Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic

by Darren Main

  —Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6:5

  In the movie, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Quigon, a Jedi knight, reminds his young student, Anikin, that, “Your focus determines your reality.” This was very wise advice, even if it did come from a galaxy far, far away. His advice might well have come from a yogi, because it is a fundamental aspect of yogic philosophy that one’s mental focus affects reality.

  Because the practice of dharana helps us to live more and more in the present moment, we are able to determine the reality in which we find ourselves. Living in the present moment helps us stop and smell the proverbial roses, and in this alone it is a great practice. But the deeper benefits of concentrating one’s mind in the present moment involve a conscious choice of one’s reality.

  Each of us has created our own reality, and collectively we have chosen a reality that we all share. Until a person starts on the spiritual path, life seems to happen by accident or by fate, but as we become more and more present to life, we see that life is a series of choices that are made in the present moment. For just that reason it is important to bring focus to the present moment. Changing one’s mind, and consequently changing one’s reality, can only happen in the present moment. We can spend a lot of time regretting or feeling nostalgic about the past. We can fantasize about the future or live in fear of it. But both the past and future are illusions. The past is gone and the future is non-existent. Therefore, the only time that exists is now. Because the eternal now is the only time there is, it is the only place where we can change our minds, and the practice of dharana brings us to this present state of mind.

  Two years ago I was at a family reunion. These types of things can be both fun and intense both at the same time. Visiting with people you haven’t seen in years can be great, but there is always so much ground to cover. It makes it hard to get to any real depth with people.

  One of the people I saw at this reunion was one of my mother’s cousins whom I had not seen since junior high school. She had had several children and been married and divorced several times. It was great to see her after so many years. We found a patch of shade under a big tree and began to fill each other in on the assorted details of our lives.

  As she told me about each of her husbands, I noticed a pattern. Each of her husbands had left her for another woman. This series of negative experiences had left her with the opinion that “men are all jerks.” Rather than be insulted by being lumped into the ‘jerk’ category because of my gender, I decided to explore this belief with her.

  She gave me a detailed description of each man. The first husband was a bit on the wild side. He rode a Harley and loved to spend time in bars and pool halls. The second husband was a preppy real-estate agent, and her third husband was a self-help junkie who spent more time in twelve-step meetings than at work. In a way it was amazing that she could find herself attracted to three completely different types of men. As she continued to tell me about all her bad relationship luck, I could see her dipping deeper and deeper into an ego drama that had a bad tailspin. Since self-pity is like nails on a chalkboard for me, I decided to confront her.

  “Do you know what all three of these guys had in common?” I asked.

  “Other than the fact that they are all pigs, I can’t think of much. They were all very different,” she replied.

  “Actually, they have one very important thing in common. They were all married to you when you decided that they were pigs.”

  “What are you trying to say that men should be allowed to cheat on women?” she exclaimed.

  “Of course not,” I replied. “But you are the one who made the choice to date them and then to marry them. You are the one who chooses to hold resentment toward them, and as result, you are going to continue to date men who will validate your belief that ‘men are jerks.’ If you believe that all men are jerks and pigs, you are going see that everywhere. But if you start to change your mind, I think you will find that the men you meet in the future will be quite well adjusted and respectful. The key is to change your mind now, rather than wait for some future prince charming to do it for you.”

  Like my mother’s cousin, we are all directing our focus out into the world and seeing whatever we direct our attention to. If we focus on cheating husbands or negative experiences, then those are what we will unconsciously create in our lives. But if we learn to focus our attention on things that support us and cultivate a spiritual base on which to stand, then that is what we will find.

  This is much more than just wishful thinking. How we focus the mind determines how our reality will unfold. This is such an important facet of our spiritual path. Until we learn to focus the mind on the present moment and make conscious choices, we will always feel like the victim of happenstance. We will always be waiting for the better hand to be dealt us, and even if we get a good hand, we will live in fear of the next round because luck has a funny way of running out at the worst possible time. That is why it is so important to see that life is not about luck or fate, but rather about choice.

  Right before I started on my spiritual path, I found a woman who read tarot cards. Her reading seemed so accurate that it was scary. She seemed to know exactly what was going on in my life. Before she laid out each card, she would tell me what it represented. Some had to do with relationships, others with the past or with my self-image. The last card she put down had to do with my future. The card that came up is called The Tower, and it depicts a large stone tower which is crumbling and falling. Flames pour out of the sides and people are falling to their deaths. At the time I didn’t know much about tarot, but I knew that this didn’t look good. She then went on to confirm my suspicion. She told me that the card symbolizes the destruction and breaking down of the old. According to her, this card frequently indicates that a person is holding on to an old way of life which is about to get knocked to the ground.

  She could tell that I was nervous and uncomfortable with the card, so she took my hand and smiled. She was a large woman who was adorned with crystals and new age jewelry. She was odd by my standards, but she had big beautiful blue eyes and locks of blond hair that fell down over her shoulders. As she looked softly at me, she said, “Why are you here?”

  “Because I want you to tell me the future, I guess,” I responded, though in all honesty I was not really clear about why I was there.

  “Well, I can’t tell you the future, but I can give you insight as to where you are right now and where you will go if you stay on your present course. The beauty of a reading like this is that it gives you a snapshot of your life, so you can make changes if you want to. What would be the point in getting a reading if the future were already set in stone? The only thing you can change is the present, but if you are aware, then you can make more informed choices about your life. If you don’t want your life to burn and crumble, you need to surrender and let go of things now. The future is created out of the present moment. You need to leave the tower you have built, or you may wind up like one of the people falling from it, and I don’t think you want that.”

  Through the practice of dharana, we bring our minds to the present moment and the current situation. This gives a yogi the most valuable thing in the world choice.

  The Three Levels of Dharana

  [Concentration] must be applied stage by stage

  —The Yoga Sutras 3:6

  When we are on the yoga mat or the meditation cushion, there are several levels to the practice of dharana. Like the practice of pratyahara, each stage needs to be mastered in the moment before we can move on to the next stage. Intention is paramount in this practice. It is not easy to have a focused mind, and it will be impossible if there is no strong intention to return to that focus point. First, we need to choose a focus point. It is usually the breath or one of the sensations of the body, but it may also be a mantra, prayer, or visualization. The exact focus point is not all that important. What is important is that it be specific. By choosing a set point on which to concentrate, we take the bea
m of our mental flashlight and focus it inward, turning it into a mental laser.

  In the next limb (dhyana/meditation), the focus point will act like a submarine, in that it will be a mechanism that takes our conscious awareness deeper into the mind, allowing the urban mystic to consciously explore the semi-conscious and the unconscious regions. For this reason it is important to develop a strong dharana practice—and find a suitable focus point. [The Semi-conscious and Unconscious will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter.]

  As we begin this first step of the dharana practice, it is very tempting to want to check out and go into what I call grocery list mode. This is where we go into the usual ego routine of juggling several things at once. It may seem efficient to be trying to get other things done while you are in your yoga practice, but it simply keeps the mind unfocussed.

  When we focus the mind on the sensations of the body and the rhythm of the breath, we give the mind something to hold onto. Because the body is present at all times, this has the added benefit of keeping the mind in the now. This in turn allows us to make new decisions about how we want to be in our body, while at the same time retraining the mind to be in the present moment.

  The second step in dharana is to allow the mind to be single-pointed. If your focus point is the breath, for example, allow the mind to rest on the breath. In the moments where the mind is single-pointed, the ego becomes still and the conscious mind sinks deeper into the unconscious. By keeping the mind single-pointed, the yogi moves fully into the present moment and stands on the threshold of eternity. It is this centered space that makes room for the final two limbs of yoga (dhyana/meditation and samadhi/ecstasy.)

  When we realize our mind has wandered away from the focus point, we can enter into the third step—the return. It is the nature of the ego to keep us busy. It will look for many ways to distract the yogi, and it will find some really effective ones. Among its chief techniques for keeping us distracted are the craving and aversion principles that we discussed in the last chapter. In this stage the key is to continue to return to the practice without judgment. The ego has had many years to hone its skills. You can be sure it will be very adept at getting the mind to wander off the focus point. You can count on the mind getting distracted almost as much as you can count on the sun coming up every morning.

  Never getting distracted is not what the practice of dharana is about. It is about returning to your focus point each time you realize that you have been distracted. When you realize you have let your mind wander, it is very easy to fall into self-judgment for not being totally focused. This serves no use at all. It will only keep you from your single pointed mission of freeing the mind. Remember, no matter how much the mind goes off into thoughts of planning and judging, the practice at this step is to bring it back to the focus point over and over again.

  For example, the other day I had some time between classes so I stopped off at Dolores Park. It is one of the great oases in the heart of San Francisco. It has one of the best views of the city, and there are always interesting people there, sunning themselves, walking dogs or playing with their children in the playground.

  When I have some time between classes, I often stop at the park, do a mini yoga practice and then sit in meditation. On this day, I was having a good practice as far as the physical poses were concerned. My body seemed to be cooperating, but my mind would not stay present. Over and over again I would find myself planning my next class, or reworking and mentally editing the article I had been writing about natural alternatives to Viagra. One thing in my favor was my awareness that my mind was wandering, and because I realized this, I was able to practice the three steps of dharana more consciously.

  I use the breath as a focus point, so I focused my mind on the breath flowing in and out. Though my intentions were good, I was easily distracted by the very attractive assortment of scantily clad sunbathers who were all around me. However, I kept returning to the breath. Then a very cute dog came up and waited for me to play with her. She rolled around and used the ‘dog’ eyes that I find so hard to resist. I continued to return to my breath, though it felt like a hopeless cause. It took the better part of the practice, but I eventually slipped into a very focused space while in the dancer pose. My mind slipped into a state where it was so focused on the moment that time seemed to stretch on forever. I felt my leg and foot lift higher and higher over my head and I could feel my standing leg reaching deeply into the earth. Because I was so focused, I was able to make subtle adjustments to the pose that brought it to a new depth. Although I held the pose for less than a minute, the time seemed to be irrelevant. My mind, for that brief moment, was in the now, and I was able to sink deeper into my unconscious mind.

  The practice of dharana has a very definite application in a hatha yoga practice, but it doesn’t need to end there. In fact it can be applied effectively to any aspect of life. When we keep returning to a focus point in life, everything we do becomes a spiritual practice. Imagine if doing the laundry, cooking a meal or driving a car were as therapeutic as doing the dancer pose. Indeed, they can become spiritually centering if they are done with the mindfulness of dharana.

  There is a story about a Christian monk who became enlightened when doing the dishes. Although all his fellow brothers were delighted to have him do their dishes for them, they naturally thought he was a bit odd. To him, however, washing dishes was a great opportunity to practice mindfulness. He became Self-realized by being present to the dishes.

  As urban mystics this becomes a great asset for us. Most of us will not be spending six hours a day in a formal spiritual practice. Realistically, we will be spending about ninety minutes in a guided yoga practice each day. Some people may practice even less. That doesn’t mean we can’t turn many of our day-to-day activities into a yoga practice.

  Brushing your teeth, eating in silence, or being present to a child can all provide great opportunities to center the mind and be focused in the moment. This also invites the mind to develop the next limb of yoga (dhyana/meditation), while at the same time helping us to really enjoy the scent of the flowers that bloom along our unique roads.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dhyana • Meditation

  When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.

  —Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6:19

  Witness

  Separate the mind from the body and unite it with the supreme soul. When your consciousness is free from its different states, know that to be Samadhi.

  —Hatha Yoga Pradipika 7:3

  The seventh limb of yoga is dhyana or meditation. Although dhyana is usually translated as meditation, I think a more accurate term would be ‘witness’ because it is through the practice of dhyana that we become a witness to what is uncovered through the concentration practices of dharana. People often think of meditation as sitting cross-legged with the eyes closed, but meditation is much more than the casual observer can see. While on the outside it can look passive, it is actually a very active practice that can be quite challenging at times.

  Dhyana can be practiced in any number of physical positions. It can be done with eyes open or closed and it can be experienced while moving the body or sitting still. In other words, there are many forms and expressions of dhyana. To limit it to a seated lotus position would be a shallow view. It would be like believing that digestion is accomplished with a fork. The fork may be what sets the process of digestion in motion, but the process itself is an internal one. Likewise, sitting with crossed legs may start the process, but the practice of dhyana is something that happens internally. And just as a fork is not the only tool used for eating, sitting with closed eyes and crossed legs is not the only position used for dhyana.

  When we practice dhyana, we shift the mind out of judgment and into witnessing. In doing this we neutralize the long-held ego judgments. These ego judgments are the threads that make up the veil of Maya that has been placed over our eyes. It is dhyana th
at removes this veil and eventually allows us to find samadhi (ecstasy). [Samadhi will be discussed in great detail in the next chapter, as it is the eighth limb of yoga.]

  Through the previous six limbs of the yoga practice, we have been working with the illusion. In the yamas and the niyamas we sought to modify our lives by developing a well-adjusted moral code and cultivating habits that would make space for spiritual practice. We then focused on the body through asana, pranayama and pratyahara. This allowed us to convert the ego’s chief line of defense—the body—into an asset and tool. In doing this, we turned our time in the physical body into a practice of evolution. Rather than having the body used against us like a heavy anchor holding the veil of Maya tightly in place, it became a grounding tool and a platform on which to build the rest of our practice. In effect we learned to use the body and its sensations to poke holes in the ego’s faulty belief system.

  In Chapter 10 we entered the mind and learned how to stay focused in the present moment through the practice of dharana. This allowed us to look at the mind more closely by resisting the tricks and games of the ego. Dharana is like a microscope that enables us to focus on the mental, emotional and physical seeds that bear the fruits of suffering. By bringing the mind to the present moment, dharana gives us a choice. Until we learn to practice dharana, life would seem to be a roll of the dice. When we practice dharana we recognize that we have a choice. Unfortunately, that choice is still between various forms of illusion. Without practicing the seventh limb, dhyana, we simply create a more palatable version of Maya. When we practice dhyana, however, we begin to transcend the ego and dissolve the illusion of Maya.