“… the seeds of false knowledge are to be burnt up through uninterrupted yogic
practices to maintain an unbroken flow of discriminative intelligence (Viveka).” 1 -
B.K.S. Iyengar on sutra 2.26

What exactly does this mean? I want to propose that it has to do with our inner dialogue. It has to do with our inner dialogue that comes as a barrier between us and the reality that we are facing, moment by moment. Through yogic practices, we are developing self knowledge, becoming more able to be in the moment without bringing with us unhelpful thoughts. We might then be able to quiet that inner dialogue that generally pollutes our thoughts with prejudgement (sutra 1.2). So Viveka, discriminative awareness, helps us to filter out our preconceptions, our disturbing thoughts, our judgments. In my understanding this process is what we anthropologists have described as “uncovering our taken for granted assumptions.” For anthropologists it is a method that allows us to see and hear our informants clearly without bringing the baggage of our own culture into our interactions and their societies. 2 For yogis this process is internal, it is a catching of our judgments as they arise, our stories that pollute our vision as we go through our lives.

Viveka is the key to unraveling the web of our own thoughts, a tissue to clean our glasses, a key to open our heart and see clearly what is in front of us. How many times has it happened to you that your teacher asks you while you are doing an asana, “Is this leg straight?” and you answer, “Of course it is,” only to feel differently when she gently helps you to feel what straight really feels like, and thus means in your body and mind. In a sense it is easier to feel the body than to become conscious of one’s own mind. Physicality is very tangible and a friendly teacher can nudge you toward seeing your own physical patterns. In Inside The Yoga Sutras, Reverend Jaganath Carrera says that we only change our minds’ patterns when we have suffered enough. When the old ways of doing/being are not working in a big way, when you find yourself at a crossroad and you have to choose between difficult paths.

Viveka is a very difficult process for our consciousness, one that takes years and is really never-ending . But as we live in the domain of focusing our awareness, we learn humility. We feel/know that the only way out of this haze of preconception, fueled by strong feelings such as fear, anger or passion, is to approach the process with kindness toward ourselves and others and take the long view (sutra 1.33).

When the gods are aligned at times, I catch myself as I am rushing through judgement, I stop and I hear my heartbeat, my breath and I look again, maybe what I think, I see is not exactly what I see? Maybe I have let my past assumptions and my mind take the driver’s seat? How does it really feel to be in that subtle movement back and forth between action and being?

Viveka, discriminative awareness, has become for me a key to unravel the sutras 3, and also the motor that will help me drive my body/mind to attune to all aspects of living in this world.

Patanjali tells us in sutra 1.12 that we have to let go of the fruits of the practice, and yet he also says that as we progress in Yoga, there are unmissable signs that we have matured in the practice, not only that our hamstrings might be looser, but our demeanor kinder, we feel more at ease with what is, and hopefully our loved ones are happier.

B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on The Yoga Sutras, p.136.
This involves the anthropologist taking very detailed field notes and sifting through them in order to write her report, the story of her encounter with her informants. Please see Unravel the Thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life by Ruben Vasquez, and his website www.simple-yoga.org

Rahel Wasserfall, PhD, CIYT
Rahel is an anthropologist, a yogi and a mother and wife. She was born in Paris, where she grew up. She received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Has been certified as Level 2, in the Iyengar method and teaches classes and philosophy at Artemis Yoga in Watertown.