The mind and logos as a means to transcendence – reflections on the ancient yoga text Bhagavad Gita

You may have heard the phrase “it’s all in the mind” and thought nothing of it since it makes sense but is not very explanatory. Another way of saying this is “it’s all a matter of perception”. “Perception” is another way of saying “mindset”. Have you noticed that all we really have are words – abstract things in themselves, but symbols nevertheless that describe ideas or concepts or even states of mind. And even with these gigantic things, like vocabulary and a mind full of ideas, we still have nothing tangible that you can hold in your hand.

Well the mind is like this and the extension of the mind – our words – are too. Each one of us has a vast and almost unlimited amount of potential at our fingertips, or in our mind. We are all rich in potential, perhaps all equally as rich as the other. We all have access to the same words and have a mind. It’s like having a dictionary and a computer with lots of storage space, some of it full and lots of it still empty to be filled. It may seem like a lot to some but still may not inspire others to be expressive or creative at all. And why is that? Because of education perhaps but also because of mindset or perception. And that is partially objective, based on nature, DNA on the one hand and nurture, conditioning or education on the other.

We may all have the same potential and ingredients, but we all have differing mindsets or perceptions of these same ingredients. And even within the same person, some days we see the potential at our fingertips and some days not, even though it is always there. In other words our perspective or mind changes from day to day or year to year. Nevertheless, the potential is there. You have it. You are it. And besides that, harnessing it is always a power that you have within your hands. Thoughts lead to words, and similarly word can provoke thoughts in others. And yet both words and thought are purely abstract concepts that allude to something but in themselves are nothing. The symbol is not the object. The word is not the thing it symbolizes, or the emotion. And the mindset is not the reality. It is generally just the subjective view of what the senses perceive as reality. It can change at the blink of an eye.

Knowing this can be very empowering. As we go through life, whether engaging with society, with the challenges of life, with trading platforms making money, or even as consciousness explorers, we hold within us the power of our thoughts and minds, as well as the words we use in communicating to others and ourselves – mental self-talk. And success or failure in all of these departments can be achieved if we remember the power we have in these two things - words and mindset or perception. We have the power, but we sometimes forget.

Psychologists and seasoned traders will tell you the same thing, namely that success is up to you and your perception on the day, your mindset towards what you are doing. For example in the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” the author, Robert Kiyosaki, gives great advice about how different people see the same thing differently for better or worse, based on subjective perception and that by cultivating the winning perception, we can make greater progress toward being a successful trader and making more profit. He says that failure inspires winners but defeats losers. Both may fail but both perceive the failure with a different mindset. And that is the key. We all lose sometimes or make mistakes, but it is our perception of that loss that determines the future outcomes.

Based on the “nurture” philosophy, we learn the emotional response patterns of our parents or whoever raised us in our infancy, and that can become hardwired to be our mindset, despite it being merely a learned behavior that we can unlearn and relearn, thanks to the brain’s neuroplasticity. And our mind responds habitually with the similar inner dialogue of certain words in response to situations in our lives. For example, again from Kiyosaki’s book, one dad may tell you repeatedly “I can’t afford it”, while another dad may say “how can I afford it?” One is a statement of failure and the other is a question that inspires you to find solutions and access your potentials. And remember we have vast potentials, limited often by our subjective mindset, our confidence or self-worth – all flexible variables that you can upgraded.

One thing that is limited though, is our time. The other secret to success in today’s fast changing world is not so much what you know, but also how fast you learn. How fast can you learn from your mistakes, and how fast can you adapt to evolving circumstances, whether on the trading price graph as well as in life? Adaptability or flexibility –“plasticity – is the secret. And both physical and mental adaptability or neuroplastcity dwindle with age. We become rigid and fixed and less flexible generally speaking, unless we make an effort to prevent it. So as we age our ability to learn fast dwindles too. And therefore we really need to remember how valuable out time is. If we realize that we are losing the priceless commodity of time day by day, never to be able to retrieve it, then we would really value each moment as precious and use it to the max.

Another limitation is our imagination. Einstein alluded to the most powerful forces in the universe being compound interest and imagination. Kiyosaki reminds us that sight comes from the eyes but vision comes from the mind. It’s all in the mind. You will never achieve it if you can’t first imagine it in your mind’s eye. Well how can you imagine it if you have never been told of the potential parameters or have never been given the words to call up the concepts in your mind. We see this when coming across new information about ourselves and the world sometimes. Someone tells you of an amazing function on your computer that was always there but you never knew about, for example. It really allows you to tap into that power.

Similarly in the ancient yoga texts of India, known as the Vedas, everything is written in Sanskrit, apparently the oldest language on the planet form where all our European words originate. It’s the root language, from which Latin originated. And in the yoga texts descriptions occur of the powers and potentials of our minds that we have never been told about by our parents or teachers at school. There are Sanskrit words that don’t even have English equivalents because the concepts don’t even exist in our culture. We have a culture steeped in mundane growth and expansion, but with the fall from grace of religions due to corruptibility or lack of delivery – there has not been much wisdom revealed in the human growth potential. We had to wait until the twentieth century to get some insights from a new school of thought called psychology – study of the soul literally. And even there it was based on speculation. As we progressed on from Freud, Jung and Maslow etc in the west, we came to our current era where a lot more research has been done and also access has been gained to the ancient yoga texts of the east. And gradually a common ground is emerging as the Sanskrit texts get translated and their information is made available. Well, with that we have been able to access new ideas about the mind and consciousness that really open up the playing field, give us new insights into our own potential as human beings. One such text explains as follows:

स निश्चयेन योक्तव्यो योगोऽनिर्विण्णचेतसा ।
संकल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः
मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ॥ ६.२४ ॥

sa niścayena yoktavyo
yogo ’nirviṇṇa-cetasā
saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṁs
tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ
manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ
viniyamya samantataḥ

“One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.”

Bhagavad Gita as it is chapter 6:24 translated by Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta

The following verse says:

शनैः शनैरुपरमेद्बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया ।
आत्मसंस्थं मनः कृत्वा न किंचिदपि चिन्तयेत् ॥ ६.२५ ॥

śanaiḥ śanair uparamed
buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā
ātma-saṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā
na kiñcid api cintayet

“Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.” ch6:25

Here we have the advice in the initial text that yoga is a process to harness the senses and the mind. The qualities of faith and determination are recommended as it may be a lifelong process. But with effort, one can come to what is described in the second text as “trance”. The specific word used is in the second last line, where we have the term “ātma-saṁsthaṁ”, which is translated in different references to mean “placed in transcendence” or “original constitutional position” (atma means self).
Those familiar with yoga may have heard of “astanga yoga” meaning literally “eightfold path” (“asta” means eight). Well of the eight rungs on the ladder of yoga, namely “yama, niyama, āsana, praṇāyāma, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, pratyāhāra , samādhi” the last four are alluding to these exact states of consciousness which could be translated as “transcendent” or our “original constitutional state.” Notice that there are four levels of such states. In Western religion, philosophy or psychology we don’t even know what it means to be in one state of transcendence, what to speak of multiple levels. You might recognise the last one of the eight in the list, namely “samadhi”. It is like the word “nirvana”. It has come into our English lexicon, much like the word “yoga” from the Sanskrit, but we have little insight as to what it really alludes to. Well it alludes to everything you are and can be but have never been told.

I will leave the details to further posts as this one is long enough, but you get the idea. There is so much to us and to our states of mind, our perception of reality and of who we are, much of which we are unaware. Our forefathers were simply uninformed and so don’t know either, but information is emerging and now we can find out what it means to regain our original state of consciousness – one which is transcendent. That is what yoga teaches and the results will reveal a whole new perception of reality, against which all the rest up until now, will pale in comparison. Welcome to the dawn of the real you. Welcome to your red pill.