The Essentials of Yoga (starring Patanjali)

Patanjali was certainly a sage of the highest order, penetrating to the highest mysteries yet retaining a solid and concise intellect. It has been said, "Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way" (Liber AL III:41). Only through a sharply cut diamond (the mind of the aspirant) may the Word reverberate in its original purity. The very form of the text is evidence of the orderliness of his psyche.

We have the entire doctrine summarized in the first four lines:

1-1: Now, instruction in Union [Yoga].
1-2: Union is restraining of the mind-stuff from taking various forms.
1-3: Then the Seer dwells in His own nature [unmodified state].
1-4: Otherwise the Seer is identified with the modifications.

The whole method is contained in the second line, with the first line announcing its arrival and the third & fourth lines being a short explanation of this method. We see now that Yoga, or 'Union,' is accomplished when we restrain the mind from taking various forms, from identifying with various mental 'modifications.' These thoughts, or modifications, are often pictured as ripples in a body of water; Yoga consists in the body of water becoming calm without any ripples; that is, the mind-stuff does not take forms.

Patanjali goes on to list these modifications, or vritti, some painful and some not painful. He then instructs us:

1-12: These modifications [vrittis] are controlled by practice and non-attachment.

Our essential task is then (1) practice and (2) non-attachment. But what are these things? Delightfully, Patanjali concisely explains:

1-13: Continuous struggle to keep the modifications perfectly restrained is practice.
1-15: The subjugation of the thirst for objects seen or unseen is non-attachment.

Therefore we must restrain our mind-stuff from taking forms with persistence and we must subjugate our desires for all things. We must have persistence and remember:

1-21: Success is speedy for the extremely energetic.

Even as it is said, "But exceed! exceed! Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine -- and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! -- death is the crown of all." (Liber AL I:71-72)

What are the various impediments to our practice and non-attachment? Patanjali enumerates these:

1-30: Disease, mental laziness (inertia), doubt, lack of enthusiasm, lethargy, clinging to sense enjoyments (sensuality), false perception (mind-wandering), non-attaining of concentration, and falling away from concentration when attained (instability) - these are the obstructing distractions.
1-31: Grief (pain), mental distress (despair), tremor of the body (nervousness), and irregular breathing accompany non-retention of concentration.
2-3: The pain-bearing obstructions are ignorance, egoity, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

("Of them, ignorance is the cause, and the other four are the effects." (Vivekananda))

Oh pain! despair! misery! It is said, "Hear me, ye people of sighing! / The sorrows of pain and regret / Are left to the dead and the dying, / The folk that not know me as yet." (Liber AL II:17) What are we to do?

1-32: For the prevention of these obstacles, one should practice on one object.
3-5: Through the attainment of that comes the light of knowledge.

That is, "making the mind take the form of one object for some time will destroy these obstacles" (Vivekananda). This is the practice of 'samyama,' the first stage of which is dharana, then dhyana, then samadhi. We are also counseled to the practice of pranayama, the controlling of prana (life-force) through control of breath. Many meditations and devotions are then given, but ultimately:

1-40: The yogi's mind, thus meditating, becomes unobstructed from the atomic to the infinite.

"My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells." - Liber Tzaddi, line 40

"I am clothed with the body of flesh; I am one with the Eternal and Omnipotent God... Thou art the Lord of Glory, and the unclean dog." -Liber LXV, I:53; II:3

"For Perfection abideth not in the Pinnacles, or in the Foundations, but in the ordered Harmony of one with all." - Liber Causae, line 32

Images, representation, and Self

All we know of the world or the self are the things represented to the consciousness. In other words, only representations or images can be known and therefore consciousness consists of these representations. This perceptual field of representations, or 'consciousness,' is our world.

The faculties of representing cannot be known in themselves, only through their own representations. We say that our consciousness arises from the nervous system, that the nervous system is the system of 'faculties of representing.' But we only know anything about the nervous system through its own representations.

"[All forms are] determined by the structure of the nervous system & thus really a phantasm of it... One may begin again from that standpoint to enquire why the nervous system itself should be conceived as it is, from anatomical indications which themselves depend on the same sensory perceptions which in turn determine the form of the original vision. i.e. Having got "the Universe as I see it is an Image of my nervous system" ask; "Why do I see the nervous system as I do? What is the ultimate meaning of this conception? What does it imply, my imprisonment in this "circular argument'"?'" -Aleister Crowley, "Etyhl Oxide"

Our awareness of 'the world' and ourselves is the interaction and overlapping of several systems of representation; our 'world' is the apparently unified combination of representational maps.

What most people think of the 'self' is a partitioned 'entity' derived from this phenomenal field. An identification with any partial component of this perceptual field results in a world of multiplicity founded on the essential dichotomy of 'self' and 'other' or 'self' and 'environment.' This is 'illusion' - the Hindu 'maya' born of 'avidya,' the Judeo-Christian-Islamic 'sin,' etc. The 'self' and 'other' are both partial facets of the perceptual field, their distinction being a perspective or interpretation of the information of the perceptual field. That is, even the appearance of multiplicity is a device of the Unified Field.

Yoga, the art & science of Union, consists of relinquishing attachment to and identification with any partial image. 'The world,' as we know it, being full of 'things,' 'creatures,' 'entities,' 'substances,' - that is, full of multiplicity - must be shattered.

THAT which gives rise to all images (and consequently consumes them), THAT which cannot be fully defined by any one representation but is known in part through each of its infinite expressions, is the Soul, the True Self, God, Brahman, Tao. One who perceives this truth is the Sage, the Perfect Man, the Buddha, the yogi, the Thelemite. Such a one can proclaim, "I am the Magician and the Exorcist," being both the creator of forms & the destroyer of forms.

The Method of Mysticism

"This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast." -Liber Cheth, line 1

The method of Mysticism is the systematic dismantling of all attachments and desires, to rest in the seer's natural, unconditioned state.

The most nefarious desires are:

* The desire to have influence in the world (material possessions and power)
* The desire to survive, propagate life
* The desire to attain, have 'enlightenment'

The most nefarious attachments are:

* The attachment to material objects (wealth)
* The attachment to other people, including friends and family (love)
* The attachment to intellectual maps of any sort - Theological, Moral, Ontological, Epistemological, etc. - though some are more useful than others (e.g. heliocentric > geocentric)
* The attachment to life (health), forms as they are (instead of in their naturally ever-changing, non-substantial state)
* The attachment to God
* The attachment to notions of 'self'

"Now therefore that thou mayest achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, do thou divest thyself of all thy goods. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it. Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervour of thine abandonment unto Our Lady. Let thy flesh hang loose upon thy bones, and thine eyes glare with thy quenchless lust unto the Infinite, with thy passion for the Unknown, for Her that is beyond Knowledge the accursed one. Thou hast love; tear thy mother from thine heart, and spit in the face of thy father. Let thy foot trample the belly of thy wife, and let the babe at her breast be the prey of dogs and vultures." - Liber Cheth, lines 7-10

The primary method is meditation. Meditation is the focusing of the mind to 2: the seer and the seen... and nothing else. No other thought may intrude.

And behold! if by stealth thou keep unto thyself one thought of thine, then shalt thou be cast out into the abyss for ever; and thou shalt be the lonely one, the eater of dung, the afflicted in the Day of Be-with-Us." -Liber Cheth, line 12

This is the beginning stage which leads eventually, by various degrees, to the focusing of the mind to 1: seer and seen are one. Desires and attachments disintegrate if they have not already voluntary been stripped away through austerities.

"For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations." - Liber Cheth, line 11

It is said that, "This Path is beyond Life and Death; it is also beyond Love; but that ye know not, for ye know not Love." (Liber Cheth, line 20) This is because "Life and Death" are One in the Serpent's Body which is a Ring; that is, from the annihilation of the self into the Impersonal Unity comes a recognition of the unity of life and death (and other dualities). This Path is also beyond Love because Love requires a 'lover' and a 'loved.' That is, it requires Two things just like Knowledge requires a 'knower' and a thing 'known.' But in this attainment We have annihilated all mutiplicity; therefore it is said, "It is not known if it be known." (Liber Cheth, line 21)

The result of this process is the annihilation of the old 'self' - the ego, everything we thought was our 'self' - and the 'arising' of the True Self, the Crowned & Conquering Child, beyond all dualities. Only when all elements of multiplicity, temporality, and distinction have been annihilated, the One - which is None for it is continuous (Liber AL I:27) - may be perceived. Therefore it is said, "Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt." (Liber AL I:22) Only when this is achieved does one become "chief of all," (Liber AL I:23) recognizing one's True Self as coterminous with the All. Then are all things seen as a joyful sacrament and we may proclaim "Existence is pure joy." (Liber AL II:9)

"Yea! verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou. Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wanton in the market-place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee." - Liber Cheth, lines 13-14

In this Path, having come to the End, one recognizes it is one with the Beginning.

" Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof... Therefore unto Hadit and unto Nuit be the glory in the End and the Beginning; yea, in the End and the Beginning." - Liber Cheth, lines 19, 22

What pragmatic tools does Thelema offer?

What tools does Thelema offer, like Buddhism offers the practice of 'mindfulness...'

• Attitude of non-attachment to results/fruits of labor (Liber AL I:44)
• Attitude of affirmation, strength, beauty, force, etc. (Liber AL II)
• Attitude of no guilt from lust, "sinful" things, materiality, etc.

But all these things are subtle, somewhat passive in that they are 'attitudes' and not pragmatic tools like mindfulness. 

Is Thelema merely a paradigm which does not necessarily come with any specific tools?

The traditional response is (a) Yoga and (b) Magick, but are these founded in Thelemic literature or Crowley's literature on... yoga & magick?

* * * * *

• The use of 'strange drugs' (entheogens) is explicitly endorsed by Hadit:
• "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this." (Liber AL II:22)
• The use of wines and alcohol is explicitly endorsed by Nuit: 
• "Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me." (Liber AL I:51) 
• ...by Hadit: "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof!" (Liber AL II:22) 
• ...by Ra-Hoor-Khuit: "For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine: then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth down with rich fresh blood." (Liber AL III:23)

Perhaps that to which is alluded to often.... "the first task of the Aspirant is to disarm all his thoughts, to make himself impregnably above the influence of any one of them; this he may accomplish by the methods given in Liber Aleph, Liber Jugorum, Thien Tao, and elsewhere." (AL II:25 comment)...