Yoga of the Heart

The Sanskrit term for Remembrance is Ishwara pranidhana. "Ishwara" is one name that has been given to God, which is also referred to as the spiritual body that you are trying to invite into form by the practice of ethics. Ishwara pranidhana, then, means remembrance of that body with the idea that you will one day actually see the form of that body. The classical Yogic texts say that the result of practicing Remembrance is that samadhi (union with the divine self, or God consciousness; I have also used the terms realization and the Universal Body to describe this state) is quickly attained.

Remembrance is a conscious awareness that invites the practitioner to apply all the ethics in everyday life. Every action, word, thought, desire, and relationship must be examined under the bright light of ethics, and Remembrance helps you realize that you are not alone in that immense task. Remembrance is an easy way to give attention to your spiritual body so that when it appears to you, it can help you in all your endeavors.

HOW TO BEGIN PRACTICING REMEMBRANCE

1. Live in the moment. Remembrance is not the same as memory. Memory is our great teacher as we grow and mature in life. We can remember that putting our hand in fire is painful, so we try not to do it again. In the same way, all of our current relationships are based on our memories of what happened when we interacted with people in the past. Both past and future, then, are based on something you already know. This process is controlled by the physical body, and so our actions and reactions remain the same as they always have, because they are familiar.

The ethic of Remembrance, however, means something different from calling up past memories to guide our present actions. Most people believe that it is easy to remember, but you are going to be asked to remember what really hasn’t happened yet. In other words, Remembrance asks you to be aware of what is happening in the present moment. Remembrance of what is happening now, in the moment, sets the scene for new and different experience, guided by ethical behavior and supported by the spiritual body.

The practice of Remembrance gives you a wonderful experience of freedom, because you are not bound by past or future behavior; when you invite the spiritual body to guide you, you never really know what will happen next. Learning to live in the moment stops repetitive behavior, based on past memories of the physical body, that keeps you imprisoned. Whereas memory means recalling what is already known, Remembrance helps you develop the ability to face the unknown (see #3, below).

Try to keep your mind centered, moving neither backward nor forward, held without inner conversation; this is similar to the practice described in Chapter 10 on Contentment. In that stillness, the brilliant, intuitive voice of the spiritual body may be heard. The Quakers have a similar practice, called centering, in which they quiet all actions of the body and mind, and wait to hear the divine voice from within.

2. Begin to crack the shell of the false ego. One of the tasks of Remembrance is to learn to expand your viewpoint from the limited false ego of the physical body. A letter from a student says, "Things have gotten a bit stale with my practices." This is a common feeling for people as they begin to realize that they are basing their entire life on the limited conclusions formed by the physical body’s false ego. You find yourself unable to move outside your own circle of awareness, because everything within that awareness is invented and owned by you. You get tired of hearing yourself talk.

The false ego of the physical allows no room for change. It is like riding the exercise wheel in a hamster cage, going around and around, always in the same direction, or like a crustacean that has formed a shell so tightly around itself that it becomes a boring prison. The crustacean carries its shell with it everywhere; it is the only home it knows.

A Too-Common False Ego Shell
The tragedy of child abuse is a prime example of how such a shell begins to form. When children are abused, they are unable to blame the abuser, who is often a family member, and so they blame themselves. The false ego in the child forms a shell to cope with the despair and confusion, and this shell grows as the child grows. The child becomes imprisoned in this false, egotistical outlook that blames itself.

The first step in cracking the shell of the false ego, for most of us, is to recognize repetitive patterns in our lives. Some common examples are entering into a series of relationships with a person who becomes abusive; coping with crises by escaping in alcohol or food; or stifling feelings instead of expressing them. Take a moment to think about what patterns may be revealing themselves in your life.

If you realize that you are repeating a pattern, your first questions should be "Do I really want to do this?" and "Who is repeating this pattern?" The minute you start this questioning, you will have started to crack your shell, because you have moved from an automatic response in your physical body (the false ego) to an observation that an unseen force is operating from the spiritual body (the true ego).

It is important to be aware that in this exercise, the practice of Remembrance means to just notice these repetitive patterns without judging whether they are "good" or "bad" and without feeling an immediate compulsion to change them. When you have the chance to examine what is happening in light of the ethics described in this book, you will be able to see whether your patterns are destructive — or unethical in any other way — and then choose whether or not to change them.

Most people feel great relief when they realize they no longer must bear the responsibility to fix everything that is wrong with themselves and the world. The spiritual body recognizes the fact that everything in the world is divine, not just what feels pleasant or good. This idea contrasts with religious fanaticism, in which people feel it is proper to try to mold the world to fit their personal egotistical picture; in other words, divinity lies only in what one likes. Any search for God is worthy. The idea that one search is better than another is the false ego speaking, and this type of thinking causes separation from your world and from yourself.

3. Welcome the unknown. We have examined how Remembrance is a practice of the present moment, and how it stimulates you to break out of your limited physical body consciousness. By consciously remembering the spiritual body, you are showing attention, or devotion, to something that is currently unknown to you. You do not yet know what the spiritual body is, and you are asking it to take form so that you can get to know it.

Something similar happens in sports, music, or dance when practitioners become immersed in the experience of oneness with the movement or the sound. When this experience is realized, the way they perform is no longer in their hands. They have prepared their physical body, and then, by being able to forget themselves, the spiritual body takes over. They rest in the extraordinary position of the center. All performers are urged to use this method; it is the secret of creating an extraordinary performance.

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul. (John Ruskin)

Imagine that you are a dancer getting ready to make an enormous leap — the perfect leap. The preparation to make that leap has become a constant desire. In fantasy, you can experience and enjoy the feeling of being airborne. In fantasy, you picture the leap, and when the fantasy takes power and form, you are able to perform it because you have opened a channel to your spiritual body.

All during your fantasy work, you are aware of your inadequacies, but success comes when you can leave them behind and launch yourself into the unknown like a pole vaulter. You don’t know what is there. You don’t know if you can do it. Your fantasy allows you to begin to practice thinking, "There is something other than what I know. I can do something more than what I can do now."

Yoga states that your personal power and ability actually extends far beyond the limits that you have placed on it through reliance on your physical body alone. By stimulating you to rest on the unknown, Remembrance becomes a bridge to truth, because the unknown is the home of your spiritual body, which can supply you with the truth in every situation.

The spiritual body is not subject to loss, nor can it fail. So if you are feeling this way, you can use Remembrance to realize that these tendencies are simply projections from the false ego of your physical body that are building a wall of separateness between you and your own power.

There is no other happiness here in this world than to be free of the thought that I am different from you. (Utpaladeva)

LONGING FOR ONENESS WITH THE SPIRITUAL BODY

Most translations of Ishwara Pranidhana substitute words like "worship" for Remembrance, believing that ritual, which is a large part of traditional worship, is the only type of devotion, or attention, necessary to see and interact with the spiritual body. This approach, however, implies that the spiritual body is different from you, and so perpetuates the idea that you and your spiritual body are separate. If you enjoy worship ceremonies, make them more helpful to you by constantly reminding yourself that you and the object of worship are really the same.

As you begin to gain some feeling of the spiritual body’s presence by using the fantasy practice that I have been talking about throughout this book, you can realize that the spiritual body has always been there; you are simply inviting it to show itself by paying attention to it. As your fantasy of the spiritual body becomes more real to you, your inner thoughts become comments like "How beautiful you are," or "I feel your presence," or "How wonderful it is to see you."

Many students write to me about this fantasy of the spiritual body, and I often find this plaintive statement in their letters: "I can’t put this feeling into words." This statement tells me that they are filled with longing to express what is in their heart. Many people are often filled with this sense of inexpressible longing, this feeling that something is not quite satisfied, not quite complete.

This is a primitive feeling of longing for the spiritual body. We want to become aware of it because we know, on some level, that we are actually part of it, and it is part of us. It is difficult to articulate or even clearly identify this feeling. It is too subtle for words, but something in our physical body responds to this primitive longing. The practice of Remembrance helps us realize that this longing is coming from within ourselves from our spiritual nature.

Lakshmanjoo expressed it this way:

Alice: Swamiji, why is Ishwara pranidhana considered to be the supreme niyama [observance]?
Lakshmanjoo: Because it is nearing end of the road. Only longing is there. Longing to hug . . .
Alice: The treasure.
Lakshmanjoo: Yes. There is one sloka [verse]. "When will that day come, oh Lord, when I will call you in one cry and you will be in front of me? How can I utter that kind of cry? In one cry you will be in my arms."

The word "Lord" refers to the spiritual body, the unseen half of yourself.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come. (Chinese proverb)

(to be continued)