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A cogent point DB - follow your bliss. What is the bliss in asana (one may ask). It is the removal of the pre-existing discomfiture, tension, tightness, fear, or negative emotions and the increased prana through the nadis -- a greater feeling of openness, ease, lightness, and happiness.

This gets into a favorite topic of mine -- what is the purpose of asana practice within the context of hatha yoga. "If" we agree that it is not just for exercise, tight buns, health, beauty, or even merely to to sit longer and more comfortable in meditation, then I think we can make this asana practice really effective and more joyful.

Even though some of the above may be secondary "results", one approach which I favor is to deprogram the habitual energetic patterns stored in the neurophysiology and energy body which reinforce rigidity, stasis, unconciousness, ignorance and the kleshas. When those mechanisms are moved out of the way, the awareness of our larger potential starts to shine through naturally... and the practice takes on an intelligence of its own which is far beyond intellectual knowledge, theory. The logic is informed by our increased communion with the life force (prana) and its intelligent force. When we recognize that, then we start recognizing it in all beings and things. Such is the simple beauty of functional asana practice should we allow it to act as an exploration into the nature of prana, breath, life, and being. That awareness is what I have called the prana meter -- we move toward that in balance and harmony -- in dedication... . Informed by that we move into the next move and the next and the next...

So with that as the guide, the breath, prana, and awareness unite and become indicators on the path -- they inform us as to what and when to move.

Sat-Chit-Ananda!
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Purna would you say more about

"I try to subvert "personal choice" in favor of "serving a purpose". Though I have certainly had practices where personal choice, preference, or the direction of the wind dictated my doing."

Is not serving a purpose your personal choice?

Thanks

Donny

Purna, thank you for taking the time and care to answer my question. As you can see many people have benefitted,

There indeed exist many levels of samadhi... one leading into the other. Eventually there is non-discrimination between form and true nature of self - an all pervading integration arises spontaneously. This is the same as the bodhisattva ideal in Buddhism IMO. I don't know if this mutuality is what Sri Aurobindo taught, but maybe if you could find some time you could say more about the practices that Sri Aurobindo taught in going beyond samadhi.

As I understand it then, that at first there is a personal choice you have made to accept the path laid out by Sri Aurobindo which you have decided is a worthy purpose. Normally those kinds of choices serve what we believe as our higher purpose. Patanjali talks about this as Isvara pranidhana, surrender to the universal inner teacher (ishta - svara). Once you accept that path as your life's purpose, then there are no longer any other choices in general, but for many of us specific applications of the path present challenges most often. Do you mean that at every juncture of whether one should do "this" or do "that", the answer simply comes in by itself or is that an idealized situation?

Maybe you can also talk about how asana practice fits in to this path that you have chosen. What is the purpose of asana in Sri Aurobindo's view? Since Sri Aurobindo never taught asana or hatha yoga, how is this connection made in regards not only the purpose of asana, but also in choosing sequences, durations, movement, etc? Are you simply "called" into an asana and hold until you are "called" into the next pose? Do the poses "do" themselves under the direction of the life force's higher calling or as you say beautifully describe under the direction of the heart; or are you constantly trying to meld individual will (sankalpa) with your spiritual purpose as you deepen that connection? Or ... is something entirely different from the above happening?

So my comments (for what little they may be worth) is that within the vital force, the evolutionary force can be found and traced. Within the reflection of the intellect and brain, Purusha can be seen and traced back. The idea of using cit-prana or cit-shakti in asana practice is to awaken the evolutionary force in man opening up his dormant evolutionary potential. Such is the science of Kundalini Yoga, which M.P. Pandit (a direct student of Sri Aurobindo) wrote about.;

St one place you said: " In fact the mantra of mindful evolution is to draw the divine consciousness into matter, to bring it down into the physical body to heal the planet on which we live." So yes this is very excellent. First one has to have that awareness and activation going on inside in order to effect it in action. It is a recognition at first and really quite natural (as evolution is natural), but in human society it is not normal. It would be an error to not recognize evolutionary power in the universe (the so called outer world) as being separate from that evolutionary force which is innate but mostly dormant or repressed in man. In fact they are made of the same "stuff" and thus are mutual synergists once it is recognized.

"The gnosis is the effective principle of the Spirit, a highest dynamis of the spiritual existence. The gnostic individual would be the consummation of the spiritual man; his whole way of being, thinking, living, acting would be governed by the power of a vast universal spirituality. All the trinities of the Spirit would be real to his self-awareness and realized in his inner life. All his existence would be fused into oneness with the transcendent and universal Self and Spirit; all his action would originate from and obey the supreme Self and Spirit's divine governance of Nature. All life would have to him the sense of the Conscious Being, the Purusha within, finding its self-expression in Nature; his life and all its thoughts, feelings, acts would be filled for him with that significance and built upon that foundation of its reality. He would feel the presence of the Divine in every centre of his consciousness, in every vibration of his life-force, in every cell of his body. In all the workings of his force of Nature he would be aware of the workings of the supreme World-Mother, the Supernature; he would see his natural being as the becoming and manifestation of the power of the World-Mother. In this consciousness he would live and act in an entire transcendent freedom, a complete joy of the spirit, an entire identity with the cosmic self and a spontaneous sympathy with all in the universe. All beings would be to him his own selves, all ways and powers of consciousness would be felt as the ways and powers of his own universality. But in that inclusive universality there would be no bondage to inferior forces, no deflection from his own highest truth: for this truth would envelop all truth of things and keep each in its own place, in a relation of diversified harmony, - it would not admit any confusion, clash, infringing of boundaries, any distortion of the different harmonies that constitute the total harmony. His own life and the world life would be to him like a perfect work of art; it would be as if the creation of a cosmic and spontaneous genius infallible in its working out of a multitudinous order. The gnostic individual would be in the world and of the world, but would also exceed it in his consciousness and live in his self of transcendence above it; he would be universal but free in the universe, individual but not limited by a separative individuality. The True Person is not an isolated entity, his individuality is universal; for he individualizes the universe: it is at the same time divinely emergent in a spiritual air of transcendental infinity, like a high cloud-surpassing summit; for he individualizes the divine Transcendence."

Sri Aurobindo, "TheFuture Evolution of Man" Chapter 8

JAI MA!

Donny

Purna, thanks again for your very thoughtful and generous share. Yes, Aurobindo is difficult to digest in large dosages. I found that his poetry was easier for me to get his message. He is definitely a tantric who has a tantric take of the Vedas and Upanishads. Regarding the Yoga Sutras there is only a conflict if one tales teh samkhya viewpoint (as samkhya is incompatible with tantra).

As M. P, Pandit says, in his very accessible books on Integral Yoga, Aurobindo takes the evolutionary force (shakti) as the activating factor. This is also called kundalini when applied in teh human body. Hence the purpose of the ancient hatha yogis which took Patnajlai's Yoga Sutras and extended astanga yoga practices of asana, pranayama, pratyhara, and dharana as methods to activate the dormant evolutionary energy (kundalini) in man were considered tantric. They did not disagree with Patanjali rather they simply extended his teachings further in that regard.

As Sri Aurobino clearly stated:

All the trinities of the Spirit would be real to his self-awareness and realized in his inner life. All his existence would be fused into oneness with the transcendent and universal Self and Spirit; all his action would originate from and obey the supreme Self and Spirit's divine governance of Nature. All life would have to him the sense of the Conscious Being, the Purusha within, finding its self-expression in Nature; his life and all its thoughts, feelings, acts would be filled for him with that significance and built upon that foundation of its reality. He would feel the presence of the Divine in every centre of his consciousness, in every vibration of his life-force, in every cell of his body. In all the workings of his force of Nature he would be aware of the workings of the supreme World-Mother, the Supernature; he would see his natural being as the becoming and manifestation of the power of the World-Mother. In this consciousness he would live and act in an entire transcendent freedom, a complete joy of the spirit, an entire identity with the cosmic self and a spontaneous sympathy with all in the universe. All beings would be to him his own selves, all ways and powers of consciousness would be felt as the ways and powers of his own universality. But in that inclusive universality there would be no bondage to inferior forces, no deflection from his own highest truth: for this truth would envelop all truth of things and keep each in its own place, in a relation of diversified harmony, - it would not admit any confusion, clash, infringing of boundaries, any distortion of the different harmonies that constitute the total harmony. His own life and the world life would be to him like a perfect work of art; it would be as if the creation of a cosmic and spontaneous genius infallible in its working out of a multitudinous order. The gnostic individual would be in the world and of the world, but would also exceed it in his consciousness and live in his self of transcendence above it; he would be universal but free in the universe, individual but not limited by a separative individuality. The True Person is not an isolated entity, his individuality is universal; for he individualizes the universe: it is at the same time divinely emergent in a spiritual air of transcendental infinity, like a high cloud-surpassing summit; for he individualizes the divine Transcendence."

Sri Aurobindo, "The Future Evolution of Man" Chapter 8

So if we take This to extend into nature including teh body, then we can see what the purpose of hatha yoga is, how long to hold a pose, what pose to do next etc. It is not about controlling the body, but rather heeding teh calling of the evolutionary energy.

Thanks for the discussion.

JAI MA (Victory to the Universal Mother)!