Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Yoga Sutra continues...

...A return to my trek through the Yoga Sutra...

Sutra 1:5-6 "There are five types of mind waves, which can be troublesome or untroublesome. The five fluctuations of mind or mind waves are correct perception, wrong perception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and memory."
-translation by Gregor Maehle

Thoughts:
It's interesting to me that after Patanjali defines yoga as the absence of "mind waves" that he goes on to point out that some of the fluctuations experienced are not necessarily "troublesome". It's a reiteration to me that yoga is less about right and wrong, and more about awareness of the moment. There is the suggestion, however, that we can learn to make more conscious choices about how we respond to what we are experiencing in a given moment. The fact that there are names for five fluctuations suggests that there comes a point at which we can tell the difference between them.

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