The previous articles on Mystic Time were quite 'yoga technical' so I thought I would have fun with the topic of time this time around–pardon the pun.
Essentially mysticism springs from the study of nature. The ancient mystics used to be the scientist of their era and it was their initial work that laid the foundation for the advancements of modern science as we are used to today. One of the obsessions of mystics and scientists alike are finding ways to defy the forces of nature. Todays science fiction and the ancient epics are equally filled with characters possessing supernatural powers–such as levitation, the ability to morph, teleport, the ability to stop time–like Lord Hanuman flying around exhibiting super-strength; Superman flying around doing about the same stuff. Defying the natural laws of physics is often romanticized in human imagination.
Of all the forces of physics the force that must have arguably dominated the preoccupation of mystics and scientist from the get-go is anti-gravity, levitation. Ancient epics and superhero stories clue us to this fact since at least one character will have the supernatural ability to fly at will or at least have a vehicle that defies gravity (without wings and / or propellers). Today despite the airplanes and helicopters, anti-gravity through un-mechanized levitation is still a holy-grail for inventors.
While scientists have laboured and produced inventions like the airplane and helicopters you will discover that according to Hindu or Eastern epics, the mystics too seem to have discovered physics defying capabilities. In these stories the 'super-humans' are the mystics and the 'other-worldlys'. They possess magical powers like flying, teleporting, morphing etc. as a result of their mystical attainments. I used to be circumspect in putting confidence in the existence of such capable humans, but my study of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras tell me otherwise.
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras was the most important core scripture during my training as a yogi. My guru's teachings–his methods of and philosophy–were based on the theories revealed in this book; and in my experience of mysticism the theories on the workings of the mind in the Yoga Sutras hold true. My convictions on the effectiveness of the Yoga Sutras is formed by my own success as a yogi in securing spiritual enlightenment. In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras which is dedicated to Divine Powers, Sage Patanjali writes of amazing capabilities like levitation, invisibility, super-strength, telepathy and morphing which may be achieved through yoga techniques that the sage describes in this chapter.
FYI: There are four chapters in the Yoga Sutras, the first on the goal of yoga–Spiritual Enlightenment, the second–Spiritual Disciplines, the third–Divine Powers and the fourth–Realizations. The emphasis of the Yoga Sutras is to explain and teach the methods of attaining spiritual enlightenment, albeit it is also a no-holds-barred manual on the capabilities of the mystical mind, thus the chapter on Divine Powers.
Verse 38 of the chapter on Divine Powers that goes like this–Through a samayama on nadis and mastery of the retained breath one may levitate, make oneself as light as feather and walk on water, swamps, thorns and so forth–I was intrigued. I had always been fascinated by flight, even now. During my school days I enjoyed learning more about airplanes than cars and bird-watching was a hobby. However when I asked my guru for more insight into this verse he set my curiosity straight. He told me quite curtly that until I had secured Self-Realization all other mystical pursuit was a waste of time.
I have digressed somewhat from Mystic Time, but rest assured we are now entering the doors of having fun with time. So far I have been attempting to share with you the amazing potential locked in the mystical mind which is obviously more than what meets the eye. Though my guru told me to put aside levitation he did however give me permission to work on the element of time. For the conquest of time is directly related to Self-Realization.
Time is one of the basic element of physics. It is a pure evolute like space, mass, gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear energy. Together these elements of physics form the building blocks of nature. However time has a special quality that makes it more amenable to manipulation compared to the other elements of physics. Time has an intrinsic value like space and mass which can be measured and used for measurements, however unlike the other pure evolutes, time also has a perceptive value that can be manipulated through individual perception.
Here is a simple example to illustrate this fact. If you have an empty box to be filled with tennis balls the maximum number of tennis balls you can fill the box with is a fixed and easily calculable number. The obvious way to manipulate this situation (say to add more tennis balls into the box) is to change the size of the box by simply using a bigger box. Alternatively if you knew mystical morphing you could morph the box to whatever size you wanted psychically! Cool! But even if you could mystically morph you will realize that it is still easier to simply get a different box because of the amount of energy and willpower mystical morphing would consume; it would just not be worth the time and effort. Now time too like space, has an empiric value that can be used to calculate and gauge accurately values like distance, speed, force, energy and so forth; but time also has a perceptive value where it can be felt moving faster or slower despite its empiric measure. This means that though the value of one minute always remains the same, what one can do in that one minute can vary person to person even if they are doing the same task. We are used to this variability of capability as efficiency. Looking at efficiency yogically allows us to appreciate it as a Divine Power, for though it seems that efficiency is a natural ability to us, we are nevertheless using a psychic ablility of the mind, namely concentration, to manipulate the fabric of time.
The first three verses of the Divine Power chapter in the Yoga Sutras extol concentration as the key ability for cultivating spiritual experiences which eventually culminate in spiritual enlightenment. The verses go as follows:
1. One-pointedness is concentration of the mind.
2. Uninterrupted concentration evolves into meditation.
3. When meditation evolves into the cessation of mental effort leaving only the object of meditation in consciousness, realization is born.
We usually do not think of concentration as a psychic or a super-human ability since it seems so basic to the mind. However in yoga philosophy concentration is much more complex. Part of the complexness of concentration that yogis become aware of through their experience is its intricate connectedness to time. In their journey towards Self Realization yogis naturally explore the connection between time and concentration since Self Realization is also about the conquest over time. For us together to appreciate the depth of how concentration effects time and subsequently our life allow me to introduce you to some equations I have come up with based on my mystical experiences connecting time and concentration.
At their most basic level this is how concentration and time relate. Concentration of anything causes intensity and intensity makes things happen (creating events). Events animate life and occur in time. Thus concentration creates events in time which equals to animation of life. However time is not necessarily inert in this equation because time can also exert pressure on life to cause concentration to animate life. For instance imagine a person who is feeling lazy and is not interested in doing anything, he is content in his lack of activity, but the passing of time causes him to eventually feel hungry. His hunger forces him to concentrate his effort to break out of his period of inactivity and go find food. Therefore time also has value as a force to instigate concentration.
To sum up my version of 'mystical physics' the following equations relate concentration with time and life as described in the previous paragraph.
These equations are basic–nothing special, certainly nothing psychic–until the complexness of concentration relating to its degrees are factored in. The degrees of concentration brings Divine Power to the relationship of concentration, time and life by the way of the effect of increasing intensity of concentration on the fabric of time.
In yoga philosophy concentration is not a single value because there are degrees of intensity to concentration. In yogic terms there are four degrees of concentration. These four, in increasing intensity are sakshin, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. As a yogi masters these ever more intense level of concentration one of the first things he becomes aware of is their unusual effect on time. I can best describe this effect as the warping of the fabric of time caused by intense concentration. The warping of time goes beyond the simplicity of better efficiency and it can create what can be justified as psychic or supernatural ability. Thus concentration becomes a Divine Power.
I can illustrate such mystical potential of concentration by incorporating its degrees in the following equations.
Sakshin: Sakshin is the most basic level of concentration (in my writings I use conscious concentration as a synonym of sakshin), it is our general experience of concentration; of focusing the mind and available resources to accomplish tasks. At this level of concentration we can already feel the effect of the changing perception of time with increasing intensity of concentration. That is, the more intense concentration is, the slower the passing of time is perceived. Thus more can be accomplished within a space of time. However the concentration degree of sakshin is not enough to warp the the fabric of time.
Pratyahara: This is the next level of increased intensity of concentration after sakshin. There is no english equivalent to pratyahara (and the other remaining levels of yogic concentration). Pratyahara is concentrating awareness within the subconscious mind and it is the first stage of concentration where the mind is turned onto itself. I use subconscious concentration to refer to pratyahara. It is in pratyahara that the warping of time can be perceived (symbolized by the warped arrow below 't'), for pratyahara opens the yogi to the potential of manipulating her future. Using esoteric yogic techniques of pratyahara the deep subconscious (the sub of the subconscious) is made available to the yogi. The sub of the subconscious stores karmic seeds which germinate as events in our life. An adept yogi can learn techniques of inserting a 'seed event' in the sub of the subconscious for it to manifest in life in the future. Thus pratyahara gives the mystic the power to create future happenings psychically. Pratyahara is therefore the level of concentration where its pyschic ability as a Divine Power (from its ability to manipulate the fabric of time) becomes a possibility. The contemporary of this latent possibility of the mind is the Law of Attraction, however most modern proponents of the Law of Attraction fail to realize that to make it work requires that its practicer master pratyahara. The next intensification of concentration, dharana, subsequently intensifies the psychic ability of concentration further.
Dharana: This is the most intense level of concentration that our awareness can attain through conscious effort. It is super-concentration. Dharana warps the fabric of time even more than pratyahara. While pratyahara warps the perception of time and allows for the creation of events to occur in the future, dharana warps the perception of time to the point that the events designed in pratyahara becomes tangible in our experience of life. Dharana can create seeming magic by organizing and focusing the resources of our mind in harmony with the greater forces of the cosmos to bring the potentials created in pratyahara into experiential fruition. Basically it makes things happen usually quicker (or to happen at all) than anticipated by, in a sense, physically warping the fabric of life itself, thus the warping vector below life in the equation. Dharana's effect on time can tangibly touch our experience of life.
Dhyana: The level of concentration of awareness and other faculties of the mind is at its most intense in dhyana. It is so intense that it is experienced as an involuntary process of the mind. A yogi is able to deliberately, with all his or her effort, attain up to dharana; after that dhyana occurs as a natural evolution of sustained dharana and is maintained by an automatic process of the mind instead of the conscious mental effort of the yogi. Thus at the point of dhyana the yogi experiences relaxation of mental effort and enjoys the state of super-super-concentration and the experiences it entails–which can be described as 'other-worldly'. In dhyana the degree of concentration reaches its pinnacle. At this level the fabric of time becomes so warped that time is perceived in a dimension beyond the ordinary–in a purely spiritual dimension that is irrelevant to the scales we are used to, thus the experience of life too goes beyond the ordinary and becomes 'other-worldly'; this is indicated by the opposite warp in the fabric of life in the equation relating to dhyana.
Dhyana is the prize of yogis and mystics seeking spiritual enlightenment. It is the doorway to new dimensions of experience that transforms the experiencers perception of life to one that is unshackled by materialism and its urgencies. When mystics become masters in attaining the heights concentration in dhyana they come upon their final conquest in the mastery of concentration–they seek the source of consciousness itself which by extension leads them to the source of time–they yearn for timelessness! Timelessness is the prize of prizes for mystics. It is an achievement that earns the adept mystic a well-done pat on his or her back from the master.
Experiencing the condition where time equals zero seems to be impossible, however in the rarefied reaches of consciousness that is opened to the mystic through dhyana he learns to play with time and ultimately meld with its source.
Essentially mysticism springs from the study of nature. The ancient mystics used to be the scientist of their era and it was their initial work that laid the foundation for the advancements of modern science as we are used to today. One of the obsessions of mystics and scientists alike are finding ways to defy the forces of nature. Todays science fiction and the ancient epics are equally filled with characters possessing supernatural powers–such as levitation, the ability to morph, teleport, the ability to stop time–like Lord Hanuman flying around exhibiting super-strength; Superman flying around doing about the same stuff. Defying the natural laws of physics is often romanticized in human imagination.
Of all the forces of physics the force that must have arguably dominated the preoccupation of mystics and scientist from the get-go is anti-gravity, levitation. Ancient epics and superhero stories clue us to this fact since at least one character will have the supernatural ability to fly at will or at least have a vehicle that defies gravity (without wings and / or propellers). Today despite the airplanes and helicopters, anti-gravity through un-mechanized levitation is still a holy-grail for inventors.
While scientists have laboured and produced inventions like the airplane and helicopters you will discover that according to Hindu or Eastern epics, the mystics too seem to have discovered physics defying capabilities. In these stories the 'super-humans' are the mystics and the 'other-worldlys'. They possess magical powers like flying, teleporting, morphing etc. as a result of their mystical attainments. I used to be circumspect in putting confidence in the existence of such capable humans, but my study of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras tell me otherwise.
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras was the most important core scripture during my training as a yogi. My guru's teachings–his methods of and philosophy–were based on the theories revealed in this book; and in my experience of mysticism the theories on the workings of the mind in the Yoga Sutras hold true. My convictions on the effectiveness of the Yoga Sutras is formed by my own success as a yogi in securing spiritual enlightenment. In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras which is dedicated to Divine Powers, Sage Patanjali writes of amazing capabilities like levitation, invisibility, super-strength, telepathy and morphing which may be achieved through yoga techniques that the sage describes in this chapter.
FYI: There are four chapters in the Yoga Sutras, the first on the goal of yoga–Spiritual Enlightenment, the second–Spiritual Disciplines, the third–Divine Powers and the fourth–Realizations. The emphasis of the Yoga Sutras is to explain and teach the methods of attaining spiritual enlightenment, albeit it is also a no-holds-barred manual on the capabilities of the mystical mind, thus the chapter on Divine Powers.
Verse 38 of the chapter on Divine Powers that goes like this–Through a samayama on nadis and mastery of the retained breath one may levitate, make oneself as light as feather and walk on water, swamps, thorns and so forth–I was intrigued. I had always been fascinated by flight, even now. During my school days I enjoyed learning more about airplanes than cars and bird-watching was a hobby. However when I asked my guru for more insight into this verse he set my curiosity straight. He told me quite curtly that until I had secured Self-Realization all other mystical pursuit was a waste of time.
I have digressed somewhat from Mystic Time, but rest assured we are now entering the doors of having fun with time. So far I have been attempting to share with you the amazing potential locked in the mystical mind which is obviously more than what meets the eye. Though my guru told me to put aside levitation he did however give me permission to work on the element of time. For the conquest of time is directly related to Self-Realization.
Time is one of the basic element of physics. It is a pure evolute like space, mass, gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear energy. Together these elements of physics form the building blocks of nature. However time has a special quality that makes it more amenable to manipulation compared to the other elements of physics. Time has an intrinsic value like space and mass which can be measured and used for measurements, however unlike the other pure evolutes, time also has a perceptive value that can be manipulated through individual perception.
Here is a simple example to illustrate this fact. If you have an empty box to be filled with tennis balls the maximum number of tennis balls you can fill the box with is a fixed and easily calculable number. The obvious way to manipulate this situation (say to add more tennis balls into the box) is to change the size of the box by simply using a bigger box. Alternatively if you knew mystical morphing you could morph the box to whatever size you wanted psychically! Cool! But even if you could mystically morph you will realize that it is still easier to simply get a different box because of the amount of energy and willpower mystical morphing would consume; it would just not be worth the time and effort. Now time too like space, has an empiric value that can be used to calculate and gauge accurately values like distance, speed, force, energy and so forth; but time also has a perceptive value where it can be felt moving faster or slower despite its empiric measure. This means that though the value of one minute always remains the same, what one can do in that one minute can vary person to person even if they are doing the same task. We are used to this variability of capability as efficiency. Looking at efficiency yogically allows us to appreciate it as a Divine Power, for though it seems that efficiency is a natural ability to us, we are nevertheless using a psychic ablility of the mind, namely concentration, to manipulate the fabric of time.
The first three verses of the Divine Power chapter in the Yoga Sutras extol concentration as the key ability for cultivating spiritual experiences which eventually culminate in spiritual enlightenment. The verses go as follows:
1. One-pointedness is concentration of the mind.
2. Uninterrupted concentration evolves into meditation.
3. When meditation evolves into the cessation of mental effort leaving only the object of meditation in consciousness, realization is born.
We usually do not think of concentration as a psychic or a super-human ability since it seems so basic to the mind. However in yoga philosophy concentration is much more complex. Part of the complexness of concentration that yogis become aware of through their experience is its intricate connectedness to time. In their journey towards Self Realization yogis naturally explore the connection between time and concentration since Self Realization is also about the conquest over time. For us together to appreciate the depth of how concentration effects time and subsequently our life allow me to introduce you to some equations I have come up with based on my mystical experiences connecting time and concentration.
At their most basic level this is how concentration and time relate. Concentration of anything causes intensity and intensity makes things happen (creating events). Events animate life and occur in time. Thus concentration creates events in time which equals to animation of life. However time is not necessarily inert in this equation because time can also exert pressure on life to cause concentration to animate life. For instance imagine a person who is feeling lazy and is not interested in doing anything, he is content in his lack of activity, but the passing of time causes him to eventually feel hungry. His hunger forces him to concentrate his effort to break out of his period of inactivity and go find food. Therefore time also has value as a force to instigate concentration.
To sum up my version of 'mystical physics' the following equations relate concentration with time and life as described in the previous paragraph.
These equations are basic–nothing special, certainly nothing psychic–until the complexness of concentration relating to its degrees are factored in. The degrees of concentration brings Divine Power to the relationship of concentration, time and life by the way of the effect of increasing intensity of concentration on the fabric of time.
In yoga philosophy concentration is not a single value because there are degrees of intensity to concentration. In yogic terms there are four degrees of concentration. These four, in increasing intensity are sakshin, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. As a yogi masters these ever more intense level of concentration one of the first things he becomes aware of is their unusual effect on time. I can best describe this effect as the warping of the fabric of time caused by intense concentration. The warping of time goes beyond the simplicity of better efficiency and it can create what can be justified as psychic or supernatural ability. Thus concentration becomes a Divine Power.
I can illustrate such mystical potential of concentration by incorporating its degrees in the following equations.
Dhyana is the prize of yogis and mystics seeking spiritual enlightenment. It is the doorway to new dimensions of experience that transforms the experiencers perception of life to one that is unshackled by materialism and its urgencies. When mystics become masters in attaining the heights concentration in dhyana they come upon their final conquest in the mastery of concentration–they seek the source of consciousness itself which by extension leads them to the source of time–they yearn for timelessness! Timelessness is the prize of prizes for mystics. It is an achievement that earns the adept mystic a well-done pat on his or her back from the master.
Experiencing the condition where time equals zero seems to be impossible, however in the rarefied reaches of consciousness that is opened to the mystic through dhyana he learns to play with time and ultimately meld with its source.
