PATANJALI
YOGA SUTRAS
POST-2
GREAT QUOTES ON
NOW vs THE MIND
In Post.1, we have seen the context of Patanjali Yoga Sutras, and the first verse oif the Yoga Sutras.
Dating of Patanjali, Vyasa or Lord Krishna is very difficult. There is also no great need for it – from the spiritual point of view.
Yoga has no beginning. It is considered as Anaadhi.
In ancient scriptures, Siva is called yogeeswara, Vishnu is called Yogeswara, and Brahma is called Yoga Brahma – in recognition of this fact.
They are perpetually in Yoga (or Samaadhi) and carry out their functions of dissolution, perpetuation and creation (respectively) by their Sankalpa Sakthi, or Power of Will. All of them are representative of these three facets of Brahman, the supreme consciousness that pervades the universe.
You and I are also an integral part of the same Brahman. In the entire creation, human being alone is said to be given the ability to rise beyond the power of Maya, the great force with which Brahman fills the universe and runs it. That human being who rises beyond the power of Maya, realizes the Brahman within himself.
The Power of Maya acts on the Chittha or the Mind and oscillates it between the past and the future constantly. Mind therefore can never remain in the present by itself. But, in the Present or the Now, is the Path to the realization of Brahman.
Yoga is a great method to keep the mind in the present, or in the Now.
There is no way of accurately defining the Now or the Present moment.
We all pass through the Now – in our constant oscillations between the Past and the Future. We do experience it but momentarily – as we are again tossed into future or past, by the very nature of our mind.
Verse.1 states – Now, the discipline of yoga (starts / let us start).
In Post.1, we tried first to understand the word “Now” from some of its characteristics, then the word “Yoga” and then the word “discipline”.
This is an important verse. Lets us therefore also see what some of the great western thinkers thought about the concept of “Now” and how the mind perceives and reacts to the “Now”.
I give below some great quotes on this subject. Many of these quotes are from Eckhart Tolle, who has spent a number of years explaining the concepts of Now and how it influences the mind.
These quotes certainly give us a better understanding of both Now and the Mind - and their inter-relationship. We will continue with Yoga Sutras from the next Post, after these quotes :
GREAT QUOTES ON
NOW, MIND
& THEIR INTER-RELATIONSHIP
Ø
The mind is a superb instrument if
used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it
more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually
don't use it at all. It uses you.
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace —
arise from beyond the mind"
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's
reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Pain is inevitable as long as you are
identified with your mind"
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
The pain that you create now is
always some form of nonacceptance,
some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the
resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of
negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to
the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified
with your mind. = The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
The psychological condition of fear
is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many
forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on.
This kind of psychological fear is
always of something that might happen, not of
something that is happening now. = The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you
do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical
appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief
systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other
collective identifications. None of these is you.
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to
"die before you die" — and find that
there is no death. = The Power Of Now, Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting
entangled in it. The mind in itself
is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are.
= The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Life is now. There was never a time
when your life was not now, nor will there ever be = The Power Of Now, Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now.
Nothing will ever happen in the future;
it will happen in the Now. =
The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence.
Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of
nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and
not enough presence. = The Power Of Now, Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
To be free of time is to be free of
the psychological need of past for
your identity and future for your
fulfillment. = The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Nothing that comes and goes is you;
"I am bored." Who knows this?; "I am angry, sad,
afraid." Who knows this? ; You are the knowing, not the
condition that is known. = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with
the voice in your head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self.
This is the ego, a mind-made "me."
That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That’s why fearing and wanting are its predominant
emotions and motivating forces. = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you
and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious
identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you
realize that who you are is not the voice — the thinker — but the one who is aware of it.
= Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom. = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
On the surface it seems that the present moment
is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consists of
thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more
deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is
life ever not “this moment?” = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
This one moment — Now — the only
thing you can never escape from, the one constant factor in your life. No
matter what happens, no matter how much your life changes, one thing is
certain: it's always Now.
= Eckhart Tolle
Ø
You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place where you can
find yourself is in the Now.
= Eckhart Tolle
Ø
When you make the present moment the
focal point of your attention — instead of using it as a means to an end — you
go beyond the ego and beyond the unconscious compulsion to use people as a
means to an end, the end being self-enhancement at the cost of others. When you
give your fullest attention to whoever you are interacting with, you take past
and future out of the relationship, except for practical matters. When you are
fully present with everyone you meet, you relinquish the conceptual identity
you made for them — your interpretation of who they are and what they did in
the past — and are able to interact without the egoic movements of desire and
fear. Attention, which is alert stillness, is
the key. = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
This inner alignment with Now is the
end of suffering. = Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
An essential part of the awakening is the recognition
of the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts, as
well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned mental processes that
perpetuate the unawakened state = Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Unless you know the basic mechanics behind the workings
of the ego, you won't recognize it, and it will trick you into
identifying with it again and again. = The New earth , Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible.
Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no
longer seek to find yourself in them = The New earth , Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
No ego can last for long without the need for more. Therefore, wanting keeps the ego alive much more than
having. The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow
satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting. = The New earth ,
Eckhart Tolle
Ø
No matter what you have or get, you won't be
happy. You will always be looking for something else that promises
greater fulfillment, that promises to make your incomplete sense of self
complete and fill that sense of lack you feel within. = The New earth , Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
Unconscious people – and many remain
unconscious, trapped in their egos throughout their lives – will quickly tell
you who they are: their name, their occupation, their personal history, the
shape or state of their body, and whatever else they identify with. Others may
appear to be more evolved because they think of themselves as an immortal soul
or living spirit. But do they really know themselves, or have they just added
some spiritual sounding concepts to the content of their mind? Knowing yourself goes far deeper than the
adoption of a set of ideas or beliefs. Spiritual ideas and beliefs may at best
be helpful pointers, but in themselves they rarely have the power to dislodge
the more firmly established core concepts of who you think you are, which are
part of the conditioning of the human mind. Knowing yourself deeply has nothing
to do with whatever ideas are floating around in your mind. Knowing yourself is
to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind. = The New earth , Eckhart
Tolle
Ø
Be present as the watcher of your mind
-- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various
situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the
situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your
attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you
observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction.
Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something
more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing
presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher. =
The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts,
labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true
relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow
man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen
of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there
is you and a totally separate "other." You then forget the essential
fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you
are one with all that is. = Stillness speaks , Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Death is not the opposite of
life. Life has no
opposite. The opposite of death is birth.
Life is eternal. = = Stillness speaks , Eckhart Tolle
Ø
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on
the present moment. =
Buddha
Ø The secret of health for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment
wisely and earnestly. = Buddha
* * * E N D * * *
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