Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic

by Darren Main

  Self study is the practice of looking at yourself, which can be a daunting task. Looking at yourself means looking at your inner beauty, as well as the not so attractive parts of the psyche. Within all of us there is incredible light and an unimaginable capacity for love, but we also have a shadow side that can be very overwhelming. Getting in touch with this shadow side allows us to process it and, when appropriate, express it in a way that is healthy and well adjusted.

  Most spiritual traditions, yoga included, begin with what is called a spiritual rebirth of sorts. Many people live good lives and even attend religious services on a regular basis, but something happens to people when they completely surrender to Spirit. This can happen for all sorts of reasons, but is usually characterized by a breakdown of some sort. This breakdown may be emotional, mental or physical. It can even be economic or social. Whatever the nature of the breakdown, a chain reaction starts.

  It is like a match. That match can lie quiet for many years carrying within it the potential for a flame, but nothing happens. When the match is rubbed sufficiently hard against a rough surface, it ignites. Once this process of igniting happens, there is no turning back. There is a brilliant beginning, which is followed by a more stable flame.

  Our own awakening happens in much the same way. All of us are in a state of divine potential. In time, when the roughness of the lives that we have created for ourselves rubs sufficiently hard against us, we burst into a brilliant flame.

  When this inner flame bursts forth, it carries with it a mandate for change. It is like a prayer carried from the deepest part of the heart and mind that screams, “Show me who I am.” When this happens, what we are really doing is asking the Sadguru to turn our awareness to all the things that we hold within that prevent us seeing our true nature.

  It is at this point that a “Fasten Your Seat Belt” sign would be most helpful. The great teacher has just been waiting for the invitation. Now She will show you everything. This process can be very painful and quite unnerving. It can make a person want to return to that latent state where things were quiet but there was no flame. Like the match, there is no going back. Once this process has begun, we will look within. The only question is how painful will this process be. As the old cliché goes, “Sometimes God gets your attention with a gentle tap on the back; other times He uses a baseball bat.”

  Practicing svadhyaya is the way by which we make this process more gentle. This is not to imply that it will be easy, but the Sadguru will not have to work so hard to get our attention if we meet Her consciously. As we take bold steps along our spiritual path, one of our greatest assets is to open our eyes wide and look at all that is within. In doing this, these blocks can be made fully conscious and can then be set free.

  The urban mystic has great tools available to help him or her with this process—things like psychotherapy, spiritual counseling, support groups; even a well-rounded hatha yoga practice can make the practice of opening ourselves up to this Self exploration more fluid. The key to this process is in the willingness.

  Without willingness the road will be quite rocky. I have had so many students approach me and ask why their life was thrown into turmoil shortly after they started their yoga practice. I have to explain that when we make the conscious or unconscious commitment to become more peaceful, the universe rearranges itself to show us all the things that are blocking our peace.

  In the past year a lot of friends have lost their jobs due to the slowing economy. It’s always interesting to note how people deal with things such as the loss of a job. One of my friends, Jacob, was let go because the dot-com he was working for closed its doors. He had been living way outside his means and had counted on stock options to pay for his very expensive lifestyle. In a matter of a few weeks, he had lost his job and his stock options were worthless. The last time I saw him he was on a rather severe drinking and drug binge.

  A second friend, Ted, had also run into some hard times with his work. The database company he worked for was downsizing considerably, and he too was given his pink slip. At the same time that this happened, the stock market deflated and he was left with a large mortgage and no way of paying for it. He decided to take his misfortune and turn it into a blessing. He spent a week at a natural hot spring in Northern California, and did lots of yoga and personal reflection while he was there. By the end of the week he had not only made peace with his situation, he had decided to follow his dream of living in Africa and helping with the AIDS crisis there. Within two months he had sold his home and was on his way there.

  Ted and Jacob are both practicing svadhyaya whether they know it or not. Jacob will no doubt learn something from his experience, though it may be a long time before he figures out exactly what the message is, and there may be some significant suffering along the way. Ted will also have a difficult time ahead, but he will flourish much more quickly, because he is exploring who he is and being proactive about who he wants to become. Although Ted’s practice of svadhyaya may be difficult, the fact that he is walking into life with his eyes open will make the process run so much more smoothly.

  Studying sacred texts is the other way to practice svadhyaya. There are many texts that qualify as sacred. India alone has given us dozens, such as the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Yoga Sutras. Other cultures have given us such texts as well. Certainly books like the Torah, the Gospels and the Koran fall into this category.

  The interesting thing about any sacred text is that it mirrors back to the reader that which is within him or her. For example, two people can read the same passage from the Bible. One can see justification for hatred, and the other can find the incentive to forgive. This is why there can be many factions within a single religion such as Christianity.

  When we learn to read these texts as mirrors rather than as absolute truth, they grow with us and point to aspects of our being that need to be examined. They are fluid, like a river. Although you can get into the river many times, the water is always changing. Trying to read these texts rigidly is like building a dam in the river and will only create a stagnant swamp.

  Early in my yoga practice I picked up the Bhagavad Gita. It is one of the standard texts for yogis to read. As far as books go, it is not long; so I figured it couldn’t be that hard. I had hoped to get through it in one sitting. Prior to reading it, I had expected to open the book and be filled with all sorts of peaceful thoughts and nice feelings. What I found, however, was quite different. It opens with Arjuna, a great warrior, sitting in the middle of a large battlefield. He sees his opponents on all sides and recognizes them as his brothers and kinsmen. This throws him into great despair and he drops his weapon and refuses to fight.

  Up until this point, the story seemed to have all the trappings of a Hollywood action film. Arjuna’s refusal to fight seemed spiritual enough; after all, most spiritual leaders teach nonviolence. But then the story took an unexpected turn. Krishna appears as Arjuna’s chariot driver and agrees to counsel Arjuna. Arjuna explains his situation and collapses in a useless ball of self-pity. Krishna then tells Arjuna to get up and fight. He tells him that not to fight would be dishonorable, and that it is his duty as a warrior to go into this battle. My brain screeched to a halt. This didn’t seem much different than a God who would flood the earth, or turn a woman into a pillar of salt. I snapped the book shut and for about a year didn’t pick it up again.

  What I failed to realize at the time was that it was me who was at war within my own mind, and it was me who was wimping out of the war in a ball of self-pity. At that time I was trying to live my life in a peaceful way, but I was only going through the motions. Smiling and bowing to people and trying to look enlightened was what I thought was required. What I was really doing was backing down from the fight and refusing to heal my own conflicted mind.

  As time passed I realized that Arjuna and I had a lot in common. We were both in a war that we didn’t want to be in, and we were both conflicted about our loyalties. Neither of us wanted to fight the
war, and surrendering would only invite personal destruction. There seemed to be no way out. What really offended me in The Bhagavad Gita was not the fact that it was about war, but rather that it reflected back to my own state of turmoil.

  When I did pick up the book again, I was in a very different space. Now I saw Arjuna's despair, but I also saw Krishna offering something fresh and new as a way out. Krishna was teaching Arjuna to fight in a new way by teaching him the path of yoga.

  The words of The Bhagavad Gita have not changed for thousands of years, but they changed and grew for me. One of the tests that a sacred text must pass is that it grows with its student. It is not something one can ever outgrow. It simply meets you where you are and reflects back to you that which you most need to look at in that moment.

  Svadhyaya is a powerful and essential part of any yoga practice. It gives us the tools we need to dig deep into the mind and body and to release blockages that we find there. It is this niyama that brings to the surface many of the issues that we will deal with in the latter six limbs.

  Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender)

  Through orientation toward the ideal of pure awareness, one can achieve integration.

  —The Yoga Sutras 2:45

  The fifth niyama is ishvara pranidhana. It literally translates, “Surrender to the Lord.” Initially, coming out of my strict Christian background, I didn’t have much use for this niyama. I felt as though the Lord of my childhood had abandoned me and I was quite hesitant to surrender to another God who would likely do the same thing.

  In time I have grown to embrace this niyama as much as all the others—perhaps even more. It has been a long journey for me, and I struggle with it even today. Yet in spite of all the challenges I have encountered around this niyama, I have to say that it has given me the most in terms of peace of mind and clarity of purpose.

  I know I am not alone in my discomfort around ishvara pranidhana. Many people come to yoga because they want to live a more spiritual life. Yoga looks so different to the religion of their childhood which has oftentimes left an unsavory aftertaste. Yoga is a somewhat unique spiritual path because it doesn’t ask you to believe anything. While most religions ask you to believe in certain stories or events, such as the parting of the Red Sea or the virgin birth of Jesus, yoga only asks you to have an open mind. In fact, the practice of yoga seems to scream out, “Prove me wrong!” [Yoga doesn’t deny that miraculous events, such as the ones found in the Bible, are possible. In fact, there are countless stories about yogis doing seemingly impossible things, such as levitating. However, believing these stories to be true or historically accurate is not relevant to the effectiveness of one’s yoga practice.]

  I believe this is why yoga appeals to so many people who have abandoned the church of their past only to find that there is a spiritual void in their lives. On the one hand they don’t want to go back to a religion that was in some way abusive, and on the other they feel a strong desire to explore their spiritual nature.

  Because so many people come to yoga out of a negative spiritual past, many teachers avoid speaking about this niyama altogether. This is understandable. There is no point in scaring people off; yet surrender is an important aspect of yoga. Yoga asks us to look at our blocks, not to avoid them and sweep them under the rug. Therefore, when a student of yoga is ready, exploring ishvara pranidhana can be a major step in the healing of one’s past.

  Ishvara is one of the Hindu gods who shows up from time to time in Hindu mythology. While some students implement this niyama by cultivating a direct relationship with Ishvara, most take a more generic approach. There are people from every religion in the world who have integrated their deeply held religious beliefs with the practice of yoga. It is the loose wording of this niyama in the Yoga Sutras that makes this possible.

  When people start to explore this niyama, I think it happens in three basic phases. First, a student must open his or her mind to the possibility that there is a great force in the universe that is organizing and guiding the flow of things. This force can be called by many names, but it is hard to deny that there is some sort of order and meaning around us. For people who come to yoga with a belief in some sort of God or higher power, this step has already been taken.

  The next phase is to recognize that this universal wisdom can not only manage the operations of a whole universe, but can also handle the details of our lives. Logic would point out that if you accept the basic idea that the universe has order and is being guided by some type of wisdom, and we are an inseparable part of that universe, then our lives must also be guided by that same force.

  The ego doesn’t like this line of logic much. If we were to accept the idea that there is a great and wise force guiding our lives, then we would no longer need the ego to micromanage everything. This is why the ego loves to point to all the starving children and homeless people and try to pin the blame on God.

  It is in the third phase that the practice of ishvara pranidhana really becomes a challenge. It is one thing to accept the notion that there is a great force guiding the universe, and it is yet another to accept the idea that because we are part of that universe we, too, are guided. Unfortunately, it seems rather too radical an idea that we should trust enough to actually surrender our lives to this force. See if following this logic will help explain the concept:

  The Universe is guided by a great intelligence (Spirit).

  Because we’re part of the Universe, we, too, are guided in the same way.

  Therefore, it is logical to allow Spirit to guide our lives.

  None of us worry about the sun coming up each day, or that the tides will somehow stop their ebb and flow between low and high. We never question that animals seem to know that in the spring it is time to mate, or that billions of tiny sperm find their way to a tiny egg in the nether regions of a woman’s fallopian tubes. Life happens with a perfection and a grace that must inspire awe when we take the time to look at it. Yet in our own lives, most of us cannot seem to trust this force enough to allow it to take the reins.

  Ishvara Pranidhana is the practice of noticing when we are trying to micromanage our own lives, and then returning the control to Spirit. As I have stated over and over again in this chapter, the niyamas are designed to make room in our lives for the rest of our yoga practice. Nowhere is this more evident than with ishvara pranidhana.

  When I started writing my first book, Spiritual Journeys along the Yellow Brick Road, many people put a negative spin on the publishing process. It seemed that everyone I spoke with wanted to affirm that getting published was about as easy as sticking your elbow in your ear. At times I would fall into this negative thinking, but I tried to keep a positive attitude. I kept returning to the idea that my job was to write the book, and if I was the only one to read it, then that was fine. I decided to let Spirit handle the details.

  As I would meditate and write, I felt that Spirit was guiding me to do it. It felt natural and good, and I was growing from the experience. Although I had not even tried to get the book published yet, I decided to put some of what I had written on my website. I figured it was a way of sharing my ideas with the world even if not with the mass market.

  Thierry, the owner of Findhorn Press, saw my website and liked what he read. He asked me to write a proposal for the book so he and his wife Karin could consider it for publication. At first, I thought it was a scam, but he answered all my questions and offered me a great contract for a first time author. I signed the contract with them, and we have had a great relationship ever since.

  Now this story has a happy ending. I got published, which was what I had hoped for. But I did so by surrendering the process to Spirit. I was willing to trust Spirit and write the book, even if it never made it into print. As in so many other instances in my life, Spirit not only came through, but arranged a situation that was far better balanced than anything I could have put together on my own.

  Practicing ishvara pranidhana doesn’t mean you lie around like a lim
p noodle waiting for Spirit to do everything. It is about surrendering the ego will and allowing it to be replaced by the will of Spirit. In doing this, we remain fully active in the world, but our efforts are organized and harmonious, and they work in concert with the rest of Spirit’s symphony. When we really practice ishvara pranidhana we stop trying to swim upstream, and instead allow the current of life to carry us along without effort or strain.

  Chapter Seven

  Asana • Pose

  These are the indicators of success in [hatha yoga]: leanness of body, clearness of face, distinctness of [voice], very clear eyes, heath, [understanding of OM], lighting of the digestive fire, and purity of the nadis.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2:78

  Taking Your Seat

  [Asana] occurs as all effort relaxes and coalescence arises, revealing that the body and the infinite universe are indivisible.

  —The Yoga Sutras 2:47

  Most people start their yoga practice by doing hatha yoga, the style of yoga that is characterized by poses and breathing. Hatha yoga is based on the eight limbs that Patanjali outlined in his Yoga Sutra, but it focuses a significant amount of its attention on the third limb or asana. The word asana literally means “sit,” but modern yogis usually translate it as “pose.” Although the sacred texts say little about yoga poses, they are what yoga is best known for here in the West.