2.4 Svadhyaya: Studying Oneself
Studying Oneself
We have been exploring the Yamas and Niyamas of Yoga: the basic ethics of practice that marks the first step on the path of Yoga (Raja Yoga).
The Niyamas represent that U in the road where we are gathering our observations and our spiritual strength and then focusing it inward. In the Yamas we begin this process by seeing exactly how we operate with others in the world and in relationship. Remember that Yoga represents the science of self discovery and in order to do that we must harness our outward flowing thoughts, perceptions, and sensations and begin the major task of bringing that effort and energy into the heart of the Self. Put together there is the formation of a bedrock that creates real self-inquiry.
Just like any scientist, the Yogin prefers to work in the laboratory rather than only in the classroom. That is, we actively engage in the process of self-investigation by tinkering with this or that aspect of reality, thought, emotion, and sensation. Observe, change, observe again. We are not merely the student that listens and absorbs but does not get dirty and up to the elbow in dissection. We are both.
Svadhyaya means study. ‘Sva’ means ‘one’s own, the soul, self’ and ‘adhyaya’ refers to ‘a lecture,’ or ‘a lesson.’ Even more telling, the word that we later see in Dhyana (focused meditative absorption) is shared here from ‘Dhyaya’ which means ‘meditating on.’
So Svadhyaya is both the listening to and reciting of scripture, mantras, and sacred texts (Moksha Shastra) and the engagement of self-education into the nature of the one absolute truth of being. Patanjali says,
Study thyself, discover the divine.
-YSP 2.44
What’s the personal self?
It’s good to define the term Self. There are many complex selves which land in two broad categories. One category contains almost all of the variety of definitions that we use to describe ‘myself,’ and the other category is remarkably simple and ever-evident.
The first category is the changeable self with its modulations, which we will explore a bit below. The second category points to the capital-s-Self of divine nature and wholeness which is indivisible and unlimited and, when understood clearly, is seen as God consciousness. This Self does not change, grow, diminish, become more or less available, nor is it subject to time or death.
The personal, small self is complex. There is the self made of conditioning or the character-self which is largely comprised of the individual ego as well as the collective consciousness of culture or ancestral heritage. This self is fluid, reactive, sticky, and full of comparisons, layers, and judgments.
We respond to this small self as much physically as mentally. The body is innocent. But the body as a vehicle of the self may be tense, tight, agitated, or manipulated for the purpose of vanity. The breath is innocent. But the breath constrained by the self might be shallow, held, or strained. Even the mind is innocent and helps us to make order of the life around us. When the self comes in to appropriate and commandeer that ship then the mind is the greatest source of delusion, suffering, and violence in existence.
What’s the Collective Self?
“Where can I find you Lord?
Your place is grand and undisclosed.
And where can I find You not?
Your glory is everywhere upon the earth.”
Judah Halevi, Jewish (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)
Sometimes we seem overcome by feelings of tapping in to something greater than ourselves, feelings and thoughts that don’t seem to come from us but are here resonating nonetheless. This is beyond the personal thought-emotional framework of our immediate experience. It is what we might call the layers of collective consciousness.
Collective consciousness speaks through our bodies, our hearts, and our minds all the time. Have you ever had a deep connection to your intuition? Have you seen something or received information that you know is true, but you have no logical way of knowing how you received that information? Maybe you manifest ideas, wishes, or intentions so rapidly that it’s second nature to live with manifestation as your guide?
Like all popular spiritual concepts that look at the definition of the self, it’s important to understand how the collective consciousness operates within us. This topic is not so easy to tweeze apart and then investigate in action. You can’t write a single sentence about collective consciousness or manifestation to summarize those commonly used terms, though this line from the Recognition Sutras (Pratyabhiijna-hrdaya) touches something essential and close:
“The individual conscious being, as a contraction of universal Awareness, consists of the entire universe in a microcosmic form” (1.4).
We have within us the whole, and when that whole starts to intermingle with the personal self the inquiry process must expand enough to include all that we are noticing, experiencing, and perceiving. We understand collective consciousness differently depending on how sensitive we are to the stimulation around us. Rather than desensitizing ourselves by skimming our attention outward to life, social media, and entertainment let’s turn toward the well of consciousness and see it’s gorgeous layers. Let’s re-sensitize and investigate this great mind so that we might better understand the layers of the small self, thereby illuminating the divine Self.
The outer layer:
When I speak of collective consciousness I’m not referring to socially accepted moral norms that we all agree upon, such as laws or ethical obligations that are shared amongst a community of people. This is the original understanding of the term, which comes out of the study of sociology- particularly, how societies share beliefs.
Let’s say that this definition is valid, but it is one of the outer layers of collective consciousness: herd behavior or collective rituals that bond or that bring together people who are experiencing similar life-stuff.
We know that it’s natural to relate to people who are similar, or with whom we share a conscious or ethical mindset. Likewise, we know it’s easy to relate to people who are suffering in exactly the same way that we are. It is also important for our mental health to do so.
When I became a new mother it was critically important to me that I find a group of new mothers crying the same tears of exhaustion and terrified uncertainty that I was crying. We need these therapeutic relationships to heal and stabilize the thicker and more sinewy layers of experience that pass through the heart.
But this daily flirtation with group connectivity is pretty shallow when you start to investigate the true size of inner recognition. The situational ties that bond us are only the outermost, visibly obvious signals that we are one human family.
The middle layer:
The collective consciousness starts to become much more fascinating when you begin to receive information that stirs you and redirects your actions from a well of silence so deep that you ask yourself “where did that come from?” Sometimes this is referred to simply as intuition, manifestation, or, if you’re feeling more mysterious and exciting, psychic channeling.
The magic of collective consciousness is in fact everywhere. I always look at the place in the ocean where the dolphin fin appears. My daughter and I have had lengthy discussions sharing that we know when and where, exactly, we will see something magical: an eagle in a tree around that corner; a snake behind that boulder. You might wonder how someone is doing that you have not seen in months or years only to see them walking toward you a minute later. It just bubbles up as an innocent thought and there it is in form in front of you.
When magic is a part of your life it is easy to feel seduced by that magic. The only thing more attractive to the mind than suffering is magical living- or living in the technicolor of psychic experience, so to speak. The little experiences I mentioned above are actually quite small: some of us experience tremendous visitations and channeling in our dreams or in our meditations- teachers or guides that appear clearly and hint at initiation, encouragement, life purpose, and direction.
It is so incredibly stimulating to experience unexplainable knowledge that this very ability can entrap and enmesh us in the very patterns that bind us to this life, and that ultimately we will need to look at and move beyond, which Patanjali addresses carefully in the Yoga Sutras. At some point all realms must merge into the heart, including the etheric realm.
The deep layer (the heart):
Noticing divine manifestation in and as all things is part of the sweetness that opens in us with self-inquiry. But we deeply misunderstand what manifestation really is, especially if we believe that “I” as an individual have this gift called “manifesting.” This is not a correct interpretation of manifestation at all.
The modern-day non-duality teacher Adyashanti discusses this problem beautifully, reminding us that true manifestation is simply what happens when our deepest will (iccha) merges with the deepest will of the entire mind of consciousness: “what the universe will manifest when you are in alignment with it is a lot more interesting than what you try to manifest.”
It is the whole that manifests and we are either aligned with that in a miracle of divine surrender or we are not. The more we allow ourselves to be submerged in the river of that whole the more it appears that we are manifesting. The true understanding of manifestation is one where flow happens only because you are not resisting but instead are in full agreement with the unfolding of what-is. Then maybe you’ll be able to see downriver or upriver a little better.
How does this relate to collective consciousness? It’s the same thing. But let’s follow that path in to the common conclusion. Sometimes I feel waves of sadness or exhaustion or agitation that do not feel personal. They don’t exactly belong to me, but here is the wave and I’m stuck on the sand at just the place that the wave will crash, wash over, and then return.
I’ve heard Eckhart Tolle discussing the collective pain body of nations, something that I too have felt at ground level. I feel this not only in countries, but also in the chaos and competition in certain cities and in the electrical-socket enigma of sacred places.
Creating a boundary in a relationship, life situation, or troubling pattern is one thing, but to try to create a boundary in the realm of deep collective conscious expression is quite challenging. Sometimes we just need to feel what we feel, let the stimulation of deep conscious material wash over us, and then to pass, without agonizing later on too much about how hard it was in the moment. If the thought is subject to change then you’re still in the realm of the small self.
What belongs to me ultimately, and what belongs to the collective, whether that’s the planet, a friend, a spiritual teaching or teacher, a nation, or something beyond all of those?
What’s mine, and what’s not mine?
Let’s explore the place that the great arrow of collective consciousness points to in blinking neon lights but does not actually touch. We must ask: is there such thing as the individual that perceives the collective?
From the stance of the unmoving divine, there is no collective consciousness (nor manifestation) and there is no individual apart from the collective consciousness.
In order for there to be a tap of knowledge that runs into the soft, quiet subterranean places of the Self, there must be a perceiver that receives that information and feels it in body, mind, and heart. But this just is not the truth of our experience.
Is the ground starting to feel slippery? The slope feels steep? That’s about right, because when you investigate into the lived experience of collective consciousness there ceases to be firm footing anywhere. For the Self and all of it’s markers (thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions) is not a noun, but a verb. You are in a constant state of movement, as too is your consciousness, and as too is the collective consciousness.
You simply do not exist as a fixed person that can tap in to this collective mystery in the first place. Thoughts come and go, and you have no control over them. You don’t know what your next thought will be. Your grocery check list? Something that’s bugging you? Something you want? Something subversive? That pop of color in the corner of your eye? I mean, really, what’s coming next…?
No thought you have ever had is original. There is no fixed person “I” might call “myself.” When we look for a boundary: what’s mine, and what’s not mine, then the whole notion begins to dissolve in the face of ideas and thoughts that start to feel so restricting that they wind around us and suffocate us and absolutely nothing will satisfy our desire (or, more correctly, earnestness) for freedom except silence at the heart. Simple wonder.
This is collective consciousness. It is fundamentally what you are when you are moving. When you’re still, well, you don’t need to worry about the collective anymore, do you?
So the line from the Recognition Sutras, again:
“The individual conscious being, as a contraction of universal Awareness, consists of the entire universe in a microcosmic form” (1.4).
When we investigate into the deeper realms of collective consciousness we are in great danger of losing our perceived sense of self and melting into the great Self. There is only movement and stillness. The information and the stimulation that appears before us, therefore, is part of the great Mind or the great Play, appearing through “me” and as “me." Paradoxically (we must get comfortable with paradox, my beautiful friends), the heart and the Void are the same thing. They are individual consciousness, collective consciousness, and they are stillness. The heart is only what happens to the Void when it is full of life. The Void is what happens to the heart when it relaxes and gets very, very, very big.
This is the revelation of Svadhyaya.