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ADI SHANKARACHARYA The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali WORDS OF THE BUDDHA

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,which are aphorisms on yoga were written by the great Indian Sage around the 2nd Century BC.There are numerous translations,the one featured here is by Bon Giovanni. Part one-on Contemplations Part two-on Spiritual Disciplines Part three-on Divine Powers Part Four-on Realizations

Part Four-on Realizations

4.1 Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight. 4.2 Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature. 4.3 Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation. 4.4 Created minds arise from egoism alone. 4.5 There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds. 4.6 Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions. 4.7 The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions. 4.8 From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions. 4.9 Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time. 4.10

Part three-on Divine Powers

3.1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind. 3.2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation. 3.3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization. 3.4 The three appearing together are self-control. 3.5 By mastery comes wisdom. 3.6 The application of mastery is by stages. 3.7 The three are more efficacious than the restraints. 3.8 Even that is external to the seedless realization. 3.9 The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears. 3.10 From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition. 3.11 The contemplative transformation of this is equalmindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself. 3.12 The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar. 3.13 In this s

Part two-on Spiritual Disciplines

2.1 Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union. 2.2 This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions. 2.3 The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life. 2.4 Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative. 2.5 Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self. 2.6 Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing. 2.7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience. 2.8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience. 2.9 Flowing by its own

Part one-on Contemplations

Before beginning any spiritual text it is customary to clear the mind of all distracting thoughts, to calm the breath and to purify the heart. 1.1 Now, instruction in Union. 1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind. 1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature. 1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams. 1.5. The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful. 1.6. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory. 1.7. Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition. 1.8. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions. 1.9. Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance. 1.10. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness. 1.11. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape. 1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment. 1.13. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness. 1.14. This practice becomes

ADI SHANKARACHARYA

These are some of the works of the greatest exponent of Non Dualism or the Advaita doctrine Adi Shankaracharya,the eighth century Indian Philosopher. The translation of these texts from the original Sanskrit script has been done by the Sanskrit scholar S.Venkatraman in 1921. DIRECT REALISATION   KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF DEFINATION OF ONES SELF

DEFINATION OF ONES SELF

I salute the two feet of the holy Master, which destroy (this) unendurable duality, and whose dust, like the sacred ashes, quell the demon of illusion. (1). I salute the merciful and most excellent Master who destroys all doubts and whose two feet reveal the enjoyment of one-ness as the meaning of the word "that". (2). Scorched by the forest-fire of phenomenal existence, the pupil, possessed of all necessary qualifications, is thus enlightened by the Master with words capable of revealing the true self. (3). Whoever doubts the fact that himself exists? If even this is doubted, he who doubts is only thyself. (4). When one knows "I am not", it is verily Brahman itself that knows "it is not." When one knows "I am", then (too) it is that Brahman itself that knows thus. (5). Thyself, therefore, art Brahman. "I am not Brahman" is a mere illusion. From illusion springs separation wherein all sorrows have root. (6). He who gains

KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF

This treatise called "Knowledge of Self" is written for the sake of those whose sins have been destroyed by austerities and who, with a tranquil mind and free from attachment, long for liberation. (1). Compared with all other means, knowledge is the only direct means to liberation. As cooking is impossible without fire, so is liberation impossible without knowledge. (2). Ritual cannot dispel ignorance, because they are not mutually contradictory.But knowledge,surely destroys ignorance, as light destroys the densest darkness. (3). The self appears to be conditioned by virtue of ignorance. But when that (ignorance) is destroyed, the unconditioned self shines by its own light, like the sun when the clouds have disappeared. (4). Having purified, by repeated instruction, the soul that is turbid with ignorance, knowledge should efface itself, as the paste of the cleaning-nut does with water. (5). The phenomenal world, abounding in desire, hatred, etc., is verily like a dream.

DIRECT REALISATION

(1)I bow to that Ṣrî Hari (Vishṇu), the infinite bliss, the Teacher, the Supreme Lord, all-pervading, the prime-cause of all the worlds. Direct realisation is herein expounded as a means to liberation. It should be studied, again and again, with great effort, only by the wise. (2) By following the duties of one's own caste and order, by asceticism and by the propitiation of Hari, men will gain the four-fold requisite of freedom from desires, etc. (3) Spotless freedom from desires means such a dissatisfaction in respect of all objects from Brahman down to the inanimate as is felt in respect of the excrement of a crow. (4) Discrimination of the real means the determination that the nature of the self is eternal while, all that is perceptible is otherwise (5) The constant eradication of mental impressions is called control of mind. The restraint of external activities is called control of body. (6) Extreme abstention is the turning away from the objects of enjoyment. The