Notes to Self

When you are in a state of yoga, you are in Union and all misconceptions that can exist in the mutable aspect of human beings disappear. These thought streams are misconceptions. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind. Then the seer dwells in his own nature. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams. The thought-streams are five-fold, some more agreeable than others:

      Right knowledge, wrong knowledge,  
       imagined assumptions, deep sleep, 
                        and memory recall.

Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions. Imagined assumption is following after word-knowledge empty of substance and what does not actually exist in the real world. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.

​These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness. This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.

Umbrellas are not made to be sails.
​Hearts are not meant to hold water.

I think we are most tightly connected to the Universe when we are smack dab in the middle of a sudden sneeze.  I doubt there are any other instances where we are more present in the moment.  For a split second we are nothing more or less than our absolute true self.  I find this just so damn fascinating to think about.

Lenny & Squiggy VS. Madame Blavatzky.

Stop starting new songs and finish the ones in hand.  There's not enough time left.

One of my teachers was talking about the trail of thoughts that are in constant flow through the human mind and he said to look at the space in between the thoughts.  With a few years of practice I am able to see this space between. To be in it, of it. I am still pulled away, but I am able to quickly return. Practice in repetition.  Huxley wrote that the human brain is a reducing valve that restricts pure consciousness.  I hold this to be true.

The threads of union are:

1. Contemplations
2. Spiritual Disicplines
3. Divine Power
4. Realizations

1.1  Now, instruction in Union.
1.2  Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the human
​         mind.
1.3  Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
1.4  Otherwise, he is of the same form as the thought-streams.

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice developed in the 5th and 6th centuries BCE in ancient India's pre-vedic traditions and is based on teachings that even then were considered ancient.  The modern western practice of yoga contains only a sliver of the true practice.  Let go of  your modern, western mind.  It is too 'honkey'. 

​Sat on a short wall with a cup of coffee and read Poetics by the man from Greece.  A couple of lines (among many others) would be well applied to just about anything.
 
“Following, then, the order of nature, let us begin with the principles which come first.”

“taken as a whole, the imitation is produced by rhythm, language, or harmony, either singly or combined.”

Listening to choral works of Sviridov with the Russian Men's Choir.

Beginning the study and practice of the Yoga Sutras compiled by Patanjali circa 400 CE from the original ancient texts.