difficult, be compassionate. When things are wonderful, let it inspire you, let it lift you up, let it fill you with positive energy. And when things are terrible, when you meet injustice, terror, horror, be steady. It's very interesting that there are specific internal practices for Maitri, Karuna and Murita. There is that when we practice being friendly and open to lovely things, being compassionate in the face of suffering, being joyful when we see wonderful things, there's the idea that then upeksha, that steadiness in the face of difficulty, will become an automatic response.

We are to practice upeksha. We practice Maitri, Karuna and Murita, and then upeksha will follow. And so I'd like to show you a visual now. And this visual shows these four ways of responding in relation to these four types of situation. So on this visual we can see these three ways of behaving, Maitri, Karuna and Murita, in relation to those three types of situation.

And the idea that when we practice those, then upeksha will be the natural consequence. Those three ways of being, they can actually make it easier for us to be steady, to be equanimous and to empower ourselves to respond more skillfully with greater capacity in those times of great duress and those times of trouble. So this is the essential practice. And the idea of prescription and description, if whenever I find myself in a sukkha situation, I am open and friendly, if whenever I find myself in a dukkha situation, compassion just overflows from me naturally. If whenever I see people doing wonderful things, I feel this rush of inspiration, I feel reciprocal joy, then I know I'm in yoga.

If when I find myself facing villainous behavior, treachery, all these terrible things, I am steady. I do not lose my center, but from a steady place I'm able to respond skillfully, then I know I'm in the state of yoga, my chitta is prasadana. But if not, what do I then know? Then I need to make more of an effort to cultivate these principles and in his great humanity, Patanjana then gives us the next sutras. 34 to 39, which encode so many different ways we can actually cultivate chitta prasadana, that steadiness and clarity of awareness, so it's going to be easier to respond in these ways when we find ourselves in these types of situations.

Now 133, I've spent a little bit of time highlighting it here because we're going to refer back to it when we come into the ashtanga yoga section of chapter 2. So in chapter 2, we're going to hear about the famous eight limbs or eight members of the collective body of yoga practice that patanjali lays out and encodes in the yoga sutra. But these eight limbs, in a certain way, at least from my perspective, they are elaborating what is being condensed and distilled in this essential sutra. So now let's continue with the optional supports for practice, the optional techniques and practices in sutras 34 to 39.