श्रद्धावीर्यस्मृतिसमाधिप्रज्ञापूर्वकइतरेषाम्
śraddhā-vīrya-smr̥ti samādhi-prajñā-pūrvaka itareṣā
Earlier in his yoga sutras, Patanjali told us about Saṁprajñātaḥ.
Saṁprajñātaḥ is the form of loving awareness that comes through the four doors of divine perception.
These four doors are four ways to experience yoga (oneness) in our daily lives:
- witnessing the miracle of existence
- contemplating the meaning of life
- experiencing the bliss of being alive, and
- knowing oneness, So Hum, I Am
Now, Patanjali asks us to deepen our practice. He tells us about
śraddhā = devotion
vīrya = vigor/energy
smr̥ti = mindfulness
samādhi = perfect concentration
prajñā = wisdom
pūrvaka itareṣā = with the others
He says these go along with the others.
śraddhā
To devote ourselves to witnessing the miracle of existence.
To devote ourselves to contemplating the meaning of life.
To devote ourselves to experiencing the bliss of being alive.
To devote ourselves to knowing oneness.
vīrya
To put all of our energy into witnessing the miracle of existence.
To put all of our energy into contemplating the meaning of life.
To put all of our energy into experiencing the bliss of being alive.
To put all of our energy into knowing oneness.
smr̥ti
To be constantly mindful of witnessing the miracle of existence.
To be constantly mindful of contemplating the meaning of life.
To be constantly mindful of experiencing the bliss of being alive.
To be constantly mindful of knowing oneness.
samādhi
To perfectly focus our concentration on witnessing the miracle of existence.
To perfectly focus our concentration on contemplating the meaning of life.
To perfectly focus our concentration on experiencing the bliss of being alive.
To perfectly focus our concentration on knowing oneness.
prajñā
To have the wisdom to witness the miracle of existence and see oneness.
To have the wisdom to contemplate the meaning of life and understand oneness.
To have the wisdom to experience the bliss of being alive and feel oneness.
To have the wisdom to know oneness.
śraddhā (vitarka) – devotion (to observing with loving awareness)
I devote myself to maintaining a state of awe, to being a witness to the miracle of existence, to seeing everything & everyone, including myself, as a necessary, intrinsic and integral part of the whole.
Four practices for inspiring awe.
śraddhā (vicāra) – devotion (to contemplating oneness)
I devote myself to contemplating with wonder how everything & everyone (including myself) is in perfect unity with the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe.
Story about contemplating oneness for 10 1-minute ujjayi breath Hatha holds.
- Inhale arms up. Exhale sit back into chair pose. Use your ujjayi breath to hold this pose… Holding chair is a good time to think about the meaning of life…Contemplate the nature of existence… Where did we come from? Why are we here? What is our purpose?
- Exhale forward fold. Bend your knees. Rest your body on your legs. Let your shoulders and neck relax. Let your head hang heavy. Let the weight of your head lengthen your spine. Use your Dirgha breath to relax into this pose. So, did you figure out the answers to life’s most important questions during that minute you were in chair pose? You know where you come from, right? 99 percent of your body is made up of atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. While the cells in your body regenerate every seven years, the atoms that make up those cells have existed for millions of millennia.
- Inhale halfway lift, exhale fold forward plant your hands, step your right foot back to low-lunge, inhale arms up. Stay here and breathe, taking any variations of low lunge that you like. and let me tell you about what happened 13.7 billion years ago. When the hot, dense speck that was the universe quickly expanded, all of the matter and antimatter that existed should have been annihilated. There should have been nothing left but energy. And yet, a small amount of matter survived, all matter in the universe today was formed in that one explosive event 13.7 billion years ago – and that little bit of matter just happened to form itself into particles with masses and charges that made human life possible, maybe inevitable.
- Inhale here in low lunge. Exhale hands down, extend your front foot forward. You can stay up on your knee or sit back on your heel. For 380,000 years after the Big Bang, all there was was an inflating ball of hot plasma, Quark-Gluon Plasma. Scientists made some recently in the Large Hadron Collider. Then, hydrogen atoms started to form from the cooling plasma. The hydrogen atoms in your body today are nearly as old as the universe.
- Inhale back to low lunge, arms up. Exhale hands down, step back to plank. Use your ujjayi breath to hold plank. The early universe was pitch black with nothing but clouds of hydrogen. This period of darkness lasted 300 million years until the Cosmic Dawn when gravity caused the clouds of hydrogen to grow so dense that they became the giant balls of glowing gas we call stars. It’s “nuclear fusion” that makes stars shine. Nuclear fusion is where two atoms “fuse” to form a different kind of atom; this process gives off a lot of energy that we see as light.
- Take one last inhale here in plank and exhale as you lower to chaturanga. Inhale to up-dog or cobra. Stellar fusion forged carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron and all of the other elements from which planets and life are built. An old Serbian proverb says, “Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.”
- Inhale here in down-dog, as you exhale step your right foot forward to low lunge. Inhale arms up. Take any variation of low lunge that you like. While most of the cells in your body regenerate every seven to 15 years, many of the particles that make up those cells have actually existed for millions of millennia. The hydrogen atoms in you were produced in the big bang, and the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms were made in burning stars. The very heavy elements in you were made in exploding stars.
- One more inhale here in low lunge. Exhale extend your front leg, fold forward. The size of an atom is governed by the average location of its electrons. The nucleus of an atom is about 100,000 times smaller than the space the electrons spin around in. If the nucleus were the size of a peanut, the atom would be about the size of a baseball stadium. If we lost all the empty space inside our atoms, we would be the size of a speck of dust. Everyone on earth would could squeeze into a space the size of a sugar cube.
- Inhale back to low lunge arms up. Exhale hands down, step your left foot forward to forward fold. As you might imagine, these mostly empty particles make up only a tiny portion of your mass. The protons and neutrons inside of an atom’s nucleus are each made up of three quarks. The mass of the quarks accounts for just a few percent of the mass of a proton or neutron. Gluons, carriers of the strong nuclear force that holds these quarks together, have no mass at all.
- Inhale flat back halfway lift. Exhale fold forward. Inhale to chair. If your mass doesn’t come from the masses of these particles, where does it come from? Scientists believe that almost all of your body’s mass comes from the kinetic energy of the quarks and the binding energy of the gluons. We are energy!
Black holes, big bang, multiverse: https://dailygalaxy.com/2022/09/the-weird-existence-of-primordial-black-holes-in-the-early-universe-harvard-smithsonian-center-for-a/amp/
Black holes, gateway to baby universes?
Wonder: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201412/study-wonder?amp
śraddhā (ānanda) – devotion (to experiencing the bliss of being alive)
I devote myself to experiencing the bliss of being alive, always grateful for, appreciative of, and in love with this life, taking every opportunity to surprise and delight everyone (including myself) with the many pleasures, big and small, available to us each day.
śraddhā (asmitā) – devotion (to faith in oneness)
I devote myself to oneness, knowing that everything & everyone (including myself) is a necessary, intrinsic, integral, and yet interchangeable, part of the whole.
vīrya (vitarka) – energy (directed at observing with loving awareness)
I put all my energy into observing with loving awareness, to be a witness to the miracle of existence, to see everything & everyone (including myself) as a necessary, intrinsic, integral, and yet interchangeable, part of the whole.
vīrya (vicāra) – energy (directed at contemplating oneness)
I put all my energy into contemplating the nature existence, wondering with awe at how everything & everyone (including myself) exists in perfect unity with the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe.
vīrya (ānanda) – energy (directed at experiencing the bliss of being alive)
I put all my energy into experiencing the bliss of being alive, always grateful for, appreciative of, and in love with this life, taking every opportunity to surprise and delight everyone (including myself) with the many pleasures, big and small, available to us each day.
vīrya (asmitā) – energy (directed at deepening faith in oneness)
I put all my energy into deepening my faith in oneness, knowing that everything & everyone (including myself) are intrinsic, essential, integral components of the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe.
smr̥ti (vitarka) – mindful (of loving awareness)
I constantly remind myself to observe with loving awareness, to be a witness to the miracle of existence, to see everything & everyone (including myself) as a necessary, intrinsic and integral part of the whole.
Class #32 Sutra I.20 smr̥ti (vicāra) – mindfulness (directed at contemplating oneness)
I constantly remind myself to contemplate oneness, to wonder with awe at how everything & everyone (including myself) is one with the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe.
smr̥ti (ānanda) – mindful (of the bliss of being alive)
I constantly remind myself to experience the bliss of being alive, always grateful for, appreciative of, and in love with this life, taking every opportunity to surprise and delight everyone (including myself) with the many pleasures, big and small, available to us each day.
Class #34 Sutra I.20 smr̥ti (asmitā) – mindful (of oneness)
I constantly remind myself of oneness, knowing that everything & everyone (including myself) are intrinsic, essential, integral components of the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe.
Class #35 Sutra I.20 samādhi (vitarka) – concentration (focused on observing with loving awareness)
I keep my concentration focused on observing with loving awareness, to be a witness to the miracle of existence, to see everything & everyone (including myself) as a necessary, intrinsic and integral part of the whole.
STOPPED HERE
Class #36 Sutra I.20 samādhi (vicāra) – concentration (focused on contemplating oneness)
I keep my concentration focused on the nature of existence, wondering with awe at how everything & everyone (including myself) is one with the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe
I focus my concentration on contemplating the meaning of life.
I meditate on the nature of existence, contemplating the meaning of life and focusing perfect attention on .
samādhi (ānanda) – concentration (focused on bliss)
I keep my concentration focused on bliss, always grateful for, appreciative of, and in love with this life, taking every opportunity to surprise and delight everyone (including myself) with the many pleasures, big and small, available to us each day. (Story: The Clown of God – when you think you have nothing to give, make others happy through kindness)
samādhi (asmitā) – concentration (focused on oneness)
I keep my concentration focused on oneness, with unwavering faith that everything and everyone (including myself) is in perfect unity with the loving awareness that animates and organizes the universe, each one of us intrinsic, essential, and integral parts of the whole.
prajñā (vitarka) – wisdom (to see oneness)
I have the wisdom to see oneness, to be a witness to the miracle of existence, to observe with loving awareness that everything & everyone (including myself) is an intrinsic, essential, and integral part of the whole.
Class #40 Sutra I.20 prajñā (vicāra) – wisdom (to understand oneness)
I have the wisdom to understand oneness, contemplating with loving awareness how everything & everyone (including myself) is an intrinsic, essential, and integral part of the whole.
Class #41 Sutra I.20 prajñā (ānanda) – wisdom (to experience the bliss of oneness)
I have the wisdom to experience the bliss of oneness, always grateful for, appreciative of, and in love with every aspect of this life, taking every opportunity to surprise and delight everyone (including myself) with the many pleasures, big and small, available to us each day, the ultimate pleasure being the bliss of oneness. (Story: Ram Dass loves his pain, loves his wheelchair)
prajñā (asmitā) – wisdom (to know oneness)
I have the wisdom to know oneness, with the unwavering faith of loving awareness that everything and everyone (including myself) is an intrinsic, essential, and integral part of the whole.
Sutra I.20
श्रद्धावीर्यस्मृतिसमाधिप्रज्ञापूर्वकइतरेषाम्
śraddhā-vīrya-smr̥ti samādhi-prajñā-pūrvaka itareṣā
Devotion, Vigor, Mindfulness, Perfect Concentration, Wisdom go along with the others
śraddhā
vīrya
Ayurveda (science of life)
Vīrya (वीर्य) is a Sanskrit technical term, translating to the “potency” of a plant.
Shaivism (Shaiva philosophy)
Vīrya (वीर्य) refers to “vitality”
Vīrya (वीर्य) or Paramavīrya refers to “(supreme) strength”
Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)
Vīrya (वीर्य) or Vīryarddhipāda (“the power of effort”)
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
1) Vīrya (वीर्य, “exertion”)
4) Vīrya (वीर्य, “energy”)
Vīrya (वीर्य) refers to “vigour”, according to the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta (a collection of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras).—Accordingly, “How, son of good family, does the vigour (vīrya) of the Bodhisattva becomes like open space? Son of good family, the vigour of the Bodhisattva becomes like open space when he is endowed with four qualities. To wit, (1) even though he strives to attain all roots of good he has the insight that all dharmas are imperfect; (2) even though honouring and serving all buddhas, he sees clearly the sameness of he Tathāgata’s true body; (3) even though he brings living beings to maturity, he does not apprehend living beings as they are already pure; (4) even though embracing the true dharma of all Buddhas he never sees the dharmas free from cupidity [as real entities]. When the Bodhisattva, the great being, is endowed with those four dharmas, son of good family, his vigour becomes like open space”.
The Bodhisattvas have two types of vigour (vīrya):
- the vigour of application (prayoga-vīrya) and
- the vigour of determination [saṃnāha-vīrya?].
Source: WikiPedia: Mahayana Buddhism
General definition (in Buddhism)
2) Vīrya (वीर्य, “energy”) or Trivīrya refers to the “three kinds of energy” as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 109):
- saṃnāha-vīrya (energy as armour),
- prayoga-vīrya (energy as practice),
- pariniṣṭhā-vīrya (energy as accomplishment).
General definition (in Jainism)
Vīrya (वीर्य) refers to “strength”, according to the 11th century Jñānārṇava, a treatise on Jain Yoga in roughly 2200 Sanskrit verses composed by Śubhacandra.—Accordingly, “[…] By whichever posture they may make the mind steady, that same pleasant posture ought to be done by mendicants. Abandonment of the body and sitting cross-legged are said by some [to be] better for embodied souls now because of lack of strength (vīrya-vaikalya) due to the degeneracy of the times”.
smr̥ti mindfulness
samādhi perfect concentration
Prajñā wisdom
pūrvaka
Sanskrit dictionary
Pūrvaka (पूर्वक).—a.
1) Preceded by, attended with
itareṣā
itareṣām = of the others
from itara = low, vile, expelled, rejected, the other, the rest, this-that, another, remaining one of the two, different from
Patanjali's yoga sutras 
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