Pranayamateacher training third session notes

BrahmanThe Chandogya Upanishad

This universe comes forth from Brahman, exists in Brahman, and will return to Brahman.

All is Brahman.

A person is what their deep desire is. It is the deep desire in this life that shapes the life to come.

So direct this deep desire to realise the Self.

The Self, who can be realised by the pure in heart, who is life, light, truth, space, who gives rise to all works, all desires, all odors, all tastes,

who is beyond words, who is joy abiding – this is the Self dwelling in my heart.

Smaller than a grain of rice, a grain of barley, a mustard seed, a grain of millet, smaller even than the kernel of a grain of millet is the Self.

This is the Self dwelling in my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than all the worlds.

This Self who gives rise to all works, all desires, all odors, all tastes, who pervades the universe, who is beyond words, who is joy abiding,

who is ever present in my heart, is Brahman indeed. To him I shall attain when my ego dies.

Brahman represents the ultimate reality in the universe and is a key concept found in the Vedas and early Upanishads. Brahman is conceptualised as the cosmic principle which is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. It has been described as sat-cit-ananda, truth-consciousness-bliss.

HridayaYoga helps in the co-ordination and control of the subtle forces within the body, and is an educational process by which the hu-man condition is trained to become more natural. The path of Yoga is an inner journey whose gateway is the heart.The great Sufi mystic and poet Rumi declared, “There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.”Analogies are often made between the sun and the moon, and the heart and the mind. The mind is named chandra mandala, the cir-cle of the moon, and the heart is named surya mandala, the circle of the sun. The mind is seen as a moon which simply reflects the light of the heart’s sun. The sanskrit word hridaya is a composite of hrid, ‘center’, and ayam, ‘this’. It is different from the physical heart, but is rather the place where ego and all thoughts dissipate, of pure awareness, a sanctuary of silence. The space of the heart is considered as being the seat of the soul. Many depictions of Saints, Gods and God-desses often have a radiating heart in the chest region. This awareness cannot be localised at a specific place in the body as it has no dimension as such and does not express itself other than as a faint tremor. It is limitless and, because it has no form, it can contain totality.Hridaya is often referred to as a secret cave, guha, which is entered and filled with light, becomeing a jyotir guha, cave of light. It is also the symbolic seat of the golden egg, hiranyagarbha. Hridaya is considered to be a distinct concept from Anahata Chakra, which is just an aspect or dimension of our being. Hri-daya is more than this, it is not just a spark of God, it is God. The relationship between atman and Brahman is one of unity. Tat tvam asi, affirms the Chandogya Upanishad, which translates that the ultimate reality, Brahman, is what you are. Hridaya is not just a reflection of everything, it is the essence of everything, the background of existence.

Supree, divine, beyond all thought, subtler than the sublest he shines.Farther than the farthest and yet so near, hidden in the cave of the heart.

Mundaka Upanishad

AkashaThe Yoga Upanishads describe three different regions of space within the body in which to dwell:Chidakasha: space of chitta, mind, experienced in the region between the head and the throat.Hridayakasha: space of the heart.Daharakasha: space of the psychic worlds.The purpose of taking the awareness to hridayakasha is to inter-nalise the experiences of chitta, the mind. Focus on chidakasha is required when practising techniques of pratyahara and dharana, and when learning how to handle mental activity. To go beyond this, and to have the feeling of nothingness, shoonya, then the focus is shifted to hridayakasha. In the state of shoonya there is only the awareness of consciousness and prana, where the activity of mind, intellect and emotions comes to a total standstill.Hridaya is the central symbol of enlightenment and true identity, the very self of Shiva-Shakti, pure consciousness and unlimited bliss, and the abode of their timeless embrace.

Tat Tvam Asi – You Are That!From Chandogya UpanishadUddalaka had a son called Shvetaketu. When he was twelve, his father said to him, “It is time for you to find a spiritual teacher. Everyone in this family has studied the holy scriptures and the spiritual way.” So Shvetaketu went to a teacher and studied the scriptures for twelve years. He returned home very proud of his in-tellectual knowledge. His father observed him and said, “My boy, you seem to have a high opinion of yourself; you are proud of your learning. But did you ask your teacher for the spiritual knowledge that enables you to hear the unheard, think the unthought and know the unknown?”“What is that knowledge, Father?” asked Svetaketu. “Just as by knowing a lump of clay, everything that is made of clay can be known, since any differences are only words, and the essential re-ality is clay. In the same way, by knowing a piece of gold, all that is made of gold can be known, since any differences are only words, and the reality is only gold.”Uddalaka responded, “My teachers must not have known this or they would have taught it to me. Father, please teach me this knowledge.”“I will,” replied his father. “In the beginning, there was only Be-ing. Some people claim that in the beginning there was nothing at all and that everything has come out of nothing. But how can this be true? How can that which is, come from that which is not? In the beginning there was only one Being, and that Being thought, ‘I want to be many so I will create.’ Out of this creation came the cosmos. There is nothing in the cosmos that doesn’t come from that one Being. Of everything that exists, this Being is the innermost Self. He is the truth, the Self Supreme. And you, Shvetaketu, you are that!“Shvetaketu asked, “Please teach me more about the Self, Father.”“Let’s start with sleep. What happens when we sleep? When a per-son is absorbed in dreamless sleep, he is one with the Self although he doesn’t know it. We say he sleeps but we mean he sleeps in the Self. ‘A tethered bird grows tired from flying in every direc-

tion, finding no rest anywhere, and settles down at last on the very same perch on which it is tied. In the same way the mind, tired of wandering around here and there settles down at last in the Self, its life and breath, to which it is bound. All creatures have their source in that Being. He is their home; He is their strength. ‘When a man is dying, speech folds into mind, mind folds into life, life dissolves into light, and his light merges into that one Being. That Being is the seed, the truth, the Self, and you, Shvetaketu, you are that!““Please tell me more, Father.”Uddalaka told Shvetaketu to bring him a piece of fruit from a nearby banyan tree and to break it open. Shvetaketu did and said, “There are seeds inside, all very small.”“Now break one of the seeds and tell me what you see.”“Nothing, Father.”Uddalaka said, ”My son, this great banyan tree has grown from a seed so small that you cannot see it. Believe me, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. Now, take this salt and put it in some water and bring it to me tomorrow morn-ing.”The next morning Shvetaketu looked for the salt but couldn’t find it because it had dissolved. Uddalaka asked his son to taste the water. “Salty,” he said, adding “the salt will always remain in the water.”“That’s right. The salt permeates the water, just like the Self. Even though we cannot see it, the Self is within all things and there is nothing that doesn’t come from Him. This invisible and subtle es-sence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is reality. That is truth. And you, Shvetaketu, you are that - Tat Tvam Asi!“

He who finds his happiness within,His delight within, And his light within,

This yogin attains the bliss of Brahman, becoming Brahman. Bhagavad Gita