The published version of the "Yoga Practice Journal" can be purchased direct from the publisher or ordered through your local bookshop.

Excerpt from "Yoga Practice Journal"
© 2005 by Witold Fitz-Simon
 
 THE MAP OF EXISTENCE
 
Yoga and Shamkhya, two of the six classical schools of Indian philosophy, developed side by side, each influencing the other. Whereas Yoga takes a more practical approach to liberation, Shamkhya is an intensely intellectual philosophy concerned with enumerating and classifying the different parts of nature. This map of existence is based on the Shamkhya system of classification which is somehwat more detailed than that of Patañjali’s Yoga.
 
According to Yoga and Shamkhya, all of the natural, phenomenal world emanates from the same raw material, referred to as Prakrti. Spirit, or Purusha, and Prakrti never actually come in contact. They are forever separate. But, somehow, Purusha and Prakrti have an effect on each other, causing vibrations in Prakrti. These vibrations start out very subtle, as an imbalance between the three qualities of nature (see Page 80) and become progressively coarser as consciousness evolves. The highest form of consciousness is the discerning mind, the Buddhi, the part of the mind that qualifies and categorizes. From there consciousness devolves into the sense of self, Ahamkara, and the part of the mind that manages and responds to the senses, Manas. From there the vibrations devolve further into the Tanmatras, the subtle energies carried by the senses, and finally resolve into the five coarse physical elements, or Bhuta, of which the material world is made.
 
On the gross, material side, Ahamkara, the sense of self, can interact and manipulate the material world with the senses and the organs of action, the Jñanendriyas and Karmendriyas.
 
This process happens in both directions, from the subtle to the gross and from the gross to the subtle, a process of evolution and a process of involution. Almost like a continuing series of Big Bangs, the Universe is created, destroyed and recreated. With each cycle of evolution and involution, the different potentialities change proportion and we perceive change in the material world.
 
Our goal, as yogins, is to still the fluctuating potentialities, to counter the evolution with techniques of involution. With the potentialities stilled, then Prakrti has the chance of knowing Purusha, pure being.


The published version of the "Yoga Practice Journal" can be purchased direct from the publisher or ordered through your local bookshop.