The yoga sutras are written in code. It is up to the practitioner to decode them. Patanjali is not trying to be secretive or obtuse, He is teaching us that direct experience is the only true teacher. So he gives us just enough to point us in the right direction and pique curiosity. Then it is up each of us to practice and integrate, explore, and unfold these powerful aphorisms. If we get too much information we think we know something and it just rattles around in our head but never moves into our experience to change us, to become us.
II,27 Turn the combined effort upon the sun and you will understand the earth
Here Patanjali is speaking of the pingala, the sun channel. By combined effort he is speaking of focus, breath and the effort of the asanas. There are two main messages here: First, Patanjali is helping us understand the relationship of the sun and earth. All life on earth is solar powered. We are solar powered. We are part of the earth. Learning to organize and channel the solar power within us help us master our earthy bodies. Secondly, Patanjali is teaching us about our minds. The mind can focus on existential reality – what is right in front of us, around and within us NOW. For example, “I am breathing in and breathing out. I am lying on my sofa reading a blog about the sun channel.” These are very earthy grounded thoughts. The mind can also focus on things not present, stories, psychological dramas. For example, “What if no students come to my class today? Am I a good teacher? Maybe I suck and no one has the guts to tell me. Oh, I am still mad about that thing my husband said the other day. He just does not get me!” These thoughts are not grounded. They are scattered and not rooted in existential reality (what truly exists). So the sutra is teaching us to turn our thoughts to honest observation of what is right in front of us so we may know the earth – feel grounded and know our bodies as they really are. It is only from this place of clear, innocent observance and acceptance of what is that sustainable growth rises.
II.28 You will understand the stars if you turn this same effort upon the moon.
Here Patanjali is teaching us about the moon channel, the Ida. We know it is the reflection of the sun bouncing off the earth that makes the moon shine. The position of the earth between the sun and moon creates the ever-changing shape of the moon. And so with each of us, the way the sun energy moves through our earthy bodies is reflected in our lives as emotion (energy in motion). In relation to the stillness of the earth, the stars are always moving and changing. From the steadiness of the mind’s earthy focus on WHAT IS, the movement of feelings, desires and dreams arise, Patanjali is inviting us to witness the mind’s ever-changing stories, opinions, and the emotions that rise from them. As we turn our combined effort on the moon channel we more mindfully organize and direct the changing stories of the mind. We use the moon channel to move the mind toward thoughts that FEEL good rather than worry and negative prediction.
ii.29 Turn the effort upon the polestar, and you will understand their movement
The polstar is the susumna nadi, the center channel that runs down the body at its core. The sun and moon channels wind like a double helix around the middle channel. The center channel is where our energy is pure and strong, unencumbered with doubt or bound by memory. It is only from this “zero state” from this pure stillness that we can witness the movement of our thoughts and emotions and begin to consciously direct them. When good thought flows freely it is because we are offering no resistance to the thought. When emotions are elevated, this is evidence that our good thoughts are meeting no resistance, no doubt. In this state of non-resistant thought (and therefore elevated emotion) the side channels are svelte and the inner winds gallop through them with happy horsemen riding which keeps the energy in the center channel flowing strong! But when we offer chronic resistance to our own thoughts (doubt, worry, negative prediction) the side channels get blocked and the blocked areas get “fat” like clogged bowels and they press on the center channel impinging the flow of our very life force. Remember, the middle channel is where the wagon wheel chakras line up. The hub of each “wheel” stacks up along the susmna nadi and is associated with the major nerve plexuses of the body as well as organs and endocrine glands. So when the inner winds (prana) is not flowing strong and clear in the middle channel, the energy flow cannot be freely distributed through the chakras and out into the far reaches of the body.
Patanjali is telling us that when we settle deeper into the quiet stillness of the middle channel we can better see/feel our own mind flow. Without the perspective of the middle channel we are lost in the storm of our own thoughts (sun) and emotions (moon). The middle channel is the eye of the storm, the place where we can watch, understand and then quiet the storm. It is also the place from which we can learn to consciously organize the mind flow (sun and moon) towards healing, connection and joyful growth rather than the storm of psychological angst.