Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA
The mental capacity for yoga sadhana or spiritual
practice requires preparation in daily life. Swami
Vishnudevananda’s guide for spiritual practice
consists of the five points: proper exercise, proper
breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, positive thinking and
meditation. All of them ultimately lead to spiritual practice:
concentration is developed in the yoga asanas and becomes
even deeper in pranayama. Finding the right kind of relaxation
is absolutely necessary in this day and age if you want to keep
your inner balance. Spiritual development is further enhanced
by applying even a few principles of pure diet. The last of the
five points is explicitly mental: positive thinking and meditation.
In this perspective, “time for yoga” is a mental process.
The yoga postures and breathing exercises keep the body
sufficiently fit for mental work. Swami Sivananda says that
this mental work requires a cool head, emotional balance and
a strong and healthy body. On the other hand, yoga practitioners
who actually have physical ailments often do not appear as sick,
and do not feel as bad as the severity of their disease would
suggest; this is the power of the yogic attitude. A yogi is a person
who is aware of the mental activities and knows how to direct
them. There is no mental repression in this process, as the
thoughts are actually being redirected.
Constantly giving in to the tendency of the senses weakens
the will power. The practice of asanas and pranayama builds up
the necessary energy to resist this pulling of the senses. Simple
tapas or austerities protect the mind and can be integrated
easily into daily life: one day without sugar or without a news -
paper or other media. The mind may try to resist and say: “I want it
now”. But due to your own rational decision, the mind will not
get it. Viveka, the power of discrimination, kept the upper hand.
This results in a quiet state, away from the non-stop chase
of “I want to possess this” and “I want to enjoy that”. As one
desire is fulfilled, the next one comes up, and this happens
faster than the speed of light, which is 300,000 kilometres per
second. The mind moves faster than the speed of light.
We know that we are creating our future with our thoughts:
what I am now corresponds to what I thought in the past, and
in the future I will be what I am thinking now. So there is hope
that things can change. Hate may change, greed may change.
In this process of transformation there is no repression. New
synapses are formed in the brain as new thoughts are repeatedly
being affirmed. A new mode of thinking is created. Science is
now able to detect thought patterns and major mental trends
in the brain. Patanjali Maharishi, who formulated the principles
of raja yoga, called these thoughts samskaras, thoughts which
repeat themselves and form strong impressions. Both raja yoga
and modern science affirm that these impressions can be changed.
However it requires a great amount of mental work.
Another aspect of this mental work is a gradual awareness
of your sensory perceptions. You become aware that everything
you see, hear, smell, taste and touch is a relative impression.
These impressions are finite. This awareness changes the way
we look at the world around us. Also disease, physical impair -
ments and aging will look different. The same is true for beauty
and personal talents. The way we look at them changes. You
virtually take a bird's eye view, you do not remain stuck in any
sensory impression.
When we come to understand that everything that surrounds
us exists in exactly the same way within ourselves, that is what
the masters call ‘real thinking’ or ‘cosmic thinking’. Nature
constantly changes: the planets, the Milky Way, the explosions,
etc. The body undergoes the same changes. Outside we call
it natural disasters, and inside these can be diseases.
This type of thinking stimulates the reflection on what
is infinite and what is finite, what is true and what is not true,
what is permanent and what is impermanent. One begins to
observe one’s own habits, for example, from where the anger
arises, and you wonder how it can be overcome. One comes to
the conclusion that new habits are necessary. Master Sivananda
speaks of ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ action. If the quality of the action
is recognised, then new tendencies can replace the old habits.
‘Wrong’ thoughts are those which drag us down: fear, jealousy,
envy, greed, etc. ‘Right’ thoughts, however, are full of joy and
serenity. Negative action may have closed up certain mental
“A yogi is a person who is aware
of the mental activities and knows
how to direct them.”
functions, but it is possible to reopen them. Negative actions
or thought currents are those which do not lead to a more
open, healthy worldview. Suppose, for example, there is fear
of spiders. One can train oneself to overcome this phobia,
by welcoming the spider when it shows up. The mental function
must undergo training so that we can experience inner peace.
It is possible to meet the spider peacefully rather than crushing
it. The same goes for colleagues and other people whom you
may not particularly like: you can deal with them peacefully
rather than crush them. This is Yoga in daily life: you may not
be able to choose the people around you. And even if it all
started in a positive way, the controlled and gracious behaviour
that was shown at the recruitment interview may change then
when there is time pressure, fatigue and work overload. As it
may not be possible to simply move away from the situation,
it requires mental training to keep your balance, which in turn
needs energy, and that energy can be drawn from the practice
of asanas and pranayama.
The mind learns not to immediately respond to everything,
not immediately to be angry, not to fall immediately into the
“Me” and “Mine” thought: “Why me? Why does this happen
always to ME? And I, I, I ...“. That is what distinguishes great
yogis. It does not really matter how long they can stand on the
head or hold their breath, live without food or are able to
control certain body functions. Circus artists may do this even
better, but that is not the real thing. One recognises the Yogi
by the equanimity, the serenity and the fresh attitude towards
situations and people. He does not say, "I already know this,
it is always the same problem", and then proceed according
to his own mental habits. Habitual thought patterns veil the
intuition and make it difficult to pursue new paths in an
enthusiastic way.
Meaningful austerity includes doing good to someone else,
giving the most precious thing we have, and that is our time.
Love takes time. Health takes time. Serving people takes time.
Really doing a favour takes time. A really good gift for example,
needs a lot of time until we find what the other person can
YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015
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