Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Yoga: The Growth of Consciousness

The purpose of life is to become conscious.This is not only the purpose of yoga, but the evolution of life itself is to become more and more conscious, and yoga means something more.The evolution of life requires becoming more and more conscious, but consciousness is always otheroriented: you are always aware of something, an object.Yoga means evolving on a level where there is no object but only consciousness.Yoga is an evolution towards pure consciousness, not "something" in consciousness, it can only "be" consciousness itself.When you are conscious of something, you are not aware of the existence of consciousness itself.Your consciousness is focused on something, your attention is not on the source of consciousness itself.In yoga the whole effort is to become conscious of both the object and consciousness itself, and consciousness has a double purpose.You have to be aware of the object, and you have to be aware of the subject at the same time. Consciousness has to be a two-way bridge.The subject must never be forgotten, the subject must never be forgotten when you focus your consciousness on the object.

This is the first step in yoga.The second step is to remove both subject and object and just become conscious.This pure awareness is the goal of yoga. Even without yoga one grows towards more and more consciousness, but yoga adds something, contributes something to this evolution of consciousness.It can change a lot of things, and it can transform a lot of things.The first transformation is that at the moment when something is about to become aware, you can be a double arrowed awareness, you can remember yourself. The dilemma is: either you are conscious of an object, or you are unconscious.If there are no external objects, then you are in a coma, and objects are needed in order for you to become conscious.You feel sleepy when you are completely unoccupied - you need certain objects to be conscious of, but when you have too many objects to be conscious of, you may feel unable to sleep.That's why a man cannot sleep if he is too occupied with thoughts.Objects are there continuously, thoughts are continuously there, he cannot become unconscious, thoughts are constantly demanding his attention.And that's how we live.

You become more aware of new objects.That's why we have a desire for something new, a desire for something new.Old stuff can get boring.Once you have been with an object for a while, you become unconscious of it.You have accepted it, then now your attention is not needed, you will become bored.For example, you may not be aware of your wife for years because you have taken her for granted.You don't look at her face anymore, you don't remember the color of her eyes, you haven't really paid attention to her in years.Only when she dies will you become aware of her presence again.That's why wives and husbands have become bored with each other.Any object that ceases to hold your attention consistently produces boredom.

In the same way, a mantra, a repeated sound vibration causes deep sleep.When a particular mantra is repeated over and over again, you get bored.There is nothing mysterious about this.Repeating a particular word over and over will tire you, you won't be able to stay with it for a long time, you will start to feel sleepy, you will enter a certain sleep state, you will become unconscious.In fact, the whole method of hypnosis relies on boredom.If your mind can be bored by something, then you will go to sleep, and sleep can be induced. Our whole consciousness depends on the new object, and that's why there is so much desire for the new.A new feeling, a new dress, a new house is something "new", even if it's not very good.With something different you feel a sudden rise in consciousness.

Because life is an evolution of consciousness, this is good; as far as life is concerned, this is good.If a society desires new sensations, life will progress; but if it stays in the old state and does not demand new ones, then it will become dead and consciousness will not evolve. In the East, for example, we are all trying to be content with the status quo, which creates boredom, nothing new.And so, through the centuries, everything continued as it did.You will just be bored.Of course, you can sleep better, and the West cannot sleep.Insomnia is sure to exist when you are constantly asking for new things, but there is no evolution.Two things seem to be going on: either the society will become lethargic and lifeless, as in the East, or it will become sleepless, as in the West.

Nothing is good.You need a mind that is aware even when there is no new object.In fact, you need a consciousness that is not necessarily related to that "new," not necessarily related to the object.If it is meant to be related to the object, then it must be related to the "new".You need a consciousness that is completely detached from the object, that is beyond the object.Then you have freedom: you can go to sleep when you want, you can wake up when you want, and you don't need an object to help you.You become free, truly free from the world of objects. Once you go beyond the object, you go beyond the subject, because they exist together.In fact, subjectivity and objectivity are the two poles of a thing. When there is an object, then you are a subject, but if you can have awareness without the object, then there is no subject and no self.

This requires a deep understanding: when the object disappears and you can be conscious without the object, only consciousness, then the subject also disappears.It cannot stay there, it cannot exist!Both are gone, only consciousness, the untethered consciousness, is there.In this way, there are no boundaries, neither the boundaries of the subject nor the boundaries of the object. Buddha used to say that when you are in meditation then there is no self, no atman, because that awareness separates you from everything else. If you are still there, the object is also there.I exist, but "I" cannot exist in total solitude, "I" can only exist in relation to the external world. "I" is a relational thing.Then the so-called "self", "I am" is just something within yourself that exists in relation to something outside.But if the outer does not exist, then this inner also disappears, and then there is only pure, spontaneous consciousness.

This is what yoga is for, this is what yoga means.Yoga is the science of freeing yourself from the boundaries of subject and object, and unless you free yourself from these boundaries you are either in an Eastern imbalance or in a Western imbalance. If you are going to achieve peace of mind, tranquility, sleep, then it is best to be with the same thing continuously.There won't be any visible change there over many, many centuries.Then you are at ease, you can sleep better, but this is not spiritual; you have lost so much.The urge to grow is lost, the urge to take risks is lost, the urge to explore, to discover is lost.Really, you start living a dull life, you become dull.

If you can change this life, then you become very alive, but it is also sick, because you become alive but tense, alive but crazy.You will start looking for new things, demanding new things, but you are blowing a whirlwind.New things happen, but you are lost. If you get rid of your objectivity, then you become too subject, too dreamy; but if you become too occupied with the object, then you lose your subjectivity.Both situations are unbalanced.The East has tried one, and the West has tried another. Now, East is turning to West, and West is turning to East.The East is attracted by Western technology, Western science, Western rationalism, Einstein, Aristotle, and Russell have captured the mind of the East; at the same time, the exact opposite is happening in the West things, Buddha, Zen and Yoga have made a lot of sense.This is a miracle.The East is turning to Communism, Marxism, Materialism, and the West is starting to be concerned with things about expanding consciousness - meditation, spirituality, ecstasy.The wheel will turn, and we can change our burdens.For a moment, it will be glorious, but afterward, the whole stupidity starts all over again.

①Einstein (Albert Einstein, 1879~1955): A famous American theoretical physicist born in Germany. ——Editor's note ②Aristotle (Aristotle, 384-322 BC): Greek philosopher, logician and scientist.He is the most outstanding representative of the school of realism philosophy in the history of western thought. ——Editor's note ③BertrandRussell (BertrandRussell, 1872～1970): British idealist philosopher, mathematician, logician.The main works include "Principles of Mathematics", ,, and so on. ——Editor's note The East has failed in one way, and the West has failed in another, because they both tried with the denial of another part of the mind.You have to go beyond both parts and not reject one in favor of the other.The mind is a whole.Either you can go beyond it completely or you cannot go beyond it, and if you go on rejecting a part, then the rejected part will come back with revenge.Really, that part that was rejected in the East is now taking revenge in the East, and that part that was rejected in the West is now taking revenge in the West.You can never go beyond that which is rejected, it is there and it goes on gathering more and greater power.The moment you accept that part succeeds is also the moment it fails.Few things fail like success.Because of partial success, because of your partial success, you are doomed to deeper failure.What you gain becomes unconscious, and what you lose enters awareness.

The absence will be felt all the more.If you have lost a tooth, your tongue will be aware of the absence and often reach for the missing tooth.Before that it never went to that place, never, but now you can't stop it, it keeps going to that empty place to feel the missing tooth. In the same way, when one part of the mind succeeds, you become aware of the failure of that other part - that part should have succeeded but now it is not.Now the East has realized that stupidity which has not become science: that is why we are poor, that is why we are unknown.Now this lack is felt, so the East has turned to the West, and at the same time the West has felt its own stupidity and its lack of integration. Yoga means the science of the whole of man.It is not just religion, it is the science of the whole of man, the science of the whole that transcends all its parts.When you go beyond the parts, you become the whole.The whole is not just the addition of parts, it is not a mechanical thing that arranges all the parts into a whole.No, it's much more than a mechanical thing, it's like some kind of work of art. You can divide a poem into words, but then words don't mean anything, and when there is a whole, then it is richer than words, it has its own identity.It has gaps, just like words.And sometimes, gaps are more meaningful than words.A poem is poetic only when it says something that is not really said, only when it transcends all that is about it.If you divide it, analyze it, then you have only the parts, and the flower of the transcendence, the real, is lost. So, consciousness is a whole.Deny a part and you lose something, something that is really meaningful.And you don't get nothing, all you get is the extreme.Every extreme becomes a disease, every extreme becomes an inner disease, so that you are constantly in turmoil. There is an inner chaos there. Yoga is the science of transcending chaos, of making your consciousness whole.And it is only when you go beyond the parts that you become whole.So yoga is neither religion nor science, it is both, or rather, it transcends both.You could say it's a scientific religion, or a religious science.That's why yoga can be used by anyone of any religion; it can be used by anyone of any kind of mind. All the developed religions in India have very different and in fact hostile philosophies, concepts and ideas.They have nothing in common.There is nothing in common between Hinduism and Jainism, there is nothing in common between Hinduism and Buddhism.But there is one thing in common that all these religions cannot deny: Yoga. Buddha said "no body, no soul", but he could not say "no yoga".Mahavira says "There is no body, but there is a soul", but he cannot say "There is no yoga".Hinduism says "there is body, there is soul, and there is yoga".Yoga remains eternal and even Christianity cannot deny it. In fact, even if someone is a complete atheist, he cannot deny yoga, because yoga does not have a prerequisite to believe in God.There are no prerequisites for yoga, yoga is absolutely experiential.There is no such concept as "God" mentioned in the oldest yoga books at all.When a concept like God is mentioned, it is only mentioned as a method, it can be used as a hypothesis, if it helps someone, then it can be used, but it is not an absolute condition.That's why Buddha can be a yogi without God, without Vedas, without any faith.Without any belief, any so-called belief, he can be a yogi. So, for a theist or even an atheist, yoga can be a common ground.It can be a bridge between science and religion.It is rational and irrational at the same time, its method is perfectly rational, but through the method you enter deeply into the mystery of the irrational.The whole process is extremely rational, every step is so rational, so scientific, it's so logical that you just have to do it and everything else will follow. Jung mentioned that in the nineteenth century no one in the West cared about a psychology capable of imagining a mind beyond consciousness or a mind below consciousness, because mind means consciousness.So, how can there be an unconscious mind?This is ridiculous and unscientific.However, in the 20th century, as science learned more about the unconscious, the theory of an unconscious mind developed.Then, when they go deeper, they have to accept the idea of ​​a "collective unconscious" (collective unconscious), not just the individual.It seems absurd because mind means something personal, so how can there be a collective mind?But now they have even embraced the concept of a collective mind. ① Carl Gustav Jung (Carl Gustav Jung, 1875~1961): Swiss psychologist, founder of analytical psychology.The main works include "Analytical Psychology", "Psychological Types" and so on. ——Editor's note These are the first 3 distinctions that Buddhist Psychology, Buddhist Yoga divided, and then Buddha went on to divide it into more than 160 distinctions.Jung said: "Before we denied these three, now we accept them, and perhaps others exist. We can only move forward step by step, and we must go deeper." Jung's approach is very rational, he A man with deep roots in the West.With yoga you have to do it very rationally, but only to jump into the irrational.The result must be irrational.You can understand that the rational cannot be the source because it is finite.The source must be greater than you, you come from the source, everything comes from the source, the whole universe comes from the source, goes down and disappears in it.There must be more to this source than these.What is shown must be less than the source.A rational mind can feel and understand what is shown, but what is not shown remains behind. Yoga does not insist that one must be rational.It says: "To imagine something irrational is itself rational, to imagine the limits of reason is really rational." A true, honest mind always knows the limits of reason, always knows reason is somewhere It's over, and any sincerely rational person has to come to a point where it feels irrational.If you move towards the ultimate with reason, that boundary will be felt. Einstein felt it, Wittgenstein felt it too.Wittgenstein's Tractatus is one of the most rational books ever written, and he was one of the most rational minds.He's been talking about existence in a very logical way, in a very rational way.His expression—words, language, everything was rational, but then he said: "After a certain point, there is something that cannot be said, about which I must remain silent." Then he He also wrote: "Those that cannot be said must not be said." ①Wittgenstein (LudwigWittginstein, 1889~1951): Austrian, the main figure in philosophy in the English-speaking world in the 20th century.He studied mathematical logic under the guidance of Russell.His "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" and "Philosophical Investigations" are classic works of philosophy. —— Annotation The whole mansion fell, the whole mansion!Wittgenstein originally wanted to give a rational explanation to the whole phenomenon of life and existence, but suddenly a point came, and he said: "Now, beyond this point, nothing can be said." Something, something very meaningful.Something is there, and now nothing can be said about it.Now, there is a point where it cannot be defined, where all definitions fall.Whenever there is a real, logical mind, it comes to this point.Einstein died as a mystic, and he was a more mystic than what you call a mystic, because if you are an exhausted mystic who has not gone through the path of reason, then you will never be able to Dive deep into mysticism.You don't really know that boundary.I always see mystics who talk about God as a logical concept, as an argument.There are some Christian mystics who have been trying to "prove" God.How boring!If God can also be proved, then you cannot leave anything that cannot be proved, and that which cannot be proved is the source. A person who has experienced something divine does not try to prove it, because that effort to prove shows that one has never been connected to the source of life, which cannot be proved, It cannot be proven.The whole cannot be proved by the parts.For example, my hand cannot prove my existence, my hand cannot be bigger than me, it cannot cover me.It would be foolish to prove.But if a hand can completely cover itself, that's good enough.Once the hand knows itself, it also knows that it is rooted in something "more...", it also knows that it has been united with something "more..." .It exists because the "more..." is there. If I die, so will my hand, which lives only because of me.The whole has never been proven, only the part can be known.We cannot prove the whole, but we can feel it; the hand cannot prove me, but the hand can feel me.It can go deeper within itself, and once it gets to that depth, that's me. So-called mystics who are troubled by reason are not real mystics.A true mystic is never troubled by reason, he can play games with it.He can play games with reason because he knows that reason cannot destroy the mystery of life.Those so-called mystics and religious people who are afraid of reason, logic, argument, are actually afraid of themselves.Any argument against them may create inner doubts, and it may help their inner doubts to surface.They are afraid of themselves. Tertullian, the Christian mystic, said: "I believe in God because I cannot prove him; I believe in God because it is impossible to believe." That is how a true mystic feels: "This is not true." It is possible, that's why I believe." If it is possible, then there is no need to believe it, it becomes just a concept, a common concept. ① Tertullian (Tertullian): An ancient Christian writer and orator, who made contributions to making Latin the language of the church and the communication tool of Western Christianity.His main works include: "Apologetics", "Refutation of Hermogenes", "On the Resurrection of the Body of Christ" and so on. ——Editor's note This is what the mystics have been saying about belief, belief, it is not something rational, it is not a concept, it is a leap into the impossible.But you can only jump into that mystery at the edge of reason, never before.How could you do it before this?You can only jump when your reason is stretched to its logical limits.You have come to a point where reason cannot go forward and this transcendence remains.Now you know that reason cannot go one step further, and the "before" still exists.Even if you decide to stay rational, that creates a boundary.You know that existence is beyond the limits of reason, so even if you don't go beyond that limit, you become a mystic.Even if you don't dance, you become a mystic because you know certain things, you have encountered certain things, and those things are not at all rational. You know all that rationality can know.Now, something that reason cannot know is encountered.If you are going to jump then you have to leave reason behind, you cannot jump with reason.This is called belief.Faith is not against reason, it is beyond reason.It's not irrational, it's irrational. Yoga is a way to lead you to the limit of reason, it is not only a way to take you to the limit, but also a way to jump. How to dance?If Einstein knew some method of meditation, he would have blossomed like a Buddha.He was right on the edge, and there were many times in his life when he made it all the way to the point where he could jump, but missed again and again, and again he was entangled with reason.And in the end, he was discouraged by his whole rational life. The same thing could have happened to Buddha, he also had a very rational mind, but for him something was possible, he was able to use a method.Not only rationality has its methods, but irrationality also has its methods. Yoga is fundamentally concerned with irrational approaches, and only in the beginning can some rational approach be used.Those methods are just to persuade you, to push you, to persuade your reason to go to the limit.And if you reach that limit, you will make the most radical leap. Gurdjieff carried out his work in some profound, irrational ways in a certain group.He works with a group of followers in a peculiarly irrational way.He often calls it a "stop exercise" (StopExcercise).For example, you are with him and all of a sudden he shouts, "Stop!" Then everyone has to stop like him, stop completely.If the hand is somewhere, then the hand must stay there; if the eye is open, then it must remain open; if the mouth is open, and you are speaking something, then the mouth must Keep it the way it was then.There can be no changes. ①Gurdjieff (Gurdjieff, 1872～1949): Armenian philosopher. ——Editor's note This method begins with the body.If there is no movement in the body, then there is no movement in the mind.The two are linked.You cannot move your body without the movement of the mind within, and you cannot stop your body completely without the cessation of the mind within.Body and mind are two different things, but they are one energy.The energy in the body is grosser than the energy in the mind.The density is different, and the frequency of the wavelength is also different, but they are the same wave, the flow of the same energy. Followers have been doing this "stopping exercise" for a month in a row.One day Gurdjiev was in his tent and 3 followers were passing through a dry canal on the ground, it was a dry canal with no water flowing in it, and all of a sudden, from his tent , Gurdjieff shouted: "Stop!" Everyone on the bank of the canal stopped, and so did the 3 people who were in the canal, it was dry, so there was no problem. Then suddenly, the water rushed over.Someone opened the floodgates and water rushed into the canal.When the water reached the necks of 3 people, one jumped out of the canal, thinking: "Gurdeev doesn't know what happened, he's in his tent, he doesn't know the fact that the water has entered the canal." The man thought, "I have to jump out, it's irrational to be here now." So he jumped out. The other two remained in the canal as the water rose higher and higher.Finally, the water was up to their noses, and the second man thought, "This is the limit! I didn't come here to die, I came here to know the eternal life, not to die." So he too jumped out of the canal. The third person is still there, he is also facing the same problem, but he decided to stay, because Gurdierev once said that this is an irrational training, if it is done with reason, then the whole Things will be broken.He thought, "Okay! I accept death, but I cannot stop this training." So he stayed there. Now, with the water running over his head, Gurdjiev rushed out of his tent, jumped into the canal, and pulled him out, on the brink of death.But when he came to life, he was already a changed person.He's not the guy standing there doing this drill anymore, he's completely changed.He already knows certain things, he has jumped. Where is the limit?If you go on with reason then you will miss, you will go on falling back.Sometimes a person takes a step to lead you beyond.That step becomes a transformation, the split is transcended.No matter whether you say the division is between consciousness and unconsciousness, between rationality and irrationality, between religion and science, or between East and West, that division must be transcended.This is yoga: a transcendence.Then you can go back to rationality, but you will change.You can even reason things out, but "you" will be beyond reason.