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You are here: Home / Class Talks / Seamless Robes

Seamless Robes

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Today’s Science section in the New York Times has an interesting article: “Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isnt Just a White Coat.” It is about experiments that were done studying a phenomenon they call ‘enclothed cognition’ which says that the clothing we wear affects our cognitive processes. They took a random sample of folks and gave them a cognitive test to determine attention and IQ, then told them to put on a white coat they said was a ‘doctor’s coat’ and retested them. They scored significantly higher when wearing what they thought was a doctor’s coat! Then they took another random sample and did the same thing, only this time they said it was a housepainter’s coat. Now, when wearing a housepainter’s coat, their scores went down. Mind you, it says in the article it was the same coat, so really, it isnt the clothing that is affecting cognitive performance, but what the coat was called. It is  the verbal, conceptual ‘apparel’ that is running the show.

It is the week of Passover and also it is Easter week so it is a time one thinks about the stories of the  Judeo-Christian tradition. Probably my favorite story of the Old Testament is from Exodus, where we find Moses wandering in  the hills being a shepherd. (How he came to be there is an amazing yarn, too). Anyway, as we all know, he happened to notice a bush that was burning and it didnt “consume itself” – it didnt burn out. I was thinking that he probably saw quite a few brush fires in that dry country, but not the kind that burn all day in one place…so he goes over to investigate. Then the weirdest thing happens – the bush starts talking to him! And the first thing it says is “Take off your shoes. This is holy ground.”

Shoes are very symbolic to us. More than any other article of clothing, they take on our personal shape and configuration.  To walk a mile in someone else’s shoes is to see things from their unique perspective. And to enter the inner sanctum of temples throughout the Near and Far East it is required that we remove our shoes. My Guru used to say about that practice, “Leave your ego with your shoes!” meaning that taking off the shoes means leaving your prejudices, concepts and partial, ordinary understanding behind. Taking off the shoes means being open to a new perspective. That openness is a requirement of spiritual, cognitive expansion. The word “understanding” itself implies what stands under us, our feet and what covers them. Moses is asked to take off his shoes as a form of humility and also, because he is about to have his mind blown. The ordinary is about to become extraordinary.

After Moses takes off his shoes and approaches the bush, it instructs him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go. Shocked, the first thing Moses says is “Who am I?” meaning, his self-concept is miles away from having the confidence  to demand liberation. After all, he is just a shepherd; in a sense he is wearing a ‘shepherds coat’. So he proceeds to have a long argument with the bush as to his unsuitability for the task, finally asking, “Cant you send someone else?” which really pisses the bush off.  At that moment, the ego is fighting fiercely for its limitations, it is so much more comfortable in bondage. The ego is like that.

Yoga is the process of divesting ourselves – “getting rid of what we havent got” as my Guru, Swami Muktananda put it. We are having an encounter with our naked Being, which is free, eternal, all -pervasive. We are going to move our focal point from the physical body, to the pranic body, to the purest Self, going form the finite to the infinite. It is a stripping away. We use all sorts of maneuvers in this process, including and especially  the repetition of the mantra my Guru gave me: Ham Sah, which means “I am That.” Not coincidentally, that is the Name the burning bush gives Moses when he asks “who shall I say sent me?” The Bush says, “ok, I will tell you my name and this is my name forever:  I AM.” I AM consciousness is the Self without any limiting cognitive clothing. Ham Sah. Repeat Ham (sounds like ‘hum’) on the inhalation and Sah on the exhalation. That is your true identity, as naked and Nothing as it is… We will weave that awareness into a fabric that befits our true nature. Hatha Yoga weaves this awareness into our cells.

Speaking of weaving, this reminds me of a striking detail of the crucifixion story from the gospel of John. It seems John was the only disciple to eyewitness to the crucifixion – the rest had taken a powder. John says that the Roman soldiers who did the work were allowed to divide up Christ’s clothing among themselves. But  there was  one robe that was a seamless robe, “woven in one piece from top to bottom.” So they cast lots – threw dice – for it, it was that special. A seamless robe is the cognitive equivalent of the awareness of unity that is the state of Realization, also called Samadhi. As it says in the gnostic gospel of Thomas, we enter the kingdom when we realize the “inner is as the outer, the above is as the below..” Knowing that what is within us is of the same substance as what we see outside of ourselves, one Thing, a continuum, is wearing a seamless robe. This knowledge is possible through love.

As we have said before, Hatha Yoga is a Tantric methodology, and the word Tantra means loom. Doing asana and pranayama is a kind of weaving, and today we are weaving our Easter and Passover finest, seamless robes of the substance of love. We will breathe with love, loving the prana, each breath embroidering love into the fabric of our existence. Shall we remove our conceptual garments and be naked in the fabric of love?

As Wm Butler Yeats wrote of this process:

A COAT

I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

Happy Passover, Happy Easter!

April 3, 2012

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Filed Under: Class Talks Tagged With: Guru, Ham Sah, Hatha Yoga, Today Science

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Fearlessness

Greetings Students attending class this Summer of 2018 ! This season we are contemplating the yoga of Fearlessness In 1941, President Roosevelt gave his famous “Four Freedoms” speech, proclaiming … [Read More...] about Fearlessness

Recommended Reading

These are a few books and texts which I recommend:   Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yognanda   Play of Consciousness by Swami Muktananda.   Meditate: Happiness … [Read More...] about Recommended Reading

oval with radii

Intention

Greetings Beloved Yoga practitioners! This month we welcomed 2018 with the theme of Intention At the start of the New Year we mobilized our yoga practice to examine the very nature of intent and … [Read More...] about Intention

glowing heart

The Heart

Your Yoga newsletter for the month of December, 2017 Greetings Yogis and Yoginis! This final month of 2017 we have been exploring the topic of the Heart. The heart has many layers of … [Read More...] about The Heart

Yantra with picture of Swami Muktananda

School of Recognition

November 2017 Yoga Newsletter Greetings yoga sangham attending class this November 2017! This month we were contemplating and practicing thanksgiving, delight and recognition. There is a whole … [Read More...] about School of Recognition

The Void

Greetings Dear Friends and Sangham attending class this October 2017! Some notes on our topics and the central theme examined this month: THE VOID Void or emptiness is important to both … [Read More...] about The Void

Our Work is Cut Out For Us

I thought I was being charming at dinner recently, in the midst of telling one of my fascinating stories, when my son turned to his father and said: “Dad, youre a saint.” We all laughed at his … [Read More...] about Our Work is Cut Out For Us

Hatha Yoga is Kundalini Yoga

I am often asked what kind of yoga I teach, and after almost 35 years, I am still stymied as to how to answer. I usually mercifully restrain myself from breaking into a lecture and say that I teach … [Read More...] about Hatha Yoga is Kundalini Yoga

Monkey Mind

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the Year of the Monkey and it is said the character of the next 12 months will mirror some traits we associate with monkeys: quick moving, volatile, tricky, changeable … [Read More...] about Monkey Mind

About Anger

“Attachment breeds desire. From desire anger is born. Anger leads to delusion, from delusion, forgetfulness, from forgetfulness, the destruction of intellectual discernment." Bhagavad Gita, … [Read More...] about About Anger

Om

Om as Guru

One who chants Om, which is the closest form of Brahman, approaches Brahman. This liberates one from the fear of the material world. - Rig Veda, circa 1500 BC Rare is the yogic text or scripture … [Read More...] about Om as Guru

Flammarion engraving

Intention

Intention “You will find that intention on liberation is the means to it. When this intention is full no other means is necessary. But when intention is weak what is the use of a thousand means? … [Read More...] about Intention

Moksha: Liberation, the fourth goal of life

“Of all the instruments of emancipation, Love is supreme.” So wrote the 9th century yogic sage, Shankaracharya who spread the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta: the doctrine of unity. Moksha is the … [Read More...] about Moksha: Liberation, the fourth goal of life

The Discipline of Love

We are contemplating a topic today that probably gives a lot of us the heebie jeebies: Discipline. Discipline, restraint, practice, sacrifice, and consistency: these things form the spine of a yogic … [Read More...] about The Discipline of Love

The Four Goals of Life : Kama

We have been contemplating the four goals life, the “chatur purusharthas” for the past few weeks (they are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha). Yoga is said to bring about fruition of these goals, and … [Read More...] about The Four Goals of Life : Kama

The Four Goals of life: Artha: wealth and beauty

We’ve been contemplating the “chatur purusharthas” recently. They are the four goals of life in the yogic canon: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Yoga is said to produce the accomplishment of these … [Read More...] about The Four Goals of life: Artha: wealth and beauty

Seamless Robes

Today's Science section in the New York Times has an interesting article: “Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isnt Just a White Coat.” It is about experiments that were done studying a phenomenon they … [Read More...] about Seamless Robes

The Four Goals of Life: Dharma

Happy New Year, it's good to see everybody! We’ve made it to this auspicious moment: 2012. I thought we might benefit by taking the time to focus on our intentions for the coming year, because having … [Read More...] about The Four Goals of Life: Dharma

The Depression of Arjuna

We were listening to the Bhagavad Gita being chanted, and i put it on for a reason. The Bhagavad Gita is pretty much all you would ever really need to follow the path of Yoga. Its name means the “Song … [Read More...] about The Depression of Arjuna

Pranayama: Breathing Techniques for calming the mind

Breathing Awareness The core of meditation techniques the world over is breathing awareness. Awareness of the breath refines the mind and leads it into a state of meditation. You will find that many … [Read More...] about Pranayama: Breathing Techniques for calming the mind

Samadhi

Samadhi I We are contemplating and speaking of samadhi lately. Samadhi is a theme that threads throughout the yogic canon. The word refers to a state of being which could be loosely translated as … [Read More...] about Samadhi

St Patrick and the Trinity

We have been speaking about Lent and in the middle of Lent comes St. Patrick’s day which is tomorrow. I was just reading that either St. Patrick died on march 17 or that the Irish Catholics decided … [Read More...] about St Patrick and the Trinity

Om, the Vedas and the Cat in the Hat

I I am preparing for a workshop in a couple of weeks: – “Experience OM” – so I’ve been contemplating Om quite a bit, and thought we would contemplate it together. In the course of preparation i have … [Read More...] about Om, the Vedas and the Cat in the Hat

Absolute Joy

We’ve been listening to Handel's Messiah and most of the text is from the book of Isaiah – we just heard “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd” which has the line: “take His yoke upon you...” And … [Read More...] about Absolute Joy

Guru Purnima

The sacred moon of the Guru Today is Guru Purnima which is a big holiday for people who love yoga and for people who love their Guru or spiritual master. “Purnima” means total fulness and perfection, … [Read More...] about Guru Purnima

Prakriti and Purusha

We’ve been having a little bit of fun here contemplating a branch of Hindu philosophy called “Samkhya.” The word Samkhya means “enumeration” or “list” – so it is a categorical, analytical approach to … [Read More...] about Prakriti and Purusha

Feeling it in our bones: Transcending the “Anava Mala”

I have a little story to tell. It turns out the girls track team at my local high school is the fastest in the country – they just won first place in the whole nation. No one can figure it out because … [Read More...] about Feeling it in our bones: Transcending the “Anava Mala”

Life, Death and Immortality

Yama and Nachiketa On Tues. we were talking about death, resurrection, and immortality because it comes up a lot in spiritual texts, in yogic texts and of course in the Easter story. Also, because … [Read More...] about Life, Death and Immortality

Assimilation

Last Tuesday i virtually collapsed in front of the whole class because i have really bad hypoglycemia. A few days before that i had a dream that i wasnt absorbing the protein i was eating in the … [Read More...] about Assimilation

sunset

Thanksgiving

Thursday is Thanksgiving and of course one does think about – I hope a little bit – the quality of gratitude. Gratitude has a lot to do with yoga, the goal of yoga and what we do when we do yoga. One … [Read More...] about Thanksgiving

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Om

Om as Guru

One who chants Om, which is the closest form of Brahman, approaches Brahman. This liberates one from the fear of the material world. - Rig Veda, circa 1500 BC Rare is the yogic text or scripture … [Read More...] about Om as Guru

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Intention

Intention “You will find that intention on liberation is the means to it. When this intention is full no other means is necessary. But when intention is weak what is the use of a thousand means? … [Read More...] about Intention

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