preface to patanjali's yoga sutras

Patanjali is not the inventor of yoga, but rather yoga's most popularly known scribe. What has become known simply as the "Yoga Sutras" (sutra means thread) or almost equally as common, as the "Yoga Darshana" (the vision of Yoga), is actually a compendium of an ancient pre-existing oral yoga tradition consisting of both practical advice and theoretical context. The most accepted format of the Yoga Sutras consists of four chapters (called padas) written in the Sanskrit language approximately 2000 years ago in Northern India while utilizing the terminology of the time, i.e., Samkhya philosophical trappings. The dates ascribed to the Yoga Sutras vary widely from 250 BC to 300 AD. 250 AD is very improbable based on comparative analysis with similar texts, grammar, and concurrent philosophical ideas of the era. This latter date is a conjecture based on the lack of any prior commentaries on the Yoga Sutras before this date. What can be said is that Patanjali's era was proto-tantric, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, and eclectic. Because authentic yoga has been mainly an oral tradition (versus a written tradition), the practices of course precede the texts, but it is impossible to say how far ahead, because of the lack of prior literature. 

who am i today 3.30.23

today in my relations:

i was someone who hits stop on the alarm, instead of snooze, and instead of getting up at 5am i woke hours later... today i was someone who cooked first... prepping a bean-and cabbage topping for the vegan meatloaf i made a couple of days back... today i was someone who sat in a cafe fasting and reading, and feeling held by the energy of college students and the baristas... today i was someone who dropped what i was doing to have conversations - with c at the dmv who said hi and i didn't recognize, with a newer friend who came over to me in the cafe to say hi and remind me who she was, to al, who called and i walked over to her, and sauntered through the commons... today, by 4ish, the empty feel of the fast kick in... i was somebody who was weak and wanted to rest... today, in the meeting, i was someone who put aside the writing i was doing, to be fully present... today, in each instance of dropping everything, i was fully present with whoever and whatever i was doing... today i had glimpses of peace...  

today in my practice: 

i was someone who listened to a podcast while and felt the frequency of it compromise Spirit, and then shifted to recitations to Align... it made a difference... today i looked forward to splitting my practice... between the morning and a later time... today, i tried something new, taking cue from another artist... malasana into a leaping frog... today i watched skandasana become more that i thought it could be... today i maintained body consciousness in my meeting, going into a hidden standing practice through subtle movements, wondering it i was going deep enough... knowing i could go only so far as my attention was split... 

who am i?

 

...the question that drives the yoga practice is this one - who am i?

depending on where you are in your your journey, you will have a response that attempts to capture who you believe yourself to be. it may be literal, mundane, an application you fill out for a dating app: height weight ethnicity interests hobbies occupation, etc. it may be based on your readings of philosophical treatise. it may be based on your relationship tor religion or a spiritual system - clay and water, man and woman, spirits in human bodies going through a test of ethics, etc. or if you are like the fastest growing religion on earth - no religion - you may believe you are muscles and tendons, bones and blood, cells and bacteria, evolved from primates, two celled life forms, amoeba, a big bang. you may see yourself as cosmic entity, part descendant of a reptilian race from saturn. you may identify as everything and nothing. 

all of it is possibly true, if it is in the realm of your experience. the only way to know is to know, to go deep in this question - who am i?

through the yoga practice - asana and pranayama to begin with and then growing into the layers of the other anga's - you have the opportunity to go into the laboratory of the body-mind and gain insight into this you. 

so, as you go deeper in your journey in yoga, ask yourself this question: who am i? and see where it leads you. feel free to share your thoughts and entries with me.