Iyengar: Through this unbroken flow of discriminative awareness, one gains perfect knowledge which has seven spheres.
Iyengar says the seven frontiers are integration of the body, the senses, energy, mind, intellect, consciousness, and soul – with each “realizing its own identity.” He says that the seven states of conscious awareness are emerging, restraining, individualized, tranquil, attentive, fissured, and pure consciousness. Iyengar tries to simplify the many interpretations of the seven spheres by saying that through the practice of yoga, the student will “conquer his body, control his energy, restrain the movement of the mind and develop sound judgment” which develops luminosity.
Bryant: The yogi’s true insight has seven ultimate stages.
Bryant says that several of the stages are really the same stage. He lays out the stages like so:
- Suffering is avoided
- Causes of suffering have been eradicated
- Restraint of the mind so that purusa, nature, is not misidentified with the buddhi, intelligence.
- The causes of misidentification have been removed
- Intelligence has been fulfilled and is now redundant
- The yogi’s guna’s dissolve back into nature.
- Purusa, the true nature, shines without the bonds of the gunas.
Taimni: In his case the highest stage of Enlightenment is reached by seven stages.
Taimni’s commentary is short on this sutra. He says these stages are “a matter of transcendent experiences which cannot be interpreted in terms of the thinking processes.”
Carrera: One’s wisdom in the final stage is sevenfold.
Carrera’s commentary is similar to Bryant’s in the way he lays out the seven stages. He says that viveka (discriminating knowledge) changes our view on life and can reveal a whole different universe from what we previously had known.
I’ve personally been thinking a lot about the causes of suffering, the klesas, and how they can be thinned out as this is part of a final project we are doing in teacher training. I’ll report back when I have it all figured out.
