Sunday, February 03, 2008

Buddhi-yukto jahatiha ubhe sukrta-duskrte
tasmad yogaya yujyasva yogah karmasu kausalam
The Bhagavadgita 2:50-51

Yoga is skill in action. It is the act of yoking to reality, an active engagement to the perception of reality. I have come across several variants of this precept, sometimes in surprising places and sources that are unlikely to have exposure to the motivation for these verses. The skilled practioner of a craft is actively engaging in a gauging or reading of a facet of reality, and in doing so has a brief albeit unadulterated perception of his/her relationship with his/her immediate reality. This state may be described as zen by the mahayana buddhists, dhyana in hinduism, or as being in the zone by an athlete.

3 comments:

Trice said...

A very original and interesting point of view, I like it, though :)

Anonymous said...

The 'zone'. I have experienced it while solving hard problems! Its when all your energy is concentrated on one thing. The abstract aim of all forms of meditation too, right?

PS: Your posts are too few and far between! I am sure you have publish-worthy thoughts more often than that!

Unawoken said...

Trice, thanks! I do not think however that it is a new point of view, I think this has been said in many ways before, but I had my own access-path to it..

anonymous: I can't answer the first part of your comment straight. It requires me more than a few sentences to do justice to it.

Agree that my posts are infrequent, but I don't agree that I have more frequent publish-worthy thoughts. They are usually not in a presentable form, in any case..