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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Patañjali takes it that there is a single reality and the multiplicity we see in it is a consequence of the projections of our different minds. Therefore the challenge is to undo the workings of the mind to experience reality in its most directness.
Our transactions are based on our perceptions of immediate reality and our hopes and fears for the future
Ethical preparation is of the greatest importance in spiritual advancement.
According to the Vedas, reality is and it cannot be described in words. Our conceptions of reality are projections based on habits of the mind, which are generated by saṃskāras or strong impressions.
Reality is interconnected whereas its descriptions capture specific slices of it that lose out on the deeper connections.
Yoga begins by asserting that its objective is to experience reality directly. But since the mind is the lens through which we see the world, we must first understand the nature of this lens and, paradoxically, this understanding is to be done by the mind. If the mind is the problem, in it are also the instruments for the solution to the problem.
The conception of the mind in the Yoga-sūtra is the same as that of the Ṛgveda which describes two birds on the tree of which one is eating the fruit and the other merely looks on.
This chariot is the body and its horses are the senses. The immature and unwise person is pulled by the horses; for the wise man it is not the senses that lead the chariot but rather the witness within who is detached and liberated and one with the universal self.
The unwise person feels he is free but isn’t; the wise one appears to have no autonomy, but is free!
