anti-gravitational vital force

When the anti-gravitational vital force that has an ascending flow is directly understood there follow powers of levitation, and passage over water, mud, thorny bush, etc., without coming into contact with them.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,
III. 39.

It is never a question of belief

"It is never a question of belief; the only scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true. The law of gravitation worked as efficiently before Newton as after him. The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its laws could not operate without the sanction of human belief. - Sri Yukteswar

The part you may have missed about meditation

The part you may have missed about meditation is that when correctly done, the obstructions being released in a particular session are gone. Gone. So there is nothing left to process or analyze, only the inner silence and light coming through from inside where there was blockage before. So let's be clear about those mechanics. That is effective yoga, a neurological cleansing where the effects of past actions are released, not on the basis of meaning, but neurologically dissolved from the inside by the pure bliss consciousness inherent within us which we access in meditation. It is not a matter of belief or analysis. It is a mechanical process. It will work for anyone who does the procedure, even for someone who is a skeptic.

[...In...] western psychology, [...] thoughts and feelings coming to surface awareness are analyzed on the level of meaning -- psychoanalysis. This has some value, but is far removed from yogic methods that go much deeper where analytical processes do not exist in the mind. Western psychology is like analyzing the waves coming up on the surface of the ocean, while yoga (deep meditation especially) is like cleaning the ocean from the bottom up, at levels where analysis is not possible. Only the procedure of cleaning is there. Obstructions are energy, thinking is energy. Yoga deals with these at their root by going beyond the energy to pure bliss consciousness. Meaning is a less fundamental form of neurological energy, found near the surface of the mind. Meaning is the tail on the dog of thought energy, so to speak, and we all know that using the tail to wag the dog is not very effective. We can still use it if it helps us feel better in some way. If we are flexible, we will meditate daily also, which will be like having our cake and eating it too. It is not wise to try and do both methods at the same time, as neither will be served.

Anyway, yoga is not only about cleaning up the psychology. That is a byproduct. Yoga is about enlightenment, a direct pathway to the level of attainment of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Rumi, etc.

Compared to yogic methods, western psychology is still embryonic in that respect. Keep in mind that psychoanalysis has been around for a little over a century, while yoga has been around for something like fifty centuries. Not that "time in the business" alone qualifies something as being more advanced, but it is a pretty good indicator. The experiences of modern practitioners support the conclusions of the long history of yoga. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

From the standpoint of yoga, revealing "great truth" is not primarily about intellectual understanding or the resolution of emotional difficulties. It is about becoming the truth itself. This is done through systematic purification on every level in the vehicle of experience, the human nervous system. It is the divinity of the human being we are opening up here, using time-tested methods.

Logic indicates that western psychology can learn a lot from studying the methods of yoga in an open-minded way. Carl Jung realized this late in his career.

Advanced Yoga Practices

I should starve to death.

"Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your instruction, suppose I never asked for food, and nobody gives me any. I should starve to death."

"Die then!" This alarming counsel split the air. "Die if you must Mukunda! Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that rice maintains you, or that money or men support you! Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life-breath? They are His indirect instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!"

Autobiography of a Yogi

Father, Son, Holy Ghost

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."-John 1:1. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."-John 5:22. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."-John 1:18. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."-John 14:12. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you."-John 14:26.

These Biblical words refer to the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat , Tat , Aum in the Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya ) existing within vibratory creation; this Christ Consciousness is the "only begotten" or sole reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. Its outward manifestation or "witness" is Aum or Holy Ghost, the divine, creative, invisible power which structures all creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth.

He gently slapped my chest over the heart.

"Your heart's desire shall be fulfilled."

Sri Yukteswar seldom indulged in riddles; I was bewildered. He struck gently on my chest above the heart.

My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body, but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.

The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all-perceptive. Through the back of my head I saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Road, and noticed also a white cow who was leisurely approaching. When she reached the space in front of the open ashram gate, I observed her with my two physical eyes. As she passed by, behind the brick wall, I saw her clearly still.

All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master's, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated, until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.

An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The sharply etched global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, ever-undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light.

The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster; fire became firmament.

I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. Blissful amrita , the nectar of immortality, pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike fluidity. The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum , ^14-1 the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.

Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm.

My guru was standing motionless before me; I started to drop at his holy feet in gratitude for the experience in cosmic consciousness which I had long passionately sought. He held me upright, and spoke calmly, unpretentiously.

"You must not get overdrunk with ecstasy. Much work yet remains for you in the world. Come; let us sweep the balcony floor; then we shall walk by the Ganges."

When longing is strongly expressed deep in our heart, things happen.

The kind of bhakti we talk about in the lessons is the "up close and personal" kind. It is a non-sectarian approach. Here, bhakti is about you, your nervous system, your desires, your practices, and your experiences. When we talk about bhakti as "love of God" here, what we mean is, what is our highest desire? What is the highest ideal we aspire to for ourselves? Maybe so far it is only a question we want to answer, like, "Is there more than this?" If we ask that question in our heart with sincerity and give our emotions to it, we will have some good bhakti going. Real bhakti is very personal. It is about our innermost desire to become something more in our life. It is about wanting to know the truth and using our emotions to move toward it. It can be as simple as the bare wanting -- hungry with wanting to know. This is bhakti. Or it can be very involved as a relationship with our chosen ideal, our ishta. This is bhakti too. In whatever way it is occurring, the process is the same -- the emotions are harnessed toward an ideal, which moves energy through our nervous system, purifying and opening it.

When longing is strongly expressed deep in our heart, things happen. Answers start coming. Practices come to us. Then we begin to open and want to go higher. Then there will be more opening, more answers, more practices. Like that. Bhakti is like magic as it spirals up. It corresponds with the opening of our nervous system. We have called the nervous system the gateway to the infinite. That goes both ways. We can see out into the infinite through our nervous system as it becomes purified. And God can come in through our nervous system. God comes in as bhakti in our heart. God, the guru, and bhakti inside us are all the same thing. It is the infinite, responding to our inner cry, coming in through the gateway of our nervous system.

Advanced Yoga Practices

We can filter out the noise ...

God can speak to us, and does all the time. It can come through kundalini or any other God-channel we choose. By choosing and focusing on a spiritual ideal, we can filter out the noise in us and receive guidance constantly. In time, we become one with the guidance, for the guru/God is in us, and is us. It is not so much in the mind. God does not speak to the intellect, so be careful about the mind games we can play with ourselves -- we can build castles in the air in a hurry with the intellect. He/She speaks to us in the heart with feelings and intuitions. This is also how we speak to God, with our heart, with our feelings. If we are intense in our bhakti to our ideal, our needs will be communicated automatically and we will know what to do next. It is like that, a very intimate process that emerges as a oneness inside us on the inner levels of feeling.

We experience a knowingness deep inside before we know. If that is how it happens you can be sure it is divine guidance, and not some trick of the mind.

The best way to cultivate bhakti is to purify the heart, which is done through all the advanced yoga practices we have discussed to date -- especially meditation. A purified heart is a blissfully silent heart. Meditation brings up the "silent witness" in us, which is the deep heart awareness that enables us to choose what direction our emotions will go in. Before the witness, we were dragged every which way by our thoughts and emotions, because we were identified with them as our self. With the silent witness we experience our self beyond all that, so thoughts and emotions become like objects we can redirect before they manifest outwardly. We can pull an ongoing "inside job" on our thoughts and emotions and avoid problems that come up when everything flying around inside us shoots out. In essence, working from the level of the silent witness, we are able to develop the habit of redirecting thoughts and emotions deep in the mind before they reach the surface. This was mentioned in the first lesson on bhakti (#67).

http://www.aypsite.org/109.html

Which half of your life is now?

“‘To buy and sell, yet never forget God.’ The ideal is that hand and heart work harmoniously together. Certain Western writers claim that the Hindu goal is one of timid ‘escape,’ of inactivity and antisocial withdrawal. The fourfold Vedic plan for man’s life, however, is a well-balanced one for the masses, allotting half the span to study and householder duties; the second half to contemplation and meditational practices.

“Solitude is necessary to become established in the Self, but masters then return to the world to serve it. Even saints who engage in no outward work bestow, through their thoughts and holy vibrations, more precious benefits on the world than can be given by the most strenuous humanitarian activities of unenlightened men. The great ones, each in his own way and often against bitter opposition, strive selflessly to inspire and uplift their fellows... Ahimsa, ‘non-injury,’ called ‘virture entire’ (sakalo dharma) in the Mahabharata, is a positive injunction by reason of its conception that one who is not helping others in some way in injuring them.”

—Paramahansa Yogananda
“Autobiography of a Yogi”
1945

Autobiography of a Yogi

"By bhakti alone he became the divine."

The great nineteenth-century Indian saint, Ramakrishna, was a master at creating huge outpourings of bhakti. He would writhe around on the floor at the base of the statue of Mother Divine he worshipped, sobbing and sobbing for the slightest touch from her inside. The more upset he got the more he would direct it toward his ishta, the statue. He seemed like a crazy man. All the while his bhakti was working like a laser beam, slicing through every obstruction in his nervous system. By bhakti alone he became the divine.

...The technique of bhakti is in redirecting our desires, harnessing them. Some people naturally find this ability. For others, it comes up over time, as there is more silence in the mind and heart from meditation. The inner silence cultivated in meditation is underneath the desires bubbling up, so we can see them like moving objects. We are a bit detached from the emotional energy in us. Then we can nudge it toward our highest ideal. Just a very easy nudging. No forcing. No big campaign. It is just an easy favoring of our ideal when we notice some emotional energy surging up. It does not matter if it is positive or negative energy.
...
This kind of procedure can be done with every emotion, positive or negative – with our feelings about everything we do.
...
http://www.aypsite.org/67.html

With meditation, we are gradually marrying the fifth dimension of consciousness with the four dimensions of time and space...

"...With meditation, we are gradually marrying the fifth dimension of consciousness with the four dimensions of time and space, so all five dimensions come to coexist together. Our nervous system is gradually cultured to give us the experience of all five dimensions simultaneously.

This has profound implications in our everyday life. Before meditating, everything we did was in time and space. All our action, our problem solving, was limited to the four dimensions. The options we saw before us were always time and space limited. With meditation, we are bringing in an additional dimension, consciousness. It makes a big difference. Now we see situations in ways we could not see before. We are able to influence the course of life in ways we could not before.

Imagine you are trying to solve a puzzle lying on a table. You are looking at it in two dimensions, on the flat surface of the table. Try as you may, the pieces won't fit together. Then a friend walks into the room and says, "Try this." She picks up two edges of the puzzle and curls them together above the table, and they fit together perfectly. By moving into the third dimension, the space above the table, the puzzle has been solved easily. Life is like that. Dealing with it only in time and space, four dimensions, it is often an unsolvable puzzle. We go round and round, never quite getting the pieces to fit together. When we begin to meditate, we are adding a new dimension, a new perspective. Then the pieces start to fit together, and it all begins to make sense."

Advanced Yoga Practices #36