Centuries ago, the Indian sage Patanjali wrote the “yoga sutras”. This book describes the purpose of yoga: to find inner joy through union with the divine. It also explains how to achieve it. In many ways, these teachings echo the lessons we can learn from Near-Death Experiences. There are countless commentaries on this fundamental work. Here are a few extracts from Jean Bouchart d’Orval’s “Patanjali et les yoga sutras”.
There’s only one joy, and that’s joy. It’s perfect, boundless, complete. We all have this infinite joy within us. We sometimes let a bubble rise to the surface, but this is always linked to a particular circumstance. That’s why we don’t think it’s complete or permanent.
We’ll never be fully happy, totally satisfied, until the fullness of boundless, causeless, endless joy is installed within us.
Only those who are attentive and watchful can achieve this. What calls to us is heard within us. Are we listening? Fortunately, this joy can also be heard on the outside when someone experiencing it speaks to us. The master of joy is the one who is one with it. He beckons. It’s up to us to take the sign or forget it. There have always been – and always will be – men and women who are signs and witnesses of infinite joy.
Patanjali offers a treatise designed to point the way for spiritual seekers. It proposes a realistic, serene and even joyful path.
He who knows his true nature knows how to empathize with suffering humanity better than anyone else, since he is one with life. But he’s never “moved” in the original sense of the word, i.e. driven out of himself by emotion to the point of forgetting the reality of all being, which never suffers. It is precisely because he never forgets that he is able to effectively help those who have forgotten and are overwhelmed by suffering. Suffering is a fact for those who experience it, and there’s no point in telling them that suffering doesn’t exist in non-duality.
We are all fundamentally divine, and the essence of the Divine is perfect joy.
Jesus echoes the words of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, anointing me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
We are the wretched of the spirit, while we have unimaginable wealth and live as if we had nothing, worrying about everything. Captives are those who are enslaved to the belief that they are the body or the personality. The blind are those who do not see the reality of Being, while believing they see reality in phenomena. The oppressed are those who maintain the idea that something external is tormenting them, when in fact it’s their own minds that are tyrannizing them.
It’s up to us to turn this “year of grace” into a lifetime. This is what Patanjali proposes.
To meditate is to fix one’s attention on the oceanic nature of consciousness.
It means experiencing that no surface movement can disturb it or make it lose its nature. It means being so attentive, so open to this consciousness that we end up identifying with it and realizing that this has always been our true nature.
The purpose of the spiritual path is to make that which knows in us recognize its true nature. Peace and quiet are essential for this. First, there’s the calming of the surface, then the deep tranquility that no longer perceives the wave as anything other than water itself.
Truth doesn’t have to be invented or created. Rather, it is to be discovered, unveiled: removing the veil that hides the true face of That which sees within us.
Presence meditation reveals our true nature: immortal, unlimited and filled with unconditional joy. Only the recognition of our true nature can free us completely and definitively from suffering.
We should always keep in mind that we are the Divine and need nothing else.
Practice is everything we consciously do to bring our mental tranquility to maturity, i.e. to be at ease in all circumstances. This requires energy and even zeal.Spiritual realizationreleasescolossalamounts of energy, but first we have to invest all the energy we have.
Our energy is very limited to begin with, and we mustn’t waste it unnecessarily. We can’texpectrealresultsif wedisperse ourthoughts, time and energy in a thousand and one more or less futile projects. Human beings need perfect times of silence and solitude to see life clearly. Patanjali calls it practice.
Sutra I-14: “This practice becomes firmly rooted if it is practised without interruption, with fervour and devotion, for a long time”.
There’s a real battle to be waged within us, and it’s always the most vigorous, the liveliest energy that wins.
Only uninterrupted, fervent practice can lead us to our goal.
If, throughout our lives, we nurture mental fragmentation by continuing to believe ourselves to be a separate and limited human being, this is what we take with us when we die and carry into the next life. He who zealously cultivates knowledge of the Self, who has truly established himself in wisdom, will retain his serenity in the worst trials. “He who seeks wisdom at dawn will easily find it: it will be sitting outside his door”.
Sutra I-15 “Equanimity is the triumphant state of consciousness of one who has freed himself from the desires of this world and the next”.
Equanimity is not gloom, it’s joy and the triumph of happiness.
We don’t have à fight our désirs, à repress them, à our bodies and minds.‘spirit. It does not‘there‘à see clearly, à réalize which is the real désir, the onlyésir, c‘is-à-say the désir de la plénitude and perfect joy. It is this desire that fuels all our incomplete and misdirected desires. When Jesus says “keep them from the Evil One”, the Evil One is mental fragmentation, the idea that “the world” is separate from “me”. Thisplenitude, this paradise, this kingdom of heaven,is not for the“me“.other world. It is achieved in this life, in our human incarnation.
At the same time, we must invest all our energy and enthusiasm in our spiritual path and surrender ourselves to the Divine.
The two are essential and go hand in hand: ardent practice leads to surrender; those who surrender come to practice ardently.
It’s a paradox in appearance only: the source of theeffort that appears to be “the source of the effort that appears to be “the source of the effort that appears to be “the source of the effort that appears to be “the source of the effort”. staff “ c‘is the Divine in us. Only the Divine calls us and accèdeto the Divine. This is what Jesus said to his disciples, who were under the impression that entering the Kingdom of God was impossible: “to man it is not possible, but to God all things are possible”. Surrender to the Divine, even when it calls us to action, is all that is required for success.
Sutra I-24: “The Divine is that unique Presence, free from all suffering, all action, all cause and all consequence”.
The Presence is not a being bigger and stronger than all the others. It’s different from everything else, and that’s why we can’t conceive of it with our limited thoughts.
In each of us, the feeling of the presence of an indivisible, immutable and monolithic being permeates every moment of our lives. This being is what we really are; the Divine is that. This is what we surrender to, not another form, another person or a supreme being separate from us.
We are not particles of the Divine. It does not‘There are no parts in the Whole. We are the All.
“Obstacles vanish when we know the one Spirit,” says Patanjali. When we are in this knowledge, there are no obstacles, only opportunities.
It is essential to lead a healthy life, both physically and psychologically, as this libèour énergy and time for the spiritual path.
The more we keep our attention on the Ocean, the more our hearts open up and the simpler and more beautiful life becomes.
To help us do this, we can keep reminding ourselves that we can’t die, no one can. We are Life.
Sutra II-1: “Asceticism, self-study and self-surrender to the Divine: these are the practical aspects of yoga”.
Patanjali now explains how to bring peace to a human being enslaved to mental activity and torment, and how to guide him into the fullness of existence.
The word asceticism originally meant “fire”. It’s the sacred fire of someone who has no choice but to take charge. It’s a purification and simplification movement. It aims to bring the practitioner closer to a state of contentment, by showing him that he has absolutely no need for everything he thought he needed, because he is absolutely nothing of what he thought he was. This is the heart of true asceticism: realizing that we are absolutely nothing of what we think we are, which is based on mental fragmentation.
Authentic asceticism is not repression, it’s liberation from our true nature. A true ascetic is profoundly joyful.
Self-study is the examination of our thoughts, emotions, behaviours, expectations and so on.
We are reminded here of the need to surrender ourselves to the Divine, because as we embark on the action of asceticism, we are more than ever in danger of believing ourselves to be the authors of this action, as individuals separated from the Whole.
The quality of a practice is judged by its results: are we calmer, happier, more joyful, more loving? Once we’ve understood that our goal is to put an end to all forms of suffering, and not just totemporarily appease itby satisfying onedesireafteranother, everything becomes clear. But it’s a road less travelled than the other. “Enter by the narrow gate. For wide and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many take it. But narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to Life, and few there be who find it.
Suffering always comes from a distance between reality as it is and as we want it to be.
We have covered our true nature, which is pure consciousness, with the pretense of being a separate person. And this person always needs special circumstances to be at peace. As these circumstances are never fully and permanently present, this person suffers permanently or almost permanently.
It’s no fun always living in the tension of a future, of the hope that the distance between reality and our desires will be reduced and that this will make us happy.
Suffering is rooted in our fragmented visionée qui nous sés “ world “ and masks our véritable, which is joy and permanence. The cause of suffering étant intérieure, le remède aussi sera intérieur. Believing that the causes of suffering are extérieures, c‘est ajourner la libération.
To sin, to err, to miss the mark in the etymological sense, is to be under the illusion of the solidity and permanence of the physical world and our mental world. Above all, it’s the illusion that we exist as separate individuals.
Blasphemyème ce n‘is not to recognize ourselves as one with God.‘est plutôt to recognize ourselves as divine, is to say that we are not God.
The repetition and compulsiveness of our desires are due to our inability to become aware of the true desire within us. This desire is always that of absolute peace, total non-desire.
The belief that we are the body, not an immortal being, triggers our fear of death. This is true at the moment of our physical death, but also at the moment of the daily death of our preferences. Only meditation can dispel these fears, as it enables us to become aware of our immortality. Peace grows when the mind recognizes its true nature.
But meditation alone cannot overcome the subtle causes of suffering. Our entire intellect must be enlightened and completely penetrated by the light that transforms thought.
It’s not the action that’s the problem, it’s our appropriation of the action, the idea that we are its author and beneficiary as a separate person.
To meditate is to know that we have always and forever been established in bliss, and that there’s nothing to import from “out there”.
Then the appropriate action becomes clear to us, and this action leaves no trace because there is no one to wish it or fear it. We stop choosing.
Joy is the state of consciousness of the Whole in harmony with itself. Suffering is the state in which we perceive a break in the flow of life. The nature of joy is unity, the nature of suffering is separation.
The more we identify with our eternal, infinite nature, the more we remain in harmony.
Manifestation and earthly life are great joys, because they are an opportunity for liberation. The spiritual life is a celebration, a permanent joy. For those who understand the uniqueness of Life, all is joy. The spiritual life then becomes a triumphant march towards the maturity of joy.
It is the meaning and purpose of human life to know the nature of the Self. This can only happen if the Self is first covered by manifestation before being discovered. Human incarnation allows us to experience the ocean in contrast to the waves on the surface.
When we’ve lived our whole lives believing that we are the body and the thoughts, it’s hard to let them go.
Only those who have seen reality directly, their reality, have no fear or doubt. ” He who clings to his life loses it; he who does not cling to his life in this world keeps it for eternal life.
The realized being is constantly aware that it is the All, that everything is the All. “Split wood and I’m there; lift a stone and you’ll find me there. Spiritual work is the constant reminder to discern the reality behind manifestation, the gradual rise of light within us.
Respect for life is not just about not killing or injuring. It means moving with the flow of life, flowing with it.
It’s about being one with life. Body and mind become perfect vehicles. Life is one and inseparable. When we understand this, we benefit immediately. It’s all about being life.
II-33 When an undesirable thought oppresses us, all we have to do is nourish the opposite thought.
An undesirable thought is one that opposes the flow of life. We must become aware of the suffering, fear or unconsciousness from which it originates and which it feeds, and voluntarily and consciously nourish the opposite thought.
When we are one with life, when we are life, living beings feel it and they feel confident. We are all sponges, absorbing the vibrations that surround us.
Life will always triumph over everything, love is stronger than death.
II-45 We reach the state of perfect samâdhi by surrendering totally to the Divine.
II-47 All you have to do is relax and absorb yourself in the infinite.
The divine is joy and ease, and we cannot access it through suffering and tension, but only through relaxation and surrender. And absorbing ourselves in the infinite is the best way to release tension.
To go inward is to return our attention to what is closest to us.
We are now less attracted by the superficial brilliance of phenomena and more by reality itself. We feel an irresistible need to withdraw from the noise and violence of the world of opinions.
The diaphragm is a doorway between the world of emotions and that of light, love and peace. Concentrating on the ribcage soothes the emotions and clears the path for spiritual energy. Our culture emphasizes emotions, even though they are a relatively crude manifestation. Big emotions flatter the ego. Very few of us are able to transcend the prison of emotions. Meditating on the ribcage gently guides us towards a reality more subtle and lasting than emotions. All we have to do is observe our emotions to calm ourselves. In the presence of intense emotion, we should always take a few moments to observe our breath.
III-33 The light of direct intuition allows us to know everything.
Why not aim for the Whole from the outset?
Why settle for partial results? Everything in the world will pass. Only reality won’t go away. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all else will be added to you.
The true nature of the mind is the Self, pure existence. So don’t condemn your mind, or even fight it. All we have to do is quietly go back to its essence, the heart of being, i.e. the secret of being, its innermost being.
We must meditate on the light that comes from within, the light that Is.
What heals and saves us is not external to us; it’s our Self at work in us, for us and through us.
IV-4 all mind is only the creation of the ego
The ego is the feeling of being an entity separate from the Whole. What Patanjali calls mental is the sum of accumulated mental impressions that dictate our likes and dislikes. The ultimate reality, and therefore the only reality, is being, the Self. Only meditation can dissolve this mistaken belief that we are a personality separate from the Whole, a belief that is at the root of the infinite cycle of desires.
Desires go back to the dawn of time, because the thirst for fulfillment is eternal.
In the depths of each of us, the thirst for wholeness calls and invites us to cross over to the other side, to settle on the other shore. This thirst, this longing, is eternal because it comes from the depths of our being. So there’s no other way to quench this thirst than to remember our true nature. This is what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again; the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life “.
Desires don’t have to be repressed or condemned; they simply express our thirst for fulfillment.
In the face of desire, all we have to do is remember our fullness and know that we are that fullness. Man’s ultimate desire reflects his deepest memory, that of the joy he is. Peace has nothing to do with the fulfillment, or otherwise, of our desires. All we have to do is see what is: we are already the fullness.
IV-11 desires are perpetuated by the mind’s enslavement to the objects of its attention. The elimination of this bondage leads to the disappearance of desires.
As long as joy is dependent on phenomena, it is fleeting and incomplete.
The mistake is to believe that people, experiences, objects or emotions will one day give us absolute joy. It makes us hope that everything will be better if… But this is precisely the cause of our suffering. It’s not by trying to act on our desires that we can put an end to this suffering, it’s by getting out of this error. It means giving up hope that one day everything will be better, in favor of the certainty that everything is perfect now.
The turning point in life is this direct experience of the Self. From then on, nothing is the same; there’s no turning back.
We lose interest in anything that doesn’t reveal our true nature as Self.
When the vision of the One remains stable within us, this is definitive and total liberation, plenitude.
IV-27 any other thoughts that then creep into the mind are merely the result of residual impressions.
One or more direct experiences do not mean that the mind has been totally purified. In fact, that’s when the real work begins. It’s about welcoming all our thoughts and washing them away perfectly, with the awareness that we are the Self and nothing else.. Until this is completed, residual mental impressions surface again and risk obscuring our vision.
https://www.fnac.com/a4161086/Jean-Bouchart-d-Orval-Patanjali-et-les-Yogas-sutras
On the same theme, you can also read the article Find inner joy
