Perspectives on Yoga: Living the Yoga Life by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mindfulness & Meditation
Publisher: Light of the Spirit Press
Published: 2020-02-02T18:30:00+00:00

Subtle Anatomy

It is good for the aspiring yogi to have some theoretical knowledge of his subtle anatomy, for that is the inner mechanism which comes more and more into function on the conscious level as he progresses further and further toward enlightenment. The three major channels within our subtle bodies, Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, carry not only the movements of the highest, rarefied spiritual energies which evolve us, but through them consciousness itself moves and manifests.

The supreme center of conscious in the individual is the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus located in the head, corresponding to the brain, for it is the astral and causal brain. It is the place where Self-realization takes place, and where we should keep our awareness centered. For in the head we find the Brahmanadi, the channel in which the consciousness rises upward from the body into the head, through which it moves as liberation is attained, and through which we ascend beyond the bodies into Spirit Itself at the time of death.

It is crucial for the yogi to realize that the chakras and major nadis found in the body are only subordinate reflections of the chakras and nadis in the head, where true sadhana takes place and true enlightenment occurs.

In meditation yogis experience the reality of these things which at first encounter in yogic texts may seem baseless mythologies. But this is the glory of yoga: we can experience those realities for ourselves. Many yogis have doubted various statements or descriptions in the ancient texts, but as they progressed in their practice they experienced the truth of those statements for themselves, much to their surprise.

Leave the downward path and come to the central path. The central path of the sushumna leads directly upward into the Sahasrara, the place of liberation.

The beginningless and endless Infinite is embodied in the Sahasrara-chidakasha. “If a thousand suns should rise together in the sky, such splendor would be like the brilliance of that Great Being” (Bhagavad Gita 11:12). And that Great Being is revealed in the Sahasrara-chidakasha when the attention of the yogi is always oriented toward that both in and outside of meditation.

Human beings are literally miniature universes. I remember vividly the first time I experienced this while meditating. I wrote about it in this way: “While meditating one day all ordinary physical sensation vanished. Spatial relation ceased to exist and I found myself keenly aware of being beyond dimension, neither large nor small, but infinite (for infinity is beyond size). Although the terminology is inappropriate to such a state, to make it somewhat understandable I have to say that I perceived an infinity of worlds ‘within’ me. Suns–some solo and others surrounded by planets–glimmered inside my spaceless space. Not that I saw the light, but I felt or intuited it. Actually, I did not ‘see’ anything–and yet I did. It is not expressible in terms of ordinary sense experience, yet I must use those terms. I experienced myself as everything that existed within the relative material universe. Or

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