Unveiling Ancient Wisdom: A Dive into the Yoga Sutras

Embark on an ancient journey with us, Dan and Jody, as we begin to unravel the tapestry of the Yoga Sutras, a text that defies time with its profound wisdom on self-leadership and self-realization. Have you ever considered that yoga is more than just poses; that it's an intricate science? Tune in to our latest episode where we explore the enigmatic origins of this guidebook, which scholars believe was penned 4,000 years ago, though the exact timeline is as elusive as the mist. We delve into the lexicon of the Yoga Sutras, from their potentially collective authorship to the significance of their 194 to 196 aphorisms, with each interpretation offering new insights into the science of living.

Together, we'll begin to dissect the essence of these cryptic aphorisms, emphasizing the importance of not just reading, but actively practicing the teachings. The Yoga Sutras beckon us inward, urging a harmony of mind and body through the union that is yoga. Join us as we decode the first sutra and discuss the mythical figure Patanjali who may—or may not—be the sole author of this timeless work. It's a call to action, a reminder that the path to self-discovery and transformative growth lies in the art of interpretation and the discipline of practice. Don't miss the conversation that may well be the thread you need to stitch together a more conscious and centered life.

We would love to hear from you! Email us at becomeoneliving@gmail.com or reach out to us on Instagram at BecomeOne Living.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:14

Hello and welcome back to become one living. My name is Dan. This is my wife, Joe.

Speaker 2 0:22

Hi everyone.

Speaker 1 0:23

We're back.

Speaker 2 0:24

Welcome back. Today I would like to talk about the Yoga Sutras. What do you think?

Speaker 1 0:36

I think it's great. Well, it's embarking on a journey embarking on a journey.

Speaker 2 0:47

What a great leeway into the Yoga Sutras, because they offer you a journey.

Speaker 1 0:51

It's not a story to read, it's a whole expedition.

Speaker 2 0:58

It is a guidebook on how to practice yoga. That was written 4,000, four to five thousand years ago. Now why aren't I giving you an exact date or time? The Hindu philosophy varies, meaning all different scholars will tell you different timelines because there is no exact times in literature that they can find, so they vary a thousand years here and there. So that's why, if you are a yoga teacher or you study these practices, if you read different books, different commentaries, they will tell you a different timeline. Nobody is right or wrong.

Speaker 1 1:43

Right and it's something you have to touch upon, but the history of it, historical context of it is just almost insignificant compared to the material and the depth that happens once you start to unpack them and beginning with the first one, you could probably spend a good amount of your lifetime just unpacking the first one.

Speaker 2 2:13

We are going to spend a whole episode unpacking the first one, but right now I want to go back a little to clarify exactly what it is. What are they? So they're a guidebook on how to attain yoga and practice yoga. It's a guidebook. In this book there's 194 to 196 aphorisms to 196 aphorisms. Why the difference between a few numbers? It depends on whose commentary you're reading. Again, it doesn't matter the amount, but I like to share this for yoga teachers or anyone interested. If you go and say well, you said 195 and this book says 196. Just so you know, it varies. It really depends on who is writing it and there's in particularly one Yoga Sutra that was added in in the third book. That makes it have more than the other books.

Speaker 1 3:21

We're not sure how many thousands of years ago that one was edited Exactly, or who edited.

Speaker 2 3:28

And let's talk about that. These were supposedly written by a mythical person.

Speaker 1 3:35

Patanjali.

Speaker 2 3:36

Patanjali.

Speaker 1 3:37

However.

Speaker 2 3:38

However, nobody knows for sure if he existed.

Speaker 1 3:42

Or if it was a group of scholars at the time that came together to put this all in place.

Speaker 2 3:49

Yes. So some scholars think it was a group of people that came together to write this. Others say it was students. Because sutra means thread to thread together like a sutra, like a suture. Suture, right means thread to thread together like a sutra, like a suture. And you're threading together these aphorisms. And some people say aphorisms are short sentences. But here's the difference An aphorism is a concise statement of a scientific principle. So it's a concise statement of a scientific principle. So it's a concise-.

Speaker 1 4:24

Statement of a scientific principle.

Speaker 2 4:26

Exactly, yoga is a science. Yoga is a science. I'm gonna say that a few more times Yoga is a science.

Speaker 1 4:36

Yoga is a science. Yoga is a science. Yoga is a science. It's a science of a way of living.

Speaker 2 4:43

Well, if we look at the word yoga, it's a science of a way of living. Well, if we look at the word yoga, it's a science of yoga. Yoga is union or coming together of two different things, so it's a science of bringing the mind and the body together for self-leadership and self-realization.

Speaker 1 5:04

I like that.

Speaker 2 5:05

So here is a whole guidebook with aphorisms, concise statements. They can be short and clever and wise. That are scientific principles that now, here's the difference between just a statement and an aphorism. An aphorism has to be interpreted. It's a short saying that requires interpretation.

Speaker 1 5:37

It's almost as if the statement is compelling the reader inward to do work. Yes.

Speaker 2 5:48

Yeah, it's a calling, you read it and people think reading it is enough. But it is a guidebook with practices in it, and the practices have to be done, have to be used in order to create a transformation. It cannot just be read, it's just words. So, to go back, the Yoga Sutras are so powerful because it is a specific guide on how to attain self-realization. And self-realization is you realize your fullest potential, your own potential in this lifetime?

Speaker 1 6:37

By way of the rituals, by way of actually putting into place what's shared in here.

Speaker 2 6:49

The Yoga Sutras also, aphorisms are said to be handed down through traditions. So the aphorisms that we are being blessed and honored to read have been passed down through tradition, orally, because the Hindu philosophy is an oral tradition. So then here's my question why do people change it? Why do I'm so curious? I've been in the yoga world my friends 30 years, 30 years. I was in my teens. 30 years of your life, yes, most of my life. I am 48. I joke in yoga class and tell people I'm 80 and that the practices have really helped me with longevity. It sometimes goes over well, but when you hear it so many times, nobody thinks it's funny. But I do.

Speaker 1 7:48

I do too.

Speaker 2 7:50

So I started in my teens because I had this feeling that there had to be a better way, a better way of living.

Speaker 1 8:01

Since I've gotten to know you, the most potent piece of your story to me is that the drive with what motivated you in your pursuits was health challenges, addiction, and so it wasn't like just something that you did because it was fun, or something you did on the weekend. You were honestly in earnest reading these things, taking them to heart, for change, for you to live better, feel better.

Speaker 2 8:45

The second training I did was purely because of the yoga sutras. I remember knocking on Joe T was her name Crystal. I remember knocking on Joe T's door saying you have to let me into this training or I'm going to die.

Speaker 1 9:02

She locked you out.

Speaker 2 9:03

No, no, this was before oh okay. Before that, when I asked if I could come in because I had missed a weekend, and the reason I was so drawn to this training was because the first training I did was purely physical. When we hear the word yoga, especially in the West, right away thoughts go off. Asana handstand, backbend wheel.

Speaker 1 9:29

Put your feet behind your head and pretzel and all that kind of funny stuff.

Speaker 2 9:35

And I learned the asana and I had come from a body background. I was a personal trainer. I studied physical education and health and exercise phys. I needed more, so I did a training specifically to learn the yoga sutras and the philosophy, because I wanted a new way of life. So this book offers you all a way of living. Stop changing it, stop altering it. It is potent and the theories behind it have been proven by data and even more now because of the study of neuroscience. Now, how was it proven years ago? Because you have these rishis and these yogis walking around that have touched or met self-realization and enlightenment and consciousness.

Speaker 1 10:33

Yeah, they didn't need the science back then. I think there's a great um from the buddhist influence that these teachings were handed off from one warm hand to the other or to another, and, and, and, and, and, that you know the, you know the proof, the scientific proof was literally walking.

Speaker 2 10:54

Yeah, years ago. And for me, I would look at the teacher and say I want what they have. Not, I want to be them. You hear the difference, friends? I wouldn't look at someone and say, oh, I want to be them, and I wouldn't idolize the person. I would have, and still feel now for my teachers, great respect for the practices, rituals, sacrifice and discipline they had to gain the mastery that they had, and that's why I only trained with people of great mastery, because I wanted that. I wanted to learn how to lead my life from consciousness, from love, and not from fight or flight, which is what most of us live in right now. Due to high levels of stress in the world and due to the state of the world, most of us live in this busyness.

Speaker 1 12:00

Yeah, it's so rich. Jo, when you say a word like ritual, you know it's just a reminder to everyone listening is that it's not something that you read and say, oh, I get it, I know it in my head and like and then you go to work and you get on with life. It's, they're actually things that if you do plug them in, if you do practice, if you do ritual, they yield a better life. You know, I mean where everyone's rushing around and squeezing it in, skidding into yoga and getting their practice on. But if you do slow down and take the time to investigate, explore, discover, practice, it works.

Speaker 2 12:57

And the suggestions on what to practice are in the book. So the Yoga Sutras have four padas, p-a-d-a. A pada means a book. It actually means foot, but it's broken up into four books and the first book is about what is yoga, the theory of yoga. That's the first book.

Speaker 1 13:18

Lays the groundwork.

Speaker 2 13:19

Yes, it's mainly what is yoga. So the whole first book talks about, well, yoga is this. It defines yoga. We'll talk about that in another episode, in another episode, but for now just creating content and structure for the container. The first book explains what is yoga. Now you can read about it and discuss it, interpret it. What does yoga mean to you? If the word yoga and what it means isn't relevant or relatable to you, you will not do it so neurologically. For us to feel safe with something and for us to want to dive in to something, we have to relate to it. So I suggest to all of you listening if you practice yoga or think you practice yoga, what does yoga even mean to you? What is it? That's what the first book explains, but I'm curious what does it mean to you? Listening right now?

Speaker 1 14:25

Yeah, email us.

Speaker 2 14:28

Oh yeah, oh my God. Yes, you can email us at becomeoneliving at gmailcom. That would be lovely to receive emails to see, to read, to feel what yoga means to you. How does it light you up? There's this pulse inside of us called spanda. This pulsation longs to live. It's a passion, itcha. These are Sanskrit words, but it's this drive to co-create. What are you creating with? If you don't know what yoga means to you and you take on my meaning, or Dan's meaning, or Swami Satchitananda's meaning or some teacher's meaning that sits in front of you, you may not dive in as deeply.

Speaker 1 15:26

Yes, and just right there in that little piece, it requires so much more than just saying oh. Yoga means this to me and it's like a word.

Speaker 2 15:36

Yeah, it's a feeling.

Speaker 1 15:38

It's a philosophy, it's a feeling, it's ideas, it's concepts, it's relationships. It's inclusive. There's nothing excluded. It's all of you, all of who you are, all that you've experienced, all that you wish for, all that you long for, all that you've lost, everything that, that, that that you've experienced On the surface, it's all. It's so rich I almost feel it's unfortunate that we have to name it something, because that alone, to me, turns people off.

Speaker 2 16:20

The name diminishes the potency. And then we try, because of neurologically, my friends, we try to label something and put it in a category of familiarity that makes us feel safe. So the labeling allows the brain neurologically to feel safe, but then it minimizes it to fit into our lens and minimizes the possibilities of knowing. So the first book again explains what yoga is. Now the second book tells you the practices you have to do this, this, this what yoga is Now. The second book tells you the practices you have to do this, this, this and this. Okay, then the third book is the achievements or the benefits of those practices. And let me tell you, my friends, I am living proof of the benefits and the gifts that the practices offer. I would not be sitting here if it wasn't for yoga, the eight limbs, the eight limbs we discussed in earlier episodes. So if you're interested in learning about the eight limbs or hearing our take on them, please listen to our prior podcasts.

Speaker 1 17:42

Yeah, and if you listen to them and you have a chance to chew on them for a while and you have questions again, email us. But maybe include in the emails the episode number so that we can readily and easily communicate with you, Because we want to invite everybody into the conversation.

Speaker 2 17:59

Dan is very excited about this. He wants to engage with you.

Speaker 1 18:04

I love it.

Speaker 2 18:06

That's yoga. Yoga is interaction, engagement, relationship, interaction, engagement, relationship. Now the fourth book of the Yoga Sutras talks about freedom and liberation and it's a more cosmic or universal look at it. And this is how I feel about liberation. Liberation to me is being free from my twisted thoughts. Liberation is zooming out and realizing I'm not those things that I think. Enlightenment to me means I can see clearly enough to know that that's dark or that's twisted or that's a protector created story. So I turn the lights on and shine the light on that so that I don't behave from that place of distortion. So the fourth book says if you understand what yoga is and you do these practices, you're going to get these benefits and then, with these benefits, you will be free.

Speaker 1 19:18

You know, I love it, it's amazing. But but you know, here's the booby trap is, people hear that last part and they want to just like, read something and say, I just read this and oh my God, I think that I'm free because it's in their head. Read this, and oh my god, I think that I'm free because it's in their head, you know, I. So I just want to remind everybody you know, get to practice the rituals. Let's just pick something and and jump in. That's look what.

Speaker 1 19:50

The coolest thing for me, looking at you, is the journey. You know, and I, you know, it's one of those cosmic things that I'm not sure like how exactly that you from so many people that think they're doing yoga Is. You know, it's not something that happens overnight and again, I don't know what it is within you. That's the curious thing to me about you. Why did you knock on Jyoti's door and why did you keep pursuing? It's almost like you kept drilling and drilling, and drilling and drilling. There's something that led you to believe and I and I know a couple of the things along the way, a couple of your experiences with different yoga teachers that compelled you a little bit more.

Speaker 2 20:44

There was almost like the carrot and you kept pursuing it because and when I hear those words, I feel them and the feeling I get is, in the sense I'm feeling even in this moment, is life or death, and it felt like that to me. It felt life or death. What I was living in that moment felt like I was dying. I was aware, consciously, that I was in an addiction. I was in survival mode, I was lying, I was manipulating, I was doing anything I could to survive, not to hurt anyone, but rushing around doing whatever I needed to do to make it through the day, when I would read something or go to a class and I started to feel better. I hung on to that feeling and thought, okay, there's more to this. So then I dove into the body, but I realized the body was limited because I sometimes used my body the way I did my addiction. I just bullied it. I beat it up, jump back, jump up. I was bound up. One time my legs were with a yoga strap and two blocks in between my legs and my teachers had me drop back 30 times. Now a drop back, if you don't all know this is you're standing up and then you just bend backwards and come up, bend back, bend back. I used my body to the point where I broke my spine. I have a spinal injury that gymnasts get Most gymnasts have from backbending in misalignment or overly. So I used the body to the point of almost abuse and realized, okay, I don't think this is yoga.

Speaker 2 22:45

That's when I went to Joe T and said I need the philosophy, I need meat, I need something to chew on and the word that we use for chewing is called manana. I need something to take in and just be with. So I would go home and I would read the Yoga Sutras as if it was the Bible to some people, as if there was life in those words, some people, as if there was life in those words, and I believed, and I don't know why. Maybe, as our podcast unfolds, it will become clear. Like you're saying, there was this seed in me that this language spoke to. Please hear that this is so important. If what you're doing doesn't speak to you, I have chills all over my body right now.

Speaker 2 23:39

The language of yoga spoke to my soul. This concept of, if the stories stop, if I practice this framework that was already created before me, the Yoga Sutras, if I study this and then practice it and embody it, that I may feel. Peace was a concept I never could even think of before. I didn't even know what peace felt like could even think of before. I didn't even know what peace felt like. So what drove me was knowing there had to be a better way, and I knew it wasn't only physical, and I knew it was only through food, because I also altered my diet, thinking okay, and stop drinking and stop doing this, and that there was still something missing.

Speaker 1 24:33

I'm like hello this and that and there was still something missing. I'm like hello, right, right. There are so many things that we can think that we're controlling, like diet, or eliminating something, or taking more of something, or doing this over and over again, or doing strengthening, strengthening, strengthening, or you know just all these things that are there but tend to be distractions, until you go into the, to the piece where it starts to get the mental and the body dance between the two.

Speaker 2 25:11

Yeah, between the two. Yeah, having the Yoga Sutras as a hand guide, as a handbook and a guide to keep going back to. I even share this with my students now. It's for remembrance. We have to remember because our mind is designed to forget. What does that mean? It means neurologically, every moment we step into that's new. We are surveying the land. What's this, what's that? Am I safe, am I not? What's happening? Okay, in that moment, we forget that we're okay. We forget that I just came from yoga class. Now I'm driving home and I'm getting cut off and I got oh my God, I'm clenching the wheel, my teeth. We forget. We need micro-remembers. I just made that word up.

Speaker 1 26:10

Micro-remembers.

Speaker 2 26:11

Yes, we need micro-reminders.

Speaker 1 26:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 26:18

That's what we need to micro-dose on.

Speaker 1 26:20

Right.

Speaker 2 26:20

To bring us back. Hey, I'm safe in this moment. Hey, here I am.

Speaker 1 26:25

Yeah, a micro-reminders would be so much better than all these other things, because all the other things don't. They take you away, they take you out of the matter at hand.

Speaker 2 26:38

They alter this state, and when our state is altered, then we alter. But what about the times we can't be in an altered state? I joke with people and I'm going to share this to you. If I'm having a confrontation with someone, I can't just whip out tree pose. Hey, hang on for a second or sit and meditate. Om Namah Shivaya. Om Namah Shivaya, god help me.

Speaker 2 27:05

We need to make the Yoga Sutras applicable. We have to be able to apply these in our life. But we can't do that, my friends, please, please, hear this. You cannot apply something that you haven't practiced. You have to practice these. After you practice them, then the application I know this sounds weird you start to refine it after you practice it. Make it sloppy, just do it, just do it. Then you start to refine it after you practice it. Make it sloppy, just do it, just do it. Then you start to refine it and it becomes more your size, it fits you, it works for you. Because this journey that Dan said, this yoga sutras, these are a journey. It looks different for everyone, but I will tell you what the thread is. The sutra that goes through all of us is a longing to know oneself. Our soul, our potential longs to know itself. That's in everyone. How you get to you, my friends, that's's your choice, but yoga is a way.

Speaker 1 28:18

Yoga is a way to you through you, through these practices, though you can't think yoga yeah, the really powerful and at the same time, sweet thing that I witnessed with you and your teacher trainees, for instance, is is through the course of training. It's almost like if you've got someone who's got a lot of edges, whether it's a triangle uh, you know or or or a rectangle. It's almost like you see the edges start to soften, more flows start to happen and the resistance start to calm down and literally a transformation that happens. And it is almost as if one day in one of your trainings we'll be able to schedule when the breakdowns happen. You know the rituals and the practice over and over again. It just we witness it. I witness it in Jodi's students that they it's literally, literally a blossoming into themselves, but it comes at a little bit of a cost. There's change, there's commitment, there's resistance, there's kicking and screaming.

Speaker 2 29:36

Sometimes there's, you know a lot Blame, there's anger. Yeah, there's so much emotions in my trainings that people are not used to me saying express that, tell me how you feel. That's when the breakthroughs start happening. When I say how do you feel, tell me, and we are able to start to express and share what is rising in the moment. That's yoga.

Speaker 2 30:12

If we can't practice skillfully, or practice sharing our feelings unskillfully, we're not going to be able to refine that. Stay with me, my friends, because it may seem that we're off a little, but this is what yoga is about. If you don't understand your psychology, if you don't understand your emotions, which are energy in motion, if you don't understand your energy, your psychology, you cannot be there for someone else. You cannot hold space for someone else's psychology and energy. So, this practice, as deep as you want to go in the yoga sutras, with these practices and rituals, that's how deep you can hold space for others.

Speaker 2 31:05

So I offer you that contemplation. Are you ready, are you willing to step into this journey of yoga, which starts with the yoga sutras, and do the practices that they tell you to do? That is written before you, without changing it, without altering it, without adding music and creativity, because there has to be a point of silence and stillness, eventually, at some time, to hear what has been pushed down so deeply inside you, so that you could just function daily. Are you ready? Are you ready for that? Are you ready?

Speaker 1 31:52

Are you ready for that?

Speaker 2 31:54

So the yoga sutras are a framework. They will hold you if you allow them to. They talk about what is yoga, how to gain this yogic state, this yoga lifestyle, through the practices. What are the benefits you'll receive from the practices, the practices, what are the benefits you'll receive from the practices and, lastly, the freedom and liberation and the connection to your fullest potential. Dan, just gave me a thumbs up y'all and we'll start Go ahead.

Speaker 1 32:39

We're going to start to wrap this episode up.

Speaker 2 32:40

Bummer, bummer, it's just like you lit the match, oh, would you like to share before we do, do you feel?

Speaker 1 32:48

um, I would just say this If this is speaking to you, the very first thing I would recommend as a requirement is simply this Approach this with an open mind, my husband Dan poisons Open open heart, open mind that's how this man lives.

Speaker 2 33:23

It's so beautiful to watch. Thank you, and thank you all for listening. Become one living. You can follow us at becomeoneliving on Instagram and you can email us at becomeoneliving at gmailcom Comments, suggestions, just maybe to introduce yourself and say hi, so we get to know you. Thank you for listening to Ancient Tools for Modern Living.

Speaker 1 33:55

Beautiful.