Nview:Raja Yoga
The Raja Yoga is the method/science for practicing "religion" or "spirituality."
Based on experience, founders of religion communed with God. Rather than trusting in the word of others, the Raja Yoga provides a method for you to experience God yourself. This is the pattern of all disciplines, like Chemistry and Astronomy: they are replicable and in fact, invite replication. Religion is the same.
In the Vedic Scriptures, which is ?, there are 4 struggles:
- discharge of duty
- acquisition of wealth
- gratification of desire
- moksha -- final liberation from the bondate of matter
The 4th is "most important." All of them are good if done in a good context. Good is the path taken when, given that there's a lower path, the higher path is taken.
There are 4 paths to liberation:
- work
- wisdom
- devotion
- self-surrender
These paths share in common the practice of selflessness, which leads you to moksha.
- New concepts in the intro to raja yoga:
- use the mind to self-observe and unlock the science of religion
- do this, and uncover that which is etenrally pure and perfect, you, and this realization brings moksha
- to increase the power of the mind, concentrate. Thru concentration, the infinite power of the human mind can shake down the word's secrets
- Whether you pursue total control of internal or external, the result is the same: total control of all of nature, bc there is no real separation btwn internal and external
- The Purusha is the soul and the only inmaterial thing. It is delievered the external world by the organs that deliver to the mind.
- Goal is to develop the mind to perceive these happenings, and to also connect the mind to all organs.
The Raja Yoga proposes to use the mind to observe itself, reveal its secretes, and that this revelation will confirm for yourself: whether we have souls, god exists, and how long life is. This is a replicable process you do yourself.
The Raja Yoga proposes to train the body to train the mind, initially.
The Raja Yoga proposes to start from the internal, to control all of nature. To control is to achieve moksha and is not in service of the mind or body, but to Purusha.
There is an important story about the importance of breath and its relationship to our nervous system, our mind, and then our freedom.
