Simple Yoga Blog

Yoga Sutra 2.21 Experiences benefit the Seer What is the raison d'être of experiences? The relationship between consciousness and experiences. You may choose between two distinct options: identifying with your experiences; or releasing all identification and choosing to experience directly the spaciousness, stillness and silence of pure awareness.

Yoga Sutra 2.20 Witness The ability to witness experiences in their endless changes. How are you cultivating your presence? Are you aware of the space, the stillness and the silence in which all your experiences take place? What happens when you choose to immerse yourself fully in the pause, silence and stillness?

Yoga Sutra 2.19 States of manifestation From unmanifest to manifesto to subtle to apparent Where do your ideas originate and how do they become your actions in the world? Are you aware of the states of manifestation of life all around you? What happens when you examine anything through these lenses of apparent, subtle, manifest and unmanifest? What do you discover?

Yoga Sutra 2.18 Experiencies leading to liberation Anything and everything that can be experienced is either active (kriya), resting (sthiti) or in a state of equilibrium (prakasha) between activity and inertia. When you conflate the experiences with the awareness witnessing them, you may believe that all that there is in life is to chase after experiences or you can choose to see all experiences as vehicles offering a pathway to free yourself from misidentification and its effects. Are your experiences creating more attachments and reactivity, or are they creating greater clarity?

Yoga Sutra 2.17 The cause of suffering Do you confuse your conscience with what you feel? When the identifications are released, the awareness that animates your body and that also enables you to think, feel, see and interact, is what remains. That awareness is consciousness flowing through you. That awareness uses the body and all experiences as an instrument, yet it is not the instrument.

2.16 Avoiding suffering Are you aware of the difference between pain and suffering? Is your life an emotional roller coaster? The pain you feel is a sensation that offers you potentially useful information. Does your suffering originate in not being willing to be with what is, just as it is? Is it possible to choose not to suffer?

Yoga Sutra 2.15 Suffering What would you need to love your life exactly as it is right now? All experiences and sensations are temporary. The wise person knows that anything that can be earned will eventually be lost and that anything that can be bought or sold is unlikely to bring lasting joy and happiness.

Yoga Sutras 2.12 2.13 & 2.14 Karma Afflictions create impressions that influence experiences and life according to our intentions Interaction between afflictions (kleshas), actions (karma), impressions (samskaras) and life both in the present and in the future. How have your decisions, actions and interactions influenced your identity, perspective and circumstances? How are you contributing to enhance the quality of life?

Yoga Sutra 2.11 Meditation counteracts active afflictions What afflictions emerge during your meditation? The second way to deactivate afflictions, meditation. What happens when you try to be with what is just as it is? Have you noticed patterns in your ways of moving, breathing, thinking, feeling, perceiving and interacting? How do you cultivate your meditation?