You are the Music, While the Music Lasts |
About the August of my fourteenth year --Derek Walcott, Another Life
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For most of us, I believe there are moments when we are taken beyond ourselves to feel a connection to something larger and greater then ourselves. Whether we are spiritual or not, whether we believe in the divine or not, in the collective unconscious or a similar concept by a different name, there are moments when we leave our everyday selves behind and experience a sense of profound empathy with the very essence of the world around us.
Most often, these moments are fleeting. I feel their glimmer when caught by the magnificence of nature—a beautiful sunset, the glistening of fresh snow on branches, sunlight dancing on the tops of waves, the dappled light in a mossy glade… I know their truth when reading certain poetry, listening to particular music or when looking at some works of art. I feel them at times when my heart is opened—by my husband’s love, the birth of my son, or when I connect, silently, deeply with a complete stranger through a smile, a gesture, a shared understanding... And, sometimes, I experience these moments during meditation.
There is a sense during these experiences that we are both in and out of time; that we are both in the physical world and yet somewhere else entirely.
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; —T.S. Eliott, Four Quartets
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We are out of the world as we commonly know it. This is what we call transcendence or in the yogic tradition samadhi, or ultimately, samyama, but it is a slippery concept. Even within the yogic tradition, the word is open to interpretation, means subtly different things within different streams, and has mutated and shifted over time. The articles in this issue reflect both this diversity and the personal quality of the experience.
To start us thinking about the theme of this issue, here are a few translations and interpretations of some of the sutras relating to samadhi and samyama in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
III.1 Fixing the consciousness on one point or region is concentration (dharana).
III.2 A steady continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is meditation (dhyana).
III.3 When the object of mediation engulfs the meditator, appearing as the subject, self-awareness is lost. This is samadhi.
III.4 These three together constitute integration or samyama.
III.5 From mastery of samyama comes the light of awareness and insight.
Uninterrupted flow of attention dissolves the split between the object seen and the seer who sees it. Consciousness appears to have ceased, and to have reached a state of silence. It is devoid of ‘I’, and merges into the core of the being in a profound state of serenity. In Samadhi, awareness of place vanishes and one ceases to experience space and time.
—B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
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III.2 A steady continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is meditation (dhyana).
III.3 When the object of mediation engulfs the meditator, appearing as the subject, self-awareness is lost. This is samadhi.
III.4 These three together constitute integration or samyama.
III.5 From mastery of samyama comes the light of awareness and insight.
Uninterrupted flow of attention dissolves the split between the object seen and the seer who sees it. Consciousness appears to have ceased, and to have reached a state of silence. It is devoid of ‘I’, and merges into the core of the being in a profound state of serenity. In Samadhi, awareness of place vanishes and one ceases to experience space and time.
—B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
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We become, in consciousness, the bird we contemplate; we become the tree in which the sap circulates and which stretches its ramified crown toward the invigorating sun; we become the solar disk whose vivifying energies pour over the planets of our galaxy; we become the universe in its grand immensity and pulsating fullness. We may even become one with the tranquil center in the depth of our own being, or unite with the all-comprising wholeness of the supreme Being. On whatever level such ontic identification takes place, it always presupposes the abolition of the ordinary space-time continuum and the experience of the eternal Now.
—Georg Feuerstein, The Path of Yoga
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III.1 Gathering consciousness and focusing it within is Dharana (contemplation).
III.2 The continuous inward flow of consciousness is Dhyana (meditation).
III.3 When individual consciousness unites with the Divine Consciousness, the illusion of separateness dissolves; this is Samadhi.
III.4 When Dharana (contemplation), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (Union with Divine Consciousness) seamlessly merge into one another, this is Samyama (fusion).
III.5 Through Samyama, individual and Divine Consciousness gracefully reunite.
In Samyama (fusion) the three aspects are not perceived as individual but as a single current flowing from uninterrupted awareness. This flow is seamless and without effort. Any effort immediately brings us back into the realm of thoughts and emotions. The ability to realize Samyama (fusion) may take years of devoted practice and purification.
—Nischala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga
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The inherent interconnectedness of existence reveals what in philosophical terms we call “nondualism”—the collapse of separation between subject and object. When we experience relaxed openness and attentive awareness, the world reveals its inherent completeness. When we move through the world, “concealed and wrapped in thought,” there is no direct contact with reality and we know not “who or what” we are.
—Michael Stone, The Inner Tradition of Yoga
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III.1 Focus can channel diffuse thoughts into one theme.
III.2 Contemplation is focus that attunes to its object.
III.3 Integration can dissolve the subject-object barrier through attunement, allowing both to share a single form.
III.4 These three work together.
III.5 They give flashes of brilliance and understanding.
Samyama consists of focus (dharana), contemplation (dhyana), and integration (samadhi). Focus allows concentration to narrow from the typically scattered state we have inherited from a more fearful era of constant sympathetic (defensive) nervous engagement... Contemplation imbues this focus with empathy, so that attunement between subject and object begins to hum. The peak of attunement is integration, in which the subject/object boundary is softened, and feelings of wholeness and connection saturates the flesh and mental flow. Sensing this pervasion of empathy, the yogi delights even more richly in the ethics of relationship (yama): the circle is complete.
I.3 Through yoga consciousness can become aware of its interdependence.
—Matthew Remski, Threads of Yoga
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Integration. Attunement. Fusion. Interdependence. Dissolution of the illusion of separateness. Unification. The collapse of time and space. Flashes of brilliance and understanding. Welcome to the March issue of Canadian Yogi. We hope you enjoy reading this collection of articles on transcendence from the personal, to the contemplative, to the prescriptive.
Joanne Preece
Editor
Editor