Series:

10.10  The Spiritual Content of Yoga

When I first started studying Hindi religious literature I saw only the literal sense of it. From that representation Hindi spirituality appears to be a nonduality between God and human beings. This literal meaning is in sharp contrast with Western religious literature that includes Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this literature God and human beings are in an absolute duality with each other. According to this view no human being can appropriate anything Divine since the Creator must be separate and different from the created. Hence the Hindi religion and associated practice of Yoga are still today considered contradictory to each other, and should they be brought together, they would annihilate each other.

However this separatist perspective completely changes when we consider the correspondential sense of Sacred literature in Hindi and in Western religions. The correspondences are the same in all Sacred literature since what is involved belongs to the spiritual mind, and this is above and separate from the natural mind (see Section xx). The literal meaning of Sacred Scripture belongs to culture, religion, and belief systems in the natural mind, while the correspondential meaning of Sacred Scripture belongs to the universal human race, thus the mental world of every individual regardless of religion, culture, era, or planet. Swedenborg has confirmed by observation that those who are resuscitated are from diverse cultures and planets, and yet when they awaken in the spiritual mind after dying in the natural mind, they speak the same human language of eternity and acknowledge only one universal God (see Section xx).

By studying the correspondential sense of Hindi Sacred literature we can demonstrate that it is the same Divine Speech that issues from the one God who is surrounded by the Spiritual Sun, which flows into the mental world of humanity with living spiritual heat and light. This is a process of Divine good (spiritual heat) and Divine truth (spiritual light) inflowing into the spiritual mind of every human being. Then by correspondence, the natural mind reacts with representative content from the physical world and body. This is the chain of correspondences from God to human beings. God rules the human mind through this chain of correspondences. What these correspondences are has not been known to humanity for the past thousands of years, but has been revealed once more in the Writings of Swedenborg (see Section xx).

The practice of yoga has been adopted by millions of Americans in recent times. A search for yoga in Google gives more than 84 million sites that use this word. According to the definition provided with these results, yoga is

1. A Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility.
2. A system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.

[Hindi, from Sanskrit yogaḥ, union, joining.]

Clearly this definition relates yoga practice to a spiritual discipline. The physical effort we put up when doing yoga poses and breathing is for the purpose of becoming more aware of our spiritual mind.

"Spiritual insight" refers to the rational understanding of the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture, that is, of theistic psychology.

"Spiritual tranquility" refers to the heavenly feeling of peace that we experience when there is absence of temptations and conflicts. This is also called the Rest of Sabbath, meaning the absence of emotional conflict, anxiety, fear, anger, egotism, fantasy, envy, cruelty, restlessness, and all other negative emotions and intentions.

When all this negative activity ceases in our mental states, we experience the "peace that passes all understanding," which comes from total reliance and confidence in the omnipotence and benevolence of God operating in our mind and lives.

Fear is caused by insufficient love of the Divine Psychologist in our mind. This insufficient love comes from our inherited tendency to enjoy relying on our own self-intelligence rather than on our understanding of Sacred Scripture. The more we communicate with the Divine Psychologist in our mind, the more we have to rely on our knowledge from the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture, also called, our doctrine of truth (see Section xx).

But we resist this reliance on the truths of Sacred Scripture. Why? Because these truths inform us that when we reach adulthood, we must stop enjoying the evil traits we have from both inheritance and acquisition.

Evil traits are those we rely on and enjoy all day long, and yet they are bad for us, and hurt others and society. Examples you can recognize in yourself are:

• inconveniencing others for the sake of self (e.g., being late, being loud, littering, aggressive driving, etc.)

• hurting others for the sake of gain (e.g., deceiving, cheating, manipulating, yelling at, taking advantage of, etc.)

• hurting one's growth and health (e.g., being overweight, neglecting daily hygiene like flossing the teeth, living in unclean environment as our room, car, office, clothes, closets, kitchen, stove, etc.)

Which ones of those listed do you yourself do or not do? Probably you do all of them, some of us more than others.

 You can see why we all need spiritual discipline, that is, the daily practice of exercises designed to bring these evil habits to our conscious awareness. We must have a spiritual motivation for this practice in order to become conscious of our evil habits of thinking and willing all day long every day. If this motivation is not spiritual, there can be no spiritual change or benefit in our character.

There are two types of spiritual discipline we can practice: continuous and occasional.

Yoga as it is practiced by most Americans is occasional since it is performed as a physical periodic session that may last a few minutes or an hour and a half. There is the tradition of carrying the yoga "breath" and "tranquility" to the rest of the day, but this is not usually part of the yoga practiced by most Westerners (although specific data on this is lacking).

The practice of continuous spiritual discipline in the Western cultural context takes the form of rational spirituality (see Section xx). For instance, people may read Sacred Scripture and study it by trying to extract its spiritual message. Few people today know correspondences from the Writings of Swedenborg or from the study of theistic psychology. Hence most people attempt to comprehend the spiritual message of Sacred Scripture by natural methods of understanding, rather than spiritual. What exactly is the difference?

Every method of interpreting Sacred Scripture that has been proposed and practiced is natural -- except the method of correspondences revealed by God in the Writings of Swedenborg (see Section xx). This is not an issue of authority, intellectual approach, religion, or preference. This is a scientific approach. Swedenborg is the only known scientist in history who has had the ability of being conscious in the spiritual mind, which is the mind of every human being in the afterlife of eternity (see Section xx).

Regardless of how intelligent, sincere, and authoritative are the interpreters of Sacred Scripture they carry no scientific weight because they are not based on empirical observations. This is required by science. The Swedenborg Reports are the only empirical observations we have of a scientist who was conscious for 27 years in the spiritual mind as well as in the natural mind. Through this unique ability granted him by God he was able to fulfill his Divine mission, namely, to publish his empirical observations of the spiritual correspondences in Sacred Scripture. The experimental method he used for this project was to read a verse of Sacred Scripture in the original natural language or its translation (Swedish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin), through his natural mind and physical eyes, on the one hand, and on the other, to read the corresponding verse in a copy of Sacred Scripture in the spiritual world of the afterlife.

Every human being when resuscitated in the spiritual mind no longer uses the natural language of their culture or community, but instead, a universal spiritual language that Swedenborg describes as very much like the thought-language we think in. If you want to know what that universal and eternal spiritual language is you need to focus in on your thinking all day long. This is a spiritual discipline called self-witnessing (see Section xx). It is spiritual because the purpose of this mental self-monitoring is to discover the content of our thoughts and feelings that forms our life all day, and then to amend them in accordance with the doctrine of truth we extract from Sacred Scripture. This is the purpose that makes continuous daily mental self-witnessing a spiritual practice or discipline.

As you get more skilled at mental self-monitoring you begin to discover on an empirical basis what is the relationship in your mind between the natural and spiritual layers. This relationship is called correspondences. By this exact method of comparison, Swedenborg was able to make lists of correspondences with each entry of a word or phrase in the natural language, and its spiritual signification or equivalent. For instance, in the most general terms only and without further details, we can write dictionaries of correspondences like this:

Sacred Scripture expressions in a natural language on earth	Spiritual correspondences in the universal human language of eternity
water, wine, lake, ocean, rain	specific varieties of truths, some in the natural mind, some in the spiritual mind
bread, house	forms of good, some in the natural mind, some in the spiritual mind
numbers 4, 40, 44, 400	undergoing spiritual temptation
number 3	what is complete, the last element, or the whole of the subject being discussed
God's anger, vengeance, destructive act	God's appearance to us when we knowingly break the Divine order, rule, or law
tree, plant, vine, fruit, flower, root, branch, leaf, grass	specific varieties of human activity in relation to one's character regeneration
gold, diamond	specific varieties of celestial mental states in the spiritual mind
silver, copper	specific varieties of spiritual mental states in the spiritual mind that are lower than the celestial states
bronze, iron, clay	specific varieties of natural mental states
Babylon, Philistines, Goliath, Judas	specific varieties of abusing one's knowledge of correspondences and of spiritual knowledge, e.g., gaining power and influence over people for enjoyment, gain, reputation, and adulation
Egypt, Pharaoh, horses	knowledge of correspondences, but without applying them to one's self-witnessing and character modification or regeneration
Jerusalem, Mount of Olives	the doctrine of truth that we extract for ourselves from the study of correspondences in Sacred Scripture
animals	every animal species corresponds to a general quality in the human mind (e.g., wild and poisonous species correspond to the specific varieties of evil affections, intentions, and the nature of their enjoyment)
days of the week, progression of the day from AM to PM, progression of seasons, the four quarters of directions, etc.	in Sacred Scripture all references to time and direction correspond to developmental states of our mind as we progress through the phases of regeneration and character reformation. Each reference to time and direction corresponds to particular types of thoughts and feelings that we have in that phase.
(For more examples of lists of correspondences, see Section xx.)

Everyone can understand correspondences because they are the basis of how we think in daily life, and how we describe our mental states through physical objects and events (e.g.,

• I've had a peach of a day

• I see what you mean

• He's got a good heart

• He rules with a strong hand

• Watch out he's a snake

• She's got a soft spot for you

• etc.

In each case we describe a mental state in terms of physical objects. We do this naturally, spontaneously, as part of our linguistic and semantic abilities. Hence it is we can understand each other's figurative speech that are correspondences. Note that these are natural-spiritual correspondences since physical objects are natural and mental states are spiritual (see Section xx). The natural and spiritual mind are each a mental organ (see Section xx). The layers of our mental organs from low and simple capacity to high and complex capacity, are tied to each other through the laws of correspondences that were established by God as part of creation (See Section xx).

What Swedenborg observed makes sense therefore, namely that the thousands of people he observed awakening in the spiritual mind, at resuscitation and immediately after dying, were able without exception and regardless of culture, to speak the one universal and eternal language, the language of thinking in the spiritual mind. This is because all along, since our birth, we had been thinking in this spiritual language as the backdrop of the natural language we were using and thinking in consciously. So our natural language expressions are correspondences of our spiritual language expressions, which is inborn and does not have to be learned.

More on correspondences in Section 1.1.4.3.2 and Section 1.8.8.1.

We now want to understand yoga practice in its true spiritual tradition of gaining understanding and control of the natural-spiritual correspondences between our body and our mind, that is, our physical organs and quality, on the one hand, and on the other, our mental organs and their quality.

Every physical body organ has a corresponding counterpart to our mental body organ. We are born with both bodies, the physical body in the physical world, connected by the laws of correspondences, to the mental body in the spiritual world of eternity. All our sensations, thoughts, and feelings are operations of the mental organs in eternity, and not at all of the brain or physical organs. Most of us take it for granted that our thoughts and feelings are in our physical body and the brain. But this is clearly impossible in scientific dualism where correspondences connect objects from different layers of existence, one physical in time, the other mental in eternity.

Literally and actually we are not on earth since we are our thoughts and feelings, and they are not on earth, but in eternity.

We can't have sensations, thoughts, and feelings without a mental body that contains mental organs. The operations of these mental organs are our thoughts and feelings. These mental operations are not on earth or in time. They have no mass and no energy. As your thoughts and feelings cumulate, your b rain does not weigh more since these mental substances do not have weight.

Yoga practice is the conscious connection between physical body parts and poses on the one hand, and on the other, the mental body parts and states. Yoga is therefore contributes to our study of correspondences in Sacred Scripture.

Consider the following description of Yoga in a medical encyclopedia at: 
http://www.answers.com/yoga&r=67

The term yoga comes from a Sanskrit word which means yoke or union. Traditionally, yoga is a method joining the individual self with the Divine, Universal Spirit, or Cosmic Consciousness. Physical and mental exercises are designed to help achieve this goal, also called self-transcendence or enlightenment. On the physical level, yoga postures, called asanas, are designed to tone, strengthen, and align the body. These postures are performed to make the spine supple and healthy and to promote blood flow to all the organs, glands, and tissues, keeping all the bodily systems healthy. On the mental level, yoga uses breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation (dyana) to quiet, clarify, and discipline the mind. However, experts are quick to point out that yoga is not a religion, but a way of living with health and peace of mind as its aims. (...)

Modern psychological studies have shown that even slight facial expressions can cause changes in the involuntary nervous system; yoga utilizes the mind/body connection. That is, yoga practice contains the central ideas that physical posture and alignment can influence a person's mood and self-esteem, and also that the mind can be used to shape and heal the body. Yoga practitioners claim that the strengthening of mind/body awareness can bring eventual improvements in all facets of a person's life. (...)

Today (2007), yoga is thriving, and it has become easy to find teachers and practitioners throughout America. A recent Roper poll, commissioned by Yoga Journal, found that 11 million Americans do yoga at least occasionally and 6 million perform it regularly. Yoga stretches are used by physical therapists and professional sports teams, and the benefits of yoga are being touted by movie stars and Fortune 500 executives. Many prestigious schools of medicine have studied and introduced yoga techniques as proven therapies for illness and stress. Some medical schools, like UCLA, even offer yoga classes as part of their physician training program.
 

Classical yoga is separated into eight limbs, each a part of the complete system for mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Four of the limbs deal with mental and physical exercises designed to bring the mind in tune with the body. The other four deal with different stages of meditation. There are six major types of yoga, all with the same goals of health and harmony but with varying techniques: hatha, raja, karma, bhakti, jnana, and tantra yoga. Hatha yoga is the most commonly practiced branch of yoga in America, and it is a highly developed system of nearly 200 physical postures, movements and breathing techniques designed to tune the body to its optimal health. The yoga philosophy believes the breath to be the most important facet of health, as the breath is the largest source of prana, or life force, and hatha yoga utilizes pranayama, which literally means the science or control of breathing. Hatha yoga was originally developed as a system to make the body strong and healthy enough to enable mental awareness and spiritual enlightenment. (...)
 

The other types of yoga show some of the remaining ideas which permeate yoga. Raja yoga strives to bring about mental clarity and discipline through meditation, simplicity, and non-attachment to worldly things and desires. Karma yoga emphasizes charity, service to others, non-aggression and non-harming as means to awareness and peace. Bhakti yoga is the path of devotion and love of God, or Universal Spirit. Jnana yoga is the practice and development of knowledge and wisdom. Finally, tantra yoga is the path of self-awareness through religious rituals, including awareness of sexuality as sacred and vital.

There seems to be a conflict here between the medical and the spiritual perspective on yoga. Most Americans who practice yoga are Christians and there is a strong tendency to separate or divorce the physical and the spiritual aspects of yoga practice. Christians feel uncomfortable with the traditional yoga practice of ending practice sessions by folding the hands in prayer posture in front of the chest (heart) and reciting: The God in me greets the God in you and sometimes: The light in me greets the light in you. In theistic psychology we are able to look for the spiritual correspondences in yoga expressions and affirmations about spiritual life.

For instance, "the God in me" corresponds to the Divine Psychologist (see Section xx). The Divine Psychologist is just another name for God's activity in our mind. The term "Holy Spirit" in the New Testament Sacred Scripture has the same meaning in its correspondential sense. "To greet" corresponds to communication, friendship, and conjunction. Yoga as a Hindi word means unity or conjunction. "In you" and "in me" correspond to mind, thoughts, and feelings. So the expression: "The God in me greets the God in you" signifies that both of us are united to the Divine Psychologist in our mind. Or: that the same God operates my mind and your mind, and thus we are conjoined. The phrase: "the light in me greets the light in you" signifies that you and me receive our intelligence from spiritual light, which is from the Spiritual Sun, which is from the Divine Human or the universal God.

Another phrase that gives Western Christians a conflict or doubt about practicing yoga is cited above in the definition: "Traditionally, yoga is a method joining the individual self with the Divine, Universal Spirit, or Cosmic Consciousness." The conjunction of the individual with the Divine can be interpreted in terms of nonduality and duality (see Section xx). Nonduality says that when we are united to the Divine, we are Divine. This of course is not acceptable to Western religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which hold that God and human beings are of two separate and distinct natures forever and one cannot be transmuted into the other.

But there is a Christian tradition from the New Testament Sacred Scripture that affirms that God is in us and we are in God. This must be interpreted within dualism, namely that "being in God" and "God being in us" does not mean that we are Divine, but only that the Divine is active in our mind.

Hence it is possible to reinterpret the spiritual traditions attached to yoga by means of spiritual correspondences so that they become congruent with Western traditions of Sacred Scripture.

Quotes about yoga listed at The Quote Garden:   http://www.quotegarden.com/yoga.html

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.
~B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.
~Patanjali, translated from Sanskrit

Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without.
~Ymber Delecto

Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts are released.
~The Quote Garden

When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
~B.K.S. Iyengar

Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.
~Krishnamacharya

Balance of mind is called Yoga
~the Bhagavad Gita

 

10.10.1  The Wisdom of Yoga Sayings

Yoga sayings is the traditional method of expressing many relevant natural-spiritual correspondences. Here are samples of "Namaste" yoga that I collected from yoga practice lessons and commercially sold DVD.

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1. To take on one challenge today, one small challenge. What would that be?

2.  As if to say, I’m ready now, and it’s the readiness that matters.

3.  Gathering the heart and the mind to feel the depth of our lives.

4.  To meet yourself face to face without expectations. Such freedom does exist.

5.  Feeling yourself balancing the energies of giving and receiving equally, with no fear.

6.  To learn to be more gentle, more open, more honest.

7.  To trust in ourselves, to know that we can change for the better.

8.  As if to give up competing with yourself and simply see the honesty in your effort.

9.  Remember: every obstacle you meet in life can be seen as a block, or as an opportunity.

10.  As if to vow to ourselves to become ourselves, again and again.

11.  Feel your ground, feel your heart. Feel your body. Breathe your body. Let all the weight of the body fall down into the ground, leaving your body light.

12.  Give up competing with yourself and simply see the honesty of your effort.

13.  To trust in ourselves to know that we can change for the better.

14.  Freedom is moving, thinking, and speaking from a place of no ego.

15.  Let us meet in a place with no fences, endless sky, boundless potential, opening from the heart.

16.  To be annoyed by our restrictions is natural. To be free of them, is Yoga.

17.  Practice with effort, then letting go of the results of that effort.

18.  To be kind to others and to ourselves is as natural as a flower opening in the sun.

19.  To forgive weakness in others is to recognize and forgive weakness in ourselves.

20.  Bowing to the teaching that lies inside the heart, and the teaching is forgiveness, and forgiveness starts with oneself.

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Is there anything in the above yoga affirmations that is spiritually contrary to Sacred Scripture as it is known in Western cultures -- the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, and the Writings of Swedenborg? 

To determine this we need to translate the literal meaning of each yoga saying into its correspondences. Remember that correspondences are revealed in Sacred Scripture and all Sacred Scripture is written in correspondences of Divine Speech (see Section xx). Hence if Yoga sayings contain a spiritual meaning through correspondences, it is objective evidence that Yoga Wisdom is a genuine spiritual doctrine derived from Hindi Sacred Scriptures such as the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita (see next Section).

The Wisdom of Yoga Sayings
Yoga Expressions Literal Meaning	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology
1. To take on one challenge today, one small challenge. What would that be?	Challenge = striving to put our natural mind in an order that is compatible with our spiritual mind Today = the mental states we have	With every task all day long we need to invoke our spiritual truths. This is spiritual discipline.
2.  As if to say, I’m ready now, and it’s the readiness that matters.	Readiness, I’m ready = spiritual discipline applied to each task. That matters = what is critically important.	The most important aspect of spiritual discipline is to maintain it vigilantly with all tasks, without making exceptions.
3.  Gathering the heart and the mind to feel the depth of our lives.	Heart = the will or affective organ Mind = the understanding or cognitive organ Gathering = conjoining Depth of our lives = spiritual good and truth	Receiving spiritual truth requires intending and acting in accordance with the spiritual truth in our understanding.
4.  To meet yourself face to face without expectations. Such freedom does exist.	To meet yourself = becoming aware of your dual citizenship through the physical body and the mental body. Without expectations = not using our false ideas to filter spiritual truths Freedom = acting from truth rather than desire	Awareness of eternity requires that we not use natural ideas to comprehend spiritual truths.
5.  Feeling yourself balancing the energies of giving and receiving equally, with no fear.	Giving = intending and acting from truth Receiving = being open to truth and loving it With no fear = reliance on God	Loving truth and living according to it is possible only when we rely on God as the source of truth and good.
6.  To learn to be more gentle, more open, more honest.	More gentle = innocent or fearful of hurting any one More open = looking to a person’s good side rather than bad More honest = attributing all power to God	We need to understand that being good to others is possible only from God by acknowledging Divine Providence in everything.
7.  To trust in ourselves, to know that we can change for the better.	To trust in ourselves = to understand that God empowers our attempts when they are from good with truth Changing for the better = cooperating with God in our character reformation	We can become a good person only when we ask for that good from the source of good, or God.

Yoga Expressions Literal Meaning	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology
8.  As if to give up competing with yourself and simply see the honesty in your effort.	As if = to act as of ourselves while knowing it is with God’s power Competing with yourself = believing that what you do is from you rather than from God To see the honesty of your effort = to knowingly act from God, but as if from self	Understanding that all that we do is from God allows us to avoid falsifying spiritual truth.
9.  Remember: every obstacle you meet in life can be seen as a block, or as an opportunity.	Obstacle in life = the enjoyment of inherited and acquired hellish traits Seen as a block = to deal with our hellish traits from ourselves Seen as an opportunity = to deal with them from the acknowledgement of  God’s Divine Providence in all details	We can stop enjoying our evils by appealing to God for the power to get rid of them and to hold them in aversion.
10.  As if to vow to ourselves to become ourselves, again and again.	As if to vow to ourselves = to  reaffirm our certainty that all things are from and by God To become ourselves = to regenerate our character and becoming heavenly in our enjoyments and traits Again and again = as a daily spiritual discipline	Attributing all things to Divine Providence allows us to carry out our daily spiritual discipline of character reformation.
11.  Feel your ground, feel your heart. Feel your body. Breathe your body. Let all the weight of the body fall down into the ground, leaving your body light.	Feel = become aware and understand it Your ground = the operations in your cognitive organ of the understanding and thinking Your heart = the operations in your affective organ of the will and intentions Your body = the operations in your sensorimotor organ that act together with the physical body’s operations Breathe your body = your actions have to follow the truth in your understanding Weight of the body = our resistance to act from good in the will through truth in the understanding Falling down into the ground = resistance to good in the will can be overcome through knowledge of truth in the understanding	Self-witnessing as a spiritual discipline allows us to become aware of our resistance to loving good and truth and to act accordingly.

Yoga Expressions Literal Meaning	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology
12.  Give up competing with yourself and simply see the honesty of your effort.	Competing with yourself = alternating between attributing things to God and to self Honesty of your effort = attribute all things to God	To achieve spiritual enlightenment we must attribute all things to God and nothing to oneself.
13.  To trust in ourselves to know that we can change for the better.	To trust in ourselves to know = having peace of mind Change for the better = acquiring aversion for prior hellish enjoyments	Peace of mind and spiritual enlightenment are the result of the rejection of our inherited and acquired hellish traits.
14.  Freedom is moving, thinking, and speaking from a place of no ego.	Freedom = the mental state when we act from spiritual truths that we obtained from Sacred Scripture A place of no ego = the mental state when we act in freedom Moving = sensorimotor organ of sensations Thinking = cognitive organ of understanding Speaking = affective organ of willing	The only freedom we have is loving to act from the spiritual principles in Sacred Scripture. To act from one's own principles or that of someone else, is to be a slave to our inherited and evil ego.
15.  Let us meet in a place with no fences, endless sky, boundless potential, opening from the heart.	Let us meet = our desire to share spiritual truths with others who love good (Erecting) fences = mental states in which we falsify the truths in Sacred Scripture A place with no fences = our mental states that correspond to truths of Sacred Scripture Endless sky = endless progression in understanding deeper spiritual truths through our cognitive organ Boundless potential = endless progression in loving and willing these deeper spiritual truths through our affective organ Opening from the heart = the remains of our mental states of good and innocence that God preserves for our afterlife in the spiritual mind	In our heavenly mental states, our feelings, thoughts, and actions operate from the truths of Sacred Scripture that we have acquired and honored. In that state of mind, our intelligence develops endlessly and our abilities are endlessly extended to eternity. This is made possible by God who preserves all our states of innocence and good will, and preserves them for our eternity.
16.  To be annoyed by our restrictions is natural. To be free of them, is Yoga.	Our restrictions = wanting what is not heavenly To be annoyed = suffering negative consequences or experiencing negative emotions To be free = wanting what is heavenly or what is according to truth from Sacred Scripture Yoga = reformation of our character according to spiritual truth from Sacred Scripture (spiritual wisdom)	We stop enjoying life and being happy when we want what is contrary to the spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture. To regain our enjoyment and zest of living we can compel ourselves by spiritual discipline to stop wanting what is not heavenly, and to start wanting what is heavenly.
17.  Practice with effort, then letting go of the results of that effort.	Practice with effort = performing things as-if from self Letting go = attributing to God the power or efficacy of our effort Results of that effort = the works of Divine Providence which is in every detail of our lives	Our power to achieve things as-of self is the power of God cooperating and acting in our service. We endlessly increase in power to the extent that we attribute our power  to God empowering us for the sake of our spiritual development and eternity.

18.  To be kind to others and to ourselves is as natural as a flower opening in the sun.	To be kind = to avoid feeling and thinking denigrating things about someone As natural as a flower = to feel and think from heavenly sentiments and truths Opening in the sun = to receive spiritual heat and light from the Spiritual Sun of eternity	We receive goods and truths from God into our unconscious spiritual mind. We can have these now if we admit them into our conscious natural mind, which is done by always avoiding thoughts and feelings that are denigrating to someone.
19.  To forgive weakness in others is to recognize and forgive weakness in ourselves.	To forgive others = being kind = to avoid feeling and thinking denigrating things about someone To forgive ourselves = assessing ourselves in terms of how we affect others Weakness = inherited enjoyment of what is not good To recognize weakness in ourselves = acknowledging that we are in need of reformation of our inherited character	Being kind to others consists of caring how we affect them, realizing that everyone is born with an attraction to what is not good. We are as much as others, in need of changing how we think and feel about others.
20.  Bowing to the teaching that lies inside the heart, and the teaching is forgiveness, and forgiveness starts with oneself.	Bowing = accepting an idea as spiritual truth from Sacred Scripture or God  Teaching that lies inside the heart = the correspondential sense extracted from Sacred Scripture The teaching is forgiveness = all the Divine commandments summarized into one is the commandment to stop being unkind  to others Forgiveness starts with oneself = we are to  assess ourselves by how we affect others	Genuine spiritual truths are obtained by extracting the spiritual meaning of Sacred Scripture. The chief spiritual truth is that we must stop feeling and thinking denigrating things about others. Only then can we become kind and caring.

You can see for yourself from the above analysis that Yoga Wisdom, viewed in the correspondences of Sacred Scripture, is similar to theistic psychology, which is extracted by correspondences from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

10.10.1.1  The Correspondential Meaning of Asanas (Postures)

Let us examine the spiritual meaning of some Yoga asanas or body postures that are familiar to all who practice Yoga as a form of exercise.

From Wikipedia at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asana

In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the 8 limbs of classical yoga (raja yoga). These eight limbs are the yamas (restrictions), niyamas (observances), asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), pratyahara (sense withdrawal or non-attachment), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (realization of the true self and/or unity with god).^[6]

Asanas are the physical movements in a yoga practice. In combination with pranayama or breathing techniques, it constitutes hatha yoga.^[7] In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali describes "asana" simply as sitting meditation, suggesting meditation to be the path of samadhi, or self-realization.

(...)

Main article: list of hatha yoga postures

Sukkasana Easy Pose	Uttanasana Standing Forward Bend	Paschimottanasana Intense stretch of the west	Balasana Child's Pose
Adho Mukha Svanasana Downward Facing Dog	Bhujangasana Cobra	Dhanurasana Bow	Halasana Plow
Urdhva Dhanurasana Upward Bow	Sarvangasana Shoulder Stand	Shirsasana Head Stand	Shavasana Corpse Pose

Yoga Asanas (Body Positions) and Expressions	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology
Namaste (the God in me greets the God in you)	God in me = the influx into our mental organs of spiritual good and light from the Spiritual Sun from God God in you = the acknowledgement of God's influx of good into every human being Salutes = acknowledgment or recognition of every human being as belonging to God	By saluting others with Namaste, we are affirming our deep spiritual commitment to honoring the good in every human being. The gesture symbolizes love for one's neighbor and commitment not to hurt the good in the neighbor in any way.
Guru (spiritual teacher)	Spiritual teacher = someone who represents the knowledge of spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture Guru = someone who teaches spiritual truths, not from himself or herself, but from Sacred Scripture	No one possesses spiritual truths from oneself, but only from Sacred Scripture. God is the sole source of spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture. Those who study and teach these spiritual truths out of love for truth, are noble and honored in the eyes of heaven and God.
Yoga Asanas (positions)	Yoga positions or asanas = various mental states as we go through character reformation and regeneration. The physical shape and form of the position, and the physical effort required on each body part, all correspond in detail to the structure or form of a particular mental state or necessary phase of development. These include having particular feelings, thoughts, and sensations.	Yoga is the practice of symbolizing spiritual truths and principles through precise body poses and movements. Each pose is recognized as one particular spiritual truth or principle given to us by Sacred Scripture. The physical effort involved in learning and performing each precise position, represents the mental effort required by modifying our reactions, thinking, and intending from less good to more good, reaching for perfection from God, who inflows into this mental effort and creates a heaven in our mind.
Prayer posture (hands together in front of the chest)	Prayer = communication and connection with God	Affirming our obedience to God and worship of God. Affirming our total dependence on God for all things no matter how small.
Bowing the head	Bowing = acknowledging the Divinity of God as Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent	Affirming our recognition of God's presence in every detail, managing our mind, our lives, and our eternal future.
Our greatest potential lies in the realm of no ego. Let us meet there.	Our greatest potential = becoming a heavenly character Realm of no ego = shunning evils as sins Let us meet there = striving to achieve	Our inherited evil character can be regenerated into a heavenly character when we compel ourselves to resist doing and thinking the evil things that we enjoy.
Shevasana (corpse position)	Corpse = resuscitation, awakening in the spiritual mind of eternity; inner breathing or the breathing of the spirit body	Affirming our recognition of immortal life. Symbolizing our resuscitation at death in the spiritual mind of eternity.
Breathing: inhaling (deliberately and through the nose)	Inhaling = receiving influx of good and truth from God (descending line)	Affirming God's omnipresence with each breathing act -- inhaling -- corresponds to the influx of spiritual good and truth from heaven, which is life from God.
Breathing: exhaling (deliberately and through the nose)	Exhaling = acting in accordance with the good and truth received from God (ascending line)	Affirming our responsibility in the face of God with each breathing act -- exhaling --  corresponds to our behavioral intentions, or what we are moved to do for others.
Gesture of no fear (right hand raised facing outward, left hand by the side facing up)	Gesture = affirmation and communication No fear = reliance on God's loving Divine Providence in every detail of our life Right hand = giving Left hand = receiving	The gesture of no fear symbolizes our determination to see God's omnipotent management of every possible detail of our daily life and experience. We do this by balancing receiving and giving, descending and ascending.
Warrior pose	Warrior = resistance to temptations by means of truths from Sacred Scripture	The warrior pose symbolizes our commitment to resist doing what is bad or hurtful.
Rabbit pose	Rabbit = purification from falsities	The rabbit pose symbolizes our readiness to do what it takes to purify our false ideas that keep us in the enjoyment of evil.
Child pose	Child = innocence and obedience to God's truths and commandments	The child pose symbolizes our desire to be obedient to God and God's truths in Sacred Scripture.
Crane pose	Crane, swan = marriage love at the external or male dominant level of relationship between husband and wife	The crane pose symbolizes the first of three stages of marriage love between soul mates. It is in the natural mind. This is the natural marriage that is temporary and does not continue in the afterlife in eternity.
Bird of paradise  pose	Bird of paradise = marriage love at the middle or equity level of relationship between husband and wife	The bird of paradise pose symbolizes the second of three stages of marriage love between soul mates. It is in the spiritual mind. This is the spiritual marriage that continues in the afterlife in eternity.
Dove pose	Doves = marriage love at the inmost or unity level of relationship between husband and wife	The dove pose symbolizes the last of three stages of marriage love between soul mates. It is in the celestial mind. This is the celestial marriage that continues in the afterlife in eternity.
Meditation	Meditation = study and reflection on the spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture	Taking time out from our daily physical concerns of duty and work, in order to study and reflect upon the spiritual truths revealed in Sacred Scripture.
Right hand above left hand	Right hand = spiritual power of loving what is good Left hand = spiritual power of loving what is true Above = superior or more excellent spiritually, closer to God	Right hand over left hand is a symbolic gesture affirming our closeness to God though our love for what is good.
Left hand above right hand	Left hand above right hand = truth without good in it	Left hand above right hand is acknowledging that we are not yet fully in the order of God because we are  elevating truth above good, and that is the opposite of what God does and wants for us.
Earth-Rain Link movement	Earth = our conscious natural mind and its contents from experience and knowledge Rain = natural truths or scientific knowledge about the physical world	The earth-rain movement symbolizes the distinction of our natural life on earth from our spiritual life in eternity. In order to understand our spiritual life we need first to acquire ideas, concepts, and principles of the natural world in the natural mind.
Sun-Moon Link movement	Sun = the Spiritual Sun's aura surrounding God in eternity; love in the affective organ Moon = faith in the cognitive organ	We have two lives, one consisting of love or good from God, and the other consisting of faith or truth from Sacred Scripture. .
Lotus movement unfurling at the chest	Lotus flower = doctrine of truth and life from Sacred Scripture Unfurling at the chest = applying the doctrine of truth to willing and intending	The unfurling of the lotus movement at the chest region symbolizes the affirming that Sacred Scripture gives us the teaching or doctrine of truth that we must apply to our daily willing, thinking, speaking, and acting.
Sun salutations	Sun = God and the Spiritual Sun Morning, East = looking to God for enlightenment Saluting = affirming our relationship to God	Performing the sun salutation sequence of movements represents our looking to God for enlightenment and reaffirming our eternal relationship to God.
Heart Center (chest area)	Heart = affective organ of the will	The heart center represents our willing and intending, from which all else in us depends. If our willing is good, then our thinking, speaking, and acting will be good. If our willing is bad, then our thinking, speaking, and acting will be evil.
Touching one's forehead ("third eye") with the hands in prayer posture	Forehead = acknowledgment of our relationship to God Hands = our power to intend and do Touching = conjoining, uniting with	Touching the forehead with hands in the prayer position symbolizes our intention to think and speak only what is good so that we may get closer to God.
Feel the body grounded, one with the universe	Body grounded = the mind arranged in the order of heaven One with the universe = obedient to God's order	Affirming our connection to God through the truths of Sacred Scripture taken up into our understanding.

From the above analysis it is clear that people from all religions are able to affirm and confirm the spiritual truths that are symbolized in the performance of yoga postures and movements (asanas).

Most Americans who practice yoga postures as a beneficial physical exercise become familiar with a a few yoga words or expressions that are used by teachers and books. Let us analyze the correspondential sense of some of these to see how their spiritual meaning is congruent with the Sacred Scripture that is familiar to Americans, namely, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Writings of Swedenborg, and the Koran (or Qu'ran).

When these yoga expressions are viewed in the literal sense, then their meaning and message is associated with the religions and cultures of India and the related spiritual philosophy called Buddhism. Similarly, when the New Testament is viewed in its literal sense by Christians, that spiritual message is rejected by Jews who rely only on the literal sense of the Old Testament, and also rejected by Islam, which relies on the literal sense of the Koran. Again, when one reads the Writings of Swedenborg in their literal sense, as do the members of the New Church (see Section xx), then the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims reject it altogether as opposed to their religion.

So it is clear that the literal meanings of Sacred Scriptures, from all the major religions or cultures on this earth, appear to be opposed to each other, or in some way contradictory to each other, and hence unacceptable to each other.

 Swedenborg tells us that the ancient peoples on this earth, at the beginning of recorded history, also had different versions of Sacred Scriptures, and yet they never fought over religion or doctrine. Why not? What made them so peaceful to each other despite the differences in their cultural and religious beliefs about God?

The reason is that the ancient nations at one point, mostly focused on the correspondential sense of their Sacred Scripture. 

They could plainly see that the correspondential sense was the same regardless of the literal version in each culture and religion.

This is because the literal version was originally written by prophets or ancestors who studied and understood what they called the "science of correspondences" (see Section xx). Swedenborg tells us that at the historical beginning of written languages, writers always wrote in correspondences. Much later, after the science of correspondences was forgotten and lost, writers began writing in natural meanings, thus producing books, textbooks, manuals, and stage plays or fiction. By the time the Sacred Scriptures were written in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and New Church, all of it was written in a natural language describing visions and historical events. Since the science of correspondences was lost and forgotten, no one suspected that their own Sacred Scripture was written in the language of correspondences.  

The effect of this lack of knowledge of correspondences over the past millennia has been that all religions and doctrines about God and eternity, are based strictly on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. This necessarily creates religions that are ethnic or cultural, and hence opposed to one another.

But by the 18th century God had gradually shaped the human mind on this earth that the era of modern science began and continued to develop. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-172) was the first scientist prepared by God since his childhood, to develop the first modern scientific mind who could comprehend correspondences, integrate it into modern science, and explain it scientifically and rationally to others. This he accomplished in the collection of his 30 volumes, which in theistic psychology are called the Writings of Swedenborg Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

Today theistic psychology has become possible because modern science is being taught in all public schools and universities across the globe. We can now translate all of the literal meanings of Sacred Scriptures in all religions, proving that they are compatible with each other since every Sacred Scripture in correspondences is Divine Speech, the Speech of the one God of creation and eternity (see Section xx).

10.10.1.2  The Correspondential Meaning of Mudras

 

The Abhaya "No-fear" Mudrā represents protection, peace, benevolence, and dispelling of fear. In the Theravāda it is usually made with the right hand raised to the shoulder's height, the arm bent and the palm facing outward with the fingers upright and joined and the left hand hanging down on the right side of the while standing.

The Bhūmisparśa "Earth-touching" Mudrā literally represents the Buddha as taking the earth as witness. The right hand touches the ground with the fingertips near the right knee extended or with only the index pointing down touching the ground with the left hand commonly resting on the lap with the palm facing up. It can also represent the subjugation of the demon horde of Māra.

The Dharmachakra Mudrā represents a central moment in the life of Buddha when he preached his first sermon after his Enlightenment, in Deer Park in Sarnath. Gautama Buddha is generally only shown making this Mudrā, save Maitreya as the dispenser of the Law. This Mudrā position represents the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. Dharmacakra Mudrā is formed when two hands close together in front of the chest in Vitarka having the right palm forward and the left palm upward, sometimes facing the chest.

The Dhyāna Mudrā is the gesture of meditation, of the concentration of the Good Law and the Sangha. The two hands are placed on the lap, right hand on left with fingers fully stretched and the palms facing upwards, forming a triangle, symbolic of the spiritual fire or the Triratna, the three jewels. This Mudrā is used in representations of the Buddha Śākyamuni and the Buddha Amitābha.

The Varada Mudrā signifies offering, welcome, charity, giving, compassion and sincerity. It is nearly always used with the left hand for those whom devote oneself to human salvation. It can be made with the arm crooked the palm offered slightly turned up or in the case of the arm facing down the palm presented with the fingers upright or slightly bent. The Varada Mudrā is rarely seen without using another mudra used by the right hand, typically with the Abhaya Mudrā.

The Vajra Mudrā is the gesture of knowledge. It is made making a fist with the right hand, index extending upward, and the left hand also making a fist and enclosing the index. A good example of the application of the Vajra Mudrā is the seventh technique (out of nine) of the Nine Hand Seals, using the mudra with mantras in a ritual application.

The Vitarka Mudrā is the gesture of discussion and transmission of Buddhist teaching. It is done by joining the tips of the thumb and the index together, and keeping the other fingers straight very much like Abhaya and Varada Mudrās but with the thumbs touching the index fingers.

The Jnana mudra (Sanskrit: jñanamudrā), or "gesture of knowledge" is done by touching the tips of the thumb and the index together, forming a circle, and the hand is held with the palm inward toward the heart.^[1]

The Karana mudra is the mudra which expels demons and removes obstacles such as sickness or negative thoughts. It is made by raising the index and the little finger, and folding the other fingers. It is rather similar to the gesture known as corna in the West.

 

From: MUDRAS IN BUDDHISM
Rev. Jnana - Zen Dharma Teacher - IBMC

http://urbandharma.org/udharma7/mudras.html

Mudras are one of six principle iconographic themes in Buddhism, particularly in esoteric Buddhism. Briefly noted, these other principle thematic elements are mandalas, asanas, thrones, aureoles, and implements and accessories of the deities.

A mandala, of course, is a specifically detailed diagram representing a deity and his forces, or groups of divinities, depicting the invisible universe of the forces that govern the cosmos. The postures that a Buddhist deity assumes in a sculpture or painting are known as asanas. They can be widely varied and divide in to two main groupings: static postures and dynamic postures. Thrones and pedestals on which the deities are placed often condition the asana assumed by them. These regularly include lotus thrones, stands or chairs, demons and lower deities, and support animals, such as lions, elephants, peacocks, etc. Aureoles are the haloes or auras that indicate the divinity or saintliness of a personage and are placed behind the statue or image. There are numerous variations and elaborations among them. Finally, implements and accessories of the deities accompany many mudra, symbolizing material and spiritual virtues and powers of the deity represented. Chief among these are lotuses of various colors, thunderbolt scepters or vajras, of differing numbers of points, bells, wheels, weapons, pots, and maces.

Also by - Rev. Lynn "Jnana" Sipe
Reflections on Mara
Buddhism In the Numbers
An Irreverent Look at Zen in America
The European Discovery of Indian Buddhism
 

Yoga Expressions Literal Meaning Mudras (hand gerstures)	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology

 

10.10.1.3  The Correspondential Meaning of Breath and Breathing

The idea of breathing appears very prominent in the oldest sacred writings in the Hindu tradition. The spiritual significance of Yoga breathing can be scientifically understood and explained in theistic psychology. The correspondences of breathing can be illustrated through various concepts in theistic psychology. 

Natural Meaning Correspondences to Breathing (physical body operations)	Spiritual Meaning Theistic Psychology Explanation (mental body operations)
Breathing
Breathing in, inhaling	descending line receiving satisficing opening up, relaxing feeling integrated, harmonious feeling empowered, focused feeling peace, clear
Breathing out, exhaling	ascending line giving optimizing closing in, compacting feeling fractioned, ambivalent feeling weakened, scattered feeling struggle, foggy

Explanations for breathing: inhaling and exhaling

1. descending line vs. ascending line

2. receiving vs. giving

3. satisficing vs. optimizing

4. opening up, relaxing vs. closing in, compacting

5. feeling integrated, harmonious vs. feeling fractioned, ambivalent

6. feeling empowered, focused vs. feeling weakened, scattered

7. feeling peace, clear vs. feeling struggle, foggy

1. Inhaling corresponds to our higher self descending from our spiritual mind to our natural mind, while exhaling corresponds to our lower self ascending from the natural mind to the spiritual mind.

2. Inhaling corresponds to the higher self ("angels") descending from our unconscious spiritual mind into our conscious natural mind. When this occurs, we experience elevation of the lower self in the natural mind. Our conscious self feels mentally elevated. We are receiving spiritual influx of good and truth through the laws of correspondence. The thoughts we are conscious of are rational and consistent, and the feelings we are conscious of are positive and hopeful.

Exhaling corresponds to the lower self ascending from our conscious natural mind into our spiritual mind, so that our will is moved and motivated by higher spiritual truths in our spiritual mind. This ascending is achieved through giving, that is, mentally giving to others what one has received in the descending operation. Giving to others is performed by doing tasks that are useful.

3. Inhaling corresponds to satisficing or adapting to the descending operation. We are changed by inhaling or descending operations, as we become more spiritual by receiving spiritual truths into our conscious thinking. The reception process is called satisficing because we must digest and incorporate the spiritual truths we receive from above. Satisficing means to attach a value to what we receive, making it valuable to us.

Exhaling corresponds to optimizing or making use of the ascending operation to motivate the will to act. Behavioral intentions are exhaling operations that involve interacting with the environment, struggling to achieve the intended goal. The ascending operation of exhaling creates our morality as individuals, as we strive continuously every day to be useful to others, or to prepare ourselves in learning and discipline, that we may become useful to others.

4. Inhaling corresponds to descending, receiving, satisficing, and mentally opening up or relaxing. Our mind is open to the descending influx of good and truth from the spiritual mind into our natural mind. Our conscious thinking and reasoning is modified. We begin to think in agreement with correspondences. Our reasoning becomes rational and scientific in accord with the spiritual truths of Sacred Scripture that are in our spiritual mind. The content of our spiritual mind is the influx of spiritual truths from the Spiritual Sun, that is, from God.

Exhaling corresponds to ascending, giving, optimizing, closing in, compacting. We change the world or the environment through the exhaling ascending operations, as we become more heavenly in character. This is done by resisting temptations in our lower self, struggling to oppose our animal nature, compelling our lower self to purify itself from hellish enjoyments that hurt others physically, and self spiritually.  Our reasoning is now in the service of our good will and good intentions. We perform acts of charity, that is, preventing ourselves from hurting others, first, and then second, striving to benefit others with useful intentions.

 5. Inhaling corresponds to descending, receiving, satisficing, mentally opening up, relaxing, and feeling integrated and harmonious. We begin to feel that we are spiritual and that we belong to heaven in eternity and to God. We feel integrated with the order of the universe and reality. We can see how our life on earth is nothing but a sequence of correspondences in the natural mind and physical body, creating our lower self. We can see that we have a spiritual mind and we feel in harmony or congruence with it. Our natural mind is integrated with our spiritual mind.

Exhaling corresponds to ascending, giving, optimizing, closing in, compacting, and feeling fractioned, ambivalent. We are keenly experiencing our struggle, our ambivalence, and our incompleteness. We strive to apply the spiritual truths that we received in the inhaling descending operation. We struggle to bring heaven down to earth, to purify earth so that it corresponds to heaven. We feel fractioned, ambivalent, hesitant sometimes, over reactive at other times. We experience the mental state of temptation and suffering, before we are rescued and receive victory through the inhaling descending line.

6. Inhaling corresponds to descending, receiving, satisficing, mentally opening up, relaxing, feeling integrated, harmonious, empowered, and focused.

Exhaling corresponds to ascending, giving, optimizing, closing in, compacting, and feeling fractioned, ambivalent, weakened, scattered. As we struggle all day long to optimize the spiritual truths in actual behavioral intentions, we feel weakened by our lower self, by our attachment to hell and infernal affections. Our attention is scattered, we are filled with uncertainty and doubt, as we become aware of our shortcomings. Our reasoning becomes faulty and biased as we plan and execute our good intentions.

7. Inhaling corresponds to descending, receiving, satisficing, mentally opening up, relaxing, feeling integrated, harmonious, empowered, focused, feeling peace, clear.

Exhaling corresponds to ascending, giving, optimizing, closing in, compacting, and feeling fractioned, ambivalent, weakened, scattered, feeling struggle, foggy.

Quoting From:

The Science of Kundalini Yoga Compiled by Datta Singh
at:  http://www.kundaliniyoga.nl/handouts/kyhandout_uk.htm

Pranayama

The yogic science of breath is called Pranayama. Pranayama is the control (yama) of the life energy (prana) through breathing exercises. Kundalini Yoga employs a wide range of breathing techniques. The breath, its rhythm, and its depth relate to different states of health, consciousness, and emotion. Kundalini Yoga uses the breath scientifically to change energy states. There are a few basic breaths that should be mastered in order to freely practice the kriyas.

Long Deep Breathing

The simplest of all yogic breaths is long deep breathing. It is a habit that we in our western culture have lost. Our normal tendency is to breathe shallow and irregularly. This leads to an emotional approach to life, chronic tension, and weak nerves. The lungs are one of the largest organs of the human body. Average lungs can enlarge to a volume of almost 6,000 cubic centimeters. Normally we use only 600 – 700 cubic centimeters of that capacity. If you do not expand the lungs to their full capacity, the small air sacks in the lungs, called alveoli, cannot clean their mucous lining properly. Therefore you do not get enough oxygen so toxic irritants that lead to infections and disease build up. By taking a deep breath you can expand the lungs by about eight times. If you establish a habit of breathing long, deep and slowly, you will build your endurance and patience. A long deep breath can bring you back to your center, even in chaotic circumstances.

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10.10.1.4  Breathing Explained in the Writings Sacred Scripture

The following are selections from the Writings Sacred Scripture that address the spiritual correspondences of body parts and position, including how we breathe in our mental body. [ italicized notes in square brackets are not in the original ]

AC 97. The reason why life is described by "breathing" and by "breath" is also that the men of the Most Ancient Church perceived states of love and of faith by states of respiration, which were successively changed in their posterity. Of this respiration nothing can as yet be said, because at this day such things are altogether unknown. The most ancient people were well acquainted with it, and so are those who are in the other life, but no longer anyone on this earth, and this was the reason why they likened spirit or life to "wind."

The Lord also does this when speaking of the regeneration of man, in John: [New Testament Sacred Scripture]

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, and knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the spirit (John 3:8).

So in David: [Old Testament Sacred Scripture]

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the army of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).

And again:

Thou gatherest their breath, they expire, and return to their dust; Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the faces of the ground (Ps. 104:29-30).

That the "breath" [spiraculum] is used for the life of faith and of love, appears from Job: [Old Testament Sacred Scripture]

He is the spirit in man, and the breath of Shaddai giveth them understanding (Job 32:8).

Again in the same:

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of Shaddai hath given me life (Job 33:4).

* In the original languages [Hebrew, Greek] , "wind" "spirit" and "breath" are all expressed by the same word. [Reviser.] (AC 97)

AC 169. I [ Swedenborg ] was reduced into a state of insensibility as to the bodily senses, thus almost into the state of dying persons, retaining however my interior life unimpaired [ = mental body or spiritual mind ], attended with the power of thinking, and with sufficient breathing for life, and finally with a tacit breathing, that I might perceive and remember [ = method of empirical observation ] what happens to those who have died and are being resuscitated. (AC 169)

LIFE 86. Man [ = human beings ] possesses a natural mind and a spiritual mind [ = in the mental body or spirit body ]. The natural mind is below [ = lower layer by correspondences ], and the spiritual mind above [ = upper layer by correspondences ]. The natural mind is the mind of man's world [ = physical input into the sensorimotor organ of the natural mind ], and the spiritual mind is the mind of his heaven [ = spiritual input into the sensorimotor organ of the spiritual mind ]. The natural mind may be called the animal mind, and the spiritual mind the human mind. Man is discriminated from the animal by possessing a spiritual mind. By means of this mind he can be in heaven while still in the world; and it is by means of this mind also that man lives after death.

[2] In his understanding [ = cognitive operations in the interior natural mind ]  a man is able to be in the spiritual mind [ = the interior natural mind is also called the spiritual-natural mind ], and consequently in heaven [ = spiritual mind ] , but unless he shuns evils as sins [ = in his conscious natural mind ] he cannot be in the spiritual mind and consequently in heaven, as to his will [ = affective organ of the natural mind ].

And if he is not there as to his will, he is not in heaven, in spite of the fact that he is there in understanding, for the will drags the understanding down, and causes it to be just as natural and animal as it is itself.

[3] Man may be compared to a garden, his understanding to light, and his will to heat. In wintertime a garden is in light but not in accompanying heat, but in summertime it is in light accompanied by heat. Just so a man who is in the light of the understanding alone is like a garden in wintertime, whereas one who is in the light of the understanding and at the same time in the heat of the will is like a garden in summertime. Moreover the understanding is wise from spiritual light, and the will loves from spiritual heat, for spiritual light is Divine wisdom, and spiritual heat is Divine love.

[4] So long as a man does not shun evils as sins [ = to stop thinking and willing what is not good because the evil we do and think binds us to hell in eternity ], the concupiscences of evils [ = our inherited enjoyments of hurtful and foolish things ] block up the interiors of the natural mind on the part of the will [ = the interior portion of the natural mind that is activated when regeneration of character begins ] , being like a thick veil there, and like a black cloud beneath the spiritual mind, and they prevent its being opened. But in very deed the moment a man shuns evils as sins, the Lord inflows from heaven, takes away the veil, dispels the cloud, opens the spiritual mind [ = our conscious natural mind in its spiritual interior, i.e., our comprehension of spiritual correspondences ], and so introduces the man into heaven [ = our daily thinking and willing when they conform to the spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture ].

[5] So long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind (in the way we have indicated) [ = prior to character reformation when we are still holding on to the enjoyment of many evil or injurious things ], so long is the man in hell [ = the inherited enjoyment or love for these evil things is a spiritual binding connection to our hell in eternity ] ; the moment, however, that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord [ = when we cooperate with the Divine Psychologist by compelling ourselves to resist doing the evils that we enjoy and to which we are attracted by love ], the man is in heaven [ = we are being regenerated by the Divine Psychologist and thus we are acquiring a new heavenly character for our life in eternity ]. Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man natural [ = the old inherited character we have prior to beginning our regeneration in adult life ] ; but the moment they have been dispersed by the Lord, he is spiritual [ = once we begin regeneration we are committed to struggling against our enjoyments of evils and we are thereby enlightened, becoming dual citizens ].

Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man animal, differing only in his ability to think and speak, even of such things as he does not see with his eyes, which ability he derives from his capacity of uplifting his understanding into the light of heaven [ = spiritual truths ] . The moment however that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, the man is a man, because he then thinks what is true in the understanding [ = knowledge of the spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture ] from what is good in the will [ = perception and comprehension of spiritual truths is given by the Divine Psychologist when we struggle to rearrange our willing and thinking so as to be in accord with what God wants and commands us to do ].

And furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, the man is like a garden in winter time [ = in the mental world of eternity dry and dead gardens are seen around us when our mind has not yet been arranged into the form of spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture ], but the moment these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, he is like a garden in summer time. [ = in the mental world of eternity beautiful and wonderful gardens are seen around us when our mind has been arranged into the form of spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture ]

[6] The conjunction in a man of the will and the understanding is meant in the Word by "heart and soul," and by "heart and spirit." For example: that we must love God:

With all the heart, and with all the soul (Matt. 22:37).

And that God will give:

A new heart, and a new spirit (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26-27).

The "heart" means the will and its love [ = operations in the affective organ of the mental body ], and the "soul" and the "spirit," the understanding and its wisdom [ = operations in the cognitive organ of the mental body ]. (LIFE 86)

AC 607. The character of that Church [ = the content of the operations in the natural layers of our mind ] is described later on, but in order that some notion of it may be gained at this point let a brief description be given here. The Most Ancient Church [ = the earliest generations living on this earth. They represent the celestial layer of mental eternity in our spiritual mind], as has been stated, was celestial whereas this Ancient Church became spiritual [ = the subsequent generations, including us today. The spiritual layer is correspondentially below the celestial in our mind ]. Whereas the Most Ancient Church possessed perception of good and truth [ = conscious awareness of the spiritual mind ] this Church had instead of perception a different kind of dictate, which may be called conscience [ = our intuition of what is good or right ].

[2] Something as yet unknown to the world and perhaps hard to believe is that the member of the Most Ancient Church possessed internal breathing [ = the breathing of the spirit body, i.e., conscious awareness of the spiritual mind and its operations ], but no external breathing except that which was soundless [ = conscious awareness of the natural mind was not independent of the spiritual mind, as it is for us ].

Consequently people spoke not so much by means of vocal utterances, as they did in later times and as they do nowadays, but like angels, by means of ideas [ = after resuscitation in our spiritual mind in eternity we speak a universal thought language and are called angels ]. They were able to express ideas by means of countless alterations in their facial expressions and in their looks, and especially by means of alterations of the lips where there are innumerable threads of muscular fibres which are all knotted up nowadays but which had freedom of movement in those times.

They were in this way able to present, mean, and represent inside a minute things which nowadays take an hour by the use of articulated sounds or utterance. And they did so far more fully and more clearly to the comprehension and understanding of those present than can possibly be done with words or sentences. This is perhaps hard to believe but is nevertheless the truth. There are also many others who do not originate from this earth who spoke and still do so today in this manner. These in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on.

[3] I have been given to know also the nature of that internal breathing [ = the breathing of the spirit body]    and how in course of time it was changed. And because their manner of breathing resembled that of angels [ = we are called angels when we gain conscious awareness of our celestial layer in the spiritual mind of eternity ] who breathe in that kind of way, profound ideas constituted their thought, and they were able to have perception [ = quasi-omniscient ], such as defies description. Consequently if such a description were attempted it would not be comprehended nor therefore believed either.

Among their descendants however that internal breathing gradually passed away, and with those who were obsessed with dreadful persuasions and delusions it became such that they were incapable any longer of presenting any idea comprising thought except the very grotesque. The outcome of this was their inability to survive, and so all of them were wiped out [ = they keep themselves in the hellish layers of eternity ]. (AC 607)

AC 608. When internal breathing [ = conscious awareness of the spiritual mind and its operations ] came to an end, external breathing [ = conscious awareness of the natural mind and its operations ] practically the same as that today gradually took its place.

And with external breathing came vocal speech or articulated sounds, which encapsulated the ideas comprising thought. In this way man's state was changed completely, and he became such as to be incapable any longer of possessing perception of that kind [ = conscious awareness of the operations in the spiritual mind was no longer possible prior to resuscitation after death -- unlike Swedenborg who was given this conscious awareness while he was still in this world ].

Instead of perception he had a different kind of dictate, which may be called conscience, for though similar to conscience, it was in fact something half-way between perception and conscience as some people know it today. And once such an encapsulation of the ideas comprising thought had taken place, that is to say, within vocal speech, people could not be taught any longer by way of the internal man, as the most ancient people had been, but by way of the external.

Consequently the revelations that the Most Ancient Church received [ = direct perception of spiritual correspondences ] were succeeded by matters of doctrine which had first of all to be apprehended by the external senses [ = reading Sacred Scripture in its literal sense only, ignorant of its correspondences ]. These would produce material ideas in the memory, from which the ideas comprising thought were formed, such ideas being the means by which they were taught [ = religious education through language as a means of building up our conscious understanding of God and eternity ].

Consequently the mental constitution of this Church was altogether different from that of the Most Ancient Church which it succeeded. And unless the Lord had brought the human race into that mental disposition or condition nobody at all could possibly have been saved [ = no one could have been regenerated from their inherited evils, hence being automatically condemned to a hellish existence in eternity ]. (AC 608)

AC 1119. I have been shown by actually observing it how the internal breathing of the most ancient people flowed in a non-audible manner into a kind of external, and thus non-verbal, speech, which was perceived by another person in his interior man.

They said that that breathing with them changed according to their state of love and faith in the Lord. They also stated the reason, namely that because they had had communication with heaven, it could not be otherwise. In fact they and the angels who accompanied them were breathing in unison.

Angels have breathing to which internal breathing corresponds, and which with them changes in a similar way. Indeed when they encounter anything contrary to love and faith in the Lord their breathing is laboured, but when they are experiencing the happiness that accompanies love and faith, their breathing is full and free.

Something similar to this also exists with every human being but in this case everything depends on the bodily and worldly loves and on a person's basic assumptions. When anything goes against these he experiences laboured breathing, but when it is in keeping with them his breathing is full and free. These observations however apply to external breathing. The subject of angels and their breathing will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on. (AC 1119)

AC 1120. I have also been shown that the internal breathing of members of the Most Ancient Church which had come from between the navel and the inner region of the breast was changed in the course of time, that is, among their descendants. It retreated more towards the region of the back and towards the abdomen, and so retreated outwards and downwards till at length, among the final descendants of that Church who came immediately before the Flood, scarcely any internal breathing was left.

And when at length none at all came from the breast they underwent self-caused suffocation. Among certain people of that time however external breathing came into existence and with it articulated sound, or vocal speech. Thus the ways in which people breathed prior to the Flood were determined by their state of love and faith; and when at length neither love nor faith existed but a persuasion of falsity, internal breathing came to an end. And when that came to an end so did perception and direct communication with angels. (AC 1120)

AC 1121. I have learned from members' of the Most Ancient Church about their state of perception - that they had a perception of everything that was a matter of faith, almost as the angels did with whom they were in communication. The reason they had it was that their interior man, which is the spirit, was joined - also by means of internal breathing - to heaven, and that love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour have heaven within them.

Thus man is joined to the angels through their very life itself which consists in such love. They said that because they abided in love to the Lord and in love towards the neighbour they had the law inscribed within them. That being so whatever the laws dictated was in keeping with their perception and whatever the laws forbade was contrary to that perception. Nor did they doubt that all human laws, like Divine laws, are based on love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and regard these as their foundation. Since they had this foundation in them from the Lord they could not help knowing all that arises from it.

They also believe that all people living in the world today who love the Lord and the neighbour have this law inscribed within them as well, and are acceptable citizens everywhere on earth just as they are in the next life. * lit. sons or children (AC 1121)

AC 3883. THE GRAND MAN AND CORRESPONDENCE - continued IN THIS SECTION THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE HEART AND LUNGS

What the Grand Man is, and what correspondence with it is, has been stated already. The Grand Man consists in heaven in its entirety, which in general is a likeness and image of the Lord. Correspondence is a correspondence of the Lord's Divine with the celestial and spiritual things of heaven, and of those celestial and spiritual things of heaven with natural things in the world, primarily those in man.

Thus there exists, by means of heaven or the Grand Man, a correspondence of the Lord's Divine with man and every individual part of him, so much so that man comes into being from that correspondence and is all the time coming into being, that is, is kept in being, from it. (AC 3883)

AC 3884. As the world knows nothing at all about the correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with every individual part of man or about the truth that man comes into being and is kept in being from it, and as what is going to be said on these matters will seem paradoxical and unbelievable, let me refer to things which I have experienced and of which I am therefore firmly convinced.

On one occasion when the interior heaven [ = highest layer of our mental eternity ] was opened to me and I was talking to the angels there I was allowed to observe the following activities there. (It should be realized that although I was present there in heaven I had not left my body at all, for heaven is within a person wherever he is situated. So when it pleases the Lord a person can be in heaven and yet not withdrawn from the body. In this way I was allowed to perceive the general activities of heaven as plainly as anything perceived by any of the senses.)

On this particular occasion I perceived four activities taking place, the first being into the brain at the left temple. This was a general activity involving the organs of reason, for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational powers or those of the understanding, but the right to affections or powers of the will. [ = Interesting historical note: This was written two hundred years before the medical discovery of the left brain-right brain functions ].

[2] The second general activity which I perceived was into the breathing of the lungs, which was gently controlling my own breathing. But it did so from what was interior and so I had no need to call on my own will to control my breathing or drawing of breath. I perceived plainly at that time the actual breathing of heaven [ = the breathing of the mental body which is the spiritual mind ]. It is an internal breathing and not therefore perceptible to man [ = unconscious to our natural mind ], but flows in by means of a wonderful correspondence into man's breathing, which is external or of the body [ = our physical breathing is a correspondential reaction to the breathing in our spiritual mind as it acts into the natural mind ]. And if man were deprived of that influx he would instantly fall down dead [ = unable to have a physical body ].

[3] The third activity which I perceived was into the systole and the diastole of the heart, which was at that time gentler in myself than it had ever been at any other times. The pulse rate was regular - round about three beats for every breath that was taken - yet such that beats ended in and so conditioned actions taking place in the lungs. How at the end of each breath taken the alternating actions of the heart fitted into those of the lungs I was allowed to observe to a certain extent. The alternate sounds of the pulse could be observed so easily that I was able to count them. They were separate and gentle.

[4] The fourth general activity was into the kidneys; this too I was allowed to perceive, though obscurely.

From these activities it was evident that heaven or the Grand Man [ = spiritual mind in eternity ] has heartbeats and draws breaths, and that the heartbeats of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and its systolic and diastolic motions, and that the breathing actions of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their breathing actions.

But neither can be observed by man [ = before we are resuscitated ], being imperceptible because they are internal [ =  spiritual ]. (AC 3884)

EU 63. A certain spirit ascending from the lower earth [ = returning to the consciousness he had in the natural mind when first resuscitated ], came to me, and said that he had heard what I had been discoursing upon with' other spirits, but that he did not understand at all what was said concerning spiritual life and the light thereof. He was asked whether he was willing to be instructed concerning it. He said that he had not come with that purpose. From which I concluded that he would not comprehend such things.

He was very stupid; yet it was declared by the angels, that when he lived as a man in the world, he was much celebrated for his learning. He was cold, as was manifestly felt from his breathing, which was a sign of light merely natural, and of none spiritual, thus that by the sciences [ = the negative bias in science ] he had not opened, but had closed for himself the way to the light of heaven [ =  rational understanding of spiritual truths ]. (EU 63)

EU 87. Spirits from Mars [ = people whose mind corresponds to the sign of the planet Mars ] came to me and applied themselves to my left temple, where they breathed upon me with their speech; but I did not understand it. It was soft in its flow, softer I had never before perceived; it was like the softest aura. It first breathed upon my left temple, and upon my left ear from above; and the breathing proceeded thence to my left eye, and little by little to the right, and then flowed down, chiefly from the left eye to the lips; and when it reached the lips, it entered through the mouth, and through the passage within the mouth, and indeed through the Eustachian tube, into the brain. When the breathing arrived there, I then understood their speech; and it was granted to speak with them.

I observed when they were speaking with me, that my lips were moved, and the tongue also a little; which was by reason of the correspondence of interior speech with exterior speech. Exterior speech is that of articulate sound finding its way to the external membrane of the ear, whence it is conveyed, by means of little organs, membranes, and fibers which are within the ear, into the brain. From this, it was granted, to know that the speech of the inhabitants of Mars [ = people in the afterlife of eternity whose mental states correspond to the sign of the planet Mars ] was different from that of the inhabitants of our earth [ = people in the afterlife of eternity whose mental states correspond to the sign of the planet Earth ] , namely, it was not sonorous, but almost tacit, insinuating itself into the interior hearing and sight by a shorter way; and being such it was more perfect, and more full of the ideas of thought, thus approaching nearer to the speech of spirits and angels [ = people in the afterlife of eternity whose mental states operate in the highest region of the mind ] .

The very affection of the speech is also represented with them in the face, and its thought in the eyes; for the thought and the speech, also the affection and the face, with them act as one. They regard it as nefarious to think one thing and speak another, and to will one thing and show another in the face. They do not know what hypocrisy is, nor what fraudulent pretence and deceit are.

That such was also the speech of the most ancient people on our earth, it has been given me to know by conversation with some of them in the other life; and that this matter may be made clearer, it is permitted to relate what I have heard, as follows: "It was shown me by an influx which I cannot describe, what kind of speech they had who were of the Most Ancient Church, namely, that it was not articulate, like the vocal speech of our time, but tacit, which was effected not by external respiration but by internal; thus it was the speech of thought. It was also granted to perceive what their internal respiration was, that it proceeded from the navel toward the heart, and so through the lips without being sonorous when they spoke; and that it did not enter into the ear of another by the external way, and beat upon what is called the drum of the ear, but by a certain internal way, and in fact by a certain passage now called the Eustachian tube.

It was shown that by such speech they could much more fully express the feelings of the mind and the ideas of the thought, than can ever be done by articulate sounds or sonorous words; which speech is in like manner directed by respiration, but external: for there is no word, nor indeed anything in a word, which is not directed by applications of the respiration. But with them this was much more perfect, because it was effected by internal respiration, which is the more perfect, because more internal, and more applicable and better conformed to the very ideas of thought; and it is further effected also by the little motions of the lips and corresponding changes of the face.

For, since they were celestial men, whatever they thought shone forth from their face and eyes, which were varied in conformity, the face as to form according to the life of the affection, and the eyes as to light. They could by no means present any other countenance than such as accorded with what they thought; and because they had speech by internal respiration, which is that of man's spirit itself, they were therefore able to associate and speak with angels.

The respiration of the spirits of Mars was also communicated to me;# and it was perceived that it proceeded from the region of the thorax toward the navel, and thence flowed upward through the chest with an imperceptible breathing toward the mouth. From this, as also from other proofs of experience, it was made plain to me that they were of a celestial genius; thus that they were not unlike those who were from the Most Ancient Church on this earth.

# That spirits and angels have respiration (n. 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893). (EU 87)

EU 102. The inhabitants and spirits of the planet Saturn answer in the Grand Man to the SENSE WHICH IS MIDWAY BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE NATURAL MAN, but which departs from the natural and verges on the spiritual. This is why those spirits are seen to be carried off or hurried into heaven, and then shortly to be sent back. For anything to do with spiritual sense is in heaven, but anything to do with natural sense is below heaven.

[2] Since the spirits of our world answer in the Grand Man to natural and bodily sense, I have been allowed to learn by plain experience how the spiritual and the natural man fight and quarrel, if the natural man is not in a state of faith and charity.

[3] The spirits of the world of Saturn were seen coming from far off, and then direct communication was established between them and such spirits of our world. On becoming aware of them our spirits became almost mad, and started to attack them, throwing out disparaging remarks about faith and also about the Lord; and amid their rudeness and insults they actually plunged in among them, and the madness from which they were suffering made them attempt to inflict injury. But the spirits of Saturn were not at all frightened, being safe and calm. However, the spirits of our world, finding themselves among them began to be distressed and to have difficulty in breathing, so that they hurled themselves away, one in one direction, another in another, and disappeared.

[4] This made the bystanders aware what the natural man is like, if he is separated from the spiritual man, when he enters a spiritual sphere; he is driven mad.

For the natural man when separated from the spiritual can draw only on the world's wisdom, and gets nothing from heaven. Anyone who relies only on the world's wisdom believes nothing but what his senses tell him [ = the negative bias in science ], and trusts what the deceptive impressions of the senses make him believe. Unless these are taken away by influence from the spiritual world [ = studying the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture or theistic psychology ], they lead to false beliefs. That is why spiritual matters are meaningless to him, to such a point that he can scarcely bear to hear the spiritual mentioned.

As a result such people go mad, if they are kept in a spiritual sphere. But this does not happen while they are living in the world. Then they either think about spiritual matters in a natural way, or they close their ears to them, that is, they hear but do not listen.

[5] That experience also proved that the natural man cannot invade, that is, climb up to, the spiritual man. But when a person is in a state of faith [ = assumes the positive bias in science ] and thus enjoys spiritual life, the spiritual man exerts an influence on the natural man, and thinks in him [ = our enlightenment as dual citizens ].

Spiritual influence, that is, an influence from the spiritual world, can occur working on the natural world, but not the reverse. Influence is spiritual, not physical or natural, so that the spiritual world influences the natural world, but the natural does not influence the spiritual world (AC 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427-8, 5477, 6322). There is an apparent influence of a person's externals on his internals, but this is misleading (AC 3721). (EU 102)

SE 3121. On united breathing.

A general waving of heaven was felt, and I was told that it was the breathing of heaven, through which comes the breathing of a person on earth, and of many. It matched my breathing about 3 to 1, for that breathing passes over into effort, due to which all things breathe. (SE 3121)

SE 3317. There was further discussion with them about the mode of their speech. That it might be understood, I was shown the manner of their breathing, and instructed that the breathing of their lungs was changed in time, according to the state of their faith, which was before unknown to me, but I can still understand and believe it.

For my breathing was developed by the Lord in such a way that I was able to breathe inwardly for quite a long time without the help of outside air, so the breathing was directed inwardly, while my outer senses still remained in their vigor, as well as my actions. This cannot be granted to others than those who are so formed by the Lord-it is being said, except miraculously. I was also instructed that the breathing is thus directed without my knowledge, so that I may be with spirits, and speak with them. (SE 3317)

SE 3318. I was also instructed that heavenly and spiritual angels each induce a different breathing, indeed, the heavenly one kind, with every possible difference, and the spiritual another, with every difference, as was shown to me by means of the breathing itself. Moreover, a spirit of Mercury enumerated many kinds of breathing, some of them communicated to me, both those that flowed into the inward breathing, and those that flowed in outwardly especially toward the left eye. Therefore each society of the grand human being has its own kind of respiration, which all flow in and determine the ordinary respiration of mankind. And because the kinds are innumerable, and the species of each kind innumerable, I cannot yet show what they are like, except as said. (SE 3318)

SE 3319. Besides these I was shown a breathing that belonged only to [the region] of the loins, even to the foot-soles. It was said to pertain to the foot and sole alone, meaning the lowest harmonizing breathing, flowing from within, which they did not feel, as it was later separated from the inward one. Hence those who seize the pleasures of marriage, or rather of [procreating] offspring, without the inward breathing, are the kind who in the ancient Church were later separated from the inward region, and because they imagined that they still grasped inward things, they are called the head of the serpent, for the head of the serpent symbolizes this. Therefore also adulterers, or those who regard adulteries as nothing, are at the same time also cruel. And because cruelty thus attaches itself to that kind of marital love, they are also under the foot-sole. In short, the aura of adulteries and that of cruelties are together, along with the kind of lewdness that appears to be marital. This I know from experience. (SE 3319)

Here are a few selections regarding body position in the spiritual world of eternity from the Writings Sacred Scripture. This is of great interest to us since the mental world of eternity does not have physical space and directionality. This is true of both our conscious natural mind and our unconscious spiritual mind. In your thoughts you can picture yourself in any position, anywhere. You can fly through the air, you can invert houses or people to stand upside down, and so on. The mental world of eternity in our spiritual mind is responsive by correspondence to what happens at different layers of our spiritual mind.

AC 3638. From this it is that in the other life all societies, how many soever they may be, keep their situation constant in respect to the Lord, who appears like a sun to the universal heaven; and what is wonderful, and can scarcely be credited by anyone, because not apprehended, the societies there keep the same situation in respect to each individual, wherever he may be, and however he may turn himself and move about-as for instance, the societies which appear on the right are continually at his right, and those which appear on the left are continually at his left, however he changes his position as to face and body. This also it has been given me frequently to observe in turning the body.

Thus it is manifest that the form of heaven [ = the mental world of humanity ] is such as to bear a constant relation to a Grand Man [ = spiritual geography in the form of the human body ] relatively to the Lord [ = God the Divine Human ]; and that all the angels are not only with the Lord, but in the Lord; or what is the same, that the Lord is with them, and in them [ = Omni-Proprium by which God is omnipresent in our mind ]; otherwise this condition would not exist. (AC 3638) 

AC 3641. All appear erect - both those in heaven and those in hell - with their heads in the air and their feet on the ground. Yet in themselves, and in the eyes of the angels, the body-positions in heaven are different from those in hell. Those who are in heaven appear with their heads pointing up towards the Lord who is the Sun there and so the common centre from which every station and position is derived. But those who are in hell appear in the eyes of angels with their heads downwards and their feet upwards, and so with an upside down body-position and also a bent one. For that which to those in heaven is above is to those in hell below, and that which to those in heaven is below is to those in hell above. This shows to some extent how heaven can so to speak make one with hell, that is, how together they can resemble a single entity so far as position and station go. (AC 3641)

AR 36. [verse 10] 'I came to be in the spirit on the Lord's day' signifies the spiritual state then as a result of Divine influx. 'I came to be in the spirit' signifies the spiritual state in which he was while in the visions, concerning which state [something] follows. 'On the Lord's day' signifies influx from the Lord then, for on that day there is the presence of the Lord, because the day is holy.

It is plain from these [considerations] that 'I came to be in the spirit on the Lord's day' signifies the spiritual state then as a result of Divine influx. Of the prophets we read that they were 'in the spirit' or 'in a vision', also that the Word was delivered to them by Jehovah. When they were in the spirit or a vision they were not in the body but in their spirit, in which state they saw such things as are in heaven [ = our spiritual mind ]. But when the Word was delivered to them, then they were in the body and heard Jehovah speaking.

These two states of the prophets are to be properly distinguished. In the state of vision the eyes of their spirit were opened and the eyes of their body closed, and they then heard things that angels spoke, or that Jehovah spoke through angels, and they also saw the things that were represented to them in heaven; and then sometimes they seemed to be carried from place to place, the body remaining in its own position.

[2] John was in this state when he wrote the Apocalypse; and sometimes also Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel [were in it]; and then it is said that they were 'in a vision' or 'in the spirit'; for Ezekiel says:-

The spirit took me up, and brought me back into Chaldea to the captivity, in a vision of God, in the spirit of God: so the vision that I had seen went up over me Ezek. xi 1, 24.

(AR 36)

D. WIS 7. [94.] VII  WITH MAN THE CONJUNCTION OF BODY AND SPIRIT IS THROUGH HIS CARDIAC AND PULMONARY MOTIONS: SEPARATION TAKES PLACE WHEN THOSE MOTIONS CEASE

For this to be understood some things must be stated first, which may as it were bear a torch in advance; from them the truth of the above will be seen. They are:

(1) A man's spirit is equally a man [ = the natural mind is connected to a physical body, and the spiritual mind is connected to the mental body -- the two have the same human form ].

(2) His spirit [ = our spiritual mind with its mental body ] likewise has a heart [ = affective organ ] and consequently pulsation, also lungs [ = cognitive organ ] and consequently respiration [ = sensorimotor organ ].

(3) The pulsation of the spirit's heart and the respiration of its lungs flow into the pulsation of the heart and respiration of the lungs with the man in the world [ = the natural mind and its physical body ]. [ =  the physical and mental bodies are in correspondence with each other ]

(4) The [ physical ] body's life, which is natural [ = temporary ], comes into existence [ at birth ] and continues in existence by means of that influx; it ceases upon withdrawal of the influx, thus on separation taking place [ = resuscitation at death ].

(5) A man, then, from being natural becomes spiritual. [ = before resuscitation we are conscious in the natural mind, but after resuscitation, we are conscious in the spiritual mind ]

[95.] (1) A man's spirit is equally a man.

This you may see attested by much experience in the work [by Swedenborg on] HEAVEN AND HELL, Nos. 73-77, 311-316, 445-452, 461-469: also that every one is, in respect of his interiors, a spirit, in Nos. 432-444.

To this it may be added that everything spiritual is, in its essence, a man [ = spiritual mind = mental world of humanity in eternity ], and thus everything of love and of wisdom proceeding from the Lord, for this is spiritual [= spiritual is human, the essence of which is rational from truths in Sacred Scripture ].

The reason that everything spiritual or everything proceeding from the Lord, is a man [ = in the human form ], is because the Lord Himself, who is God of the universe, is Man [ = Divine Human ], and there cannot proceed from Him anything that is not of like nature; for what is Divine is not changeable within itself, nor is it extended, and that which is not extended is everywhere the same. From this comes His Omnipresence [ =  Omni-Proprium ].

The reason men have formed the idea, in regard to angels and spirits and in regard to themselves after death, that they are like ether or air without a human body [ = mental body or spirit body ], is that materialistic (sensuales) learned men [ = the negative bias in science ] have conceived this to be the case from the name "spirit (spiritus)"* being the breath of the mouth, and also from spirits being invisible and not appearing to the sight; for materialistic men only think from the bodily-sense plane and from what is material.

This notion of theirs was due also to some passages in the Word having not been spiritually understood.

Yet they knew from the Word that the Lord, notwithstanding His being a man in respect of flesh and bones [ = the Incarnation Event of the Divine Child ], actually became invisible in His disciples' presence, and passed through closed doors [ see New Testament Sacred Scripture ]; they knew also that in the Word [ see Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures ] angels were seen as men by a number of persons, and these angels had not put on a human form but were showing themselves in their own form to those persons before the eyes of their spirit which had been opened at the time.

In order, therefore, that men should no longer remain in a fallacious idea concerning angels and spirits and their own souls after death, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit and so enable me to speak face to face with angels and with men deceased, to observe them, to touch them, to tell them many things about the disbelief of those now living and how they are deceived. I have been in their company daily from the year 1744 to the present time, a period of 19 years.

From the above things it can be seen that a man's spirit is [equally a man] [ = has a mental body with its organs ].

[2] [96.] (2) A man's spirit likewise has a heart and consequently pulsation, also lungs and consequently respiration. This must be confirmed first from experience [ = empirical evidence ] and afterwards by reason [ = scientific explanation of it ].

From experience.

The angelic heaven [= our spiritual mind in the afterlife of eternity ]  is distinguished into two kingdoms [ = the dual quality of our thoughts and feelings at two different layers of the spiritual mind ] , one called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom. The celestial kingdom is in love to the Lord [ = they put loving of others first, and understanding truth, second ], and the spiritual kingdom is in wisdom from that love [ = they put understanding truth first, and loving others, second ].

Heaven is distinguished in this way, because love and wisdom in the Lord, and from Him, are two distinct things, though united nevertheless; as said above, they are distinct in the same way as heat and light coming from the sun are. Angels of the celestial kingdom, being in love to the Lord, have reference to the heart of heaven, and angels of the spiritual kingdom, being in wisdom from that love, have reference to the lungs of heaven: for as also said above, in the Lord's sight the whole heaven is like one man.

Furthermore, there is an influx from the celestial kingdom into the spiritual kingdom, like the influx from the heart into the lungs, with man [ =  in the physical body ]; in consequence there is universal correspondence of heaven with those two motions, the cardiac and the pulmonary, in every individual. I even had occasion to learn from angels that the arteries pulsate in them from their heart and that they breathe, just the same as men in the world do; and further, that there are with them variations in the pulsation according to their states of love, and variations in their breathing, according to their states of wisdom. They themselves felt their wrists and told me so, and I have myself often felt the breathing from their mouth.

[[2]] [97.] As the whole heaven is distinguished into societies according to affections that are of love, and as all wisdom and intelligence is according to affections, therefore each society has distinctive breathing, different from that of any other society, and similarly, distinctive cardiac pulsation. Owing to this, no one from one society can enter another society remote from it, nor can any one from a higher heaven descend into a lower one, or any one from a lower ascend into a higher, for in that case his heart beats with difficulty and his lungs feel compressed; least of all, can any one from hell ascend into heaven: any one venturing to do so begins to struggle for breath like some one in the death agony, or like a fish taken out of water into the air.

[[3]] The most general difference in the respirations and pulsations arises from the idea they have of God, for it is from this that differences in love and wisdom result. On account of this a nation of one religion cannot approach nations of differing religion. I have seen how Christians were unable to approach Mohammedans on account of their respiration. The easiest and gentlest breathing of all is the breathing of those whose idea of God is that He is a Man, and, amongst those from Christendom, the breathing of those whose idea of the Lord is that He is the God of heaven. On the other hand, the breathing of those who deny His Divinity, as do Socinians and Arians, is hard and rough. As pulsation makes one with the Will's love, and breathing makes one with the Understanding's wisdom, those who are to come into heaven are first inaugurated into angelic life by means of respirations that accord with it; this is effected in various ways; by this means they come into interior perceptions and into heavenly freedom.

[[4]] [98.] By reason.

A man's spirit is not a substance unconnected with his viscera, organs and members, it is intimately attached to them; for that which is spiritual accompanies every thread of them from outermost things to inmost things, and so, every thread and fibre of heart and lungs as well; the consequence is that when the connection between a man's [physical] body and spirit [= spiritual mind with its the mental body ] is severed [ = when dying and being resurrected ], his spirit [ = our life in the mental body after resurrection ] is in a form similar to the form the man had previously; there is merely a separating of the spiritual substance [ = spiritual heat and light from the Spiritual Sun ] from the material substance [ = physical heat and light from the natural sun ].

Accordingly the spirit possesses heart and lungs just as the man had possessed them in the world, and consequently it also enjoys similar sensations and similar motions, and speech as well; without a heart and lungs there could be neither sensation, nor movement, nor speech. Around spirits also there are atmospheres, but they are spiritual atmospheres [ = rational ether in the mental world of eternity ].

How greatly do they go astray who assign to the soul some particular position in the body, like the brain or the heart, for a man's soul which is to live after death, is his spirit.

[3] [99.] (3) The pulsation of the spirit's heart and the respiration of its lungs flow into the pulsation of the heart and respiration of the lungs with the man in the world. This also must be corroborated from experience, and afterwards by reason.

From experience.

Men do not know that, while living in the world, they have a twofold pulmonary respiration and a twofold cardiac pulsation, because they do not know that a man in respect of his interiors is a spirit, and that his spirit is equally a man. That these twofold motions, however, do exist in man continuously, and that the two motions of his spirit flow into the two motions of his body, it has been granted me to feel perceptibly.

I was once reduced to the use of the former only, at a time when there were spirits with me, who, from a strong Persuasive could deprive the Understanding of all its faculty for thinking, and so, take away the ability to breathe as well. Lest this might do me harm, I was reduced to the use of my spirit's respiration only, and I then plainly felt it to be in accord with the respiration of angels in heaven.

From this it was evident also that heaven in general breathes and that every angel there in particular does so too; and further that so far as the Understanding is affected, the respiration is affected as well. For the Persuasive possessed by some evil spirits in the spiritual world has at the same time a suffocating effect as well. Accordingly it is termed "suffocative" in respect of the body, and "destructive" in respect of the lower mind (animus).

Sometimes, too, angels have been empowered to control my respiration, reducing my bodily respiration and by degrees suppressing it until only the respiration of my spirit remained, and then I also perceptibly felt it. Besides I was in the respiration of my spirit whenever I was in a state similar to that of angels and spirits and whenever I was raised into heaven; at such times I have been in the spirit and not in the body, at other times in both the spirit and the body. See also HEAVEN AND HELL, NO. 449, in regard to the animation of my lungs, and of my body being suspended, leaving only the animation of my spirit.

[[2]] [100.] By reason.

These actual experiences establish the fact that, because every human being enjoys this double respiration, one within the other, he can think rationally from his Understanding, indeed spiritually too: and can thereby also be differentiated from animals; and furthermore that he can be enlightened in respect of his Understanding, be raised into heaven and breathe with angels, and so be reformed and regenerated.

Besides, where there is an external, there must also be an internal; and this internal must be in every action and in every sensation. The external supplies what is general, the internal supplies what is particular (singulare), and where there is not a general, there is no particular either. Accordingly, human beings possess both an external and an internal systolic motion and inhaling motion, the external systolic and inhaling motions being natural, the internal being spiritual. It is in this way that the Will can, in union with the Understanding, bring about bodily movements, and that the Understanding can, with the Will, bring about bodily sense-activities. In animals also there are both general and particular pulsations and respirations, but in their case, what is external and what is internal are both natural, whereas, in the case of human beings, what is external is natural but what is internal is spiritual.

In a word, such as is the Understanding, such is the respiration, because such is the man's spirit; it is his spirit that from the Understanding thinks, and from the Will, wills. In order that these operations may flow into the man's body and enable him to think and will on the natural plane, the spirit's respiration and pulsation must be conjoined to his body's respiration and pulsation, and there must be influx from the one into the other; otherwise transference could not take place.

[4] [101.] (4) The body's life, which is natural, comes into existence and continues in existence by means of that influx; it ceases upon withdrawal of the influx, thus on separation taking place.

The reason a man after death is equally a man as he was before, except that he then becomes a spirit man, is that his spiritual is adjoined to his natural-or the substantial of his spirit to the material of his body-so adaptively and so unitedly, that there is not a single fibril, or woven particle, or any smallest thread of them, in which the human of the spirit does not make one with the human of the body. And as the life of the whole and the life of the parts depend solely upon those two universal motions, the heart's systolic motion and the lungs' respiratory motion, the consequence is that when those motions cease in the body, the natural things that are material become separated from the spiritual things that are substantial, being unable to carry on together the same work, and this results in that which is the active itself, the spiritual, withdrawing from each of the things acted upon, namely, the natural things, and so the man becomes a man of another kind.

This, then, is the death of the man, and it is his resurrection; on this subject, some things related from actual experience may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, Nos. 445-452, 453-460, 461-469.

[[2]] [102.] When a man's breathing ceases, he appears to have died, yet he is not dead until the motion of his heart also ceases, and usually this does not take place till later. That a man is not dead till then, is evident from the life possessed by infants in the womb and also from the life possessed by adults in fainting-fits or in states of suffocation, in which the heart continues contracting and expanding, while the lungs are quiescent; they are alive nevertheless, though without sensation and without movement, and so not conscious of any life.

The reason for this is that, though it is true their spirit's respiration is continuing, there is no corresponding bodily respiration, and consequently there cannot be any reciprocation between the two vital motions, the motion of the heart and the motion of the lungs; without that correspondence and without that reciprocation, there is no life in sensation, neither is there any action.

It is the same with the natural life of a man's body as with the spiritual life of his mind; if his Will and Understanding, or his love and wisdom, do not act conjointly, no rational operation takes place. If the Understanding, or the wisdom, ceases to act, the Will with its love becomes as if dead; yet it is still alive, though not conscious of itself, provided the Understanding is only temporarily inactive, as in cases of loss of memory. It is quite different if the Will, or love, ceases to act; then it is all over with a man's mind, just as it is all over with him when his heart stops beating. That the separation of the spirit from the body takes place in most cases the second day after death supervenes, it was given me to know through my speaking with different deceased persons who were then spirits, the third day after.

[5] [103.] (5) A man, then, from being natural becomes spiritual. A natural man and a spiritual man are entirely different from each other; to such an extent do they differ that there is no possibility of their being together. Any one not knowing what the spiritual is in its essence, may suppose it to be only a purer natural which in man is called the rational.

The spiritual, however, is above the natural and as distinct from it as midday light compared with the shades of evening in autumn. No one can become acquainted with that distinction and that difference except one who is in both worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and to whom it is granted to alternate between them, being now in the one, now in the other, and so, by his reflections upon them, to look at the one from the other. It having been granted me to be in a position to do this, I have become informed as to the nature of a natural man and the nature of a spiritual man, who is a spirit. In order that others may know this, it must he briefly described.

[104.] A natural man, in everything of his thought and speech and in everything of his Will and action, has matter, space, time and quantity as their "subject"**: these with him are fixed and permanent things, nor is he free from them in any idea of his thought or of his speech therefrom, or in any affection of his Will or in any action proceeding from it.

[[2]] A spiritual man, or spirit, does not have these things as "subjects," but only as objects, the reason for this being that in the spiritual world there are objects exactly like the objects in the natural world; there are lands, there are plains, there are fields, there are gardens and woods: there are houses with rooms in them, and in the rooms all useful things: there are garments, too, women's garments and men's garments such as there are in the world: there are tables, foods, drinks, such as there are in the world: there are animals as well, both harmless ones and harmful ones; there are consequently spaces and times, and also numbers and measurements; all these things being so like the things in the world that the eye can detect no difference at all; yet they are all nevertheless appearances of wisdom and perceptions of loves, the appearances being of the angels' Understanding and the perceptions being of the angels' Will.

For the objects are created in a moment by the Lord, and in a moment also are dissipated. They endure or they do not endure according as the spirits or angels continue or do not continue in the wisdom and love of which they are the appearance; this is the reason they are only the objects of their thoughts and affections, their "subjects" being the things from which the appearances are derived, which, as said, are the things of wisdom and of love, thus spiritual things. For example, when they see spaces, they do not think about them from the space they contain: when they see gardens, trees, fruits, shrubs, flowers and seeds, they do not think about them from the outward appearance they present but from those things that are the source of their appearing; and similarly with everything else.

[[3]] Hence it is that the thoughts of spiritual beings are altogether different from the thoughts of natural beings: their affections likewise; they are so different, indeed, that they transcend the thoughts of natural beings, and do not fall into natural ideas, except in some degree into interior rational sight, and then only by withdrawing or removing from one's thought, when thinking about qualities, everything to do with quantities.

[105.] It is evident from this that angels possess a wisdom that to natural men is incomprehensible, and is moreover inexpressible. Their thoughts being so different, their speech is consequently different, too; so much does it differ from man's speech that they do not agree in respect of a single word. It is the same with their writing; although, as regards its letters, it resembles the writing of men in the world, even so it cannot be understood by anyone in the world. In their writing each consonant is a complete idea, and each vowel is an affection; the vowels, moreover, are not written, but pointed.*** Their manual works, which are innumerable, and the duties of their occupations, likewise differ from the works and duties of natural men in the world, and therefore cannot be described in human language.

[[4]] It can be perceived from these few instances that "natural" and "spiritual" are as different as darkness and light. However, there are many varieties of this difference, for there are sensual spiritual men, rational spiritual men and celestial spiritual men; there are evil spiritual men and good spiritual men. The difference varies with the affection and with the thought therefrom, and the appearances presented vary with the difference.

The above makes it plain that a man from being a natural man, becomes a spiritual man as soon as his body's lungs and heart cease their motions, and his material body becomes on that account separated from his spiritual body.

* The Latin word anima means both "breath" and "soul," and spiritus means both "breathing" and "spirit."

(D.WIS 7)

 

(to be continued)

 

10.10.2  The Wisdom of Hindi Sacred Scripture

The previous sub-Section presents the analysis of Yoga wisdom sayings and some common yoga postures (asanas. Two important conclusions can be drawn from this analysis which specifies the correspondential sense of Yoga wisdom:

(1) The correspondential sense is entirely different from the literal sense of these sayings or of the spiritual symbols that are represented by the form of each posture.

(2) The correspondential sense is entirely in accord with Sacred Scripture already analyzed, such as the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg (see Section xx). This means that we may consider Yoga spirituality in its essence as part of the Hindi Sacred Writings and Scriptures, among which are the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads whose analysis is presented in this sub-Section.

The analysis now follows:

The following selections are culled from these Web sites:

Woopit. Famous Quotes at:  http://www.woopit.com/quotes-by-Bhagavad-Gita.html
Quoteworld.org at:  http://www.quoteworld.org/authors/bhagavad_gita
Your Quotations.net at:  http://www.yourquotations.net/Veda%20Upanishads_quotes.html
Age-of-the-Sage.org at: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/mysticism/vedic_hindu.html
Living Being Media at:  http://www.livingpictures.org/upanishadscalendar.htm
ThinkExist.com at:  http://thinkexist.com/quotes/veda_upanishads/
Answers.com at:  http://www.answers.com/topic/upanishads-veda
http://sanatan.intnet.mu/upanishads/pdf/upanishads_nikhilananda.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20161031210444/http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/upanishads.pdf 

The Vedas are the more ancient of the sacred texts recognized within the Vedic / Hindu tradition of faith dating from almost three and a half thousand years ago. Another series of Holy writings, the Upanishads, a name which suggests "sitting at the feet of the Teacher" are often more philosophically and mystically sophisticated than the Vedas. The earliest of the Upanishads date from some three thousand years ago. The term Vedanta refers to teachings based primarily upon the Upanishads. The Bhagavad Gita - the Song of God - is a celebrated and more recent addition to Hindu holy writings dating from the second century A.D.

Quotes from the Bhagavad Gita and Their Spiritual Meaning

Thinking about sense-objects Will attach you to sense-objects - Grow attached, and you become addicted - Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger - Be angry, and you confuse your mind - Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience - Forget experience, you lose discrimination - Lose discrimination, and you miss life's only purpose - (Miss life's only purpose, and you think about sense-objects.)

Correspondential Analysis:
"Thinking about sense-objects"
        = to reason from appearances rather than from underlying rational causes
"Being attached to sense-objects"
        = incapable of understanding spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture
"Become addicted" = acquiring physical attachments that are contrary to a heavenly character
"Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger"
        = inability to free yourself from such attachments
"Confusing the mind, forgetting the lesson of experience, losing discrimination, missing life's only purpose"
        = mental symptoms caused by reasoning from sense appearance without spiritual or rational considerations
"Life's only purpose"
        = becoming enlightened from spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture and then willing and thinking accordingly

+++

When a man dwells on the objects of sense, he creates an attraction for them; attraction develops into desire, and desire breeds anger.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Man"
        = our natural mind which includes the sensuous mind and the rational mind
"Dwelling on the objects of sense, creating an attraction for them"
        = shutting off the rational mind for the sake of enjoying the sensuous appearances without the rational in them 
"Attraction develops into desire"
        = attachment to the sensuous mind separated from the rational mind becomes a spiritual damnation or hell
"Desire breeds anger"
        = a spiritual hell that enmeshes all the mind into negative emotions and irrational delusions that are extremely difficult to get rid of

+++

Governing sense, mind and intellect, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear and anger, the sage is forever free.

Correspondential Analysis:  
"Governing sense, mind and intellect"
        = the natural mind after undergoing character reformation by means of spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture, and is thus in a heavenly order that corresponds to the spiritual mind
"Intent on liberation"
        = committed to daily monitoring of our willing and thinking in order to reject what is contrary to our spiritual truths
"Free from desire, fear anger"
        = being capable of undergoing spiritual temptations, gaining victory over all of them through cooperation with the Divine Psychologist
"The sage is forever free"
        = when our inherited character is reformed or regenerated we understand spiritual truths rationally, and this gives us spiritual wisdom and spiritual freedom

+++

God is seated in the hearts of all.

Correspondential Analysis: 
"Seated in the hearts of all"
        = God inflows every individual mind through goods in the affective organ of the will ("heart") and then through truths in the cognitive organ of the understanding

+++

It is true that the mind is restless and difficult to control. But it can be conquered, Arjuna, through regular practice and detachment. Those who lack self-control will find it difficult to progress in meditation; but those who are self-controlled, striving earnestly through the right means, will attain the goal.

Correspondential Analysis: 
"the mind is restless and difficult to control"
        = the sensuous mind enjoys inherited evils of character and therefore we are unwilling to give them up no matter what
"conquered through regular practice and detachment"
        = inherited character weaknesses are removed by the Divine Psychologist when we compel our daily willing and thinking to conform to the spiritual truths of Sacred Scripture
"Arjuna" = our mental state while we are struggling against spiritual temptations
"Those who lack self-control will find it difficult to progress in meditation"
        = without spiritual truths in our understanding we cannot reject our attachments to evil enjoyments
"self-controlled, striving earnestly through the right means"
        = to apply spiritual truths to our daily willing and thinking
"attain the goal"
        = regeneration or the mental states that conform to heaven in eternity

+++

The self-controlled soul, who moves amongst sense objects, free from either attachment or repulsion, he wins eternal Peace.

Correspondential Analysis:
"The self-controlled soul"
        = our mental states when we possess spiritual truths in our understanding by which can resist spiritual temptations
"who moves amongst sense objects"
        = while we are still conscious in our natural mind, prior to death and resuscitation
"free from either attachment or repulsion"
        = our willing and thinking in daily life when our intentions and thoughts are motivated by spiritual love, i.e., love for the good and truth in others and in self
"wins eternal Peace"
        = absence of temptation and negative emotions, thus filled with love, wisdom, and joy

₊₊₊

Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Death is as sure for that which is born"
        = we are born into eternity with a permanent spirit or mental body, and in time with a temporary physical body, which drops off at death and resuscitation in our spiritual mind in the mental body  
"as birth is for that which is dead"
        = upon dropping connection with the physical body at death and resuscitation, we awaken in our spiritual mind in eternity and continue our immortal existence
"grieve not for what is inevitable"
        = our inherited attachment to the sensuous mind and its delights in the natural mind, are as nothing in comparison to the heavenly delights and pleasures of the spiritual mind in eternity

+++

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Man"
        = our natural mind before it is reformed in the order of heaven
"made by his belief"
        = the thoughts and feelings we have all day long constitute our self
"as he believes, so he is"
        = the thoughts and feelings we have all day long constitute our character, which is our ruling love, therefore our very life and existence

+++

One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men.

Correspondential Analysis:
"One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction"
        = to act as-of self, with disciplined and motivated effort, while knowing that it is God who provides the power for it
"is intelligent among men"
        = we are in a state of wisdom when we do this

+++

A man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose.

Correspondential Analysis:
"A man"
        = in our natural mind  
"can drink water from any side of a full tank"
        = we can acquire natural truths from many sources
"so the skilled theologian"
        = including the knowledge we have of the historical and natural truths we can find in the literal sense of Sacred Scripture
"can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose"
        = which can be interpreted in different ways that are agreeable with many of our evils in the inherited character

+++

There are two ways of passing from this world - one in light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns.

Correspondential Analysis:
"two ways of passing from this world
        = when we are disconnected from the physical body at death we awaken in our spiritual mind in eternity and we then have a choice of continuing in our life of heavenly loves and affections, or else in our life of hellish loves and affections
"one in light and one in darkness"
        = one option is in our heavenly loves and the other option is in our hellish loves
"When one passes in light, he does not come back"
         = if we choose the heavenly option, we forever cut asunder all connection with our hellish loves and with our corporeal pleasures 
"but when one passes in darkness, he returns"
        = if we choose the hellish option, we retain our connection to to corporeal loves, but we nevertheless always retain the option to choose the heavenly loves

+++

Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Knowledge"
        = cognitions of the cognitive organ in the natural mind
"the object of knowledge"
        =  sensations and movements of the sensorimotor organ
"the knower"
        = the rational mind 
"the senses"
        = the sensuous mind
"the work"
        = doing uses, or accomplishments
"the doer"
        = the affections of the affective organ

+++

On action alone be thy interest... Never on its fruits... Let not the fruits of action be thy motive, Nor be thy attachment to inaction...

Correspondential Analysis:
"On action alone be thy interest...Never on its fruits"
        = we must always act as-of self and put up the effort, while recognizing that God's omnipotence determines the outcome of our effort 
"Let not the fruits of action be thy motive"
        = we must be motivated by acting according to what is good and right, rather than according to what is convenient or advantageous to ourselves 
"Nor be thy attachment to inaction"
        = we are required to take responsibility and initiative for doing what is good and right as-of self

+++

All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?

Correspondential Analysis:
"All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning"
        = no one deserves heaven from birth for everyone is born hellish
"manifest in their interim state"
        = we are saved when we allow God to regenerate our character
"unmanifest again when they are annihilated"
        = which requires combat of temptations during which we are immersed in our hellish enjoyments 
"So what need is there for lamentation?"
        = but after the temptation battle is over, we receive a state of peace from God

+++

Which is as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end; that is declared to be "good" pleasure, born from the serenity of one's own mind. That which is like nectar in the beginning from the connection of the sense-object with the senses, but is as poison in the end, is held to be of "passion".

Correspondential Analysis:
"Which is as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end"
        = what is heavenly feels at first like it is difficult to love
"that is declared to be "good" pleasure, born from the serenity of one's own mind"
        = yet it is delightful to our higher mind which is celestial in character
"That which is like nectar in the beginning from the connection of the sense-object with the senses"
        = what is hellish feels at first to be enjoyable to our mind and easy to do
"but is as poison in the end, is held to be of "passion"
        = yet it destroys our heavenly delights and its eternal peace

+++

Perseverance in (seeking to gain) the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, and perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth: This is called knowledge : all that is contrary to this is ignorance.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Perseverance in (seeking to gain) the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit"
        = striving to acquire spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture
"perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth"
        = the benefits we derive from living according to these truths
"This is called knowledge"
        = spiritual truths produce wisdom
"all that is contrary to this is ignorance"
        = natural truths by themselves do not produce wisdom

+++

He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.

Correspondential Analysis:
"He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am"
        = God commands that we love Him above all things
"who worships Me"
        = God commands that we acknowledge Him as the source of all holiness and good
"being free from attachment and without hatred to any creature"
        = God commands that we resist our evils because they are sins against Him, and this consists of doing no harm to anyone for the sake of gain for oneself
"this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me"
        = when we do these commandments God can elevate us into our eternal heaven

+++

Whenever the wavering and unsteadfast heart wanders away, then so often let him subdue it and bring it back to the control of the soul; For supreme happiness comes to the Yogin whose heart is at rest, in whom passion is tranquilised, who is one with Brahma, and free from sin. The Yogin thus uniting his soul (to Brahma), who has ceased from sin, enjoys easily the boundless happiness of union (lit. contact) with Brahma.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Whenever the wavering and unsteadfast heart wanders away"
        = in order to be saved we must be regenerated by God, and this involves undergoing temptations during which we are immersed in our hellish loves
"then so often let him subdue it and bring it back to the control of the soul"
        = during temptation battles we must fight as-of self against our evil enjoyments, knowing that it is God who fights for us against all the hells to which we are connected by inheritance 
"For supreme happiness comes to the Yogin whose heart is at rest"
        = after our temptation combat we receive from God a heavenly peace as foretaste of our ultimate future
"in whom passion is tranquilised, who is one with Brahma, and free from sin"
        = God is closest to us when we are in temptation combat against our evil enjoyments and we are striving to resist them as-of self
"The Yogin thus uniting his soul (to Brahma), who has ceased from sin"
        = God unites Himself to us when we reciprocate by acknowledging Him in the good that we strive to do
"enjoys easily the boundless happiness of union (lit. contact) with Brahma"  
        = our heavenly state after temptation combats is a state of union with the good and truth in us from God

+++

The Correspondential Meaning of the Upanishads

Download PDF document of the Upanishads: 
http://sanatan.intnet.mu/upanishads/pdf/upanishads_nikhilananda.pdf
or at: http://web.archive.org/web/20161031210444/http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/upanishads.pdf 

Upanishads Literal Meaning	Correspondences from Sacred Scripture	Spiritual Meaning or theistic psychology
The word "Upanishad" consists of three words—"Upa" means "near", "ni" means "down" and "shad" means "be seated". So, "Upanishad" means, "be seated at the feet of the Guru to receive the teaching."	Upa (near) = to perceive the meaning of spiritual truths Ni (down) = to acknowledge and worship Shad (be seated at the feet) = to obey spiritual truths and commandments Guru = an individual who represents spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture The teaching = doctrines of truth extracted from Sacred Scripture as guides to our thinking and willing in daily activities	The Upanishads are a collection of Sacred Scriptures when viewed through its correspondential sense as theistic psychology.

About the Upanishads:

From:  http://sanatan.intnet.mu/   Source: Yogi Ramsuratkumar Bhavan

The word "Upanishad" consists of three words—"Upa" means "near", "ni" means "down" and "shad" means "be seated".

So, "Upanishad" means, "be seated at the feet of the Guru to receive the teaching."

The Upanishads constitute what we call the Vedanta (Veda-anta), the end of the Vedas, not merely because they constitute the last part of them, but above all because they are their ultimate teachings, reaching to the highest metaphysical state, beyond which is the realm of Silence.

The most ancient Upanishads are, in fact, part of the Vedas, and are therefore a part of the Shruti. So they constitute the fundamentals, the essence of the Hindu philosophy. They are connected to the whole of Knowledge and contain within them the exposition of the origin of the Universe, the nature of Brahman and the jivatman, the relation between the mind and matter, etc… therefore, the main topic of the Upanishads is the ultimate Knowledge: the identity of the Brahman and the jivatman—"Tat tvam asi"—You are That (Chandgogya Upanishad), the quest for unity in diversity «That by which the whole Universe is known» (Mundaka Upanishad). The Upanishads are the first scriptures where the law of Karma first appeared as taught by Yajnavalkya (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad).
From:  http://sanatan.intnet.mu/

Quotes:

Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind; beyond the mind, the intellect; beyond the intellect, the Great Atman; beyond the Great Atman, the Unmanifest; beyond the Unmanifest, the Purusha. Beyond the Purusha there is nothing: this is the end, the Supreme Goal.

That Self hidden in all beings does not shine forth; but It is seen by subtle seers through their one—pointed and subtle intellects. The wise man should merge his speech in his mind and his mind in his intellect. He should merge his intellect in the Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic Mind in the Tranquil Self.

Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say—hard to tread and difficult to cross.

Having realised Atman, which is soundless, intangible, formless, undecaying and likewise tasteless, eternal and odourless; having realised That which is without beginning and end, beyond the Great and unchanging—one is freed from the jaws of death.

Children pursue outer pleasures and fall into the net of widespread death; but calm souls, having known what is unshakable Immortality, do not covet any uncertain thing in this world.

It is through Atman that one knows form, taste, smell, sounds, touches and carnal pleasures. Is there anything that remains unknown to Atman? This, verily, is That.

It is through Atman that one perceives all objects in sleep or in the waking state. Having realised the vast, all—pervading Atman, the calm soul does not grieve.

"He who inhabits water, yet is within water, whom water does not know, whose body water is and who controls water from within—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits fire, yet is within fire, whom fire does not know, whose body fire is and who controls fire from within —He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the sky, yet is within the sky, whom the sky does not know, whose body the sky is and who controls the sky from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the air, yet is within the air, whom the air does not know, whose body the air is and who controls the air from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits heaven, yet is within heaven, whom heaven does not know, whose body heaven is and who controls heaven from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the sun, yet is within the sun, whom the sun does not know, whose body the sun is and who controls the sun from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the quarters of space, yet is within them, whom the quarters do not know, whose body the quarters are and who controls the quarters from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the moon and stars, yet is within the moon and stars, whom the moon and stars do not know, whose body the moon and stars are and who controls the moon and stars from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits the akasa, yet is within the akasa, whom the akasa does not know, whose body the akasa is and who controls the akasa from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits darkness, yet is within darkness, whom darkness does not know, whose body darkness is and who controls darkness from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal. "He who inhabits light, yet is within light, whom light does not know, whose body light is and who controls light from within.

—He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal." This much with reference to the gods (adhidaivatam). Now with reference to beings (adhibhutam).

The essence of all these beings is the earth; the essence of the earth is water; the essence of water is plants; the essence of plants is a person; essence of a person is speech; the essence of speech is the Rig—Veda; essence of the Rig—Veda is the Sama—Veda; the essence of the Sama—Veda is the Udgitha which is Om.

Now is described the meditation on the Udgitha with reference to the gods: One should meditate on the Udgitha as the sun who gives warmth. When he (the sun) rises he sings the Udgitha for the benefit of all creatures. When he rises he destroys darkness and fear. He who knows this becomes the destroyer of darkness and fear.

This prana and that sun are the same. This is warm and that is warm. This they call svara (what goes out) and that, pratyasvara (what returns). Therefore one should meditate on the Udgitha as this and that.

One should meditate on the Udgitha as the vyana. That which one breathes out is the prana and that which one breathes in is the apana. That which is the junction of the prana and the apana is the Vyana. This vyana is speech. Therefore when one utters speech one stops the prana and the apana.

Then Silaka the son of Salavat said to Chaikitayana of the line Dalbhya: "Well, may I question you?" "Do ask," he said.
"What is the support of the Saman?" "Tone (svara)," he replied.
"What is the support of tone?" "The prana (vital breath)," he replied.
"What is the support of the prana?" "Food," he replied.
"What is the support of food?" "Water," he replied.
"What is the support of water?" "Yonder world (heaven)," he replied.
"What is the support of yonder world?"
"Let no one carry the Saman beyond the heavenly world. We place the Saman in the heavenly world, for the Saman is praised as heaven."

 

Upanishads (selections) Literal Meaning	Correspondential Meaning Theistic Psychology
6 The pranas (sense—organs) disputed among themselves about who was the best among them, each saying: "I am the best," "I am the best."	The corporeal self has no ability to think rationally.
7 They went to Prajapati, their progenitor and said: "O revered Sir, who is the best among us?" He said to them: "He by whose departure the body looks worse than the worst is the best among you."	It must be instructed and guided by the rational self.
8 The organ of speech departed. After being away for a whole year, it came back and said: "How have you been able to live without me?" The other organs replied: "We lived just as dumb people live, without speaking, but breathing with the prana (nose), seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear and thinking with the mind." Then the organ of speech entered the body.
9 The eye departed. After being away for a whole year, it came back and said: "How have you been able to live without me?" The other organs replied: "We lived just as blind people live, without seeing, but breathing with the prana, speaking with the tongue, hearing with the ear and thinking with the mind." Then the eye entered the body.
10 The ear went out. After being away for a whole year, it came back and said: "How have you been able to live without me?" The other organs replied: "We lived just as deaf people live, without hearing, but breathing with the prana. Speaking with the tongue, seeing with the eye and thinking with the mind." Then the ear entered the body.
11 The mind went out. After being away for a whole year, it came back and said: "How have you been able to live without me?" The other organs replied: "We lived just like children whose minds are not yet formed, without thinking with the mind, but breathing with the prana, speaking with the tongue, seeing with the eye and hearing with the ear." Then the mind entered the body.
12 Then as the vital breath was about to depart, he uprooted the organs from their places just as a noble horse tears up the pegs to which its feet are tied. They came to him and said: "Revered Sir, be thou our lord; thou art the best among us. Do not depart from us."
13 Then the organ of speech said to him: "That attribute of being most excellent which I possess is thine." Then the eye said: "That attribute of firmness which I possess is thine."
14 Then the ear said: "That attribute of prosperity which I possess is thine." Then the mind said: "That attribute of being the abode which I possess is thine."
15 And people do not call them (i.e. the sense—organs) the organs of speech, the eyes, the ears, or the mind, but the pranas. The prana alone is all these.

"The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve". "That self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be gained. The Self chooses him (his body) as his own". But he who has not first turned away from his wickedness, who is not tranquil, and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self (even) by knowledge. (Katha Upanishad 1.2.22-24)

Upanishads (selections) Literal Meaning	Correspondential Meaning Theistic Psychology
"As one acts and conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action."	The quality of our life in eternity is determined by the quality of our willing and thinking now. Those who intend well to others live in heaven, but others live in hell.
"When a man dies, what does not leave him? The voice of a dead man goes into fire, his breath into wind, his eyes into the sun, his mind into the moon, his hearing into the quarters of heaven, his body into the land cheerfully. earth, his spirit into space"	When we die we are resuscitated in our spiritual mind in eternity. Nothing whatsoever from the physical body and natural mind becomes part of our life in eternity, which is entirely spiritual or mental.
"Even as birds, O beloved, return to their tree for rest, thus all things find their rest in Atman, the Supreme Spirit. All things find their final peace in their inmost Self, the Spirit."	All human beings who die on earth congregate in the mental world of eternity. Their eternal life in heaven is dependent on God's Proprium or Personality, so that each individual's personality is then a unique version of God's Proprium.
"Wherefrom do all these worlds come? They come from space. All beings arise from space, and into space they return; space is indeed their beginning, and space is their final end."	All the innumerable societies in heaven exist in rational ether created by the Spiritual Sun around itself. Rational ether is a spiritual substance created by spiritual heat and light from the Spiritual Sun. Every feeling, thought, and sensation is constructed out of this rational ether and belongs to it.
"Even as a great fish swims along the two banks of a river, first along the Eastern bank, and then the Western bank, in the same way the Spirit of man moves along beside his two dwellings; this waking world and the land of sleep and dreams."	A human being is made of two lives acting together. One is the life of feelings in the affective organ. The other is the life of thinking in the cognitive organ. These lives exist in the both the natural mind that is filled with things from earth, and the spiritual mind that is filled with things from eternity.
"There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one's mind and one's subtle body rest upon that, and not rest upon anything else. God is sound and silence. Attain therefore contemplation, contemplation in silence on him."	The natural mind is conscious to us here on earth, while the spiritual mind is unconscious. After dying and resuscitation, it is the reverse. The natural mind does not understand any of the thoughts of the spiritual mind. The natural mind understands God naturally, while the spiritual mind understands God spiritually. To understand God spiritually we must think of the correspondences in Sacred Scripture.
"Even as a man who is asleep awakes, but when he is asleep does not know he is going to awake, so a part of the subtle invisible Spirit comes as a messenger to the body, without the body being conscious of its arrival."	The unconscious spiritual mind influences the conscious natural mind without our awareness. The operations in the physical body are physical correspondences to the mental operations in the unconscious spiritual mind (or spirit body in eternity).

"The soul is the consciousness of life. It is the light of the heart. Forever remaining the same, the Spirit of man wanders in the world of waking and also in the world of dreams. But in the rest of deep sleep he goes beyond this world and its fleeting forms"

"Oh life-giving sun, offspring of the Lord of Creation, solitary Seer of heaven, spread thy light and withdraw thy blinding splendor that I might behold thy radiant form: That Spirit far away within thee is my inmost Spirit"

"When the soul is in silent quietness it arises and leaves the body, and reaching the Supreme Spirit finds there its body of light. It is the land of infinite liberty where, beyond its mortal body, the Spirit of man is free."

"The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve. That self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning."

"It is true that the body is mortal, that it is under the power of death, but it is also the dwelling place of Atman, the Spirit of immortal life. ... when a man is in the joy of the spirit, he is free from all bondage, the bondage of pleasure and pain."

"From joy all beings have come, by joy they all live, and unto joy they all return."

"Where there is joy, there is creation. Where there is no joy, there is no creation. Know the nature of joy."

"Know the self to be sitting in the chariot, the body to be the chariot, the intellect the charioteer, and the mind the reins."

"It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand."

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in your heart (Chandogya Upanishad)

When a man dies, what does not leave him? The voice of a dead man goes into fire, his breath into wind, his eyes into the sun, his mind into the moon, his hearing into the quarters of heaven, his body into the land cheerfully. earth, his spirit into space.

Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation: know the nature of joy.

It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand.

"He who knows self as the enjoyer of the honey from the flowers of the senses, ever present within, ruler of time, goes beyond fear. For this self is supreme!"

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