Manoj Breaks Down Sankhya’s 24 Evolutes with an easy-to-understand Gaming Analogy!!

Namaste all

Imagining and fantasizing is generally considered un-skillful. But when teaching TTC, sometimes I do fantasize on that ideal way by which I can teach, where the students can easily assimilate all the teachings, with a sense of total entertainment. Let me share one such fantasy.

Newsflash! NASA has discovered a fantastic new planet. This planet has oceans, hills, beautiful people, fun joints, great food, etc. But there is one problem. This new planet is light-years away and there is no way one can get there in this lifetime.

 Newsflash Again! PS 3 and James Cameroon in a joint collaboration with NASA have created an avatar-like virtual reality game. This game lets you almost directly experience this fantastic new world, where once you create an account you can form a game personality (avatar), which can implant itself in that planet as the avatar . It is also totally amazing that this game personality has the capacity to absorb your consciousness into itself after a few months of regular playing, after which it gains autonomy. And then what is required is you continue being logged on and watching this game, as it is through your watching that your consciousness gets passed on to this game personality. 

 Now the cool thing or the thrilling part is, since your consciousness is not different from the game personality’s consciousness, whatever the game personality directly experiences in this beautiful world, is also experienced by you, as a direct, visceral experience of that world. Isn’t that super amazing?

 However, the more you remain logged into this game, the more you are lending your consciousness to the game, and through that, the game personality draws more intelligence, it starts to create a developed nervous system and brain for itself, and slowly starts to think that it is a totally autonomous, self-intelligent being. Through this, sadly, that part of your consciousness which is now with the game personality gets trapped in it. It starts to worry and suffer as the body of the avatar personality after a time starts to wither away.  Also, we find that since it is our consciousness which is the seed consciousness of  this game personality, the avatar is not getting that settled, peaceful, at home feeling, as somewhere inside it knows that this is not its real home.

 And the thrill is seeing this prototype of us trying to find its peace and happiness by running in ignorance to all kinds of places, and ending up suffering. And finally it turns in its quest to find its essence-you. You watch this returning path of your avatar.

This whole game is played at 8 levels.

1. The basic level is called the ’5 elements’ level. The locals of that land calls this level ‘pancha bhutas’
2. The second level is the level of sonic codes and photic frequencies, which is termed the ’5 subtle elements’ level. Locals there call it ‘tanmatras’.
3. The third level is ’action’ level, where there is 5 outer instruments of action (karma indriyas)
4. the fourth level is the 5 outer instruments of perception (jnana indriyas).
5. The fifth level is the level of likes, dislikes and confusion, termed ‘the level of the mind’. They call it ‘manas’
6. Sixth level is the level where you keep getting severely affected by everything, called the ‘the ego level’ (ahamkara)
7. The seventh level is termed ‘wisdom level’, where the game personality’s consciousness clearly understands that its home is not this alien world. Here, the locals bow to the game personality as the ‘wise one’, the viveki. The game personality understands that the root nature of this game world is rajas, tamas and sattva, and that pure consciousness is different from these three.. and…
8. The eight level is ‘the freedom portal’ the samadhi, where it gets merged into you, the observer’s consciousness (the locals call it purusha). The game personality identity drops, and the entrapped consciousness in that identity merges with you, the observer.

This is the Manasa game of sankhya. These 8 levels correspond to this philosophy’s 24 evolutes of nature (prakrti), with the pure consciousness as the observer, experiencer (purusha). Hopefully one of future Manasa game whiz programmer can design this and let the students play to learn. Then we have real yoga games for wisdom, and TTC will be such fun.

But, let us not wait for the future. The game is already on, say the teachers.  Where are we on the game? The Ashtanga path or the 8 limbed path (Patanjali’s path) is one secret path which will guide you safely through the 8 levels of the game, and put the game personality consciousness back to its true self- you. This path is where I am, and it is here that I have met all of you too. Let us keep going..

Manoj

Only 9:30AM All Levels Class tomorrow- WED April 11, 2012

Dear Manasa Yogis,

Since a new king is to be installed tomorrow, that there will only be ONE 9:30AM ALL LEVELS class tomorrow.

Wishing you all a restful and ‘royal’ midweek holiday :)

Manasa “Into the Breath” Pranayama Workshop 5-8PM APRIL 21- by Manoj Kaimal

‘Into the breath’- Pranayama Workshop 5-8PM Saturday APRIL 21 At Manasa, Breath is Movement. Manoj says, “We cannot directly take in air during inhalations, or expel air during exhalations. All we can do is engage in skillful movements that will enable skillful breath…ing to take place.” At this Pranayama workshop, Manoj will expand on movement being the principle of subtle intellect, to help you connect to the subtle refinements of breathing.

Time: 5-8PM

Date:Saturday, April 21, 2012

Venue: Manasa Yoga, No. 70A, SS2/60, Petaling Jaya

Email: info@manasa-yoga.com

Tel: 016-286-9544

Fees for Pranayama Workshop on APRIL 21:

EARLY BIRD (Register and pay by Sunday APRIL 8) – RM 70/-

REGULAR (Register and pay by Friday APRIL 20) – RM 90/-

SAME DAY (Register and pay on Saturday APRIL 21) – RM 100/-

Payment options: Cash or cheque to ‘White Lotus Sdn. Bhd.’ at Manasa school, OR bank transfer to EON BANK Acct # 006 0100 199 769 (White Lotus Sdn. Bhd.), after which please scan bank transfer slip to info@manasa-yoga.com

Please note that ADV Class will be cancelled on Saturday April 21. Regulars are encouraged to attend the 4PM Intermediate class which will be on as usual.