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As an ex-student of Philosophy and Religious Studies, I find this discussion so highly illuminating and fascinating, I love how the root of concept in so many eastern esoteric traditions can be traced back to very ancient Indian teachings.
the Knowledge of the Ancients has always amazed me. How they defined the relationships between, the subjective and the objective, the spiritual and the material.
The Bhagavad Gita outlines the primary meditation technique as well. The Upanishads are "commentaries" on the "absolute" as it is expressed outwardly in the realm of activity (knowledge or Veda) Nor are the sutras to be "contemplated" as I posted earlier. It is a different technique from contemplation. Contemplation involves association, which by it's own nature remains on a more "surface" level of consciousness. The actual technique of samyama which he describes is not a series of "steps", because, as the Yoga Sutras say explicitly (and accurately), the three parts of samyama (dharana, dhyana and samadi) are to be taken together. When done this way, the sutra has the greatest effect. Also, one must not look to results. That interferes with the natural process of attaining a steady state (dharana) where the mind is "drawn up" or disassociated from the senses through dhyana (meditation) where one experiences that pure awareness where the "Self" is experience by itself. So, Mr. Banerji is close, but not precise. The sutras are to be taken at the most subtle level of awareness possible and the yogi must then return to the self for a time, a set interval, such that the attention span is lengthened and thought - which is directed to that boundary layer between unbounded consciousness, the field of all possibilities in absolute, unchanging "silence" - and the active consciousness that connects us to the "relative" field of ceaseless change. I believe, from a subject, experiential point of view, this is where mind/matter meet, energies are harnessed, quantum entanglement occurs at a conscious level and things in the world move due to macroscopic quantum effects. Hence, the "Siddhis", the side-effects of samyama.
I'll leave him to ponder the history of yoga, I will continue to enjoy macroscopic quantum phenomena like entanglement that results from DOING yoga under the system codified by Patanjali, the Ashtanga Yoga (eight limbs, not the eight "steps")... Don't get me wrong. I like the guy and his perspective. But, it seems that he's studying it from the outside - rather than as a participant. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that. Ah, I missed it the first time through. He mentions direct access to truth (knowledge). That's what I get for coding while watching/listening to the discussion. So, excellent stuff. Great discussion.
So some Western guy on the internet knows more than someone who grew up in the culture and understands it from an insider's viewpoint of the culture which created the practice?
No. Veda (pure knowledge) was COGNIZED (apprehended) when in that state of Samadhi, the inward-directed attention during the practice of "mental cooling" or quieting (cessation of the outward activity of the mind) where one might apprehend those laws of nature that are implicate inside spacetime geometry itself. In that state, all pairs of "opposites" are reconciled in unity - which is also a unity of mind/body, where one might start to operate on a macroscopic quantum level. He has NO IDEA what meditation is and how the sutras are done in samyama (dharana, dhyana and Samadhi, taken together). It is not an act of contemplation. Instead, the yogi practices meditation where the mind becomes settled and in a state of self-referral; a state of pure awareness where there is no object of perception arising in the mind. From that state, they begin to think at the SOURCE of thought, that powerful level where awareness is UNBOUNDED. Having no boundaries, those "thoughts", taken at the level of the clear INTENTION to think the sutra, where only the intention to think it is sufficient. At that point, once the sutra is "dropped", the intention made, the yogi "returns to the self", becomes absorbed back into pure, unbounded awareness. This trains the mind to think at a very refined level of thought where thought is most powerful, being done at the boundary between the relative, bound side of consciousness and the unbounded infinity of pure awareness, pure consciousness.
Having spent years of my life as very secular person, I took up a simple meditation practice to help with anxiety and out of curiosity. I knew nothing about meditation and wanted to keep it that way. I wanted to keep it simple, because I saw my practice as an experiment. For a year, I meditated nearly everyday. I essentially was practicing vipasana for one to two hours per day. After approximately six months of this, I began to drop into what I understand to be samadhi. My boundries of consciousness would disappear and I felt as though I wasn't breathing, but that the "universe" was breathing and I was simply observing everything. The feeling of oneness and connection was ineffable. It was the purest state of tranquility I've ever known. Later, I began practicing various forms of shamanism and active imagination. However, I still fully intend to get back to that simple meditation practice. After reading your comment, it reminded of how much of an enjoyable and interesting experience that state of pure awareness is.
