Practicing witness awareness in yoga
The Sankhya philosophy describes Purusha as the neutral witness, who is never involved and never affected by any movements or changes within the material matrix. Furthermore, it states that there are many purushas, one embedded within every human being. In this sense, Purusha is not Brahman, or the universal Self, but rather the individual Self within each of us, a tiny spark of Universal Brahman. Patanjali refers to this Sankhya-based description of Purusha in the following sutra, when he uses the word drashtuh, which means witness or observer. Purusha is called drashtuh because he (and he alone) has the power to witness all activities and events in uninterrupted succession, without changing anything or leaving anything out.
Tada draşşuḥ svarūpe avasthānam (Chapter 1, Su. 3) means that when the vrttis cease, the observer is established in his true form. In other words, by watching the movements of the mind, and not moving with them or interacting with them, one settles into the true form of the self (svarupa).
I don’t know anyone who can count the number of times Dr. Ladd has advocated the practical application of this idea, encouraging his students to watch every thought, feeling and emotion. When we watch the activities of the mind in passive viewing mode, without judging, categorizing, reacting, liking or disliking, says Dr. Ladd, we move toward the stillness and silence of Purusha, and take a small step closer to embodying the definition of yoga.
When we practice this kind of witness, we increase the likelihood that we will take the right attitude toward any problem, and that we will do the thing that will provide us with the greatest freedom possible at a given moment. The person with the most awareness in any situation or interaction is always the person with the most freedom, because that person notices the subtle signs and reasons that give insight into the best solution. A person with viewing awareness can track the progress and development of a situation, thus determining when to best respond. A person who does not testify is likely to react without having a real vision of the best course of action.
For example, a person who notices certain dosha qualities accumulating in the environment, such as coldness, is free to decide to act. A person could, for example, put on some warm clothes and go have a bowl of hot soup to balance out the cold quality. Someone who does not know the accumulation Dosha characteristics What precedes the disease process misses the opportunity to prevent the occurrence of Duschek disorder. By the time physical damage or illness becomes apparent in a person, many complex processes have already occurred under the radar of his or her consciousness, and that person’s freedom is limited because he or she is naturally forced to invest energy and time in undoing the damage caused by the defect.
Long Term Benefits of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
Ayurvedic author Charaka says that just as an incompetent king neglects his enemy, an unwise person fails to recognize the initial stages of disease. He explains that the point at which illness seems unimportant to an ignorant person is the point at which a wise person applies awareness and prevents the imbalance from manifesting into full-blown damage. In the same way, simple vrttis can be watched so that thoughts, feelings and emotions do not become more complex than they should be, causing reactions that destroy one’s relationships and destroy one’s balance. Treating the disease is complex and requires a large amount of energy, while preventing the disease is simple and more sustainable. Therefore, a Ayurvedic practitioner People should be encouraged to develop awareness of what is happening everywhere A moment.
The problem is that for most of us, when we look inward and try to observe the origins of thoughts and emotions, we do not automatically achieve pure witness awareness. In fact, trying to do so can become vrtti complex in itself. Thinking about thoughts is not the same as observing thoughts, and vrttis can actually be subtle. Patanjali says: vṛtti sārūpyam itaratra (Chapter 1, Su 4)¹, which means that in no other state (than the cessation of mental movement), the drashtoh, or “witness,” is mistaken for something else, or takes the wrong form. That is, since vrttis are the truth for anyone, Patanjali says that he does not practice yoga and will mistake the “self” for the “non-self.”
In the higher reality, as described by schools such as Advaita Vedanta and Tantra, pure consciousness and pure energy of creation are not different from each other. However, in the world we normally perceive, spiritual and material nature seem to be at odds. Without a little practice and constant inspiration, it is easy to forget spiritual aspirations during our daily tasks and activities. Often, it may seem as if spiritual meditation and worldly activities take something away from each other.
The Sufi tradition describes the tension in the relationship between the material and spiritual parts of ourselves, as if a camel were tied to a fish. If the fish gets what it wants, which is to swim in the water, the camel drowns. If the camel gets what it wants by walking in the desert, the fish suffocates. This may not express the highest truth possible for humans, but it is something that most people have experienced. Simply put, while part of us wants to be freed from cycles of pain and pleasure, another part is constantly seeking comfort in the distractions offered by the relative material world.
Advaita Vedanta and tantra build some additional stories on top of the framework provided by Sankhya, saying that there are higher states of existence than abiding in the silence and stillness of the self, and a great and beautiful unity behind the apparent duality of purusha and prakruti. These philosophies connect loose ends and answer the questions that Sankhya philosophy inspires. However, whether or not one prefers this model of reality to the Samkhya-yoga model, the principles of the Yoga Sutras remain a useful guide. The fact that Samkhya and classical yoga distinguish between matter and spirit is part of the reason why Patanjali is able to express with such clarity the shifting spiritual value of the different states of consciousness that one can experience.
When we experience tension between the spiritually and materially oriented parts of ourselves, in whatever way it presents itself, it may be helpful to turn to discernment, by which we can identify the things that can help us witness, and those that harm it. The following article will look deeper into the differences between Purusha and Prakruti, and consider how understanding their differences can be applied to developing discernment in our daily experiences.
Republished with permission from the Ayurveda Today Newsletter and the Ayurveda Institute. Originally printed in the Summer 2007 issue, Volume XX, No. 1
