/yoga/ - Yoga

http://uechibones.tumblr.com/post/95772913047/god

The two traditional practices that we work with - Uechi Ryu Karate Do and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - are not systems of philosophy or belief (and that includes the Qi gong we do along with our Karate practice). They are training curriculums.

But there are references in the directions we are given to Qi, animal archetypes, and even God. So doesn’t that make them philosophical belief systems?

Nope. These concepts are practice techniques.

For example:

If you imagine energy flowing out your fingertips, your arm will be stronger than if you just tense your muscles - that’s easily demonstrated. If you strike your Karate partner as if your limb is moving through the target rather than smacking the surface, your partner will tell you that you are generating more force. If you imagine you have deep roots in the ground, you will tend to stand straighter and move with greater stability and balance.

These are all applications of what we call Qi. Does Qi actually exist?

Who cares? It works.

Questions like “does Qi exist” can be left to the scientists and philosophers; as martial artists we don’t have time for such speculation - our work is urgent and we need to use whatever gives us the best and fastest results.

The animal archetypes work too. Working with the intention to step like a tiger will produce better results in less time than any mechanical tinkering.

Is there some abstract, mystical power out there called “Tiger?”

Who cares? It works.

In the Yoga practice, we are instructed to work towards union with the Divine. As with Qi and the animal archetypes, this instruction is not asking us to buy into a belief system. Still, for many of us the term is loaded.

Here’s a way to get started on this - no harm in giving it a try, right? Imagine your best self. Who might you be if you were at the fullest realization of your best potential, all obstacles removed? What about the people you know, who would they be at their absolute best?

Or, as a thought experiment, could you imagine some good quality like, say compassion, in its highest possible expression?

The Yoga instruction is to try working consciously with our relationship to these ideals.

I like this video about practicing while injured. At around 1:45 a student explains that she doesn’t have a lot of hope for her own progress in the practice but she does it anyway because “it makes me a better person.”

That’s a pretty common experience; the practice (and I would suggest, particularly the cultivation of our relationship with the divine) seems to make us “better.” I have noticed that the chanting strongly shifted my own experience.

(And by “better,” we hopefully don’t mean it in the way that comedian Sarah Silverman put it, “I did Yoga this morning and I just feel so much better…than you.” Ha!)

We feel “better” in that we don’t feel so afflicted by our likes and dislikes and we are less likely to lash out like frightened animals at those around us.

Do you have anything in your life that you consider sacred? Do you have a relationship you consider sacred, or a sacred trust? What if you considered that maybe it’s all sacred?

I often tell people that when you engage with traditional practice you are on sacred ground. That means that everything that happens in traditional practice, particularly your interactions with others, is charged. When people treat their experience this way, they usually get a lot more out of it.

But is that true? Is traditional practice sacred? Is there a sacred-o-meter that can give us a reading of how much sacredness is present in a class?

Who cares? It works.

The instructions we are given in the Yoga Yamas and Niyamas are similarly not moral or religious precepts, they are practice techniques.

The benefits of treating people better as spelled out in the Yamas may benefit those around you in some way but the primary benefit comes to you. If you stop lying and stealing, have a responsible sex life, and do less harm to those around you, you just might feel better. Worth a try.

If you take better care of yourself, as spelled out in the Niyamas - keep clean, cultivate contentment and discipline, read good books, and think about what is sacred to you - you just might feel better. Worth a try.

Does the Divine actually exist? Who cares? It works.

Reddit community:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ashtanga/

Limb four, pranayama:

Anuloma Viloma - Yoga breathing exercice (Pranayama)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAZH9S5w2I&list=PLvfKN7UGAmKTRnxvasc-099wup2hpREye&index=1

Beginning Asana (third limb):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0kNeOyH98

Developing a home practice Part 1

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2009/04/developing-home-practice-part-1.html

This is the Kali Yuga

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/04/17/this-is-the-kali-yuga/

The Matrix & the Sanskrit Texts

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/08/28/the-matrix-the-sanskrit-texts/

The Heart and Knowing Mind of Divine Awareness in the Body

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/06/07/the-heart-and-knowing-mind-of-divine-awareness-in-the-body/

5 Amazing Properties of Sunlight You’ve Never Heard About

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/01/14/5-amazing-properties-of-sunlight-youve-never-heard-about/

1) Sunlight Has Pain-Killing (Analgesic) Properties

2) Sunlight Burns Fat

3) Sunlight via Solar Cycles May Directly Regulate Human Lifespan

4) Daytime Sunlight Exposure Improves Evening Alertness

5) Sunlight May Convert To Metabolic Energy

21 Ways to Raise Your Vibration

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/01/16/21-ways-to-raise-your-vibration/

-Make a list of all that you are grateful for. The reason gratitude journals and thankfulness lists work is because, just like cognitive behavioral training, you can make neuro-pharmacalogical and neuro-biological changes with a shift in your focus on gratitude. Start with a few things: I can take a breath. I am here, now. I have at least one friend. I am able to change myself with my own will. Then expand to make your list your own.

-Do mental reps. Say to yourself 100 times a day. I am happy or I am prosperous, or I am unafraid of change. You may not believe it yet, but with practice you will. Your 100 repetitions could just be, I can change my mind.

-Realize that you have more control over your life than you thought. You are not a victim to circumstance, past, family upbringing, trauma, or anything else. You can change your life in an instant. Just realize this. In many wisdom traditions this is called “total responsibility.” No one is responsible for how you feel right now but you. It isn’t a curse. It’s a blessing because it gives you your power back.

-Drink energy charged water. Dr. Masaru Emoto made this practice mainstream with his pictures in Messages from water. But it is also a practice from Chinese healers from ancient lineages. You can hold your water with the thumbs and middle fingers touching on either side of the bottle (heart Mudra) and send the water love. Then drink it.

-Practice Mudra. Mudras are ancient hand gestures that redirect energy, or prana, back into the body in much the same way that light is refracted/reflected from a cliff face or glacial wall. By learning specific ways in which to hold your fingers, you can direct positive energy into your body.

Pratyahara: The Art of Sense Withdrawal

https://yogainternational.com/article/view/pratyahara

Just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs, so when a man withdraws his senses from the sense objects, his wisdom becomes steady. -Bhagavad Gita

>Instead of deciding what to pay attention to and then executing that decision, the undisciplined mind lets itself be led by the desires and habits of the senses.

>The untrained senses, run by past experiences and instinct (desire, fear, cravings), latch on to the pleasure of the moment and don’t consider the bigger picture or our long-term well-being.

>How else do we find ourselves Facebooking when we intended to finish the report that’s due by the end of the day, munching cookies when we resolved to lose 10 pounds, or becoming attracted to a philandering six-pack of abs when we already have a loving life partner at home?

>consider adopting a few simple lifestyle changes to tone down your habitual response to stimulation.

>These include going to bed on time and being mindful in thought, speech, and action, to occasionally refraining from food, speech, sex, and entertainment, as well as actively restraining the senses and focusing the mind in guided relaxation practices (pratyahara) and meditation.

>This training of the senses creates habits that support a balanced and healthy life.

>Asana practice and pranayama exercises, which can awaken inner awareness, also support us in tuning out and turning in.

>Asana balances energy flow.

>It releases tension and puts us in touch with inner sensations, giving the mind space and an internal resting place.

>The body naturally becomes more still, and when that happens, the mind can come to rest.

>We feel grounded, more at ease, and able to steer the chariot down the right path.

>The senses tend to suspend their activities naturally through pranayama.

>When the breath flows evenly in both nostrils—which occurs through various pranayama techniques—the mind no longer attaches itself to what’s going on around it and moves inward.

>Pratyahara, often translated as “sense withdrawal,” lies on the threshold between external practices like asana and pranayama, and internal ones like dharana and dhyana (concentration and meditation) that lead to samadhi (spiritual absorption).

>Sleep, which is a natural form of pratyahara, occurs as our consciousness spontaneously detaches itself from the sensory and motor channels of experience.

>It’s not the same as true pratyahara because during sleep we lack conscious awareness and the ability to integrate the inner and outer worlds.

Pratyahara: the Forgotten Limb of Yoga

http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/H%20-%20World%20Religions%20and%20Poetry/World%20Religions/From%20the%20Indian%20Tradition/Teachers%20from%20the%20Indian%20Tradition/David%20Frawley/Pratyahara%20-%20the%20Forgotten%20Limb/Pratyahara%20the%20Forgotten%20Limb%20of%20Yoga.htm

Pratyahara: the Forgotten Limb of Yoga

By David Frawley

Pratyahara itself is termed as Yoga, as it is the most important limb in Yoga Sadhana.

Swami Shivananda

Yoga is a vast system of spiritual practices for inner growth. To this end, the classical yoga system incorporates eight limbs, each with its own place and function. Of these, pratyahara is probably the least known. How many people, even yoga teachers, can define pratyahara? Have you ever taken a class in pratyahara? Have you ever seen a book on pratyahara? Can you think of several important pratyahara techniques? Do you perform pratyahara as part of your yogic practices? Yet unless we understand pratyahara, we are missing an integral aspect of yoga without which the system cannot work.

As the fifth of the eight limbs, pratyahara occupies a central place. Some yogis include it among the outer aspects of yoga, others with the inner aspects. Both classifications are correct, for pratyahara is the key between the outer and inner aspects of yoga; it shows us how to move from one to the other.

It is not possible to move directly from asana to meditation. This requires jumping from the body to the mind, forgetting what lies between. To make this transition, the breath and senses, which link the body and mind, must be brought under control and developed properly. This is where pranayama and pratyahara come in. With pranayama we control our vital energies and impulses and with pratyahara we gain mastery over the unruly senses — both prerequisites to successful meditation.

What is Pratyahara?

The term pratyahara is composed of two Sanskrit words, prati and ahara. Ahara means "food," or "anything we take into ourselves from the outside." Prati is a preposition meaning "against" or "away." Pratyahara means literally "control of ahara," or "gaining mastery over external influences." It is compared to a turtle withdrawing its limbs into its shell — the turtle’s shell is the mind and the senses are the limbs. The term is usually translated as "withdrawal from the senses," but much more is implied.

In yogic thought there are three levels of ahara, or food. The first is physical food that brings in the five elements necessary to nourish the body. The second is impressions, which bring in the subtle substances necessary to nourish the mind — the sensations of sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell. The third level of ahara is our associations, the people we hold at heart level who serve to nourish the soul and affect us with the gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas.

Pratyahara is twofold. It involves withdrawal from wrong food, wrong impressions and wrong associations, while simultaneously opening up to right food, right impressions and right associations. We cannot control our mental impressions without right diet and right relationship, but pratyahara’s primary importance lies in control of sensory impressions which frees the mind to move within.

By withdrawing our awareness from negative impressions, pratyahara strengthens the mind’s powers of immunity. Just as a healthy body can resists toxins and pathogens, a healthy mind can ward off the negative sensory influences around it. If you are easily disturbed by the noise and turmoil of the environment around you, practice pratyahara. Without it, you will not be able to meditate.

There are four main forms of pratyahara: indriya-pratyahara — control of the senses; prana- pratyahara — control of prana; karma-pratyahara — control of action; and mano-pratyahara — withdrawal of mind from the senses. Each has its special methods.

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1. Control of the Senses (Indriya-pratyahara)

Indriya-pratyahara, or control of the senses, is the most important form of pratyahara, although this is not something that we like to hear about in our mass media-oriented culture. Most of us suffer from sensory overload, the result of constant bombardment from television, radio, computers, newspapers, magazines, books — you name it. Our commercial society functions by stimulating our interest through the senses. We are constantly confronted with bright colors, loud noises and dramatic sensations. We have been raised on every sort of sensory indulgence; it is the main form of entertainment in our society.

The problem is that the senses, like untrained children, have their own will, which is largely instinctual in nature. They tell the mind what to do. If we don’t discipline them, they dominate us with their endless demands. We are so accustomed to ongoing sensory activity that we don’t know how to keep our minds quiet; we have become hostages of the world of the senses and its allurements. We run after what is appealing to the senses and forget the higher goals of life. For this reason, pratyahara is probably the most important limb of yoga for people today.

The old saying "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" applies to those of us who have not learned how to properly control our senses. Indriya-pratyahara gives us the tools to strengthen the spirit and reduce its dependency on the body. Such control is not suppression (which causes eventual revolt), but proper coordination and motivation.

Right Intake of Impressions

Pratyahara centers on the right intake of impressions. Most of us are careful about the food we eat and the company we keep, but we may not exercise the same discrimination about the impressions we take in from the senses. We accept impressions via the mass media that we would never allow in our personal lives. We let people into our houses through television and movies that we would never allow into our homes in real life! What kind of impressions do we take in every day? Can we expect that they will not have an effect on us? Strong sensations dull the mind, and a dull mind makes us act in ways that are insensitive, careless, or even violent.

According to Ayurveda, sensory impressions are the main food for the mind. The background of our mental field consists of our predominant sensory impressions. We see this when our mind reverts to the impressions of the last song we heard or the last movie we saw. Just as junk food makes the body toxic, junk impressions make the mind toxic. Junk food requires a lot of salt, sugar, or spices to make it palatable because it is largely dead food; similarly junk impressions require powerful dramatic impressions — sex and violence — to make us feel that they are real, because they are actually just colors projected on a screen.

We cannot ignore the role sensory impressions play in making us who we are, for they build up the subconscious and strengthen the tendencies latent within it. Trying to meditate without controlling our impressions pits our subconscious against us and prevents the development of inner peace and clarity.

Sensory Withdrawal

Fortunately we are not helpless before the barrage of sensory impressions. Pratyahara provides us many tools for managing them properly. Perhaps the simplest way to control our impressions is simply to cut them off, to spend some time apart from all sensory inputs. Just as the body benefits by fasting from food, so the mind benefits by fasting from impressions. This can be as simple as sitting to meditate with our eyes closed or taking a retreat somewhere free from the normal sensory bombardments, like at a mountain cabin. Also a "media fast," abstaining from television, radio, etc. can be a good practice to cleanse and rejuvenate the mind.

Yoni mudra is one of the most important pratyahara techniques for closing the senses. It involves using the fingers to block the sensory openings in the head — the eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth — and allowing the attention and energy to move within. It is done for short periods of time when our prana is energized, such as immediately after practicing pranayama. (Naturally we should avoid closing the mouth and nose to the point at which we starve ourselves of oxygen.)

Another method of sense withdrawal is to keep our sense organs open but withdraw our attention from them. In this way we cease taking in impressions without actually closing off our sense organs. The most common method, shambhavi mudra, consists of sitting with the eyes open while directing the attention within, a technique used in several Buddhist systems of meditation as well. This redirection of the senses inward can be done with the other senses as well, particularly with the sense of hearing. It helps us control our mind even when the senses are functioning, as they are during the normal course of the day.

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Focusing on Uniform Impressions

Another way to cleanse the mind and control the senses is to put our attention on a source of uniform impressions, such as gazing at the ocean or the blue sky. Just as the digestive system gets short-circuited by irregular eating habits and contrary food qualities, our ability to digest impressions can be deranged by jarring or excessive impressions. And just as improving our digestion may require going on a mono-diet, like the ayurvedic use of rice and mung beans (kicharee), so our mental digestion may require a diet of natural but homogeneous impressions. This technique is often helpful after a period of fasting from impressions.

Creating Positive Impressions

Another means of controlling the senses is to create positive, natural impressions. There are a number of ways to do this: meditating upon aspects of nature such as trees, flowers, or rocks, as well as visiting temples or other places of pilgrimage which are repositories of positive impressions and thoughts. Positive impressions can also be created by using incense, flowers, ghee lamps, altars, statues, and other artifacts of devotional worship.

Creating Inner Impressions

Another sensory withdrawal technique is to focus the mind on inner impressions, thus removing attention from external impressions. We can create our own inner impressions through the imagination or we can contact the subtle senses that come into play when the physical senses are quiet.

Visualization is the simplest means of creating inner impressions. In fact, most yogic meditation practices begin with some type of visualization, such as "seeing" a deity, a guru, or a beautiful setting in nature. More elaborate visualizations involve imagining deities and their worlds, or mentally performing rituals, such as offering imaginary flowers or gems to imagined deities. The artist absorbed in an inner landscape or the musician creating music are also performing inner visualizations. These are all forms of pratyahara because they clear the mental field of external impressions and create a positive inner impression to serve as the foundation of meditation. Preliminary visualizations are helpful for most forms of meditation and can be integrated into other spiritual practices as well.

Laya Yoga is the yoga of the inner sound and light current, in which we focus on subtle senses to withdraw us from the gross senses. This withdrawal into inner sound and light is a means of transforming the mind and is another form of indriya-pratyahara.

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2. Control of the Prana (Prana-Pratyahara)

Control of the senses requires the development and control of prana because the senses follow prana (our vital energy). Unless our prana is strong we will not have the power to control the senses. If our prana is scattered or disturbed, our senses will also be scattered and disturbed.

Pranayama is a preparation for pratyahara. Prana is gathered in pranayama and withdrawn in pratyahara. Yogic texts describe methods of withdrawing prana from different parts of the body, starting with the toes and ending wherever we wish to fix our attention — the top of the head, the third eye, the heart or one of the other chakras.

Perhaps the best method of prana-pratyahara is to visualize the death process, in which the prana, or the life-force, withdraws from the body, shutting off all the senses from the feet to the head. Ramana Maharshi achieved Self-realization by doing this when he was a mere boy of seventeen. Before inquiring into the Self, he visualized his body as dead, withdrawing his prana into the mind and the mind into the heart. Without such complete and intense pratyahara, his meditative process would not have been successful.

3. Control of Action (Karma-Pratyahara)

We cannot control the sense organs without also controlling the motor organs. In fact the motor organs involve us directly in the external world. The impulses coming in through the senses get expressed through the motor organs and this drives us to further sensory involvement. Because desire is endless, happiness consists not in getting what we want, but in no longer needing anything from the external world.

Just as the right intake of impressions gives control of the sense organs, right work and right action gives control of the motor organs. This involves karma yoga — performing selfless service and making our life a sacred ritual. Karma-pratyahara can be performed by surrendering any thought of personal rewards for what we do, doing everything as service to God or to humanity. The Bhagavad Gita says, "Your duty is to act, not to seek a reward for what you do." This is one kind of pratyahara. It also includes the practice of austerities that lead to control of the motor organs. For example, asana can be used to control the hands and feet, control which is needed when we sit quietly for extended periods of time.

4. Withdrawal of the Mind (Mano-Pratyahara)

The yogis tell us that mind is the sixth sense organ and that it is responsible for coordinating all the other sense organs. We take in sensory impressions only where we place our mind’s attention. In a way we are always practicing pratyahara. The mind’s attention is limited and we give attention to one sensory impression by withdrawing the mind from other impressions. Wherever we place our attention, we naturally overlook other things.

We control our senses by withdrawing our mind’s attention from them. According to the Yoga Sutras II.54: "When the senses do not conform with their own objects but imitate the nature of the mind, that is pratyahara." More specifically, it is mano-pratyahara — withdrawing the senses from their objects and directing them inward to the nature of the mind, which is formless. Vyasa’s commentary on the Yoga Sutra notes that the mind is like the queen bee and the senses are the worker bees. Wherever the queen bee goes, all the other bees must follow. Thus mano-pratyahara is less about controlling the senses than about controlling the mind, for when the mind is controlled, the senses are automatically controlled.

We can practice mano-pratyahara by consciously withdrawing our attention from unwholesome impressions whenever they arise. This is the highest form of pratyahara and the most difficult; if we have not gained proficiency in controlling the senses, motor organs, and pranas, it is unlikely to work. Like wild animals, prana and the senses can easily overcome a weak mind, so it is usually better to start first with more practical methods of pratyahara.

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Pratyahara and the Other Limbs of Yoga

Pratyahara is related to all the limbs of yoga. All of the other limbs — from asana to samadhi — contain aspects of pratyahara. For example, in the sitting poses, which are the most important aspect of asana, both the sensory and motor organs are controlled. Pranayama contains an element of pratyahara as we draw our attention inward through the breath. Yama and niyama contain various principles and practices, like non-violence and contentment, that help us control the senses. In other words, pratyahara provides the foundation for the higher practices of yoga and is the basis for meditation. It follows pranayama (or control of prana) and, by linking prana with the mind, takes it out of the sphere of the body.

Pratyahara is also linked with dharana. In pratyahara we withdraw our attention from ordinary distractions. In dharana we consciously focus that attention on a particular object, such as a mantra. Pratyahara is the negative and dharana the positive aspect of the same basic function.

Many of us find that even after years of meditation practice we have not achieved all that we expected. Trying to practice meditation without some degree of pratyahara is like trying to gather water in a leaky vessel. No matter how much water we bring in, it flows out at the same rate. The senses are like holes in the vessel of the mind. Unless they are sealed, the mind cannot hold the nectar of truth. Anyone whose periods of meditation alternate with periods of sensory indulgence is in need of pratyahara.

Pratyahara offers many methods of preparing the mind for meditation. It also helps us avoid environmental disturbances that are the source of psychological pain. Pratyahara is a marvelous tool for taking control of our lives and opening up to our inner being. It is no wonder some great yogis have called it "the most important limb of yoga." We should all remember to include it in our practice.

Pratyahara and Ayurveda

Pratyahara, as right management of the mind and senses, is essential and good for all constitutional types. It is the most important factor for mental nutrition. However, it is most essential for those with a vata constitution who tend towards imbalanced or excessive sensory and mental activity. All vata types should practice some form of pratyahara daily. Their restless vata distracts the senses, disturbs the motor organs and prana, and makes the mind restless. Pratyahara reverse harmful vata and turns it into a positive force of prana.

Kapha types, on the other hand, generally suffer from too little activity, including on a sensory level. They may slip into tamasic patterns of being lazy, watching television or sitting around the house. They need more mental stimulation and benefit from sensory activity of a higher nature, like visualizations of various types.

Pitta types generally have more control of the senses than the others and incline toward martial-type activities in which they discipline the body and the senses. They need to practice pratyahara as a means of relaxing the personal will and letting the divine will work through them.

Pratyahara and Disease

Ayurveda recognizes that the inappropriate use of the senses is one of the main causes of disease. All mental disease is connected with the intake of unwholesome impressions. Pratyahara therefore is an important first step in treating all mental disorders. Similarly it is very helpful in treating nervous system disorders, particularly those that arise through hyperactivity. Most of the time we overly express our emotions, which loses tremendous energy. Pratyahara teaches us to hold our energy within and not disperse it unnecessarily. This conserved energy can be drawn upon for creative, spiritual or healing purposes as needed and can provide the extra power to do the things that are really important to us.

Physical disease mainly arises from taking in unwholesome food. Pratyahara affords us control of the senses so that we do not crave wrong food. When the senses are controlled, everything is controlled and no wrong or artificial cravings can arise. That is why Ayurveda emphasizes right use of the senses as one of the most important factors in right living and disease prevention.

Developing a home practice

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2009/04/developing-home-practice-part-1.html

UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center

Free Guided Meditations

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

Free Meditation Podcasts at the Hammer Museum

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=107

Yoga Sutras 1.1-1.4: What is Yoga?

Yoga is the mastery of the activities of the mind-field.

Then the seer rests in its true nature.

Source: http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-10104.htm

Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga

http://www.swamij.com/traditional-yoga.htm

The wave forgets the truth that it is ocean, thinking itself

to be the grand shape, which it has temporarily taken.

For a while, it takes on the rupa (form) of wave.

Finally, it remembers its true rupa (form) of ocean.

The two coexist, though one is true, and the

other, though beautiful, is only relatively true.

So too, we humans forget our true nature,

but, through yoga, can remember.

http://www.swamij.com/oneline-yoga-meditation-world.htm

At Meditation time:

First, the World:

First, be aware of the external world, however broad that may be for you: universe, galaxy, earth, country, city, home.

Be aware of the world in a peaceful, contemplative way.

Reflect on the nature of your relationship with that external world, cultivating and meditating on attitudes of lovingness, compassion, goodwill and acceptance.

Dialogue with yourself, such as: "What do I want, at the highest level? What is that one, highest goal that is the guide for my decisions in life? Who am I? What do I need to let go of, or cease doing? What do I need to do more of, or start doing? How will I do these things? When?

Gradually bring your attention closer from the vast, external world, to the closer world of your daily life, finally coming to the space your body is occupying.

After some time, let go of awareness of the external world, turning attention inward, so as to systematically move through the layers of senses, body, breath, and mind to the center of consciousness.

Next (after World) is the Senses:

Next, after letting go of the external world, become aware of the individual senses and means of expression indriyas, exploring your sensory awareness. (more on indriyas)

First, be aware of your ability to move, but that you are not moving; of grasping, but that you are letting go; of speaking, but of no longer forming any words (the karmendriyas).

Maintain mindfulness that these are the exporters of actions into the external world.

Then, systematically be aware of five senses of smell, taste, seeing, touching, hearing (the jnanendriyas).

Maintain mindfulness that those senses are the importers of information and insights from the external world.

Then, close the temple doors called senses, and bring your attention inward, so that you can explore within, through the levels of body, breath, mind, and beyond.

Next (after Senses) is the Body:

Next, after making peace with the world and exploring your senses, explore the body internally through a variety of methods of inner surveying. (more on methods of surveying)

Survey the body from head to toe and toe to head. Do this systematically; so that the path you follow each time is similar, though the experience may be different.

However you experience the body is okay: parts, systems, sensations.

Do this as if you are really curious to explore within. Be an interior researcher.

Remain mindful of only the body–not breath, nor mind–only body.

Then, shift awareness still more inward to the breath, then to the mind, and then to the silence beyond, finally leading to the center of consciousness.

Next (after Body) the Breath:

Next, after exploring the world, senses, and body, allow your breath to be smooth, slow, calm and serene through a variety of energizing, balancing and centering breath practices. (more on breath techniques)

Explore the breath as if you are really curious, as if you are a professional interior researcher.

First, be aware of breath at the diaphragm, eliminating jerks and pauses, and making breath steady, smooth, and comfortably slow.

Then, do invigorating breathing practices, pranayama, along with locks, within your comfortable capacity.

Then, breath as though exhaling down from the top of the head to the base of the spine. Inhale as though inhaling up from the base of the spine to the top of the head.

Then, bring attention to breath at the bridge of the nostrils, feeling the touch of the air as it flows. Feel the touch of the flow.

Remain mindful of only the breath–not body, nor mind–only breath.

Then there is a process like forgetting you are breathing, as attention goes deeper or more inward, beyond the breath to the mind itself, and to silence.

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Next (after Breath) is the Mind:

Next, after exploring the world, senses, body, and breath, you begin to allow the conscious mind to still itself.

First, be aware of the process of mind, while continuing to focus on the breath at the nostrils. Become a witness to the inner functioning of the mind. (more on functions of mind)

Allow the streams of thoughts to flow naturally, without interruption, yet remaining focused. (more on inviting thoughts)

Next, allow your attention to rest either in the heart or the eyebrow center, following your own predisposition. In the heart, it is a palm-sized space, and in the eyebrow center, it is a tiny circle.

Keep attention in that space, not allowing it to wander either to the left or right, or up or down.

Then, bring your attention to your chosen object of meditation (inside that space), whether a seen, heard, or felt object; whether gross, subtle, or beyond. For example, it may be a point of light, an inner sound, a visualized object or a mantra. (more on meditation objects)

Remain aware of only this inner focus–not body, nor senses, nor breath, nor the streams of the mind–only this one space and object.

Allow the natural insights of the subtler mental processes and insights to emerge, and to flow through the field of mind.

Continue to allow thoughts to flow, cultivating two skills: remaining focused in the space, while at the same time letting go of the thought patterns.

Then, after the conscious mind is no longer a distraction or disturbance, the unconscious and latent aspects of mind are allowed to come forward, are examined, and then allowed to let go. Mind is not stopped or suppressed, but rather is gone beyond, into silence. (more on functions of mind; more on witnessing)

Then (after Mind) is into the Silence:

Next, after systematically examining and letting go of the world, senses, body, breath, and mind, you gradually come to a place of deep Stillness and Silence.

As meditation deepens, either watch into the space for the invisible source of all light, or listen into the space for the silent source of all sound.

Gradually, experience the convergence of practices of meditation, contemplation, prayer and mantra. (more on convergence)

Allow the inner peace or spiritual truth to come forward, experiencing the heights of Samadhi and Turiya, the fourth state, beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. (more on Samadhi; more on Turiya)

At some point, experience the awakening of Kundalini, and its rising to Sahasrara, the crown chakra. (more on Kundalini rising to the crown)

Eventually, allow the meditations to converge on that innermost point (Bindu) out of which mind, time, space and causation have emerged. (more on Bindu)

When finished with your meditation, bring outward, into your external world and daily life whatever depth of stillness and silence you have touched. Allow that to guide and balance daily life, being ever mindful of the higher realities within.

Resolve to often return to that place of Stillness and Silence in meditation.

Ayurveda & Yoga Lifestyle

Peace and contentment can be achieved by following an ayurveda and yoga lifestyle, and there is no time like the present to start. This is part 27 of a multi-part series on Ayurveda and Yoga by Aneesha Holaday.

Aneesha Holaday is a speaker and seminar leader at Yoga Vidya. For more english yoga videos, music, blog posts, etc., please visit our english pages at http://my.yoga-vidya.org . For more information on english classes, courses and seminars at Yoga Vidya, please see http://www.yoga-vidya.org/english/sem.

Aneesha Holaday is also the owner of the “According to Ayurveda and Yoga” educational website which covers all aspects of Yoga and Ayurveda, including practitioners in your area.

http://www.atatv.org

Yoga : The Inner Experiment

Amir Mourad speaks of yoga as a technology and the inner experiment of the spiritual process. He explores into various subjects such as the balance of emotion with reason, egotism, belief, doubt, and seeking through a beginners mind.

Spinal breath

http://www.swamij.com/breath.htm#spinal

There are a variety of practices with awareness moving up and down the spine with the breath. One may do this practice between particular energy centers (chakras) or form different shapes of the visualized flow, including elliptical or a figure-eight. (Spinal breath is part of the Yoga Nidra CD)

The most straight forward, and yet completely effective method is to:

Imagine the breath flowing from the top of the head, down to the base of the spine on exhalation, and to

Imagine the flow coming from the base of the spine to the top of the head on inhalation.

This may be done lying down, or in a seated meditation posture.

One may simply experience the breath, or may be aware of a thin, milky white stream flowing in a straight line, up and down. This practice is very subtle when experienced at its depth, and can turn into a profoundly deep part of meditation practice.

Sometimes the breath practices along the spine are considered to be part of, one and the same with Kriya Yoga or Kundalini Yoga, as well as Raja Yoga or Hatha Yoga.

See also the articles on sushumna awakening, kriya and kundalini Yoga in the:

Sushumna page of Kundalini Awakening

http://www.swamij.com/kundalini-awakening-3.htm

How I Quit Caffeine and Became a Better Man

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/09/14/how-to-quit-caffeine/

This is something I've been trying to do for a while. My coffee usage is definitely higher than I'd like it to be and going over my quantitative self data, it appears my coffee usage has been going up in 2015. I had a cup of coffee every day of August except on the 5th. Why am I drinking so much coffee, even on the weekends? It just becomes habit. I'm not mindful and reflective about it. This article reminded me to snap out of the habit.

If I can go the rest of September without a cup of coffee, I can raise my no coffee percentage from today's 18% to 56%.

Green tea and no coffee this morning. :)

Yogachara

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Yogachara

Yogachara (IAST: Yogācāra; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga")[1] is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology[2] through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It was associated with Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE,[3] but also included non-Mahayana practitioners of the Dārṣṭāntika school.[4]

Yogācāra discourse explains how our human experience is constructed by mind.

History

The Yogācāra, along with the Madhyamaka, is one of the two principal philosophical schools of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism.[5]

Origination

Masaaki (2005) states: "[a]ccording to the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, the first Yogācāra text, the Buddha set the 'wheel of the doctrine' (Dharmacakra) in motion three times."[5] The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, as the doctrinal trailblazer of Yogācāra, inaugurated the paradigm of the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma, with its own tenets in the "third turning". The Yogācāra texts are generally considered part of the third turning along with the relevant sutra.[6] Moreover, Yogācāra discourse surveys and synthesizes all three turnings.

The orientation of the Yogācāra school is largely consistent with the thinking of the Pāli nikāyas. It frequently treats later developments in a way that realigns them with earlier versions of Buddhist doctrines. One of the agendas of the Yogācāra school was to reorient the complexity of later refinements in Buddhist philosophy to accord with early Buddhist doctrine.[7]

Asaṅga and Vasubandhu

Yogācāra, which had its genesis in the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, was largely formulated by the brahmin-born half-brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. Asaṅga spent many years in intense meditation, during which time tradition says that he often visited the Tuṣita Heaven to receive teachings from Maitreya. Heavens such as Tuṣita are said to be accessible through meditation and accounts of this are given in the writings of the Indian Buddhist monk Paramārtha, who lived during the 6th century CE.[8] Xuanzang tells a similar account of these events:[9]

In the great mango grove five or six li to the southwest of the city (Ayodhyā), there is an old monastery where Asaṅga Bodhisattva received instructions and guided the common people. At night he went up to the place of Maitreya Bodhisattva in Tuṣita Heaven to learn the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, the Mahāyāna-sūtra-alaṃkāra-śāstra, the Madhyānta-vibhāga-śāstra, etc.; in the daytime, he lectured on the marvelous principles to a great audience.

Asaṅga went on to write many of the key Yogācāra treatises such as the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha and the Abhidharma-samuccaya as well as other works, although there are discrepancies between the Chinese and Tibetan traditions concerning which works are attributed to him and which to Maitreya.[10]

The Yogācāra school held a prominent position in Indian Buddhism for centuries after the time of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. Teachings and derivations of this school have influenced and become well-established in East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.

Yogācāra and Madhyamaka

As evidenced by Tibetan sources, this school was in protracted dialectic with the Madhyamaka. However, there is disagreement among contemporary Western and traditional Buddhist scholars about the degree to which they were opposed, if at all.[11] To summarize the main difference: while the Madhyamaka held that asserting the existence or non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some exponents of Yogācāra asserted that the mind (or in the more sophisticated variations, primordial wisdom) and only the mind is ultimately real. Not all Yogācārins, however, asserted that mind was truly inherently existent. According to some interpretations, Vasubandhu and Asaṅga in particular did not.[12]

The position that Yogācāra and Madhyamaka were in dialectic was expounded by Xuanzang in the 7th century. After a suite of debates with exponents of the Madhyamaka school in India, Xuanzang composed in Sanskrit the no longer extant three-thousand verse treatise The Non-difference of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.[13]

Some later Yogācāra exponents also synthesized the two views, particularly Śāntarakṣita in the 8th century, whose view was later called "Yogācāra-Svatantrika-Madhyamaka" by the Tibetan tradition. In his view the Mādhyamika position is ultimately true and at the same time the mind-only view is a useful way to relate to conventionalities and progress students more skillfully toward the ultimate.[14] This synthesized view between the two positions, which also incorporated views of valid cognition from Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, was one of the last developments of Indian Buddhism before it was extinguished in the 11th century during the Muslim incursion.

Yogācāra in East Asia

Translations of Indian Yogācāra texts were first introduced to China in the early 5th century CE.[15] Among these was Guṇabhadra's translation of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra in four fascicles, which would also become important in the early history of Chan Buddhism. During the 6th century CE, the Indian monk and translator Paramārtha widely propagated Yogācāra teachings in China. His translations include the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, the Madhyāntavibhāga-kārikā, the Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā, and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha.[16] Paramārtha also taught widely on the principles of Consciousness Only, and developed a large following in southern China.[17] Many monks and laypeople traveled long distances to hear his teachings, especially those on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha.[17]

Although Yogācāra teachings had been propagated widely in China before the 7th century, most look to Xuanzang as the most important founder of East Asian Yogācāra. At the age of 33, Xuanzang made a dangerous journey to India in order to study Buddhism there and to procure Buddhist texts for translation into Chinese.[18] Dan Lusthaus writes that Xuanzang had come to the conclusion that issues of dispute in Chinese Buddhism could be resolved with the availability of important texts, and especially the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra.[13]

Xuanzang spent over ten years in India traveling and studying under various Buddhist masters.[18] Lusthaus writes that during this time, Xuanzang discovered that the manner in which Buddhists understood and interpreted texts was much richer and more varied than the Chinese materials had previously indicated, and drew meaning from a broad cultural context.[13] Xuanzang's teachers included Śīlabhadra, the abbot of Nālandā, who was then 106 years old.[19] Xuanzang was tutored in the Yogācāra teachings by Śīlabhadra for several years at Nālandā. Upon his return from India, Xuanzang brought with him 657 Buddhist texts, including important Yogācāra works such as the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra.[18][20] Upon his return to China, he was given government support and many assistants for the purpose of translating these texts into Chinese.

As an important contribution to East Asian Yogācāra, Xuanzang composed the treatise Cheng Weishi Lun, or "Discourse on the Establishment of Consciousness Only."[21] This work is framed around Vasubandhu's Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā, or "Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only." Xuanzang upheld Dharmapāla's commentary on this work as being the correct one, and provided his own explanations of these as well as other views in the Cheng Weishi Lun.[21] This work was composed at the behest of Xuanzang's disciple Kuiji, and became a central representation of East Asian Yogācāra.[21] Xuanzang also promoted devotional meditative practices toward Maitreya Bodhisattva. Xuanzang's disciple Kuiji wrote a number of important commentaries on the Yogacara texts and further developed the influence of this doctrine in China, and was recognized by later adherents as the first true patriarch of the school.[22]

Yogācāra in Tibet

Yogācāra was first transmitted to Tibet by Śāntarakṣita and then later again by Atiśa. Yogācāra terminology (though not necessarily its view) is also employed by the Nyingmapa in attempting to describe the nondenumerable ultimate phœnomenon (Tibetan: རྣམ་གྲངས་མ་ཡིན་པའི་དོན་དམ་) which is the intended endpoint of Dzogchen practice.[23] Yogācāra is, therefore, an integral part of the history of Tibetan Buddhism.[24]

Although Je Tsongkhapa (whose reforms to Atiśa's Kadam tradition are generally considered the beginnings of the Gelug school)[25] argued in favour of Yogācāra views (specifically regarding the existence and functioning of Eight Consciousnesses) early in his career, the prevailing Gelug view eventually came to hold Yogācāra views as a matter of interpretable meaning, therefore distinct from Madhyamaka logic which was held to be of definitive meaning[26] in terms of Buddhist two truths doctrine.

For their part, Jonang teachers, including Taranatha, held their own shentong ("other-voidness" Tibetan: གཞན་སྟོང་, Wylie: gzhan-stong) views expressed in terms of "Great Madhyamaka" to be ultimately definitive in meaning, in contrast to the circumstantially definitive rangtong ("self-voidness" or prasaṅgika Tibetan: རང་སྟོང་, Wylie: rang-stong) philosophy of what they termed "general Madhyamaka", comprising both Svatantrika and Prasaṅgika Madhyamaka.[27]

Current discussions between Tibetan scholars regarding the differences between shentong and rangtong views may therefore appear similar to historical debates between Yogācāra and Madhyamaka, but the specific distinctions have, in fact, evolved much further.[28] Although later Tibetan views may be said to have evolved from the earlier Indian positions, the distinctions between the views have become increasingly subtle, especially as Yogācāra has evolved to incorporate the Madhyamaka view of the ultimate. Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso, the 19th century Rimé movement commentator, wrote in his commentary on Śāntarakṣita's synthesis, that the ultimate view in both schools is the same, and that each path leads to the same ultimate state of abiding.[14]

Principal exponents of Yogācāra categorized and alphabetized according to location:

China: Paramārtha 真諦 (499–569), Xuanzang 玄奘(602–664) and Kuījī 窺基 (632–682);

India: the half-brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu; Sthiramati 安慧 and Dharmapāla 護法

Japan: Chitsū 智通 and Chidatsu 智達 of the Kusha-shū

Korea: Daehyeon 大賢, Sinhaeng (神行, 704-779), Woncheuk (圓測 ; 631-696) and Wonhyo (zh: 元曉 ; 원효; 617 - 686)

Textual corpus

Sutras

The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, "Sūtra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets" (2nd century CE), was the seminal Yogācāra sutra and continued to be a primary referent for the tradition. The later Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (4th century CE) also assumed considerable importance.[29]

Also containing Yogācāra elements were the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra (1st century CE) and Daśabhūmika Sūtra (pre-3rd century CE).[30]

Other prominent Yogācāra sutras include the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra and the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra.[31]

Five treatises of Maitreya

Among the most important texts to the Yogācāra tradition is the Five Treatises of Maitreya. These texts are said to have been related to Asaṅga by the Bodhisattva Maitreya,[32] though Maitreya may have been the actual founder of the Yogacra-school.[33] They are as follows:

Ornament for Clear Realization (Abhisamayālaṅkāra, Tib. mngon-par rtogs-pa'i rgyan)

Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sutras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra, Tib. theg-pa chen-po'i mdo-sde'i rgyan)

Sublime Continuum of the Mahāyāna (Ratnagotravibhāga, Tib. theg-pa chen-po rgyud bla-ma'i bstan)

Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being (Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, Tib. chos-dang chos-nyid rnam-par 'byed-pa)

Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga, Tib. dbus-dang mtha' rnam-par 'byed-pa)

A commentary on the Ornament for Clear Realization called "Clarifying the Meaning" by Haribhadra is also often used, as is one by Vimuktisena.

Most of these texts were also incorporated into the Chinese tradition, which was established several centuries earlier than the Tibetan. However, the Ornament for Clear Realization is not mentioned by Chinese translators up to the 7th century, including Xuanzang, who was an expert in this field. This suggests it may possibly have emerged from a later period than is generally ascribed to it.

Asanga

Authorship of critical Yogācāra texts is also ascribed to Asaṅga personally (in contrast to the Five Treatises of Maitreya). Among them are the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha and the Abhidharma-samuccaya. Sometimes also ascribed to him is the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, a massive encyclopedic work considered the definitive statement of Yogācāra, but most scholars believe it was compiled a century later, in the 5th century, while its components reflect various stages in the development of Yogācāra thought.

Vasubandhu

Vasubandhu is considered to be the systematizer of Yogacara-thought.[33]

Vasubandhu wrote three foundational texts of the Yogācāra:

Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa (Treatise on the Three Natures, Tib. Rang-bzhin gsum nges-par bstan)

Viṃśaṭikā-kārikā (Treatise in Twenty Stanzas)

Triṃśikaikā-kārikā (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas)

He also wrote an important commentary on the Madhyantavibhaṅga. According to Buddhist scholar Jay Garfield:

While the Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa is arguably the most philosophically detailed and comprehensive of the three short works on this topic composed by Vasubandu, as well as the clearest, it is almost never read or taught in contemporary traditional cultures or centers of learning. The reason may be simply that this is the only one of Vasubandhu’s root texts for which no autocommmentary exists. For this reason, none of Vasubandhu’s students composed commentaries on the text and hence there is no recognized lineage of transmission for the text. So nobody within the Tibetan tradition (the only extant Mahāyāna scholarly tradition) could consider him or herself authorized to teach the text. It is therefore simply not studied, a great pity. It is a beautiful and deep philosophical essay and an unparalleled introduction to the Cittamatra system.[34]:128

Later commentaries

Other important commentaries on various Yogācāra texts were written by Sthiramati (6th century) and Dharmapāla (7th century), and an influential Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis was formulated by Śāntarakṣita (8th century).

Tenets

Yogacara is "meant to be an explanation of experience, rather than a system of ontology".[35] It uses various concepts in providing this explanation: representation-only, the eight consciousnesses, the three natures, emptiness. They form a complex system, each of which can be taken as a point of departure for understanding Yogacara:

[I]n the vast and complex system that is known as Yogācāra, all of these different approaches and categories are ultimately tied into each other, and thus, starting with any one of them, one can eventually enter into all of the rest."[36]

Yogacara is usually treated as a philosophical system, but it is a school of practice as well:

[Yogācāra] attaches importance to the religious practice of yoga as a means for attaining final emancipation from the bondage of the phenomenal world. The stages of yoga are systematically set forth in the treatises associated with this tradition.[5]

Yogācārins developed an Abhidharma literature set within a Mahāyāna framework.[37] John Keenan, who has translated the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra into English, writes:[38]

The Yogācāra masters inherited the mystical approach of the Prajñāpāramitā texts. However, they did not reject the validity of theoretical Abhidharma. Rather they attempted to construct a critical understanding of the consciousness that underlies all meaning, both mystical and theoretical. Their focus was on doctrine, but as it flowed from the practice of meditative centering (yoga), rather than as it was understood in acts of conceptual apprehension.

Representation-only

One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of vijñapti-mātra. It is often used interchangeably with the term citta-mātra, but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute idealism" or "idealistic monism".[35] A better translation for vijñapti-mātra is representation-only,[39] while an alternative translation for citta (mind, thought) mātra (only, exclusively) has not been proposed.

According to Kochumuttom, Yogacara is a realistic pluralism. It does not deny the existence of individual beings:[35]

What it denies are:

That the absolute mode of reality is consciousness/mind/ideas,

That the individual beings are transformations or evolutes of an absolute consciousness/mind/idea,

That the individual beings are but illusory appearances of a monistic reality.[40]

Vijñapti-mātra then means "mere representation of consciousness:

[T]he phrase vijñaptimātratā-vāda means a theory which says that the world as it appears to the unenlightened ones is mere representation of consciousness. Therefore, any attempt to interpret vijñaptimātratā-vāda as idealism would be a gross misunderstanding of it.[39]

The term vijñapti-mātra replaced the "more metaphysical"[41] term citta-mātra used in the Lankavatara Sutra.[33] The Lankavatara Sutra "appears to be one of the earliest attempts to provide a philosophical justification for the Absolutism that emerged in Mahayana in relation to the concept of Buddha".[42] It uses the term citta-mātra, which means properly "thought-only". By using this term it develops an ontology, in contrast to the epistemology of the term vijñapti-mātra. The Lankavatara Sutra equates citta and the absolute. According to Kochumuttom, this not the way Yogacara uses the term vijñapti:[43]

[T]he absolute state is defined simply as emptiness, namely the emptiness of subject-object distinction. Once thus defined as emptiness (sunyata), it receives a number of synonyms, none of which betray idealism.[44]

The term citta-mātra was used in Tibet and East Asia interchangeably with "Yogācāra", although modern scholars believe it is inaccurate to conflate the two terms.[citation needed] Even the uniformity of an assumed "Yogācāra school" has been put into question.[45]

Consciousness

Main article: Eight Consciousnesses

Yogacara gives a detailed explanation of the workings of the mind and the way it constructs the reality we experience. Vasubandhu used the concept of the six consciousnesses, on which he elaborated in the Triṃśikaikā-kārikā (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas).[46]

According to the traditional interpretation, Vasubandhu states that there are eight consciousnesses: the five sense-consciousnesses, mind (perception), manas (self-consciousness),[47] and the storehouse-consciousness.[48] According to Kalupahana, this classification of eight consciousnesses is based on a misunderstanding of Vasubandhu's Triṃśikaikā-kārikā by later adherents.[49][a]

Karma, seeds and storehouse-consciousness

According to the traditional explanation, the theory of the consciousnesses attempted to explain all the phenomena of cyclic existence, including how rebirth occurs and precisely how karma functions on an individual basis[citation needed]. It addressed questions that had long vexed Buddhist philosophers, such as,

'If one carries out a good or evil act, why and how is it that the effects of that act do not appear immediately?'

'Insofar as they do not appear immediately, where is this karma waiting for its opportunity to play out?'

The answer given by later Yogācārins was the store consciousness (Sanskrit: ālayavijñāna), also known as the basal, or eighth consciousness. It simultaneously acts as a storage place for karmic latencies and as a fertile matrix of predispositions that bring karma to a state of fruition.

The likeness of this process to the cultivation of plants led to the creation of the metaphor of seeds (Sanskrit: bīja) to explain the way karma is stored in the eighth consciousness. In the Yogācāra formulation, all experience without exception is said to result from the ripening of karma.[50] The seemingly external world is merely a "by-product" (adhipati-phala) of karma. The term vāsanā ("perfuming") is also used, and Yogācārins debated whether vāsāna and bija were essentially the same, the seeds were the effect of the perfuming, or whether the perfuming simply affected the seeds.[51] The type, quantity, quality and strength of the seeds determine where and how a sentient being will be reborn: one's race, gender, social status, proclivities, bodily appearance and so forth. The conditioning of the mind resulting from karma is called saṃskāra.[52]

The Treatise on Action (Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa), also by Vasubandhu, treats the subject of karma in detail from the Yogācāra perspective.[53]

Five Categories of Beings

One of the more controversial teachings espoused by the Yogacara school was an extension of the teachings on seeds and store-conscious. Based on the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, the Yogacara school posited that sentient beings had innate seeds that would make them capable of achieving a particular state of enlightenment and no other. Thus, beings were categorized in 5 ways:[54]

Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to achieve full Buddhahood (i.e. Bodhisattva path).

Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to achieve the state of a pratyekabuddha (private Buddha).

Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to achieve the state of an arhat.

Beings whose innate seeds had an indeterminate nature, and could potentially be any of the above.

Beings whose innate seeds were incapable of achieving enlightenment ever.

The fifth class of beings, the Icchantika, were described in various Mahayana sutras as being incapable of achieving Enlightenment, unless in some cases through the aid of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. Nevertheless, the notion was highly criticized by adherents of the Lotus Sutra (e.g. the Tiantai school) and its teaching of universal Buddhahood. This tension appears in East Asian Buddhist history.[54]

To account for the notion of Buddha-nature in all beings, Yogacara scholars in China such as Tz'u-en (慈恩, 632-682) the first patriarch in China, advocated two types of nature: the latent nature found in all beings (理佛性) and the Buddha-nature in practice (行佛性). The latter nature was determined by the innate seeds listed above.[54]

Transformations of consciousness

The traditional interpretation may be discarded on the ground of a reinterpretation of Vasubandhu's works.

According to scholar Roger R. Jackson, a "'fundamental unconstructed awareness' (mūla-nirvikalpa-jñāna)" is "described […] frequently in Yogacara literature.",[55] Vasubandhu's work

According to Kalupahana, instead of positing additional consciousnesses, the Triṃśikaikā-kārikā describes the transformations of this consciousness:

Taking vipaka, manana and vijnapti as three different kinds of functions, rather than characteristics, and understanding vijnana itself as a function (vijnanatiti vijnanam), Vasubandhu seems to be avoiding any form of substantialist thinking in relation to consciousness.[56]

These transformations are threefold:[56]

Whatever, indeed, is the variety of ideas of self and elements that prevails, it occurs in the transformation of consciousness. Such transformation is threefold, [namely,][57]

The first transformation results in the alaya:

the resultant, what is called mentation, as well as the concept of the object. Herein, the consciousness called alaya, with all its seeds, is the resultant.[58]

The alaya-vijnana therefore is not an eight consciousness, but the resultant of the transformation of consciousness:

Instead of being a completely distinct category, alaya-vijnana merely represents the normal flow of the stream of consciousness uninterrupted by the appearance of reflective self-awareness. It is no more than the unbroken stream of consciousness called the life-process by the Buddha. It is the cognitive process, containing both emotive and conative aspects of human experience, but without the enlarged egoistic emotions and dogmatic graspings characteristic of the next two transformations.[49]

The second transformation is manana, self-consciousness or "Self-view, self-confusion, self-esteem and self-love".[59] According to the Lankavatara and later interpreters it is the seventh consciousness.[60] It is "thinking" about the various perceptions occurring in the stream of consciousness".[60] The alaya is defiled by this self-interest;

[I]t can be purified by adopting a non-substantialist (anatman) perspective and thereby allowing the alaya-part (i.e. attachment) to dissipate, leaving consciousness or the function of being intact.[59]

The third transformation is visaya-vijnapti, the "concept of the object".[61] In this transformation the concept of objects is created. By creating these concepts human beings become "susceptible to grasping after the object":[61]

Vasubandhu is critical of the third transformation, not because it relates to the conception of an object, but because it generates grasping after a "real object" (sad artha), even when it is no more than a conception (vijnapti) that combines experience and reflection.[62]

A similar perspective is given by Walpola Rahula. According to Walpola Rahula, all the elements of the Yogācāra storehouse-consciousness are already found in the Pāli Canon.[63] He writes that the three layers of the mind (citta, manas, and vijñana) as presented by Asaṅga are also mentioned in the Pāli Canon:

Thus we can see that 'Vijñāna' represents the simple reaction or response of the sense organs when they come in contact with external objects. This is the uppermost or superficial aspect or layer of the 'Vijñāna-skandha'. 'Manas' represents the aspect of its mental functioning, thinking, reasoning, conceiving ideas, etc. 'Citta' which is here called 'Ālayavijñāna', represents the deepest, finest and subtlest aspect or layer of the Aggregate of consciousness. It contains all the traces or impressions of the past actions and all good and bad future possibilities.[64]

Tathagata-garba thought

The store consciousness concept developed along with the Buddha nature doctrine and resolved into the concept of mindstream or the "consciousness-continuity" (Sanskrit: citta-santāna)[65] to avoid being denounced as running counter to the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) and the tenets of selflessness (anātman).

It may be ultimately traceable to the "luminous mind" mentioned once in the Āgamas, but according to Kalupahana,

The concept of alaya is borrowed from Lankavatara; but it does not have the same characteristics nor does it function in the same way. It is neither "the originally pure mind" (prakrti-prabhasvara-citta) nor "the location of the womb (of enlightenment)" (garbha-samsthana).[66]

The Three Natures

The Yogācārins defined three basic modes by which we perceive our world. These are referred to in Yogācāra as the three natures of perception. They are:

Parikalpita (literally, "fully conceptualized"): "imaginary nature", wherein things are incorrectly comprehended based on conceptual construction, through attachment and erroneous discrimination.

Paratantra (literally, "other dependent"): "dependent nature", by which the correct understanding of the dependently originated nature of things is understood.

Pariniṣpanna (literally, "fully accomplished"): "absolute nature", through which one comprehends things as they are in themselves, uninfluenced by any conceptualization at all.

Also, regarding perception, the Yogācārins emphasized that our everyday understanding of the existence of external objects is problematic, since in order to perceive any object (and thus, for all practical purposes, for the object to "exist"), there must be a sensory organ as well as a correlative type of consciousness to allow the process of cognition to occur.

Emptiness in Yogācāra

The doctrine of śūnyatā is central to Yogācāra, as to any Mahāyāna school. Early Yogācāra texts, such as the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, often act as explanations of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Related concepts as dependent originaton (pratītyasamutpāda) and the doctrine of two truths are also central in Yogācāra thought and meditation.[67]

But the Yogacara-school developed its own insights on the nature of sunyata:

[T]he Yogācāra thinkers did not simply comment on Mādhyamika thought. They attempted to ground insight into emptiness in a critical understanding of the mind, articulated in a sophisticated theoretical discourse.[67]

Yogacara has a positive approach of emptiness:

Although meaning 'absence of inherent existence' in Madhyamaka, to the Yogācārins [emptiness] means 'absence of duality between perceiving subject [grāhaka, 'dzin-pa] and the perceived object [grāhya, bzhung-ba].'"[68]

Each of the three natures has its corresponding "absence of nature":

parikalpita => lakṣana-niḥsvabhāvatā, the "absence of inherent characteristic"

paratantra => utpatti-niḥsvabhāvatā, the "absence of inherent arising"

pariniṣpanna => paramārtha-niḥsvabhāvatā, the "absence of inherent ultimacy"

Each of these "absences" is a form of emptiness, i.e. the nature is "empty" of the particular qualified quality.

Yogācāra gave special significance to the Lesser Discourse on Emptiness of the Āgamas.[69][b] It is often quoted in later Yogācāra texts as a true definition of emptiness.[71]

Meditation and awakening

As the name of the school suggests, meditation practice is central to the Yogācāra tradition. Practice manuals prescribe the practice of mindfulness of body, feelings, thoughts and dharmas in oneself and others, out of which an understanding of the non-differentiation of self and other is said to arise. This process is referred to in the Yogācāra tradition as āśraya-parāvṛtti, "turning about in the basis", or "revolution of the basis",[72][73] the basis being the store-house consciousness:

… a sudden revulsion, turning, or re-turning of the ālaya vijñaña back into its original state of purity […] the Mind returns to its original condition of non-attachment, non-discrimination and non-duality".[74]

In this awakening it is realized that observer and observed are not distinct entities, but mutually co-dependent.

Contemporary scholarship

According to Lusthaus,[75] Étienne Lamotte, a famous student of Louis de La Vallée-Poussin, "…profoundly advanced Yogācāra studies, and his efforts remain unrivaled among Western scholars."

Philosophical dialogue: Yogācāra, idealism and phenomenology

Yogācāra has also been identified in the western philosophical tradition as idealism, or more specifically subjective idealism. This equation was standard until recently, when it began to be challenged by scholars such as Kochumuttom, Anacker, Kalupahana,[76] Dunne, Lusthaus,[12] Powers, and Wayman.[34][c] Buddhist scholar Jay Garfield continues to uphold the equation of Yogācāra and idealism, however.[34]:155 To the same effect, Nobuyoshi Yamabe states that "Dignāga also clearly inherited the idealistic system of Yogācāra." [77] Like many contemporary scholars, Yamabe is aware that the texts considered to be Yogācāra treatises reflect various stages in addressing the issue of mind and matter. Yogācāra has also been aligned with phenomenalism. In modern western philosophical discourse, Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty have approached what western scholarship generally concedes to be a standard Yogācāra position.

Legacy

There are two important aspects of the Yogācāra schemata that are of special interest to modern-day practitioners. One is that virtually all schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism came to rely on these Yogācāra explanations as they created their own doctrinal systems, including the Zen schools. For example, the early Zen tradition in China was sometimes referred to simply as the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (Ch. 楞伽宗, Léngqié Zōng), due to their strong association with the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.[78] This sūtra draws heavily upon Yogācāra theories of the eight consciousnesses, especially the ālayavijñāna. Accounts recording the history of this early period are preserved in Records of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters (Ch. 楞伽師資記, Léngqié Shīzī Jì).

That the scriptural tradition of Yogācāra is not yet well-known among the community of western practitioners is perhaps attributable to the fact that most of the initial transmission of Buddhism to the west has been directly concerned with meditation and basic doctrines. However, within Tibetan Buddhism more and more western students are becoming acquainted with this school.[citation needed] Very little research in English has been carried out on the Chinese Yogācāra traditions.