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Yoga
Sutras 4.27-4.28:
Breaches
in Enlightenment
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Breaks in realization are predictable:
One of the most unfortunate misunderstandings of meditators is the
incorrect belief that one must entirely purify the mind before attaining
direct experience. The fact that Patanjali gives instructions for how to
deal with breaches in enlightenment should confirm that breaches or breaks
are predictable. Attaining higher experience through yogic discrimination
is typically followed by clouding over of that experience, and this is
caused by the existence of the coloring (klishta) of the samskaras that
drive karma (4.27).
Continue practices after direct
experience: The important thing to know is how to deal with those
breaches of enlightenment, how to continue to work with uncoloring of the
colored deep impressions of the mind. This continued practice of
discriminating and uncoloring is the same method as was done to originally
reduce the coloring (4.28).
Seek the highest: Seek even one
minute, one second of the direct experience of the highest, before
you have one hundred percent removed your karma, and then continue to
attenuate those deep impressions, though now having the certainty of
direct experience. The practices done after having attained direct
experience are far more fruitful, as the process and the goal are now much
clearer.
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4.27
When there are breaks or breaches in that high discrimination, other
impressions arise from the deep unconscious.
(tachchhidresu pratyaya antarani samskarebhyah)
- tachchhidresu = in
the intervals, breaks, gaps, between
- pratyaya = the
cause, the feeling, causal or cognitive principle, notion, content of
mind, presented idea, cognition
- antarani = other
- samskarebhyah = deep
impressions, imprints in the unconscious, deepest habits, subliminal
activators, traces
Breaches in discrimination: The
previous sutras (4.25-4.26) spoke of the higher discriminations. There
can even be breaks in those high states, wherein the many deep impressions
arise from the basement of the unconscious, just as was the case prior to
this high level of discriminative attainment. In other words, the clarity
of discrimination can once again be clouded over. This temporary loss of
the ground attained is one of the predictable obstacles of the path of
enlightenment (1.30). The way to
deal with this is the same as it was before the discriminative
enlightenment (next sutra).
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4.28
The removal of those interfering thought patterns is by the same means by
which the original colorings were removed.
(hanam esam kleshavat uktam)
- hanam = removal
- esam = their
- kleshavat = like
the previous colorings
- uktam = as has been
described
Use the same method as before:
With the breaches of discriminative enlightenment (previous sutra), the
method of removing those interfering impressions is the same as it was in
the first place. In other words, it is a process of removing the coloring
(klishta) (1.5, 2.3), as was described throughout the Yoga Sutras. It includes
dealing with the gross colorings (2.1-2.9),
as well as the subtle colorings (2.10-2.11,
2.12-2.25).
Breaches in realization are to be
expected: To realize that this is how the process works, is very
beneficial for the student of meditation. It means that you can clearly
understand that you first want to attain the direct experience of the
highest, fully recognizing that there remains a purifying process to be
done afterwards. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the
highest direct experience first requires the absolute perfection of
personality, and this is definitely not the case. It is a natural part of
the process, that the higher experience is broken. If you know that, you
can move on to deal with those breaches.
First, seek the highest: First,
you seek enough purity of mind and body that you can experience the
highest. Then, after that direct experience, the way in which you relate
to samskaras and karma is vastly different. You have glimpsed the highest,
and knowing that, the purifying process.
The
next sutra is 4.29
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Joy that comes from the Realization in direct experience of the
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