Unlike our struggle to improve ourselves, the essence of
transformation is to allow the light to do all the work. This is the law of
least effort. Wha t you are aiming for is a series of revelations, insights, and
“Aha!” moment s. They signal that change is at hand. Only the light can
deliver these transformative experiences. Your ego and a burni ng desire to
get rid of the things you dislike about yourself cannot do the job. You will
be surprised at how steadily revelation comes once you get out of the way
and allow the focus of awareness to develop of its own accord. Exercise
The key to transformation is getting out of the way, which happens to
be the opposite  of what most people do when they desire change. They
struggle, push themselves, and fight against frustration. (A good example of
how futile those tactics are is revealed in the dismal fact that only 2 percent
of dieters, in their struggle to lose weight, succeed in keeping off 5 pounds
for two years.) You can turn this pattern around  in two ways. First, look honestly at an
area of your life where you have struggled and resolve not to keep doing
what never worked in the first place. Second, find enjoyable ways to meet
yourself “in here.” As alluded to earlier , seek some “in time” and “quiet
time” every day. Stillness conc entrates the light, while chaos scatters it. Become accusto med to the comfort of being in communion with yourself. Once this becomes your new habit, you are getting out of the way, setting
the stage for the process of transformation as it is really designed to work. THURSDAY
Tracking Your True SelfBegin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I reﬂect on my true self to bring it closer. I reﬂect on my true self to bring it closer. The fourth niyama  calls for clearly  understanding that your true self is
real, tangible, and powerful. The word self is one of the most important in
Yoga, and most people will have no trouble seeing that they have a social
self and an emotional self. Much more foreign is the notion that everyone
has a true self, hidden like a jewel in the stormy activity of the mind. Various interpretations speak of this niyama  as self-reflection, but it
matters deeply whether you are reflecting on a self you can trust and have
faith in. Without a doubt, we don’t fully trust our emotions. We feel them,
sometimes strongly , but they are temporary , changeable, and fickle. It is
baffling why this niyama  would ask you to reflect upon the swirling
whirlpool of your emotions. The key is that self-reflection enables you to stand aside and not
become so involved in your emotions. Think about a moviegoer who sits
entranced by an adventure film or a romantic comedy on the screen, and yet
who doesn’t know that he’s watching a movie or, worse, that movies even
exist. We are all that moviegoer to some degree or other . Entranced by the
movie we are living, we don’t realize the illusory nature of what we are
watching, and, worse still, we don’t realize that everything we observe is
the play of consciousness. Self-reflection clears up this confusion and
therefore points us toward our true self. THE PRACTICES OF SELF-REFLECTION
Keep in mind that you are here to evolve. Don’t get stuck in emotional habits. Place a high value on experiences that reﬂect your true self
(e.g., love, compassion, beauty, insight, creativity, andmental clarity). Don’t add to the drama around you. Resist buying into other people’s drama. Avoid immersing yourself in news stories about catastrophes,
disasters, and looming threats. Realize that worry isn’t productive. Reject anxious thoughts that are habitual and recurring. The key ingredient in self-reflection is detachment, a concept that grows
deeper and deeper with each limb of Yoga. Here detachment doesn’ t imply
indifference, passivity , or apathy . Instead, you distance yourse lf from the
pull of emotion. Let’s say that you get word that someone you trust, such as a close
friend, uttered a harsh criticism about you that has gotten back to you. A
flush of anger rises in you. You may feel sad or angry and wond er why you
ever thought this person was a real friend. Perhaps the temptat ion to exact
revenge or to say damaging things about your friend enters the picture. You have several opportunities to practice detachment here. First, at the
instant anger starts to rise, you can pause, take a deep breath, and hold up
your hand for time-out. Second , you can sit quietly until your immediate
reaction dies down and reason can prevail. Perhaps your friend didn’ t
actually say what was reported to you, or perhaps a slight has been blown
out of all proportion. Third, you can close your eyes, center yourself, and do
a simple  breathing meditation until your anger dissipates. Finally , you can
reflect on the fact that you have survived worse criticism and will seek a
way to understand and for give your friend. What these four possibilities have in common is that you move closer to
your true self, which is never wounded, cares nothing about criticism, sees
everyone in the light of lovin g acceptance, and brings compassion and
forgiveness to any situation. The opposite of self-reflection is to nurse your
grievance against your friend, indulging in a combination of self-pity and
fantasies of getting even. Learning a better way to respond emotionally isthe whole purpose of the niyamas , and detachment is an important skill to
be learned. Exercise
Consider the example of an angry response given above. Reflect on
how it applies to your own store of resentments, grudges, and old hurts
from other people. Go inside and reflect on moving these emotional
residues so that you bring a sense of light and lightness to your feelings. To
make your ability to self-reflect even more powerful, be on the lookout the
next time you have a strong impulse to be angry , envious, anxious, or
discouraged. In the moment of your reaction, pause and follow the four
opportunities mentioned in the anger example above. Genuinely try to adopt
detachment as your response, looking upon it as a skill based on emotional
intelligence. You can journal about how the experience allowed you to see
how self-reflection and detachment work, and how much you can benefit
from simply taking a step back and expanding your vision of who you
really are. FRIDAY
Surrender to the Unknown
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I give myself over to the great mystery. I give myself over to the great mystery. The fifth and final niyama  asks you to recognize your higher reality and
surrender to it. In daily life there is a constant push-pull between getting
what you want and giving in to what someone else wants. Giving in is a
form of surrende r, which is why most people do not like the connotation of
that word. It seems foreign to human nature when this niyama  calls for
complete surrender .The issue hasn’ t been cleared up by Yoga commentaries that use a mix-
and-match vocabulary , some calling for surrender to God, others making it
surrender to the Absolute, the divine mystery of existence or Brahman (the
Sanskrit word for “big” that implies the whole of creation, the One, the
All). To gain clarity , first we must sweep away all this loaded vocabu lary. As
a famous Yogic saying affirms, “Those who speak of It know It not. Those
who know It speak of It not.” Here It refers to God/th e Absolute/the divine
mystery/Brahman, according to the terminology you favor . Names don’t
matter , because the “real” reality is beyond language. With this understanding in mind, the fifth niyama  isn’t about ordinary
surrender , which involves givin g in to someone else and thus sacrificing
what you want. In Royal Y oga, surrender is simply the recognition of higher
reality . Once accepted, there is an end to seeking, frustration, and endless
speculation. Religious history is full of all three, so this isn’t religious
surrender , either . You acknowledge your place in the mystery of existence. Then what? Once you accept that water is wet, there’ s not much more to
say. The fifth niyama  teaches that the contemplation of higher reality brings
endless rewards. The practices of contemplation will make this clearer . THE PRACTICES OF CONTEMPLATION
Welcome the end of seeking. Turn your attention to what life means. Expose yourself to inspirational poetry and scripture. Attune yourself to the beauty of Nature. Follow your creative impulses. Act from your ﬁnest feelings whenever you can. Take time to offer gratitude. Dwell on your version of a higher being or consciousness. Nurture awe and wonder in the contemplation of creation. See yourself as having a unique place in the divine or cosmic
plan.These practices are meant to have a direct personal effect. The effect is
to get you out of linear thinking—this isn’t a journey from A to B, but a
journey to show you who you have always been. In that light, the practices of contemplation constantly expand our self-
awareness. We are all used to expanding our awareness, even if we don’t
label it as such. As an example, consider when we learned to read. The state
of literacy opens an entirely new way of being. When your contemplation
practice opens up even a moment of insight, joy, or inspiration, this signals
how total transformation will be. The process begins by surrend ering to the
reality that the source of creatio n exists and is identical to your source, the
true self. Exercise
In detective fiction, a mystery is something that needs solving, and,
until it is solved, things haven’ t been set right. The guilty need to be
unmasked; right must prevail. But the mystery of the source is different. The human mind exists in the relative world. But this doesn’ t present an
impenetrable barrier to the Absolute—quite the opposite. To use a
traditional image from Yoga, imagine that the Absolute is sending arrows of
light into the created world. Consider that the highest values in life, including love, compassion,
creativity , empathy , beauty , truth, and spiritual inspiration, are what the
arrows carry to our world. This is a good start for practicing contemplation. Sit quietly and let your mind go to an experience of one of those  values just
listed. Feel the lightness, vibrancy , joy, and fulfillment your experience
contained. Let these subtle feelings expand and settle in your awareness. You are learning  the truth of the Yogic saying “This isn’t knowledge you
learn. This is knowledge you become.”
ADVANCED EXPLORATIONIf you want to go more deeply into classic Yoga, there are many  sources
of information about the niyamas , beginn ing with all the free information
online. Look under the Sanskrit names for the niyamas , which are given
below with their traditional translations. Saucha: Clean body, mind, and spirit
Santosha: Contentment
Tapas: Austerities, self-discipline
Svadhyaya: Self-reﬂection
Ishvara pranidhana: Surrender to or contemplation of a
Supreme Being
OceanofPDF .comWEEK 3
BRINGING THE LIGHT TO YOUR BODY
(Limb of Yoga: Asana)THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
The third limb of Yoga, known as asana , is about makin g a conscious
connection with your body . From there a union of equals—a spiritual
marriage—can be experienced. Without this connection, there is no true
knowledge of who you really are. The term asana  has been adopte d for the postur es that Sarah deals with
in Part II of the book. Each posture is specifically aimed at changes in
biology and physiology that affect your mood and mental state. A precise
science underlie s this branch of Yoga. It is an inner science, despite the
physical image of a yogi sitting in lotus position that most peop le see when
they think of Y oga. In Week 3, I will focus on the inner science, presenting the pure view of
Patanjali, which holds that the body is a disguised form of consciousness. Remove the disguise—cells, tissues, organs, and systems—and you will
discover how to bring your body into the light. Perhaps it is fairer to say
that your body is going to bring you into the light. MONDAY
The Conscious Body
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I experience my body as a ﬂow of awareness. I experience my body as a ﬂow of awareness. Your body isn’ t a machine, even a miraculous machine, but a storehouse
of infini te know ledge. If we look at any process in the body , from a cell
dividing to reproduce itself to the immune system repelling an invader or
the digestive tract extracting energy from food, a vast amount of knowledge
is on display . No process is mechanical. The body’ s knowledge is alive,
flowing, and conscious.Royal Yoga aims to bring the body fully into the light. When you
mistreat your body—subjecting your body to stress, bad diet, and poor-
quality sleep—its consciousness is dulled. When you fail to tune into the
signals your body sends to you, you are denying that it is conscious. These
are vrittis  that block the light. Until they are overcome, you won’ t fully
experience freed om, joy, and bliss, because your body is the vehicle for all
higher experiences. At its most basic, asana , the Sanskrit word for “seat,” teaches you to
settle comfortably into your body as the seat, or foundation, that determines
your place in the physical world. The body in motion is one thing, dynamic
and changeable. The seat is another thing, unchanging, stable, and
continuously present. BRINGING THE LIGHT TO YOUR BODY
Realize that every cell is eavesdropping on your thoughts,
feelings, and sensations. See your body as your willing ally. Drop the habit of blaming or disparaging your body. Don’t compare your body to an unreachable ideal. Obey your body’s signals, particularly its need for sleep and
the regulation of stress. Avoid prolonged sessions of sitting down—move and stretch
for a few minutes every hour. Look upon your body as new every day. Make lifelong wellness your goal. Bringing light and lightness to your body comes naturally once you see
your body as being aware and knowing. The life that flows through every
cell is vibrant. Your role is to let your whole body express this vibrancy . There are physical, mental, and psychological ways to accompl ish this, but
everything begins with acknowledging the conscious body as your default
attitude.Exercise
Sit quietly with your eyes closed and take a few deep breaths. When
you feel calm and centered, visualize an outline of your body . Keeping the
outline in mind, start filling it in with light. An easy way to do this is to see
light expanding from the center of the image, the heart, and radiating
outward as a soft white glow . Another aid is to feel yourself breathing the
light into the outline. Continue for 5 to 10 minutes, then relax with your eyes closed. Move
easily back into your daily activity . Notice if you feel more light and
lightness physic ally, which is the goal of this exercise. Don’ t be concerned
if you don’t. Your awareness has lightened your body all the same, and if
you keep this practice up, the experience of lightness will appear and grow
stronger . TUESDAY
Presence
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I join my body in the present moment. I join my body in the present moment. Do you think you are living in the present moment? The concept of the
“power of now” has been wide ly popularized, and so have practices for
living in the present. Yoga looks upon this issue differently . There is no
power in the present moment when you adopt the viewpoint of the timeless. A moment is a mind-made construct. What matters is presenc e, which is
timeless. Presence comes from the light. Without attaching the word divine
to it, presence is felt as a combination of alertness and openness  that makes
the now feel perfect just by being here. Without presenc e, the now is a blank. The pathos of the elder ly when
dementia strikes  is that they are present the way a chair or a rock is present,as a passive, inert body in which awareness barely flickers. The infinite
field of pure awareness is the source of presence; therefore, being fully
present is your natural state—babies are fully present, as you can see by the
look of wonder and curiosity in their eyes. As it was designed, your body is an unfailing guide for living in the
present moment , because that’s where every cell lives—it never loses sight
of the now. Asan a points to the vidya , or “wisdom of the body ,” as a given,
yet this wisdom gets distorted and contradicted by the activity of the mind. The ef fect of this distortion is easy to see. THE WISDOM OF THE BODY
Every cell in the body knows how to live in peace with every
other cell. It is the mind that has invented violence. Cells exist to keep the whole body alive. The mind has
invented selﬁshness and separation. Cells communicate freely. The mind keeps secrets. Cells trust in a stream of food and oxygen that is constantly
renewed. The mind has invented mistrust. Cells are born and die without fear. The mind dreads death. The body maintains itself in perfect dynamic balance. The mind
is driven toward bursts of manic activity and paralyzed
depression. The body heals itself automatically. The mind struggles to heal
itself. Absent the vrittis , the body lives  fully in the here and now, aware of
everything it needs to know . Which of us can say the same thing? The
upshot is that the mind needs to be deposed as the be-all and end-all of
human awareness. For most people, no matter how much they blame or
criticize their bodies, it is the body that is ahead in their evolut ion, not the
mind.Exercise
Get in the habit of respecting your body’ s wisdom by listening to what
it is telling you. Take time to sit with your eyes closed and simply feel your
body . Let your attention go wherever it wants to. If you sense discomfort,
tightness, stiffness, stress, or painful sensations, let your awareness rest
there. Take deep  breaths, relax, and notice if the sensation begins to lessen. Feeling the body is healing the body. We don’t realize this truth because we
are in the habit  of withdrawing our awareness from signals of physical
discomfort, stress, or pain. One reason that the healing response works while we are aslee p is that
the body is allowed to bring full awareness to the process. Once we wake
up, we tend to diminish the healing response by forcing our awareness
elsewhere. In essence, we deny the healing response an open field in which
to work. Much of this oppositi on happens unconsciously , and feeling the
body is a gentle exercise for replacing your unconscious reaction with a
conscious response instead. WEDNESDAY
Staying Grounded
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I rest comfortably in my body. I rest comfortably in my body. If animals could talk, we don’t know what they’d say, but we can be
certain about what they wouldn’ t say: “I hate my body .” Hating your body
is a uniquely human response and an unnatural one. Royal Y oga holds that a
healthy relations hip with your body begins by being comfortable with your
physicality . The modern term for this is being gr ounded . We say that a
person is ground ed if they are sensible, realistic, reliable, and not given toflights of fancy . Those are good traits, but asana is about being grounded in
yourself, which occurs only as your awareness deepens. It is peculiar to stand back and discover just how much judgment has
been leveled against physicality  itself, which the body symbolizes. Long-
held religious beliefs denigrate the physical for pulling us down from the
heights of the spiritual. Physicality reminds us of our low, knuckle-dragging
primate forebears. T o be physical is to be brutish; to be spiritual is divine. Yet as Yoga sees it, one flow of consciousness supports life in every
dimension. There is no reason to denigrate the physical once you realize
how much wisdom ( vidya ) is expressed in every cell, the wisdom of life as
a whole. Yoga takes us beyond the deceptive look of the body—solid,
material, fixed in time and space—to the reality . We aren’ t embodied in a
body; we are embodied in awareness. What follows are the qualities that represent being fully grounded. YOU ARE GROUNDED WHEN…
Being embodied brings you joy. You understand the deep wisdom of your body. You feel attuned to Nature. You cherish the Earth for creating earthly existence. You feel unembarrassed by basic bodily functions. You appreciate other people’s earthiness. You feel stable and steady during periods of change. You experience equanimity in the face of aging and dying. Your sensual and sexual life is gratifying, without prudery or
shame. When you watch little children romping in the mud or running around
the hous e unenc umbered, how does your response reflect on you? What we
call the innocence of childhood exists, yes, but it is more appropriately
called being grounded. Children  feel no impulse, unless they are mistreated,to be disembodied. They have no need to renounce or escape their physical
nature. This naturally grounded state changes as soon as the mind intervenes to
create certain attitudes that drive us to become disembodied—not like
ghosts but as creatures who judge against our physicality . YOU BECOME DISEMBODIED WHEN…
You don’t feel comfortable inside your own skin. Your body arouses in you distaste or disgust. You remember physical experiences that led to humiliation,
guilt, or shame. You live in your head. You always choose indoor distractions over going out into
Nature. You hold negative views of the human body. These may be
religious (seeing the body as sinful) or based on personal
aversion (for example, being repelled by the body’s messier
functions). Physical beauty or ugliness becomes a ﬁxation. You have poor body image because you are overweight,
aging, or subject to social attitudes about physical
perfection and desirability. You don’t feel physically lovable or desirable. You neglect to keep your body clean, well cared for, and active. You think that earthy people are stupid or crude. When we list all the ways we put down our bodies, it becomes evident
that we live in a disembodied age to a shocking degree. Mass media
overloads us with fantasies of a perfect body that never ages while robbing
us of the real blessing of being embodied. The embodied state allows us to
feel the physical side of bliss-consciousness, which is a vibra nt sense of
aliveness as we move through our day .Exercise
Every step you take to welcome  your own physicality is a step into the
light. Look at the two lists above that outline the qualities of being
grounded versus the qualities of being disembodied. Pause to reflect on how
you can adopt more grounded beliefs and turn them into enjoyable actions,
like walking in Nature, partici pating in a sport, taking part in forms of
physical recreation, or going for a massage. As you engage in this activity , no matter how simple it is—yo u might
just lie spread-eagle on the warm ground in summer or (believ e it or not)
hug a tree—refle ct on how bless ed you are to be embodied. Bring a positive
feeling toward your body whenever you can. Drop the casual habit of
disparaging your body . Through these steady steps of becoming more
grounded, you are removing another layer of obstacles between you and
your true self. THURSDAY
Resilience
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I bend ﬂexibly with every experience. I bend ﬂexibly with every experience. The physical flexibility that comes from practicing the asanas, or
postures of yoga, is visible evidence of something rooted in consciousness:
resilience. Bad things happen to everyone, no matter how much we wish
they wouldn’ t. What matters is not the bad things themselves but how
we respond after they occur . Resilience is the ability to bounce back from
pain and advers ity. The opposite of resilience is being stuck and unable to
move on. Listing the qualities of resilien ce erases the line we draw between
physical, mental, and psycholo gical. It requires a holistic conception toreally embrace your own resilience, which can take you beyond surviving
to thriving in the face of changing experiences. YOU SHOW RESILIENCE WHEN…
You bend and adapt to change. Your body is ﬂexible and agile. You are open-minded toward people who are different from
you. You don’t exaggerate what happened in the past. You let your emotions rise and fall naturally, without trying to
force or suppress them. You don’t insist on always being right. You are not afraid of what life brings you. The future holds no apprehension. The emotional state of others doesn’t throw you. You can renounce the belief “My way is best.”
You face new challenges with optimism. You view every day as a new world. You stretch yourself in any way you deﬁne that term. None of these qualities is meant to be forced. They are a natural part of
everyone’ s exist ence. It takes effort to move away from resilie nce into the
condition of rigidity , or stuckne ss. It isn’t necessary to go into detail about
all the ways that stuckness occurs. We all have a good grasp of what is
involved, but if you need a reminder , return to the list above and just flip
each entry to its opposite. If you don’t adapt to change, don’t approach
challenges optim istically , don’t accept people who are different from you,
and so on through the list, you are rigid and stuck. Why do we stay stuck? We get a false sense of security from being rigid
in our ways. We put up an inflexible front to the world, yet behind it, we are
afraid to be truly open, free, accepting, emotionally honest, and optimistic.In a state of fear, something as precious as love becomes a sourc e of anxiety
if we have experienced enough unloving behavior and been scarred by it. Learning to be resilient should proceed with an eye to your inner
comfort and discomfort. A stiff emotional body needs to be treated with
care, like a stiff physical body . The important thing is to resist the false
security of being rigid and stuck—the shell you are hiding inside is
suffocating to the spirit. Exercise
Having read this discussion, no doubt you can see where you are
resilient and where you are stuck. There is always a path to follow that
shifts the balanc e, day by day, toward becoming more resilient. To stay on
the path, however , it must be appealing and bring satisfaction. Besides
bringing a false sense of securit y, being stuck makes you feel good, after a
fashion, because  you know that you are always right, that you don’t need to
change, and that your fixed beliefs and attitudes are fine just the way they
are. The key warning here is that your stuckness indulges an illusion. Giving
up on love, for example, indulges a person’ s anxiety about asking for and
receiving love. Somehow you need to break the ice that makes being stuck
cold and lonely , no matter how good the front you put up. Start  by looking
over the listed qualities of resilience and, for each one, devise a step you
can take that will feel good enough for you to continue on the path. You might stand and stretch while listening to music, moving on to
dance exercises you can do at home. You might spend more time with the
happiest people you know or show a little more affection to a family
member than either of you expect. Resilience isn’t a trait society teaches us
to value, but that doesn’ t matter . Awareness, like pure water , needs to flow,
and being resilient is how you open the gates inside yourself. FRIDAYIn Perfect Sync
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I live in the ﬂow of creative intelligence. I live in the ﬂow of creative intelligence. You are designe d to have mind and body in perfect sync. One of the
greatest deceptions in life is the helpless appearance presented by a
newborn baby . Unable to do much more than nurse at the breast, cry, and
sleep, a day-old infant doesn’ t reveal what it really is—a miracle of
organized intelli gence. In the last few days of pregnancy , for example, the
infant brain is developing millions of new brain cells a day. This process
continues after the infant is born. It is beyond imagination how a brain that
has no language, reason, fully formed emotions, or ideas prepared itself for
all of that, and more. It’s as if a house knew how to build itself from the
materials in the aisles of Home Depot. Self-creation cannot happen  on the physical plane without
consciousness. You can’t assemb le the ingredients of a neuron and expect it
to reach  a tipping point when— V oila! —a swirl of chemical soup becomes
conscious. If existe nce were ideal, mind and body would remain in perfect
synchronization, and in a healthy person they work flawlessly 99 percent of
the time. It takes interference to throw off the flow of creative intelligence
that unites mind and body . The symptoms of meddling are all too common. SYMPTOMS OF BEING OUT OF SYNC
Irregular or poor-quality sleep, insomnia
Fatigue, lack of energy
Depression
Digestive problems
Overeating, loss of natural hunger rhythms
Inability to focus and pay attentionSusceptibility to colds and infections
Getting easily distracted
Sensitivity to minor stress
Slow or inadequate healing
This whole list could be titled “When the miracle goes wrong.” Each of
these symptoms indicates that the miraculous flow of creative intelligence
that everyone was gifted with at birth has become distorted. Without the
word cr eative  added, the picture is woefully incomplete. Once it has been
programmed, a computer can imitate intelligence by doing all kinds of
things the mind does, and AI (artificial intelligence) is fast reaching the day
when the imitation will be so lifelike that your computer will sound and feel
human. Already there are software programs that effectively conduct
psychotherapy , for example. A robot voice imitates a genuine therapist
using verbal prompts like “How do you feel about that?” and “When did
you start to feel this way?” User s of the program come away feeling better ,
they say . But no matter how sophisticated  AI becomes, it cannot do what you do
every second: take raw information pouring into the brain from the five
senses and create the entire three -dimensional world you perceive. Cameras
aren’ t eyes. They see nothing. Therefore, a computer camera sees nothing
until a human eye is present. When you were in the wom b, creative
intelligence created your eye from a blob of undif ferentiated cells, and
within the eye specific cells were assigned to carry out visual processing. Yet that isn’t enough for turning visual images into something you see. Vision happens in the perfect interface between mind and the visual cortex
of the brain. Royal Yoga teaches you how to keep the flow of creative intelligence
from being distorted and blocked. If you fall out of sync, exhibiting the
symptoms listed above, you must get out of the way and allow creative
intelligence to restore what has gone awry . The practices aren’t new or
surprising. It’ s a matter of doing what we already know as right living.GETTING BACK IN SYNC
Practice grounding and rest comfortably in yourself. Take care to get 8 to 9 hours of sound sleep every night,
preferably uninterrupted. Establish regular hours for eating and sleeping. Avoid physical and mental exhaustion. Keep mentally active. Don’t put toxins in your body. Don’t put toxic experiences in
your mind. Take time to center yourself if you feel distracted, stressed,
upset, or overwhelmed. Meditate every day, using any method you choose—taking the
time is more important than the technique. Go out into Nature and let the experience bring deep
relaxation. Take your own well-being as seriously as you take work, family,
and relationships. Learn a physical skill that requires mind-body coordination
(yoga, dancing, aerobics, sports, physical recreation, etc.). You might look upon this list as familiar advice, but every piece forms
part of the mystery of existence. Everything that went into the evolution of
Homo sapiens was the result  of being in perfect sync with creative
intelligence. Creative intellig ence has an intention in mind for you person ally, not
simply for our species. Being in perfect sync isn’t like making sure to tune
up your car to keep it in top running order . Being in perfect sync is about
your evolution, and your evolution is about reaching your source so that
you can live in the light. ExerciseIf you look over the two lists that describe the opposite conditions of
being in or out of sync, a spark  of recognition will grow insid e you. This
spark indicates that more light and lightness comes from being in sync than
from being out of sync. The unblocked flow of creative intellig ence makes
your existence more vibrant, alert, receptive, avid, buoyant, and
appreciative. Take up an activity that brings those qualities to life. Don’ t
settle for the passive state of inertia. Even simple physical activity that
makes you feel more alert and alive is evolutionary . Evolution is the whole
game, and you are evolving when an experience makes you feel new and
renewed. The same desire drives every cell in your body , so it is only
natural for you to share in it fully and perfectly . OceanofPDF .comWEEK 4
VITAL ENERGY
(Limb of Yoga: Pranayama)THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
Every limb of Royal Yoga revea ls what is required to lead an ideal life. The fourth limb, known as pranayama , is concerned with the free flow of
the life force or vital energy known as prana. In the Yoga system, the flow
of prana is life-giving, but unlike physical energy, prana is conscious. Therefore, it responds to our state of consciousness. This is of critical importance. The experience of being alive here and
now is meant to be vital and vibrant. Mind and body are alert, and the
energy we assoc iate with youth is present for a lifetime. Ideally , Royal Yoga
provides a pathway to lifelong ener gy and vitality . Yet this is one area where the gap between an ideal life and real life is
very wide. Time is a falling arc. We expect to age, and although the “new
old age” has raised our expectations in terms of overall health and life
expectancy , the gap remains. This brings up a fact that most people aren’ t aware of: Aging is a
mysterious process that no one has adequately defined. No two people age
in the same way. At the moment of death, the cause is typically the
breakdown of a single organ or system. If life is based on DNA , which is a
strand of simple organic chemi cals, then we should be protected from the
rigors of old age, because our basic chemical components—carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, and nitrogen—don’ t age. Most of the atoms in your body are as
ancient as stars. A single explanation for aging seems impossible and yet is the very
thing we need. Royal Yoga offers a very simple explanation: We age when
prana, the life force, declines. Like atoms and molecules, prana itself
doesn’ t age, but it can weaken in a person over time. The fourth limb of
Yoga is devoted to practices of breath control—in Sanskrit prana  means
“breath.” Traditi onally , there are dozens of breathing exercises  that aim to
direct the breath for very specific purposes in the body , including the
prevention of aging. This week we will touch upon breathing from a different angle . Prana,
once you go deeply into it, is about the meeting point between  every atomin creation and the spark of life that animates not just our bodies, but the
cosmos. MONDAY
Breath of Life
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I join the ﬂow of life with every breath. I join the ﬂow of life with every breath. Nature designed us to breathe through our nose, a fact we never bother
to notice until the onset of a cold, allergies, or another condition that
obstructs nasal breathing. It seems amazing, therefore, that Yoga hit upon
the discovery that breathing through your nose has a hidden purpose—it is
the portal through which prana enters the body . By controlling your breath at the portal, you can potentially direct prana
anywhere at will. Yoga provides a road map of the subtle pathways (or
nadis ) that prana follows. The map looks very much like the netw ork of
blood vessels and nerves mapped by modern medical anatomy . Yoga
teaches that vital energy is always moving. You are most alive when you
feel vibrant with energy; someone is sick or in decline when they are
drained of energy. But, at a deeper level, prana follows the path laid out by
consciousness, which is the true creative force in you and every living
creature. Since the nadis  are invisible channels and prana can’t be measured
objectively , it doesn’ t have a place in modern medicine. Only by exploring
their own consciousness did the ancient Vedic rishis , or seers, discov er it in
the first place. In practical terms, Royal Yoga is concerned with how the
free flow of prana can increase your quality of life. Its benefits are
experienced personally , beginning with the mind, which makes sense since
prana is the conduit, or carrier , of consciousness.PRANA IS FLOWING FREELY WHEN…
Your mind is alert, and you are thinking clearly. You feel peaceful inside. A quiet mind is accompanied by easy, regular breathing. The mental vrittis of anxiety, worry, and anger settle down and
eventually vanish. You experience a natural feeling of well-being. Your mental state is unaffected by stress. You have a sense of freshness that renews itself every day. Immediately you can see that the state of prana determines the quality
of a person’ s life. You are designed, according to Yoga, so that prana is
flowing freely when you are simply breathing through your nose. Mouth
breathing is associated with imbalanced states in the body . Any imbalance
serves as a ready indicator of blocked or decreased prana. Leaving aside
colds, allergies, and medical conditions that block breathing, people mouth-
breathe when they are anxious, stressed, exhausted, or depressed, or when
they suffer from  insomnia or sleep apnea. All these disturbed conditions are
also associated with decreased ener gy, both physical and mental. PRANA IS BLOCKED WHEN…
You feel fatigued or exhausted. You lose mental clarity. You experience anxiety. You display nervousness. You lose a sense of inner calm. You can’t pay attention without being easily distracted. Your have muscle weakness and lose muscle tone. You show signs of aging. You become prone to colds, ﬂu, and random infections. You heal more slowly than normal.Mouth breathing is medically connected with sleep apnea. More
intriguing is how complex the human nose is when examined,  not for the
sense of smell, but for what happens as air enters. The tiny fibers that line
the nasal passage are remarkabl y effective at filtering out airbor ne particles
(up to 20 billion  a day, accordin g to one estimate) as well as warming the
air being inhaled in cold weather and cooling it in warm weathe r, enhancing
the smooth operation of the lungs. There is also a moistening effect in the
nose’ s mucous membranes that is beneficial to the lungs. Yet Royal Y oga is more focused on how prana functions as the breath of
life, meaning that it transmits the living energy that knows how the body—
indeed, all of creation—should be knit together as a single living organism. From the cell to the cosmos, the flow of prana is synonymous with the flow
of creative intelligence. Exercise
On its own, breathing through your nose naturally allows prana  to flow
freely . A simple breath meditat ion like the following is recom mended for
everyone. You can adopt it as a daily practice or turn to it anytime during
your day when you want to be calmer , more centered, and quieter inside. Sitting in a quiet place with low lighting, close your eyes and take a few
deep breaths until you feel settled and ready to meditate. Don’ t shorten or
skip these introductory moments. They prepare your breathing to get in
sync with your state of awareness. Direct your attention to the tip of your nose and sense air as it passes in
and out with each breath. (After a moment, if you feel that your breathing is
short, ragged, irregular , or gasping, take time to lie down without
meditating and let your breath ing return to normal.) Continue to easily
follow the in-and-out rhythm of your breathing. Don’ t force a rhythm, and
don’t mind if you occasionally draw a deep sigh or feel that you must take a
breath through your mouth. These are good signs, since they indicate that
your breathing is working to rebalance itself.Continue doing this for 5 to 20 minutes. If you notice your attention
wandering, just gently bring it back to the tip of your nose. When time is
up, lie down or sit quietly to let yourself return from the meditative state. Don’ t rush back into activity . Take as much time as you need to readjust to
a relaxed waking state, ready for your next activity . TUESDAY
The Key to Stronger Breathing
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
My breathing energizes mind and body. My breathing energizes mind and body. When your breathing is strong, so is your prana. Every function in the
body is improved by having an optimal level of oxygen in the blood, but
aging, respiratory problems, allergies, and air pollution bring most people
down from this optimal level. Breath, in a way, is like the old adage “For
want of a nail, the kingdom was lost”—incremental changes in breathing
can trigg er a decline by small degrees in critical areas like blood pressure,
heart health, and brain function. The upshot is that almost everyone can
benefit by strengthening their breathing so that small deficits don’t take
hold. We aren’t dealing in this book with traditional controlled Yogic
breathing, which requires a teacher and a committed discipline, but
conscious breath ing is something everyone can and should learn. Breath is
the portal of prana, and conscious breathing practices rank high for
improving the flow of prana. Here are three breathing exercises that have been well researched and
validated. #1 Belly BreathingThis exercise is based on the understanding that the lower area of the
lungs stimulates  relaxation. Shallow breathing, which mostly uses the upper
part of the lungs, is associated with stress, anxiety , and panic attacks. The
aim of belly breathing is to use your diaphragm as you consciously take in a
full, deep breath. Sit upright and start to breathe slowly . With each in-breath, feel the air
going to the bottom of your abdomen as you swell your belly  out. Move
your diaphragm outward, maki ng sure that you breathe slowly , and don’t
strain. When your belly feels full, breathe out by letting your lungs expel
the air naturally , the way you would let go of a sigh. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes, always breathing through your nose. If you
feel the impulse  to breathe throu gh your mouth or to gasp, don’t resist. Try
not to push yourself. Like all breathing exercises, this one should feel
comfortable. In time, you will build up more endurance. #2 Vagal Breathing
The vagus nerve, which is one of the ten cranial nerves leading directly
from the brain, has received a great deal of publicity in recen t years. The
vagus nerve plays a major role in regulating heartbeat, breathing, and the
intestines; it tells your body whether you are stressed—all three  organs are
involved in triggering the fight-or -flight response. By gently stimulating the vagu s nerve, you send signals of relaxation
and the absence  of stress throughout your body . Vagal breathing is the
simplest way to stimulate the vagus nerve, yet it turns out to be one of the
most effective ways to counter low-level chronic stress, which almost
everyone in modern life is subjected to. Sit quietly , breathing through your nose. Slowly and comfortably draw
in a breath, making sure it is deep enough to fill your lungs. Hold for a few
seconds, then slowly release your breath. The essential thing here is to
consciously draw in a breath, pausing without strain, and consciously
exhaling. The awareness of breathing is just as important as the technique
being used.Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes. Vagal breathing is thought to have many
more benefits than relaxing and diminishing the stress response, but those
benefits on their own make it valuable. Vagal breathing will be effective for some people, but if you find that
slow, conscious  breathing only increases the impulse to breathe in a
shallow , ragged way (which is typical in situations of acute stress) or if you
feel the slightest  signs of panic, discontinue this practice. In such situations,
lying down and breathing normally with the eyes closed will start to bring
the body out of the stress response. This can be followed up by meditating,
but, again, if going inward makes you overly aware of your stress and
anxiety , stop meditating and sit quietly , being gently aware of your body
and your breath. #3 Regulated Breathing
This is an advanced exercise, since it is related to formal techn iques of
pranayama . Yet regulated breathing is a natural step from vagal breathing. In this exercise, you are asked to count your breaths, bringing conscious
control to the act of breathing. Sit quietly , breathing through your nose. If you feel a little distracted or
tense, take a few deep breaths until you feel relaxed and settled. Now
breathe in slowly to the count of 4, exhale slowly to the count of 8, then
count to 8 before taking your next breath; in other words 4-8-8 for one
breath cycle. Even at this early  stage, regulated breathing can be a little
challenging for some, since it runs counter to the habit of unconscious
breathing that everyone is used to. But the practice is worth mastering, because it brings about deep
relaxation and changes in brain-wave activity . Simply by regulating your
breath, you can go into the meditative state represented by increased alpha-
wave activity . With practice, it is possible to put the brain into the same
state as deep sleep while still remaining alert and awake. If this prospect intrigues you, first become comfortable over a period of
days with a 4-8-8 rhythm. Then  move on to longer periods. Your goal is 6-12-12; in other words, inhaling to a count of 6, exhaling to a count of 12,
then waiting for a count of 12 before taking your next breath. One effect of regulated breathing is to slow down the number of breaths
you take per minute. The avera ge number for someone at rest is 12 to 16
breaths per minute. Regulated breathing slows the rate down  drastically ,
and if you attain  a count of 6-12-12, you may be breathing as little as two
times per minute. Advanced yogis can slow their breathing (along with
heartbeat and oxygen consump tion) to a level that reaches the state of
consciousness closest to the source ( samadhi ). An intriguing possibility is held out for people in their everyday lives. Yoga measures a lifetime not by years but by how many breaths are taken. Slower breathing, if done consciously , involves few breaths per minute,
resulting in a longer life span. The general concept makes sense. Breathing
slowly indicates a relaxed state that is less affected by stress. How long
someone’ s life span can be extended is open to further research, but the
benefits of a calmer mind, deeper awareness, and better regulated
physiology are beyond doubt. WEDNESDAY
Prana and the Light
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I direct all my energies to the light
I direct all my energies to the light. When we talk about improving the quality of life, what we should say is
the qualities  of life. An ideal life is built upon them. By comparison, if you
focus on externals, like money , status, and possessions, as markers of the
good life, you haven’ t even touched the qualities that matter . As prana
circulates through your body , it animates every cell with the primary
qualities that also bring vital ener gy to you as a person.THE PRIMARY QUALITIES OF PRANA
Freshness, renewal
Vitality, vibrancy
Creativity
Self-sufﬁciency
Intelligence
Growth, evolution
These are the qualities that make  prana a living energy, and they give us
a direc t connection to the light, because prana is the carrier of
consciousness. Yoga holds that consciousness is more powerful the closer
you get to the source. Prana circulates at a subtle level that is much closer to
the source than the physical processes of the body . Every breath brings in life-giving oxygen, which has chemical
properties that interact with the physical properties of thousands of other
molecules at the cellular level. But the cell would have no life without the
qualities listed above. Think of scrap iron rusting in a junkyard. Two atoms
of oxygen and iron are involve d, and the net result is that the iron gets
broken down and deteriorates. The same oxygen and iron atoms interact in your blood stream,
imparting the color to red blood corpuscles. Yet the effect is the exact
opposite of rusted iron. The oxygen is used to nourish the qualities of life—
refreshing every  cell, giving it vitality , allowing the cell to sustain itself and
grow . Without the qualities of life carried by prana, the physical side of life
would deteriora te into random chemical reactions, leading to chaos and
decay . Prana automatically tends to the qualities of life as you breathe, but you
can choo se to expand or diminish its effectiveness. What gives you control
over prana is your state of awareness. Since prana has the same source in
pure awareness that you do, it is affected by your mental state. Consider
two psychological states—anxiety and depression—that hamper the flow of
prana. When prana is weake ned, life feels dull, enervated, insecure,
exhausting, overwhelming in its daily functioning, and without any sense ofvibrancy . These are precisely the clinical description of depression and
anxiety . The drugs used to treat anxiety and depression do not actually cure
those condition s. This failing has always been a thorn in the side for
psychiatry , but Royal Yoga points to a much more significant phenomenon. The same areas of the brain affected by these drugs are simila rly affected
through talk, or couch, therapy . In other words, exchanging words with a
therapist about how you feel—t he qualities of life as you experience them
—can alleviate anxiety and depres sion as effectively as drugs and with no
side effects. Yoga’s explanation for this is that going to the level of qualities
(i.e., subjective experience) allows prana to be consciously redirected back
into a healthier pattern. This is a prime example of the basic insight Royal Yoga delivers: You
can only change  what you are aware of. Awareness guides prana, and prana
communicates to your cells the changes you want to make. Exercise
The basic takeaway today is that changing the quality of your life
depends on changing the many qualities of your life. A blanket intention (“I
want things to get better”) isn’t effective. What’ s effective is to focus on the
primary qualitie s that prana carries as it moves through mind  and body . Look at the list of qualities and begin to focus at first on one or two of
them. How can you make your life feel refreshed instead of routine? What
creative activity  can you take up? Which daily problems and challenges can
you deal with more intelligently ? Be specific. Write down the thoughts that
come to you. A great help is to consult a trusted friend or family member
who exemplifies the quality you want to develop. This can be someone who
is strikin gly creative or self-suf ficient or smart about dealing with their own
issues. When you engage in a stimulating back-and-forth, you are
enlivening the flow of prana then and there, which is half the answer .THURSDAY
Energy Healing
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I redirect my energy wherever it is needed. I redirect my energy wherever it is needed. Awareness brings change. Wherever you direct your awareness, a
change occurs in the way prana flows. This principle lies at the heart of
energy work, a broad term that can apply to traditional Easter n therapies,
like Ayurveda, qi gong, and acupuncture, or to modern chiropractic and
osteopathy . They all depend on redirecting vital ener gy at a subtle level. Right at this moment, you are redirecting prana in ways that help to
either promote or interfere with the healing process. You canno t change the
pathways that prana flows throu gh—these are as fixed as blood vessels or
the central nervous system. But you can improve prana in several ways. THE PRACTICES TO MAXIMIZE PRANA
Meditation
Controlling your breathing
Eating food that is as fresh as possible, drinking pure water,
breathing pure, unpolluted air
Sleeping restfully and soundly
Reducing stress
Maintaining an optimistic outlook
Engaging in regular stretching and moving throughout the day
Going out into Nature
Avoiding mental and physical exhaustion
Nothing on this list is new or surprising, which is as it should be. Each
limb of Yoga takes a different angle on the same goal, which is to achievean ideal  life. But constant reminders to do what is good for you aren’ t
effective as motivation. You need to experience change in a healing
direction, which  then increases your desire for more of the same. In modern
terminology , you need to create a positive feedback loop. The simplest and most natural way to do that, when it comes to prana, is
to get it moving . Flowing water remains fresh; stagnant water doesn’ t. The
same holds true for prana. If you return to the list above, each practice spurs
prana to circulate naturally , without exhausting or depleting your energy. Meditation migh t seem to be the exception, but it isn’t. By calming the
activity of the mind ( vrittis ), meditation opens the subtle channels through
which prana flows. Exercise
You can easily and gently bolster your prana by making your daily
routine a little more conscious. Move and stretch every hour. Choose the
freshest greens and vegetables in the market. Don’ t eat leftovers. Pay more
attention to getting regular , good-quality sleep. Meditate, if only for a few
minutes. These gradual changes require you to pay attention, and once a
positive feedbac k loop is set up, it becomes more and more automatic. The
watchwords with prana are natural , unfor ced, and easy—literally as easy as
breathing. FRIDAY
Eternal Creation
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I am part of a living, breathing creation. I am part of a living, breathing creation. Prana solves a mystery that otherwise defies explanation. If you look at
a bumbl ebee from the perspective of an airplane engineer , the creature istoo heavy , slow, and fat to fly. In a similar way, the human body shouldn’ t
be alive if you look at it merel y from a physical perspective. None of its
chemical compo nents are alive. If you take a quivering muscle cell or a
pulsating heart cell and trace its makeup backward, from cell to molecules
to atoms, the instant you take the first step, which brings you to the
essential proteins that make up every cell, life has vanished. The most
complex molecule inside you, your DNA, somehow learned the trick of
dividing itself perfectly down the middle, and there’ s no doub t that life is
based on passing on this trick so that cells can divide. Ever since you started out as a single cell in your mother ’s womb, you
have been the fortunate result of this trick. But DNA unzipping itself down
the middle is still a purely chemical process, not all that distant from the
way crystals multiply . Take a dense solution of sugar and wate r, suspend a
string in it that has a single sugar crystal on it, and overnight many more
crystals will magically surro und it. A clump of sugar develops
spontaneously and keeps on developing as long as the sugar  solution is
dense enough. But crystals aren’t alive, and even when given billions of
years to evolve, they never come to life. The mystery of life disappears once you realize that everything is alive,
and what keeps everything alive is prana. The spark of life isn’t physical. Life is part of existence itself. It emer ges at every level of creation,
including the physical cosmos and the atom. Without creative intelligence,
your body wouldn’ t survive another minute. At every level prana knows
how to sustain life. THE LIFE-GIVING FUNCTIONS OF PRANA
It brings nourishment to every cell. It determines whether to create, destroy, or maintain life. It promotes growth and evolution. It organizes and regulates every process. It synchronizes every biorhythm in the body. It dynamically connects mind and body.None of these functions can be explained through physical processes
alone. Whereve r creative intelligence flows, prana is flowing inside it. Physics employs matter and energy as the building blocks of creation, but
this leaves out the critical element of intelligence. Prana knows  what it is doing. You can see how vitally important this is
if you think of the electricity powering the lighting, heating, and appliances
in your house. Can you conce ive of the electrical current knowing the
difference between a dryer , a fluorescent light, and a space heater before it
reaches those appliances? Yoga holds that everything in creation is a transforma tion of
consciousness in different stages. The eight limbs of Yoga are levels of
transformation. You can choos e to expand your control over one level
separately , the way pranayama  controls breathing and asana  controls
physiology , but each limb is a facet of the whole. As a Vedic adage says,
“Yoga is like a table with eight legs. Move one leg, and the whole table
moves.”
Pure conscious ness is timeless, so is prana. The act of creation
happening in your body in the next split second, which comprises hundreds
of thousands of chemical reactions in a single cell, is the same act of
creation that took place at the Big Bang and every moment afterward. So
prana links you to eternal creation. Genesis, as Y oga sees it, is now . Exercise
In your mind’ s eye, see yourself plucking an apple from a tree. Take a
bite of the apple and swallow it. Mentally follow the path of the apple as it
gets digested and gives up its energy. See the energy entering a heart cell
and fueling a single heartbeat. Now ask yourself: At what point did life
leave the apple? There were only stages of transformation as the fruit went
from the tree to your heart. At each stage, different processes took over. (We could extend this example to the waste from the digested apple
returning to the earth to nouri sh a seedling apple tree, perpetuating the
circle of life.) Y et the chain of ener gy is unbroken, and so is the flow of life.In this exercise you have grasped the eternal nature of prana. It moves,
it morph s, it is guided from step to step by knowing what it needs to do. The link between life and consciousness is never broken, thanks to the
vehicle that carries both life and consciousness, which is prana. OceanofPDF .comWEEK 5
STAYING IN THE LIGHT
(Limb of Yoga: Pratyahara)THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
Royal Yoga is a journey to reach  the ideal life. The fifth limb, known as
pratyahara , is the turning point in this journey . Here you learn how to live
in the light permanently . Instead  of having a glimpse of love, compassion,
creativity , beauty , truth, and the other values of higher consciousness, they
are now your natural impulses. You get to experience them without the
constantly churning mind blocking the way . In classic Yoga, pratyahara  is described as “the withdrawal of the
senses,” which isn’t easy to grasp at first. If you are looking at an object—
an apple, a television, another person—how can you not see it? Can you
really withdraw your sense of sight? Yes, and you do it all the time by
tuning out. You stop paying attention to what your eyes report and pay
attention instead to your inner world. You can also hear without listening,
which is why we say, “Sorry , I was distracted and didn’ t catch what you
said.” Your ears reported the sound of someone else talkin g, but your
attention was elsewhere. Once you tune out, pratyahara  teaches you what to do next: Find the
light and stay there. You know that you have accomplished this feat because
the following things happen:
You experience your body as the gateway to bliss. You melt away karmic impressions. You conquer fear. You see the evolutionary path and take it. You start living from the level of solutions, instead of the level
of problems. In Week 5 we will cover the practices that lead to each of these
victories, because that’ s what they are. The root causes of pain and suf fering
are defeated once and for all.MONDAY
At Home in the Light
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I welcome the light as it welcomes me. I welcome the light as it welcomes me. The light is where you belong. This is one of the most basic truths
revealed by Royal Yoga. Where  you belong can also be called “home,” so
whatever home feels like, living in the light should feel the same way. The
qualities of home are known to everyone. A child growing up in a secure,
loving family learns what home represents, and these impressions last a
lifetime. Home is, or should be:
Welcoming
Familiar
Safe
Relaxing
Happy
Loving
Nurturing
A child fortunat e enough to experience these things simply by coming
home depends on the parents to create these qualities. In Roya l Yoga, you
discover that they exist in yourself—the light provides them. The fifth limb
of Yoga, pratyahara , teache s you how to settle down in the light, look
around, and know what home really is. It’s the place where you can be
yourself. Ordina rily, you leave home to go out into the world  and come
back again, over and over, throu ghout your lifetime. In pratyahara , making
the light your home is different because you can remain there without ever
leaving.Discovering that this is possible represents a breakthrough. Previously ,
the first four limbs of Yoga involved coming and going. You are navigating
constant changes in the world around you, in your experiences, and in the
activity of mind and body . Pratyahara  merges coming and going by degrees
until you become like a still point in the turning world. Some breakthroughs are drama tic, but this one isn’t because you are
doing very little beyond welco ming yourself home. That’ s why Yoga is
often described as the “journey of the return.” You recognize that the world
“in here” has all the qualities of home, which is very different from the
stories we tell ourselves about hidden demons, dark forces, painful
memories, and even the threat of going insane if we look too deeply inside. All these stories  are banished when you follow the path laid out by Royal
Yoga. Your inner world isn’t a dark under ground. Instead, it is the gateway
to your true self. The so-called demons and dark forces are just another kind
of vritti  that blocks the light. In Roya l Yoga, you never fight or struggle against vrittis ; you allow
awareness to dissolve them, which happens by degrees. One of the most
valuable secrets in Yoga is that it becomes easier , not harder , to dissolve the
vrittis  as you go deep er. Pratyahara  teaches you to make the process of
clearing out vrittis  easier , beginning with the following exercise. Exercise
The most basic practice in pratyahara  is a full-body scan. Find a quiet
place where you can lie down comfortably . Your bed or a soft rug will do. Lie on your back with your arms by your side. Closing your eyes, take a
few deep breaths to relax. Go inside and begin to scan your body , starting with your toes, feeling
the experience as you move slowly and steadily toward your head. By scan,
I mean letting your awareness sweep through you as you notic e whatever
comes to your attention. You might notice how hot or cold your body feels,
how light or heavy, how pleasurable or uncomfortable a certain sensationmight feel. Don’ t approach this exercise with any expectations. Using
awareness to sweep your body is the sole thing you need to do. Once you have finished your full-body scan, relax into the feeling of
being comfortable inside yourself. This is the basic step that Yoga refers to
as “withdrawal of the senses.” You aren’ t focusing on what you might see,
hear, touch, taste, or smell outside yourself. You are simply experiencing
being “in here.”
If you like, you can do a second scan, this time noticing the basic
feeling of comin g home. The qualities you are looking for were listed above
as welcoming, familiar, safe, relaxing, happy , loving, and nurturing. To help
yourself focus, it might help to recall a memory or image of a time when
you felt welcom ed, then let this feeling suffuse your body now. The same
can be practiced with the other qualities. Use a memory of being safe,
relaxed, happy , and so on. For some of these qualities, you probably won’ t
need a memory . Just softly saying the word to yourself will bring up a
matching feeling-sensation. This exercise deepens the more often you practice it, and you will find
it more and more enjoyable if you make it part of your daily routine. TUESDAY
Seeds of Karma
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I set myself free from old memories. I set myself free from old memories. Royal Yoga shows you how to take control of your life, which strongly
applies to karma . Most people are trapped in their past actions, which are
the field of karma. This happens in a subtle, invisible way. Karma operates
below the level of thoughts and feelings. To escape your karma,  pratyahara
shows you how to go to the level where karmic seeds are plante d. The goalis to stop these seeds from sprouting. The principle is the same as weeding a
garden.
Living_In_The_Light_by_Deepak_Chopra.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Unlike our struggle to improve ourselves, the essence of
transformation is to allow the light to do all the work. This is the law of
least effort. Wha t you are aiming for is a series of revelations, insights, and
“Aha. ” moment s. They signal that change is at hand. Only the light can
deliver these transformative experiences. Your ego and a burni ng desire to
get rid of the things you dislike about yourself cannot do the job. You will
be surprised at how steadily revelation comes once you get out of the way
and allow the focus of awareness to develop of its own accord. Exercise
The key to transformation is getting out of the way, which happens to
be the opposite  of what most people do when they desire change. They
struggle, push themselves, and fight against frustration. (A good example of
how futile those tactics are is revealed in the dismal fact that only 2 percent
of dieters, in their struggle to lose weight, succeed in keeping off 5 pounds
for two years. ) You can turn this pattern around  in two ways. First, look honestly at an
area of your life where you have struggled and resolve not to keep doing
what never worked in the first place. Second, find enjoyable ways to meet
yourself “in here. ” As alluded to earlier, seek some “in time” and “quiet
time” every day. Stillness conc entrates the light, while chaos scatters it. Become accusto med to the comfort of being in communion with yourself. Once this becomes your new habit, you are getting out of the way, setting
the stage for the process of transformation as it is really designed to work. THURSDAY
Tracking Your True SelfBegin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I reﬂect on my true self to bring it closer. I reﬂect on my true self to bring it closer. The fourth niyama  calls for clearly  understanding that your true self is
real, tangible, and powerful. The word self is one of the most important in
Yoga, and most people will have no trouble seeing that they have a social
self and an emotional self. Much more foreign is the notion that everyone
has a true self, hidden like a jewel in the stormy activity of the mind. Various interpretations speak of this niyama  as self-reflection, but it
matters deeply whether you are reflecting on a self you can trust and have
faith in. Without a doubt, we don’t fully trust our emotions. We feel them,
sometimes strongly, but they are temporary, changeable, and fickle. It is
baffling why this niyama  would ask you to reflect upon the swirling
whirlpool of your emotions. The key is that self-reflection enables you to stand aside and not
become so involved in your emotions. Think about a moviegoer who sits
entranced by an adventure film or a romantic comedy on the screen, and yet
who doesn’t know that he’s watching a movie or, worse, that movies even
exist. We are all that moviegoer to some degree or other. Entranced by the
movie we are living, we don’t realize the illusory nature of what we are
watching, and, worse still, we don’t realize that everything we observe is
the play of consciousness. Self-reflection clears up this confusion and
therefore points us toward our true self. THE PRACTICES OF SELF-REFLECTION
Keep in mind that you are here to evolve. Don’t get stuck in emotional habits. Place a high value on experiences that reﬂect your true self
(e. g. , love, compassion, beauty, insight, creativity, andmental clarity). Don’t add to the drama around you. Resist buying into other people’s drama. Avoid immersing yourself in news stories about catastrophes,
disasters, and looming threats. Realize that worry isn’t productive. Reject anxious thoughts that are habitual and recurring. The key ingredient in self-reflection is detachment, a concept that grows
deeper and deeper with each limb of Yoga. Here detachment doesn’ t imply
indifference, passivity, or apathy. Instead, you distance yourse lf from the
pull of emotion. Let’s say that you get word that someone you trust, such as a close
friend, uttered a harsh criticism about you that has gotten back to you. A
flush of anger rises in you. You may feel sad or angry and wond er why you
ever thought this person was a real friend. Perhaps the temptat ion to exact
revenge or to say damaging things about your friend enters the picture. You have several opportunities to practice detachment here. First, at the
instant anger starts to rise, you can pause, take a deep breath, and hold up
your hand for time-out. Second, you can sit quietly until your immediate
reaction dies down and reason can prevail. Perhaps your friend didn’ t
actually say what was reported to you, or perhaps a slight has been blown
out of all proportion. Third, you can close your eyes, center yourself, and do
a simple  breathing meditation until your anger dissipates. Finally, you can
reflect on the fact that you have survived worse criticism and will seek a
way to understand and for give your friend. What these four possibilities have in common is that you move closer to
your true self, which is never wounded, cares nothing about criticism, sees
everyone in the light of lovin g acceptance, and brings compassion and
forgiveness to any situation. The opposite of self-reflection is to nurse your
grievance against your friend, indulging in a combination of self-pity and
fantasies of getting even. Learning a better way to respond emotionally isthe whole purpose of the niyamas, and detachment is an important skill to
be learned. Exercise
Consider the example of an angry response given above. Reflect on
how it applies to your own store of resentments, grudges, and old hurts
from other people. Go inside and reflect on moving these emotional
residues so that you bring a sense of light and lightness to your feelings. To
make your ability to self-reflect even more powerful, be on the lookout the
next time you have a strong impulse to be angry, envious, anxious, or
discouraged. In the moment of your reaction, pause and follow the four
opportunities mentioned in the anger example above. Genuinely try to adopt
detachment as your response, looking upon it as a skill based on emotional
intelligence. You can journal about how the experience allowed you to see
how self-reflection and detachment work, and how much you can benefit
from simply taking a step back and expanding your vision of who you
really are. FRIDAY
Surrender to the Unknown
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I give myself over to the great mystery. I give myself over to the great mystery. The fifth and final niyama  asks you to recognize your higher reality and
surrender to it. In daily life there is a constant push-pull between getting
what you want and giving in to what someone else wants. Giving in is a
form of surrende r, which is why most people do not like the connotation of
that word. It seems foreign to human nature when this niyama  calls for
complete surrender. The issue hasn’ t been cleared up by Yoga commentaries that use a mix-
and-match vocabulary, some calling for surrender to God, others making it
surrender to the Absolute, the divine mystery of existence or Brahman (the
Sanskrit word for “big” that implies the whole of creation, the One, the
All). To gain clarity, first we must sweep away all this loaded vocabu lary. As
a famous Yogic saying affirms, “Those who speak of It know It not. Those
who know It speak of It not. ” Here It refers to God/th e Absolute/the divine
mystery/Brahman, according to the terminology you favor. Names don’t
matter, because the “real” reality is beyond language. With this understanding in mind, the fifth niyama  isn’t about ordinary
surrender, which involves givin g in to someone else and thus sacrificing
what you want. In Royal Y oga, surrender is simply the recognition of higher
reality. Once accepted, there is an end to seeking, frustration, and endless
speculation. Religious history is full of all three, so this isn’t religious
surrender, either. You acknowledge your place in the mystery of existence. Then what. Once you accept that water is wet, there’ s not much more to
say. The fifth niyama  teaches that the contemplation of higher reality brings
endless rewards. The practices of contemplation will make this clearer. THE PRACTICES OF CONTEMPLATION
Welcome the end of seeking. Turn your attention to what life means. Expose yourself to inspirational poetry and scripture. Attune yourself to the beauty of Nature. Follow your creative impulses. Act from your ﬁnest feelings whenever you can. Take time to offer gratitude. Dwell on your version of a higher being or consciousness. Nurture awe and wonder in the contemplation of creation. See yourself as having a unique place in the divine or cosmic
plan. These practices are meant to have a direct personal effect. The effect is
to get you out of linear thinking—this isn’t a journey from A to B, but a
journey to show you who you have always been. In that light, the practices of contemplation constantly expand our self-
awareness. We are all used to expanding our awareness, even if we don’t
label it as such. As an example, consider when we learned to read. The state
of literacy opens an entirely new way of being. When your contemplation
practice opens up even a moment of insight, joy, or inspiration, this signals
how total transformation will be. The process begins by surrend ering to the
reality that the source of creatio n exists and is identical to your source, the
true self. Exercise
In detective fiction, a mystery is something that needs solving, and,
until it is solved, things haven’ t been set right. The guilty need to be
unmasked; right must prevail. But the mystery of the source is different. The human mind exists in the relative world. But this doesn’ t present an
impenetrable barrier to the Absolute—quite the opposite. To use a
traditional image from Yoga, imagine that the Absolute is sending arrows of
light into the created world. Consider that the highest values in life, including love, compassion,
creativity, empathy, beauty, truth, and spiritual inspiration, are what the
arrows carry to our world. This is a good start for practicing contemplation. Sit quietly and let your mind go to an experience of one of those  values just
listed. Feel the lightness, vibrancy, joy, and fulfillment your experience
contained. Let these subtle feelings expand and settle in your awareness. You are learning  the truth of the Yogic saying “This isn’t knowledge you
learn. This is knowledge you become. ”
ADVANCED EXPLORATIONIf you want to go more deeply into classic Yoga, there are many  sources
of information about the niyamas, beginn ing with all the free information
online. Look under the Sanskrit names for the niyamas, which are given
below with their traditional translations. Saucha: Clean body, mind, and spirit
Santosha: Contentment
Tapas: Austerities, self-discipline
Svadhyaya: Self-reﬂection
Ishvara pranidhana: Surrender to or contemplation of a
Supreme Being
OceanofPDF. comWEEK 3
BRINGING THE LIGHT TO YOUR BODY
(Limb of Yoga: Asana)THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
The third limb of Yoga, known as asana, is about makin g a conscious
connection with your body. From there a union of equals—a spiritual
marriage—can be experienced. Without this connection, there is no true
knowledge of who you really are. The term asana  has been adopte d for the postur es that Sarah deals with
in Part II of the book. Each posture is specifically aimed at changes in
biology and physiology that affect your mood and mental state. A precise
science underlie s this branch of Yoga. It is an inner science, despite the
physical image of a yogi sitting in lotus position that most peop le see when
they think of Y oga. In Week 3, I will focus on the inner science, presenting the pure view of
Patanjali, which holds that the body is a disguised form of consciousness. Remove the disguise—cells, tissues, organs, and systems—and you will
discover how to bring your body into the light. Perhaps it is fairer to say
that your body is going to bring you into the light. MONDAY
The Conscious Body
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I experience my body as a ﬂow of awareness. I experience my body as a ﬂow of awareness. Your body isn’ t a machine, even a miraculous machine, but a storehouse
of infini te know ledge. If we look at any process in the body, from a cell
dividing to reproduce itself to the immune system repelling an invader or
the digestive tract extracting energy from food, a vast amount of knowledge
is on display. No process is mechanical. The body’ s knowledge is alive,
flowing, and conscious. Royal Yoga aims to bring the body fully into the light. When you
mistreat your body—subjecting your body to stress, bad diet, and poor-
quality sleep—its consciousness is dulled. When you fail to tune into the
signals your body sends to you, you are denying that it is conscious. These
are vrittis  that block the light. Until they are overcome, you won’ t fully
experience freed om, joy, and bliss, because your body is the vehicle for all
higher experiences. At its most basic, asana, the Sanskrit word for “seat,” teaches you to
settle comfortably into your body as the seat, or foundation, that determines
your place in the physical world. The body in motion is one thing, dynamic
and changeable. The seat is another thing, unchanging, stable, and
continuously present. BRINGING THE LIGHT TO YOUR BODY
Realize that every cell is eavesdropping on your thoughts,
feelings, and sensations. See your body as your willing ally. Drop the habit of blaming or disparaging your body. Don’t compare your body to an unreachable ideal. Obey your body’s signals, particularly its need for sleep and
the regulation of stress. Avoid prolonged sessions of sitting down—move and stretch
for a few minutes every hour. Look upon your body as new every day. Make lifelong wellness your goal. Bringing light and lightness to your body comes naturally once you see
your body as being aware and knowing. The life that flows through every
cell is vibrant. Your role is to let your whole body express this vibrancy. There are physical, mental, and psychological ways to accompl ish this, but
everything begins with acknowledging the conscious body as your default
attitude. Exercise
Sit quietly with your eyes closed and take a few deep breaths. When
you feel calm and centered, visualize an outline of your body. Keeping the
outline in mind, start filling it in with light. An easy way to do this is to see
light expanding from the center of the image, the heart, and radiating
outward as a soft white glow. Another aid is to feel yourself breathing the
light into the outline. Continue for 5 to 10 minutes, then relax with your eyes closed. Move
easily back into your daily activity. Notice if you feel more light and
lightness physic ally, which is the goal of this exercise. Don’ t be concerned
if you don’t. Your awareness has lightened your body all the same, and if
you keep this practice up, the experience of lightness will appear and grow
stronger. TUESDAY
Presence
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I join my body in the present moment. I join my body in the present moment. Do you think you are living in the present moment. The concept of the
“power of now” has been wide ly popularized, and so have practices for
living in the present. Yoga looks upon this issue differently. There is no
power in the present moment when you adopt the viewpoint of the timeless. A moment is a mind-made construct. What matters is presenc e, which is
timeless. Presence comes from the light. Without attaching the word divine
to it, presence is felt as a combination of alertness and openness  that makes
the now feel perfect just by being here. Without presenc e, the now is a blank. The pathos of the elder ly when
dementia strikes  is that they are present the way a chair or a rock is present,as a passive, inert body in which awareness barely flickers. The infinite
field of pure awareness is the source of presence; therefore, being fully
present is your natural state—babies are fully present, as you can see by the
look of wonder and curiosity in their eyes. As it was designed, your body is an unfailing guide for living in the
present moment, because that’s where every cell lives—it never loses sight
of the now. Asan a points to the vidya, or “wisdom of the body,” as a given,
yet this wisdom gets distorted and contradicted by the activity of the mind. The ef fect of this distortion is easy to see. THE WISDOM OF THE BODY
Every cell in the body knows how to live in peace with every
other cell. It is the mind that has invented violence. Cells exist to keep the whole body alive. The mind has
invented selﬁshness and separation. Cells communicate freely. The mind keeps secrets. Cells trust in a stream of food and oxygen that is constantly
renewed. The mind has invented mistrust. Cells are born and die without fear. The mind dreads death. The body maintains itself in perfect dynamic balance. The mind
is driven toward bursts of manic activity and paralyzed
depression. The body heals itself automatically. The mind struggles to heal
itself. Absent the vrittis, the body lives  fully in the here and now, aware of
everything it needs to know. Which of us can say the same thing. The
upshot is that the mind needs to be deposed as the be-all and end-all of
human awareness. For most people, no matter how much they blame or
criticize their bodies, it is the body that is ahead in their evolut ion, not the
mind. Exercise
Get in the habit of respecting your body’ s wisdom by listening to what
it is telling you. Take time to sit with your eyes closed and simply feel your
body. Let your attention go wherever it wants to. If you sense discomfort,
tightness, stiffness, stress, or painful sensations, let your awareness rest
there. Take deep  breaths, relax, and notice if the sensation begins to lessen. Feeling the body is healing the body. We don’t realize this truth because we
are in the habit  of withdrawing our awareness from signals of physical
discomfort, stress, or pain. One reason that the healing response works while we are aslee p is that
the body is allowed to bring full awareness to the process. Once we wake
up, we tend to diminish the healing response by forcing our awareness
elsewhere. In essence, we deny the healing response an open field in which
to work. Much of this oppositi on happens unconsciously, and feeling the
body is a gentle exercise for replacing your unconscious reaction with a
conscious response instead. WEDNESDAY
Staying Grounded
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I rest comfortably in my body. I rest comfortably in my body. If animals could talk, we don’t know what they’d say, but we can be
certain about what they wouldn’ t say: “I hate my body. ” Hating your body
is a uniquely human response and an unnatural one. Royal Y oga holds that a
healthy relations hip with your body begins by being comfortable with your
physicality. The modern term for this is being gr ounded. We say that a
person is ground ed if they are sensible, realistic, reliable, and not given toflights of fancy. Those are good traits, but asana is about being grounded in
yourself, which occurs only as your awareness deepens. It is peculiar to stand back and discover just how much judgment has
been leveled against physicality  itself, which the body symbolizes. Long-
held religious beliefs denigrate the physical for pulling us down from the
heights of the spiritual. Physicality reminds us of our low, knuckle-dragging
primate forebears. T o be physical is to be brutish; to be spiritual is divine. Yet as Yoga sees it, one flow of consciousness supports life in every
dimension. There is no reason to denigrate the physical once you realize
how much wisdom ( vidya ) is expressed in every cell, the wisdom of life as
a whole. Yoga takes us beyond the deceptive look of the body—solid,
material, fixed in time and space—to the reality. We aren’ t embodied in a
body; we are embodied in awareness. What follows are the qualities that represent being fully grounded. YOU ARE GROUNDED WHEN…
Being embodied brings you joy. You understand the deep wisdom of your body. You feel attuned to Nature. You cherish the Earth for creating earthly existence. You feel unembarrassed by basic bodily functions. You appreciate other people’s earthiness. You feel stable and steady during periods of change. You experience equanimity in the face of aging and dying. Your sensual and sexual life is gratifying, without prudery or
shame. When you watch little children romping in the mud or running around
the hous e unenc umbered, how does your response reflect on you. What we
call the innocence of childhood exists, yes, but it is more appropriately
called being grounded. Children  feel no impulse, unless they are mistreated,to be disembodied. They have no need to renounce or escape their physical
nature. This naturally grounded state changes as soon as the mind intervenes to
create certain attitudes that drive us to become disembodied—not like
ghosts but as creatures who judge against our physicality. YOU BECOME DISEMBODIED WHEN…
You don’t feel comfortable inside your own skin. Your body arouses in you distaste or disgust. You remember physical experiences that led to humiliation,
guilt, or shame. You live in your head. You always choose indoor distractions over going out into
Nature. You hold negative views of the human body. These may be
religious (seeing the body as sinful) or based on personal
aversion (for example, being repelled by the body’s messier
functions). Physical beauty or ugliness becomes a ﬁxation. You have poor body image because you are overweight,
aging, or subject to social attitudes about physical
perfection and desirability. You don’t feel physically lovable or desirable. You neglect to keep your body clean, well cared for, and active. You think that earthy people are stupid or crude. When we list all the ways we put down our bodies, it becomes evident
that we live in a disembodied age to a shocking degree. Mass media
overloads us with fantasies of a perfect body that never ages while robbing
us of the real blessing of being embodied. The embodied state allows us to
feel the physical side of bliss-consciousness, which is a vibra nt sense of
aliveness as we move through our day. Exercise
Every step you take to welcome  your own physicality is a step into the
light. Look at the two lists above that outline the qualities of being
grounded versus the qualities of being disembodied. Pause to reflect on how
you can adopt more grounded beliefs and turn them into enjoyable actions,
like walking in Nature, partici pating in a sport, taking part in forms of
physical recreation, or going for a massage. As you engage in this activity, no matter how simple it is—yo u might
just lie spread-eagle on the warm ground in summer or (believ e it or not)
hug a tree—refle ct on how bless ed you are to be embodied. Bring a positive
feeling toward your body whenever you can. Drop the casual habit of
disparaging your body. Through these steady steps of becoming more
grounded, you are removing another layer of obstacles between you and
your true self. THURSDAY
Resilience
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I bend ﬂexibly with every experience. I bend ﬂexibly with every experience. The physical flexibility that comes from practicing the asanas, or
postures of yoga, is visible evidence of something rooted in consciousness:
resilience. Bad things happen to everyone, no matter how much we wish
they wouldn’ t. What matters is not the bad things themselves but how
we respond after they occur. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from
pain and advers ity. The opposite of resilience is being stuck and unable to
move on. Listing the qualities of resilien ce erases the line we draw between
physical, mental, and psycholo gical. It requires a holistic conception toreally embrace your own resilience, which can take you beyond surviving
to thriving in the face of changing experiences. YOU SHOW RESILIENCE WHEN…
You bend and adapt to change. Your body is ﬂexible and agile. You are open-minded toward people who are different from
you. You don’t exaggerate what happened in the past. You let your emotions rise and fall naturally, without trying to
force or suppress them. You don’t insist on always being right. You are not afraid of what life brings you. The future holds no apprehension. The emotional state of others doesn’t throw you. You can renounce the belief “My way is best. ”
You face new challenges with optimism. You view every day as a new world. You stretch yourself in any way you deﬁne that term. None of these qualities is meant to be forced. They are a natural part of
everyone’ s exist ence. It takes effort to move away from resilie nce into the
condition of rigidity, or stuckne ss. It isn’t necessary to go into detail about
all the ways that stuckness occurs. We all have a good grasp of what is
involved, but if you need a reminder, return to the list above and just flip
each entry to its opposite. If you don’t adapt to change, don’t approach
challenges optim istically, don’t accept people who are different from you,
and so on through the list, you are rigid and stuck. Why do we stay stuck. We get a false sense of security from being rigid
in our ways. We put up an inflexible front to the world, yet behind it, we are
afraid to be truly open, free, accepting, emotionally honest, and optimistic. In a state of fear, something as precious as love becomes a sourc e of anxiety
if we have experienced enough unloving behavior and been scarred by it. Learning to be resilient should proceed with an eye to your inner
comfort and discomfort. A stiff emotional body needs to be treated with
care, like a stiff physical body. The important thing is to resist the false
security of being rigid and stuck—the shell you are hiding inside is
suffocating to the spirit. Exercise
Having read this discussion, no doubt you can see where you are
resilient and where you are stuck. There is always a path to follow that
shifts the balanc e, day by day, toward becoming more resilient. To stay on
the path, however, it must be appealing and bring satisfaction. Besides
bringing a false sense of securit y, being stuck makes you feel good, after a
fashion, because  you know that you are always right, that you don’t need to
change, and that your fixed beliefs and attitudes are fine just the way they
are. The key warning here is that your stuckness indulges an illusion. Giving
up on love, for example, indulges a person’ s anxiety about asking for and
receiving love. Somehow you need to break the ice that makes being stuck
cold and lonely, no matter how good the front you put up. Start  by looking
over the listed qualities of resilience and, for each one, devise a step you
can take that will feel good enough for you to continue on the path. You might stand and stretch while listening to music, moving on to
dance exercises you can do at home. You might spend more time with the
happiest people you know or show a little more affection to a family
member than either of you expect. Resilience isn’t a trait society teaches us
to value, but that doesn’ t matter. Awareness, like pure water, needs to flow,
and being resilient is how you open the gates inside yourself. FRIDAYIn Perfect Sync
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I live in the ﬂow of creative intelligence. I live in the ﬂow of creative intelligence. You are designe d to have mind and body in perfect sync. One of the
greatest deceptions in life is the helpless appearance presented by a
newborn baby. Unable to do much more than nurse at the breast, cry, and
sleep, a day-old infant doesn’ t reveal what it really is—a miracle of
organized intelli gence. In the last few days of pregnancy, for example, the
infant brain is developing millions of new brain cells a day. This process
continues after the infant is born. It is beyond imagination how a brain that
has no language, reason, fully formed emotions, or ideas prepared itself for
all of that, and more. It’s as if a house knew how to build itself from the
materials in the aisles of Home Depot. Self-creation cannot happen  on the physical plane without
consciousness. You can’t assemb le the ingredients of a neuron and expect it
to reach  a tipping point when— V oila. —a swirl of chemical soup becomes
conscious. If existe nce were ideal, mind and body would remain in perfect
synchronization, and in a healthy person they work flawlessly 99 percent of
the time. It takes interference to throw off the flow of creative intelligence
that unites mind and body. The symptoms of meddling are all too common. SYMPTOMS OF BEING OUT OF SYNC
Irregular or poor-quality sleep, insomnia
Fatigue, lack of energy
Depression
Digestive problems
Overeating, loss of natural hunger rhythms
Inability to focus and pay attentionSusceptibility to colds and infections
Getting easily distracted
Sensitivity to minor stress
Slow or inadequate healing
This whole list could be titled “When the miracle goes wrong. ” Each of
these symptoms indicates that the miraculous flow of creative intelligence
that everyone was gifted with at birth has become distorted. Without the
word cr eative  added, the picture is woefully incomplete. Once it has been
programmed, a computer can imitate intelligence by doing all kinds of
things the mind does, and AI (artificial intelligence) is fast reaching the day
when the imitation will be so lifelike that your computer will sound and feel
human. Already there are software programs that effectively conduct
psychotherapy, for example. A robot voice imitates a genuine therapist
using verbal prompts like “How do you feel about that. ” and “When did
you start to feel this way. ” User s of the program come away feeling better,
they say. But no matter how sophisticated  AI becomes, it cannot do what you do
every second: take raw information pouring into the brain from the five
senses and create the entire three -dimensional world you perceive. Cameras
aren’ t eyes. They see nothing. Therefore, a computer camera sees nothing
until a human eye is present. When you were in the wom b, creative
intelligence created your eye from a blob of undif ferentiated cells, and
within the eye specific cells were assigned to carry out visual processing. Yet that isn’t enough for turning visual images into something you see. Vision happens in the perfect interface between mind and the visual cortex
of the brain. Royal Yoga teaches you how to keep the flow of creative intelligence
from being distorted and blocked. If you fall out of sync, exhibiting the
symptoms listed above, you must get out of the way and allow creative
intelligence to restore what has gone awry. The practices aren’t new or
surprising. It’ s a matter of doing what we already know as right living. GETTING BACK IN SYNC
Practice grounding and rest comfortably in yourself. Take care to get 8 to 9 hours of sound sleep every night,
preferably uninterrupted. Establish regular hours for eating and sleeping. Avoid physical and mental exhaustion. Keep mentally active. Don’t put toxins in your body. Don’t put toxic experiences in
your mind. Take time to center yourself if you feel distracted, stressed,
upset, or overwhelmed. Meditate every day, using any method you choose—taking the
time is more important than the technique. Go out into Nature and let the experience bring deep
relaxation. Take your own well-being as seriously as you take work, family,
and relationships. Learn a physical skill that requires mind-body coordination
(yoga, dancing, aerobics, sports, physical recreation, etc. ). You might look upon this list as familiar advice, but every piece forms
part of the mystery of existence. Everything that went into the evolution of
Homo sapiens was the result  of being in perfect sync with creative
intelligence. Creative intellig ence has an intention in mind for you person ally, not
simply for our species. Being in perfect sync isn’t like making sure to tune
up your car to keep it in top running order. Being in perfect sync is about
your evolution, and your evolution is about reaching your source so that
you can live in the light. ExerciseIf you look over the two lists that describe the opposite conditions of
being in or out of sync, a spark  of recognition will grow insid e you. This
spark indicates that more light and lightness comes from being in sync than
from being out of sync. The unblocked flow of creative intellig ence makes
your existence more vibrant, alert, receptive, avid, buoyant, and
appreciative. Take up an activity that brings those qualities to life. Don’ t
settle for the passive state of inertia. Even simple physical activity that
makes you feel more alert and alive is evolutionary. Evolution is the whole
game, and you are evolving when an experience makes you feel new and
renewed. The same desire drives every cell in your body, so it is only
natural for you to share in it fully and perfectly. OceanofPDF. comWEEK 4
VITAL ENERGY
(Limb of Yoga: Pranayama)THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY
Every limb of Royal Yoga revea ls what is required to lead an ideal life. The fourth limb, known as pranayama, is concerned with the free flow of
the life force or vital energy known as prana. In the Yoga system, the flow
of prana is life-giving, but unlike physical energy, prana is conscious. Therefore, it responds to our state of consciousness. This is of critical importance. The experience of being alive here and
now is meant to be vital and vibrant. Mind and body are alert, and the
energy we assoc iate with youth is present for a lifetime. Ideally, Royal Yoga
provides a pathway to lifelong ener gy and vitality. Yet this is one area where the gap between an ideal life and real life is
very wide. Time is a falling arc. We expect to age, and although the “new
old age” has raised our expectations in terms of overall health and life
expectancy, the gap remains. This brings up a fact that most people aren’ t aware of: Aging is a
mysterious process that no one has adequately defined. No two people age
in the same way. At the moment of death, the cause is typically the
breakdown of a single organ or system. If life is based on DNA, which is a
strand of simple organic chemi cals, then we should be protected from the
rigors of old age, because our basic chemical components—carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, and nitrogen—don’ t age. Most of the atoms in your body are as
ancient as stars. A single explanation for aging seems impossible and yet is the very
thing we need. Royal Yoga offers a very simple explanation: We age when
prana, the life force, declines. Like atoms and molecules, prana itself
doesn’ t age, but it can weaken in a person over time. The fourth limb of
Yoga is devoted to practices of breath control—in Sanskrit prana  means
“breath. ” Traditi onally, there are dozens of breathing exercises  that aim to
direct the breath for very specific purposes in the body, including the
prevention of aging. This week we will touch upon breathing from a different angle. Prana,
once you go deeply into it, is about the meeting point between  every atomin creation and the spark of life that animates not just our bodies, but the
cosmos. MONDAY
Breath of Life
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
I join the ﬂow of life with every breath. I join the ﬂow of life with every breath. Nature designed us to breathe through our nose, a fact we never bother
to notice until the onset of a cold, allergies, or another condition that
obstructs nasal breathing. It seems amazing, therefore, that Yoga hit upon
the discovery that breathing through your nose has a hidden purpose—it is
the portal through which prana enters the body. By controlling your breath at the portal, you can potentially direct prana
anywhere at will. Yoga provides a road map of the subtle pathways (or
nadis ) that prana follows. The map looks very much like the netw ork of
blood vessels and nerves mapped by modern medical anatomy. Yoga
teaches that vital energy is always moving. You are most alive when you
feel vibrant with energy; someone is sick or in decline when they are
drained of energy. But, at a deeper level, prana follows the path laid out by
consciousness, which is the true creative force in you and every living
creature. Since the nadis  are invisible channels and prana can’t be measured
objectively, it doesn’ t have a place in modern medicine. Only by exploring
their own consciousness did the ancient Vedic rishis, or seers, discov er it in
the first place. In practical terms, Royal Yoga is concerned with how the
free flow of prana can increase your quality of life. Its benefits are
experienced personally, beginning with the mind, which makes sense since
prana is the conduit, or carrier, of consciousness. PRANA IS FLOWING FREELY WHEN…
Your mind is alert, and you are thinking clearly. You feel peaceful inside. A quiet mind is accompanied by easy, regular breathing. The mental vrittis of anxiety, worry, and anger settle down and
eventually vanish. You experience a natural feeling of well-being. Your mental state is unaffected by stress. You have a sense of freshness that renews itself every day. Immediately you can see that the state of prana determines the quality
of a person’ s life. You are designed, according to Yoga, so that prana is
flowing freely when you are simply breathing through your nose. Mouth
breathing is associated with imbalanced states in the body. Any imbalance
serves as a ready indicator of blocked or decreased prana. Leaving aside
colds, allergies, and medical conditions that block breathing, people mouth-
breathe when they are anxious, stressed, exhausted, or depressed, or when
they suffer from  insomnia or sleep apnea. All these disturbed conditions are
also associated with decreased ener gy, both physical and mental. PRANA IS BLOCKED WHEN…
You feel fatigued or exhausted. You lose mental clarity. You experience anxiety. You display nervousness. You lose a sense of inner calm. You can’t pay attention without being easily distracted. Your have muscle weakness and lose muscle tone. You show signs of aging. You become prone to colds, ﬂu, and random infections. You heal more slowly than normal. Mouth breathing is medically connected with sleep apnea. More
intriguing is how complex the human nose is when examined,  not for the
sense of smell, but for what happens as air enters. The tiny fibers that line
the nasal passage are remarkabl y effective at filtering out airbor ne particles
(up to 20 billion  a day, accordin g to one estimate) as well as warming the
air being inhaled in cold weather and cooling it in warm weathe r, enhancing
the smooth operation of the lungs. There is also a moistening effect in the
nose’ s mucous membranes that is beneficial to the lungs. Yet Royal Y oga is more focused on how prana functions as the breath of
life, meaning that it transmits the living energy that knows how the body—
indeed, all of creation—should be knit together as a single living organism. From the cell to the cosmos, the flow of prana is synonymous with the flow
of creative intelligence. Exercise
On its own, breathing through your nose naturally allows prana  to flow
freely. A simple breath meditat ion like the following is recom mended for
everyone. You can adopt it as a daily practice or turn to it anytime during
your day when you want to be calmer, more centered, and quieter inside. Sitting in a quiet place with low lighting, close your eyes and take a few
deep breaths until you feel settled and ready to meditate. Don’ t shorten or
skip these introductory moments. They prepare your breathing to get in
sync with your state of awareness. Direct your attention to the tip of your nose and sense air as it passes in
and out with each breath. (After a moment, if you feel that your breathing is
short, ragged, irregular, or gasping, take time to lie down without
meditating and let your breath ing return to normal. ) Continue to easily
follow the in-and-out rhythm of your breathing. Don’ t force a rhythm, and
don’t mind if you occasionally draw a deep sigh or feel that you must take a
breath through your mouth. These are good signs, since they indicate that
your breathing is working to rebalance itself. Continue doing this for 5 to 20 minutes. If you notice your attention
wandering, just gently bring it back to the tip of your nose. When time is
up, lie down or sit quietly to let yourself return from the meditative state. Don’ t rush back into activity. Take as much time as you need to readjust to
a relaxed waking state, ready for your next activity. TUESDAY
The Key to Stronger Breathing
Begin by silently repeating today’ s theme:
My breathing energizes mind and body. My breathing energizes mind and body. When your breathing is strong, so is your prana. Every function in the
body is improved by having an optimal level of oxygen in the blood, but
aging, respiratory problems, allergies, and air pollution bring most people
down from this optimal level. Breath, in a way, is like the old adage “For
want of a nail, the kingdom was lost”—incremental changes in breathing
can trigg er a decline by small degrees in critical areas like blood pressure,
heart health, and brain function. The upshot is that almost everyone can
benefit by strengthening their breathing so that small deficits don’t take
hold. We aren’t dealing in this book with traditional controlled Yogic
breathing, which requires a teacher and a committed discipline, but
conscious breath ing is something everyone can and should learn. Breath is
the portal of prana, and conscious breathing practices rank high for
improving the flow of prana. Here are three breathing exercises that have been well researched and
validated. #1 Belly BreathingThis exercise is based on the understanding that the lower area of the
lungs stimulates  relaxation. Shallow breathing, which mostly uses the upper
part of the lungs, is associated with stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. The
aim of belly breathing is to use your diaphragm as you consciously take in a
full, deep breath. Sit upright and start to breathe slowly. With each in-breath, feel the air
going to the bottom of your abdomen as you swell your belly  out. Move
your diaphragm outward, maki ng sure that you breathe slowly, and don’t
strain. When your belly feels full, breathe out by letting your lungs expel
the air naturally, the way you would let go of a sigh. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes, always breathing through your nose. If you
feel the impulse  to breathe throu gh your mouth or to gasp, don’t resist. Try
not to push yourself. Like all breathing exercises, this one should feel
comfortable. In time, you will build up more endurance. #2 Vagal Breathing
The vagus nerve, which is one of the ten cranial nerves leading directly
from the brain, has received a great deal of publicity in recen t years. The
vagus nerve plays a major role in regulating heartbeat, breathing, and the
intestines; it tells your body whether you are stressed—all three  organs are
involved in triggering the fight-or -flight response. By gently stimulating the vagu s nerve, you send signals of relaxation
and the absence  of stress throughout your body. Vagal breathing is the
simplest way to stimulate the vagus nerve, yet it turns out to be one of the
most effective ways to counter low-level chronic stress, which almost
everyone in modern life is subjected to. Sit quietly, breathing through your nose. Slowly and comfortably draw
in a breath, making sure it is deep enough to fill your lungs. Hold for a few
seconds, then slowly release your breath. The essential thing here is to
consciously draw in a breath, pausing without strain, and consciously
exhaling. The awareness of breathing is just as important as the technique
being used. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes. Vagal breathing is thought to have many
more benefits than relaxing and diminishing the stress response, but those
benefits on their own make it valuable. Vagal breathing will be effective for some people, but if you find that
slow, conscious  breathing only increases the impulse to breathe in a
shallow, ragged way (which is typical in situations of acute stress) or if you
feel the slightest  signs of panic, discontinue this practice. In such situations,
lying down and breathing normally with the eyes closed will start to bring
the body out of the stress response. This can be followed up by meditating,
but, again, if going inward makes you overly aware of your stress and
anxiety, stop meditating and sit quietly, being gently aware of your body
and your breath. #3 Regulated Breathing
This is an advanced exercise, since it is related to formal techn iques of
pranayama. Yet regulated breathing is a natural step from vagal breathing. In this exercise, you are asked to count your breaths, bringing conscious
control to the act of breathing.
Allowing the light to do all the work, by getting out of the way and not trying to change yourself.
What is the key to transformation, according to the passage?
The opposite of self-reflection is not being involved in your emotions, and you can achieve it by taking a few deep breaths and focusing on your true self.
What is the opposite of self-reflection, and how can one achieve it?
Embodiment is the idea that the body is a storehouse of infinite knowledge and that one should not criticize or judge their body, but rather learn to work with it.
What is the concept of "embodiment" in the context of Royal Yoga?
The purpose is to bring the body and mind into perfect sync, which is necessary for the flow of creative intelligence and the experience of vital energy.
What is the purpose of the practices of contemplation in Royal Yoga?
The key is to become aware of the qualities of life and redirect your energy by focusing on the light, allowing it to guide your actions and experiences.
What is the key to redirecting vital energy in the context of pratyahara?