The Upanishads

[Jainarayan]

Sattva is the result of an ethical lifestyle – karma-yoga. Your Temple activities will help you in that sense… but you must strive to make your life as ethical as possible.

Yes, and so I am attempting, as we all should. I'm becoming much more aware of things I wasn't aware of before... things I can change to establish principles and uphold. As I may have mentioned, being in the company of like-minded people at temple functions is a big help, if satsang is the correct word to use. You know the saying, I'm sure... "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are".

If I have more time in a near future I will post some more on the topic of karma-yoga as preparatory sādhanā.
With sattva comes peace of mind – which is conducive to the study of Scriptures under the guidance of a competent teacher. The study of Scriptures is the gateway to mokṣa.
Sattva brings peace of mind but it is not enough. Cittaśuddhi (purification of the mind) is also necessary. Cittaśuddhi is the sharpening – as in focus – of the intellect. It is the result of upāsanā-yoga – meditation on the Lord.

Those posts would be a great help, I think to many of us.

Speaking of meditation – a little aside here, if I may – never underestimate the usefulness of the computer in this regard. Dhāraṇā is focusing the mind on something (the computer screen, for example). When this focus becomes unwavering dhāraṇā turns to dhyāna. And when the focus becomes full absorption we have samādhi. Computer samādhi . But if you’ve understood the process I just described, we can have relationship samādhi . IRS samādhi :cover:. Traffic jam samādhi :areyoucra. In this way life becomes sādhanā. :yes:

I do indeed understand and have experienced it, and am experiencing it more as I let myself. I will very often stare at my computer screen at work, maybe with an image of a deity on it, and focus on my breathing, letting it become rhythmic. I am also beginning to slip in a few minutes of nama japa during this time. It's a calming effect, though I'm still aware of where I am. Quite enjoyable.

These tips are wonderful, thank you. :namaste

 

[Shântoham]

I took a intensive Sanskrit coarse with one of his students Vyasa Houston. I like him very much. Nice philosophy on teaching.

pranām WBY

Vyāsa Houston is indeed an excellent Sanskrit teacher. His method is one of the most elegant and practical. I cannot speak highly enough of it.
Did you personally benefit from the course? What relevance do Sanskrit have in your life?
I hope I am not too forward in my asking.

 

[Shântoham]

Pranam,

Meditation and sometimes (should be everyday, but I skip it too often) chanting, and visits to the temple now and then (not at the ashram, but at a local temple)

Other then that I'm busy with life.

Maya

pranām Maya3

Thank you. You’ve been very patient with me. If there is something I can do for you don’t hesitate to ask.

 

[Shântoham]

I do indeed understand and have experienced it, and am experiencing it more as I let myself. I will very often stare at my computer screen at work, maybe with an image of a deity on it, and focus on my breathing, letting it become rhythmic. I am also beginning to slip in a few minutes of nama japa during this time. It's a calming effect, though I'm still aware of where I am. Quite enjoyable.

These tips are wonderful, thank you. :namaste

pranām Jaynarayan

I am glad I could be helpful.
I meant what I said about the process of dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi quite literally. We trick ourselves into thinking that something is spiritual ONLY if it involves a mūrti or a mālā, etc. We prefer to think that anything spiritual have to be special, magic, etc. (and doing so we make ourselves special). We speak of spiritual “experiences” as if they are rare delicacies.
And in this way we separate so called material life from so call spiritual life. Material life is low, spiritual life is high. And the two are in opposition to each others.
But life is really only one. Material and spiritual are products of our mind. A POV.
Awareness of life is by sheer definition spiritual. Therefore there is only spiritual life.
Of course, we can choose not to see that – splitting things into two. And more often than not we don’t even choose to do that… we simply don’t know that. We are ignorant of it.
Take meditation, for example. We think that to meditate we need to gather in a “spiritualized” place, we need to seat in a certain “proper” way, we need to focus the mind on lofty things – mantras, yantras, tantras, etc.
But the bottom line of meditation is a steady flow of concentration. When we are fully engrossed in reading a post or in replying to a post we are – in fact – meditating.
And if we get totally lost in it then it is samādhi – where the separation between object and subject disappear. It can be a piece of music. It can be a sundown. It can be anything we get lost in. Even the most basic functions of daily life. Housecleaning. Cooking. Washing dishes. Working out. You name it.
This means that we can see everything we do as spiritual – if we choose to. Or we can continue to see spirituality as a separate and “lofty” effort – which need its “proper” time and space – and which is always at odds with our material life.
We can choose to struggle in life (by creating separation) or we can choose to embrace life (by removing separation). The choice is ours.

 

[Jainarayan]

Namaste :namaste

pranām Jaynarayan

I am glad I could be helpful.
I meant what I said about the process of dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi quite literally. We trick ourselves into thinking that something is spiritual ONLY if it involves a mūrti or a mālā, etc. We prefer to think that anything spiritual have to be special, magic, etc. (and doing so we make ourselves special). We speak of spiritual “experiences” as if they are rare delicacies.

I am glad you put it all this way, because completely agree with you. Yet I always thought it had to be the things you said it's not. I once wrote about an experience I had, that came upon me unexpected, without warning, out of the blue... whatever cliché is your preference.

I was sitting outdoors in the parking lot of a strip mall, minding my own business. As I watched people come and go, I felt a sense of connectivity. I felt something underlying all of us, and that we were components of a whole. Our individuality could be understood as a glass jar... the jar is in the air, but the air is in the jar.

There was no mūrthi nor mālā, nor magic, nor Vedic chants, nor mantras. Just me, the open air and the connectivity. Of course some people pooh-poohed it as being an endorphin rush from being outdoors. Sure, as if in my almost-55 years I've never been outdoors.

The only meditation, if you will, was that my mind was clear, and I sat in the moment. What was to come would come, and apparently it did. My meditation is more often letting my mind go where it wants to and stay there for as long as it wants to (or until some child in the park screams bloody murder because her brother took a toy away from her... that will snap you back to the present in less than half of no time ).

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

pranām WBY

Vyāsa Houston is indeed an excellent Sanskrit teacher. His method is one of the most elegant and practical. I cannot speak highly enough of it.
Did you personally benefit from the course? What relevance do Sanskrit have in your life?
I hope I am not too forward in my asking.

I benefited greatly. I don't really study grammer or scriptures. I do chant a hand full of scriptures. He has helped me greatly in this area.

 

[Maya3]

pranām Maya3

Thank you. You’ve been very patient with me. If there is something I can do for you don’t hesitate to ask.

You are very sweet, thank you.

Maya

 

[Shântoham]

I benefited greatly. I don't really study grammer or scriptures. I do chant a hand full of scriptures. He has helped me greatly in this area.

pranām WBY

If you don’t study the Scriptures (prasthānatraya) how do you plan to obtain mokṣa? My question is not meant in a judgmental way – I am just trying to understand your POV.
What does the chanting do for you? Unless it is part of your pūjā, I mean…

 

[Shântoham]

Namaste :namaste



I am glad you put it all this way, because completely agree with you. Yet I always thought it had to be the things you said it's not. I once wrote about an experience I had, that came upon me unexpected, without warning, out of the blue... whatever cliché is your preference.

I was sitting outdoors in the parking lot of a strip mall, minding my own business. As I watched people come and go, I felt a sense of connectivity. I felt something underlying all of us, and that we were components of a whole. Our individuality could be understood as a glass jar... the jar is in the air, but the air is in the jar.

There was no mūrthi nor mālā, nor magic, nor Vedic chants, nor mantras. Just me, the open air and the connectivity. Of course some people pooh-poohed it as being an endorphin rush from being outdoors. Sure, as if in my almost-55 years I've never been outdoors.

The only meditation, if you will, was that my mind was clear, and I sat in the moment. What was to come would come, and apparently it did. My meditation is more often letting my mind go where it wants to and stay there for as long as it wants to (or until some child in the park screams bloody murder because her brother took a toy away from her... that will snap you back to the present in less than half of no time ).

pranām Jaynarayan

This is not meant as a critique of the experience you mentioned. We can reason the interconnectedness and in a way we can even see it – one life pervading us all – but we cannot experience it.
What part of us could experience the interconnectedness? All our indriyas are linked to the ego (ahamkāra). And the ego is a separate and isolated “entity” – it is in fact a function, nothing more nothing less.
An expansion of awareness is another form of ego expansion. “I was limitless for 15 minutes (one hour, three days, whatever…)…”. But there can be no I in limitless. You are limitless in deep sleep… where are you in deep sleep?
I hope you can see what I mean.
Going back to what I was saying in my last post, most people have trouble with meditation because they are sold on the idea that meditation is a thought-free state. By doing so they put themselves at odd with their mind – a natural flow of thought-associations directed mechanically by the unconscious. And meditation becomes a struggle.
But meditation – dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi – is a deepening flow of concentration. And concentration requires a locus – an image, a thought, or various thoughts. What diminishes is the gap between the thinker and the thought(s). In samādhi the gap is gone.
This is called ekagrata or citta ekagrata.
For references: Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali 3.1-4, 3.11-12. Preferably with Vyāsa bhāṣya and Śankarācārya vivaraṇa.

 

[Jainarayan]

pranām Jaynarayan

This is not meant as a critique of the experience you mentioned. We can reason the interconnectedness and in a way we can even see it – one life pervading us all – but we cannot experience it. ... I hope you can see what I mean.

Yes, I understand. I should have said also that I didn't think it was any moment of enlightenment or liberation, just something I never experienced before. That's what struck me and knocked me back. Maybe it was "reason" hitting me (I can be unreasonable ). Btw, I've picked up a copy of Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. I thought it was one of those works I should have in my collection... which I will get to read one day.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

pranām WBY

If you don’t study the Scriptures (prasthānatraya) how do you plan to obtain mokṣa? My question is not meant in a judgmental way – I am just trying to understand your POV.
What does the chanting do for you? Unless it is part of your pūjā, I mean…

What I mean is I don't study sanskrit Grammar or get overly complex with my studies. I do Samasti Upasana puja (worship of the universal) every morning. I have established the deity in my home. So my house is a temple. Also have been chanting the Adya Strotram, Mahalaksmi Astakam and the Sarasvati Dhyanam 3 times a day. I also chant the Guru Gita and 1000 names of Siva on occasion. I just don't sit down and study scriptures like the Gita any more.

I don't do this for moksa I just would like to be a good kind human being and be a father I am just tired of being selfish, so that is what I am working toward.

 

[Jainarayan]

Also have been chanting the Adya Strotram, Mahalaksmi Astakam and the Sarasvati Dhyanam 3 times a day. I also chant the Guru Gita and 1000 names of Siva on occasion.

This makes me think of something. I have a little book called Nitya Paaraayana Manjaree It has Sanskrit, English and the meanings of stotra like Shree Ganaesha Stotraani, Shiva Stotraani, Saraswatee Stutihi, Mahaalakshmi Ashtakam, Mahaavishnu Praarthanaa, Durgaa Saptashlokee, Krushna Stotraani (the publisher's transliterations) and many more. I'd like to start chanting these, because they are the deities I feel close to, but my Sanskrit really sucks. The chanting would consist of haltingly stumbling over the pronunciations as I practice. There is a prayer at the end asking Lord Narayana forgiveness for errors, and for blessing for the effort. Should I start?

 

[Shântoham]

Yes, I understand. I should have said also that I didn't think it was any moment of enlightenment or liberation, just something I never experienced before. That's what struck me and knocked me back. Maybe it was "reason" hitting me (I can be unreasonable ). Btw, I've picked up a copy of Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. I thought it was one of those works I should have in my collection... which I will get to read one day.

pranām Jaynarayan

Whatever your experience was if it did teach you something it was helpful. There is nothing wrong with experience. The problem is that we give too much importance to the meaning of our experiences. We should maybe learn to pay less attention to that.
I did not think that you were referring to “a moment of enlightenment or liberation” because 1) enlightenment or liberation cannot be a moment, 2) we cannot experience liberation or enlightenment. If this is a non-dual reality then Brahman is all there is. And Brahman never was bound or unenlightened. Our “freedom” is as though covered by ignorance. The removal of ignorance is liberation.
I just imagined that your experience was something cool that happened to you and made you introspective. Which in itself is always a positive occurrence, I’d say.

What edition of the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali did you get?

Sūtras are very condensed and need to be unpacked by a competent teacher. They give the essence of the arguments on a topic. Maximum amount of thought is compressed or condensed into each sūtra in as few words as possible. They are meant for memorization. It is in fact easy to remember them because they are clues or aids to memory. Like mnemonic notes.
Each sūtra also contains the least possible number of letters. It is said a Sūtrakāra – composer of sūtras – would rather give up a child than expand a word.

If you prefer to listen to the Yoga-Sūtra instead than reading them, on the site I gave you in my PM you can find an exhaustive and complete commentary of the Text.

 

[Shântoham]

What I mean is I don't study sanskrit Grammar or get overly complex with my studies. I do Samasti Upasana puja (worship of the universal) every morning. I have established the deity in my home. So my house is a temple. Also have been chanting the Adya Strotram, Mahalaksmi Astakam and the Sarasvati Dhyanam 3 times a day. I also chant the Guru Gita and 1000 names of Siva on occasion. I just don't sit down and study scriptures like the Gita any more.

I don't do this for moksa I just would like to be a good kind human being and be a father I am just tired of being selfish, so that is what I am working toward.

pranām WBY

Your endeavor is indeed a worthy and noble one. I hope I did not come across as someone that was trying to interrogate you. I am just genuinely interested in other people sādhanā and their reasons for their particular choice(s).
Your chanting routine is excellent – some very good choices.
What about mokṣa?

 

[Shântoham]

This makes me think of something. I have a little book called Nitya Paaraayana Manjaree It has Sanskrit, English and the meanings of stotra like Shree Ganaesha Stotraani, Shiva Stotraani, Saraswatee Stutihi, Mahaalakshmi Ashtakam, Mahaavishnu Praarthanaa, Durgaa Saptashlokee, Krushna Stotraani (the publisher's transliterations) and many more. I'd like to start chanting these, because they are the deities I feel close to, but my Sanskrit really sucks. The chanting would consist of haltingly stumbling over the pronunciations as I practice. There is a prayer at the end asking Lord Narayana forgiveness for errors, and for blessing for the effort. Should I start?

pranām Jaynarayan

Why not? It is a good, solid list of stotram and stutis. You can find some (audio) help at www.mantraaonline.com
And, of course, Vyāsa Houston, of which we spoke on this thread (post #42) , lives in NJ.

 

[Jainarayan]

Namaste :namaste

pranām Jaynarayan

Whatever your experience was if it did teach you something it was helpful. There is nothing wrong with experience. The problem is that we give too much importance to the meaning of our experiences. We should maybe learn to pay less attention to that.

Exactly. What I took away from it is more of a tolerance for people's foibles and annoyances (though some days are harder than others), because of the divinity within everything. I also refuse to kill insects now, if at all possible. Though if I found a cockroach in the house (perish the thought!) I think I'd whack it. Last night there was a moth fluttering around the stove light; I caught it in a container and brought it outside, saying "Out, damn'd moth! out, I say!" (apologies to Shakespeare ).

I just imagined that your experience was something cool that happened to you and made you introspective. Which in itself is always a positive occurrence, I’d say.

Exactly!

What edition of the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali did you get?

Sūtras are very condensed and need to be unpacked by a competent teacher. They give the essence of the arguments on a topic. Maximum amount of thought is compressed or condensed into each sūtra in as few words as possible. They are meant for memorization. It is in fact easy to remember them because they are clues or aids to memory. Like mnemonic notes.
Each sūtra also contains the least possible number of letters. It is said a Sūtrakāra – composer of sūtras – would rather give up a child than expand a word.

Of course I have the book at home and I forgot which edition it is. It is very thin; it appears quite condensed. I'll check tonight.

 

[Jainarayan]

pranām Jaynarayan

Why not? It is a good, solid list of stotram and stutis. You can find some (audio) help at www.mantraaonline.com
And, of course, Vyāsa Houston, of which we spoke on this thread (post #42) , lives in NJ.

Thank you very much. I thought I might be overdoing it and overreaching, though my sadhana needs discipline, as I said.

Edit: I should recite them in the Sanskrit, no matter how badly I mangle it, and not English, correct?

Btw, I looked at the website. I looks great. I will have to try to get there. It is over an hour, more like 75 mins. away.

 

[Jainarayan]

Of course I have the book at home and I forgot which edition it is. It is very thin; it appears quite condensed. I'll check tonight.

It's called The Essential Yoga Sutra Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga by Geshe Michael Roach & Christine McNally. It's comprised of four chapters (cornerstones), 108 pp. Each page within a chapter has the Sanskrit (English transliteration), English translation, and commentary. Each one seems quite to the point.

 

[Shântoham]

It's called The Essential Yoga Sutra Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga by Geshe Michael Roach & Christine McNally. It's comprised of four chapters (cornerstones), 108 pp. Each page within a chapter has the Sanskrit (English transliteration), English translation, and commentary. Each one seems quite to the point.

pranām Jaynarayan

I am not familiar with that specific edition. Hopefully it is not one of those Buddhist/ Hindu concoctions that are very fashionable at the moment.

 

[Jainarayan]

Um... I just read up on him Michael Roach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and he is not the most [uncontroversial] character. I do believe it may be one of those "Buddhist/ Hindu concoctions that are very fashionable at the moment", as you so poetically and probably accurately put it. Geshe is a title bestowed on Gelugpa monks.

It was the only one on the shelf at the B&N store. I may very well order a different one, even to compare, and/or just give mine to the library. These are just two of the many editions.

BARNES & NOBLE | The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda, Integral Yoga Publications | Paperback or
BARNES & NOBLE | Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Mukunda Stiles, Red Wheel/Weiser | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback

It raises a point that every Tom, Dick and Harry does an edition of ancient texts, some better than others, and some downright abominable. The edition by Swami Vivekananda is a NOOK version. I don't own a NOOK or Kindle, nor do I want one.