Answer Key, Final Examination 1) Say a little bit about the logic behind the order of the first five parts of the yogic path: how does each one set you up for the next? The different forms of self-control prevent us from creating karmic obstacles to our practice.  Once we are clean of these obstacles, we can go ahead and create new and powerful good karma with the various commitments.  If we have this good karma, then we’ll be able to succeed at our physical yoga exercises.  These exercises increase our strength and flexibility, giving us the physical means of controlling the breath, as well as setting up the channels for the effects of breath practice.  Once we have mastered these two gross, outer, and easily measurable physical practices, we are ready to begin the deeper, inside practices.  To do this, we must first learn to withdraw the mind from the objects of the five physical senses, in order to concentrate the sixth sense of the mind. 2) Explain the vital role that the last the sixth and seventh of the eight limbs play in the direct perception of emptiness, or ultimate reality.  Explain why it’s important to see emptiness directly. These two limbs together represent the ability to concentrate the mind absolutely, with no distraction.  This ability is called shamatha, and is a necessary platform or stillness of mind from which we can then see emptiness directly; that is, we cannot reach this absolutely necessary point without mastery over mental stillness.  Emptiness is such a powerful object that—once we see it directly—it quickly leads us to nirvana (the end of all negative thoughts) and to our final destiny of becoming an enlightened Angel who can help all beings. 3) Master Patanjali explains the clear light to mean that nothing has any nature of its own.  But is that true?  Doesn’t fire, for example, have its own nature of being, naturally, hot and burning? Fire does have a nature of being hot and burning, but it’s not true that this nature belongs to it.  That is, the quality of being hot does not reside within a fire.  Rather, we perceive this quality within a fire only because of our own mental seeds, which come from our own past karma.  With different mental seeds it would be possible for us to experience fire as cool, and to be able to pick it up in our hands. 4) In this section, Master Patanjali refers to the idea of voidness, or emptiness.  Describe the voidness of a maple-covered donut, and how this relates to the purpose of all yoga: to become whole, or happy.  Along the way, explain the Sanskrit word for voidness and give some related English words. We use the maple-covered donut as an example of something that we like very much, something which is difficult for us to share with others (especially if it’s the last one in the case at the pastry shop).  We normally believe that a donut which we see in a shop has been made or created in the kitchen at the shop, and that whether we can get it or not only depends upon our having enough money to do so. In reality though the donut is void or empty of any such existence.  It exists in the case at the shop only because we have given a donut to someone in the past.  We perceive it only because of seeds of perception planted within our own mind when we shared a donut with someone.  Obviously then the words voidness and emptiness do not at all mean that there is no donut there, or that in some way it is less than real. The Sanskrit word for voidness or emptiness here is shunyata zUNyta , or tongpa-nyi in Tibetan.  The word shunyata contains two parts, shunya and ta.  The ta is a suffix that means the condition of something, and is related to the English suffix tion as found in creation or situation.  Shunya comes from the root √shu zU , which means to swell, in the way that a bubble swells with an empty middle.  Related English words, where the typical change of a Sanskrit s to an English c  is observed, are cave (an empty space); cumulus (swelling clouds); and even church (which originally meant swollen with power). 5) It is often claimed by people who talk about the Yoga Sutra that the goal of yoga is to stop all mental activity.  How does this relate to the two different kinds of “stopping,” or cessation? The claim that the goal of yoga is to stop all mental activity is a common misinterpretation of the opening lines which say, “Yoga is stopping how the mind turns.”  Throughout the centuries, as people have practiced meditation, there are many who have mistaken the temporary pleasant sensation of stopping gross thoughts as a spiritual goal.  This is the first kind of cessation, the unimportant one really.  The second type of cessation is the important one: where we stop our misperception of things, in order to stop our negative thoughts and thus all the pain that we and others ever experience. 6) Having discussed what makes a state of meditation start or stop, Master Patanjali goes on to describe what makes things in general start or stop.  He makes the surprising statement that all things within us and outside of us follow after one single quality: the fact that “their starting and their stopping cannot be pointed to.”  Explain what this means with perceiving the word word right here on this page.  Then explain how this helps us grasp how things are really coming from us.  In order to read the word word, we must first read the letter w.  Reading the word word happens so fast that we don’t really notice this fact, but if we think about it for a moment we know it must be true: our eye moves across the page from left to right, and “bumps into” the w before the other letters.  In order to see the whole letter w  though, we must by necessity see the first of the three lines that makes up this letter.  To see this first line though, we must first see the top of it and the bottom of it. To see the top of it though, we must first see the top of the top and the bottom of the top, and so on—ad infinitum.  We obviously don’t have time to do all this in the time it actually takes us to read the word word; and even if we did have the time, it’s obvious if we think about it that there must be a point where our eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see the two parts of a line that make up the smallest part of the line we can see.  The simple fact is that we can’t be seeing things the way we always thought we did. In actual fact, the way that we see the whole word word on this very page is only because our own mind is projecting it down on the page, gluing together indications of black and white into a comprehensible whole.  And this is how we see every other single thing in our entire world: it is all coming from us, from seeds we planted when we took care of others, or ignored their needs. 7) Give the Sanskrit words that Master Patanjali uses here for terms and objects.  Then speak a bit about the “mix-up” or confusion here: speak about whether terms or the objects to which they refer come first. The Sanskrit word for term or word here is shabda zBd.  This is related to the root √vad vdœ, which means to speak.  The noun vak, or voice, comes from this root, and from it come the English words voice, invoke, and epic. The word for object here is artha AwR.  This comes from the root √ir \, meaning to go or to send, in the sense of the object for which we go somewhere.  Words derived from this root have the meaning of to go beyond, or to surpass.  An example in Sanskrit would be the word arya which in modern times has taken on an inappropriate sense of racial superiority, but originally in spiritual terms referred to a person who had gone beyond  normal people because they had seen emptiness directly.  The English word aristocrat is related, with a similar sense. The mix-up or confusion here is that we mistake words for actual objects.  In this sense, a “word” is not the sound or name that we use to represent an object, but rather the tiny mental picture or projection in our minds that we mistake for the actual object. We normally think that outside objects exist first, out there, and then later we give them a name.  But in reality the name comes first (“In the beginning was the word”), the tiny mental image born of our karmic seeds.  We then mistake this for an actual outside object. 8) Master Patanjali says that, by using the combined effort, we can reach a point where we gain the ability to see the final outcome of the deeds or karmas that we perform.  Speak about the single most important element that we need to watch in order for the results of our actions to be predictable.  Mention how the idea of “illusion” comes in here.  And then finally give the Sanskrit word for the “final outcome” of a karma, along with related English words. The intention with which we commit a karma or deed is the single most important element in deciding how it will come out in the end.  A deed done with a good intention will always bring good results, and a deed done with a negative intention will always bring negative results. There is an illusion that things are otherwise.  Perhaps we have a mother-in-law who doesn’t like us so much, and so we buy her a new shower mat to show our hope for friendship.  That night she slips on the mat and hurts herself, and she becomes angry with us.  Having someone be angry with us today though has nothing to do with the act of showing friendship to someone.  This act can only bring us good results in the future.  The anger came from some kind of anger that we showed to a person in the past. The Sanskrit word for the final outcome of a karma is aparanta ApraNt.  This word has three parts, a and para and anta.  A is the Sanskrit negative and is found in the English words apathetic and apolitical. Para means other or something beyond.  We see a form of it in the famous Sanskrit word paramita, which means gone to the other side, or perfection, as in the six perfections.  In English it’s found in words perfect and paramount.  The combination of a and para here can be read as having nothing beyond it, or final; although apara can also simply mean something that comes later on. Anta means the end, or here the end result of a karma or action.  It is found in the English words end and antique. 9) A good part of the third chapter of the Yoga Sutra is devoted to both worldly and divine forms of power.  Master Patanjali is sure to identify the true source of all these powers.  Name this source, then list and briefly describe all of its different parts, along with the Sanskrit name for each of the parts. Master Patanjali says that “The powers are to be found in love and the rest.”  He is referring here to the some of the highest karmic seeds that we can collect: the four infinite thoughts that were introduced in the first chapter.  These are kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Infinite kindness (maitri  mEÇI in the Sanskrit) is the desire to bring all living beings happiness.  Infinite compassion (karuna kéa) is the desire that every other being be free of all forms of pain.  Infinite joy (mudita muidt) is the decision to bring all living beings to the highest forms of happiness: to the freedom from all negative thoughts (nirvana) and to the state of an enlightened angel who can help all beings.  Infinite equanimity (upeksha %pe) is the decision to help everybody  this way—not just our friends or family. The karma of thinking these thoughts is the source of all worldly and enlightened power because of two factors.  We are wishing for the highest of all things, and we are wishing them upon an infinite number of living beings.  The karma can thus create an enlightened paradise which never ends. 10) At a certain point in the body, the channels of the sun and moon join the central channel, like pieces of plumbing.  This connecting point is compared to a famed place at Allahabad, India, and to a significant recent event.  Explain why, then give the location of this juncture in the body, also reviewing the Sanskrit name for the point and related English words. The place in the body where the three principal channels meet is compared to the Triveni, a place at Allahabad, India, where the three sacred rivers of the Yamuna, Ganges, and Sarasvati are said to flow together.  The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (III.51) says that the Yamuna River relates to the channel of the sun; the Ganges relates to the channel of the moon; and the Sarasvati, which is traditionally said to run underground, relates to the central channel. The goddess of the Yamuna River is by tradition said to be the daughter of the God of the Sun, Surya, and the twin sister of Yama, the Lord of Death.  Bathing in the place where the three rivers convene is said to be a sacred act; to “bathe” in the event of the side channels collapsing into the central channel creates an Angel’s body of light. A major earthquake which occurred in Gujarat, India, on January 26, 2001, is thought to have raised the “missing” Sarasvati River.  This could correctly be interpreted as a shifting of the central channel in every person who is interested in this event, because the same seeds create both the channels and the world around us.  This is reflected in names of yoga practices, such as Uddiyana and Jalandhara Bandhas, where the name of a sacred place in the outer world is connected to a location within the body. The juncture of these three major pipes in the body is usually placed just below the navel chakra.  It is through this point that the inner wind or prana moves out of the side channels and into the central channel.  Here too is where the side channels will eventually melt down into the central. The Sanskrit word triveni iÇvei has two parts, tri and veni.  Tri  means three, and is found in the Engish words three and tricycle.  Veni means a braid of hair, from the more basic meaning of a coming or flowing together.  Ultimate it derives from the Sanskrit root √gam gm!  meaning to go, by way of an old Indo-European root √gwa.  From the gwa root comes wa and then ve, which appears in the English convention and venue (a place where people come together, as the three rivers flow together). 11) Explain what the word chakra literally means; mention some related English words; and then relate this name to the structure of the inner channels. The word chakra (cakra) literally means wheel.  As our inner body first forms in the womb, the two side channels are already twisted around the central channel: we are already misunderstanding ourselves and our environment.  Secondary channels break out from these chokepoints horizontally, spreading out like the spokes of a wheel.  Looking down the central channel from the top of the head then, we see the shapes of wheels. The word chakra is an example of reduplication, or where a root is repeated to give the sense that its action is repeated or intensified.  In this case the root is √kir (kr%), meaning to do or create, and the original reduplication was something like kirkir, which evolved into chakra.  The idea is that a wheel repeatedly performs its function, doing the same thing over and over again.  Related English words are of course create, cereal (an important food which is grown), and crescent (a growing moon). 12) Explain the role of the navel chakra in the formation of the inner channels, clarifying as well whether there is any actual connection between the channels of the sun and moon, and the sun and moon in the sky. There is a direct relation between the inner channels of the sun and moon, and the sun and moon in the sky.  Both are caused by the same karmic seeds within us.  We can picture the outside sun and moon as a reflection then of the inner channels of the sun and moon.  Our own bodies—the structure of our blood vessels, nervous system, and skeleton—form around the inner channels as we grow in the womb.  These channels themselves start spreading at the area of the navel chakra; our bones and nerves and veins accrete upon these channels like ice forming in layers around a twig of wood, taking on all its contours. The outer world too then forms around these same layers, so that the very sun and moon provide a map that we can use to understand our inner structure.  If you live in New York, for example, then it’s no exaggeration to say that the West-Side Highway, the FDR Drive to the east, and Fifth Avenue running down the center of town are actually a direct reflection of your own inner body. 13) Explain the idea of working at a crucial point (ne du nunpa in the Tibetan), in order to turn a chakra from a chokepoint into a center of radiance and high spiritual realizations.  Include the analogy of a tree. The chakras can be either chokepoints or the release points of extraordinary spiritual power, if we can only release the stranglehold of the two side channels.  One way to do this is to “work at a crucial point” by concentrating our attention and our understanding of how things work at a particular chakra, also working from the outside with the yoga asanas and sending breath into the point. It is important to emphasize that if this is done incorrectly it can actually have the opposite effect, of tying up the knot tighter.  We must utilize a deep understanding of where things come from: which means that we would automatically then be using the Four Infinite Thoughts of kindness and the rest, since taking care of others is the source of all good seeds and the things they create. The example given in scripture is that we can chop away at a large tree trunk for days or even weeks before making any noticeable progress, simply exhausting ourselves.  This is like doing yoga asanas for example over a long period of time without using love and wisdom from the inside. If we do focus though our combined effort and compassion on a chakra, it’s like a person who has an intimate knowledge of the root system of a tree.  They can simply drive a wedge into a carefully determined point into the roots of the tree, and when they return in a few days the tree will have died and fallen down on its own: no need for frantic, ineffective efforts.  This wedge is our combined effort of stillness, wisdom, and also compassion. 14) There is a name for the central channel which emphasizes how we can see ultimate reality when the inner winds flow freely through this channel.  Give this name in English and in Sanskrit.  Explain finally what the book called Light on the Yoga of the Sun and Moon (Hatha Yoga Pradipika) says will happen if the inner winds do flow through this channel. The central channel is sometimes also called the path of emptiness, a term which emphasizes how we can perceive ultimate reality when the winds flow freely within the central channel. The Sanskrit word for this is shunyapadavi zUNypdvI.  Shunya of course means empty, and comes from the root √shu zU , meaning to swell.  Related English words are cave, cumulus,  and church. Padavi, meaning path, comes from the √pad pdœ , meaning to go.  The word pada pad , or foot, also derives from this root, and is found in the English words pedal, pedestrian, and centipede (a hundred feet or legs). The Light on the Yoga of the Sun and Moon (Hatha Yoga Pradipika) says that, when the winds enter the central channel fully, then “the two-sided support will come to a state of death” (III.11-12).  This is a reference to the eventual collapse of the negative channels of the sun and moon. 15) What happens when the heart chakra opens completely? When the heart chakra opens completely, we have an experience of ultimate love, or bodhichitta, which literally means “the mind of enlightenment but refers to the true desire to become an angel who can stand on a billion worlds and help all living beings.  This again is a kind of “mind” that we can know if we turn our combined effort upon the heart chakra. This experience occurs only for a few minutes the first time that it happens.  It feels as though a clear-colored, crystal light is shooting forth from the chest, and touching every living being.  At the same moment we see, directly, the face of every living being in the universe, and we see that we will be the one to help them reach ultimate happiness. 16) Is it easier to overcome the misunderstanding of “my world” that runs through the sun channel, or the misunderstanding of “me” that runs through the moon channel? In general, it is more difficult to examine the nature of a subtle object such as the idea of “me,” or the mind, than it is to examine a concrete outside object such as a pen.  As such we can get to the emptiness of “me” by examining the emptiness of an outside object first: working at the sun channel to get to the moon channel. 17) Describe the function of the “life” wind, clarifying some confusion that might come up about its Sanskrit name.  List finally some related English words. The “life” wind maintains life itself and also the passage of breath.  Its name in Sanskrit is the prana wind, and so it can be confused with the general prana that moves throughout all the channels of the body.  This confusion is magnified because of the multiple senses of “wind” in both Sanskrit and Tibetan: as breath; as prana; as the outer wind; as one of the doshas or humors of the body; as one of the five primary winds; or as a disorder of one of this wind. The Sanskrit word prana àa[ has two parts, pra and ana.  The prefix pra à  means before or great, and is found in the English proud and prow.  Ana has a basic meaning of life and comes from the root √an An! , meaning to breathe.  Related English words are animated, anime, and animal. 18) Explain the role that two of the five primary winds play in the idea of hatha yoga. The classical yoga texts sometimes relate the uniting of the energies of the upward-running and downward-clearing winds to the union of the sun and moon channels (ha and tha) as they dissolve into the central channel.  This union is facilitated by both yoga asanas and locks which aid in the reversal of these two energies, so that they flow towards each other rather than away from each other.  Examples would be in the inverted poses, or with the diaphragm lock. 19) Explain the “three skies,” clarifying why the last one might enable us to hear sounds even light-years away, or to fly even to other worlds. The word here for “space” had three meaning in ancient times.  One was simply sky, space, the distance between things. The second meaning was place itself: that unchanging thing which objects enter, stay in, and then exit. The third was space in the sense of the void that’s left when you find out that something you thought was there never was.  The feeling you get when you reach into your pocket after a meal at an expensive restaurant, and realize you’re left your wallet at home. We get the same feeling of absence when we realize that everything around us is not coming at us, but from us.  Seeing how this space allows us to hear, seeing how this space allows our body to be there, allows us again to adjust the “switches” on both these objects.  Unheard switched to heard, heavy switched to light. Again we use the resulting powers first to help a limited number of people.  As we grow, the number becomes infinite.  All the powers evolve this way—from mundane, to helpful, to enlightened.  In the end the mind flies free through the sky of what was never there anyway. 20) When we do finally succeed in bringing the inner winds to stay and dissolve in the central channel, we become the angel of a billion worlds.  This angel has four forms, or bodies; name them in English and in Sanskrit, and describe briefly. (a) The Reality Body (Svabhava Kaya, SvÉav kay) In a way, we already posses the first part of an Angel, and we always have.  It is the simple fact that we are not what we are: you are not the person they give that word, your name.  Rather, the name—the seed picture—came first, and then made you you.  Since you are not you any other way, you are available to become something else—an Angel.  And you always have been.  This availability is your first body.  It is sometimes described as the emptiness of the other three bodies. (b) The Knowledge Body (Jnyana Dharma Kaya, }an xmR kay) When you do become an Angel, you possess omniscience: a direct perception of all events and all places—past, present, and future.  This should not be confused though with omnipotence, which is the power to do all things.  Not even enlightened beings can act outside of the rule that everyone makes their own world, by how they treat other people.  This “body” is essentially then your enlightened state of mind. (c) The Paradise Body (Sambhoga Kaya, sMÉaeg kay) This is your “home” body, the central body in paradise in which you reside.  A perfected physical form. (d) The Emanation Body (Nirmana Kaya, inmaR[ kay) These are the countless physical forms that we send out to help others, on countless planets, the millisecond after our enlightenment. 21) What is one logical possibility that we can deduce from the fact that we ourselves will one day gain the ability to send out countless clones of ourselves to help other people? If it’s the case that we ourselves will one day gain the ability to send out countless clones of ourselves, in different forms to help countless other beings, then it’s logically possible that every person we have ever met—every person around us at any given moment—is the emanation of one or more enlightened Angels. 22) Describe the idea of a “higher family,” also giving the two Sanskrit words for those who belong to this family. The minute we first begin to practice yoga and study about it, we attract the attention of some very important people: everyone who has studied the book in the last two thousand years, and understood it, and practiced it, and become the Angel themselves. Simply by thinking the ideas that we’ve studied so far in the Yoga Sutra, you become part of a certain family of people.  People who are very concerned about the pain of the world.  People who have the spark of high understanding somewhere within them.  Who believe that, somehow, there must be a key to stopping death and unhappiness altogether. We’ve said that we have to understand understanding itself; that it too is coming from seeds.  And the only seeds it can come from are planted by wanting to be the one who rescues all the rest of us. People who have joined this higher family are called, in Sanskrit, kulaputra or kuladuhitir.  The first means son of noble family, and the second is daughter of noble family. 23) Briefly describe the last three milliseconds in our journey to become the angel of a billion worlds.  Be sure to speak about the idea of “not discriminating,” also giving the Sanskrit word for “discriminating” here, along with some related English words. There are three crucial moments at the end, when we gain all four bodies. The first (1) is the last moment in which we are still not the Angel: we are in what is called “the wisdom of the final instant.”  To get here we have seen the ultimate directly, on the Path of Seeing, briefly.  And then we have worked our way up through seven levels, using what we saw, and discriminating—in the sense of staying aware that even now the way things look to us is not the way they really are. During three more levels we need no longer discriminate this way: we no longer have the seeds for things to even appear to us in the wrong way.  This brings us to that final moment; we cross over; and in the next moment (2) we have this new knowledge—the power to know all things—born from the last three levels. For one split second, we sit in but one exquisite body, in paradise.  And then, because of the prayer we have made for countless lifetimes—to serve others—we without a single thought (3) appear on all worlds, Angelic. The Sanskrit word for discriminating here is viveka ivvek.  This comes from the two parts vi and veka.  Vi means very much, or to split off.  It’s seen in the English words bicycle and two.  Veka comes from a root √vic ivc! ,which means to sift through something.  Related English words are viscous and ooze. 24) When we reach the final goal, we are finally able to perceive—at the same moment—both of the realities which together constitute the entire universe.  Describe these two briefly, including the words that the Master uses for them in the final lines of the third chapter, giving the Sanskrit and related words as well. The two realities are deceptive reality and ultimate reality.  The entire inner and outer world as we normally experience it is deceptive reality, because to the mind of a normal person these things appear to come from their own side, whereas in truth they are coming from our own minds.  UItimate reality is the fact that nothing is happening in any other way; and when we can perceive this reality directly, even for a few moments, it has the effect of releasing us from suffering. Master Patanjali here uses two very common synonyms for these two realities: sarva svR, meaning all things and referring to deceptive reality; and sarvatha svRwa, or the way all things are, which refers to ultimate reality.  Only an enlightened being can perceive both of these realities at the same time, without them alternating. The word sarva comes from the root √sru öu , meaning to flow.  The idea is of the entire flow or the entirety: all of something.  In Sanskrit we have the related words samsara (the flow of pain, the world of pain), and prasarita  meaning spread apart in yoga asanas where the feet are spread wide apart. Related English words are stream, maelstrom, and rhythm.  When we add the suffix ta ta to the end of this word, it indicates the way in which all things are.  We see this ending in the English tion, as in exposition and explanation.