The refinement of technique is not the same as awakening awareness.
Your body is the visible soul. The false self that has continuously abused the body has not only violated it and lived in conflict with it, but has also lived in separation from the source of oneness within. The soul is formless, divine potential that manifests through the body. The body, independent of mental and emotional modifications, is the dwelling place of the divine.
Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga begins with what he defines as the essence of yoga: witnessing the modifications of the mind. Yoga is often perceived as a physical practice of asanas and pranayama, separate from the Raja Yoga practices of pratyahara, dharana, and dhyana, yet this does not capture the essence of yoga. Patanjali clearly states that yoga means witnessing the modifications of the mind, and this remains the central practice regardless of which limb of yoga you are focusing on.
To witness the modifications of the mind means to observe thoughts, emotions, and reactions as they arise, without identifying with them, without trying to control them, and without being carried by them.
I call the practice of I AM Yoga “Meditation in Motion.” It is the integration of Hatha and Raja Yoga, where the unifying element is witnessing the modifications of the mind.
Patanjali teaches that the fundamental focus of yoga is to erase and eliminate the karmic memory impressions of the past that you identify with as the false self. This false self is created through reactively processed and distorted perceptions of reality encountered in the past through the mind. These distortions are stored in the memory body and held as the reactive perceiver, the ego mind, expressing itself through repeated emotional reactions, patterns of thinking, and fixed interpretations of experience.
When you practice yoga as witnessing the modifications of the mind, you begin to disengage from this false self-image that carries reactive thoughts and emotions. Each time you remove a layer of reactive memory, the light of consciousness shines more clearly.
This can be compared to a bright light covered by layers of lampshades that prevent it from shining fully. As each layer is removed, the light itself, which has never been affected, begins to shine more fully. In the same way, as karmic impressions are removed, the light of consciousness reveals itself. Yoga, when practiced with witnessing, becomes a process of Self-discovery.
The Inner Journey and the Nature of Experience
Many seekers begin the inner journey to avoid the ups and downs of life, yet they do not realize that what has been avoided in the past must be faced on the journey back to the presence that you are.
Most people are motivated to begin a spiritual path to escape instability in relationships, work life, family life, and social life. Yet when the inner journey begins, the same patterns that were suppressed or denied resurface. This resurfacing is not a problem, it is the natural process of catharsis, where previously stored emotional impressions begin to release and move through awareness.
The ups and downs you experience internally arise from past conditioning being released. When these emotional reactions are witnessed, rather than acted out or suppressed, you begin to disengage from karmic memory. As this happens, you move closer to the source of presence, the I AM.
In contrast, the ups and downs of external life are driven by preprogrammed conditioning, and each reaction reinforces the past, taking you further away from presence.
When you practice witnessing the modifications of the mind, you may still experience highs and lows, yet you are no longer struggling to remain in one state or avoid another. You are not striving to stay up, and you are not afraid of being down.
At the level of the mind, these fluctuations continue, yet your witnessing presence becomes a doorway through which you go beyond them.
Polarity and the Human Body
Every human being is born through the union of father and mother, representing the cosmic polarity of male and female. The origin of your body is the co-creative interaction between the ovum and sperm.
This body of polarity develops in the womb through the interplay of consciousness and energy. The human body itself is the manifestation of this cosmic polarity.
In the larger context of creation, life evolves through mineral, plant, and animal forms into the human body through the interplay of male consciousness and life force, Prana. The human body represents the flowering of this evolutionary process.
Just as a tree grows from a seed and produces fruit containing that same seed, the entire tree of creation emerges from the cosmic I AM, or Parmatman. This evolution moves through all forms of life until it expresses as the human being, who carries an individual sense of I AM, or Atman.
Human Potential and Being Potential
Science has explored the external dimensions of creation, revealing the laws that govern the physical and cosmic body through physics, chemistry, and biology.
Yet humanity has not fully explored the potential of Being. Human potential, as commonly understood, develops through the mind, which represents only one aspect of consciousness. This is like trying to fly with one wing, it cannot lead to full realization, because the capacity to function and the capacity to be are not yet integrated.
More people are now drawn toward exploring the Being potential, which represents the other wing of consciousness.
I AM Yoga teaches the development of the posture of consciousness, where both wings are integrated. One wing is human potential, the capacity to function in the world, and the other is Being potential, the capacity to rest in presence.
Patanjali’s yoga emphasizes reconnecting with this Being potential. Much of the subconscious energy of polarity has been misused by the ego mind, becoming trapped as reactive energy in the body and as mental and emotional patterns that show up as tension, reactivity, and habitual ways of perceiving. These blocks prevent you from living fully in the present with both wings functioning together.
The Body, Energy, and the Root of Disorder
Most human beings live in identification with the false self and do not use their awareness to understand the natural laws governing their own body. Instead, attention is directed outward toward understanding external phenomena, while the immediate experience within the body is overlooked.
Science has made significant discoveries about how the body functions, yet it often addresses symptoms rather than the cause.
Every time you react emotionally to life, those experiences are registered in your energy body. These energy blocks interfere with the natural flow of electromagnetic impulses through the neuroglandular system, which may be experienced as chronic tension, fatigue, or imbalance in the body.
Repeated reactive patterns become ingrained in both the nervous system and the brain. Although the brain appears to be located in the skull, its function extends throughout the entire body through its neuroglandular connections. Thoughts and emotions are not confined to the mind, they are transmitted throughout the body and expressed physically.
What is created at the level of the mind is recreated at the level of the body, and energy serves as the medium between the two.
Sleep, Restoration, and Accumulated Stress
In deep sleep, the polarity within the body returns to a harmonious state. The dominance of thoughts, emotions, fear, anger, blame, shame, guilt, doubt, and impatience withdraws, allowing the body to rest free from the influence of the ego mind.
Sleep is an inborn mechanism for restoration. During waking hours, the ego mind continuously generates stress through reactive thinking and emotional processing, often exceeding the body’s ability to fully restore balance during sleep.
As a result, unresolved tension accumulates in the body as energy blocks and in the mind as emotional patterns. These blocks impair the functioning of the neuroglandular and cellular systems, eventually affecting the organs of the body.
All such energy patterns are created at the level of vibrational frequency, meaning that repeated thoughts and emotions generate consistent internal patterns that shape both mental and physical experience. The way you think about yourself, others, and the world uses cosmic energy to create corresponding physical and mental impressions.
The subconscious body responds precisely to these internal patterns. Mental and emotional disturbances are continually translated into physical disturbances. Toxic thoughts create toxic chemistry in the body, and the body becomes the expression of what the ego mind has created through its perception of reality.