Yoga is a settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind.
There are five types of mental activity: they may or may not cause suffering. These five are: understanding, misunderstanding, imagination, sleep and memory.
Understanding is correct knowledge: based on direct perception, inference or the reliable testimony of others. Misunderstanding is the delusion that stems from a false impression of reality. Imagination is thought based on an image conjured up by words, and is without substance. Sleep is the mental activity that has at its content the sense of nothingness. And memory is the returning to the mind of past experience.
These five types of mental activity are settled through the practice of yoga and the freedom it bestows. The practice of yoga is the commitment to become established in the state of freedom. The practice of yoga will be firmly rooted when it is maintained consistently, and with dedication, over a long period.
Freedom is that triumphant state of consciousness that is beyond the influence of desire. The mind ceases to thirst for anything that it has seen or heard of, even what is promised in the scriptures. And supreme freedom is that complete liberation from the world of change that comes of knowing the unbounded Self.
The settled mind is known as Samadhi. In Samadhi, the settled state is accompanied by mental activity. First on the gross level, then on the subtle level, then a feeling of bliss, and finally โ a sense of pure โI amโ-ness. After the repeated experience of the settling and ceasing of a period of mental activity comes another Samadhi. In this, only the latent impressions of past experience remain. This is the nature of existence for beings without gross physical bodies, and for those who are absorbed in the womb of all life, awaiting rebirth.
For others, this Samadhi is preceded by trust, perserverance, recollection, tranquility and wisdom. It is near for those who ardently desire it. Yet even among them, there are degrees: mild, moderate and intense.
It can also come from complete surrender to the Almightly Lord. The Lord is a unique being who exists beyond all suffering. Unblemished by action, free from both its causes and its effects. In that lies the finest seed of all knowledge. Being beyond time, teacher of even the most ancient tradition of teachers, that is expressed through the sound of the sacred syllable: Aum. It should be repeated, and its essence realized. Then the mind will turn inward, and the obstacles that stand in the way of progress will disappear.
These obstacles are illness, fatigue, doubt, carelessness, laziness, attachment, delusion, the failure to achieve Samadhi, and the failure to maintain Samadhi. They are distractions from the path of Yoga. Such distractions make the body restless, the breathing coarse and the mind agitated. They result in suffering. But they can be eliminated if the mind is repeatedly brought to a single focus. The mind becomes clear and serene when the qualities of the heart are cultivated. Friendliness towards the joyful, compassion toward the suffering, happiness toward the pure and impartiality toward the impure โ all through the practice of various breathing exercises. Experience of the finer levels of the senses establishes the settled mind: so does the experience of the inner radiance that is free from sorrow; so does being attuned to another mind that is itself unperturbed by desire; so does witnessing the process of dreaming or dreamless sleep; so does any meditation that is held in high esteem.
The sovereignty of the mind that is settled extends from the smallest of the small, to the greatest of the great. As a flawless crystal absorbs what is placed before it, so the settled mind is transparent to whatever it meets. The seer, the process of seeing or the object seen. This is Sama-pati, the state of mental absorption. The first stage of absorption is when the object of attention is gross and its name and other thoughts mingled together in the mind. The second stage is when the memory is purified, and the mind is quiet enough to be absorbed in the object of attention.
In the same way, the third and fourth stages of absorption are explained: these occur when the object of attention is subtle. The range of subtle objects includes all the levels of creation, extending to the limit of the gunas. These levels of Samadhi are concerned only with external objects. But, on refinement of the fourth stage of absorption, there is the dawning of the spiritual light of the Self. This level is ritam-bara, where consciousness perceives only the truth. The knowledge gained through ritam-bara is qualitatively different through knowledge gained in the usual way, through testimony and inference. The former means is intuitive and sees things as they are in their totality, whereas the latter means is partial. And when even the latent impression of ritam-bara has been brought to a settled state, then all activity ceases and nibija-samadhi, the unbounded consciousness of the Self, alone remainsโฆ