our own longing to flee the confines of self, to unite with the greater,
to discover through loss of the known, the endless, gorgeous horizon
of the unknown.
Some methods of escape are obviously harmful and unsustainable,
like drugs or alcohol. Great art, great music, or great works of litera
ture can also begin the work of transformation in the heart of hu
mankind. But I can honestly teach only from what I know. Asana was
my school and university, pranayama was where I earned my doc
torate, and it is these yoga practices that I have learned for the path to
the blissful fusion. Change leads to disappointment if it is not sus
tained. Transformation is sustained change, and it is achieved through
practice. The vehicle of bliss must be strong, especially its nervous sys
tem. The highest bliss transforms permanently. Lesser dreams of divine
union, however high their aspirations, contain an element of fantasy.
They may not be sustainable. We must have spiritual aspiration not
spiritual pretension. We may find that the stage on which we strut con
tains trap doors through which we may fall, like careless actors. Re
member the Greek root meaning for actor is "hypocrite." Yoga is solid.
It is the path I know, the path I trod, the path I teach. Everyone desires
relief from both the restrictions of personality and its impermanence.
Everyone desires samadhi. From the dawn of his history, man has
sought dangerous, shoddy shortcuts as well as noble ones. Call the
hard, sustained progress of yoga a "long cut" if you will, but if it is a
long cut, then so is the flight of an arrow.
The final integration of the sheaths of being at last brings access to
the knowledge of the soul to join that of the heart and body. Samadhi
is only a state where you experience the absorption of the body, mind,
and soul as a single unit. But from samadhi, we have to reach a higher
and subtler state called kaivalya (eternal emancipation or freedom in
action). I said that in samadhi you are but cannot do. What is the con
dition, following samadhi, in which we can do again, but not as before,
acting out of diversity and apparent choice? Can I act out of an undi-
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