Or, ... these are not the droids you are looking for...and other such Jedi Mind tricks await us in the concluding sutras of Book III. The Yoga Sutras are often much-maligned for some of the Siddhis or powerful skills that the Yogi/ni can acquire according to Patañjali, but truly they pale in comparison to the skills of most religious figures (think of Lazarus...) and the hagiographies are filled with Saints performing all sorts or miraculous (it is there job, after all) feats, not to mention the modern-day fascination with super heroes and villains of all stripes and shapes. So, what is it really that throws people off when it comes to the potential powers that a Yogi/ni might accrue?
Perhaps it is the disconnect with Yoga's origins and what we see everyday in a Yoga shala around the globe. Maybe it is the overly (and incorrectly) applied sense that "everything is Okay" in Yoga. News flash, it is not. The Yoga world has its fair and more share of problems, ranging from narcissistic pseudo-gurus to abuses of power and sex to hypocritical declarations of non-judgement on the one face and on the other self-righteous condemnation of others. Jealousy, envy, coveting, adultery, fraud, addictions, and the dirty-laundry list goes on and on...Yoga is not immune. Humans are not immune. We are not immune.
But, it is the veneer of "light and love" that ironically obscures the darker sides of the Yoga world. As such, there is the idea that one is not "better" than an other, or that there "is no right or wrong" in Yoga. Well, another news flash. This is not in any Yoga text from the Sutras to the Gita to the Upanishads and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Quite the contrary in fact. Yoga is exactly about bettering oneself through hard work and over a period of Time as we have seen. Abhyãsa is no quick fix. The 8-limb path is not easily trodden. As such, the Siddhis don't just fall into one's lap, and if they do appear, the Yogi/ni is supposed to be strong enough to RESIST them, not embrace them, and certainly not abuse them. However, in the history of Yoga, there have been many abuses with charlatans through the ages, promoting Siddhis and using them for personal gain or Spiritual Materialism, for credentials.
In the old TV-series, Kung Fu, Young Grasshopper is told to walk across the rice paper without tearing it. In his first attempt, he fails miserably as the paper is riddled with holes. It is many YEARS later that he can finally, with strength, flexibility and grace, tread upon the rice paper without tearing it. He has mastered it via Yoga...
Which brings us to 3.38 (and 3.39-40):
bandha-kãrana-shaithalyãt-pracãra-samvedanãc-cittasya parasharIrãveshah 3.38
Or,
From dissolving/loosening/releasing the cause/instrument of the mind's bondage, and from knowledge of its conduct, the mind can transfer to another's body. 3.38
Jedi Mind trick 101.
Is this meant literally? Possibly. But, it is quite easy to think about psychological manipulation, the tool of the narcissist, inter alia, as well as our dear Yoda. By studying/meditating upon that which binds the mind to one's body, and it conduct, we can apparently then project it into the body of another. And, again, these Siddhis are to be avoided, because, this is the ultimate weapon...
Moving on to 3.39-40, there is a bit of a logistical problem. These two sutras as we will see presently deal with only two of the five vayus, or vital breaths/air/winds that are associated with Yoga practice, and which are enumerated in an earlier text, the Taittiriya Upanishad. They are: apãna (downward), samãna (collecting/gathering), prãna (central, life force), udãna (uplifting) and vyãna (dispersing). The root <<an>> means, "life force" and comes into Latin and modern language via an-imus, the Soul, and animals, beings with a life force. Here, we just see two, and not necessarily the main two, so it feels both incomplete, and somewhat out of place. Moreover, the noun that has been used for the process of gaining the Siddhis, namely samyama is suddenly replaced by jaya (mastery), but then just as quickly returned in 3.41...
However, let's take a look at 3.39-40
udãna-jayãj-jala-pankah-kanthakãdisvasangah utkrãntish-ca 3.39
samãna-jayãj-jvalanam 3.40
Or,
By mastery of udãna (uplifting breath/wind/air), one can avoid contact with water, mud, sharp things and such, as well as going over them. 3.39
By mastery of samãna (gathering breath), radiance occurs. 3.40
However! Because of the incomplete feeling, and the grammar/syntax, (namely, the placement of the "ca" (and) and the agreement of noun/adjectives), this could easily be read as a single sutra, rendering:
By master of udãna, one can cross over water, mud, sharp things and such unscathed and by mastery of samãna, one gains radiance. 3.39-40
Because the manuscript traditions in India are very hard (no, nearly impossible) to fully trace, there are still many question marks about what is the "original" Yoga Sutras, and where the exact breaks are/were (especially with the division of the "books/chapter"). In other words, it might be better sometimes to see what makes sense, rather than force an antiquated translation...
But, at any rate, 3.39 is the epitome of Young Grasshopper's quest, to master the body's movements through space to become "lighter than air"...
Moving along to 3.41, the disjunct with suddenly bringing in only 2 of the vayus is felt when we then jump to the 5 senses, which are dealt with in a little more detail later, but still fragmented, giving Book III a very fractured feeling in all.
To continue then with 3.41-42 taken as a logical couplet (but not a single sutra as suggested above, though it is not inconceivable):
shrota-ãkãshayoh sambandha-samyamãd-divyam shrotram 3.41
kãya-ãkãshayoh sambandha-samyamãl-laghu-tUla-samãpattesh-cãkãsha-gamanam 3.42
Giving us:
By performing samyama on the connection/relationship between hearing and the ether, divine hearing is gained. 3.41
By performing samyama on the connection/relationship between the body and the ether, and meditation on the lightness of cotton, movement through the ether is gained. 3.42
Returning to the usage of samyama, we then see two more potential Siddhis, which are often taken very literally. However, with 3.4, keener (maybe not divine) hearing can be developed, especially in meditation. A simple exercise to show this is to simply sit on a bench in a crowded urban setting for a while. Try to focus on the twittering of a single songbird, or the voice of someone in a crowd, and when you focus intently upon that, you can isolate that sound. At the Zen dojo I go to for zazen, Luc, the dojo's leader, often opens the windows as the dojo is adjacent to a very busy street in the urban center of Antwerp. At first, it may be cacophony. It may be distracting. However, over Time, sounds become isolated, the tiniest noise augmented, or the loudest din becomes irrelevant. Nothing changes with the physical sounds themselves, except for the Mind's Eye...
As for traveling through the ether. I got nothing on that. I can certainly attest to having many, many dreams in which I am flying that are so lucid, that upon "waking" I am not so sure that it was not real...but, who knows, right?
Coming to 3.43:
bahir-akalpitã vrittir-mahãvidehã tatah prakãshãvaran-kshayah 3.43
Giving us,
When there is the great deliverance, being external to the body, and which is a genuine disposition of the mind, at that time, the covering of clarity is destroyed. 3.43
Or,
True clarity comes with the disengagement of the mind from the body...
At this point, we are starting to make a turn back to 1.2...the definition of Yoga. What we are about to see now is that in order to go beyond the duality of the Mind and Body, there must first be distinction, then union (Yoga) of the two, and then transcendence of the two...leading us to the great singularity of Kaivalya...And, 3.43 initiates this final process with the suggestion of a proper Apocalypse, which, from the Greek apo-calypsis, which means, "pulling back the veil" to re-veal what lies beneath or behind.
Shall it be the Wizard, or the fraud behind the curtain making us believe in Oz?
The Lady or the Tiger?
Or...?
Perhaps it is the disconnect with Yoga's origins and what we see everyday in a Yoga shala around the globe. Maybe it is the overly (and incorrectly) applied sense that "everything is Okay" in Yoga. News flash, it is not. The Yoga world has its fair and more share of problems, ranging from narcissistic pseudo-gurus to abuses of power and sex to hypocritical declarations of non-judgement on the one face and on the other self-righteous condemnation of others. Jealousy, envy, coveting, adultery, fraud, addictions, and the dirty-laundry list goes on and on...Yoga is not immune. Humans are not immune. We are not immune.
But, it is the veneer of "light and love" that ironically obscures the darker sides of the Yoga world. As such, there is the idea that one is not "better" than an other, or that there "is no right or wrong" in Yoga. Well, another news flash. This is not in any Yoga text from the Sutras to the Gita to the Upanishads and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Quite the contrary in fact. Yoga is exactly about bettering oneself through hard work and over a period of Time as we have seen. Abhyãsa is no quick fix. The 8-limb path is not easily trodden. As such, the Siddhis don't just fall into one's lap, and if they do appear, the Yogi/ni is supposed to be strong enough to RESIST them, not embrace them, and certainly not abuse them. However, in the history of Yoga, there have been many abuses with charlatans through the ages, promoting Siddhis and using them for personal gain or Spiritual Materialism, for credentials.
In the old TV-series, Kung Fu, Young Grasshopper is told to walk across the rice paper without tearing it. In his first attempt, he fails miserably as the paper is riddled with holes. It is many YEARS later that he can finally, with strength, flexibility and grace, tread upon the rice paper without tearing it. He has mastered it via Yoga...
Which brings us to 3.38 (and 3.39-40):
bandha-kãrana-shaithalyãt-pracãra-samvedanãc-cittasya parasharIrãveshah 3.38
Or,
From dissolving/loosening/releasing the cause/instrument of the mind's bondage, and from knowledge of its conduct, the mind can transfer to another's body. 3.38
Jedi Mind trick 101.
Is this meant literally? Possibly. But, it is quite easy to think about psychological manipulation, the tool of the narcissist, inter alia, as well as our dear Yoda. By studying/meditating upon that which binds the mind to one's body, and it conduct, we can apparently then project it into the body of another. And, again, these Siddhis are to be avoided, because, this is the ultimate weapon...
Moving on to 3.39-40, there is a bit of a logistical problem. These two sutras as we will see presently deal with only two of the five vayus, or vital breaths/air/winds that are associated with Yoga practice, and which are enumerated in an earlier text, the Taittiriya Upanishad. They are: apãna (downward), samãna (collecting/gathering), prãna (central, life force), udãna (uplifting) and vyãna (dispersing). The root <<an>> means, "life force" and comes into Latin and modern language via an-imus, the Soul, and animals, beings with a life force. Here, we just see two, and not necessarily the main two, so it feels both incomplete, and somewhat out of place. Moreover, the noun that has been used for the process of gaining the Siddhis, namely samyama is suddenly replaced by jaya (mastery), but then just as quickly returned in 3.41...
However, let's take a look at 3.39-40
udãna-jayãj-jala-pankah-kanthakãdisvasangah utkrãntish-ca 3.39
samãna-jayãj-jvalanam 3.40
Or,
By mastery of udãna (uplifting breath/wind/air), one can avoid contact with water, mud, sharp things and such, as well as going over them. 3.39
By mastery of samãna (gathering breath), radiance occurs. 3.40
However! Because of the incomplete feeling, and the grammar/syntax, (namely, the placement of the "ca" (and) and the agreement of noun/adjectives), this could easily be read as a single sutra, rendering:
By master of udãna, one can cross over water, mud, sharp things and such unscathed and by mastery of samãna, one gains radiance. 3.39-40
Because the manuscript traditions in India are very hard (no, nearly impossible) to fully trace, there are still many question marks about what is the "original" Yoga Sutras, and where the exact breaks are/were (especially with the division of the "books/chapter"). In other words, it might be better sometimes to see what makes sense, rather than force an antiquated translation...
But, at any rate, 3.39 is the epitome of Young Grasshopper's quest, to master the body's movements through space to become "lighter than air"...
Moving along to 3.41, the disjunct with suddenly bringing in only 2 of the vayus is felt when we then jump to the 5 senses, which are dealt with in a little more detail later, but still fragmented, giving Book III a very fractured feeling in all.
To continue then with 3.41-42 taken as a logical couplet (but not a single sutra as suggested above, though it is not inconceivable):
shrota-ãkãshayoh sambandha-samyamãd-divyam shrotram 3.41
kãya-ãkãshayoh sambandha-samyamãl-laghu-tUla-samãpattesh-cãkãsha-gamanam 3.42
Giving us:
By performing samyama on the connection/relationship between hearing and the ether, divine hearing is gained. 3.41
By performing samyama on the connection/relationship between the body and the ether, and meditation on the lightness of cotton, movement through the ether is gained. 3.42
Returning to the usage of samyama, we then see two more potential Siddhis, which are often taken very literally. However, with 3.4, keener (maybe not divine) hearing can be developed, especially in meditation. A simple exercise to show this is to simply sit on a bench in a crowded urban setting for a while. Try to focus on the twittering of a single songbird, or the voice of someone in a crowd, and when you focus intently upon that, you can isolate that sound. At the Zen dojo I go to for zazen, Luc, the dojo's leader, often opens the windows as the dojo is adjacent to a very busy street in the urban center of Antwerp. At first, it may be cacophony. It may be distracting. However, over Time, sounds become isolated, the tiniest noise augmented, or the loudest din becomes irrelevant. Nothing changes with the physical sounds themselves, except for the Mind's Eye...
As for traveling through the ether. I got nothing on that. I can certainly attest to having many, many dreams in which I am flying that are so lucid, that upon "waking" I am not so sure that it was not real...but, who knows, right?
Coming to 3.43:
bahir-akalpitã vrittir-mahãvidehã tatah prakãshãvaran-kshayah 3.43
Giving us,
When there is the great deliverance, being external to the body, and which is a genuine disposition of the mind, at that time, the covering of clarity is destroyed. 3.43
Or,
True clarity comes with the disengagement of the mind from the body...
At this point, we are starting to make a turn back to 1.2...the definition of Yoga. What we are about to see now is that in order to go beyond the duality of the Mind and Body, there must first be distinction, then union (Yoga) of the two, and then transcendence of the two...leading us to the great singularity of Kaivalya...And, 3.43 initiates this final process with the suggestion of a proper Apocalypse, which, from the Greek apo-calypsis, which means, "pulling back the veil" to re-veal what lies beneath or behind.
Shall it be the Wizard, or the fraud behind the curtain making us believe in Oz?
The Lady or the Tiger?
Or...?
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