Sutras 3.1 - 3.4

So while this course is about Sardanapada, chapter 2 of Patanjizyogasutran, I think it's only appropriate that we include the first four sutures of chapter 3 because these deal with the last of the eight James. And the Astanga system is introduced in chapter 2 and is an integral part of chapter 2. So I'm gonna speak here about the first four sutras of chapter 3 in which potentially defines Darnah, Diana, and Samadhi, the, sometimes called the Anterangani, the internal or inner James, and also the subsequent sutra for which potentially introduces the principle of. Remember the first of the ashtanga was Yama, and then when the last three, our experience together, he calls that So we'll come to that in a moment. But first, let's look at the first suite of chapter 3 Potentially, at the end of chapter 2, has given us the definition of pratya Hara, and we've had this sutra that tells us that basically when we practice Yamani Yama, Astna, Prathyya Hara, then our awareness becomes more firmly, stably connected to a higher source, to a clearer subtler intelligence and awareness.

And we mentioned that Pritjaha is sometimes considered the gateway limb between the relatively speaking external limbs of yemeniyama. Asana Plani, and which is very much yemenayama is very much about how we behave in relation to ourselves, others, and our environment. Asana about how we look after the energetic space of our being, the seat of our awareness, Piranayama, how we interact with the energy in the life force of the vast reality and bring ourselves into balance with it. And then Pratya Hara, we are incarnate bodily being. Our sense powers and our action powers are totally intrinsic to our human experience. And, as I mentioned earlier, Krishna Najita says, the Indrajaha, in and of themselves, it's part of their very nature that they can have a stirring up consternating influence because their job is to help us seek out that which is truly charming, which is gonna bring us real satisfaction.

And they are also totally intrinsic to our surviving and thriving. So just doing their jobs, they do take us out into the realm of constant beguiting change. Nonetheless, when we work with them skillfully, we can find that we can cultivate a seat of more steady, robust, centered, and useful, sustainable awareness. Now, I find it very interesting as well that there is this chapter split here. Chapter 3 is called Vibouti Pada. Now, Vibouti has lots of different meanings in lots of different contexts, but one of the meanings is a kind of special power, a power beyond what we might call normal.

And so I find it striking, and it makes me smile, that concentration being able to focus on one thing is is a superpower, especially in these times in which our awareness is constantly being bombarded and being invited to become dispersed and distracted, but potentially begins chapter 3 by saying, Dardana is the being able to be fixed in one place, sustained in one place, of our conscious awareness. This is, in other words, is concentration or concentrated awareness. Disha means place. Bhanda. Maybe you've encountered this word from. Bhanda It's given us the English word, bandage, or the verb to bind, a bond.

Bunder is something that grips, I mean, that holds. So when our awareness is the held is maintained, you know, one place, when there is a sustained focus, this is concentrated awareness. This is Dardenah. We can practice. We can practice, for example, okay, I'm going to allow myself to experience the phenomenon of the breath, and I sit or I lie down or I stand, and I just allow myself to experience the in breath and the out breath and perhaps the pauses that emerge between the in breath and the out breath.

And as I do this, it's quite likely that I might notice my awareness is wandering off somewhere else. I notice it and I invite myself back to the center. My awareness goes off again, and again, patiently, kindly, lovingly. I invite my awareness back to the center. And again, this time I go off on a great diversion, and then I catch myself but rather than getting annoyed, I smile, I lovingly patiently invite myself to come back to the center. To be Con Ilcentro in Italian with the center, to be concentrated And as I get used to being con, which means with in Latin or Italian, with the center, it's like I train myself more in the ways of concentration I can actually get used to.

I can actually develop a a taste, a predilection for the concentrated state. Because I can realize that, yes, if I want to have a rich experience, I want that concentrated experience. So whatever I'm doing, if my awareness is dispersed, it's not going to give me the ultimate concentrated nourishment. So concentration practice can be its own reward. It can bring greater richness into all the means of life and make each moment more satisfying.

Concentration then becomes and begets Jana. The meditative flow of concentrated awareness. Tatra, Tatriyai Catanatha, Jyanam. So Tatra, in that concentrated state. When Pratya, the effort is a Catanatha, it continues on the one point Then Jhana emerges. Jhana means meditation or meditative flow of awareness.

So I am Kony Ilchanthraim with the center. I'm focusing for example, on the experience of the breath. My mind, my awareness wanders off. I'm daydreaming about this. I'm recollecting that now. And then I invite myself back to the center.

And now When I keep practicing like that, my mind, my awareness, no longer one is off so much. I catch myself sooner. Softer. It's all becoming more concentrated. And when that concentrated awareness is sustained, then it becomes that meta to flow of awareness, and Diana emerges. So when I practice concentration, I can invite meditation. I can invite Diana.

So from the practice of Dardenah, then Diana can emerge more easily. And then It's not like I can directly practice it, but I can invite it. So inviting the awareness, directing the awareness to one point in this to a focused state. When that focused state is sustained, then Diana emerges. In that state of meditative flowing awareness.

When in that state, that only remains the luminosity of the awareness itself Then, Samadhi emerges. So there I was, I was focusing on the experience, the phenomenon of the breath. My awareness was sometimes getting distracted, but patiently lovingly with good humor. I invited my awareness back to the center. And as that continued, it's like my awareness was no longer wandering so far. It's becoming more and more traded, and it gave birth to, it invited this meditative flow.

And in that meditative flow, it's like my awareness we could say it's more like it's pulsating on the object of focus. But as I'm in that negative state of flowing concentrated awareness, I'm still aware that I am concentrating on the object. But then in Samadhi, we find this merging of the sear and the scene of the experiencer and the object that's been experienced and the means that's allowing the experience to occur. And when only the object itself is shining forth, when there is that merging, that coming into oneness, This is the Kevalya, the all one state of Samadhi. So we could One way we can describe is Dardenah is concentrated awareness.

Diana is a method to flow of concentrated awareness. And Samadhi is integrated awareness. And then in the 4th sutra, potentially says, the 4th sutra chapter 3, potentially says, Trayim Ayatra, Saimah. Tryim, these 3, Darren Adyana Samadhi, Ayatra, when they're experienced as 1. This is called a very striking turn because what was the first of the eight James? A, excuse me, the first three items was yammer, and then it culminated with Samadhi, but Thrayami Katra, Darnadiana Samadhi, those three the internal limbs when their experience together, potentially cause this.

Now, yam, Yama. We remember we've introduced it. Yama means to sometimes people say to control, but I prefer to think of it to harness, to channel, Yamma's ways to channel and harness the powers of our energies, human beings, ways to harness and channel the power of our awareness. Sun as a prefix in Sanskrit. Isn't the word Sanskrit too? It means well. So to be well harness, So when the powers of our awareness are sunnema, it means they're very, very well harness.

Just in our day to day experience, If we are operating, if we are behaving in a way that is cultivating harmony, authenticity, respectfulness, that is respecting our energy that is allowing us to be present. This is Yama. This is fantastic. Sunnema is where we're taking that harnessing of the awareness to a very subtle internal space that is allowing us to basically recalibrate our internal operating system to rewire the way we we understand ourselves. So in chapter 3, Sunnima practice is then given a lot of focus In chapter 3, there are a lot there are encoded many, many subtle internal practices, which one does in a state of Sunnima. So we practice Dardenah.

We practice Diana. Samadhi emerges. When we practice regularly, then this journey from gross to subtle, this, okay, I'm focusing on my Alumbena, my objective support, for example, the experience of the breath moving and out of the body and the pauses that emerge between the in breath and the out breath. This phenomena of being a breathing human being. If I use that as my support, when I do it regularly, over time, with diligence, with humility, with patience, that this will become a mechanism which will become more reliable to take me into a subtler state of internal awareness, that little bit more quickly.

And so perhaps I can invite Samadhi to emerge more easily, more regularly, to some degree. When I can bring Darden and Diana Samadhi into togetherness regularly, and that becomes something that I've been cultivating, practicing, or something I'm tuning into every day, then I could then perhaps start to work with San Yema technique, with this techniques that demand that subtler internally oriented flow of awareness, which can then help recalibrate my whole system. Remember that Yamah, Potanu said it's the great vow, and it's a primary practice. The idea is that these subtle internal sunnumer practices, what are they for? So you can read in chapter 3 about seeing at the distance, hearing at the distance, flying in the sky, being able to make oneself invisible, and so many other things.

But the point of these practices is to fine tune the awareness and to help us overcome our false limiting beliefs about our self. So in order to be able to do some of things or to access some of these states is the idea that our awareness needs to become very, very subtle and very, very steady. Those are just kind of buy these cities, these viviti, these special powers, these unusual attainments. It's not necessary that we will encounter these along the way, but if we do, potentially makes it very clear, don't get caught up in this. Don't get carried away by them.

The whole point, say, for example, you're meditating and some celestial beings come to you and they say I'll imagine they talk to me and say, oh, James, I like coconut water, by the way. And I like singing and I like dancing. So here I am meditating one day, and then this bevy of celestial dances and musicians, they come and say, James. We've been waiting so long. We wanted tonight in the heavens as a big party, and we know you like coconut water.

Wait till you taste the heavenly coconut. And we know you like singing, and we know you love singing with a big group of people who are ready to sing open heartedly. Just wait till you go and sing with all the gun lord of us whose hearts have been open to song from the moment they took birth. And you know you like to dance, what's gonna be like to dance with all the celestial dancers? Now I might think, well, hey, woah, my meditation's really taken me somewhere. Great.

And I jump into that celestial charity and go off to the heavens for the party. No. No. No. Potani says when that happens, what do we do? We say, Thank you very much. That was a very kind invitation, but I have more pressing matters to attend to here. Thank you very much. Be on your way now.

And I come back to the center is the idea. These attainments can be distractions. The reason we're attaining them is because we are actually tuning in to more of our subtle capacity. But what's the point of that is to actually be able to sit steady, easy established in full recognition of our true self. We can get just as ensnared by just as glad so we can get just as trapped by a golden chain studded with diamonds and miraculously having all sorts of beautiful, nourishing things growing out of it as a rusty old iron chain.

So Sanima practices is a very rich, beautiful realm of subtle internal practice, but Perhaps more foundationally than that, we can say that San Yema is that state of 3 in 1, subtle in Sutla awareness where Darden Adyana Samadhi are all present, that allows us to recalibrate our system so we can yam, we can harness, control, deploy the powers of our awareness more skillfully for the sake of our deepest longing. Boag. So, yes, I might be interested in singing with I am interested in singing with other people and dance with other people and drinking freshly cut coconut water. I enjoy these things. But what is the deeper longing underneath that? Why do I enjoy singing with other people so much? One of the reasons undoubtedly is because it is a way for me to get a taste of that feeling of wonders.

Of community of being part of a whole that's so much greater than I could imagine by myself. In other words, is this perhaps not a signpost to the deeper underlying desire? For that state of true satiation and satisfaction in which I experienced myself as all one. And truly whole. So chapter 3 is another vast, fast ocean. Chapter 2 is a vast, fast ocean, and I said it earlier, but I'll say it again as we're coming to the culmination of the course.

I would feel I had utterly failed if a person watched this course, and then had the thought, now I have studied the yoga sutra, and I've studied chapter 2 of the yoga sutra. This is a miracle mirror text, and the idea is every time we look into it, it can keep showing us new things. It's it's a practice manual for the lifelong journey of yoga practice, but I hope that if you watch this far, you've found something resonant and useful that will empower you to make your own constantly evolving translation of this text in the realm of your own practice and your own life. Thank you very much, and thank you, potentially.