Greetings Reader -

The razzmatazzy reverberations of whirligigging slot machines greets you almost the moment you step out of the plane and onto the jetway leading into the terminal; welcome to Las Vegas.

I used to fly into the circus atmosphere of Glitter Gulch every year for NAB - the National Association of Broadcasters convention. Once upon a time, in what now seems like a previous life, I worked for video production systems manufacturers. My job was to go to trade shows and demonstrate on-air motion graphics systems, the kind that generate the infographics that will be zipping around the bottom of your screen during the Super Bowl.

Being in Vegas was a bit of an austerity but there was one big upside: I got to meet up with my friend Lisa, who'd moved to Silicon Valley and helped me get a demo gig with the company she was working for.

One year, as the NAB convention was approaching, Lisa told me about a recent acquaintance she was anxious to introduce me to because, in her estimation, the acquaintance and I were exactly alike and would therefore naturally want to get to know one another.

I had my doubts but Lisa insisted that, beyond the superficial coincidences that we both had red hair and wore glasses, we had almost identical tastes, temperaments, and mannerisms.

I thought, “Okay, whatever.”

When I arrived at the booth in the convention center, Lisa gave me a warm greeting, turned and waved someone over – a guy with red hair and glasses – and introduced us: “Taylor, this is my good friend, Hari – Hari, this is Taylor; I told you two about one another because you two are exacly alike.”

. . . wait. Is this not the story you thought I was going to tell you?

Perhaps this is a case of misidentification.

Which wouldn’t be surprising. After all, we’re all experiencing an ongoing state of misidentification that starts with misidentifying ourselves and continues with everyone we meet.

At least that’s the theory according to Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtras, which tell us that we're not currently experiencing our own true nature or, for that matter, anyone else's. And if we’re not experiencing our true nature being reflected back to us in the calm mirror of the still mind, then we must be identifying with an illusory nature that's being created by the fluctuations of the mind.

The science of self-realization described in the Yoga-sūtras defies conventional wisdom about who we are, what the world is, and the meaning of “self-realization.” It presents us with a meaningful challenge: to find the connection between the relative self we experience ourselves as being and the absolute self who is the ultimate experiencer.

To help us meet this challenge, I’m offering a new course:

​Journey into The Yoga-sūtras​

Four 60-minute classes - Live via Zoom @ 12:00 pm Eastern Time

Sundays, February, 18 & 25 / March 10 & 17

Tuition: $67.00

This class will be recorded and available for replay

CLICK HERE TO ENROLL

This course, which is registered with Yoga Alliance and offers 4 hours of CE credit, will provide insights into Patañjali’s systematic approach to the practice and experience of yoga. We’ll cover:

• How to follow the literary form of the Sūtras
• A comprehensive analysis of the 8 limbs of yoga
• Why commentaries are essential for understanding the Sūtras
• Yoga psychology
• Yoga as a moral philosophy
• The role of Īśvara in the Yoga-sūtras
• The mystical experience of yoga
• The perfection of meditation in the Yoga-sūtras

In Patañjali’s theory of personality, imprints on the mind, called saṁskāras, determine the shape of the mind, which in turn determine our individual tastes, temperaments, and mannerisms.

Which brings us back to my story about meeting Taylor, whose tastes, temperament, and mannerisms, according to my friend Lisa, were identical to mine.

Just as Lisa was saying “you two are exactly alike,” someone called to her and she turned away to see who it was. Taylor and I looked at Lisa, then looked back at each other.

And at precisely the same instant, we both shrugged our shoulders and rolled our eyes in precisely the same way as if to say, “Okay, whatever”, simultaneously confirming and dismissing Lisa’s assertion that we were exactly alike.

And that was it; we didn’t run into each other again for the rest of the convention.

The moral of the story: don’t let misidentification throw you off track – stay on a path that will take you to your eternal, pure, and joyful true self.

And join me for my 4-part course on the Yoga-sūtras, starting next Sunday (a week after the Super Bowl).

Wishing you all good fortune,

- Hari

PS: Actually, I don’t really remember that guy’s name. It might have been Taylor.