# Four Stages of Inner Yoga
**Answer Key, Class Nine: The Four Stages of Inner Yoga**
*1) What are the four stages which Master Svatmarama says that every yogini and yogi will go through during their evolution towards an enlightened Angel? How are they described in the yogic tradition as it reached Tibet? Finally give the Sanskrit word for "stage" here, explaining its root and cognates.
**The four stages as they appear in our text are called the Initial Stage; the Formulative Stage; the Stage of Becoming Accustomed; and the Stage of the Final Completion.**
**The Sanskrit word for "stage" here is _avastha._ This is made of two parts, _ava_ and _stha._ The _ava_ means _vicinity,_ and the _stha_ comes from the important root √_stha,_ meaning _to stand._ Cognates are _station, Pakistan,_ and _stand_ itself.**
**These four stages in the yogic tradition as it came into Tibet are known as the Four Blisses. These are four increasing states of bliss which are experienced by a yogi as the white element descends inside the central channel, and are repeated in a heightened state as it ascends again. Each of the states of bliss is related to a special kind of emptiness.**
*2) Which of the inner knots does the first of the four stages relate to? What kind of feeling comes to us, and why? How does this relate to the feeling described for this stage in the Tibetan lineage?
**The Initial Stage occurs when the Knot of the Pure One, or Brahma Granthi, is pierced. The feeling that comes to us here, according to our text, is "bliss and emptiness." This is a very profound type of feeling which is a cornerstone of the secret practices of the Unsurpassed Yoga (Anuttara Yoga) class of the tantric traditions.**
**The idea is that the central channel is opening, which brings on a sensation of bliss. And then we actually use this sensation as the subject state of mind or mental tool for perceiving emptiness itself. At the very basis of both experiences are very intense seeds which are creating both the bliss and the perception of emptiness. What? Did you think it was going to be an _unpleasant_ experience?**
**Tibetan and Indian yogic sources seem to agree that the Brahma Knot is located in the region of the lower part of the body, in the area of the navel chakra or lower. From the name of the sensation listed here in the Sanskrit, and other details later on, it would seem that here we are talking about the first of the four stages of bliss in the Tibetan tradition, but only as the white element _ascends_ through the central channel subsequent to its initial descent.**
**This first of the four blisses is called "Ecstasy," and the Tibetan word here (_gawa,_ spelled DGA' BA,) is indeed normally the translation used for the _ananda_ found in the Sanskrit of this particular verse. In the upward progression of the white element, this is in the Tibetan tradition said to occur as it moves within the central channel from the tip of the sexual organ to the level of the navel.**
**3) What particular form of emptiness is related to the first of the four stages, and what role does it play in the death process?**
**The emptiness that we experience in the first of the four stages is simply known as "emptiness"; given the forms of emptiness which come later, we can perhaps call it "simple emptiness."**
**This appears to be an indirect perception of emptiness and relates to the stage within the death process which is known as Light. This stage relates to an overwhelming hallucination of a luminescent white light. At this point we are losing a certain number of 80 different misperceptions that we entertain about reality, as wind moves into the central channel during the dissolution of our mind and body at death.**
**Again, a yogi practices going through these stages of death in order to attempt to bring on an experience close to the clear light of death, and then transform this experience into the clear light which is a purposeful, direct perception of emptiness.**
**4) What kind of sense-organ experience do we have during the first stage, and why do you think it occurs?**
**Our text says that "we hear various types of sounds within, arising spontaneously." Certainly these sounds are a result of inner wind entering the central channel. _Why_ we should experience the wind as an inner sound is not clarified in the traditional literature, but we can speculate on its cause.**
**We know for example that certain channels radiating from the heart chakra communicate external sense perceptions such as the awareness of sounds, taste, touch, and so on. It may be that what's happening during this first stage is that the crucial area of the heart chakra is experiencing sufficient opening to give us the sensation of inner sound as winds are pushed somehow "deeper" than they ever have in the past through the heart-chakra channels.**
**5) Master Svatmarama says that a practitioner at this point "wins the glorious body of an angel," as "their heart is filled with emptiness." How does this description of an advanced stage on the path to enlightenment reflect the traditional yogic term for this enlightenment?**
**The traditional yogic term for enlightenment referred to here is "the combination of the two." This is a description of the two components—physical and mental—of an enlightened being.**
**The "glorious body of an angel" refers to what in the Tibetan branch of the yogic tradition is most often called the "illusory body" or sometimes the "diamond body."**
**This is our body after it has transformed into an angel's body of light: immortal, and capable of traveling to all worlds at the same moment, to help beings there. There are various steps in the development of this body, and the level referred to here in the first of the four stages is most likely not the final one.**
**The mind at this point—where "our heart is totally filled with emptiness"—is simply referred to in the Tibetan context as the "clear light," although this is also traditionally used to refer to the _object_ of the direct perception of emptiness, and it's important not to mix up the two meanings.**
**The combination then of the illusory body and the mind of the clear light—what we call the "combination of the two"—is enlightenment itself.**
**6) Master Svatmarama mentions that the "glorious body of an angel" possesses a "divine fragrance." What does this fragrance traditionally reflect? Include the English for its Tibetan name.**
**The body of a being who is either enlightened already or well along the way is said to be imbued with the "fragrance of morality," which is a translation of the Tibetan _tsultrim gyi drima._**
**As the name implies, the fragrance derives from the way in which these beings have, over a long period of time, carefully maintained their morality—being absolutely sure never to hurt another living being, and striving always to keep their higher vows as well.**
**7) Speak a bit about the different senses of the Sanskrit name for the second of the four stages. Which knot is pierced at this stage; what sensation do we undergo (including the name of the corresponding Tibetan stage); what form of emptiness do we perceive; and what is the corresponding stage of the death process?**
**The Sanskrit name for the second of the four stages is _ghata avastha._ We've translated the name as _Formative Stage,_ from connotations of the word in the formation of a pot, or _ghata._**
**This also appears to be a reference, as reflected in the relevant verse from our text, to the use of a capsule practice during this period of our development, in order to bring more of the wind into the central channel.**
**At this point we pierce the Knot of the All-Present One, or Knot of Vishnu, which appears to be related to the area of the heart chakra. We undergo a sensation of "supreme bliss," which in the Tibetan tradition would relate to "high ecstasy" or _chok-ga_, again as the white element moves within the central channel up from the navel to the heart.**
**The form of emptiness perceived at this stage is called _surpassing emptiness_ in both the Sanskrit and the Tibetan. (The former is _atishunya,_ and the latter is _shintu tongwa_, a direct translation.)**
**This seems to be, again, a conceptual perception of emptiness, since more of our 80 misperceptions are drawing to a natural close as the mind itself shuts down. This occurs during the next stage of the death process, called Spread, where we experience an all-enveloping crimson light. Again, yogis practice going through this stage as well in order to reach the direct perception of emptiness utilizing the clear light which normally comes at the end of death.**
*8) What is the inner sense-power perception that comes to us at the second of the four stages? Speak a bit about how it might be described in modern terms; about the outer physical manifestations that might accompany any of the stages; and about how we should feel towards them.
**The inner sense-power perception here is a perception of the sound of a bass drum (these sounds will be getting progressively more subtle). Someone who has experienced these inner sounds in modern times might well compare them to the implosion sort of sensation of a door being slammed closed; or a sonic boom that happens on the inside of us suddenly, out of nowhere, with no outside sound at all; or being struck hard on the head but with no pain, just that feeling of a cosmic jolt.**
**These sounds may well be accompanied by sudden jerks of the body, which itself may come with a very brief moment of falling unconscious, and perhaps the eyes tending to roll up towards the top of the head.**
**Practitioners should not be concerned about such manifestations: although they may be a little disconcerting when they happen suddenly (especially out in public!), they are actually a very good sign that the inner winds are starting to move in channels while—as our text puts it—knots in the channels are "pierced" by the release of wind.**
**9) We're on to the third of the four stages. Again, state which knot is pierced at this stage; what sensation we undergo (including the name of the corresponding Tibetan stage); what form of emptiness we perceive; what the corresponding stage of the death process is; and what the inner sound. State finally why this step is called the "foundation of every attainment."**
**In the traditional Indian yogic presentation there are four stages but only three knots, and this third stage is the one where no knot is mentioned as pierced.**
**The sensation that we undergo at this point is called in our text _chitta-ananda,_ or _bliss of the mind._ The Tibetan tradition calls this third bliss _incredible ecstasy,_ or _kyepar gyi gawa._ This is normally a translation of the Sanskrit _viramanti._**
**Our text says that at this point we "move into the great emptiness," or _mahashunya._ The Tibetan tradition matches this with _tongpa chenpo._**
**The corresponding stage of the death process here is called Almost Reached. It involves the experience of a perfect blackness and a feeling of blacking out entirely: thus the text saying "we leave all thought behind." We are working through the disappearance of our final misperceptions, and the perception here of emptiness would again be conceptual.**
**The inner sound here is that of a "mardala" drum, which is sort of a sling drum that hangs from the neck over the belly and is struck on the sides with both hands. The point is that it is less loud than a "great" or bass drum.**
**This step of total blackness and unconsciousness is the "foundation of every attainment" because it is the foundation or immediately-preceding step prior to the clear light, which is itself the real foundation of every attainment.**
*10) Now to the fourth of the four stages. State, once more, which knot is pierced at this stage (including how the Tibetan translations of the Indian sources describe it); what sensation we undergo (including the name of the corresponding Tibetan stage); what form of emptiness we perceive; what the corresponding stage of the death process is; and what the inner sound.
**The knot pierced in the final stage is the Knot of the Fierce One, or the Knot of Rudra, which appears to be associated with the upper part of the body.**
**Master Virupa, in his _Reaching Deathless Nectar—_perhaps one of the only presentations of these three knots in the Tibetan yogic tradition—calls this third knot the Knot of Ishvara; but he has the same names and order of piercing for the other two. It's interesting to note that in the very same section he mentions, as has Master Svatmarama, the effectiveness of the three practices in this regard: Mahabandha (which he in Tibetan calls _Dampa Che_ which also means the "Great Lock"; Mahavedha (in Tibetan, _Bikpa Che_, also the Great Spear or Spearing; and Mahamudra.**
**Although our own text is not so clear on this point, we know from the Tibetan that when the verse prior to the fourth stage mentions "simultaneous bliss," it is attributing this bliss to the fourth stage. The Sanskrit here is _sahaja ananda,_ and the corresponding Tibetan is _hlenkye kyi dewa_ sometimes also referred to as "simultaneous wisdom."**
**The form of emptiness which we see at this state is not mentioned in our text here but in the Tibetan tradition is clarified as "Everything is Emptiness": _kun tu tongwa_ This is the clear light of death for an untrained person, but can be the direct perception of emptiness for a yogi (or also just short of that, which is called the "approximate" clear light).**
**The inner sound at this point is more subtle: either that of a flute, or a lute.**
*11) What does the Master say in this section about people who devote themselves only to hatha yoga—to physical yoga?
**In this section more than almost anywhere else, Master Svatmarama clarifies that hatha yoga—the yoga of physical exercises and practices—must be accompanied by raja yoga: meditations upon the ultimate nature of reality. He says of those who devote themselves only to the physical practices of yoga—which is unfortunately so common at the present stage of yoga in the West—that "all the practice they do is simply wasted effort."**
**12) The Master in this section speaks of a three-step process for people just starting out, in order to reach to the perception of emptiness. Name these three.**
**He says that we can start by (1) learning to focus our thoughts, by focusing the concentration upon the spot between the eyebrows (and within the head at that point). This will give us the foundation to move on to (2) the practice of focusing on sacred sounds, or nada (which itself can begin in cases of very gross distraction with following gross outer sounds). This then leads to (3) meditation on the dissolution which occurs at death, which leads us (4) to the experience of the clear light as the direct perception of emptiness.**