I am occasionally asked whether one can be enlightened without practising yoga.
This looks like a simple and straightforward question, to which I was initially inclined to answer “yes”, but something about it bothered me and I’m not really happy with this answer, so I thought about it more.
You see, there are obviously people who embody and manifest very high spiritual states, and produce artefacts that are the peak accomplishments in their respective genre, for instance Mike Oldfield, whose example I usually cite. There are also saints of various religions who didn’t practice yoga in the narrow sense. There are also people who had spiritual experiences without any practice whatsoever.
On the other hand, every piece of spiritual skill and knowledge I possess is a result of some difficulty I had to overcome, problem I had to solve, attack I had to survive, and so on. It’s not like those things are a luxury, defined as things you fuck around with in free time because you’re bored. It’s either that I had to learn how to deal with spiritual trauma without going crazy, or deal with high spiritual energy without going crazy or dying, or clean up some nasty karmic structure, create an energy structure, survive a spiritual attack by a malevolent entity, communicate with high spiritual beings, learn when I am being deceived by Satan and demonic entities, and so on. Every failure to develop and use things that can only be qualified as spiritual yoga, would mean failure to overcome an obstacle, failure to solve a problem, failure to receive and interpret a message from above, failure to see through a deception, and basically get wrecked in a really bad way. Even while developing all kinds of skills and understanding, I still got wrecked occasionally. I have absolutely no doubt that without developing such skills, my path would have either ended or gotten sidetracked.
So, what about Mike Oldfield and similar people? Well, I will only remind you that Mike Oldfield spent a large portion of his life being brainwashed by psychiatrists, who convinced him that he’s nothing special and he’s very careful to mention that his major flaw is to think he’s God. Having this in mind, I will hesitate to consider him an example of spiritual success without yoga. More likely, he’s an example of someone who would have greatly benefited from both yoga and proper understanding of spiritual theory.
It’s unfortunate, but my answer to “how did person x attain great results without yoga” is “they probably didn’t”. Yoga isn’t just a method of attaining a spiritual state; were it so, I would say that people can attain spiritual states of all kinds in various ways that only occasionally include yoga by any definition. However, yoga is also a weapon and a shield. It is a weapon in the sense that skill and knowledge allow you to do things to the world and to other beings and entities, and shield in the sense that it gives you skills that protect you from both the world and other beings and entities. It allows you to successfully navigate hostile territory, and this world, if any, meets the requirements splendidly. Have in mind that I started yogic practice in 1993, and attained initiation in Vajra – let’s not mince words, and instead call it attainment of buddhahood in the body – within four years. The rest of my time here was spent doing things that required great purity, skill and persistence, and this resulted in acquisition of great knowledge. Can I imagine someone like Oldfield solving a problem such as an explosion of a contaminated “jewel” that created deadly black shards of super-concentrated karmic matter? No. Can I imagine someone untrained figuring out how to “open” a structure that requires “bombardment” with immense number of mental objects in order to overwhelm it, throw it out of balance and find a “key” that opens it and allows it to dissolve, and then actually cleaning up the mess of poisonous karmic substance that resulted from its dissolution? Not really. Basically, I can imagine untrained people trying to deal with complex spiritual issues by failing repeatedly at them until they eventually die depressed and defeated. An untrained person can have a spiritual experience and learn from it and be inspired. If this inspiration is serious enough, this will result in attainment of yogic skill and formulation of theoretical knowledge. Basically, you can attain knowledge of yoga without previously knowing any yoga, to which I can personally attest. However, if you don’t develop skill, there’s only so far you can go and so much you can do, and you’ll most likely keep bouncing off the same level 1 obstacle in front of you for your entire life. So, the answer to “how did the saint x manage without knowing any of this”, the answer is “he didn’t”. He didn’t get far enough, or did and failed. Maybe some people’s lives are simple, and they merely focus on one aspect of God in meditation, attain enlightenment and don’t have to de-mine Satan’s pit. Good for them, I guess, but the corrupted jewels I had to deconstruct usually came from good and gentle saints who had insufficient skills and knowledge to protect them from some kind of deception, they got killed, their energy was used to power some trap here, and I got to clean up this mess, and my level of skill just happens to be what it takes. Anything less, and you can’t solve problems. Much less, and you get killed and recycled. So, it is true, you don’t need yoga to attain realization of God. Maybe you’ll never encounter any problems you have to solve, maybe Satan will never try to trick you, maybe his scripts will not try to deceive and destroy you, maybe you’ll just happen not to get confused about anything because the right answer will just happen to be the only one you encounter. Maybe, but not in this world. In this world you need weapons and shields or you’re absolutely guaranteed to get fucked.
When I look at pictures that illustrate entities/deities with two auras, one around the body and one around the head, there is a functional meaning built into it.
My opinion is that it is a representation of the two degrees of yoga. The first opens and closes at the level of the body (activated body chakras) and the second goes into contact with other spiritual entities (enabling chakras outside the body).
The first system is the base, the second is the logical continuation of the channeling of focused energy.
I think the more relevant observation would be that Gods are frequently depicted with weapons. The point I’m trying to make is that yoga (or you can call it spiritual magic) is not a “luxury” item that serves no real purpose. You can’t replace it with something else and still get by fine, for instance solve all problems by faith and prayer. I frequently encounter opinions that spiritual things should be simple and accessible to all, and that’s probably the reason why there are so many people who are successful in spiritual endeavours. 🙂 Mahayana is an example of this – let’s be compassionate and make a system that doesn’t require yoga and where there’s room for ordinary people and you can just repeat some chant or something and you’ll attain the same result. Things just don’t work that way. An alternative to yoga is a chaotic, haphazard approach to spirituality. Śri Yukteśvar once had one such student, Sasi, who refused to practice yoga or obey his instructions, but who always said he had greatest faith in him and thought devotion will pull him through all issues. I would not recommend that approach, because it’s a variation of “things will be fine” attitude, based on the implicit premise that this place is some kind of a benevolent playground made by the good God who would never make something dangerous, and positive thinking will protect you from all bad things, that will simply bounce off your positivity. This place is not a playground. It’s enemy territory, in a war. Yoga is not an alternative to faith and prayer, yoga is knowledge and skill that gradually come if your faith and prayer amount to something.
I understand what you are saying and I agree in totality.
We are immersed in hostile territory. Spiritually and materially.
The system of this World will by inertia process each entity until it puts it into the desired frame. If an individual goes outside the parameters the system will try to channel it to the level of successive attacks. If the individual somehow retains his integrity, he will begin to observe relationships and master shields and weapons. Of course, the attacks on the individual are ongoing.
Yes, the skill of yoga is turned into shields and weapons by the unfolding of events. Unfortunately, I know only you with whom I have helped myself strategically.
No one starts with shields and weapons because no one understands the situation. But those who manage to develop the skill and survive a certain threshold turn the foundation into weapons and shields.
I have one difficulty in noticing the fact, where are the others who understand the matter at the level you describe? We have illustrated drawings and sculptures and flat earth around these artifacts, where are the beings who understand the situation?
Well, the gods understand it my way, basically what makes me extraordinary is that I manage to do this while maintaining an incarnate presence. The skill itself is common in the higher worlds.
„Śri Yukteśvar once had one such student, Sasi, who refused to practice yoga or obey his instructions, but who always said he had greatest faith in him and thought devotion will pull him through all issues.“
Something more lies in this form, in this attitude.
Namely, that there will always be someone else who, like a genie out of a bottle, will fulfill one’s expectations. Something like I just make a wish and it will be fulfilled.
If you have to do it yourself to make something work, you have a responsibility and you have to direct and correct the matter to perfection.
The difference is that you are not a beggar without an end, but you go towards becoming a deity in action yourself.
Yes, this is a difference between being a priest and being a God. The latter is a very hard path, because acquisition of power is basically through sacrifice and suffering, but if you’re only calling upon someone to do the actual work, what are you really, and what is the ultimate value of it all? It’s like calling yourself a mathematician because you can invoke Wolfram Mathematica to solve problems.
Edit: But I have to make it clear that it’s not any kind of an “ego” thing – doing it yourself out of pride instead of calling upon God. No. More likely, far before that point you already lost the idea of “self” apart from God in the state of darśana, and this is the point where you no longer just meditate in the presence of God, there is basically no “you” apart from God anymore, and you learn how to be more of God, and act from more of God. It’s a way more sophisticated thing than “I don’t want to rely on God, I’ll do it myself”. No, you learn that God is the true Self, and God lives in your body and does God things.
I prosvjetljenje ima svoje razine. Rekao bih da ih ima sedam jer je sedam grana ili razina Drveta života. Drugačija je snaga i kvaliteta mudrosti i znanja na prvoj grani a drugačija na sedmoj grani. Sedam duhova Duha Svetog daje sve veće i veće darove. U židovskom mistici tako imamo svetost i presvetost. U njihovom hramu imamo prvu sobu “svetinju” a drugu “svetinju nad svetinjom”. I Nebesa su dvostrukturalna; kao “Nebesa” i “Nebesa nad Nebesima”. Druga strukturalnost tog istog Neba su “sedam nebesa”.
Šteta da na ustima budala nema sedam brava, sa sedam ključeva pobacanih u sedam mora.
Ima….podnebesa ima također sedam. Šteta što ove stvari ne znaš. Poslije sedme svezanosti dolazi “druga smrt”…oko nje smo se već složili. Neko od književnika je govorio o devet krugova pakla… ne, samo sedam.
Ništa ja od toga što ti pričaš ne znam. Dapače, rekao bih da nitko od Bogova ne zna ništa o tome. To samo ti možeš znati, jer tako to bude sa stvarima koje nemaju nikakvog temelja u stvarnosti, nego su izmišljotine.
Drvo života (nebesa) i OBRNUTO Drvo smrti (podnebesa), sve sedmostrukturirano (sedam grana) dio je duhovnih znanja raznih naroda. I ako se to ponavlja kod više naroda onda to nije izmišljotina već usklađena znanja zajedničkog izvora. Bogovi koji se puno zabavljaju dakako da o tome ne znadu. Sedmograno Drvo života kod tradicija raznih naroda čuvaju anđeoska bića sa krilima ili veliki ratnici, isto tako ga zaljevaju svećenici, anđeli. Slikarije su mnogobrojne. Negdje to drvo napadaju jarci, negdje slonovi ili druge zvijeri koje su u narodima posebno zle ili prikladne za nered. Obrnuto Drvo smrti spominje se i u Bhagavad giti te se hvali poznavalac tog drveta. U bibliji imaš u Edenu Drvo Života i Drvo spoznaje dobra i zla uz kojeg se spominju “bogovi koji razlikuju dobro od zla” . Kad čitaš te knjige onda malo te stvari poveži…
Meni je tebe dosta.