"You invest so much in it, don't you? It's what elevates you about the beasts of the field, it's what makes you special. Homo sapiens, you call yourself. Wise Man. Do you even know what it is, this consciousness you cite in your own exaltation? Do you even know what it's for?

"Maybe you think it gives you free will. Maybe you've forgotten that sleepwalkers converse, drive vehicles, commit crimes and clean up afterward, unconscious the whole time. maybe nobody's told you that even waking souls are only slaves in denial.

"Make a conscious choice. Decide to move your index finger. Too late! The electricity's already halfway down your arm. Your body began to act a full half-second before your conscious self "close" to, for the self chose nothing; something else set your body in motion, sent an executive summary--almost an afterthought--to the homunculus behind your eyes. That little man, that arrogant subroutine that thinks of itself as the person, mistakes correlation for causality: It reads the summary and it sees the hand move, and it thinks that one drove the other.

"But it's not in charge. You're not in charge. If free will even exists, it doesn't share living space with the likes of you.

"Insight, then. Wisdom. The quest for knowledge, the derivation of theorems, science and technology and all those exclusively Human pursuits that must surely rest on a conscious foundation. Maybe that's what sentience would be for--if scientific breakthroughs didn't spring fully formed from the subconscious mind,. manifest themselves in dreams, as full-blown insights after a deep night's sleep. It's the most basic rule of the stymied researcher: stop thinking about the problem. Do something else. It will come to you if you just stop being conscious of it.

"Every concert pianist knows that the surest way to ruin a performance is to be aware of what the fingers are doing. Every dancer and acrobat knows enough to let the mind go, let the body run itself. Every driver of any manual vehicle arrives at destinations with no recollection of the stops and turns and roads travelled in getting there. You are all sleepwalkers, whether climbing creative peaks or slogging through some mundane routine for the thousandth time. You are all sleepwalkers.

"Don't even try to talk about the learning curve. Don't bother citing the months of deliberate practice that precede the unconscious performance, or the years of study and experiment leading up to the gift-wrapped eureka moment. So what if your lessons are all learned consciously? Do you think that proves there's no other way? Heuristic software's been learning from experience for over a hundred years. Machines master chess, cars learn to drive themselves, statistical programs face problems and design the experiments to solve them and you think that the only path to learning leads through sentience? You're Stone Age nomads eking out some marginal existence on the veldt--denying even the possibility of agriculture, because hunting and gathering was good enough for your parents.

"Do you want to know what consciousness is for? Do you want to know the only real purpose it serves? Training wheels. You can't see both aspects of the Necker Cube at once, so it lets you focus on one and dismiss the other. that's a pretty half-assed way to parse reality. You're always better off looking at more than one side of anything. Go on, try. Defocus. It's the next logical step.

"Oh, but you can't. There's something in the way.

"And it's fighting back."


The above is an excerpt from the challenging but excellent hard scifi/post-cyberpunk novel "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It tells the story of a first contact attempt with an utterly alien and potentially hostile species in deep space by a team of astronauts.

I rediscovered this quote from Krishnamurti which describes the process of spiritual practice beautifully. It comes from his book "Freedom From The Known," which I highly recommend.


"Verbally we can go only so far. What lies beyond cannot be put into words because the word is not the thing. Up to now, we can describe, explain, but no words or explanations can open the door. What will open the door is daily awareness and attention: awareness of how we speak, what we say, how we walk, what we think. It is like cleaning a room and keeping it in order. Keeping the room in order is important in one sense, but totally unimportant in another. There must be order in the room, but order will not open the door or the window. What will open the door is not your volition or desire. You cannot possible invite the other. All you can do is to keep the room in order, which is to be virtuous for itself, not for what it will bring. To be sane, rational, orderly. Then perhaps, if you are lucky, the window will open and the breeze will come in."


(The punctuation might be a bit off. For some reason I couldn't find my copy of the book and had to transcribe it from a lecture series I've ben listening to.)

From WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show:

"Please Explain: The Science of Consciousness

When you see a blue flower, do you see the same blue flower that I do? When you feel cold is it the same sensation I feel? On Please Explain we look at the biology of consciousness...and what brain science reveals about who we are and how we experience the world around us.

Gerald Edelman is a Nobel Laureate, Director of The Neurosciences Institute, and author of many books about the neurobiology of consciousness including Wider Than the Sky. Christof Koch is Professor of Biology and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology and author of The Quest for Consciousness."

The most exciting thing about spirituality these days is the debate about the existence of God. Actually it's not much of a debate. It's a pretty binary condition. Either you believe there is a God, or you don't. (Or you're undecided, but it's not like there is a third alternative between the two.) The beautiful thing about the discussion is the emergence over the last year or so of some very high-profile, well-written pro-atheist tracts, such as Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and Christopher Hitchens' "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

I should say here, in the interests of disclosure, that I find myself in what might seem a peculiar position given that I am a practitioner and teacher of Yoga. I do not believe in an over-arching consciousness that creates and/or directs the material world, though I do believe in deeper structures of subjectivity, consciousness and connection, not unlike the stance of Buddhism. From my perspective, it always cracks me up that those who state the case for god and religion find it impossible to believe that an atheist can have any kind of moral code, or that their inner life is somehow crippled.

This recent interview in Salon.com (thanks to the very excellent Souljerky for the link) is a lot more benign and balanced than most, but theologian John Haught puts forward the idea that hope is not justifiable in a world devoid of god. Here is Haught's response to the interviewer's question "But why can't you have hope if you don't believe in God?"

You can have hope. But the question is, can you justify the hope? I don't have any objection to the idea that atheists can be good and morally upright people. But we need a worldview that is capable of justifying the confidence that we place in our minds, in truth, in goodness, in beauty. I argue that an atheistic worldview is not capable of justifying that confidence. Some sort of theological framework can justify our trust in meaning, in goodness, in reason.

From a yogic point of view, I would suggest that the worldview he envisions is nothing more than a fluctuation of consciousness that, held onto too tightly, might prevent one from seeing what is actually there. Anyway, I am neither a theologian nor a professional philosopher. Here and here, also from Salon.com, are two interviews with Richard Dawkins from two and a half years ago to offer the other side's perspective.

And here is a very entertaining skeptic's perspective from performer Tim Minchin:



Related Posts:
Richard Dawkins: "The Root of All Evil"
Teaching Them To Accept The Snake

"In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg" is a wonderful show on BBC Radio 4 in the UK where they discuss some of the very big ideas in (mostly) Western history, science and culture. It's well worth checking out as topics are extremely varied and are well put forward by experts in the field. You can listen to it through the BBC Radio Player, or by podcast.

This most recent episode is about the Four Humours of the body and temperament, an old idea with interesting parallels to the three doshas of Ayurveda.

Click here to get the realplayer stream.

The full translation of this would be “devotion to god,” but this can be misleading in the context of Classical Yoga. Religious yogins often use this discipline as a place to put their devotional practice in the context of the practice, but Patañjali’s intention here is a little different. Read More...

Tags: Meditation

In Patañjali’s time, self-study meant taking it upon yourself to study the scriptures of your religion to better know your chosen deity. One of the beautiful things about Classical Yoga is its open-mindedness when it comes to religion.

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Tags: Meditation

As we have already seen, Patañjali is as much a stickler for regular practice as any music teacher or sports coach. Theory is all very well, but without practice it is meaningless.

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Tags: Meditation

This documentary, by Gita and Mukesh Desai is wonderful. Beautiful footage, great interviews and chock full of valuable information. I use it in my Teacher Training seminars. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the history and philosophy of yoga.

This is a rather charming paranoia piece from what seems to be the early 1980's. It was posted to YouTube by LaneCh as part of a CNN thread on Christianity vs. Yoga. I must say that there are one or two things the piece presents as yoga that most yogins would raise an eyebrow at as well. It's extremely inflammatory.

Having being raised and educated Catholic by the very kind and compassionate Benedictine monks of Downside School (terrible name), I think I tend to agree that strict adherents to Christian sects should probably not be practicing yoga, as the goals of yoga, regardless of the lineage, tend to be very much incompatible with many of the Christian theologies.

Contentment, or satisfaction, is another discipline that needs to be addressed on two levels, that of achievement and that of the experience of time. Without contentment we cannot hope to be present and mindful.

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Tags: Meditation

Sometimes translated as cleanliness, there are two levels to the discipline of purity, both which lead to the same result: purity of the body and purity of the mind.

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Tags: Meditation

With the yamas, the Great Vow of Yoga, we condition our behavior in order to observe and adjust the way in which our worldly interactions affect our inner nature and vice versa. With the niyamas, Patañjali’s second limb in his eight-limbed path of yoga, we begin to condition our thoughts in order to set the stage for deeper insight. Read More...

Tags: Meditation

Where the observance of Non-Coveting deals with the many things we see outside ourselves that we may want, Non-Hoarding deals with the things we already have.


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Tags: Meditation

This fourth observance is one which often makes people uncomfortable, as it seems on the surface to be tied in with moralizing and repression. However, what use is chastity or celibacy when the mind is tormented with desire. This would merely be self-torture, as dissipating an indulgence as sexual licentiousness. Two of the root causes of affliction common to us all are attraction, the product of desire, and aversion, the product of pain. The observance of continence calls upon us to moderate all our desires, be they sexual or otherwise. Read More...

Tags: Meditation

As we have seen in our discussion of truthfulness and honesty, the mind has the ability to mold itself into the shape of that which it beholds. Especially in our many moments of lack of self-awareness, human consciousness has the tendency to turn its aspect outwards towards the material world. On an animalistic level, this makes complete sense. How could we survive as a species if we went around being unconcerned with the world around us? Many of the fundamental drives hard-wired into our genes that enable us to live on as humans keep us tied to our pre-sentient past and prevent us from transcending that side of our nature and becoming truly free. Read More...

Tags: Meditation

The primary cause of the suffering that Patañjali’s yoga seeks to end is the fundamental misunderstanding each of us has about our own true nature.

I.2
Yoga is the process of restriction of the fluctuations of consciousness.
I.3
Then the observer can know its own true nature.
I.4
Otherwise, the observer identifies with the fluctuations of consciousness.

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Tags: Meditation

I would hope that not causing harm is an idea that requires no justification. The harm that we cause others and to the world around us, as individuals, as a community, as a nation and as a species is a significant factor contributing to the general level of sorrow we experience as part of simple existence. Patañjali, in the Yoga Sutra, is quite clear about his feelings regarding sorrow and what must be our attitude towards it.

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Tags: Meditation

In the Yoga Sutra, Patañjali calls the yamas, the observances towards others, “The Great Vow of Yoga”:

II.31
These are universal, and apply regardless of birth, place, time or circumstance.

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Tags: Meditation

I thought we might spend some time looking at ways in which to take our yoga practice into daily life. Asana, or posture, is only the third limb of Patañjali’s eight-limbed Ashtanga Yoga. Before we even get to what we think of as our formal practice—which, back in Patañjali’s time most likely consisted of seated meditation—we are told to see to the way we interact with the world around us and the way in which be behave towards ourselves.


More after the jump.


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Tags: Meditation

I have tried the Real Age quiz at their website and it turned out horribly. The questions are skewed towards sedentary, overweight meat-eaters. (also the site tries to sell you stuff big time, so I wouldn't recommend going there.) This widget manages to reformulate the data in a way that a yoga-practicing vegetarian can get much more pleasing results. My "Real Age" turned out to be 14 and my life expectancy around 95.


Poodwaddle.com

One of the main concerns of Yoga, as expressed in the Yoga Sutra of Patañjali, is sorting out the yogin’s true, essential and eternal self from that which is other, that which is temporary and changing. By becoming able to distinguish between the two, the yogin hopes to free him or herself from the anguish and suffering of existence and perhaps even cease the continual cycle of death and rebirth. Patañjali states it succinctly in his opening verses:

I.2
Yoga is the process of restriction of the fluctuations of consciousness.

I.3
Then the observer can know its own true nature.

I.4
Otherwise, the observer identifies itself with the fluctuations of consciousness.

Patañjali’s way of thinking about existence and the mind resonates strongly with modern scientific thought. He expresses many of his ideas in terms of energy. For him, thought is an energetic activity of the mind. The word he uses to represent this, vrtti, often gets translated as “fluctuation.” Think of the surface of a pond. When the water is perfectly still, the surface becomes transparent and it becomes possible to see all the way to the bottom. Drop a rock into the pond and the surface is disturbed with ripples. The bottom of the pond becomes obscured.

If the mind is filled with thoughts and emotions, the fluctuations are strong and energetic and the mind can become easily distracted. It makes little difference if the thoughts and emotions are positive or negative. The seductive memory of a pleasant experience can be just as involving as, say, the righteous anger towards someone who has done us wrong. And when the mind is wrapped up in those thoughts, Patañjali says it takes their shape and it ceases to be self-aware. That self-awareness is akin to the clarity of the pond water that enables us to see the bottom. Without it we will be unable to see plainly the world around us for what it is. We will always be at the mercy of circumstance and a slave to our emotions.

This may not seem like such a bad thing when we are happy, or when our fortunes are on the up. But just as every cloud has a silver lining, every silver lining has a potential cloud. Basing your identity on the blessing of your life can be just as fraught as identifying yourself with those things that limit you. If we define ourselves by the insults levied against us, how can we ever rise above them? And if we become attached to the good things in our lives, how will we feel when they are threatened? Without the discernment and self-awareness that comes with a calm and open mind, we will never be able to go deep enough to find the enduring freedom of an enlightened life.

The Idea in Practice

Our yoga practice gives us a perfect place to begin to address and work with the fluctuations of the mind. Here are four ways to approach your asana practice and take it out of the physical and into the spiritual plane.

Practice #1: Becoming Aware

The first thing is to observe how different kinds of poses affect the mind. At the beginning of your practice, check in with your thoughts. Observe their quality without going too deep into their content. Is the mind sluggish and lethargic, or is it vibrant and fluid? Do you feel up or down, happy or melancholic? Do the same after you have finished and note the change, if any. Keep track of your practice in a journal and note the following:



In this way build up an understanding of how the different types of poses affect the energy of the body and mind.

Practice #2: Tracking the Flow

Once you begin to have a grasp on how an entire practice can affect the fluctuations of the mind, you can begin to observe how the mind and body can fluctuate within an individual practice. Poses in a practice are generally grouped together by type. We do some standing poses, then perhaps a seated pose or two, then inversions, and so on. At the end of each section, check in with yourself and observe how the quality of the body and mind has changed. Each section becomes like an act in a play, or a verse in a poem, each with its own idea, its own message and effect.

Practice #3: Becoming Mindful

To go deeper, start to observe the fluctuations of the mind pose by pose. Observe where you begin to lose yourself in the pose, either because the sensation is strongly pleasant or strongly uncomfortable. Observe also the moments when the mind is thrown out of the pose to think about something completely irrelevant. Start to become aware of patterns in your practice along these lines. Does a certain pose always have the same effect? Do you bliss out with some kinds of poses and sink into dread when faced with others?

Practice #4: Single-Pointed Focus

This last approach is perhaps the hardest. As you do your poses, can you observe your thoughts as if they were part of your body and not your mind? Can you find an inner perspective of calm self-awareness that allows you to experience both your body and the fluctuations of your mind as akin to a suit of clothing that you have put on, but that you could just as easily change?

This is a very subtle idea. At first you might not be able to truly experience it. If so, play with the idea as you practice. Think about it. Think about how it makes you feel. Pretend, even, that you can experience it. Eventually you might actually find yourself spontaneously in this mindset for short periods of time. When this happens, observe how the mind flip-flops between playing with the idea and truly experiencing it. As time goes on and the practice becomes firmly established, you can begin to take the exercise into your daily life and observe the changes it will create there.

Tags: Vrtti, Meditation

From WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show:

"Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong (Harper San Francisco, 2007), says our modern-day assumptions about happiness are nonsense."

From WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show

"Please Explain: Sugar
On today's Please Explain, Dr. Jock Galloway and Sharon R. Akabas, Ph.D answer your questions about sugar. Jock Galloway is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto Department of Geography. Sharon R. Akabas is Associate Research Scholar, Director of M.S. in Nutrition Program, Columbia University Medical Center."

Brad Warner is author of the book "Hardcore Zen" Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality." Well worth reading.

Sustainability Engineer and MBA Pablo Päster, over at TriplePundit.com, has calculated that

a single 1kg bottle of Fiji water consumes 26.88 kilograms of water (7.1 gallons) .849 Kilograms of fossil fuel (one litre or .26 gal) and emits 562 grams of Greenhouse Gases (1.2 pounds) during its manufacture and transport.

Check out the original article here.

Check out Treehugger.com's report on the article here.

Yikes!

From WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show:

Underreported: Caste Out

The Indian Constitution abolished discrimination based on caste over 50 years ago. Yet millions of Dalits (or "untouchables") still suffer from inequality. On today’s Underreported, Paul Divakar and Smita Narula examine caste-motivated killings, rapes, and other abuses suffered by Dalits. Paul Divakar is National Convenor of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. Smita Narula is Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, where she is also a Professor of the International Human Rights Clinic.

Hidden Apartheid Caste Discrimination against India’s “Untouchables”

From WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show:

"If climate change is affecting weather patterns, then it follows that it will also affect global food supplies. We'll look into what might happen to crop yields around the world, which crops are at risk, and whether we should be taking any steps to alleviate future problems. Leonard talks to Francesco Tubiello, research scientist at the Center for Climate Systems Research at the Earth Institute; and Stephen P. Long, professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois. Also: Andrew Revkin, who covers global warming and other environmental issues for The New York Times and is author of The North Pole Was Here."

From WNYC's show, "Please Explain: Chocolate"

"The Aztec king Montezuma drank liquid chocolate all day to enhance his libido. On today's Please Explain: which brands are tastiest, whether it has any real health benefits -- and why so many of us are addicted to it. Leonard talks to Clay Gordon, a chocolate critic who runs the website chocophile.com; and Dr. Ann E. Kelley, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."

From WNYC's "Please Explain" show:

"This week’s Please Explain is all about meditation. We'll talk to Dr. Christopher Moore, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Studies and a Principal Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and Alan Wallace, the President and founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, about the ways people meditate and the effects it has on the brain and body."

From WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show.



"An Unselfish Brain?
Scientists believe they have found the part of the brain that predicts whether a person will be an altruist. Duke University researcher Dr. Scott Huettel explains what this "altruistic brain region" tells us about the origins of selfish and unselfish behavior."

From the WNYC show:

"Please Explain: Vegetarianism"
November 10, 2006

Marion Nestle and Colin Spencer answer questions about vegetarianism on today's Please Explain. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. Colin Spencer is the author of Vegetarianism: A History.

This fascinating interview from Leonard Lopate's "Please Explain" series on WNYC is on procrastination. Something to think about when you're not doing your practice.



Piers Steel, Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, recently completed a 10-year research project on procrastination.

Dr. William Knaus is the author of several books on procrastination, including The Procrastination Workbook and Do It Now!.

Right-click (option-click on the mac) on the image to download it in PDF format.

J. Krishnamurti is one of my favorite philosophers. Raised from early childhood by the Theosophical Society to be a World Teacher, he turned his back on his supposed destiny to formulate a radical practical philosophy of personal freedom that is at once simple and profound.

This interview is from the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.

Last summer, a study found that for some patients, a belief that they had taken a painkiller was enough to make their brains release natural painkilling endorphins. On today's Please Explain, Dr. Herbert Benson, the founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, and Dr. John Sarno discuss the mind/body connection on Please Explain.

In the discussion, the two doctors talk about the difference between "psychosomatics" of times past and modern Mind/Body medicine. The two doctors come firmly down on the side of such practices as prayer, meditation and yoga as they trigger what they refer to as the "relaxation response" which works against the deleterious effects of stress on the body's immune system.

Fascinating stuff and worth checking out.

Click here to download an mp3 of the show.

"The Root of All Evil" is a fascinating documentary in which scientist and author, Richard Dawkins explores what he refers to as "the process of non-thinking caled faith." (The whole thing lasts about an hour in total.)

I love it how the religious people cannot conceive that atheists are capable of any form of morality.



Part 1.2

Part 1.3

Part 2.1

Part 2.2

Part 2.3

Part 2.4

Part 2.5

Part 2.6

It's been a fun Summer, and I've just got back from a trip to San Francisco where I was lucky enough to study again with the fabulous Donald Moyer. Check back soon for some of the practice points we were working on. Until then, here's a thought about my favorite Summer show...

I've become obsessed with Cesar Millan, star of the National Geographic Channel's show, The Dog Whisperer. I grew up with dogs, Great Danes, so initially I was enjoying the show on that level, but there was one episode which made me begin to think about his techniques in terms of yoga. In this particular segment, he brought in one of his own pack to educate a small, overly yappy dog, probably a pomeranian. Cesar's dog walked in completely casually and the pom went into overdrive, yapping up a storm. Despite the noise and aggressive behavior, Cesar's dog remained absolutely calm and unaffected by the whole display. It struck me, then, that this was the canine equivalent of enlightenment. The dog was calm, serene, engaged and yet not disturbed by its environment. If only human psychology were as simple as dog psychology. It would make it that much easier to reach a state of emancipation. (And I'd be out of a job!)

Cesar has three principles that he says all dogs need every day, in this order: