THE UPANISHADS - YOGA PHILOSOPHY
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| http://secretdoctrine.wordpress.com/2012/05/ |
Initially I wanted to post a few lines of the Yoga Sutras today since they are perhaps the most known scriptures on yoga philosophy in these parts of the world.
But then I saw a quote on the Upanishads, referring to them as the ‘mystical Upanishads’.
I really was surprised to see this expression yet again in connection with yoga and in a way it made me feel like writing a book on DEMYSTIFYING YOGA J
I rememeber when I first read the Upanishads, many years ago, even before I practised yoga asana. To me it was the most comprehensive piece of writing that I have had in my hands all my life- and believe me there were many (I went to a German school J). But all really useless, or shall I say mystical?
The Upanishads made sense to me. For the first time in my life I could recognise some truth and it felt as if I was waiting my whole life for it to ‘come back to me’.
I was actually sitting at my desk in Hofheim , Germany
There is nothing mystical about it, in fact, it is one of the few books worth reading because it simply talks about the true self- the essence of yoga in all its forms.
I just flicked through my old copy (luckily I brought it to New Zealand
First one is an invocation that starts of THE ISHA UPANISHAD, the first one in the collection.
All this is full. All that is full.
From fullness, fullness comes.
When fullness is taken from fullness,
Fullness still remains.
This gives already a taste of what is to come in this wonderful collection of wisdom and truth… FULLNESS, purnam (full). This is the inexhaustible reality of the self.
Many times I hear people say, I am so exhausted, I gave so much energy to this or that or even someone, I feel depleted. But the true self is inexhaustible, when you live in it there is never anything taken from it nor given to it.
Isn’t this wonderful?
The self does not need anything to be added to it to become something or someone, it is complete in itself.
In this world we are made to believe that we need to ‘achieve’, to learn, to get experience, to be someone or something. This leaves people very stressed and alienated constantly running after what people/society tells them to be.
But in reality we are already that: the perfect truth, wisdom and happiness-
Those who depart from this world without
Knowing who they are or what they truly
Desire have no freedom here or hereafter.
But those who leave here knowing who they
Are and what they truly desire have freedom
Everywhere, both in this world and in the next
This quote comes from THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHADS. It somehow fits to the previous one. Once we realise that the true self does not need anything or anyone to be completely free and happy, we can move through this world untouched.
This is also what the Buddhist ‘detachment’ refers to. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about people or things and become as cold as ice.
On the contrary, it means you see things and people for what they are, without the ego interfering and inserting interpretations and colorations.
One who identifies with material reality is bound to experience the modes associated with it: temporariness, decay, separation, unreliability etc.
One who realises the self that is eternal, complete and independent can do things without ‘being attached’, or ‘needing’.
You can have relationships, eat, sleep, do your job, but you know that this is not you, it is what you do. But none of it adds or takes anything away from your true self.
One way to remind us of this eternal nature is the chanting of OM at the beginning and or ending of a yoga class. It is an ancient sound vibration that helps us connect to what has been before and what will be after- also our true self.
Here is a quote from THE MANDUKYA UPANISHADS that puts it very clearly… by the way, even if you don’t ‘know’ what OM means intellectually, meaning will be revealed by simply chanting the mantra, through the sound vibration. This is how mantras work since thousands of years and why they are always used with yoga practice.
AUM stands for the supreme Reality.
It is a symbol for what was, what is,
And what shall be. Aum represents also
What lies beyond past, present, and future.
Julia
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