Let us use the modern computer as an analogy of 'us'. We are born, like a new computer, with our fresh new hardware ready to be programmed. Our hardware is our brain and nervous system. The imprinting of our reality begins with our first contact post birth, i.e, when we move from within the womb to out into the world and into the loving arms of our mother or the cold hands of some overworked paediatrician, imprinting has begun!
Of course conditions in the womb will have affected us too. The mothers nutrition or the lack of it. The mental emotional condition of the mothers condition and all sorts of combinations and permutations come into play, making us into the divine individuals that we are to become. Chemical reactions leading to chemical responses shaping us, literally.
The hard-wiring of human growth is in place as the child cries for food when hungry or when uncomfortable sending the signals of distress to the mother, then mother comforts and feeds or changes the child an so on. Teething, crawling and learning muscle movements leading to walking, the speech centres are switched on at the right time etc, etc, until we become human adults. I know this is over-simplistic but I am not really concerned with the natural inherent hardware, mother nature has, in most cases, taken car of that adequately.
As we evolve as humans we encounter other humans, with our parents or guardians usually being the one's that will influence our outlook (software) the most. So Karma is as simple as where and when we are born and the parents we are born to. The question as to whether some divine intelligence places you in these positions for particular lessons is a possibility but it is not a necessary requirement to believe such a thing. Just waking up to the realisation that we have been imprinted by our culture, our parents outlook, our nationality and religious views or the lack of them is a starting point.
The Yamas cited by Mr Patanjali are not merely for moral development but are used as a way of un-condtioning your mind, the imprints you have received throughout your life have become concretised into your system and in most cases are no longer questioned. Once you start to use the Yamas you will certainly start to see how attached you have become to your own way of seeing things. Once more I must add it is not a question of morality or of right or wrong, it is more a question of starting to see how much like a 'robot' you have become, which is a little bit upsetting. For example a bad experience with butter beans in my primary school meant that for years I thought, "I hate butter beans". It was only after I realised I had been eating them for years disguised in stews and soups that I realised I didn't hate butter beans I just thought I did.
Wilhelm Reich was in the view of most people that know, the first person of scientific persuasion to see how the mind's conditioning can literally shape the body. He believed that there are at least three layers to most humans. The outer layer is the one we show to the world, this is the mask we show to people. The second layer is what we consider to be our real selves, our grumblings and discomforts reside in this layer and will only show themselves when we are with people we are 'comfortable' with. But the deepest layer he said is the authentic us, this is where our natural human traits of love and humanity exist.
So what am I talking about? The same as always really. If you are happy and contented then yoga may not be for you, if you are not happy and contented yoga may not be for you either. Yoga may not be what you think it is, have you ever wondered what yoga really is? It may just be another thing you do that keeps you locked into your neurotic world, but that's alright as long as 'you' know that. that is what you are doing. Don't kid yourself!!
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