What is abhyasa? Chapter 1, Sutra 13

Transcript

hey good day everybody welcome back I'm Dan alder and you're watching Patanjali Yoga Sutras for the new millennium today we move on to a very important Sutra because from this moment into at least the next half a dozen sutras Patanjali begins to reveal to us the process from getting where we are to Samadhi when the minds fluctuations cease so let's have a little look at the Sutra and then we'll have a talk about it here it is number 13 they're unmoved in effort is practice so let's cross over to Shree now and we'll get him to articulate for us the Sun scrip he'll do both the top and the bottom line so thanks very much mate when you're ready though yet normalize aha but Tito yet beautiful thank you and as always if you'd like to have a go with me at home let's try the bottom line first because that's with the words without their Sundy so they're disconnected tatras the tau Y at Naha piazza ha and then to read the top line tatras the Tau yuck no Piazza ha what does this mean so let's just revisit the previous Sutra number 12 and what Patanjali is telling us in this that in order to cease the fluctuations of your mind we should use abhyasa and Vairagya together so these two things the first one are Piazza which is the topic of today's sutra and fire agua together ah how the fluctuations of your mind come to stillness at that time the ciaz nature resides now if you happen just to be watching this video as a standalone because you're curious about what a Piazza is I really recommend that you go back and watch from the beginning it's only 12 sutras that you'd have to watch about 10 minutes each but it'll really put what Patanjali wants us to know about our Piazza into context so number 12 practice and non attachment they cease the fluctuations now what Patanjali does is he defines practice forests and Patanjali uses only two words to tell us what he wants us to know regarding practice he says that our Piazza is stata the Yamaha so to put that in English for you practice is unmoved effort or to be unmoved in effort is to practice now how does this correspond to our own personal practice well let's put it in the context of practicing for anything if you want to be a good pianist if you begin and then stop shortly after you're not going to make much progress and likewise if you begin that you're not giving it very much heart you're not giving it very much effort even if you do sit there all day long on that piano stool and just hit random keys and pay no attention to the sheet music or the instructions that you've learned in the past you could sit on that stool all day and still not become any better at playing piano and so this idea practice is unmoved effort it is to be continuous in effort it is if you like ceaseless effort and so when we go to our cushions or our chair in order to practice meditation we should be aware that Patanjali believes that effort is necessary because otherwise our minds just wander off and as we know from previous sutras our mind will be full of fluctuations and if we're going to find what lies beyond fluctuations it will take an immense amount of effort to train our mind to no longer see the things which it has always seen the things for which it has come to crave our own thoughts are like an addiction to us we want them in our mind because they create meaning for us and so like any addiction the addiction of continuously thinking is going to be a very very difficult one to break and if we are to break that addiction when we sit to practice our effort should be continuous we as practitioners should be unmoved in effort and so this is going to be quite a short video I'm happy to pretty much leave it there Patanjali has given us two words in which we can understand the meaning of our Piazza the Tao yup na which both sri and myself agree can be fairly translated as unmoved effort this is all Patanjali has to say on the subject of our bahasa he doesn't go into a lengthy description or instruction about our Piazza somewhere else in the sutras here it is in all its beautiful but simple glory our biasa is to be unmoved in effort and with that I would just like to say thank you for watching and if you enjoy what I do here on this channel and you would like to support me you may already know but both myself and Cherie have made this beautiful book it's a lovely hard cover and it's really beautifully presented high-gloss full-color with some great diagrams to help you under and the overall context just of the first chapter we have another three of these to write so I'll link my website just here or not link it but I will insert my website here and please feel free to go there and wherever you are in the world we can get you one so all the very best everyone thanks for tuning in again and I'll see you for the next video tada namaste