Sutras 2.47 & 2.48

Sutra 47. So in Sutra 46, we had Steeder, Sucum, Boag Asana is at once, Steeder, steady, and succumb. Easeful. Asana is a space of sustainable good vibrations. Now potentially takes this definition subtler.

And he says, so in the previous script, we had and succumbs, like pairs of opposites. Here we find the same. Prayatna means effort. Means releasing, loosening, slackening. Ananta means without end, infinite.

And Samapat Dipyam, this is where the awareness can kind of drops into that state of the Ananta. So the idea is state of Sukamarcinam, as that marriage, if you like, between Steeda on the one hand and Zucker on the other, as they get to know each other more and more softly, more and more deeper. They trust each other more. They really know each other more inside out. Then Arsenal becomes a place of sustainable good vibrations. We can be steady and relaxed all at once.

And that relaxed steadiness, then that play between praetna, between effort, effort, or effortfulness, and Shatiya, relaxing, loosening softening. That play becomes more and more subtle until it gets to that point where it allows us to release into and experience the underlying deathless essence. That place that is boundless. Now it's striking as well. This is the yoga Sutra, written by Majeshi Potanjali.

Potentially is set to be an incarnation of Ananta. Ananta is another name for Alichesha, the primordial serpent upon whom, upon which lord Vishnu, reclines sits and sleeps. So how is this huge coiled serpent? Well, it's pretty tonic. It has a certain firmness, but also a certain softness, so Vishen is very comfortable there. And who is Vishnu?

Vishnu is the preserver and is pervasive. So Vishnu is kind of an ultimate embodiment, you might say, of Tirasocamarcinam, because he's seated on Ananta. On the steady easefulness that is without end. So also encoded here is the idea that as the way that we can play with interface between these mutually supportive pairs of opposites opens and becomes more and more subtle, that play will then open up our awareness to that part of ourselves or that aspect of reality in existence, which is the vast, infinite, deathless, endless. So that's an advanced arsenal. As soon as people talk about, oh, advanced arsenal, that's the advanced arsenal How do we know that our arsenal is advancing? But then when we are deepening into our experience of asking like that, then what happens, Danva, the pairs of opposites, Anabigata, they no longer strike us.

We are no longer so afflicted or struck or knocked off knocked off balance by them. In other words, when our arsenal becomes truly steter and succer, and the praetna and the Chaitiliya become much subtler deeper, So we're really, really establishing that subtle, steady state of sustainable good vibrations. Then we become that much more robust. That much more resilient. All of the comings and goings, they can no longer shake or perturb us.

So this takes us back to Remember Sutra 27. We spoke about those sequential stages of deepening of awareness. And eventually that state where it's like the gunners, it's like they roll off the mountain. They can no longer find a ground to afflict us. So it's that same idea.

Potani has also mentioned this back in chapter 1 in the 16th Sutra where he says that when the Boag practitioner becomes fully established in the fruits of practice, or the culmination of practice, then all the moons of the gunners all the different comings and goings of life and existence, they no longer afflict us or have the same disturbing effect on us. So this is what is encoded here. Then when our arsenal becomes truly steady and useful, and the steadiness and the easefulness, the effort and the release have become more and more subtly finely tuned, Then we come to sit and become established, embodied, in a state in which all of the pairs of opposites no longer have that power to dominate us on throwers off balance. So again, we see how the sutra's work from growth to subtle. Well, that's, you know, I can still be rather jolted or knocked, by experiences that disturb me in some way.

Nonetheless, if I keep making that steady effort to make the seat of my awareness, more meditative, more centered, more concentrated, more congruent, more coherent. Sure enough, I recognize I am able to navigate the challenges of life a little bit more easily. Just yesterday I was having a conversation with a dear friend of mine who was recently in her family had a a bereavement. And she's a long term yoga practitioner, and it was very clear to me how She's been reaping the fruits of her years of practice in a time that was very, very stressful for the family. She was able to provide life literally life saving support to her mother.

In the midst of the rest of the family, being very, very stressed. And we've known each other for many years, and I said, well, this is what I've been practicing for. And we might not we might read the suit and think, well, I've not got there yet, but This is a map, a manual for practice. How do I know if my arsenal practice is advancing? Am I able to navigate life and challenging situations a little bit more calmly than I used to be.

That is the advanced arsenal. To be steady, steta, and so come in the thick of life. Doesn't matter whether our foot's behind our head. Can we stand steadily on the ground?