The effects of practice are felt most over an increasing length of time spent attending to your practice. This is something I can now see for myself, for those of you who follow the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali you will know this is Sutra I.14.

So how then do I see this in my own life, proving for myself the path of yoga to be fruitful?

Firstly I have seen it emerging  within me during the years of my yoga practice. Little bit by little bit, obstacles falling by the way side freeing me up. This is a lesson in non-attachment as much as it is about staying with your own yoga practice, see Sutras II.30, II.32 and II.37 (although probably others too).

The other way I see it is when I see how others take their happiness from things external to themselves, and how that all goes horribly wrong for them when their expectations are not met. I am reminded of how more and more I am going within to that which is unchanging, to that which is not dependent on the external world. The longer I practice the bigger the chasm between my reactions (or lack of reaction) to external events in comparison to others. The difference in how external things affect me in comparison to how they effect others becomes a more obvious indicator of progress on the path.

Along the way I have found as Gregor Maehle discusses in his book “Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy“, that studying the Yoga Sutras, Upanishads and other  yogic/spiritual texts are in balancing a daily asana practice. The two help each other, in fact Gregor says that these are “two sides of the same coin”.

Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers

One essential aspect of yoga is the ability for an individual to gain control over their mind, because otherwise the opposite is true, we are slaves to our minds. So what is the part of the individual that we don’t want the mind to dominate, it is the Self that is covered by the endless aimless wittering, of the untamed mind and it’s ignorant thought patterns.

What benefits to a yogi is there in gaining control over ones mind? Attending a personal practice regularly, and becoming freed from the crazy flow of thoughts running wild in our minds. You can think of the mind as a muscle, would you like your mind muscle to be ever twitching in spasm, imagine what it would be like for your arm to ever twitch or have a mind of it’s own, that is essentially the state most of us are in, minds twitching uncontrollably.

The Yoga Sutras encourage us to learn things for ourselves, knowing it to be true and not blindly believing. We are given tools to explore and discover the depths of being for ourself, one way is through meditation, which by practicing we eventually have moments of no thought, and these moments become more and more often and of a longer duration. Those who experience the ability to exist without thoughts prove that the endless chatter of the mind is not required for existence. It’s a lovely place to be, one then notices when the mind starts up, and when this is unwanted a yogi can switch it off, whilst the machinery of thought is running the yogi must be vigilant and aware of it running away with itself.

The purpose of Asana (physical postures) is to help free the mind from the dis-ease of the body. Building a strong, subtle and healthy body frees the yogi of bodily distractions which help the breathing and meditation, and ultimately free the yogi to search inward for the Self.

Rather appropriate is the following, taken from the Amritabindu Upanishad in the book: The Upanishads, introduced and translated by Eknath Easwaran.

“It is the mind that frees us or enslaves.
Driven by the senses we become bound;
Master of the senses we become free.
Those who seek freedom must master their senses.”

“When the mind is detached from the senses
One reaches the summit of consciousness.
Mastery of the mind leads to wisdom.
Practice meditation. Stop all vain talk.
The highest state is beyond reach of thought,
For it lies beyond all duality”

Copyright © 2008 Russell Smithers