Blog – Page 37 – Integral Yoga San Francisco

Yoga and Buddhist Philosophy: The Brahmaviharas and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.33

by Katharine Bierce

Are you curious about yoga philosophy and connections to Buddhist meditation off the mat? Want to train your mind and not just your body? Keep reading!

The Yoga Sutras are an old Sanskrit text, compiled around between 500 BCE and 400 CE by Patanjali, in India who brought together knowledge about yoga from much older traditions. If you read the sutras, there’s a lot of seemingly obscure information about the yogic path of awakening, but for this article I want to focus on some very practical instructions on how to reduce your stress and live a happier life. In Sanskrit at least, they are short enough to be tweetable – things like “yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind” is a common one you might hear in a yoga class.

What’s so wonderful about yoga is that it’s not just physical: it is a complete philosophy that also encompasses the mental, emotional, and spiritual development towards being a more fully realized human being.

In the Samadhi Pada (which is one of the four sections of the Yoga Sutras), sutra number 33 is one of my favorites:

Maitri Karuna Muditopeksanam Sukha Duhka Punyapunya Visayanam Bhavantas Citta Prasadanam.

One of my favorite translations comes from T.K.V. Desikachar, who studied with the grandfather of modern yoga, Krishnamacharya. Desikachar explains thus in his book The Heart of Yoga:

“In daily life we see people who are happier than we are, people who are less happy. Some may be doing praiseworthy things and others causing problems. Whatever may be our usual attitude toward such people and their actions, if we can be pleased with others who are happier than ourselves, compassionate towards those who are unhappy, joyful with those doing praiseworthy things, and remain undisturbed by the errors of others, our mind will be very tranquil.”

In this way, the qualities of mind we want to cultivate are really WAYS OF SEEING, not a temporary state of mind (like a noun), but a verb – a practice to cultivate. The idea of practice as cultivating a way of seeing is also discussed in Rob Burbea’s excellent book Seeing That Frees. The idea is: we are always looking at the world through some sort of lens, like a person who wears glasses. Some days we have rose-colored glasses and everything seems great, and other days things may be more difficult; we can’t see as clearly because of our habits of mind. What this sutra is pointing to is that we can choose to put on a different set of glasses – by setting the intention to respond with loving-kindness, compassion, joy or equanimity depending on what happens, rather than our usual habitual reactions.

The Brahmaviharas or Four Immeasurables are in the Yoga Sutras

The 4 key words to note in Patanjali’s sutra 1.33 are as follows in the chart below. Sanskrit is the language in a lot of old yoga texts, like the Yoga Sutras. Pali is the language the Buddha spoke. In the Buddha’s Words is a great book that has an edited summary of the Buddha’s teachings in the Theravada tradition. Anyway, the same four qualities mentioned in Yoga Sutra 1.33 by Patanjali are also important qualities of mind that Brahmavihara meditation cultivates. The Brahmaviharas are the “divine abodes,” specifically, the divine abodes of the heart. You can’t think your way to enlightenment: you have to also cultivate “heart” qualities like kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity to be a fully realized human being. The word for “awakened heart-mind” is bodhicitta, by the way: ultimately, Buddhism does not distinguish between cultivating the heart and mind, because they are really one and the same – there is one word for them: citta. Lastly, the four heart qualities are also known as the Four Immeasurables: things you can’t have too much of, no matter how full your closet is.

Sanskrit	Pali	English
Maitri	Metta	Loving-kindness or goodwill (the wish to be happy)
Karuna	Karuna	Compassion (wishing to be free of suffering/stress)
Mudita	Mudita	Appreciative joy (happiness at the success of others)
Upeksha	Upekkha	Equanimity (meeting life with an “even keel”)

A poem I wrote about the Brahmaviharas is here.

Instructions for Stress Management Off the Yoga Mat

If you watch any “reality” TV show, you’ll probably see people practicing the opposites or “far enemies” of these four heart qualities: hatred, cruelty, jealousy and clinging. While these opposite qualities can make for some amusing entertainment, they’re not a good recipe for a stress-free life.

So how does one cultivate these qualities in modern life? You can use the people around you to help wake you up. As one lojong or mind training slogan of the Mahayana Buddhist teachings from Atisha says, “Be grateful to everyone.” After all, it’s the people who piss us off the most, who can show us where we are stuck on the spiritual path!

With the Brahmaviharas in mind, you can use situations that might annoy you as reminders to practice emotional intelligence as follows:

“Neutral” people: Practice loving-kindness, or wishing them well
People who are unhappy: Practice compassion, or wishing them free from suffering
People who are successful: Practice appreciation or joy for their good fortune
When you can’t do anything about a situation: Practice equanimity

Or, to paraphrase the yoga sutra 1.33, cultivate loving-kindness towards the happy, compassion for people who are suffering, appreciative joy for those who are doing well and equanimity towards those who oppose our values.

The Heart Practice Instructions

Each of the Brahmaviharas mentioned in Yoga Sutra 1.33 has some phrases that you can use to cultivate these qualities, or ways of seeing. Just like a software program runs and takes input and creates output, you can replace unhealthy habits of mind like fear, anger, and jealousy by “running these programs” with a meditation practice. Another metaphor is: the mind is like a puppy that wants to run around and chew on the furniture. So, to train the puppy/mind, you give it something else to chew on, like a bone. The phrases to cultivate kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are like one of those Greenie bones that you can give a dog to clean its teeth while it chews!

Because different people resonate with different ways of practicing, here are a few different options for phrases for the Brahmaviharas. I have recorded a few guided meditations if you prefer listening to these as well.

Loving-kindness Meditation

One of the strongest antidotes to fear and anxiety is a way of seeing the world that is based on loving-kindness. The “Loving-All Method” describes this in more detail, but you can use these phrases anytime, especially if you’re the kind of person who thinks you’re not “good enough” – these are especially for you!

May I/you/we be safe.

May I/you/we be happy.

May I/you/we be healthy.

May I/you/we live with ease.

May I/you/we be filled with loving-kindness.

May I/you/we be well.

May I/you/we be peaceful and at ease.

May I/you/we be happy.

Compassion Meditation

The Dalai Lama says: If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

May I/you/we be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

May I/you/we be free from fear and danger.

May I/you/we be free from pain and sorrow.

May I/you/we find peace and healing.

Or:

May I/you/we find stillness in the midst of change.

May we find peace in the midst of struggle.

May we find softness in the midst of resistance.

May we rest in compassion.

Appreciative Joy Meditation

Appreciative or Sympathetic Joy is happiness at the happiness of another. It doesn’t cost you anything to rejoice in the good fortune of others, and is an antidote to jealousy. Is someone in your life doing well right now? How might your dog or cat feel when they see you? Did a colleague recently get a promotion? Try this practice to bring more joy into your life.

May your happiness increase.

May your good fortune continue.

Equanimity Meditation

Equanimity is the state of heart-mind that can meet reality with a sense of balance, poise, ease, etc. Even if you want something (or someone) to change, sometimes there are things beyond your control. Change is a constant, and it isn’t always what we like. Whatever it is, whether something is unpleasant or pleasant, or even neutral, it is bound to change because change is a constant. So we can’t hang on to pleasure or try to push away pain thinking that that reactivity will make us permanently happy. Equanimity practice is based on the recognition that the life someone has is a result of the effects of their choices: When you exercise regularly, you experience the benefits. Likewise, when you eat unhealthy foods, use unkind words, break promises, for example, you experience worse physical or mental health as a result.

May I accept myself as I am.

May I accept my life as it is.

May my heart-mind be at ease with the inner and outer changes of life.

Or:

All beings are owners of their actions, heirs to their actions. Their happiness or unhappiness depends upon their actions and not on my wishes for them.

You can do these practices as a complete meditation practice, while seated – or while waiting for an elevator, in line at a store, etc. Consider bringing in a few of these phrases the next time you notice yourself getting lost in worrying.

Note that each of these is a different flavor of the same underlying thing: unconditional love.

Stress Isn’t New, and Kindness Works

With the 24/7 news cycle, it is easy to get stuck in fear. However, the facts of change/impermanence and suffering have not changed since the time of the Buddha or Patanjali thousands of years ago. As neuroscience tells us, neurons that fire together, wire together. Repetition is the power behind building muscles at the gym as well as strengthening the heart-mind to respond to stressful situations with wisdom, rather than habitual reactivity that adds to the suffering in the world. This is not about making some external result happen; rather, by cultivating an open and caring heart-mind, we are better able to have an appropriate response to whatever arises in our lives.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Katharine first learned about meditation at an event with free food during college in Chicago in 2009. After attending classes with Shambhala, she started an almost-daily practice in 2012 while working in consulting in New York City. Her influences include Nikki Mirghafori, Pema Chödrön, Vipassana in the style of S.N. Goenka, Tucker Peck, Culadasa, Jeremy Graves, The Mind Illuminated, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, somatic meditation with Neil McKinlay and Norman Elizondo, and the insight meditation teachers at Spirit Rock. In March 2020, she completed a month-long meditation retreat, which is her seventh retreat of a week or more. Katharine works full time in technology marketing at a Fortune 100 company in San Francisco and also teaches yoga on evenings and weekends with Business Casual Yoga.

Sevika Ford2021-06-16T11:30:49-07:00June 16th, 2021|Tags: Buddhism, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali|

Student of the Month – Mary Klipp

“Sometimes I pray: be well, dear tiny wildflower; stand up tall in that sidewalk crack. Surrender, oh hardy firs, on these windswept avenues! Oh, ye year-round flowers! May you never be taken for granted!”

–Mary Klipp

My yoga journey began with a promise I made to my son Josh’s plea to promise him to “Just try it, Mom. Just try it.” Okay, okay, I said, “I promise.”

The IYI was just beginning to offer a new class called Gentle Yoga, for people who may have various physical problems. Josh had heard about the class and thought I’d be a good fit. I have had a paralyzed left arm after having polio when I was almost 3 years old, several years before the vaccine became available.

So, in 2011 I went to IYI and met my first teacher, Jai, a pony-tailed, purple-haired gentleman. The class was quite small and included yoga nidra. I was immediately smitten and have never looked back!

A lifelong church-going, choir-singing Catholic, I have been a pray-er all those years, but Yoga introduced me to the practice of meditation. Certainly the church has a great history of contemplative prayer, even whole religious orders dedicated to its practice. However, I never learned, much less practiced, the actual elements of quieting the body and mind until Gentle Yoga! Yoga has, in effect, strengthened my own faith and deepened my prayer life.

I took full advantage of a number of Yoga Classes on specialized techniques in practice, theory classes, and more. I have always been impressed by the kindness, gentleness, and hospitality shown to visitors. Its warm energy is actually palpable!

The benefits of Yoga practice combined with my own Faith experience have been real and deep. I feel more peaceful, less anxious. I have received consistent practice in accessing a peaceful place inside of me. My respiratory ability, flexibility, stamina, balance, and overall strength – all of these areas have been maintained and improved over these years without strain, plus the additional benefit of my body’s being a “moving meditation!” Wow! In addition, I have made wonderful, supportive friends, who have taught me so much about serving with love! I am very, very grateful.

Hear about Mary’s seva in her own words in this video.

Sevika Ford2021-05-27T04:34:48-07:00May 27th, 2021|

Seva Through Kirtan

I hold a very special place in my heart for India and that is why I’m happy to help in whatever way I can during these challenging times. My work, practices and music have been influenced heavily by the richness of this culture. Traveling to Mother India has completely shaped my life and she has been very kind to me.

I think we are all quite aware of the ferocious wave of Covid that is devastating so many in India at the moment. That is why I am offering a Kirtan fundraiser to help. I have chosen 2 organizations (Indiaspora and GiveIndia) that are providing support and resources for critical patients and their families, and for boosting the oxygen supply and funding for life-saving equipment!

Many of you have been influenced in one way or another by the teachings of Yoga or Kirtan, transformative practices that stem from India. Both of these practices are based on relationship, interconnectedness, unity and love. Let your donation be a reflection of these principles and practices. Any and all support is essential at this time – no contribution is too little! Please join us for a Kirtan Fundraiser for India this Saturday, May 22 at 7:00pm PDT. Details HERE.

Thank you again for supporting our brothers and sisters in India.

Hari Om Tat Sat,

Astrud

Astrud has been teaching yoga since 2001 and sharing Kirtan internationally for the last 15 years.
She trained in NYC at Laughing Lotus, currently known as Body and soul Yoga collective and is a senior teacher and teacher trainer. She has studied the basics of yoga therapeutics and Vedic chanting with T.K.V. Desikachar in India. Her teaching has been inspired by her mentor and friend Mark Whitwell over the last 20 years.
Astrud’s classes and kirtans are warm, welcoming and all inclusive.
Her love and relationship to Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of devotion, is always illuminated in her teaching and music.
Astrud leads annual pilgrimages to India, has travelled internationally leading Kirtan, teaches Bhakti yoga to teachers in training and currently lives at the IYI in SF.

Sevika Ford2021-05-20T07:54:10-07:00May 19th, 2021|Tags: Kirtan|

Opening to the Firmament

by Swami Vimalananda

“Can you hold the door of your tent wide to the firmament?” asks Lao Tzu in a poem.

Are we firm in ourselves? Or does it feel like we are holding onto a pole with our arms while our legs are dangling in the wind? It may even feel like our arms have lost their grip, and we are barely holding on by our fingertips, living in constant fear and pain as the hurricane winds rush by.

In contrast, what freedom and strength to be wide open to the wild winds of the world and still have a strong sense of wholeness and wellbeing.

How can we be strong with the wild winds, the uncertainties in our lives? Most of us try to control the externals, feeling that if we can control things according to our wishes, we will feel safe internally. I have often noticed that people who feel out of control seem to love to give advice.

Trying to control people and things is a very tenuous position at best. It seems like the more we depend on outside stability, the more fear and pain we experience.

I feel there is also an added component, not only do we feel out of control but also if we were really known, we would be found unacceptable.

I remember quite well when it occurred to me that I was unacceptable to people, mostly men, because of my unaccommodating nature. I have a strong personality, which is fundamentally rebellious. My knee jerk reaction to someone making a bold statement is, “Oh, why?” I also am an extrovert and love being with people and feel quite comfortable taking charge. I learned quite early this didn’t work, and found many men steering clear of me, along with some women too.

But compromising myself didn’t work well either. I knew I was an impostor. I was not really loved for who I truly was, nor was I accepted for my perceptions. I longed to be independent, yet I was still seeking acceptance and love. I didn’t see a way out.

I remember very clearly that every time I felt tired, when my defenses were down, a feeling of aloneness and isolation would descend upon me.

I said to Sri Gurudev thinking of my dilemma, “You know me better than I know myself,” and he nodded his head. He then told me to be the strongest person I could possibly be. It was the first time I received that message. I actually felt a warm feeling of strength flow through my veins. After all these years his words still mean so much to me.

I remember very clearly when I asked Sri Gurudev, “But why am I still so angry, even experiencing rage at times?” I felt that I was very capable of getting into physical altercations, thinking that my rage made me strong. This was occurring at the same time that my life was outwardly easeful.

He whispered in my ear, “You constantly betray your own self.” I felt that he stabbed me deeply with a barbed knife in my gut, twisted it, and added more injury as he pulled the knife out.

I hated him for saying it. It took days before I was able to look at what he said and to see if it had merit. After looking at my past, I realized that I have betrayed myself many, many times. I am very humbled, and ashamed to this day when I look back on the many times and ways I betrayed myself.

I now see why he stabbed me so deeply. It is a constant reminder to never betray myself again.

The way out is to change our perspective. We are in control of our own thoughts.

We are not the victims of fate. Even though our external environment can be one of depravity, we can become warriors for our own selfhood. We are capable of living in a place where we can maintain and grow in our inner strength and open our tent doors wide to the firmaments. We can be stable, act with integrity and courage, and happily watch our crazy world go by. We can be loved for who we truly are.

We can begin to do the daily work of changing our thoughts from the negative to the positive, from the selfish to the selfless. As Sri Gurudev said, “It is our first and foremost duty to analyze all our own motives and try to cultivate selfless thoughts.” It is the way out of pain and into the inner realm of peace, surrounded by love.

It is a commitment and a discipline. It is not one insight, it is not one and done. The realization is the first step. As Pema Chodrin stated, “I have become very wary of breakthroughs.” It is like every other discipline — slowly, change occurs with practice. Practice as Sri Gurudev stated, with “patience, devotion, and faith”.

It is a commitment to the dailiness of replacing the feelings of victimization and powerlessness to one of inner strength. It takes vigilance to analyze our thoughts, accept what it is that we feel and acknowledge the hurt. We then take the next step knowing the way to healing is through expressing positive and selfless thoughts to ourselves and others. As Sri Gurudev stated, “Leaving others feeling better about themselves using the discipline of speech: Pleasant, truthful, and beneficial.”

As we begin to feel encouraged by the development of inner strength and love, we will continue on to the fullness of freedom.

“Come, come whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. Come, this is not a caravan of despair. Come, even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, come, come again, come.”

—Rumi

Swami Vimalananda Ma, RYT500, is an Integral Yoga sannyasi – monk. She has been involved with Integral Yoga since 1971 and Director of the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute from 1992-2011. She specializes in teaching yoga philosophy and spiritual counseling.

Sevika Ford2021-05-18T11:30:40-07:00May 17th, 2021|

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