YOGA

This book clearly explains the ancient Teachings of the Ishayas, an ancient Order of monks who were entrusted by the Apostle John to preserve the original teachings of Christ until the third millennium. The Ishayas hold that the original teachings of Jesus were not a belief system at all, rather a mechanical series of techniques to transform human life into a constant perception of the perfection within the human heart.

​Real expansion of consciousness occurs only through direct, personal experience. Ascension! is an invitation to awaken to the innermost Reality of your wonderful, exalted soul. This text also includes a description of the Ishayas’ 27 Ascension Attitudes.

ISHAYA FOUNDATION
​MSI BOOKS

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Reprinted from a comment by ​Mahadeva Ishaya

The Yoga Sutras of Maharishi Patanjali are the most concise formulation in history of the mechanics of the growth of consciousness from the Waking State to the highest degree of human consciousness, Unified Consciousness. They present a systematic and complete understanding of the psychological, emotional and physical transformations that occur as an individual develops full enlightenment. This process of development is called Ascension, or rising beyond the boundaries of ignorance. This text is thus the fullest formulation in the history of the world of the pre-Christian roots of Ascension.

Maharishi Patanjali was also known as Govinda Yogindra, "The Light-Filled King of the Yogis." He was commonly considered to be the Teacher of the first Shankaracharya, who revitalized the knowledge of Ascension some five centuries before the birth of Christ. Maharishi Patanjali was a fully conscious human being. Maharishi literally means "great sage." A Rishi, a sage, is an individual who has Ascended to the first stage of enlightenment, Perpetual Consciousness, which is characterized by recognition that the inner Self is Infinite, not limited by space, time or causation, one with the omnipresent One, the Creator of All that Is.

A Maharishi is an individual who has Ascended to Unified Consciousness, in which the inner experience of Infinite Awareness is also experienced outside, as the essential Reality of everyone and everything. Patanjali was established in this ultimate level of human consciousness. His text of Yoga was designed to help anyone rise to this state of human perfection.

Sutras are very short and concise statements. Sutra literally means "thread." The Yoga Sutras are the threads that together constitute the tapestry of Yoga. Yoga comes from the root, yug, which means to join together. So the Yoga Sutras are the threads that join together. Yoga is the science of joining together the individual lower self with the universal higher Self, the indivisible spark of God that resides within everyone.

Yoga is not a belief system or a religion nor even a philosophy -- it is an extremely practical methodology for systematically expanding the conscious mind. Said another way, Yoga is the Science for overcoming the self-destructive and limiting beliefs and internal programs that keep individual life bound to the experiences of the Waking State of Consciousness -- the state in which life is alternately happy and sad, loving and hating, healthy and sick -- in short, dual. Yoga provides a systematic ladder for climbing beyond the often painful experiences of the Waking State of duality into the state of non-changing Unified Consciousness, a.k.a. full enlightenment.

This is not a mystical or even a difficult or complicated process. Those who have thought that Yoga was difficult and/or complicated were doubtlessly basing their thinking on their personal experience, but that level of experiencing is not the whole story of human life, as this text will make clear. Perfection is within every human. Given this fact, it is surprising that so very many have failed to realize this.

Part of the problem stems from faulty translations of the texts that can serve in the development of consciousness. The Yoga Sutras are a prime example. Properly understood, they provide a straight and broad path for realization of the highest degree of human consciousness. Improperly understood, they are at best useless and at worst quite damaging.

Indian society is today caught deep in a quagmire of mistaken belief about the mechanics of realizing enlightenment. The custodians of the system of Yoga have so poorly managed its essential teachings that practically no one in the world anymore understands that Divine Union is perfectly easy to attain. The typical interpretation of the path to enlightenment is through renunciation, or giving up of the world. Expansion to Infinity by giving up! Nothing could be more ludicrous, given a true perception and understanding of higher consciousness.

Without full enlightenment, the attempt to understand, translate or teach the Yoga Sutras is doomed to inevitable and inglorious failure. The reason for this is only partly found in the vast dissimilarity between Sanskrit and our Western languages -- even the commentators on the sutras who wrote in Sanskrit did a woefully poor job of understanding Patanjali's meaning. The root cause of the perennial failure of the translators and commentators has to be traced to the translators having experiencing a low level of enlightenment that did not much succeed in unravelling the knots of Patanjali's meaning. The greatest of the authors and commentators of antiquity was Vyasa. But the commentary attributed to him is deficient in several significant respects. It must be that Vyasa did not actually write it and someone borrowed his name for it, or else one of his later followers tried to embellish it and instead ruined it.

The prime problem area of all the commentaries is in the interpretation of key verses that make the practice of Yoga seem complicated or difficult or suitable only for those that are renunciates -- those that have dedicated their entire lives to being monks or nuns. With this as the standard interpretation of this system of mental development, small wonder that Yoga has been considered valueless by many in the West! Who wants to give up all enjoyment of life to realize enlightenment? Give up enjoyment to realize Infinite bliss? It even sounds absurd! Fortunately, it is absurd. It is not necessary; it is actually easier to continue with a regular, balanced life in the world and add the effortless and natural techniques to Ascend from the Waking State and accomplish Union. The mind is quickly absorbed by the experience of the Infinite when it has the use of valid techniques for the growth of consciousness; it is never a laborious, difficult or slow process.

As the growth of consciousness proceeds, every area of life develops -- heart, mind, body, environment. Yoga, properly understood, is not a system of giving up life. It is a system of adding to life.

- continued-

​FIRST QUARTER:
ASCENDANT CONSCIOUSNESS

YOGA is the Science of Union. The union of what with what? The union of the Waking State of Consciousness with its most expanded state. This fully developed state is called enlightenment. There are four stages of this development of higher consciousness; these are discussed in the four quarters of the Yoga Sutras.

The first stage is called Ascendant Consciousness. Ascendant Consciousness is the experience of the conscious mind settling down into its own essential nature. The self of the Waking State, with its myriad of contradictory and self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, is only a shadow of the Self that lies within. The Self within is quite literally indescribable (Christianity has done as well as possible by calling it, "The peace which passeth understanding") for it lies forever beyond the power of any words to describe, beyond the ability of the mind even to contemplate. It can, however, be experienced -- this is the purpose of the Yoga Sutras, of Yoga in general, and specifically of the First Quarter of the text. The experience of this transcendental Union is the topic of the first fifty-one sutras.

The First Quarter of the Yoga Sutras describes Ascendant Consciousness. Ascendant Consciousness is called satori in Japan, Samadhi in India, often "the Fourth" in the ancient literature, the One or the Absolute or the Transcendent or the Infinite or Unbounded Awareness or Pure Consciousness in English. This experience is a fourth major state of consciousness, distinct subjectively and physiologically from Waking, Sleeping and Dreaming. In this text, we typically call it Ascendant Consciousness, for it lies beyond the normal experience of the Waking State. The name is irrelevant, the experience is everything.

To qualify as a distinct state of consciousness (unlike an altered state of consciousness, such as one produced by hypnosis or biofeedback), the physiological correlates must be significantly distinct and so must the subjective experience. The Ascendant State of Consciousness is characterized by expanded awareness and deeper rest than that of sleep -- the mind requires less energy to experience consciousness without thought; this causes the body to settle down to deep relaxation. In that silence and rest, stress dissolves.

The experience of the Ascendant is not enlightenment, but it is required to grow into enlightenment. The Second Quarter of the Yoga Sutras defines the first stage of enlightenment, Perpetual Consciousness; the Third Quarter deals with the second stage, Exalted Consciousness; and the Fourth Quarter describes the ultimate fulfillment of human evolution, Unified Consciousness.
The Yoga Sutras have been misinterpreted as the means to walk down the path to enlightenment. They are not. They are a description of the nature of enlightenment. Patanjali included no actual techniques of Ascension or Yoga in this text. His descriptions of the mechanics of enlightenment are so brilliant and clear, however, that many of the sutras have been widely misunderstood as actually being the techniques themselves. One purpose of this translation and commentary is to correct such unfortunate misunderstandings. Attempting to move ahead in consciousness by taking the Yoga Sutras as techniques for Ascension is impossible -- that would be rather like attempting to build a working electrical system and wire a house by reading a text on the nature of electricity.

The above two articles are excerpts from "Enlightenment" The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by MSI

It is published by The Ishaya Foundation and is part and parcel to the teaching of Ascension introduced by MSI (Maharishi Sadasiva Isham).

This particular website forum is dedicated to the mechanics and inner workings of the Science of Yoga or UNION with ALL that Is, the Ascendant or the absolute. It has many names given by many students of the science of Union.

Yes, absolutely, it is possible to live in constant Union in the highest state of consciousness. It simply requires the desire and the discipline that goes along with one pointed focus on manifesting that which you desire. What you focus on grows. That is the foundation of spiritual science. What consciousness desires, manifests. Yet science has shown that the average person thinks some 50-60,000 thoughts per day, hardly giving attention to any one thing, and if the person is vigilant, that one thing often comes with very little effort. Just as a musician thinks, breathes and sleeps his instrument and music, such is the desire and focus that is necessary to master anything quickly and without distraction. That is not difficult, yet so many lack the one pointed desire to create anything, because the changing thoughts and beliefs due to the attachment to thoughts keeps the mind fragmented and unfocused.

The simple tools known by teachers of the science of yoga have always worked to still the mind since the beginning of mans existence. The methods of destressing the mind and body have always been a part of the history of mankind, but mankind has typically allowed the outward driven senses to rule the mind.

Our parents and our peers pass their ideas of fear and illusions of reality down to their ancestors perpetuating a cycle of ignorance that does not include the higher states of consciousness and the reality of Union with ALL THAT IS.

Gary
I'm listening....

"The simple tools known by teachers of the science of yoga have always worked to still the mind since the beginning of mans existence...."

Please point me to a starting place.

May I add your comments to a Whole Human Blog Post?

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