Yoga Deepening - Module 1: WHAT is Yoga?

As part of an effort from us to keep our teachings transparent and open to All, we will be posting a general summary and expansion upon that which is covered in our Yoga Deepening series, which is a class that meets every Wednesday night from 530-830 pm. This will ensure that for all those who are unable to attend to this Wednesday night session can still receive the gist of what we are covering in our time together. It will also serve as documentation and reference for the attendees, of which we are eternally grateful for this tribe of dedicated yogis. Of course, there is also some specific content that is exclusive to the group itself, which is not meant to be secretive, but it goes without saying that there is something more that comes from being in attendance to these sacred gatherings. It is the energy of a group, of sangha, of collective practice and intention, and of the downloads that occur in-the-moment that are impossible to capture. There is also some technically nuanced stuff that can be nearly impossible to translate via text, or if it is written, it can be easy to misconstrue, and for that reason certain discussions will be omitted. This is not an effort to be exclusive, it just comes with the territory of the work we are doing. Misperception can lead to error, and we are not interested in misleading anyone. We will make every attempt to be an open book whilst preserving the integrity of the teachings, which seems to be only possible through direct relationship.

As we intend to host more of these Yoga Deepening series in the future, aspirants may use the documents posted here as helpful references for our incoming time together. We also encourage those in attendance to produce their own thoughts and even potentially write their own feedback about this practice. We envision a future where the collaboration is an endless stream of wisdom flowing between practitioners who are determined to uplift humanity with their dedication and devotion. We are happy to share all of this openly and freely with the community and invite participation across all fronts. Thank you for your involvement!

Lastly, it is our wish to minimize any personal bias or the potential for ego-centrism that can occur during spiritual advancement. A core tenet that we follow at the BTGY school is that there is no distinction between KNOWER and SEEKER. We are not here to imply that we know something that others do not. This would bring us into a state of searching. Whilst part of our psychic dilemma in this day and age is wrapped around this concept of seeking, of needing to acquire wisdom that has somehow been lost, we want to dismantle this whole paradigm. We want to empower the individual to become their own teacher, and awaken the true guru - the One who lives within our Heart. For this reason, as always - question what is written. Not just here, but in all cases. If someone is implying that they know something that you do not, it may be wise to question this. Notice who is trying to sell you their spiritual products. The Truth needs no defense, can stand on its own, and sells itself. Use discernment. Decide for yourself. Apply what is useful. These are just our best attempts to extrapolate the spiritual wisdom from our ancient cultures, and in doing this, there is the potential for mis-translation to occur. We acknowledge this. We also acknowledge the potential for ego to involve itself in this process, and thus we will make attempts to differentiate objectivity from subjectivity. Again - use discernment as you read. If it resonates, great. If it does not, that's fine too. Check in with yourself often. This is svadhyaya, one of the key components of our Kriya Yoga. Together, we can proceed accordingly.

WHAT is Yoga?

Yoga just means union. But union with what? The first time it appeared in text, it was in the context of this definition. The ancient yogis had very few of the things we do now, however, they had the same nervous system and basic constituents to the human body. They had brains and they had bodies and as a result they suffered from the same ailments that we do, thousands of years after the first mention of the word “yoga” in human history. Ailments that are universally present in all humans of all races and conditions.

The idea of “yoga means union” is referring to a state of being, rather than a thing that we do. You see, way back when, before smart phones and genetically modified crops, we experienced suffering of a different kind. We experienced the challenge of living lives where if we were unable to remain calm, chances are we would end up dead. Nowadays our suffering is the result of our millions-of-years evolution being backed up by the fact that we no longer have to escape constant danger. Well guess what, the systems in place - hardwired into us from birth and down into the actual genetic make-up of our cells – these systems are running on autopilot beneath the surface, scanning our environment for threat and in a constant search for a mate to perpetuate our species before we meet the imminent mortality that we seem to avoid considering. As much as we’ve evolved this incredible quality of self-awareness and a conscious brain capable of creating an “I” as an identity, separate from the world (no other animal has this degree of intelligence, to our knowledge), we are still very much animals. We have programs that have been passed to us from ancient ancestors that are designed to keep us bound by natural laws. Due to these parameters, which we either avoid acknowledging all together or barely recognize in ourselves, we try to live lives according to our own standards and ideas about it all. And guess where this has got us?? Look around! It’s brought both beauty AND destruction – in relatively similar amounts.

The Universe is constantly striving for balance. There must be balance, in fact, as – according to Newton – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, right? This universal law, no less than a cosmic truth, was described by the yogis as something known as karma . The interesting thing about this, and how we can leverage this for our spiritual advantage can be extrapolated from the following statement, known as the law of inertia: “an object will move in a certain direction until acted upon by outside force.” Hmm. What use is this for us? Well, for one, it is important to consider that the BODY itself is a collection of materials that arose OUT of the Earth. We are built by raw materials all found in the nature that surrounds us. The saying that we are made of stardust is a literal truth, and not to be taken lightly. Thus, our body is a material manifestation of the forces of nature. And those forces are continuing in a certain direction until acted upon by outer force(s). Consider this for a moment.

What are the outer forces that act upon us? I think it is wise to think of this “outer” in two contexts. The environment, but also our perception of our environment. According to our modern science on neuroplasticity and epigenetics, our body will essentially record and store every experience that we have. According to the emotional charge that is tied to each event, the storage will either be great or small, but either way there remains a residue. In yoga, this is called samskara. The root of this word, sama = same, equal and kara = action. Sanskrit is amazing because the translation of the word is often a perfect definition and description for what it is saying. What this is saying is that the residue of our experiences will creating the same or similar actions in the future. Perhaps this is the evolutionary benefit of emotions and/or behavior. It is amazing because our recent research shows that we behave and feel feelings according to pre-disposed cognitive frameworks. Here is one study of interest that illustrates this point: Traumatized children - children who had been separated from their parents early on, or experienced abuse of some form – they had different interpretations of pictures than other, more “normalized” children. In specific, the traumatized group saw great potential for danger and were physically triggered (experiencing things like dilated pupils and elevated heart rate) when shown very simple pictures that had no apparent signs of threat, whereas the other group saw what was simply a man under a car working with a wrench. Same object (picture is the same), different consciousness (the disposition of the children was either traumatized or not), different result (calm demeanor versus racing heart). In the Yoga Sutras, this is captured with sutra 4.15: Although the same objects may be perceived by different minds, they are perceived in different ways, because those minds manifested differently. Patanjali brilliantly describes exactly what we are talking about, and he did this long before any of the cognitive sciences such as psychology or psychotherapy.

Let’s circle back to our natural laws, and especially the law of inertia. Consider the fact that our body is basically a machine that can have programs installed/uninstalled according to the needs of the Creator. Then consider this – who is that Creator? We might consider this being as the consciousness behind the body, the soul, the spirit, the Self… choose your word or definition. Whatever is chosen, objective observation will point us to the same conclusion. There exists within us some driving force, some impulse of life that encourages to not only survive but thrive. An impulse of life encouraging us to evolve.

This evolutionary impulse is embedded in every cell in our body. A natural intelligence that informs the cell what to do, all the way down to the 200,000 biochemical functions per second. This intelligence is far supreme to the intellectual and pseudo-superior cognition that is our human sentience. We convince ourselves to believe that our thinking and rational brain is the superior mode of operation here, when in reality, the underlying mechanisms that actually allow for intellect to reign in the first place is the superior intelligence. Nature is running Her course through us, whether we choose to acknowledge this or not. And the impulse of evolution is perhaps the driving force in our lives, that call from beyond our mind that beckons us towards taking risks despite all odds. After all, why we would take risks? It doesn’t seem natural, if we are looking at this from a pure survival perspective. Why wouldn’t we just “get ours” and hang tight? Why do we have a seemingly innate desire to care for one other, to help, or to do good? Why do we experience beauty? What or where is the intrinsic purpose of such things?

Hopefully these concepts are starting to weave together in some way for the reader. We are discussing the essence of spirituality – man’s quest for going beyond himself. The search for meaning in a life that might seem meaningless. The desire to know the Creator behind the curtain. These desires are the seeds of all Creation. Everything that we can observe as (wo)man-made originated in the minds of humans just like ourselves who were inspired to create something from nothing. All of Creation is a work of art from this supreme intelligence. It is a beautiful dance of cosmic will. And YOU as an individual are weaving your own sacred thread on this Universal tapestry.

This is what yoga as union means. It the emergence of the part of us that acknowledges ourselves not only as piece of the All, but as a holographic representation of the Whole dang thing. The yogis understood that we were very much woven into the cosmic fabric of existence itself. And they understood that it was the mind which separated us from this realization. Everything else in nature is completely immersed in the flow of life, and as far as we know have no free-will ability to step outside of it. For whatever reason, humans have been granted the ability to remove themselves from this universal current. In a further discussion, we will discuss the evolutionary development of the human brain, where some of these answers can be found and understood further. However, for now, we will wrap up this conversation with the conclusion that yoga as union is referring to the state of existing as the All and directly experiencing this as a lived reality. To not live in the space of separation, of duality, but rather in co-creative harmony with All of Creation. When we live and move from this space, there is no lack. There is an overwhelming experience from the all-encompassing presence of bliss and truth and love – our true identities as a cosmic soul. From here, true service may be rendered, true devotion to each other, to our planet, to the actual Will of the Universe. This is our destiny, and yoga as a practice is the means to actualize this reality. The sciences and methodologies that emerged out of this great tradition known as Yoga were created to assist humans in their personal quest for these enlightened states of being. Thus, the actual practices of yoga are secular, non-dogmatic and practical ways in which we can harmonize our own internal energies so as to discover the underlying and self-evident truths of our existence. This is no pseudo-science, and we may even discard the use of spirituality as a description here. These are the physical laws that we operate within and are bound by, and we work directly with the human nervous system in a way to awaken the potentials within us, within every cell in our body, to align with our own cosmic identity. Yoga just means union, and we are referring to union with All That Is.

Part 2 - the BTGY Approach

The BTGY approach differs from the mainstream, in that we are not interested in perpetuating idealism, or what has otherwise become the typical Westernized approach to achievement. This behavior model is an underlying component of the entire system and culture that we live in today. If we just observe what is happening in our society, we can see that this is true. There is a top-down, hierarchical model of systems and conditions that, due to reasons we will touch on shortly, has set us up to be in the space of constantly striving. There is a class divide that has rooted itself deeply into our psyche and causes us to behave according to what we feel will bring us closer to “achievement” or in some way help us become “superior”. If we examine this further, we can see the entire model is based around fear, and on the subtlest levels this fear has crept its way into our hearts where it is an affliction in our own personal lives. Remember that society is just an outward reflection of what is happening inside. In our yogic philosophy we understand that all is the Self. So, when we start to see just how much our world is built around principles such as these, what do we do? I believe this to be an empowering reality. It helps to show us where we can awaken to love. If we never saw the cage, how could we know what freedom felt like? What DOES freedom feel like? Do we know? Can we experience it directly and soberly? According to the yoga tradition, we can indeed experience the answers to these questions.

What is the whole deal with this constant striving, anyways? Deep rooted in our biology is the urge for life to procreate. We are wired for this. Every living creature has within them the will to survive. As humans, this impulse of life is driving us forward and a motivating force behind our every move. And the “powers to be”, which are nothing more than our psychic shadows projected outwards (more on this to come) are reflecting to us this reality. The government, the “authorities”, and things like Big Agriculture or Pharma and blah blah…. These entities are functioning (on the outside) exactly like our ego is functioning (on the inside). It is in direct reflection and proportion according to our perception. Reflect on this for a moment.

Think about how much the ego will try to convince you that it knows best. Think about how often our mind will dominate and override the natural intelligence of our body. It seems that we are in a constant struggle between choosing the things that we know are good for us, and falling prey to comfortable patterns and habits. This goes very deep. Our ego will convince us to keep doing things a certain way, “or else.” And anytime you try to have one of those inner revolutions to make a change, the ego is quick to rise up and squash those attempts. What a trip! The ego, and in reflection the world at large, is constantly trying to make us feel “less than”, and that we need to do something about this. This is due to the primary function of the ego, which is merely a mechanism for survival. In yoga, we call the ego the ahamkara, which literally means aham – I am, kara – maker. The “I-maker”. Our identity is nothing more than a contraction of consciousness. And as consciousness constricts, it divides and separates the One into the Many. This is how we’ve created such a diverse Universe. If All was One and remained in that space, such as the moment before the Big Bang, we’d be resting in eternal bliss for infinity. Which, as God, you might get bored. And thus, BANG – the Universe was created!

However, this fancy philosophical framework for consciousness and God and the creation of the Universe doesn’t really help us with the problem we’ve so-far outlined. The problem that is our seemingly innate need to strive, to succeed. Because this ambition is rooted in fear, and this root fear influences our behaviors on both conscious and subconscious levels, we have to get to the bottom of it before we can proceed harmoniously. Hence, the approach we take at BTGY is one of prioritizing the immediate access we have to this peace, and above all other things we focus our attention in practice here. We rely on the very first Yoga Sutra as the foundation for this process – again and again, we come back to sutra 1.1 atha yoganusasanam – “NOW, the practice of yoga begins.” And as we practice with this in mind, knowing the bliss of the absolute is available to us NOW, we can see quickly when we are slipping out of this concentration. We must work to integrate this into our entire being. The world relies upon this. If we are practicing in any other way, we risk perpetuating the current model, the faulty systems of striving and idealism that our entire society is built on. And in case anyone is paying attention, things must change. The beauty is that – they are. We actually do understand this; what we are saying here is making sense. We are knocking on the door of yoga and doors are opening up. All we have to do is keep showing up.

May all sincere seekers awaken to the Truth of their own being. OM!