Patanjali and obstacles

Patanjali: obstacles

(wise advice. I would recommend to never believe anyone who has not deeply walked and lived The Path that they promote)

Continuing from our previous post, looking at the obstacles which arise in, and from, meditation. Here, Patanjali is not talking about a ten minute meditation, nor listening to music, nor lying down, meditations. He is referring to deep meditation techniques which penetrate deep into our inner being. And, with this penetration, deep seated "conditions" arise, and these sensations which do come up, are common to us all. They reside in each and every one of us.

doubt: an incredible amount of self doubt can arise, as insecurities. And we can become quite vulnerable during this time. If you are going to get bullied along the path, it is definitely at this stage. 

The thing is, we all have insecurities and self doubt within us. From an incredible number of lifetimes, buried within our psyche. Generally, these do not usually bother us. It is (mostly) the problems of this incarnation which profoundly affect us. And it is all of this which hides our Inner Light. For that light to be revealed, and for us to reside in the states of Being which accompany it, we must do something to 

• stir
• bring to the surface
• and dissipate

our deeper stored sensations which are covering it. And deep meditation is an extremely effect way to do this.

procrastination: with all of this "stuff' being stirred up, we can put off doing things. Especially meditation, which does need to be done at roughly the same times each twenty-four hours for meditation to do it's work properly. Hit and miss does not give sustaining results.

We can also go through periods when we become so "blissed out" (for our level at the time) that we get so "happy" and "chilled" that we put off doing things in our life. This is counterproductive, as

meditation is a dynamic experience which needs to also be expressed as dynamism (doing) in our daily life, to get the full effects of our practice

laziness: some people are prone to be this way by nature. For such people, there can be a stage (or several) where this is amplified. Being dynamic, working hard, is the way to overcome this.

craving (indulgence):  I always found that meditation reduced cravings. But, and it's a big but. There are times, especially in the beginning years of intensive sadhana, where we can crave sweet things and starchy carbohydrates. Our brain runs on glucose which is intimately connected to blood sugar. 

When so much "stuff" is coming out of us, like pictures, patterns, sounds, emotions, our brain is using up a lot of glucose, and cravings for quick hits of sugar may happen. The way to deal with this is to make sure that we have plenty of the other two fuels: water and oxygen. Oxygen from pranayama which is also intimately connected to our prana levels. When the prana is high, it will also be brain fuel and the cravings will be less.

With the above "stuff" happening, we are apt to get quite tired as well. Dipping in and out of the deeper realms and being able to successfully handle this, becomes a skill. But at the beginning, no. Usually when our inner being is expressing itself on a deep level, we are asleep. And, with this mental, emotional, cellular purging, it's the same. So naturally we get tired, so extraordinarily tired. Like fighting off sleep during our waking times. 

The obstacles of:

• apathy
• doubt
• procrastination
• laziness
• craving (indulgence)

and to some extent, irregularity with the practices, are not so much being a "bad" person with all of these "flaws" (obstacles), but rather, 

these obstacles can and do arise from that incredible tiredness which emerges and envelopes the seeker, in the early years of intense meditation.

Yes, some people have those above attributes as a matter of course in their daily life, but most people who delve into deep spirituality, want to succeed, they are not turning up at the beginning with those attributes.

Cravings, indulgence: sex. A natural function of life. If anyone thinks that yoga, meditation cause any deviancy in this area, why would you think that? No, I do not believe that it does. Early childhood sexual trauma in this lifetime is more likely, but most victims of this do not repeat the behaviour. It could also be a mental condition that one is born with.

I would like to stress that I am encouraging you all to look at Patanjali a bit differently. He is talking about intense meditation, so everything is related to that. A ten minute feel-good meditation, beautiful music, binaural beats, visualisation, are not in the same category. And are, of course, all extremely beneficial to our wellbeing..