As we edge ever closer to the most familiar aspect of the Yoga Sutras, that is the ashtanga, or eight-limbs path of Yoga, Patañjali begins to ever so deftly fine-tune just what it is this 8-fold "solution" is supposed to be dealing with. As already mentioned, Book II is chiefly about setting up the "How?" in response to the "What?" of Book I, which is where we end up with 2.29. But first, a few more tweaks here and there, starting with 2.23, which reads:
sva-svãmi-shaktyoh svarupopalabhi-hetuh samyogah 2.23
giving us
Samyogah, or union, is the cause of understanding the true form of the powers of the Seer/Knower/Possessor/Atman (svãmi) and the Seen/Known/Possessed/Prakriti (sva).
This is an interesting sutra for a few reasons. First and foremost, the ambiguity of sva and svãmi is troublesome. The majority of commentaries take the lead from Vyãsa and say that they are Prakriti (Nature) and Purusha (Soul or Atman), but context would dictate choosing Seen/Known and Seer/Knower...Not a insurmountable difference, but the grammar is the next thing that is interesting. Shaktyoh is a proper dual genitive. This may not mean anything to someone uninterested in Sanskrit grammar, but it affects the MEANING of the sutra greatly.
If Shaktyoh were not dual, it would mean that sva-svãmi was a compound, but since it is a dual, it means that they are separate entities...which would support the Dualist reading of the Yoga Sutras, claiming that Purusha (the pure) is separate from Prakriti (the tainted)...Except, as we soon see in the following sutra, this concept is based on ignorance...
Samyogah is the means through which one understands the "true" nature of sva-svãmi's powers. And, as we see very soon in 2.25, that starts to look very Non-dualistic in nature, rendering a completely different reading than the tradition has passed on to us for centuries.
Let's look further at 2.24-25 then:
tasya hetur-avidyã 2.24
tad-abhãvãt samyogãbhãvo hãnam tad-drisheh kaivalyam 2.25
or,
Ignorance (avidyã) is the cause of this (samyogah). 2.24
Kaivalyam, or absolute singularity, is the freedom from that (ignorance) for the Seer, due to the absence/non-being of ignorance, which yields the absence of samyogah. 2.25
Hello????!!!
How these two sutras get ignored for nearly two thousand years is truly beyond me. Let's see why this is such a major bomb drop...
We already know from 2.3 that avidyã is the root of all our klesha's or obstacles, so it is no surprise that here it is now the root/cause of the (mis)perception of sva-svãmi, and especially then in 2.25, we see that the removal of samyogah leads to Kaivalyam, or absolute One-ness/singularity.
What does this actually mean?
Nothing short of meaning that the goal of Yoga is the annihilation of Samyogah...!
Huh?
Kaivalyam, which is, as we shall see, the subject of the 4th and final book/chapter of the Yoga Sutras. It is not only the ultimate Yoga, it is the Yoga that transcends (Sam)Yoga itself.
Again, huh?
To go forward, we once again need to go backwards, back to the beginning. In 1.2 we are introduced to the well-known definition of Yoga as being the cessation/tempering of the mind's wanderings/fluctuations/behaviors, namely quieting the storm in the Mind's Eye. When that happens, as in 1.3, we see that then one is established in the "true" nature (svarupe) of the Seer. In other words, when Yoga happens, we know the "truth" which turns out to be there is no duality between the Seer and the Seen...and, when that happens, it is a state of Kaivalyam, or One-ness and total singularity. That is a far cry from the standard dualistic reading of the Yoga Sutras that has pervaded through time...However, 2.25 is literally staring us in the face saying the complete opposite--Duality is Ignorance (avidyã)...Singularity (Kaivalyam) is Truth (vidyã).
There is no ambiguity in these two sutras...
A comparison of the Ancient Greek concept of "Truth" might be an interesting side note here to give some more perspective.
The Greek word for Truth is αλήθεια, a-letheia. You may notice something similar here, that pesky short "a" at the beginning, which in Indo-European languages means "not" or "absence of" as in a-vidyã...absence of knowledge=ignorance (the short "i" functions the same way here...).
However, in the Greek, it is somewhat more peculiar. A-letheia is the absence of "forgetting" from the absence of lethe, which is the state of being oblivious. To drink from the waters of Lethe in the underworld of Hades caused one to forget everything. The removal of that state is then considered "en-lightenment" or re-knowing the truth that was forgotten.
For Patañjali, this is not all that different. In the normal state of Be-ing for us, we are guided by ignorance and to pursue Yoga is to remove that veil of avidyã which is the cause of all of our sufferings in life as we saw in YS 2.10-14, and a re-turn to our original state (vidyã), or that which has been forgotten, shall set us free from the cycle of the karmic debt. In other words, we have covered up (to paraphrase Heidegger) our original state (svarupa) with layers upon layers of nonsense and illusion (avidyã and kleshas) which persists as the filters in our lives, the samskaras, which in turn lead to the agitation of the mind (vrittis), which then causes suffering (duhkham). From YS 2.11, we saw that it is Dhyãna (which we shall soon see is the 7th limb of ashtanga), or intensive meditation, that shall calm these vritti, leading to peace of Mind...
So, when we un-forget via the process of Yoga, as with a-letheia, and remove the illusory concept of duality (Samyogah) between the Seer and the Seen, we arrive at the truth/Truth, or Kaivalyam...The Catch-22 here is that once we are "there" there is no longer a here, nor there, and again as we saw in the previous post with Zen (Dhyãna) and the Tao, if you know it, you can't say it, and if you say it, you don't know it...
Okay. Now what? How do we get there/not there? Glad you asked.
YS 2.26-28 bring us to the bottom of the first step...so let's continue.
viveka-khyãtir-aviplavã hãnopãyah 2.26
tasya saptadhã prãnta-bhumih prajñã 2.27
or,
The means (upayah) of liberation (hãna) is a non-wavering discerning of discrimination (viveka). 2.26
The true insight (prajñã) of this (tasya/upayah) is the highest ground and is seven-fold. 2.27
With 2.26 hot on the heels of 2.25 and the introduction of the concept of Kaivalyam, a very non-dualistic term, it is interesting then that viveka, or discriminative power is considered to be the very means of liberation. Why is this interesting? Viveka is literally the crown jewel of Advaita Vedanta, or Non-Dualism as espoused by Shankara. It is only by constant discernment that there is ultimately no divisions or dualities that one "sees" the "truth".
[Interesting Zen side note again: the phrase Upaya Kaushalya, or "skillful means" is the linking phrase between Yoga and Buddhism, and ultimately Zen Buddhism, with a nod to the Bhagavad Gita... In the Gita at 2.50, Yoga is defined as karmasu kaushalam, or "skill in actions". For Zen, the phrase means that the path of enlightenment can be reached upaya kaushalya, or by any expedient means, meaning, whatever works. The well-known Zen dojo in Santa Fe, NM is thus called Upaya]
Non-wavering discerning discrimination then is the expedient means for the Yogi/ni pursing the diligent practice with reverence of Abhyãsa.
In my reading of 2.27, I again deviate from the norm. Following the grammar, tasya (of it) is usually taken as "of him/the Yogi", but there has not been a mention of the Yogi anywhere to corroborate that reading. The last noun is upaya from 2.26, so I take it as the true insight/knowledge (prajñã) of upaya is the highest ground and is seven-fold. There are numerous speculations about this seven-fold nature, but they nearly all ignore 2.28-29. So, let's turn to that and then re-turn to 2.27.
YS 2.28 reads:
yoga-angãnushthãnãd ashuddhi-kshaye jñãna-diptar-ã-viveka-khyãteh 2.28
giving us,
From the practice of the limbs of Yoga, and in the destruction of impurity, the lamp of knowledge [goes] to the discerning of discrimination. 2.28
In other words, more or less.
Practice Yoga, and you shall see the Truth (and the Truth shall set you free...).
And, then 2.29 (trumpets, please):
yama-niyama-ãsana-prãnãyãma-pratyãhãra-dhãranã-dhyãna-samãdhyo' shtãv angãni 2.29
The eight limbs of Yoga are: Yama, Niyama, Ãsana, Prãnãyãma, Pratyãhãra, Dhãranã, Dhyãna and Samãdhi.
And, this is what many have been waiting for, the 8-limbs of Yoga according to Patañjali. But, wait! What about that 7-fold issue from 2.27?
2.26 introduces us with the Upaya, or means to liberation, 2.27 then says that there is a highest state of knowledge of this, and it has seven stages, and then 2.28 tells us the practice of the limbs of Yoga leads to this knowledge and finally, there are 8 limbs...Considering Dhyãna is the seventh, it is not much of a stretch (no pun intended) then to consider Yama-->Dhyãna as seven-fold, with Samãdhi, the highest goal/ground of Yoga to be the knowledge of the means towards eradicating avidyã. In other words, the 8th limb is the prãnta-bhumi from 2.27, which now makes sense, whereas before it stuck out like a sore thumb and all of the commentaries do all kinds of contortions to make it work, but again, it doesn't. As we saw, Dhyãna, not Samãdhi is the key. Samãdhi is the result...Dhyãna (Zen) is the final stage of upaya, the means, and Samãdhi is the resulting state, which ultimately is Kaivalyam, solving our questions of How? of book II with the 8-limbs and What? of Samãdhi from book I.
The remaining sutras of Book II and several of Book III (a very dubious and I believe artificial break) are now dedicated to the 8-limbs of Yoga which we all know and love...
So, the journey of the Yogi/ni officially begins. Now we shall see how to put all of this Theory into actual Praxis and see how the Yoga Sutras can apply to our modern-day world...
Stay tuned!
sva-svãmi-shaktyoh svarupopalabhi-hetuh samyogah 2.23
giving us
Samyogah, or union, is the cause of understanding the true form of the powers of the Seer/Knower/Possessor/Atman (svãmi) and the Seen/Known/Possessed/Prakriti (sva).
This is an interesting sutra for a few reasons. First and foremost, the ambiguity of sva and svãmi is troublesome. The majority of commentaries take the lead from Vyãsa and say that they are Prakriti (Nature) and Purusha (Soul or Atman), but context would dictate choosing Seen/Known and Seer/Knower...Not a insurmountable difference, but the grammar is the next thing that is interesting. Shaktyoh is a proper dual genitive. This may not mean anything to someone uninterested in Sanskrit grammar, but it affects the MEANING of the sutra greatly.
If Shaktyoh were not dual, it would mean that sva-svãmi was a compound, but since it is a dual, it means that they are separate entities...which would support the Dualist reading of the Yoga Sutras, claiming that Purusha (the pure) is separate from Prakriti (the tainted)...Except, as we soon see in the following sutra, this concept is based on ignorance...
Samyogah is the means through which one understands the "true" nature of sva-svãmi's powers. And, as we see very soon in 2.25, that starts to look very Non-dualistic in nature, rendering a completely different reading than the tradition has passed on to us for centuries.
Let's look further at 2.24-25 then:
tasya hetur-avidyã 2.24
tad-abhãvãt samyogãbhãvo hãnam tad-drisheh kaivalyam 2.25
or,
Ignorance (avidyã) is the cause of this (samyogah). 2.24
Kaivalyam, or absolute singularity, is the freedom from that (ignorance) for the Seer, due to the absence/non-being of ignorance, which yields the absence of samyogah. 2.25
Hello????!!!
How these two sutras get ignored for nearly two thousand years is truly beyond me. Let's see why this is such a major bomb drop...
We already know from 2.3 that avidyã is the root of all our klesha's or obstacles, so it is no surprise that here it is now the root/cause of the (mis)perception of sva-svãmi, and especially then in 2.25, we see that the removal of samyogah leads to Kaivalyam, or absolute One-ness/singularity.
What does this actually mean?
Nothing short of meaning that the goal of Yoga is the annihilation of Samyogah...!
Huh?
Kaivalyam, which is, as we shall see, the subject of the 4th and final book/chapter of the Yoga Sutras. It is not only the ultimate Yoga, it is the Yoga that transcends (Sam)Yoga itself.
Again, huh?
To go forward, we once again need to go backwards, back to the beginning. In 1.2 we are introduced to the well-known definition of Yoga as being the cessation/tempering of the mind's wanderings/fluctuations/behaviors, namely quieting the storm in the Mind's Eye. When that happens, as in 1.3, we see that then one is established in the "true" nature (svarupe) of the Seer. In other words, when Yoga happens, we know the "truth" which turns out to be there is no duality between the Seer and the Seen...and, when that happens, it is a state of Kaivalyam, or One-ness and total singularity. That is a far cry from the standard dualistic reading of the Yoga Sutras that has pervaded through time...However, 2.25 is literally staring us in the face saying the complete opposite--Duality is Ignorance (avidyã)...Singularity (Kaivalyam) is Truth (vidyã).
There is no ambiguity in these two sutras...
A comparison of the Ancient Greek concept of "Truth" might be an interesting side note here to give some more perspective.
The Greek word for Truth is αλήθεια, a-letheia. You may notice something similar here, that pesky short "a" at the beginning, which in Indo-European languages means "not" or "absence of" as in a-vidyã...absence of knowledge=ignorance (the short "i" functions the same way here...).
However, in the Greek, it is somewhat more peculiar. A-letheia is the absence of "forgetting" from the absence of lethe, which is the state of being oblivious. To drink from the waters of Lethe in the underworld of Hades caused one to forget everything. The removal of that state is then considered "en-lightenment" or re-knowing the truth that was forgotten.
For Patañjali, this is not all that different. In the normal state of Be-ing for us, we are guided by ignorance and to pursue Yoga is to remove that veil of avidyã which is the cause of all of our sufferings in life as we saw in YS 2.10-14, and a re-turn to our original state (vidyã), or that which has been forgotten, shall set us free from the cycle of the karmic debt. In other words, we have covered up (to paraphrase Heidegger) our original state (svarupa) with layers upon layers of nonsense and illusion (avidyã and kleshas) which persists as the filters in our lives, the samskaras, which in turn lead to the agitation of the mind (vrittis), which then causes suffering (duhkham). From YS 2.11, we saw that it is Dhyãna (which we shall soon see is the 7th limb of ashtanga), or intensive meditation, that shall calm these vritti, leading to peace of Mind...
So, when we un-forget via the process of Yoga, as with a-letheia, and remove the illusory concept of duality (Samyogah) between the Seer and the Seen, we arrive at the truth/Truth, or Kaivalyam...The Catch-22 here is that once we are "there" there is no longer a here, nor there, and again as we saw in the previous post with Zen (Dhyãna) and the Tao, if you know it, you can't say it, and if you say it, you don't know it...
Okay. Now what? How do we get there/not there? Glad you asked.
YS 2.26-28 bring us to the bottom of the first step...so let's continue.
viveka-khyãtir-aviplavã hãnopãyah 2.26
tasya saptadhã prãnta-bhumih prajñã 2.27
or,
The means (upayah) of liberation (hãna) is a non-wavering discerning of discrimination (viveka). 2.26
The true insight (prajñã) of this (tasya/upayah) is the highest ground and is seven-fold. 2.27
With 2.26 hot on the heels of 2.25 and the introduction of the concept of Kaivalyam, a very non-dualistic term, it is interesting then that viveka, or discriminative power is considered to be the very means of liberation. Why is this interesting? Viveka is literally the crown jewel of Advaita Vedanta, or Non-Dualism as espoused by Shankara. It is only by constant discernment that there is ultimately no divisions or dualities that one "sees" the "truth".
[Interesting Zen side note again: the phrase Upaya Kaushalya, or "skillful means" is the linking phrase between Yoga and Buddhism, and ultimately Zen Buddhism, with a nod to the Bhagavad Gita... In the Gita at 2.50, Yoga is defined as karmasu kaushalam, or "skill in actions". For Zen, the phrase means that the path of enlightenment can be reached upaya kaushalya, or by any expedient means, meaning, whatever works. The well-known Zen dojo in Santa Fe, NM is thus called Upaya]
Non-wavering discerning discrimination then is the expedient means for the Yogi/ni pursing the diligent practice with reverence of Abhyãsa.
In my reading of 2.27, I again deviate from the norm. Following the grammar, tasya (of it) is usually taken as "of him/the Yogi", but there has not been a mention of the Yogi anywhere to corroborate that reading. The last noun is upaya from 2.26, so I take it as the true insight/knowledge (prajñã) of upaya is the highest ground and is seven-fold. There are numerous speculations about this seven-fold nature, but they nearly all ignore 2.28-29. So, let's turn to that and then re-turn to 2.27.
YS 2.28 reads:
yoga-angãnushthãnãd ashuddhi-kshaye jñãna-diptar-ã-viveka-khyãteh 2.28
giving us,
From the practice of the limbs of Yoga, and in the destruction of impurity, the lamp of knowledge [goes] to the discerning of discrimination. 2.28
In other words, more or less.
Practice Yoga, and you shall see the Truth (and the Truth shall set you free...).
And, then 2.29 (trumpets, please):
yama-niyama-ãsana-prãnãyãma-pratyãhãra-dhãranã-dhyãna-samãdhyo' shtãv angãni 2.29
The eight limbs of Yoga are: Yama, Niyama, Ãsana, Prãnãyãma, Pratyãhãra, Dhãranã, Dhyãna and Samãdhi.
And, this is what many have been waiting for, the 8-limbs of Yoga according to Patañjali. But, wait! What about that 7-fold issue from 2.27?
2.26 introduces us with the Upaya, or means to liberation, 2.27 then says that there is a highest state of knowledge of this, and it has seven stages, and then 2.28 tells us the practice of the limbs of Yoga leads to this knowledge and finally, there are 8 limbs...Considering Dhyãna is the seventh, it is not much of a stretch (no pun intended) then to consider Yama-->Dhyãna as seven-fold, with Samãdhi, the highest goal/ground of Yoga to be the knowledge of the means towards eradicating avidyã. In other words, the 8th limb is the prãnta-bhumi from 2.27, which now makes sense, whereas before it stuck out like a sore thumb and all of the commentaries do all kinds of contortions to make it work, but again, it doesn't. As we saw, Dhyãna, not Samãdhi is the key. Samãdhi is the result...Dhyãna (Zen) is the final stage of upaya, the means, and Samãdhi is the resulting state, which ultimately is Kaivalyam, solving our questions of How? of book II with the 8-limbs and What? of Samãdhi from book I.
The remaining sutras of Book II and several of Book III (a very dubious and I believe artificial break) are now dedicated to the 8-limbs of Yoga which we all know and love...
So, the journey of the Yogi/ni officially begins. Now we shall see how to put all of this Theory into actual Praxis and see how the Yoga Sutras can apply to our modern-day world...
Stay tuned!
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