Sutra Squad

This week we explore the nature and meaning of OM, the sacred sound of sound.  OM is spoken, chanted, or recited in many contexts - yoga ãsana classes, meditation practices, and rituals across Eastern lineages spanning Hinduism or Sonatan Dharma, Buddhism, Jainism, and even in forms across Abrahamic lineages (ShalOM, Amen, Amin).  OM is the sound of creation, the evolution of consciousness, and our shared uniting eternal lineage.  OM is beyond space and time, and connects profoundly to our highest selves and our fundamental interconnectedness.

This week we explore the only “shortcut” offered in the Yoga Sūtra - that by offering full surrender to the divine of our understanding we may accelerate or even reach enlightenment, bliss, and samādhi.  We will spend a moment to discern the difference between “religion” and “spirituality”, and how yoga itself is not a religion (while certainly having roots in religious tradition) and instead explore yoga as a spiritual practice of devotion.  We will explore the qualities of divine presence, the personal journey to this awareness and understanding, and look for paths to deepen this practice of surrender in our lifelong journey toward Truth.

This week we explore the other side of the “formula” by which we achieve yoga & look at the second component - vairagya - detachment.  We explore what it means to discover the nature of our physical desires in an effort to transcend them, and deepen that transcendence to the point at which we can perceive divine spiritual energy & presence.  The journey within to examine the seeds of our worldly desires is an immortal practice of self-study, and while challenging at times, is crucial to our journey toward Truth and Freedom.

This week we go deeper into the essential formula by which we achieve yoga & look at the first component - abhyāsa - practice.  We explore what it means to be firmly established in a practice, and how we sustain our practices over extended periods, and throughout the duration of our lives.  Examining our actions as practices - which are intentional, which have become mindlessly habitual - is a critical step in developing the self-awareness needed for deep and sustained loving practice of yoga.

This week we look at the core of our practice to achieve the state of yoga - practice & detachment.  We are called to cultivate a deep, lifelong, uninterrupted practice while also letting go of our attachments to outcomes & achievement.  Navigating this razor edge paradox is a balancing act that calls us to stay in constant presence & curiosity…

This week we complete the powerful trilogy of the opening of the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali with sutra 1.3 that describes the outcome & end result of yoga.  We will explore the idea of the seer or the observer as the “true self”, and how we can allow that true self to shine forth when we achieve yoga.

We continue our journey exploring the opening triptych of the Yoga Sutra with 1.2, the essential definition of yoga as presented by Master Patañjali.  We will explore the first definition & meaning of yoga as defined in the text, and as lived by us today in the modern world.

We begin again! The time is now, it is always now, and now is where we meet Yoga - at the beginning with the purity and auspicious, ephemeral and eternal exploration of NOW.  This week we explore the first words of the first verse of the first chapter of the Yoga Sutra in 1.1.

As we end the "greatest hits" series we come to the final verses of the text that describe the full transcendence of the soul.  This week we will explore the perspective of endings and beginnings, and the nature of the transcendent state of pure awareness.

As we get close to the end of the text & resolution of the Yoga Sutra, Master Patañjali offers this simple and powerful reminder as to how our preferences, habits, and past behaviors create latent impressions that can serve as obstacles to our achievement of liberation.