The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are the seminal, authoritative yoga text. Within which yoga is presented as the activation of the meditative mind. The meditative mind is the natural expression of coherent intelligence, that arises when mind becomes free from concern, both internal as well as external. Its activation takes place as the inclusive intelligence of awareness, no longer concerned by any eventuality, turns in upon itself. This infolding is invited by intimacy with the natural presence of the breath.
Awareness is the fundamental quality through which Consciousness expresses itself into human experience. It brings with it five functional qualities (yama): sensitivity (ahimsa), honesty (satya), openness (asteya), intimacy (brahmacharya) and inclusivity (aparigraha). It is through these qualities that Consciousness generates the experience that takes place in and as awareness. They provide the focal keys to the meditative mind, while also being its fruit.
Patanjali maps the phases through which awareness infolds upon itself from the obvious (the body) to the subtle (Consciousness). Within this infolding many meditative states become available. All of which contribute to the erosion of the sense of separate self, its anxieties and neuroses. These include the well known state of samadhi, which Patanjali defines, in two parts of the text as: “apparent form radiating the singular significance of emptiness.”
This mapping can deeply fertilise your meditation practice. Not least in helping you to understand how simple and accessible are the nourishing states of the meditative mind once you learn to let go. This understanding , becoming confirmed in your own experience, allows you to access the delights and nourishment of the meditative mind more easily.
This 15 hour Course will guide you gradually and gently from awareness of your breathing into deeper, lucid states of the meditative mind. These may include:
Along the way you will almost certainly experience other phases of the meditative mind described by Patanjali such as:
All of these experiential states provide deep nourishment and insight, while gradually recalibrating intelligence into a stable coherence that allows the meditative mind to function spontaneously in your everyday life.
The 15 hour course unfolds by way of 6 2.5 hour sessions. Each session includes three or four sittings, punctuated by talks that will support you in your practice. Each sitting has its own unique verbal instruction, talking you into silence through different experiential lenses. The 2.5 hour sessions can be done as a single whole, or by sequential parts. There is a progressive sequentiality from the first sitting to the last, in the course as a whole and each individual session also. You are free to repeat any session, or sitting, before continuing on.
While this course is primarily experiential, supportive references are made to Patanjali’s text when relevant, and notes outlining Patanjali’s perspective on meditation are included. Whatever your experience of, or interest in meditation, this course will allow you to establish and deepen a nourishing meditation, insightful practice. You will need a meditation support, such as a stool, cushion, bench or chair. All sessions will be recorded and available online until March 20th. Notes on meditation theory and practice, and an annotated translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras will download on purchase.
Awareness is the fundamental quality through which Consciousness expresses itself into human experience. It brings with it five functional qualities (yama): sensitivity (ahimsa), honesty (satya), openness (asteya), intimacy (brahmacharya) and inclusivity (aparigraha). It is through these qualities that Consciousness generates the experience that takes place in and as awareness. They provide the focal keys to the meditative mind, while also being its fruit.
Patanjali maps the phases through which awareness infolds upon itself from the obvious (the body) to the subtle (Consciousness). Within this infolding many meditative states become available. All of which contribute to the erosion of the sense of separate self, its anxieties and neuroses. These include the well known state of samadhi, which Patanjali defines, in two parts of the text as: “apparent form radiating the singular significance of emptiness.”
This mapping can deeply fertilise your meditation practice. Not least in helping you to understand how simple and accessible are the nourishing states of the meditative mind once you learn to let go. This understanding , becoming confirmed in your own experience, allows you to access the delights and nourishment of the meditative mind more easily.
This 15 hour Course will guide you gradually and gently from awareness of your breathing into deeper, lucid states of the meditative mind. These may include:
- Meditative Suspension of dharana, within which the flow of mental activity pauses on a singular impression, such as a memory, image or idea
- Meditative Illumination of dharana, within which the impression unfolds into its form, origins and implications
- Meditative Surrender of conditional samadhi, within which the apparent form radiating the singular significance of emptiness
- Meditative Surrender of unconditional samadhi, within which awareness dissolves into the illuminate darkness of lucid unknowing
Along the way you will almost certainly experience other phases of the meditative mind described by Patanjali such as:
- Meditative Stillness of Concentration, when awareness settles into the space between perceptions
- Meditative Stillness of Illumination when a perceptual impression dissolves out of awareness
- Meditative Stillness of Surrender when perceptual impulses are absorbed before generating a perception
All of these experiential states provide deep nourishment and insight, while gradually recalibrating intelligence into a stable coherence that allows the meditative mind to function spontaneously in your everyday life.
The 15 hour course unfolds by way of 6 2.5 hour sessions. Each session includes three or four sittings, punctuated by talks that will support you in your practice. Each sitting has its own unique verbal instruction, talking you into silence through different experiential lenses. The 2.5 hour sessions can be done as a single whole, or by sequential parts. There is a progressive sequentiality from the first sitting to the last, in the course as a whole and each individual session also. You are free to repeat any session, or sitting, before continuing on.
While this course is primarily experiential, supportive references are made to Patanjali’s text when relevant, and notes outlining Patanjali’s perspective on meditation are included. Whatever your experience of, or interest in meditation, this course will allow you to establish and deepen a nourishing meditation, insightful practice. You will need a meditation support, such as a stool, cushion, bench or chair. All sessions will be recorded and available online until March 20th. Notes on meditation theory and practice, and an annotated translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras will download on purchase.