I like to read.
I like to take notes.
I like to share the notes I take.
These are my favorite notes from Inner Engineering, a spiritual book by Sadhguru.
I've had this book on my radar for a while. It's an introduction to Yoga - the philosophy, not the physical exercise and it's divided into two different parts.
The first one is a small autobiography of Sadhguru. The second one is a more practical approach to three elements of the human experience: the body, the mind and the energy.If you've read it, please share with me what other ideas or quotes you liked! And now, without any further ado, here are my favorite takeaways by Sadhguru's “Inner Engineering".
Part 1 - Introduction
Love is not something you do, it is just the way you are.
Why "love your enemy" is bad advice
People tell you to love your enemy, to have some compassion. But that's really hard, it will create a strong internal conflict. How can you love someone that you hate? Spoiler alert: You can’t.
The problem is that you're looking at this situation from a binary standpoint. Friends and enemies, good and bad, light and dark... While keeping this view, molded by duality, you can never love someone you hate.
You must drop the concept of "enemy" altogether and create an inclusivity principle, changing the way you look at life.
What is Responsibility?
Responsibility has nothing to do with talking, thinking or doing. It’s about being.
How so? Well, being the person you want to be, a higher version of yourself that controls the response about what's happening. Responsibility is nothing but your ability to respond and that means it's infinite. You can always respond to what happens so you can always be more responsible.
What is Yoga?
Yoga means "Union". It is the technology you use to activate, refine and improve your internal energies, understanding the union between yourself and what you are experiencing.
The 5 Layers of Human Being
Physical Body → Annamayakosha
Mental Body → Manomayakosha
The mind isn't just in the brain, it's present in all of your body. Every cell has its intelligence.
Energetic Body → Pranamayakosha
If the body and mind are like hardware and software, then they need energy to work. This is the part of you that allows for that to happen.
Ethereal Body → Vignanamayakosha
It comes from a great knowledge that goes beyond perception. A transitory state, connecting the physical and the non-physical.
Anandamayakosha
Something beyond the physical realm. It cannot be defined, only experienced. It can, however, be translated as bliss.
Part 2 - Body
The 2 (non-opposite) Forces
As humans, we have two internal forces that may seem to be in direct conflict: the desire to expand and the desire to self-preservation.
Since we want to be safe, we build walls to protect us from the outside. However, we also feel the need to expand, to know more of the world, to become more than what we are in any given moment. And when that happens the walls we built for protection, become the walls that trap us.
So, how do we solve this?
You must limit your self-preservation to the human body, not the mind. Use that force to treat your body as a temple, and use the expansion force, to follow a spiritual path. That's how you deal with this "conflict" and break, once again, a duality perceived by the mind.
The problem with the senses...
...is that they're incomplete, they only perceive something based on another thing.
The senses need other elements in order to give you their perception, which means that if we limit ourselves to what the senses see, our perception will be purely physical. However, the essential nature of life does not come from the physical or psychological experience, but from the source of those experiences. This is not possible if we only rely on sensory data to uncover the mystery of who we are.
How can we do it then? By eliminating every false conclusion. When we do this, then the truth will appear. Once you understand everything you're not, you'll be left with what you are, something bigger than your body.
Part 3 - The mind
Do you want to be a living-being or a thought-being? You're thinking about life, not living it.
Oneness
Intellectually understanding the meaning of Oneness serves little to no purpose. It may get you a round of applause but that's it. It must be experienced. Without it, you may play some dangerous mind games. With it, you won't produce any immature action.
This made a lot of sense to me because in the past I've tried to force spiritual experiences, comprehending them in an intellectual way, but without experiencing them.
Universality is not an idea, it's an existential truth. However, individuality is an idea, and a fake one at that. But don't take Sadhguru's word, experience it first.
The 4 Categories of the Mind
Buddhi - Intellect
The intellect is essential for our survival and has a great role in the story of human beings. It's originally designed to segment and divide and for years, that was a good thing. However, in the current days, we develop this part way too much, becoming too analytic. It's the most problematic when you deep it into Manas.
Manas - Memory
Every thought you have comes from the mind. They’re not original, but based on the information you accumulated. Think of Buddhi as a car and the Manas as its fuel. If you use your intellect only to revive things, to play them in your head over and over again, you’re not living properly. If you let your memories from the past dictate your actions in the present and reactions in the future, you're not alive, you're just living.
Chiita → Awareness
This is where good things start to happen. This is the alternative fuel to your buddhi. Instead of using your intellect to empower the Manas, dip it into Chiita by bringing precision to every movement you make, increasing your awareness of the body and the mind, letting yourself be free from the past and just live life at its fullest.
Ahankara
It's the part of the mind where you derive your sense of identity
How to have more Awareness
You can't, willingly. Awareness is not something you create or make, it’s something that happens.
Keep your body, thoughts, emotions and energies aligned and awareness will flourish.
Part 3 - Energy
Pain is part of life, why make it worse with suffering?
We blame the serpent for everything that happened with Adam and Eve, but if we look closely, it was the snake who gave life to the Earth.
Karma
Human beings think that their compulsions and limitations are choices, but they're not, they're Karma.
Karma translates to action. Action of the body, the mind or energy. Everything you do within any of these dimensions, leaves a residue. This residue creates a pattern and these patterns stay with you until they become a tendency. In that moment, you're an "automated toy", a slave of your patterns and a puppet of your past.
The alternative is Krya, when your actions go beyond the physical realm and you break free of the patterns and the Vasanas (tendencies).
Prana
Prana is the energy that keeps you alive, the energy of the universe.
It manifests itself in 3 different channels within you:
Pingala → The masculine energy;
Ida → The feminine energy;
Sushumna → a different channel. When prana passes here, it makes you and your energy independent of your externals;
Chakras
There are a lot of energy points in your body. These are called the nadis and we have something like 72 thousand of them in our body.
The Chakras (the word means Wheels) are energy centers in our physiology, where the nadis meet in a certain way, creating an energy vortex. There are 114 chakras in the body, 2 on the outside of it and 112 inside.
There are 7 main chakras:
Muladhara
Swadhisthana
Manipuraka
Anahata
Vishuddhi
Angna
Sahasrara
Most people have 3 of them active and the other ones dormant or mildly active.
Yoga wants to activate your energy and chakra system in order to lower the consciousness of the body so you can live in the body without being the body.
Practical Exercises - How can I...
...break individuality?
Look at a plant and consciously breathe the air around it. Become aware of the fact the air your breathing is being produced by that plant.
...find my true self?
Go to sleep with the idea in your mind that you are not what you think you are. There's no need to have a conclusion, but carry this specific certainty. By removing who you're not, you leave only who you are.
...increase the awareness of my body?
Start by realizing who are the people you know that have a better perception of life than you have. People that are happier, healthier, wealthier...whatever your definition is. Then look at how they move their bodies.
Also, 3 times a day, for 11 minutes, focus on one experience. Your pulse, your breath, a finger...Move from mental alertness (reacting) to awareness (being)
...control my desires?
Most of your desires come from a physical sensation. When that happens, you are being the body, not living in it. When you find yourself having a strong desire about something, wait for a couple of minutes, let the body cool down before you act.
...increase the awareness of my mind?
Start by bringing precision into every movement you make.
Also, you can go to your kitchen, slightly open the water tap so it drops 5-6 drops of water per minute. Then, for a couple of minutes, just observe the life of each water drop, since the moment it's formed until falling in the sink.
Closing Thoughts
There's a certain emotion I try to pursue in my life. It's this deep sense of peace, an unshakable certainty that all is good. This book helped me arrive at this state regularly. In fact, it made me try some physical yoga, meditate more and develop a deeper connection to everything and everyone around me.
It's a great book to read if you want to explore spirituality.
5 ⭐