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Book II: On Practice

Spiritual yoga is established by the practice of tapas, svadhyaya, and Isvara-pranidhana (explanation to follow). Spiritual yoga is a medicine for curing psycho-emotional afflictions; it is the foundation for creating enlightenment. There are five major afflictions: Ignorance (misconceiving the true nature of things), selfishness (ego worship), attachment (most often to pleasures), aversions (most often from vexations or discomforts), and the fear of death.

Ignorance is mistaking the corruptible for the pure, the imaginary for the absolute, the delusive for the truthful, and the ephemeral for the perennial. It clings to impurity, thinking it pure; misery, thinking it happiness; savagery, thinking it holy.

Selfishness is making a god of the ego and expecting everyone to willingly serve that false god, punishing those who do not.

Attachments are pleasure memories of the senses that one insists on recreating—they are unreal.

Aversions are psycho-emotional pain memories that one insists on not exposing to the Light—they are unreal.

The fear of death is an instigator of numerous neuroses for many people—there is no death, only an eviction of the spirit from its physical repository.

The five major afflictions are the root cause of the incarnational cycles. The incarnate Christ taught us not to put our energies into the things of this world, where moth and rust corrupt, because of the inherent afflictions possible in this realm. (Matthew 6:19) The five major afflictions are potential consequences of being born into the earth plane—all beings are feasibly subject to them.

One should be aware of one’s attractions and aversions because they are a root cause of incarnations. One should be aware of one’s attractions and aversions because they determine one’s karmic trajectory. A sage is neither captured by attractions nor repulsed by aversions. However, even sages can be controlled by the ancient desire for self-preservation. Christ Consciousness is the perfect transcendence of the desire for self-preservation, gained through consistent and devoted spiritual practice.

Each of the five major afflictions has three levels: exoteric (sensory), esoteric (extrasensory), and etheric (spiritual). Tapas helps transform exoteric afflictions, svadhyaya assists in correcting esoteric afflictions, and Isvara-pranidhana recalibrates the nature of etheric afflictions.

These three levels of the five afflictions can be used as a means for personal liberation or further entrapment. Once you can distinguish the self from the Self, the liberating potential of sensory, extrasensory, and spiritual activity expands. Accomplishing this is an essential purpose of having an incarnation. Ignorance of the self from the Self, and the inability to use sensory, extrasensory, and spiritual means for liberation, is the mainspring of karmic suffering.

It is the perfect mastery over the three levels of the five afflictions—knowing the self from the Self; creating liberation via sensory, extrasensory, and spiritual means; and persistent consistency in the practice of tapas, svadhyaya and Isvara-pranidhana—that concepts such as “knowing God,” enlightenment, samadhi, nirvana, or “spiritual liberation” are realized—fulfilling an individual entity’s truest and deepest need.

At some point, perhaps after years or lifetimes of productive effort in spiritual yoga, one’s thoughts, words, and actions fuse into a continuous, spiritual circuit. This leads to the obliteration of suffering. The continuous spiritual circuit has seven facets that must all be effectively integrated: spiritualized desires; purified attachments (attachment only to things which facilitate enlightenment); coalescence of body, mind, and spirit; realization of the Self; living one’s highest ideal; meta-cognition; and attainment of mystical wisdom. Spiritual yoga facilitates their integration.

There is an eight-limbed process for attaining enlightenment through spiritual yoga. This process includes the practicing of the yamas (restraints), niyamas (adherences), asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing awareness), pratyahara (withdrawal), dharana (internalization), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (spiritual bliss).

The five yamas are ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and aparigraha.

The five niyamas are shauca, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, and Isvara-pranidhana.

The yamas and niyamas address the correction of perverse thoughts, which are the incessant causes of misery and perpetual ignorance.

As the spiritual aspirant develops immersion in ahimsa (nonviolence), all beings that come near will lose their hostile thoughts. As satya (truthfulness) is established, all that the aspirant says will manifest (according to God’s laws.) As the aspirant lives asteya (nonstealing), all material things will manifest when needed. When brahmacharya (energetic conservation) is practiced, vital energy is increased and the aspirant then feels healthier and sharper mentally and has more vital energy to ascend through the spine for enlightenment. As aparigraha (non-covetousness) is faithfully abided by, knowledge of past lives is naturally revealed. When (shauca) purity of body and mind is sustained, psychosomatic well-being, healing, and virtue are increased as well as a greater potential for God realization. With the adherence to santosha (contentment) comes unlimited and unremitting joy. Tapas, or tapasaya (austerities), destroys impurities in the body-mind and helps alleviate negative karma. As svadhyaya (study of self and the sacred texts) is practiced, a greater discrimination is developed between the ego and the soul; the aspirant realizes the difference between the lower self and the higher Self. Unfathomable bliss is attained here on earth through constant surrender to the internal Lord (Isvara-pranidhana.)

Asanas (postures) should be motionless or facilitate a greater ease of motionless effort. As asana is perfected, meditation upon the Infinite should be increased. When done well, it expedites immunity toward all dualities of the world, for example, hot and cold, smooth and rough, easy and difficult, and so forth.

Once asana has been correctly established, pranayama (breath and vital energy control) is practiced. Pranayama has expansive, contractive, and retentive capacities. Pranayama should be performed with mindful control and attention to subtlety. There is a fourth type of pranayama that transcends the first three, but only by going through the first three. The veil covering enlightened mind can then be dissolved. (Note: The fourth type of pranayama is intentionally not included here, as it is an advanced breathing technique not meant for public “intellectual consumption” but only for advanced adepts working closely with a God-realized teacher.)

When the mind controls the externally directed habits of the senses, this is pratyahara (withdrawal.) As such, the mind becomes prepared for dharana (concentration.)