### Answer Key **1) Master Svatmarama says that a person who is successful in creating a self-feeding reaction with the Skydancer “far outshines others of high pedigree.”  What is the extraordinary social statement contained in this statement?** **On a surface level, the "high pedigree" that the Master mentions is a reference to those of the highest caste of India: the Brahmin priests.  Members of this elite group have been considered almost god-like by all of Indian society for over 5,000 years; so much that they may not even touch some of lower caste, nor eat or drink from the same plates or water well.** **It is therefore an extreme social statement for Master Svatmarama to say that a person who is successful in their yoga practice thereby becomes, in his opinion, someone of far higher pedigree.  This recalls statements in Je Tsongkapa’s tradition that a person who sees emptiness directly—especially if they have also reached the ultimate form of love—is thereby "reborn" into a royal pedigree, far outshining all those who lack these qualities, regardless of their birth.** **From our side, there is a message here about how we should think and act towards those who have succeeded in the spiritual goals of yoga: we should emulate them, seeking this as a career and honoring those who have followed this career rather even than those who are highly successful in worldly careers.** **Incidentally, the seeds to be successful in a worldly way and the seeds to be successful in our yoga practice oftentimes appear in our life in a parallel way.  That is, many successful yogis of history have at the same time been presented with the potential for a highly successful worldly career: people like Master Shantideva and Masters Naropa and Niguma were princes or of high caste, and could easily have led a highly successful worldly life.  But they chose instead the (initially) difficult path and life of a yogi—and so should we, despite the material comfort that we have been born into.** *2) Master Svatmarama makes his comparison even more radical when he adds that a successful practitioner of yoga outshines others of high pedigree “even if they spend all day eating the meat of cows and drinking liquor.”  Explain three levels of this part of the comparison. **On a surface level, Master Svatmarama is "cranking up" his previous statement that a yogi who has succeeded with the practice of Skydancer is to be considered superior to a person of the highest societal caste, success, or power.  The Brahmin priests to whom he is referring as "high caste" are strictly prohibited from partaking of meat (particularly that of the cow, which is considered a holy being) or alcohol.  But a person who has used the Skydancer to reach the high goals of seeing emptiness or reaching ultimate love—even if they do partake of these substances—would still be considered superior even to a priest who was maintaining these restrictions carefully.** **On another level, as the Master himself explains in the verses following this one, the "meat" and "alcohol" mentioned can be considered a reference to inserting the (meat of the) tongue into the nasal passage in this very practice, and drinking of (the alcohol of) the white element which pours down from the area of the head chakra.  These two verses of "softening" the metaphor he's used though seem artificial, almost as if they had been inserted later; that is, they completely ruin the comparison.  If the meat here is the insertion of the tongue and the alcohol the nectar that flows down, then saying that "even this person is superior" is meaningless.** **On a final level, we have a reference to the practices of the _vama marga:_ the path of the left.  This is a spiritual method followed by many of the highest yogis of history where the forbidden substances of meat and alcohol—totally rejected by any compassionate and sensible yogi—are transformed and used in high spiritual rituals, as a statement that even the lowest of things has its own emptiness, and can become an object of great goodness if we can collect the seeds and pure intention to do so.** *3) Why would succeeding at the practice of the Skydancer make you "invulnerable to any weapon aimed at you"?  What is an historic example of this phenomenon? **A person who has succeeded at the practice of Skydancer has, as the very foundation of their practice, strictly followed the yamas and niyamas which protect us from committing any form of harm to other living beings.  And the very intention of their practice is a high form of love which wants to protect all beings from the apparent facts of aging and death.  Finally, this yogi has carried out their pure intention through months and years of sincere work at their yoga practice, to help others.** **As such, the yogi here—one who has learned to create the self-feeding fire—cannot be harmed by another person, with any weapon at all.  Harm which is directed at them by others actually transforms midway towards them into some kind of unexpected benefit.  For example, someone who directed unfair criticism at a yogi of this kind might in the end only create more publicity to aid them in their good work.** **A scriptural example of this phenomenon would be the Great Lord of the Shakya Clan himself.  In the final moments of his enlightenment, demons threw spears and shot arrows at him, which turned into flowers and fell at His feet as He crossed into the ultimate realm.** *4) Master Svatmarama says that a yogi who is successful in the Skydancer also "draws to themselves holy women of high attainments."  What would be the specific benefit of this?  Include also the Sanskrit for this type of woman, and explain the two parts of the word; also giving the Tibetan and its meaning. **"Drawing to ourselves women of high attainments" (in the case of a woman practitioner of yoga, it could also be "men of high attainments") is a reference to enlightened Angels who come to guide us in our practice.** **Once we are collecting enough good seeds—for example with our meditations on emptiness and kindness—and our winds are moving more towards the central channel, then we are able to see Angels who come to us to help us continue in our quest to turn ourselves into that of the same kind of Angel.** **In this case, our practice of the Skydancer mudra—both the physical practice and the more extensive sadhana practice—has reached a point of relative success, and put both our mind and winds into the right place.  This Angel typically appears to assist us further as a partner, balancing the male and female energies within us to help us attain the goal, and becoming our Lama and daily helpmate altogether.** **The Sanskrit for this kind of Angel is _Siddhanga,_ which can be translated as the "Limb of Enlightenment."  The word "limb" here implies that they become an integral part of our being; and that we form a union on many levels, with them as a part of us.  The _siddha_ of course means _for reaching_ the final goal, while _anga_ means _an integral limb._**  **The Tibetan here is _druppay bu-me_, where _druppay_ again means _for reaching,_ but _bu-me_ means a _woman._** **5) ==The Master mentions a "stream" that trickles down from the "sixteen-petalled lotus."  Describe this stream and this lotus in more detail, including the Tibetan name for the stream and the Sanskrit and Tibetan names for the lotus.  Then speak about the idea that the stream should be restrained from reaching the inner fire.==** **The stream that is mentioned here is known in the Tibetan sources as the _white element,_ or the _white mind of enlightenment._  The Tibetan for the first of these two is _kam karpo_, where _kam_ means _an element_ and _karpo_ means _white._  The Tibetan for the second is _jangsem karpo_, where _jang_ means _enlightenment_ and _sem_ means _mind;_ with _karpo_ again as _white._** **This element starts in the heart during the formation of our body, along with a corresponding red element.  As the child develops, much of the white element migrates to the chakra at the top of the head, while the corresponding quantity of red element descends to the navel chakra.** **The chakra at the top of the head is known in Sanskrit as the _Sahasrara Chakra,_ meaning the _Chakra of a Thousand Petals,_ or spokes.  In our immediate tradition, this chakra of the head is said to have 32 petals rather than 16; the one which has 16 is said to be the throat chakra.  Remember though again that the inner body can be experienced in vastly different ways by different people.** **In our immediate tradition too the chakra at the tip of the head is known as the Chakra of Great Bliss.  This is because the white element located here—which is also known as the "element that resembles the _kunda,_" or semen—is the foundation of the experience of spiritual bliss.** **In the modern Indian yogic tradition, it is sometimes said that we should restrain this white element in the upper part of the body, in order to keep it from falling into the inner fire at the navel.  This appears to refer to the idea of retaining the semen and the more profound and subtle white element that lies at its basis: holding back the downward-moving wind that would carry it out of the body.** **In our immediate yogic tradition, as we see later in the _Yoga of the Sun and Moon,_ we seek to release the white element to flow downwards towards the power of the red element, and thus stimulate inner fire and the perception of the clear light.** ==*6) What does Master Svatmarama mean when he refers to the "moon-snow found at the top of the central mountain"?  Why do you think that it would be called "thusness" when it melts and moves?  Give also the Sanskrit word for "thusness," and where this name might come from.== **The "moon snow" here is a reference, again, to the white element found in the chakra at the top of the head.  The "central mountain" is a reference to Mount Meru, the central mountain or axis of the universe: an allusion to the central channel.** **When we achieve inner fire through the practice of the various mudras mentioned in our chapter, this inner heat rises up through the central channel and melts down the white element.  This element then oozes down through the central channel, triggering four different stages of bliss, accompanied by four different perceptions of emptiness.  That then is why this event would be referred to as "thusness," which is a synonym for emptiness itself.** **When this flow does begin, says our next verse, then a person has truly become a _seer,_ and "dwells as well within the immaculate brilliance of the full moon, emptiness."** **The Sanskrit word for _thusness_ here is _tattva,_ where _tat_ means _that_ and is obviously a cognate for it; the _tva_ gives the meaning of _-ness_.  The idea is that emptiness cannot be described by a person who has seen it directly to a person who has not, at least in a way that would enable them to see it themselves right away.  A person who has seen it might then say that "It's just _that._"** **7) ==Master Svatmarama says that "there is only one place to be, and that is the state of mind beyond the mind."  Explain what this term means, giving its Sanskrit, root, and cognates.==** **The Sanskrit term here is _manonmani,_ which is a combination of the word _manas,_ meaning _mind,_ and _unmanas,_ meaning _beyond the mind._  So in a way we are both in the mind and beyond the mind.** **The root here is √_man,_ which means _to think,_ and has the English cognates of _mind, mental,_ and _man_ (the _thinking_ animal).  The _un_ comes from _ut,_ which here means _beyond._** **The point here is best explained through an understanding of the two realities.  Our _mind_ belongs to what is known as "deceptive" reality, meaning all the objects around us which (until we are enlightened) appear to us to come from their own side, even though they are products of images in our own minds created by how we've treated others in the past.  When we are aware or watching our own mind then, we normally misunderstand it: the mind fools us, and is thus a part of deceptive reality.** **Emptiness though is the one object that anyone who sees it directly sees as ultimate reality: it _is_ exactly the way it _appears,_ and it is the very highest of all objects in the universe: on a completely different level of reality.  In this sense then it is _beyond the mind._** **What this boils down to is that we are seeing, _with our mind,_ a thing which is entirely _beyond our mind._  We could then call this _mind/beyond the mind,_ and this is exactly what has happened in the Sanskrit.** **8) Describe three methods of taking the seal called “Flight.”  Then give the three connotations of the Sanskrit name, including the Tibetan for the one where this clarifies the seal, and commenting upon how they all apply to the seal.** **Our text simply says that we should "stretch the back in the area of the abdomen, and do the same with the section above the navel."  The seal is in current times described as performed by first taking an exhale retention and then sucking the abdomen up and back: trying to glue the navel to the backbone.  We use the natural suction of the body created by the exhale retention.** **We can assume a lesser form of this seal all day long in order to gain its benefits in a gentle, sustained way.  We simply suck in the muscles of our abdomen in a soft way and try to maintain this throughout the day as we sit or walk.** **Our text mentions a "spontaneous" form of the seal which should be learned from our Teacher.  This seems to refer to something like the spontaneous capsule of the _kevala kumbhaka,_ where—because our inner winds are already reaching a high degree of calmness—we go naturally into a state where our breath has stopped.** **The Sanskrit name for the Flight seal is _uddiyana,_ which literally means _to fly up._  The prefix _ut_ here means _up,_ and the rest comes from the root √_di,_ which means _to fly._** **Here are the three connotations:** **(1) The Tibetans translate _uddiyana_ as _purdro_, a phrase which means _to fly away_ into the sky, and this reflects the first connotation of the Sanskrit: we are bringing the abdomen up sharply to create a flying up of inner winds which we'll describe later.** **(2) The word _uddiyana_ though is most often seen as the name of an ancient country located in western India; its name in Tibetan is _Ugyen_ or _Orgyen,_ both of which are mispronunciations of _Uddiyana._  This country was the home of King Indrabhuti, who aside from being a powerful ruler was also a highly accomplished practitioner of the yoga and secret teachings of the Angel of Diamond, which also come down to us through Masters Naropa and Niguma.** **(3) The King's land thus came to be considered the Western Paradise, and many Tibetan parents still give their children the name Ugyen.  Uddiyana is further considered one of the 24 holy places of the world.  Each of these external holy places coincides with an inner sacred place, one part of the inner body of channels and prana.** **There is also a special goddess associated with each of these places.  For Uddiyana it is The Lady of Light, or _Undenma_ in Tibetan—a woman of wisdom associated with the western side of the mandala, or secret world.** **Concerning the latter two connotations, it may be the case that the name _uddiyana_ was given to this seal because yogis from the land of Uddiyana popularized its practice; or even that the kingdom gained its name in this way.  We see something similar happening with the _Jalandhara_ seal, which is presumably named from the yogi _Jalandhara_ who popularized its practice, or perhaps was given this name because he used the seal frequently.  Thus all three connotations may apply to the practice itself.** **9) Master Svatmarama says that with the seal called Flight the "great bird" is "stirred from its rest and caused to take flight."  Describe the bird here, and what its flight might be like.  Then speak a bit about the lion and the elephant which the Master also mentions.** **The "great bird" here is the kundalini, or inner fire, lying at the base of the central channel.  With the Flight seal we are trying to reverse the normal flow of the downward-clearing wind, to bring it to take "flight" up into conflict with the life wind, which itself is pushed down—especially if we add the chin lock.** **This then instigates inner fire, helping the side winds through the triple juncture into the central channel, bringing on the clear light of the direct perception of emptiness.** **The Master says that the Flight seal is "a lion for the killer elephant."  The elephant here is a metaphor for death itself; the elephant was considered one of the most powerful beasts in nature and was of course used in battle with deadly consequences, crushing the enemy underfoot and slashing with its tusks, to which swords were attached.** **Death is strong, but the practices of hatha yoga are even stronger: and so we see the lion of our practice killing the elephant of death.  Only the lion is strong enough to kill the elephant.** *10) Master Svatmarama, in closing his section on the seal of Flight, says that "it is surely the highest" of all the seals, and will allow us to reach "freedom, automatically."  Speak about this idea of "automatic" freedom, including both the Sanskrit and the Tibetan words here. **The Sanskrit term here is _muktih svabhaviki._  The word _mukti_ means _freedom,_ and comes from the root √_much_ (also seen as _moksh_, meaning _to release._  We see this in the common Sanskrit words _moksha (freedom)_ and Jivamukti.** **The word _svabhaviki_  means _by itself,_ or _automatically._  The _sva_ means _self,_ and the _bhaviki_ means _to happen._  The combination then means _automatic freedom._** **What this "automatic freedom" _doesn't_ refer to is that we can somehow get enlightened automatically, without making efforts in the traditional steps and stages of the path.  What it _does_  refer to is that within ourselves, and within all the things around us, is the immediate potential for freedom.** **That is, all existing things possess as part and parcel within them the quality of emptiness, which is actually what is given the name of _automatic peace_ or freedom.  This means that there is nothing in the world which is _not_ such that it is not coming from us, from seeds we have planted by how we have behaved towards others in the past.** **If we can perceive this fact in a direct way—if we can see emptiness directly, through our efforts in the inner and outer practices of yoga—then normally within the space of seven lifetimes we can attain freedom from all negative emotions.  This freedom refers to overcoming all of our negative emotions, permanently.  No more anger, no more attachment, forever—because we now truly understand how to make good things come to us all the time, by being kind to others.**