Yoga refers to philosophical, spiritual, and physical practices aimed at helping you realize your true Self. The underlying belief of yoga is that a naturally joyous Self exists within you.[204] Most of us do not experience this Self, and yoga tells us why this is and how we can reconnect with the true Self.
The ultimate goal of yoga is spiritual liberation, or nirvana. Liberation is living in the world in a state of permanent knowledge, peace, and bliss. In a spiritual sense, it means freedom from the continuous cycle of death and rebirth. One of the milestones on the path to liberation is happiness.
The goal of this chapter is to introduce the yogic way of moving towards happiness. I will talk about the yogic belief that you have lost touch with your Self, and how losing touch prevents you from being happy. I will also describe the yogic practices aimed at helping you reconnect with your Self.
I will not emphasize the system of physical exercises and postures that we most closely associate with yoga. This system of postures (asanas) is known as hatha yoga, which originated long ago to complement yoga’s philosophical and spiritual practices. Nowadays, however, most people practice hatha yoga for health and fitness.[205]
Yoga can be a part of spiritual and religious practice, but need not be. Yoga is an important part of Hinduism and Buddhism, among other religions. However, as you will see later, only one of the four major paths of yoga is essentially religious. By religious, I mean a practice that involves belief in and devotion to a deity.
Both believers and nonbelievers can practice yoga to great benefit. You can incorporate yoga into any religious practice, or you can practice yoga outside of a religious context.
Yoga and Happiness
Yogic philosophy says that we have a natural ability to experience happiness, peace, and joy.[206] However, most of us cannot find these experiences in our lives, and for many people life is only suffering. This is because true happiness comes only from experiencing the true Self, and most of us have lost touch with true Self. True happiness does not come from what happens to us in the world.[207] Yoga aims to help us reconnect with (realize) the Self. [208]
According to yogic philosophy, the Self is far greater than the limited material mind and body with which we are familiar. However, we do not know this because we have lost touch with our true Selves. We believe that we are limited to our minds and bodies and that the only place we can look for happiness is in the world that we see around us.
Getting back in touch with the Self is not a matter of simply learning about and believing in the Self. The mistaken beliefs that we are limited to our material minds and bodies, and that happiness comes only from what happens to us, are deeply ingrained. We cannot correct these beliefs with mere information. These beliefs form the very basis of the way we think. As we “go about our business,” everything we do, and everything that we think, reflects these mistaken beliefs.
Yoga aims to change, at a fundamental level, the way we think. You might call this rewiring the mind. Fixing the way we think is no mean feat, because the mind acts as if happiness is something we have to find in the world. The goal of yoga is to change the way we think and act so that, instead of running around the world looking for happiness, we simply allow ourselves to experience the joy and happiness that is natural to us.
The way that yoga looks at happiness and what prevents us from being happy is essentially the same as what I describe in Chapters 2 and 3. We’ve seen that unconditional happiness is always available to us, and that sense pleasures, ego strokes, and possessions are not necessary to make us happy. In yogic philosophy, unawareness of these facts is called ignorance.
According to yogic philosophy, the mind is grounded in the material world, in which every effect appears to have a cause. The mind assumes that the world and the things in it are the sources of happiness. It believes that the only way to be happy is for something to happen that causes happiness. This belief comes from ignorance of how things are, and ignorance of our true nature.
Here is how yoga understands the way things work, and describes the practices we can use to discover our true nature.[209]
• We believe that in order to be happy, something good has to happen to us. However, true happiness does not result from what we do in the world. Our mistaken belief that happiness comes from doing or having (our “ignorance”) results in endless attempts to find happiness by doing or getting something.
• True happiness comes from reconnecting with the Self. Another way of saying this is, to find true happiness you must find and realize the Self.
• Our attachment to desires and aversions (ego attachments) obscures the Self, making it impossible to realize the Self. In other words, the attachment to having and experiencing good things and avoiding bad things, based on the mistaken belief that this is the way to happiness, prevents us from realizing our true nature.
• To realize the Self, we need to learn to control the mind, and let go of ego attachments. When we let go of ego attachments, we reconnect with the Self.
• Through meditation, ethical living, study, and selfless service, yogic practices teach us how to control the mind and let go of ego attachments. The devotional path of bhakti yoga also includes worship of a deity.
Unhappiness and Suffering
The goal of yoga is to help us end our unhappiness and suffering. When suffering ceases, what remains is happiness.[210] Suffering comes from not being in touch with your Self.[211] The Self is the source of happiness and joy, and to lose touch with it is to suffer. We can find substitutes for true happiness, such as food, comfort, sex, toys, human companionship, and success. However, these do not last and are not truly satisfying.
Learning to know and experience the Self, and learning to build a strong awareness of it is what prevents suffering, even if you have physical pain. While you are in the world, you will never be completely free of the presence or threat of physical or emotional pain. Things happen in the world, despite anything we do to prevent them. If you lose your job, you feel bad; if a family member is in trouble, you worry; or if you are in trouble, you feel frightened. If you are injured or sick, you feel physical pain. These are natural and unavoidable reactions to life. However, if you know your Self, these afflictions do not have to make you suffer.
To suffer when you are experiencing physical or emotional pain means there is nothing but the pain. You have nothing but pain if your happiness is solely dependent upon what happens to you in the world. Even when the pain is gone, the mind remembers and relives the pain, fears the return of the pain, or harbors anger against someone who caused the pain.[212]
If you can remain in contact with your Self, you have awareness that life is good and joyful, even when you are in pain. This awareness prevents you from suffering. You may experience pain, but you can see past it through to your Self, which is untouchable and wholly without pain. In addition, when the pain is over, it is over. You do not have to keep reliving it, fearing its return, grieving for yourself, or raging against those who contributed to your pain.
The Self
According to yogic philosophy, you are probably not who you think you are. If you are like most of us, you identify with your self-image. In other words, you believe that you are what you imagine yourself to be. Yoga says, however, that this is not the real you. The real you is the Self.
The Self is the seer or experiencer of all that happens in your life. The Self is what sees and experiences everything in the material world, but is itself not seen.[213] Whatever you do, the Self remains above the fray. It watches everything, but nothing affects it. It remains pure and unsullied.
Definition of the Self depends upon whether you look at it from a religious or nonreligious point of view. From a Hindu point of view, the Self is Brahman, which is “the supreme reality underlying all life, the divine ground of existence, the impersonal Godhead.” [214] The Godhead is the essence of God.
God, by contrast, is seen as the Godhead personified.[215] For example, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna refers to Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.[216] We learn much about the Self in this respect in the Bhagavad Gita. [217] In the Gita, 15:7-10, Krishna (God) says that he sends part of himself into every person, and that part becomes the Self of that person. When the person dies, the Self departs.
Outside of a religious context, the Self is not necessarily God, or the personification of the Godhead. It is eternal and knowable, but is not definable.[218]
The ancient metaphor of the chariot can help you understand the way the Self relates to your life.
Imagine a chariot owner riding in a chariot. This person stands behind the charioteer, serenely watching the charioteer, the chariot, the horses, and the passing countryside. The chariot owner is the Self. Your body is the chariot; the charioteer is your consciousness, and your mind is the reins held by the charioteer. The horses are your five senses. The charioteer is the master of the chariot and directs the horses. The Self, which is the master of all, remains serene as it watches the action.[219]
Whatever its true nature, the Self is free of the beliefs and desires that cage our minds and limit us, causing us to keep doing and thinking the same things over and over. It is the Self that is free of the attachments that are the source of suffering in this world.
The reality of the Self is the underlying premise of yogic philosophy. It is the understanding that you are much more than your brain, your body, or your emotions. It is also the premise that you are eternal.
Yoga practices can give you tools to begin to sense the Self, and open yourself to embrace it. Yoga teaches you how to control your mind, bring your awareness into your limitless Self, and experience the endless happiness that is natural to you.
The Mirror Metaphor
Yogic philosophy holds that we cannot experience the Self directly, but if our minds are clear we can experience it reflected in our minds. In other words, we cannot see the Self directly because it is the seer. While we cannot see the Self directly, the mind can reflect the Self like a mirror.
You cannot see your face directly, but you can see your face using a mirror. If the mirror is dirty or distorted, the image you see of your face will not be true.
Likewise. you cannot see the Self directly but you can experience the Self as it is reflected in your mind. Like a mirror, however, if your mind is clouded with selfish concerns, desires, fears, and ignorance, then it does not reflect the Self clearly. If you know your Self only as reflected in the mind’s mirror, you cannot know yourself when that mirror is cloudy.
When you clean the mirror by ridding yourself of ego attachments and ignorance, you can see yourself clearly. Then you can find your power to be happy.
Mistaking the Image of Yourself for Your True Self
Most of us mistake the image of ourselves for our true Selves. [220] All we know is the image of ourselves (the ego). If all you know is your image of yourself, then that is who you think you are. What else can you be when that is all you know? Yoga can help you come to know your true Self. Yogic teaching can, in the words of philosopher Alan Watts, help us “get rid of the hallucination that each one of us is a skin-encapsulated ego.” [221]
When you focus on only your ego and its related desires and aversions, you become attached to it, and at its mercy. The ego exists in a world of scarcity, where whatever you have is never enough. It is the source of all negative human traits that we suffer: fear, anger, envy, overwhelming desires of every sort, and greed. The ego cooks up any number of reasons to dish out fear, anxiety, physical pain, sadness, despair, and all of the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.”[222] The stronger the attachment to and identification with the ego, the less chance there is of knowing the Self.
The original metaphor for the birth of the ego and the loss of knowledge of the Self is the story of Adam and Eve, in Genesis. When they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they became aware of their separateness, and they lost union with God. [223] The essence of the ego is its identification of you as a separate human being. When you strongly focus on your separateness (your ego) and its imagined superiority or inferiority, you lose touch with your Self (or Godhead).
It is true that you need an image of yourself in order to survive in the world. You need to know who you are in the world, who people think you are, what you can do, and what you cannot do. You need a strong ego and sense of individuality to survive in the world. The trick is to maintain a working image of yourself in your mind, without becoming so identified with it that you lose touch with your true Self. You need to have a version of reality, the coordinates of which make it possible to navigate the world, without forgetting your Self. [224]
Stilling the Mind and Finding Your Self
Yogic philosophy maintains that ignorance of your true Self is the cause of all suffering. You cannot override ignorance simply by reading the truth in any book, although reading may be helpful. There is no description of your Self in a book. You can only experience it. To experience your Self, you need to free your attention from its usual attachment to the material world in which you live, and from your self-centered desires and aversions.[225]
Freeing your attention is difficult. The mind is constantly busy, trying to follow the guidance of its interior instruction manual on how to make you happy by doing things. You have spent your entire lifetime paying attention to what is inside your head, and you may not know how to do anything else. You have probably had inklings of your Self, and perhaps it has sometimes peeked through and given you glimpses of the unbounded joy that is available. If you are like most people, however, these instances have been rare.
The stuff that is in your mind is seductive, and it never stops demanding attention. Overcoming the demanding nature of the mind-stuff takes practice. It takes focus. It takes, in short, learning to control your mind so that you can still your thoughts. Only then can you begin to experience your Self.
There is hope, though. Once you begin to sense your Self, you will know with certainty where you want to go. The sense of Self should feel light, full, happy, safe, fulfilling, full of knowledge, and loving. By comparison, the feeling of the stuff clogging your mind is often sluggish, dull, heavy, and depressing.
As you begin to sense your Self, it should begin to act as a magnet. It should begin to pull you to it, and the more you sense your Self, the stronger the pull will be.
If your method of stilling the mind is meditation, you may initially feel that meditation for forty minutes or an hour each day is a burden, boring, and pointless. However, once you begin to get a sense of your Self, and it begins to pull you toward it, you may find that meditation is the best part of your day.
Yoga Practices
Yoga teaches four major paths to the realization of your Self. All of these practices support one another and help you find the source of true happiness. Here they are:
• The yoga of knowledge (jnana yoga)
• The yoga of devotion (bhakti yoga)
• The yoga of selfless action (karma yoga)
• The yoga of meditation (raja yoga)
I will explain each of these in turn. Before I do, I want to talk about three areas of practice that are common to all four paths: meditation, virtue (ethics), and the physical practices of hatha yoga.
All four paths involve meditation to one degree or another. The fourth path, raja yoga, focuses almost exclusively on meditation. Virtue (ethics) is also a requirement for all four paths. Hatha yoga teaches postures that are important for good meditation.
Meditation
Meditation serves as a frontal attack on ego attachments. It is like telling the mind, which is incessantly chattering about what you do or do not want, “Shut up already!” Meditation is a conscious effort to still and control the mind. Although there are many different ways to meditate, most of them aim to shut off the words and still your mind by intentionally focusing all of your attention on a single object of meditation.
Meditation is all about intentionality. It is about, for want of a better description, mind control. Instead of allowing your attention to drift where it will, captured by the swirling and incessant activity of your mind, you attempt to focus. As you learn to do this, you find that your mind does not have to be captured by your thoughts and emotions. It does not have to be sucked down the rabbit hole of worries, desires, and fears. Instead, you can learn to turn your attention to what you want to think about, and keep your attention focused there.
In meditation, you challenge your mind for control of your attention, and once successful, free yourself of the limitations imposed by your mind on your ability to be happy. By gaining control of your mind, you move one step closer to sensing and perceiving your true Self, and your power to be happy.
If your mind can be still in meditation, so that its activity ceases to capture your attention, you can see things as they are and see yourself as you are. This is how you find your Self. [226]
Virtue
A virtuous life can help lead you to realization of Self and happiness. Virtuous qualities are discussed at length in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. [227] These virtuous attributes are nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-greed.[228] When practiced for their own sake, these virtues express as selfless thoughts, words, and deeds, which benefit you and others, and harm no one. They strengthen and purify the mind, and can help align what you do in life with your Self.
In this section, as we touch upon the virtues, we will also look at the ego. What I mean by the ego is our attachments to self-image and its related attractions and aversions. In other words, I am referring to the wanting, needing, selfish, and fearful aspects of the mind that prevent us from freeing it to find the Self. My use of the term differs from the way psychologists use it, but it is sufficient for my purposes.
Nonviolence
The Yoga Sutras tell us that violence is a reaction to fear. Of course, fear is the province of the ego, and when we are fearful, we are deep in the clutches of the ego - trying to survive, trying to keep what we have, and trying to avoid pain. Our reaction is to want to see someone else harmed, or diminished in some way. If we give in to violence, it leaves a scar in the psyche that is difficult to heal. Practicing nonviolence can sometimes take tremendous courage, but it ultimately benefits us and those around us. [229]
Truthfulness
There are many ways to look at the virtue of truthfulness. Here I want to focus on the benefit of speaking the truth to yourself at all times, so that you are always clearly perceiving what you are doing in the world, and always speaking the truth to others, as long as you can do so without hurting them in any way. Always expressing the truth helps to keep a clear mind, which is necessary in the arduous quest for the Self. It keeps you free of the guilt associated with lying, and frees you from the emotional toll of a guilty conscience.
Of course, dishonesty, like violence, is a quality of the ego. Dishonesty is usually motivated by desire to get something, or to avoid pain. Of course, practicing truthfulness at all times is a far cry from what your self-centered mind wants you to do! This, in itself, is probably a good reason to be truthful!
Non-stealing
The Yoga Sutras speak of non-stealing, which is a funny kind of word. Obviously, it means that you should not steal. People steal because they want things that are not theirs, and which they perhaps cannot get honestly. Others, rich or poor, steal for the “thrill” of it — of successfully “pulling off” a heist of some kind. Some people steal from a sense of emptiness, trying to fill the void with ill-gotten “gain.” Wanting experiences and things is what the ego does. For the ego, all happiness comes from the material world, and from having things and relationships (of the easy, flattering kind) in the world. We know that lasting happiness does not come in this fashion, but the ego does not know this. So stealing panders to the ego; it strengthens it. In addition, as with lying, stealing leaves most of us scarred and guilt-ridden, thus hogging the attention that could have been focused on being happy.
Continence
The virtue of continence, or moderation, aims at both overcoming the ego’s hold and conserving energy. The ego wants more and more, but having more or doing more does not lead us to happiness. Try to discern when enough is enough, and do not give in to the ego’s craving for more. In addition, the Yoga Sutras speak of conserving energy so that you can focus your attention on the practice of seeking your Self. The point is, whatever you do in life, do not overdo it.
Non-greed
Non-greed is what the Yoga Sutras call this last virtue. It means, of course, that you should avoid greed. The sutra does not ask you to be generous, although that too is a virtue. It just says you should not be greedy. To be greedy is to identify with the ego. Its source is strong feelings of desire for things. You can feel you need something without being greedy, so just needing and wanting something is not greed. Greed is characterized by desiring things for the way you expect they will make you feel, and desiring them so strongly that you may never be satisfied with how much you get.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga is the physical system of postures, breathing, cleansing practices, and other techniques. Its immediate purposes are to enhance health, flexibility, and relaxation. For purposes of this discussion, however, it is useful in stilling the mind, and preparing mind and body for concentration and deep meditative practices.[230]
Hatha yoga can help the practitioner move along the path to enlightenment and liberation through physical practices aimed at finding balance in the body and stillness in the mind.
Hatha yoga includes many different techniques. Important for the purposes of this book are the seated meditation postures, known as asanas. These postures help to provide balance to the body and focus to the mind, without the distraction of aches, pains, or general restlessness. They can help strengthen and condition the body to be able to maintain meditation postures for long periods.
Choosing a Yogic Path
The yogic path chosen depends on the person. Different ways are appropriate for different people. In addition, there are no boundaries between paths. A person may focus on the yoga of wisdom, for example, but also follow the yoga of selfless action.
All of the yogas share the commonality of helping you release your attachment to self-image and related attractions and aversions (the ego). Yoga is an elegant and subtle way to become aware of your true Self, thereby permitting happiness to flow into your life.
The Yoga of Wisdom (Jnana Yoga)
Jnana yoga is the path of spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and direct experience of the Self. The goal is discrimination between what is real and unchanging (the Self) and what is unreal and subject to change (the everyday world).[231] The practitioner seeks intuitive knowledge of the Self. This knowledge, which is spiritual wisdom, comes from direct experience of the Self. The practitioner seeks spiritual wisdom that goes far beyond simple knowledge.
To foster discrimination you should have some book knowledge, from sources such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita. Then you must reflect deeply on what you have learned, through meditation. Gradually, you shift your attention from what you identify as you to your true Self.
As you grow in spiritual wisdom, you may, over time, become that wisdom. As Swami Satchidananda, and ever so many other wise beings down through the ages have said, “As you think, so you become.” [232]
The Bhagavad Gita says that those who can discriminate between the “body” and the “knower of the body” can obtain liberation, which is the ultimate goal of yoga. This discrimination