Gayatri Mantra Translations

We meditate upon that divine sun,
the true light of the shining ones.
May it illuminate our minds.

Yoga is skill in action

" Yoga is skill in action."  This is a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita. (Reference The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, by Eknath Easwaran.)

"Yoga is wisdom in work."  Is another translation. (Reference: The Bhagavad Gita, Penguin Classics, translated by Juan Mascaro. Chapter 2, verse 50.)

If we look forward to the results of our action we can be obsessed with the difficulties and obstructions. 

When we become detached from the outcome and focus on the present then deeper resources become accessible.

This principle is embodied in Karma Yoga, described as a way of acting, thinking and willing by which one acts in accordance with one's duty (dharma) without consideration of personal selfish desires, likes or dislikes: acting without being attached to the fruits of one's deeds.

Refer to Karma Yoga in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga

It's interesting, too, how the poetic language of the Bhagavad Gita is open to interpretation in the translation, as seen in the two examples above. This very ambiguity is ironically the subject of the following Chapter 2 Verse 53:

"When thy mind, that may be wavering in the contradictions of many scriptures, shall rest unshaken in divine contemplation, then the goal of Yoga is thine."

Yoga for Children

Tall as a house
Small as a mouse
Wide as a gate
Thin as a rake

Be a cobbler
Stand on your head
Be a warrior
Lie down dead

Tapping into Inspiration

No thinking allowed
No thinking aloud
Nothing aloud
Nothing allowed.

Mind the gap
Mind the space
Mind the spaces
Mind the spaces in between.

In between the gaps
The moving spaces
Moving in the spaces
The spaces between the gaps.

Now thinking allowed
Mine the gaps
Move the spaces
Move the mind.


When the ocean swells
And space expands
What is my intention
And how do I feel.

Conflict softens
Boundaries stretch
The mind opens
Receiving inspiration.

The mat in the mandala
Focusing energy
Why do we do this
In the moving spaces?

Yoga Anatomy

Leslie Kaminoff

Human Kinetics

ISBN-13:978-0-7360-6278-7

Library

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Yoga Anatomy	Leslie Kaminoff	Human Kinetics	ISBN-13:978-0-7360-6278-7

The Mathematical Universe

Inspired by: "Reality by Numbers", Max Tegmark, New Scientist, 15 Sept 2007, p38.

The holy grail of theoretical physics is a theory of everything - a complete description of the universe. Max Tegmark argues that our Universe is not just described by mathematics - it is mathematics.

The foundation of his argument is the pre-supposition that there exists a universe independent of human experience. For such a description to be self-consistent it must also be well formed for non-human entities (ranging across all scales from sub-atomic particles, to animals, to universes).

Physical theories comprise two components: mathematical equations defining relationships, and descriptions of how those equations relate to our observations, intuitions and concepts. The physicist in me wants to rationalise the abstract mathematics with human conceptual meaning, but in principle the evolution of the universe could be calculated from the equations without the need for human conceptual interpretation.

Is it possible to find an objective description of the universe that does not rely on human concepts? If so such a description would be completely abstract with no meaning. The only properties of the entities described would be those defined in the relationships between them.

And mathematics is precisely this: sets of abstract entities with relationships between them. Mathematics is the formal study of structures that can be defined in a purely abstract way. Max Tegmark pre-supposes that humans don't invent mathematical structures, we discover them, and invent only the notation for describing them.

Here is the crux of Tegmark's argument: if you believe in an objective universe, independent of the human mind, then to be consistent you must also believe in the mathematical universe hypothesis: that the objective universe is a mathematical structure.

The theory of everything then must be purely abstract, objective and mathematical. Physics has reached the point in its development where across all scales, from particles to universes, all objective measurements ever made are consistent with a few pages of equations that involve 32 unexplained numerical constants.

Amusingly inconsistent with his thesis, Tegmark takes a sidestep to ask: What does this mean? Despite the searing rigour of his argument he cannot resist the human temptation to ask: Why?

First he distinguishes the dissociated observer studying the structure from outside, like a bird hovering overhead, from the associated observer living in the structure, like a frog living in the pond. The associated frog feels the passing of time in the pond moment by moment. The dissociated bird above observes the entire evolution of the universe unfolding below like a movie .

Then he asks: How do we relate the two perspectives? The abstract mathematical structure of the movie exists outside the snapshot of the individual frame. How can an observer be purely mathematical? The complex structure of the observer stores and processes information in a way that gives rise to the sensation of self-awareness.

How do we test the mathematical universe hypothesis? It predicts that further mathematical regularities remain to be discovered in nature, and it predicts the existence of parallel universes.