THE TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY
Yoga is not simply information that we acquire.
It is a process of transformation.
The study begins with ideas.
Those ideas can change the way we observe the mind.
That changed observation can change our experience.
And experience changes us.
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HEARING
The first stage is hearing.
We encounter the teaching through the words of the text and the explanation of the teacher.
We listen carefully.
We learn the terminology.
We begin to understand what the tradition is saying.
REFLECTING
Understanding requires reflection.
We question what we have heard.
We compare different explanations.
We investigate the meaning.
We ask whether the ideas actually make sense in our own experience.
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MEDITATING
The teaching then becomes something to investigate directly.
Meditation is not simply a technique added to philosophical study.
It provides an opportunity to examine the operation of the mind for ourselves.
FROM IDEA TO EXPERIENCE
An idea can initially be something that we understand intellectually.
With continued investigation, it can become something that we recognize.
The difference is significant.
Knowing what a text says is not the same as experiencing what it describes.
THE MIND CHANGES
The ideas that lead towards Samadhi also change the way the mind operates.
As we understand the movements, patterns and tendencies of the mind, our relationship to those movements changes.
The way we see changes.
And when the way we see changes, our experience changes.
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SAMADHI
Ultimately the investigation leads back to Samadhi.
Yoga = Samadhi.
The purpose is not merely to understand this statement.
It is to investigate what it means through direct experience.
EXPERIENCE CHANGES YOU
Yoga cannot ultimately be understood intellectually.
But ultimately, Yoga has to be experienced.
And that experience changes you.
