The notes below are designed to give prospective readers an idea of what to expect from the book, and to aid in making a decision on whether to buy it.
The Path of Yoga, Georg Feurstein
Realizations
Yoga helps to transcend the lower self into higher self.
Happiness is our essential nature.
Union of what? One’s consciousness and energy to avoid inner conflict.
Self-realization is key.
There is only one. All else is illusory. Everything that is not the self is maya (illusion)
Voluntary simplicity is key.
Transcendental meditation is a moment based upon the mental sounding of certain mantras.
Mere intellectual knowledge is not adequately transformative.
Lasting happiness comes only with self-realization.
Only when all karma and limited experience is transcended does the individual psyche remember its true nature.
When posture is cultivated correctly there is a loosening or widening. Not a mere relaxation of the body but also of the mind, of our opinions, concerns, hopes, and attitudes.
Veganism. The mind is food.
Body is only the outermost layer of being human. The breath is only the external aspect of the prana (life force). Breath control = mental control.
Success = inwardly becoming cow.
Hope is enlightenment for self – free from neurotic self-interest.
Meditation is an instrument, never an end in itself.
No puzzle at all; only ever-present consciousness which is inherently blissful and free.
You must practice not just study.
The fundamental cause of suffering is ignorance.
Self-respect is the root.
Two people you can never repay: your mother and father. Mother swallows, bitters herself and feeds; the child weeps.
Methods for mediation vary—possibilities are limitless.
Everything is conditioned dharma. All like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows; like dewdrops and lightning flash. Contemplate them.
What is a dream? No one knows. People are in a perpetual dream.
Everything is empty and illusory. I don’t agree, but his words.
Those who see the Buddha perceive him differently, reflecting their own karma.
Your present body is a false union of earth, water, fire and air.
Becoming enlightened means to understand.
Lists
Follow your bliss, NOT your pleasure. A dedication to selfhood but not to an ego personality. 5 groups (skanda) are body, sensations, perceptions, thoughts and consciousness. Bliss belongs to the unconditional reality above the body, mind, and world of finite objects.
Jana yoga unfolds in 7 stages. The highest state of this yoga is turya-ga or ‘abiding in the fourth’ which is the transcendence of self beyond the three states of consciousness: walking, dream sleep, and deep sleep.
6 methods of purification. Dental, netti, bladder, to and for, traataka, and skull luster via pranama.
3 kinds of wisdom (Prajna): 1. Study or literary (typically from sutras) 2. Wisdom of true understanding 3. Wisdom of reality realized over time like a lotus. Wisdom allows one to enter the fire and to be burned.
3 evil destinies: 1. Animals feed on each other 2. Ghosts—delight in hate, ignorance. Only yin energy.
3 Prerequisites for being reborn in the land of ultimate happiness:
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Faith
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Vows
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Practice.
4 stages of Arthats: First is entering the strea. Then, tending inwards, away from objects. Nothing me or mine. Within 7 lives he will enter the 4th stage.
4 Magnificent vows:
1. I vow to rescue the boundless living beings from suffering
2. I vow to put an end to infinite afflictions of living beings
3. I vow to learn the measureless Dharma-doors
4. I vow to realize the unsurpassed path of the Buddha
3 prerequisites for sitting in meditation: patience, no greed, perseverance.
3 difficult places for kundalini to pierce. Brama (lowest center); Vishnu (navel), and rudra-garanthi (throat).
3 pathways: sun, moon, and central channel.
Bhakti; Purification; Asana; 5 limbs service including daily reading of Bhagavad-Gita; Conduct (acara); concentration (dharana); service to divine space; rituals of the life force; Mudras or hand gestures to increase the delight of dieties; Satiation (tarpana) offering libations of water to chosen deity; invocation (Havana); offering (blai) such as fruit to the diety; sacrifice (yaa) internal or external; Receistiaont (japa) of the manasa; meditation (dhyana); ecstasy (Samadhi (dissolves into the divine).
When done properly there are 3 effects:
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Profuse perspiration
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Body starts to tremble (why you use padmasana to prevent convulsions)
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Upward rush of force into the crown center.
Universal life force has 5 functional aspects:
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Prana (inhale)
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Apana (descending control with navel and lower abdomen)
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Udanaa, the rising current located in the throat and associated with speech, eructation, and other similar functions
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Samana, the mid-current location in the abdomen
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Vyana the diffusing current.
5 envelopes at 5 levels or koshas: 1. Food; life force; mind; intelligence; bliss.
Asasas for meditations:
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Siddhaasana (left heel against perineum and other foot above the genitals—knees to the side, right foot crossed over left)
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Pad masasna
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Western students use skhasanas but not stable for long term
Sound has four aspects: Pure pulsations, visible sound, sonic manifestation at throat center, and vibration by the vocal organs.
Definitions
Veda means knowledge.
Japa is a mantra repeated over and over again to calm the mind.
Hatha means force. Goal is awakening of the kundalini Shakti.
Gu = darkness; Ru = dispeller. Gurus are not in the limelight seeking attention. They show tremendous compassion and tolerance towards their disciples.
Lineage (parampara).
Shavasana, not suitable for meditation, unless we achieve a certain degree of experience in meditation.
Vibrations or spanda. Om forever reverberates in the depths of the human ear and the cosmos.
Sahaja means born together. Consciousness beyond nature. No duality even in a crowd, feeling as though I were in a forest.
Jivan-mukti: Liberation while still alive.
Buddhis: A Brief Introduction (based upon the teachings of the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua (five stars).
Everything is a creation of the mind. We experience ourselves as a cycle of birth and death—samsara.
Bodhi = awakening or enlightenment; sattva = being. Bodhisattva.
Zen - abbreviated version of Dhyana.
Mani = silent wisdom.
Chart of Samsara. Those at the bottom love to fight.
General Notes
Signposts and visions not confused with ultimate goal of self-realization. These are just places along the way.
Identify with your consciousness, which dwells in the body but does not live there. Let your body be there or not. Your existence is always there; it is external.
Karam Yoga—service. The world is action bound. Who (kristsna) actions are those that are built by wisdom and are free from attachment. He who restrains his organs of action but sits remembering in his mind the objects of the senses is called a self-bewildered hypocrite.
Tantra has reunion of the polarized energy and consciousness and the merging of God Shiva and Goddess Shakti.
Yoga mortality is unseparated from Yoga metaphysics. Uphold the ideals of harmony and balance.
Yoga, like all spiritual culture, is a life discipline and a moral wisdom.
A yogi does not allow even a small amount of energy inside him to be wasted in a useless direction. To discover the true self one has to harness attention because the energy of the body and mind follows attention. The yogis are very careful about where they place their attention, for the mind creates patterns of energy, causing habits of thought and behavior that can be detrimental to the pursuit of genuine happiness.
One must consciously remember oneself as divine; the human body as a replication of the cosmos at large.
View action not just in terms of the present life but in terms of future births as well. We reap as we sow.
8 different modals; from cutting tough to drinking urine to rubbing semen back in. Too weird to write up but see pages 59-61 for all the details. Not for me.
Ride breath to bliss.
Erratic and shallow breathing makes for erratic and shallow thinking.
Knowing their respecting functions can pry open the door to the inner heavy. All 10 currents circulate along specific pathways which are called nadis. All nadis start in the lower abdomen at the lowest energy center (the muladhara cakra).
The first task is to regulate the breath. Next is to guide the life force on the central axis sushumna nadi. When life force flows the mind becomes steady.
Pratyahara:
Withdrawal of the sensory inhibitions.
Concentrate on the selected internal object.
Concentration is the focus of taraka yoga and vijnana Bhairaya: 112 methods for concentrating the mind.
Meditation cannot deepen without being accompanied by an intense psychoenergetic charge.
Meditation can create images, but they need not be visual. They can be sounds, feelings, smells or movements. Vivid 3D images have a big effect on the body.
Early morning best—hrama Muhurta (hour of Braha). But noon, sunset or midnight also works. Avoid eating, drinking and sex just before.
Approach meditation with atih but no expectations.
Obstacles include anger, envy, competition, ambition, self-satisfaction, lack of faith, over meditation, pretense, arrogance, and incorrect application of method from a teacher.
16-fold mantra:
Sun god is the ancient symbol for consciousness and illuminations.
Omm-last part should be nasal sound. Om is the entire universe: past, present and future. Fourth state is a unification of the previous.
Kundalini Shakti: like a waterfall of light felt a stream of energy entering through the spinal cord, brighter and brighter, slipping out into a halo of flight. Kundalini “she who is coiled.” Shakti is feminine counterpart of Shiva who is pure consciousness. It can also be fatal—be careful.
Breathing creates psychosomatic heat (agni). Few experience it and the few that do mostly get it from their teacher. Teacher usually closes lower three chakras so that it cannot fall back into them.
Breathing control is very closely linked to life expectancy.
Bhagavad-Gita: “Among 1,000 men scarcely one strives for perfection.”
Learn directly from adept teachers. We must examine our teachers carefully before we commit to them.
Yoga only gives us the fit of its wisdom and spiritual presence. All we need to do is benefit from their incessant transmission of light to become quiet and listen to our own hearts. This is where yoga begins, unfolds, and fulfills itself.
A teachers’ teachings only point at the moon, they are not the moon itself. Drink the water yourself to know if it is hot or cold in your body; don’t trust them.
The great teacher feels pity in his heart and enables them to separate afflictions forever.
Karma is the activities we do over and over again. Karma should not be considered as fate or predestination. You reap what you sow. “Bad karma that is created, like milk, does not curdle at once; Fermenting, it follows the fool like a fire covered by ashes.”
One of the goals of Buddhism is to attempt pure consciousness and obtain clarity of mind.
Compassion is one of the central virtues of Buddhist practice. No dichotomies between self and others. Being one with everyone else.
“He who has awakened is freed from fear. He has become a Buddha. He knows the vanity of all his cares and his ambitions.”
Don’t kill, steel, commit sexual misconduct, lie, or take intoxicants.
There is some silly stuff on why monks and nuns give us everything. I don’t fully agree. Nor with the idea that making an offering of food to 10,000 people does not equal offering food to a single Stream-enterer.
When a person’s eyes become clear he experiences all 10 directions as an open expanse. The four elements are no longer united. Your essential light is merging with the environment.
Eliminate view of sects. All Buddhism is one.
Drugs are a grave mistake. Don’t try to go too fast.
Eyes need not be open or closed.
Don’t entertain false thoughts.
Secret school is Mantra. All mantras are in the names of gods and ghost kings; like a soldier’s password. Mantras are the mind-imprint of all Buddhas. Om = all gods and ghost kings put palms together.
The sage has few errors. The superior man changes his errors. The petty man covers his errors. The foolish man sees no errors.