Yoga - Sunlight and Happiness

One of the delights of being able to interact with nature is the pleasure of sunshine. How beautiful the quality of the light is in England in spring and summer. I am sure most people will derive some peace and happiness from being in this sunlight. In yoga we have a link with the sun through our great fondness for the practice of Surya Namaskar and the mantras that go along with it which describe the sun as ' Lord of the Dawn’, 'Beautiful Light’ and 'Illuminated One '.

The Sun is always shining without break or gap and has been doing so for 5 billion years. That is remarkable don’t you think? It is easy to understand the relationships that have emerged across cultures and time, where the sun is worshipped and is seen as symbolic of consciousness and the source of life. Yet even though the sun is constantly shining, clouds, pollution or the presence of the night regularly obscure it. Consequently we do not continuously perceive the sun but that does not mean she has gone away simply that our ability to see and feel her is blocked.

The seers of the Upanishads tell us that like the sun the Self is always shining as our true nature. That it is of the essence of love, peace and fullness and that we are that. Yet the common experience of most is that this is not recognised or seen, it is not felt and what dominates our experience is the detail of the day, memories of the past and the play of our character. Sometimes this results in creativity, beauty and pleasure, and sometimes in dullness, dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

In the same way that clouds obscure the sun so the recognition of the Self is obscured by these movements of the mind or more subtlety by identification with the personality. This identification is strong; it is part of our evolution and conditioning - part of nature. Even though on a cloudy day sunlight is still present but not felt directly, so the Self is being constantly perceived as the essence of who you are but not realised directly. This is truly a paradox and is the reason behind the sense of incompleteness that leads to seeking. Almost everyone is seeking for something; in fact it is this seeking that will have brought many people into yoga. But seeking for what? Well your first answer might be happiness, health, achievement, or security but these are conditions, beautiful conditions no doubt but conditions none the less. If you look a little deeper your second answer might be affection and love. Can you remember a time when you were in love? How fresh everything was. How appealing and full of promise the world around you seemed. How free of worry and doubt you were. How vibrant and full of hope. However because being in love is dependent on an object, the experience of most people is that love is fleeting and temporary, coming and going as conditions change. This does not mean that love has vanished, for it is a perpetual power but the trigger for love is lost and a new trigger is yearned for in some other place, time or person.

If you look deeper still you will find that beyond conditions and states what you are really seeking is the fulfilment at the end of seeking itself. How can this be understood? What is it that could be in place for there to be no needs and for seeking itself to melt? Words like happiness, freedom, contentment or completeness come to mind but a better definition would be truth. Not as an idea or a concept but as a state of enduring being. What is truth? Well, billions of words have been written about that both in science, religion and art and it would be reckless here to try to assert it. We could however all agree on one common truth - that we do exist and that life is perceived in a magnificent universe of beauty and wonder. Have you ever considered the grandeur of it? The vastness of the universe, the intricacies of nature, the mechanics of physics, biology, space and time .The fact that blackbirds can sing, babies are born, oceans move and planets orbit stars. How glorious that is.

Even more awe-inspiring is the fact that the universe is entirely spontaneous, no actions that women and men have done have brought it about or are needed to sustain it. The very fact that we are alive, interactive and able to participate in and appreciate this nature is truly wondrous. What is it in us that knows this wonder and sees it? What is it that is able to appreciate this wonder? What is it that is conscious? This is the great enquiry defined in the mystical question ' who am I? '. It is the hunting inherent in that question which is at the true heart of seeking and the unconscious yearning for happiness. It is the answer or direct resolution to that question which can be said to be the realisation of truth. The spiritual texts that form the basis of yoga are unambiguous on the matter and state repeatedly what the truth is -'You are the Self '.

"One who meditates upon and realizes the Self discovers that everything in the cosmos – energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation – all come from the Self." - Chandogya Upanishad

But what does this mean? How can we understand it? Well actually that’s one of the problems, you cannot understand it, for it is not something to be understood in the sense of thinking about it, as that would simply be more thinking. Instead it is something to be felt or more accurately something to Be. But that is easier said than done, it needs patience and guidance to see through the maze of attachments that capture our identity and to realise the Vedantic truth - Tat Twam Asi (That thou art) or I am what I seek. Again the Upanishads speak of this and give a very substantial clue, the Self cannot be known through thought but through love.

" Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens and closes lives in the Self. He is the source of love and may be known through love but not through thought. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!" - Mundaka Unpanishad

This gives an excellent pointer. Spiritual experience is more in the realm of feeling than it is in the realm of thinking. More in the realm of sensing presence than it is in the realm of knowing an object, more in the heart than in the head, more in surrender than in attainment.

In modern times the Upanishads have been added to by spiritual giants such as Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisagardatta Maharaj. Both seers who were able to point out the obvious from within the concealing and to communicate that. They were able to state with authority that the source of our existence is Hridayam or the spiritual heart and more importantly to lay out a practical methodology for realising that.

It has been found by those who embrace this practice that the way to this realisation is very immediate, intimate and near. It is progressively seen as the presence of the feeling I, which like the sun, shines and is continuous and pervading irrespective of what the weather of the mind might choose to do. In this regard, happiness is not a thing to find dependent on some object or condition or some yoga practice but is continual and inherent as your own nature. One of the great discoveries as yoga practice deepens is that we do not gain anything new as a result of our efforts; rather we overcome that which was obscuring our own sunlight and happiness. Then that which is constantly shining as the feeling I is known and felt. Moving beyond that point is itself beyond any efforts we can make. But arriving at that point and then surrendering into what is, can be achieved through a certain arrangement of mind, sensing and intent. It is that method which is described and is now available in the modern renaissance and interpretation of Jnana Yoga and the sadhana of Atma Vichara (self enquiry).

This universe is truly magnificent, expressing through infinite variety and uniqueness. The experience we have today of thoughts, drives and sensations is part of that nature but these events do not define who we are. What also arises, as the ego, is the identification that I am these things, I am this body and I am this personality, with all the hopes and fears that go along with it. This seems so obvious that it seems absurd to question it yet the message of the Upanishads is to question it and to see this identification as being the night obscuring the light of the self. An interesting thing to note about the night is that even when the planet has turned her back on the sun during darkness, light is still reflected from the surface of the moon. Similarly an inner moonlight can be sensed in every moment as the feeling I exist and it is that, with guidance and practice that parts the clouds of the mind to the recognition of truth and happiness, the dawn of sunlight and an end of seeking for something else.

The following poem "What you are" expresses some of these insights:

My heart may be open with love and embrace.
My arms may be moving in time and space.
The energy around me may be rich with movement and promise, shaping, shifting, moulding, weaving, expressing itself.

My mind may be flavoured with all kinds of pleasures and woes
constantly moving so many places to travel and go.
And through all this I know and understand that this is what I am isn’t it?
This feeling is me, this thought is me, this action is me, this mood is me isn’t it?

My child all of these things are of your nature singing Karmas song.
They are experiences that come, actions that come, constantly bubbling along.
But I tell you this to these things you do not in truth belong.
Enjoy them now be part of their play for that is the will of the Lord.

But I tell you this in time you will come to know the essence of this phenomenal embrace.
It is the core of you, it is what you are, it is the fullness of love and grace.
Be that.

© Derek Thorne 2003