In the last session we looked at Ch. 1; Sutra 31 of the Patanjali Yoga Sutra. In Ch. 1; Sutra 30 he describes the four distractions that accompany the nine obstacles. These deeper layers of conditioning can be skillfully dealt with when we follow the recommendations given by Patanjali.

In the last session, we saw how the willingness and capacity of a person to move beyond conditioning is directed by the degree of the inner obstacles one is dealing with. Patanjali (in The Yoga Sutras) lists nine of them. If one can see them and work with them, rather than running away or trying to fight them, life becomes much easier. There are four conditions that go along with these obstacles as well. Patanjali also lists means to overcome these obstacles and conditions which we will see more of in Part 3.

Spirituality is a word that means many things to many. At its core, spirituality is recognizing that we are spirit housed in a body and allowing space for spirit’s calling rather than living the push of our conditioning.

Through conditioning we are handed down a hierarchy of importance rather than what is truly important. We may believe that: profit is more important than respecting nature; our race is superior to others; or external success is more important than emotional awareness while not even realizing that it is conditioning that drives us. This capacity to separate our conditioning from who we are is the substratum of a spiritual life.