Principle of Logic in Yoga

The Second Principle of Yoga

The Second principle of yoga a short version sounds like that: “don’t waste your time and energy”. The second principle is also very interesting and sometimes you start thinking that it contradicts to the first principle of yoga. It says: "You must spend your energy and focus your consciousness only on the things which lead you to the goals that you have defined for your work, school, leisure or yoga. Before you get involved in anything, ask yourself whether it leads you to your goals - if not, then you should leave it as a distraction and an unnecessary.”

What could we do when feeling lost?

Imagine, you wake up in the morning and realize that your life is boring, you hate your work and you don’t have any goal to reach. You feel lost in your life. What does yoga tell to do in such situation? It says: “You have emotions, it is good. The emotions are negative. Well, sit in a quiet place and analyze it. Why did these emotions come to you? ” From the point of view of psychology, it is difficult to justify why should I be kind? Actually, there is no logical reason to be good, all evidence are far-fetched. They say such nonsense like "if I'm kind, then I will be young forever, will have better digestion and complexion," but most of all the villains I have ever met had excellent digestion and complexion. So it is not an explanation.

“Do things, be sane, don’t fritter away your time!” - Theodore Roosevelt

Let us return to the second principle – “don’t fritter away your time”. And you begin to understand yourself - you spend a lot of time at work; you work hard and feel like a slave. It is the first step – you realized that you spent your time not in the best possible way.

What’s prevents you from finding a new interesting job?

Firstly, you should realize that you don’t like a situation. Then, you should sort out - Why exactly you don’t like it. Then you should understand - what do you want. Then set a goal. Then define the ways are you going to use to reach the goal.

For instance: What is my goal? - I want well-paid job. What should I do to get it? – I need a good CV; improve my knowledge; ask friends, etc… Sure you need time to reach your goals but if you move to your goal you will reach it anyway. So the second principle of yoga says: “Understand what you want. It is not only about yoga, it is about everything in your life”. Some people say: “I don’t want anything but enlightenment. I just want reach Samadhi and stay there forever.” Ok, it is a goal. Other people say: “I want to be rich and happy: to have beautiful wife, many kinds, travel all over the world and enlightenment at the last day of my life.” Perfect! It is also a goal. Just set your goal and reach it.

The way to reach the goal - Key points in yoga.

You should go to your goal step by step, using logic and common sense. Why it is necessary? Because we live in world directed by Karma and the first step creates the second one, the second creates the third and so on and so forth. So if you want your actions bring stunning effect; if you want at once jump to the highest level, you should think over at least approximate steps to achieve this. For sure, everything is not clear to you right now. Sometimes you do something counting on one result but get absolutely the opposite. But anyway do your best to use your logic and common sense. Because common sense and logic are the key points in yoga. I have met a lot of people who consider yoga is a kind of magic, as something that you can’t understand. No, My Dear, - at first, yoga is logic and common sense. You can forget about logic and common sense only when you bring it to the extreme. It means that at first you need to become a very clever person in a logic way and only after it you can switch to Supreme Logic.

The Second Principle of Yoga – the Principle of Logic

The second principle of yoga - it is a principle of logic. Why is it so important in Yoga? Let’s talk about that now. Before you get body of a human being, your mind and intelligence, you lived billions of lives as different animals. From life to life, we became more complex beings. You had been born and have died billons of times before you got your nice human body. Human body is a turning point in the evolution. Evolution can be divided into two stages: before the human body and after the human body. All human beings have 3 different parts inside:

Part I

Despite the fact that we got a human body and a magnificent thing called intellect, oddly enough, we do not use it because every day we still use illogic or instincts from our animal’s bodies. Very often we use a principle - if it worked once, it should work forever.

For instance, if 5x5 = 25 and 6x6 = 36, we automatically think that 7x7 = 47, which is wrong. And also very often people instead of use their mind and think logically tell: “I’m going to do it because my intuition told me so”. This is a very slippery slope - perhaps it was a glimpse of Supreme Logic but unfortunately usually it is nothing but the animal instincts. We are, I mean human beings, very strange mix of animal actions, reactions, motivations and behaviors. That’s why we can make the same mistake over and over again.

Part II

At the same time we have intelligence, common sense and logic. We know if you didn’t do anything to earn money you don’t get it, in other words - As you sow so shall you mow. The first part is instincts ant the second part is logic.

Part III

It is glimpse of supreme logic (Intuition). A man woke up in a morning and realized: “I know what to do to reach my dream!” He did it and got the result he wanted. It looks like he must have got something from above. The problem is - all these three parts are mixed up.

For instance, one person got some insights and earned a fortune or got the power, then he realized that the next step to improve his life is doing by yoga. But he couldn’t make himself to do it: there is always something to prevent it. Logic tells him: “Just do yoga and you will feel better and your body will be better and you can say “good bye” to the depression.” But he answered – “No, I don’t want.” And we have this kind of mix – one layer changes another. But you should remember we still live in Karma’s world. It means: did something wrong, got something bad; did something in the right direction, got something good. It is difficult to say something about the Supreme Logic, but for sure it gives us everything logic gives us and always gets something more. It is like to live as a billionaire, enjoy life, and get enlightenment at the end of your life.

Find your own rhythm and harmony

Many yoga practices require logic. Not the Supreme Logic, but common logic: do this and do that.

For instance, if you decided to do hatha yoga, then do it every day. If one day you don’t want – push yourself; or vice versa – if you did something really difficult for you, make it easier. In other words – find your own rhythm and harmony. To find it, you don’t need anything supernatural, the all you need is just logic. Analyze it. Something like this: I did that and got this, if I want different result I need to do different things.The second principle of yoga teaches us to get rid of the animal’s behavior patterns and completely switch to logic. Once you have completely switched to logic, then it makes sense start thinking about the Supreme Logic. And from that moment supernatural comes in your life and you get every superpower you admire. Everything in your own hands! Work harder on yourself, do it step by step! That is the core of the second principle of yoga – don’t waste your time on trifles.

Distortions

What are distortions? Distortion is forgetting about logic. You know, there are some people like healers, psychics, fortune tellers, clairvoyants… It is a sad spectacle, because the most of this people mix up the Supreme Logic with animal instincts. They mix up revelation and their own hallucinations; they are more interested in getting money from their clients. So behavior of these people is a weird mix ... And they are afraid of logic because they are scare that logic can destroy so-called “supernatural abilities” they say they have.

Supernatural abilities

These people forget about the main principle: logic can’t destroy the Supreme Logic. Logic obeys the Supreme Logic. The Supreme Logic helps you to get rid of illogicality. That’s why in all ancient yoga treatises you can read – if you do yoga, you will get the Supernatural abilities. Almost every ancient book warns you: try not to use the supernatural abilities even if you have them. Because as soon as you start using them you can mix up them with the rest of animal instincts you have. And it would bring a lot of sufferings to your life and to a lot of people around you. I’ll explain what I mean.

For instance, you have spent a lot of time to get some supernatural abilities and then start to show them everywhere. People look at you and think – “Oh, wow, that’s great! I also want to do it. It looks pretty easy. I’m, sure I can get it in a short way.” And these people forget about logic and switch to illogical and harmful way. Instead of developing their mind with logic, these people are degrading.

Who is to blame?

The person was showing off own supernatural abilities here and there. It is a temptation for the beginners and people without such abilities. As if this person was told: “You don’t need to work hard. Just chant a mantra, snap fingers and you will immediately get whatever you want”. But it doesn’t work this way; you can’t get anything without work. To wake up mantra (to make it work) – it is not enough to snap fingers and say it once. You have to work hard on it. But people when they see miracles want just miracles without a hard work. As a result they don’t get anything. Whose fault is it? Definitely, it is the fault of the tempter who demonstrated abilities and making believe that it all is easy. That is why if you got the Supernatural abilities, please, do your best to keep it in secret. Because if somebody sees your abilities and decides to stop self-development, you would be responsible for it. The core of the second principle of yoga – if it is possible to do something just by using logic, do it!

Ancient parable

This is an ancient parable about Buddha. One day Buddha met a man who was practicing yoga. They spent some time together and then Buddha left. Twenty years later Buddha came back to the place and the man was still practicing yoga. Buddha asked that man: “You are practicing yoga for 20 years. What have you achieved?” The man answered: “I was practicing hard for more then 20 years and now I can cross this river on the water”. Buddha told him: “So you spent more than 20 years to get this ability. But a boatman can transport you across the river almost for free.” The idea of this parable is that you should be wise in spending your time. I mean, if you can get something without any magic – get it! At first always try common sense and logic and only if it doesn’t work, you can use magic.